Blogs from Punta Arenas, Magallanes, Chile, South America

I am finally getting around to writing about the trip a couple friends and I took to Patagonia a little less than 2 weeks ago. It is funny though, because just this past weekend we took a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina! But for my sanity, I am going to keep this blog in chronological order, and talk about this trip first. Then, hopefully in a couple days, I will “catch up” and post about the trip to Buenos Aires. So we left on a Wednesday night (April 10th) to go to Santiago and catch a plane to Punta Arenas. We briefly considered taking a bus, but it would have been about 30 hours each way, which, considering the time we had, didn’t seem to make much sense. So we flew and arrived in Punta Arenas ... read more

Ce n’est pas un poisson d’avril mais tous les bus de 10h pour Punta Arenas (à 3h de Puerto Natales) sont complets, donc le gars de l’auberge nous suggère l’auto-stop (les parents, ça se fait bien et c’est sûr au Chili), affirmant que nous n’aurons pas de souci : 2 filles, beau temps, voie passante. Je suis dubitative car c’est quand même lundi de Pâques, mais en fait, même pas un jour férié ici. Il nous imprime le panneau ‘Punta Arenas’ et c’est parti, nous nous dirigeons vers le point stratégique qu’il nous avait conseillé et effectivement même pas 2 min plus tard, nous voilà embarquées dans un pick-up flambant neuf avec deux Chiliens (dont un qui parle anglais, ouf) qui vont à l’aéroport. La route est encore une fois superbe. Nous avons même le temps ... read more

Hi Everyone!!!! Hope your all well. We are finally beginning to come to life again after a week of suffering from the affects of Jet Lag!! We had many sleepless nights and exhausting days but our body clocks are finally adjusting and were raring to get exploring again :) After our 2nd little trip to Santiago we were on the move again. We hauled our bags on the metro and headed to the bus station and took a bus to the airport. We were both pretty excited as our next stop was Patagonia!! We had booked our flight with Sky Airlines and we had to make a stop in Puerto Montt before finally arriving in Punta Arenas. The flight was not the nicest we have had to endure.....it seemed the pilot thought his controls kept sticking ... read more

PUNTA ARENAS CHILE, COCKBURN CHANNEL AND BEAGLE CHANNEL - The weather today was some more good luck. Sunrise was at 5:45 am; sunset at 10:00 pm, temperature was 63 degrees, wind at 26 mph and partly sunny (when we left port, wind speed had increased to a more normal 50 mph.). Our guide said weather here is rotten in the summer and very rotten in the winter. Their founding and prosperity was based mainly on the Strait of Magellan and was hugely impacted when the Panama Canal opened. Since then, they are mainly involved with sheep with some coal mining and some oil. There are about 125,000 inhabitants, I don’t know why, must be family and friends. Our guide had very good English as she had lived in California and Utah for awhile, I’m guessing to ... read more

Left Cordoba early in the morning to start epic 40 hour journey south to Tierra del Fuego - an 11 hour coach ride to Buenos Aires, then 3 hour flight to Rio Gallegos (arriving at 2.30am !), and finally another 12 hours by coach crossing 2 borders and the Strait of Magellan down to Ushuaia; bumping along unpaved roads but with fabulous views of the Patagonian wilderness in the late evening light. Ushuaia (the southern-most city in the world) had a friendly, frontier-town atmosphere. Hiked and caught ski-lift up to the Martel glacier above town (including a snowy traverse) for a fabulous panorama over the Beagle Channel, framed by a well-timed rainbow on the way down. Next day headed across to the Tierra del Fuego national park for a tranquil, forested lakeside walk over landslides and ... read more