Chilean Patagonia: Magnet Edition

Well, I have no excuse for the delay but finally, over two months after we returned from Chile, I finally photographed and posted the travel magnets from the trip.

You can find them all on the Travel Magnet tab at the top of the blog.  Here are a few favorites:

The local Selknam figure common in the Patagonia area.

A fury rhea.

Torres del Paine national Park hand painted embellished with sand and crystals.

From the protests in Santiago, the Cacerola.

Chilean Patagonia: Days Seven And Eight - The Way Home

Day Six:  On our last partial day in Patagonia we took a free shuttle into town for the last gasp of our sightseeing and shopping.  We visited the modest church and a few stores we'd stopped at a few days earlier to finish off our shopping list ... mostly.

After a lunch at our hotel we were taken to the airport for our mid afternoon flight to Santiago (the flight where I left my fleece).  We were picked up at the airport by the same guide who's helped us nearly a week earlier.

We ate dinner at our hotel's rooftop bar before walking to our favorite ice cream shop in Santiago.

Day Seven:  Our flight home didn't leave until the evening so we had a free day in the city.  The Wife had one task - buy Cuban cigars for her brother.  It now seems to be a custom since we've bought them in Cuba, Canada, and now Chile - all the 'C' countries.

The Wife had asked our guide about the easiest way to get to the Casa de Habano cigar store.  She suggested we take the subway.  She also suggested take the subway to a market connected to a church.  Her suggestions became our last day itinerary.

We walked a couple blocks to the subway and rode it to the end of the line.  A short, and hot, one block walk took us to the market.  We ate lunch in a restaurant connected to the market before we dropped some more money here buying some rather unique pieces for our collection.

There was a funeral going on in the church so we couldn't go in so we got back on the subway and headed to the Casa de Habano.  This was a longer walk from the station and I was sweating by the time we got there.  The Wife pulled out her brother's list and impressed everyone with her brother's taste in cigars.

After the cigar shop we stopped at an ice cream place.  It was good but not nearly as good as our favorite.  Our guide had suggested another ice cream place but we didn't see it until after we'd had our ice creams.

A subway ride took us back to the hotel's neighborhood.  On the walk back we browsed through the protest stickers and found some more treasures.  I'll have to share one or two in future posts.

Cat on a chill tin roof.

The rest was uneventful. They took us to the airport where we caught our red-eye flight back to the States.

A peacock displaying his finest at the church market.

It turned out to be a nice relaxing trip.  It is the southernmost the Wife and I have ever been.  The opposite of last year's trip to Iceland geography wise.  I think next Christmas we'll stay home.  I kinda miss being home during that time of the year.

Pictures can be found in my 2019-2020 Chilean Patagonia Google Photos album.

Chilean Patagonia: Day Six - A Tour Of Torres Del Paine National Park

Sorry for the delay.  Not very motivated to write lately.

On New Year's day we booked a full day tour of the Torres del Paine national park.  We were joined by another couple from Slovenia and our guide, Chiche ... an Argentine Gaucho.

The rugged mountains of Torres del Paine national park.

The van took us into the park where we periodically stopped to take pictures of guanacos, rhea, condors, lakes, and sweeping mountainscapes.

Sweeping vistas along the way.

We stopped near a small lake and walked along the marshy shore.  We all watched the waterfowl, flamingos, and other birds wading among the grasses and reeds.  At the end of the short trail we arrived at a small camping/picnicking area where our driver had prepared a really good spread of food and drink.  We sat around a picnic table and talked about ourselves and what we'd seen so far on our tour.

Flamingos in the distance.

Back in the van we visited waterfalls, lakes, and even more sweeping vista.  It just went on and on.

Mountains, Waterfall, and summer flowers.

In the end it was a nice relaxing and satisfying last full day in Patagonia.

Our last view of the mountains and lakes of Torres del paine.

Pictures can be found in my 2019-2020 Chilean Patagonia Google Photos album.

Chilean Patagonia: Day Five - A Day Of Rest Was Exactly What We Needed

The long halfway to our room.

Since we'd canceled out two main events for the day (New Year's Eve day) we only had a relaxing drive into Puerto Natales for a cultural tour.  We were the only ones in our van so we got a quick talk about the history of the area and city with all it's European connections.

A mural in Puerto Natales.

We stopped at a small museum that held artifacts from the native people as well as the European families that colonized the area.  It was nice but small.

We walked along the central town square and stopped at a place for coffee.  The Wife and I do not drink coffee but fortunately the place was connected to a large gift shop.  We turned the cultural tour into a shopping spree.  We visited three different places looking for handicrafts, and magnets. By the end of our two hour cultural tour, we'd bought nearly 80% of the things we were looking for.

The rest of the day we relaxed in our room or in the bar.  I wandered around and took pictures of some of the historical building and machinery.

Relaxing ripples.

We'd hope to have fireworks but there were none planned for the night.  Past fires in Torres del Paine national park (including one caused by a camper turning toilet paper) may have been one reason for not having fireworks. The hotel was having a special menu for dinner that night followed by a cocktail party and dance.  When I travel I do not pack formal wear.  Neither of us were interested in the party.  We did enjoy the special menu - the most interesting part of the meal being Guanaco carpaccio.  I can't say it was anything special.

Historic machinery in our historical hotel.

After dinner we retired to our room.  The Wife watched college football with Spanish announcers.  Since we were so far south, there was still some twilight until nearly 11:30pm.  At midnight the ships from the nearby port began blowing their horns in celebration.  Despite being in patagonia, the New Year's arrival seem very low key.  I imagine this was not what we needed and the quiet before the storm that I expect 2020 to be.

A ship lit up with the lights of Puerto Natales in the background.

Pictures can be found in my 2019-2020 Chilean Patagonia Google Photos album.

Chilean Patagonia: Day Four - Patagonia Ain't Easy

On day four of our Chilean Patagonia adventure the Wife and I went our separate ways.  The Wife would take a tour of the historic hotel and a half day bike ride to see caves with mylodon fossils.  I would do a full day hike on the Water Path Trek.

The mountains of Torres del Paine national park.

I met the group who were going for the trek in the concierge area. The people in the hotel were from all over the world including Lithuania and Slovenia.  We got on our bus and road the ninety minute drive to the trailhead in the Torres del Paine national park.

Guanaco.

The bus stopped several time along the way to see condors, guanacos (a cousin of the llama), rhea (an ostrich like flightless bird), grey fox (with a mouse in it's mouth), and vistas of the park's mountain ranges.

Rhea.

At the trailhead we followed the Water Path that passes lakes and streams.  It was a little chilly and the wind was strong but the sun warmed me up most of the time.  The hike was about 8 miles (12.9 km) long with around 1,435 ft (437.4 m) of elevation drop. Half way we stopped at a viewpoint that overlooked a lake with mountain vistas beyond.

As I ate my hotel provided bag lunch I sat on a log in the sun but exposed to the wind.  Looking down at the lake you could see the chop on the water.  I was also very tired.  Up to this point the trail was relatively flat and at an altitude lower than my backyard. I guess I've been too sedentary since i returned home from the Appalachian Trail ... or perhaps I was still recovering.  Most likely it was a bit of both.  At this point I decided that the kayak trip I'd planned for tomorrow was starting to look less desirable.  I decided to cancel the kayaking trip once it dawned on me that there were better places in this world to kayak ... like Belize, Bora Bora, or Bali.

The reward at the end of the hike.

The highlight of the hike was near the end.  We climbed up to a viewpoint with a spectacular view.  From there we hiked down what I would consider a strenuous - even dangerous - steep trail down over a thousand feet to our waiting bus.  I would normally consider an eight mile flat hike to be moderate as this hike was classified but the steep descent at the end should have upped the difficulty to hard.  We had a snack before we returned to the hotel.

If you turn your back on the vista in front of you, you often see another.

As I was waiting for the Wife to get back from her biking excursion I received texts from her.  She had fallen twice.  The bike ride (on mountain bikes) was way too hard for her and others in her group.  She texted that like hell she would be doing her hike the next day.  That sealed the deal for me.  I went to the excursion coordinators and canceled my kayak trip and the Wife's hike.  Sadly, age is catching up with both of us a bit faster than I expected.

Pictures can be found in my 2019-2020 Chilean Patagonia Google Photos album.

Chilean Patagonia: Days Two And Three - Patagonia

Day Two:  We arrive in Puerto Natales airport mid-afternoon.  Our hotel picked us up and drove us the five minutes to the Singular Patagonia hotel.  The hotel is in an old livestock slaughterhouse and cold storage facility once run by the British. It was the primary source of meat for the British soldiers during World War I.

The pier in front of our hotel with the sun setting behind the clouds.

To get to the check-in desk the Wife an I took the thirty to forty foot funicular ride from the concierge desk.  A picture I took of the Wife riding the funicular nearly broke her Twitter feed.  Apparently there is a funicular group hashtag on twitter.

A view of our hotel from the tour boat.

There were no activities scheduled on our first day so we had an afternoon to
familiarize ourselves with the hotel.  We spent some time in the comfortable bar/restaurant area and we met with people to set up the activities for the next few days.

The view from our bed.

The hotel is divided into two parts.  The lobby, gift shop, bar, and restaurants are in the original slaughterhouse building.  The rooms are in a newer section built where the cold storage building once stood.  The rooms are arranged along a long corridor in such a way that all rooms look out over the water (ocean waters that connect to the strait of magellan).  Each room has floor to ceiling, wall to wall windows looking out at the water and mountains.  I'm not sure I've ever stayed in a room with such a nice view.

Day Three: Our first excursion was an all day boat ride with stops at a glacier and a ranch. We got on our boat and went out on the choppy waters.  Patagonia is known for its windy conditions.  Our guide said that the wind we were experiencing was not as strong as normal but that the tide was causing most of the choppy water.  By the time we arrived to the area of the glacier we'd been bounced around and all shook up.

The glacier seen from the tour boat.

Our boat was supposed to dock near the base of the glacier and we were to hiked up to a view point where we could get a good look of the ice.  The Captain of our boat consulted with another tour boat and decided the choppy water made it too dangerous to dock so we saw the glacier from the boat and missed out on the hike.

A colony of cormorants.

The boat turned around and headed towards the ranch.  Along the way we visited waterfalls, colonies of Cormorants, and the earliest European settlement along the Patagonian fjords.

At the ranch we got off the boat and had a wonderful lunch.  We toured the ranch facilities and played with a local sheep herding dog.  After lunch the group divided into two groups.  The Wife went with one group for a horseback ride around the ranch.  I joined a smaller group who did a short hike up to the top of a ridge to enjoy the views.

The view from the top of the ridge.

We returned from our activities and enjoyed some drinks before we returned to the hotel.  It was, with the exception of the choppy water and the inability to dock near the glacier, a great first full day in Patagonia.  Tomorrow the Wife and I would go our separate ways on two different activities.

Pictures can be found in my 2019-2020 Chilean Patagonia Google Photos album.

Chilean Patagonia: Day One - On The Way ... Via Santiago, Chile

I'm a bit late at documenting our winter travels to Chilean Patagonia.  I haven't been much in the mood to write lately.  But this needs to get done so here goes.

Our dog/house sitter drove us to the airport mid-afternoon on the day after Christmas.  All our flights on this trip were at great times - mid-morning, mid-afternoon, or evening flights.

We flew from Omaha to Dallas then on to Santiago, Chile.  Our connecting flight gate in Dallas was changed twice.  The first change took us to another terminal and the skytrain, which would have made it easy, was out of service.  Fortunately we had lots of time to walk to the new gate.  It's interesting that the stores in the international terminal are so much more upscale than those in domestic.  Hmmm ...

In Santa Lucia Park.

We arrived in Santiago an hour late.  Customs went smoothly and we were picked up by a guide.  We knew we would have the afternoon to ourselves and had planned to see if we could set up a tour of the city.  This turned out not to be necessary as our guide had anticipated this and had already setup an afternoon tour.

We got to our room some five hours before check in time and had a half hour to freshen up before our city guide picked us up.  We started with a list of places the Wife and I had visited the last time we were in Santiago so the guide could change his plans a bit to add things we hadn't seen.

Santiago had changed a bit since the last time we were here.  Every wall we saw was covered in graffiti related to the recent ... and continuing ... protests.  A lot of the graffiti was violent against Paco, a nickname for the police.  Our guide took us to a church, past the historical district, and  a small hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop when we mentioned we hadn't had anything to eat for nearly twelve hours.  The restaurant served the local favorite: Chacarero.  The sandwich was good but a bit too spicy for my tastes.  I only finished half of it.

Black Neck Swans.

We visit San Francisco Church with it's connected colonial museum, several parks including Santa Lucía Hill.  We visited with the black neck swans and flamingos.  We took a gondola ride up to the top of San Cristóbal Hill (we visited here before but last time we took the funicular).  In between the stops the Wife talked to our guide about politics.  Based on his comments about the protesters, we decided our city guide was a fascist. In general, despite being a bit tired, I enjoyed the tour.

Words are not necessary in this example of protest graffiti.  The 'nose' through
the eye represents a protester injured when a rubber bullet hit his eye.

After they dropped us off at our hotel we walked to our favorite ice cream place (Cafe de Opera).  Our hotel was not far from the one we stayed at last time so we roughly knew the area.  The ice cream was just like we remembered it - delicious.

Resist ... with a heart.

As we were returning to our hotel, protesters began to gather in a park a few blocks from our hotel.  We knew something was coming when we saw people calmly strolling down the street carrying gas masks.  Next came the police vehicles (water cannons).  As it got darker the protesters began banging pots and pans (the Casseroles).  While I would have loved to take pictures of the protest, I was a bit over-cautious.  We had a meal of tapas in the rooftop bar before the Wife and I retired to our room on the eighth floor.  We opened our balcony door and listened to the well coordinated banging of pots.  Occasionally there were explosions - either tear gas or fireworks, hard to tell.  You could see smoke in the distance.  I wondered if we should be experiencing this in our nation's capital as well.

I think we are becoming birders.

Our flight to Puerto Natales left late next morning.  We had breakfast, were picked up by our airport guide, and we took the flight south.  Patagonia ... here we come.

Pictures can be found in my 2019-2020 Chilean Patagonia Google Photos album.

So ... What Comes After Canada?

Those who know us know that we like to have several vacations in the pipeline.  Before we returned from our Canada by rail trip we already had plans to go to Patagonia between Christmas and New Years.  We even had a random stranger we talked to tell us how she loved Patagonia while we waited for the bus.

After we got home we contacted our travel person and asked about Patagonia.  A few days later we discovered that Patagonia is very popular between Christmas and New Years.  Most places in Torres del Paine National Park were booked solid.  The only place available was $11,000 per person (not including airfare and two nights in Santiago).  Time to go to plan B.

Plan B is Iceland.  Actually, Iceland was sort of our plan A and Patagonia was Plan B.  We rejected Iceland early on because it seemed more expensive than Patagonia.  After Patagonia priced itself out of the market we revisited Iceland.  Our travel person did a great job putting together a package that was, by our usual standards, dirt cheap.  Instead of booking an umbrella tour she booked a hotel, flights, and then filled the time with individual daily tours.  In the end we saved thousands of dollars.

So this December, between Christmas and the New Years Day, we will be exploring Iceland and, weather willing, basking under the Aurora Borealis.  What better New Years Eve fireworks than the Aurora?

We haven't forgotten about Patagonia.  We're looking at going there after Christmas 2019.  Hopefully this far ahead will get us a more reasonable price.

South American Adventure - Part Four - Santiago De Chile

Day 12 - A free day for the half way point.

It was the half way point of our travels and we were in Santiago, Chile.  It was time to do some laundry.  We were going to find a laundromat near the hotel and do it on the cheap but the nearest one was a distance away.  Turns out Chile is one of the cheapest places we've ever been to and the laundry rates at the hotel were reasonable (not cheap but not extravagant either).

We dropped our bag of laundry, ate breakfast on the top floor of the hotel, then headed out in search of interesting sights and an ATM machine.  I hadn't brought any chilean money on this trip.  I usually get all the different currencies before I leave on a trip but this time I really wasn't sure how much I would need so I only got some Brazilian Reals and US dollars.  With map in pocket we headed out to where the desk clerk said we would find an ATM.

Crossing a river and seeing our landmark, the Telefónica Chile building shaped like a cell phone.

Our hotel was located in the Lastarria neighborhood, an up and coming place in Santiago.  It was centrally located from many interesting places to visit.  A short walk took us across a river where you could get a great view of the Andes mountains behind the building that looked like a cell phone (that is how everyone described it and it did look like a cell phone).  I expected to find a bank on the other side of the bridge but I didn't see anything remotely like an ATM so I stuck my head into a small gallery and ask the elderly man if there was a bank nearby.  There wasn't but he did give me directions to an ATM.  With chilean peso in pocket we were ready to start seeing the sights (and buying magnets).

Our first stop was one of the houses owned by nobel laureate Pablo Neruda.  Yes ... the Wife managed squeeze in literature and poetry on this trip.  We toured the house listening to the recorded tour.  It was interesting.   His life was entwined in the history of Chile.

A view from Cerro San Cristobal.

On the left is the Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest building in south america.

Next we headed to Cerro San Cristobal.  We boarded a funicular and rode up the hill (cerro).  The car we rode in was the same one used by Pope John Paull II.  At the top we continued up the hill and admired the incredible sights of the snow capped andes mountains and the city of Santiago.  Along the path were seven crosses decorated by seven different artists.  At the top of the hill is a large statue of Mary.  At her base there is a small area where people have left cards, pictures, and mementos.  The Wife left one of her Dad's prayer cards.  We walked around the large statue and toured the painted interior.  We bought some magnets and souvenirs before heading down to some shops at the top of the funicular.  We bought more travel memories before having a lunch of chips and empanadas.

The Virgin Mary on Cerro San Cristobal.

We went back down the funicular (watch the thrilling five minute video here) and started the long walk to the plaza de armas.  Along the way we passed more cool street art and through a bustling street market.  By the time we reached the plaza de armas we were both getting tired.  We visited the cathedral, observed the changing of the guard and the horse police.  The Wife noticed a statue of a pilgrim Santiago (he is the patron saint of the city).

The Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral on the plaza de armas.

Being tired we started heading back to the hotel.  I was keeping my eyes open for ice cream as we walked..  Our guide had mentioned some great ice cream places but we never found those (never really tried to since they were out of our way).  I passed in front of what I thought was a cafe when a waiter came out with two bowls of ice cream with a waffle cone sticking out of each bowl.  ICE CREAM.  We sat down and the Wife ordered two scoops of white chocolate and I ordered a scoop of milk chocolate and a scoop of dark chocolate.  Yum.  I repeat ... yum.

By the time we got back to our hotel, we'd walked about 8.5 miles - a lot more than I expected.  I napped a little and we went to a corner store to buy water and some sandwiches - neither of us wanted a big sit down dinner.  We both went to bed in clean pajamas.   Yum again.

Tomorrow we would be getting up early ... again ... and going back to the airport.  Next stop, Easter Island.

Pictures of the Santiago de Chile can be found in my 2016-06 Santiago de Chile, Chile Google Photos album.

Planning The Next Adventure

Well, we returned from New England almost a month ago and I've finished RAGBRAI so it was time to see our travel agent to put together next year's international trip.  We'd discussed a couple options. The first option was a return to South America where all our international vacations started back in 2006 (Peru).   The second was Turkey, Israel, and Egypt.  We dismissed this second one because of the political situation in the area.  Instead we returned to our first choice.

The vacation will include the following destinations roughly in this order:

• Quito, Ecuador and a small boat cruise through the Galapagos Islands.
• Santiago, Chile and Easter Island.  Since we have a few extra days in our itinerary we will be spending a couple extra days in Santiago.
• Iguassu Falls (Brazil) and a short cruise down the Amazon River.
• A few days in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  We'd hope to go to Rio after Easter Island and before Iguassu Falls but we couldn't make it work out so we moved it to the end and added the Santiago days instead.

We'd hoped to add a few days in Havana, Cuba to the end of this vacation but things didn't work out for that either ... but ... we will be going to Havana in March of next year during the Wife's spring break.

Nothing like two international vacations in the same year.  At one time we thought the South America portion was going to be less than three weeks long and we sort of felt disappointed.  It turns out it will be around twenty-six days which makes us feel much better.  We've become such travel snobs.