After landing in Puerto Montt and getting our rental car, we had an exhilarating drive through windy, country roads shrouded in dense fog to get to our lodgings. The cabin had only a wood-burning stove for heat, which was quaint but not as warm as central heating. We got caught up watching bad TV in English and using the solid Wi-Fi, and we stayed up way too late.

As we left, I noted that we only paid $48USD for the cabin. Luke noted that he would’ve paid $50 for the Wi-Fi, so I guess we get a good deal. 🙂

Today was a long driving day. We left Puerto Varas at 10am, stopping in Frutillar along the way. From this lakeside town, we could see both Volcán Calbuco and Volcán Osorno. I have very mixed feelings about volcanoes, which are lying in wait to erupt in magnificent shows of force and destruction, and so I was glad they were quiet so I didn’t have to confront those emotions.

After picking up more grocery provisions, we drove for many hours to get to our destination. Chile’s main highways are modern and delightful, and the local route roads are generally fine (by New England standards, meaning some crazy curves, navigating urban areas, and potholes), but the rural roads can be something else entirely. I’m sure we only drove 10 miles on rural roads, but it felt like 100 given the massive potholes, lose gravel, and ice patches that I had to navigate.

Why put up with all this? For Termas Geometricas, a sprawling, 17-pool natural hot spring complex that is listed in every guide book as a sight not to miss. Bright red walkways snake through this narrow valley, taking visitors on a journey through pools of varying temperature and size. Some 40 degree pools just barely fit the 3 of us, and other 36 degree pools could fit 20 people. You never knew what the next pool would be.

The logical side of my brain knows that the same forces that make volcanoes also make hot springs. Those two are closely related, for sure. Yet my lizard brain can very cleanly and completely sever these thoughts. I can see a volcano as scary and other-worldly, and I can simultaneously see hot springs as a safe and stable gift to us Earthlings. Logical? Of course not. But it works for me so I’m sticking to it!

Tonight’s hotel is Hotel Boutique Bordeluz in Virrallica. It is definitely a nice place with a strong hipster vibe. We have a date tomorrow morning with ~55 Siberian and Alaskan Huskies, and this hotel is close enough to ensure that we won’t be late!

What time is it? Seems straightforward, right?

Yesterday, I noticed that the car clock was an hour ahead of my phone. That certainly wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been in a car with a clock that’s off, so I thought nothing of it. When we got back to Puerto Natales, I was pleased that we made such good time and got back to town early.

We had breakfast at the hotel at 9:00, then packed and checked out just before 11:00. We hit the grocery store on the way out of town.

At some point, I mentioned that the car clock was off, and Luke asked what I was talking about. His phone and Anna-Sophia’s matched the car, but mine didn’t. Huh. Anna-Sophia checked the receipt from the grocery store – we expected to see 10:45 but it said 11:45! It seems we were an hour off for 2 full days, eating breakfast late and checking out 45 minutes late. Oops!

The drive back to Punta Arenas was easy and uneventful. It was insanely windy, so we were glad our day in the park was sunny and relatively light on wind. I nearly got blown over running across the road to take a picture of the rhea!

We made it to Punta Arenas and puttered about, stopping at the large municipal cemetery. I love a nice cemetery!

Later, we realized that time in southern Chile is weird. Chile used to have Daylight Savings Time, then they got rid of it, then they brought it back, then they changed the date it ends. To add to the confusion, Chile split the country into 3 time zones (sliced on lateral lines, not longitudinal). Our phones said it was 4:15, but the world clock app said it was 5:15. Which was true was unclear so we played it safe and went to the airport since the car was due back at 6:00. (Turns out, it was 5:15 – our phones lied).

We made it to the airport and continued to be confused about what time the flight was actually leaving. Thankfully, we guessed right and made it on time. Smooth rental car pick up and a quick drive to Puerto Vartas where we had a cabin for the night.

Torres del Paine National Park was today’s agenda. It’s 90-120 minutes from Puerto Natales, so we got a pretty early start to maximize daylight hours. Our first sighting: a flamingo.

We have 2 guide books with us. Both talk extensively about doing the multi-day hiking treks through the park, but none mention driving in any detail. Both briefly mention that one can visit in winter, but say nothing more on the topic. I was truthfully nervous for what we would find when we got there given how little the books discuss winter travel. I can happily report that, at least in late August, the park is east to navigate. No snow or ice at lower elevations, and the roads are easy enough to navigate (an SUV is a good idea, but only because the roads are all gravel and sometimes washboarded).

Through the day, one of the things that caught my attention time and time again was the silence. No cars, no city noises, no other people, and not even animal sounds. Just a total, still, absolute silence. That might be the very first time I can recall experiencing that.

For those not committed to doing long or overnight hikes, winter is a fabulous time to come to Torres del Paine. We saw maybe a dozen other people across the whole day. This profound sense of being alone, combined with the vast spaces and total silence of the park was simply other-worldly.

As we drove home, Luke suggested we do the W circuit or something like it. Uhm, ok! I love a great hike, and if so can combine hiking with not needing to camp, I’m totally down.

As a self-described urbanite, as part of a truly urban family, it is slightly amusing that we repeatedly find ourselves in desolate places. Makgadigadi salt pan in Botswana in 2018. Iceland, repeatedly. Svalbard, Norway, next spring. The very edge of South America, today.

Punta Arenas reminds me a lot of Iceland. Trees are few and far between; shrubbery lies low and grows diagonally, suggesting a life braced against harsh winds; rocks are the most common sight; and distances between civilized outposts can be measured in hundreds of kilometers.

Southern South America has one thing going for it so far: guanacos. These llama cousins are a bit more graceful, suggesting maybe a deer or antelope cousin who contributed some slightly upscale genes. They dotted the roadside, with their golden coats serving as a beacon to catch your eye.

After a very easy 2.5 hour drive, we arrived at Puerto Natales. Luke and I went to the grocery store to get provisions for tomorrow (there may or may not be anything open this time of year inside the park), and when we came out, there was a procession of cars honking their horns and waving banners. It seems Chile is voting on a new constitution in just a few weeks.

As an American, it is strange to think of a constitution as something that you can toss out in its entirety, but Chile seems to quite enjoy the practice and has done so repeatedly. The version up for a vote now includes a lot of provisions in response to the violent protests in 2019, including vast protections of social and civil rights, more explicit requirements for government to be accountable and responsive to the people, strong environmental protections, and strong regulations around equality for women, minorities, and indigenous people. In this part of the country, which is probably most like the US mountain west and Appalachia, those ideals are not necessarily all welcomed. We are in Chile’s oil and mining region, and the rules in the proposed constitution would have major impacts on this community. Of course, one could argue that protecting the environment could also profoundly impact the region as Patagonian tourism is a huge industry here, but probably not as much as copper mining and oil drilling.

After Luke and I had a hearty debate about this topic (is there truly any topic which we won’t debate?!), we went for dinner at a local pizza place, which was delicious!

Tomorrow we have a busy day in Torres del Paine, one of Chile’s national parks which makes up the region we think of when we think Patagonia.

When surrounded by mountains in the middle of winter, this clan goes skiing. I had no interest in hauling our gear, so I booked gear rental and transport from a company called SkiTotal which worked out perfectly. Amusingly, the conversions navigating from the Imperial to metric systems were harder than navigating the rest of the ski gear rental in a language I barely speak, but we got it all done.

Getting to El Colorado is an adventure. It sits 8000 feet above Santiago, so the road consists of over 40 switchbacks snaking along the mountainside. It reminded me a bit of driving along the Amalfi coast in Italy, except with much better (less suicidal) drivers and more horses.

I was expecting super steep runs and a million people, and I was pleasantly wrong on both accounts. It was delightfully uncrowded, and lift lines were almost non-existent. El Colorado is considered the easier of the main city-side ski resorts, and we found it to be pleasantly in our skill set. That is, the main area was – they also have an Olympic area which we suspected was likely just a tad outside our intermediate range. 🙂

Trees. New England skiing is effectively skiing through dense forest, but at nearly 10,000 feet in elevation, there are no trees in the Andes. Each wide open vista took my breath away.

After a great day of skiing and a solid nap on the shuttle ride back to town, we grabbed a quick dinner of traditional Chilean sandwiches (thumbs up all around) and then grabbed an Uber to our hotel. Since the flight on Sunday is early, we booked a room at the airport Holiday Inn. It’s a generic hotel, except for the moat. Seriously.

Flying is not super fun right now. Our flight out of Boston left late, cutting our 2.25 hour layover down to just a 40 minute layover. It didn’t matter much since Atlanta didn’t have anybody to load the luggage onto the 2nd plane, so we sat at the jetway for nearly an hour. Delays like that are frustrating, but I also know how hard it is to hire anybody right now, so I am also empathetic toward the airlines (sort of). We took off shortly after 11pm, had a mediocre midnight dinner on the plane, then tried to sleep.

I am very curious how the people who design airplane seats think humans sleep. I, for one, do not sleep sitting upright. This flight had one of the newer planes in which the seat back reclines and the seat bottom also tips, allowing very flexible passengers to get into a position that is halfway between sitting upright and being uncomfortably reclined. Still, it is an improvement over the standard seat. I managed to get a few 20-30 minute chunks of sleep, mostly because the middle seat was empty and I took some of that space, but I cannot say that I landed anywhere near rested.

We found our driver easily and headed to our hotel. I knew we would land tired, so I booked a hotel for the night before to ensure that we could check in when we got there in the morning, and I confirmed that with the proprietor beforehand. I *thought* I had booked an apartment hotel – one that would have a front desk and the like, but alas, that was not the case. This building looked like a true apartment building where people live. We didn’t have the apartment number and the security guard had no idea what to do. I had no patience for this kind of business given my level of sleep deprivation, so after half an hour of trying to reach the proprietor, I booked another hotel and had the first cancelled.

After dropping off our bags, we beelined for the cafe in the new hotel. Sitting down for food, coffee, and water was just what we needed. Once we were refueled, we headed out into the city to get some provisions. I’m a total sucker for foreign grocery stores, so we went to 2 different ones so I could stock up on insanely cheap Chilean wine and alfajores, and of course, Anna-Sophia had to pick out some wretched kind of gummy product.

Santiago is beautiful. It has a contemporary feel to it, a bit like downtown Medellin. It is incredibly clean, and today is unseasonably warm (high 70s) for winter. Like Medellin, Santiago is surrounded by mountains, but these are MOUNTAINS, fully deserving of being described in all caps. The Andes seem to form a bowl around the city and provide stunning views at every turn. Flying in to Santiago was unlike any other flight I’ve been on – the plane seems to skim the tops of the mountains, and then it drops from the sky onto the runway in an amount of time that is much too short.

After a much-needed shower (and nap for Luke, of course), we will find a relatively early dinner before we all crash. Chileans eat like Spaniards, at reasonable hours, but I don’t think a 9pm dinner is in the cards for us tonight given the jet lag and early start we have tomorrow to see those Andres up close and personal at El Colorado ski resort.