Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas, Chile, January 20-27

Moving Five Bodies 8,200 Kilometers

As I was saying in my last post - with much fanfare, we got to the Cancun airport at 3pm and began our flights, first to Lima, then to Santiago, and finally to Puerto Natales, Chile.

First flight, landed at 10pm in Lima; so lucky, as we walked through the big international terminal, we eavesdropped on many conversations in English (“hiking here is so incredible, I mean, I am from Colorado, I can hike all the time, but here, the energy is just so amazing.”) and the first big bar we walked by was playing the last 5 minutes of the 49er-Green Bay playoff game. My family will know that I have I am a closeted-emotional 49er fan – I cannot help that: (a) the game was always the TV in our house during the Montana-Rice-Young years and (b) that watching those games and driving along Mission Street, whopping it up after Super Bowl wins, during my formative years would indelibly ingrain that red and gold into my psychology, even as I cringe and read about brain disease and kids’ suicides after football and discourage my boys from playing the game. I still I cannot help my feeling of distress at seeing the Niners behind in the final minutes of the game.

Well, imagine my muted-elation as they score. NOW imagine that Alex, my own flesh and blood, the child I carried in the bottom of my belly, beneath his tiny twin brother, is ACTIVELY rooting against my team AND has the gall to be upset when the Niners win. Wow. How did I fail so as a parent? I was irrationally angry. We sat down to wait for our connecting flight that departed at 1:30AM (no joke, and that plane was FULL). This wait was rough, all of us – I will admit it, even me – we ALL were grumpy and ill-tempered. We slept very little in the tiny chairs, in the back back row of the plane, right next to the bathroom, where the light flicked on every few minutes as people went in to use the facilities. Ah, that was a very rough flight..

We landed a bit more happy in Santiago – the sun was out. We moved slooowly through immigration (note for the future, the airline in Mexico confirmed that we had an onward ticket from Chile, we had bus tickets to Argentina lined up and immigration in Chile also asked about our lodgings in Puerto Natales and our onward travel) - We got through immigration after more than hour and – just like in Mexico City – we got to luggage circle expecting our bags to be sitting there but.. no backpacks. With our connection an hour away and needed to get through customs, recheck our bags, and go through security in the domestic terminal, my blood pressure notched up. We found an airline employee; after some scary-initial estimates (all the bags from the flight are on the turnstile; yours must be lost and We have one backpack, maybe just leave with that one and the others may follow) our backpacks ever so slowly came through the “oversized” luggage conveyer. We grabbed them and speed-walked to the other terminal, waited in an agonizing check-your-luggage line (I politely cut a few people in line, just by asking some innocent questions of one of the workers who was standing around looking at his phone); and we made it through security.

Phew! We got on the smallish plane and hopped our bags did too. Not to have anything be too smooth, we got out to the runway and then the captain came on and said we were going back to the gate to address an operational concern. Hmmmm. People were nervous; we heard various power tools being used on the plane. We both feared and hoped that we’d all be taken off this under-construction plane and placed on another one. Instead, captain said all is addressed and we returned to the runway. Everyone held their breath as the plane rose. No problem. Up in the air, the captain pointed out sights multiple times as we flew over the Andes – X named glacier! Y named mountaintop! This cool lake! She was very enthusiastic which was fun. Finally, we landed in the small and ever so windy Puerto Natales! That sharp breeze improved all of our spirits. And thankfully, the small luggage turnstile spun out all of our backpacks in short order. Ah, the long long trip was nearly done!

Everyone looking so chipper in Lima, Peru, waiting for our flight connection that leaves at 1am - Check out how Katie looks sitting next to Alex; those two are... not friendly!

..Ahhh nothing mends fences than getting OFF a long flight day into the Chile sun (and wind!).

Puerto Natales

Our introduction to Puerto Natales was lovely. Great small airport, simple town-shuttle service; the shuttle driver happily described sights between the town and airport in Spanish and English. Our apt was part of a small complex run by a family who lived onsite. We dropped our stuff and wandered around the nice small town. Then we all got in bed and slept like the dead until 10am the next day!
Our first full day, we did little, walked around the town, enjoyed the fjord, found so so many parks in the town, enjoyed dinner (we noticed that the food is a bit bland, especially after all the yummy salsas in Mexico). I also picked up our one-day rental car and we talked to the tourist-office about our main excursion from Puerto Natales, visiting the wonderful Torres del Paine national park, part of the Southern Patagonia attractions.

Sadly, the night before our big day in the park, Katie’s future middle school had an orientation zoom scheduled at 11:30pm our time (6:30 CA time) – I joined the zoom from bed and learned about the Spring Break 2025 DC trip that kids can sign up for. We were a bit surprised by the price for the 4 night trip ($2,700) and how fast we had to decide (sign up by Jan 31) for a trip 15 months away. I dozed off at 12:30, thinking about the Lincoln Memorial.

Waterfront public art.

In front of the classic, city sign (incidentally that we've found in all the Spanish-speaking countries we've visited).

Checking out Puerto Natale's mylodon - an extinct, sloth-like creature; Darwin found fossils of this Ice Age giant in Patagonia and later, another British man found a whole skeleton, in a giant cave near Puerto Natales.

Enjoying the Torres del Paine local beer.

Alex making his way down to a park.

Torres Del Paine

Next day, we set out before 8am. The park is about 1.25 hours from Puerto Natales. It was easy driving, so we decided to stop off before the park at the Mylodon Cave. A mylodon is an extinct, Ice Age giant sloth – about 6 feet tall. Charles Darwin found its jawbone on the shores south of Puerto Natales and another British guy found its full skeleton in these giant caves. We knew the caves were big, but we were still astonished; the caves were inhabited by humans who presumably had dragged the carcass into the cave to consume. You could imagine hundreds of people living in the caves. It was worth the quick stop.

Milodon (Mylodon) Cave Entrance

Visiting the cave where the full mylodon skeleton was found; there he is lurking behind Luke.

The cave was huge! This is only part way inside.

We continued into the park – I was very excited as I had read and puzzled over how to visit it; we could have taken a tour from Puerto Natales but five people would have summed to about $600+ for one day. Too much, so, we mapped out sort of where the tours go and decided to go their opposite route (hoping to pass all the tour bussed going the other direction) and drive ourselves. We hoped to do three hikes. The park is all gravel roads so I was excited but apprehensive.

In we went! Visitor center and checking in was very easy and not too crowded. We made it to our first hike and were just astonished by the sights and gusts. The short hike took you over a glacier fed river bridge and then back across a lake, with a river alongside it, via a pebble-sand bar. As you walked (I am not sure what to call what we actually did, it was so incredible windy, it was more like we battled through) along the sandbar, the wind whipped mists of river across you; and about midway, you could look back at the steep mountains and see the glacier that was feeding the river. Spectacular colors. Sadly, Alex and Luke rushed on ahead; as we got to the end of the sandbar, we could see that people were turning back, that there was no where else to go but the wind made it impossible to call ahead. We finally got them to turn back (not through any communication, they just finished shouting into the wind and, apparently, singing Hit me with your best shot! Into the misty wind) and they turned back. Wow, what an invigorating battle-walk!

Starting the walk along a giant sandbar, glacier is around the corner form these two.

It's windier than it looks.

Glacier sort of visible in the far back.

The scenery on the drive was unreal; most interesting were all the colors of lakes, apparently, different minerals that the glaciers ground down on their way to the lake reflect different light spectra and we passed lakes of bright blue, a beautiful, reflective green (my favorite one), violet, grey, brown, and an almost white-blue. It was all very memorable.

All of these lakes were such different colors in Torres, aqua..

.. sort of a violet.

..dark blue...

.. blue-green..

.. and white-blue..

Next hike! This one was a big elevation, maybe 1,000 feet over a short distance. We started up and encountered some moderate wind. A bit father up, we were being pushed violently against the mountain-side of the trail. We passed a young, fit couple – They spoke English and cautioned us that the wind gets worse, that they couldn’t make it to the top. We ventured on, stopping carefully for photos, holding our phones with two hands to avoid the wind taking them over the side. We got to a pass near two giant boulders and that was it, Scott and I were being nearly-bowled over and we turned back. We had to stop for a minute to get good breaths, as the wind was literally taking our breath away (and out of our mouths and lungs). We picked our way down, staying low. When we got to a safe spot, Alex told me that, when he heard those folks warn us, he thought, well adults are always cautious, too cautious. But, he continued, I was wrong, that was scary.

On the hike we eventually abandoned.

Where is your face Katie?

.. there it is!

Scott could NOT keep his eyes open in that wind.

More great pictures in hand, we drove to the third hike. It was a more flat walk so I was hopeful. We parked with some other cars; as I stopped the car, a giant gust of wind picked up pebbles and pelted the car and then the car rocked back and forth, for good measure. I turned to the backseat and Luke blurted out “Let’s leave.” Ha, they had really felt the power of Mother Nature on this trip! We looked around outside the car and saw that they road to the trail was blocked off. That settled it, no more hiking. I was a bit bummed but we journeyed on to some miradors (viewpoints) – Wow, the first one we got to, I parked near another car, Scot got out, and one person in the car gesticulated wildly to him; he came over to talk and she wagged a finger about the kids, cautioning us not to let them out of the car. Well, it was very very windy, but what an awesome photo we could have had! I hesitated too long and only got out after a giant bus disgorged dozens of people, blocking my singular view.. Alas! We got out another time to take gem-colored lack photos; this time, I couldn’t pull my door closed from inside the car, the wind had such a hold on it. Scott got out to help me, and the wind took away our paper copies of our passports (! Boo! those copies were handy). We continued on our circle of the park far enough away from the mountains to experience calm winds; we got out to observe a group of guanacos (South American herd animals that look like llamas; we haven’t tried the guanaco stew yet). We also saw rheas, which look like small ostriches and wild horses. But, disappointingly, no pumas.

We came home pretty beat but managed all the basics (find gas, return car, get dinner + chocolate truffles); Scott was asleep before 9; I implored to kids to sleep (when did they start staying up later than me?) and my sleep-cinema started at 9:30 😊

Didn't make the third hike, but stopped at this mirador, scenic viewpoint.

We hopped up the next day, refreshed, packed, and walked up the hill in Puerto Natales to the bus station, took another look at the great view of the water and the mountains and hopped on the 3-hour bus south to Punta Arenas, closer to the Fin del Mundo.

Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas is much larger than Puerto Natales (130,000 people versus 18,000); it has some charming buildings (the town had a wool boom in the 1800s and the area has oil – many families got rich and built lovely mansions that are now banks and hotels). The city was and is important to Chile to establish control over the Straits of Magellan after gaining independence in 1818 and Chile colonized the area and eventually the area and the Straits were recognized as Chilean in the 1840s. About 2,000 ships pass through the Straits each year (for scale, 11,000-14,000 pass through the Panama Canal each year). We saw cruise ships docked offshore every day we were there (they do not have a big Port, like San Francisco, so cruise passengers were ferried to town or to other excursions each day). The town is also one of two places (though most people leave from Ushuaia, Argentina) to start a cruise to Antarctica.

So, the town is busy with tourists! I knew this going in as I had very few choices in places to stay. I needed a place walking distance from the bus station and, importantly, close walking distance to the start of a tour we were taking our second day in town that started at 6:30am (parents will know it is a recipe-disaster to plan a 3-hour bus ride one day with a LONG walk to start a 6:30am tour the next day). I arrived at our bed and breakfast with that in mind. We got what was essentially a second story flat, with narrow hallways and lots of knick-knacks and decorations that needed dusting. Our host - a sweet lady who’s voice, coiffed hair, and silk pajamas that she wore each day she got up with us for breakfast, reminded us of George Castanza’s mother – showed us our rooms. We rented two bedrooms, one with an en suite bath that was so small I could touch the walls in every direction from the sink and with water pressure that resembled that dribble of a water hose, after you turn off the water and there is still just a bit in the hose, falling out of the hole. Ah! Luckily, we were only there for three nights and it was a 5 minute walk to the early morning tour start!

We visited the town square, touched the Magellan statue for good luck for our voyage, walked along the waterfront, had dinner (thus far in Chile, the food was a bit bland; we did try a drink you can get in Chile, Argentina, and Peru called a pisco – we had a pisco sour and pisco amaretto and they were both very good, and got to bed early.

Punta Arenas waterfront.

Playing chess. Or something.

At the Magellan statute, patting the lucky toe for the voyage ahead.

Everyone, of course, snapped out of bed with so much enthusiasm early the next day at 5:30 – the lovely thing about latitudes of 53 degrees latitude, it is light out very early and very late in the summer. We made it down to begin our Magdalena Island visit (one of the places where Magellanic Penguins have babies). We had a great trip! We got some special treatment on the +45 minute boat ride to the Island because of our sweet kiddos and because one of the boat hands had brought his young daughter on board, so they sat us where all the action was, near the little girl. During the ride, one of the workers excitedly said “ballena, ballena” while walking down to the back of the boat; we hopped right over there with our choice seats and we were able to see a humpback whale briefly surface, while another, slower moving whale watching boat trailed along behind.

We made it to the Island and got off for an hour walk around the marked and roped off trails. We were surrounded by penguin couples; the guide told us there were about 8,000 pairs of penguins on the Island and maybe 2,000 babies; the “babies” were two or three months old (born in December) and were surprisingly giant! Many were as tall as the parents, with more fat than their parents. The fathers had dug thousands of holes on the Island for the babies, many holes just a few feet from the trail. The Island is the birthing place of even more numerous seagulls (which of course we were less interested in). The penguin and seagulls had largely self -separated but funnily, as we walked through the “seagull district” – which was soooo loud, honestly, what do seagulls have to yap about, all the time, and every so loudly? – we found a few solitary penguin holes with penguins in them, living among the gulls.

It is very fun to just watch the penguins; we saw some digging holes, one carrying a shrimp from one hole to another, grooming each other, waddling (I could watch that funny waddle for a long time without it getting old), dancing with each other (we watched one unsuccessful mating dance); and occasionally laying their heads back and vocalizing, a sort of long barking sound.

Too quickly, the hour of observation was over; the day was gorgeous, not too windy or cold, so the boat was able to navigate a short distance to another small Island, taken over by sealions; these the guide said were numerous, that the sealion population was growing rapidly as there are no predators, no orcas, in the area. As the boat approached, several giant sealions jumped into the water, thinking we might feed them (guide said some fisherman come by and throw old bait or unusable catch to them). They are such giant animals! We chatted with a couple near us who told us that they had swam with sealions in the Galapagos, that they are such sweet animals. I looked, unconvinced at some aggressive barking and quick-waddling onshore; they clarified that well, the females are gentle, but the males are sort of violent. I nodded agreeably.

I told them that we had hoped to go to Galapagos but thought we’d wait until things calmed down there (recently, the drug cartels have led some high profile violent incidents). We had thought we’d fly from Buenos Aires to Ecuador; if we do not, we have a bit of a whole in our itinerary. We could fill it with time in Colombia or we can go back to Central America (Costa Rica, where we’ve visited many years ago or a new place like Dominican Republic). Scott was looking into going to Antarctica (“we are so close! Just look at the map!” he’s told me excitedly. We are maybe a two-day – vomit the whole way – boat ride away from that elusive 7th continent. I think the vomit-boat-ride (the South Ocean is BUMPY), the $5K cost, and the brrrrrrr cold has convinced him to skip it.. this time!

Just arriving at Magdalena Island; the penguins were out en masse!

Penguin moms and dads near the holes where they raise their young.

After our penguin tour, we just puttered around town, eating empanadas and trying their different cookie flavors. We went to a private shipyard where this dude has built replicas of:

(1) the Victoria. Magellan’s ship, the first to circumnavigate the world in 1521XXX; after repeated attempts to get his King of Portugal to sponsor his expedition, Magellan convinced the King of Spain (Charles I) to fund his attempt to head southwest from Spain to reach the east Indies, opening a “quicker” and direct route to spice markets. Starting with about 280 men and 5 ships, they lost one that turned around shortly after Buenos Aires to mutiny; they made it through what we know call the Straits of Magellan; they thought from their they could make it across what they thought was a not very big Pacific Ocean [that Magellan named] in a few days, instead, it took them 3 months; many were ill and malnourished by the time they made it to the Philippines; Magellan himself was killed in battle in the Philippines and only two ships remained; 1 ship turned back and the other continued on, making it to India and then onward to Spain. 18 men and 1 ship made the whole 3-year journey. Though Magellan did not make it that way around, he is credited with being the first to circumnavigate the Earth based on a prior trip that he took eastward from Portugal and combining that earlier trip with his westward journey to the Philippines.

(2) the Beagle. The ship Charles Darwin was the naturalist and geologist on. In 18XX, the ship left England and remained surveying for 5 years, traveling west, down the coast of South America and back up to the ever famous Galapagos Islands After walking all around each ship, going down into each hold and the captains quarters, we agreed: We don’t want to live on a ship for 3 to 5 years!

We also popped into a natural-history & ethnological museum (coolest thing inside were puma and condor taxidermy – pumas are so big! We could not believe we didn’t see one in Torres del Paine park). And, after a few more empanadas and cookies, it was time to pop back on the bus for a +6 hour ride north, to El Calafate and Argentina!