Penguins and glaciers

---

Standing in line waiting to check my bags at Santiago airport, I suddenly realized that my neatly packed bag of camping equipment also included two fairly large gas cannisters. After debating for a while if I could possibly take them on board, I decided to be honest and asked the check-in girl if there was any way I could take them to Punta Arenas. I was directed to the LAN cargo office, "just a couple of minutes from the main terminal". After half an hour walking alongside a busy road in 30 degree heat, I found the office closed and was instructed by a helpful bus driver to carry on walking to the main office 10 minutes away. By the time I caught sight of the enclosure, fenced off for the next half a mile, I was beginning to fret about making the flight and decided to throw myself under the fence when the security guards' backs were turned and make a run for the cargo offices.

Apparently, flights to Punta Arenas never take cargo on board and so when I arrived, my first morning in the southern outpost of Chile was spent running around trying to buy gas to take into the park. Unfortunatly, I couldn't find any gas, but i did manage to book myself on a tour to see the Penguin colonies at Seno Otway. I had been wanting to see penguins since arriving in Chile and spent a very happy three hours wandering around the colony entraced by the waddling birds, flapping and frolicking in the icy humboult current.

After a three hour bus journey from Punta Arenas, I entered the province of Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope - probably named by exhausted and chilly explorers) and stayed for one night in its capital, Puerta Natales. Before entering the park I had planned to see the Perito Moreno glacier, just accross the border in Argentina. Previously, I had always thought of ice as a convenience of modern life, something domesticated and tame which came out of the freezer in novelty shapes to be added to a glass of orange juice. Standing shivering in the rain on a wooden walkway, I quickly revised this opinion, gaping as a terrible spintering, cracking sound began and a slice of packed snow and ice was calved off the glacier and crashed into the bright blue water. One of the world's most dynamic glaciers, Perito Moreno's 5 km front constantly changes its appearence as chunks of ice, sometimes the size of a house are ripped away from its menacingly blue mass.

---

Photos

Petrol station on Argentinian boarder
This was the biggest sign of inhabitation as we drove for 5 hours to see Perito Moreno

Puerto Natales
Gateway to Torres del Paine