Post by lillielangtry on Nov 25, 2013 12:38:59 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever done one of these but for those people who said they wanted to hear about my trip, here you go :-)
Flew Frankfurt - Buenos Aires - Santiago. The transfer through BA went very smoothly, was met off the aeroplane and escorted through the transfer desks to the gates. Still, journey was 24 hours so obviously arrived in Santiago kind of wiped out. The shared minibuses are a good option to get to your hostel/hotel.
On my first full day in Santiago I met up with a guy I know from Twitter/my blog (this is the guy who asked to stay which I wasn't sure about doing, if you remember). Well, he turned out to be extremely nice and not at all weird, plus I met his wife, and their apartment was right overlooking the main square which is amazing, but I'm not sorry I didn't stay with them because it really only had one room and as mentioned elsewhere, I hate sharing a bedroom. But he took me to a market for lunch (not the central market, which is very touristy) and showed me around a bit which was great.
Santiago is an easy city to deal with by Latin American standards. Sure you have to be sensible but it's no Lima! If you stay in the centre you should be able to see most of the major sights on foot. I walked for miles and miles on my own and got almost no hassle from men/beggars/people trying to sell stuff. I'm interested in the memory of dictatorship in Latin America so I went to the memory museum (highly recommended and free) and the Londres 38 site, a former detention centre.
After a few days I flew down to Punta Arenas. I don't really like doing internal flights but with a country the length of Chile, I just didn't have time to take a bus via Argentina. I had booked a tour for the next few days because it combined a number of things I wanted to do: with hindsight, this wasn't really necessary, I could've organised it easily myself. But you live and learn.
There are two main penguin sites accessible from Punta Arenas and I ended up going to both since the first visit to the smaller one, Otway, was very disappointing. A small group of penguins not close enough for really good pictures. Isla Magdalena is such a worthwhile half-day trip. There are thousands of penguins and they just walk right across your path without being bothered at all, and you can see them in their burrows, it was lovely.
Anyway, transferred to Puerto Natales from where I did two day trips. One of them was a boat trip to two glaciers in the national park Bernardo O'Higgins. This was really good, yes we were herded round a bit but the natural beauty was so amazing it totally overcame that - and after the glaciers we had a really nice lunch included at an estancia (probably not so good for vegetarians...). My first sight of glaciers. The next day was the Torres del Paine. Sadly it was overcast when we got to the "Torres" themselves, but they were still impressive. There were condors circling and guanaco right by the bus. Then we were supposed to walk to another glacier, unfortunately a storm started with hail and sleet, the wind was basically horizontal hitting our faces, my boots were waterproof but gradually the water running down my legs soaked down into them. I have rarely been so cold or wet, and the glacier was completely invisible behind a wall of cloud. So that was a damp end to the day. I know I'm a wimp but I'm so glad I wasn't camping out that night!
I had a couple more days hanging out in Punta Arenas, which is a really nice little town with amazing views over the straits of Magellan and evil winds (they actually put rope between the street lights in some places in case you need to grab on - and once I did!). It has a really fascinating cemetery with graves like little houses of the immigrants from Croatia, Germany, and Britain, among others.
Patagonia was fantastic, I wasn't disappointed. It's just spectacular and there was plenty more to do. I understand that for many, the big draw is trekking and that's not really my thing, but it was still great. I considered hopping over to Tierra del Fuego, but decided to leave it so I'll have an excuse to go back one day and maybe do the Argentine side.
TBC...
Flew Frankfurt - Buenos Aires - Santiago. The transfer through BA went very smoothly, was met off the aeroplane and escorted through the transfer desks to the gates. Still, journey was 24 hours so obviously arrived in Santiago kind of wiped out. The shared minibuses are a good option to get to your hostel/hotel.
On my first full day in Santiago I met up with a guy I know from Twitter/my blog (this is the guy who asked to stay which I wasn't sure about doing, if you remember). Well, he turned out to be extremely nice and not at all weird, plus I met his wife, and their apartment was right overlooking the main square which is amazing, but I'm not sorry I didn't stay with them because it really only had one room and as mentioned elsewhere, I hate sharing a bedroom. But he took me to a market for lunch (not the central market, which is very touristy) and showed me around a bit which was great.
Santiago is an easy city to deal with by Latin American standards. Sure you have to be sensible but it's no Lima! If you stay in the centre you should be able to see most of the major sights on foot. I walked for miles and miles on my own and got almost no hassle from men/beggars/people trying to sell stuff. I'm interested in the memory of dictatorship in Latin America so I went to the memory museum (highly recommended and free) and the Londres 38 site, a former detention centre.
After a few days I flew down to Punta Arenas. I don't really like doing internal flights but with a country the length of Chile, I just didn't have time to take a bus via Argentina. I had booked a tour for the next few days because it combined a number of things I wanted to do: with hindsight, this wasn't really necessary, I could've organised it easily myself. But you live and learn.
There are two main penguin sites accessible from Punta Arenas and I ended up going to both since the first visit to the smaller one, Otway, was very disappointing. A small group of penguins not close enough for really good pictures. Isla Magdalena is such a worthwhile half-day trip. There are thousands of penguins and they just walk right across your path without being bothered at all, and you can see them in their burrows, it was lovely.
Anyway, transferred to Puerto Natales from where I did two day trips. One of them was a boat trip to two glaciers in the national park Bernardo O'Higgins. This was really good, yes we were herded round a bit but the natural beauty was so amazing it totally overcame that - and after the glaciers we had a really nice lunch included at an estancia (probably not so good for vegetarians...). My first sight of glaciers. The next day was the Torres del Paine. Sadly it was overcast when we got to the "Torres" themselves, but they were still impressive. There were condors circling and guanaco right by the bus. Then we were supposed to walk to another glacier, unfortunately a storm started with hail and sleet, the wind was basically horizontal hitting our faces, my boots were waterproof but gradually the water running down my legs soaked down into them. I have rarely been so cold or wet, and the glacier was completely invisible behind a wall of cloud. So that was a damp end to the day. I know I'm a wimp but I'm so glad I wasn't camping out that night!
I had a couple more days hanging out in Punta Arenas, which is a really nice little town with amazing views over the straits of Magellan and evil winds (they actually put rope between the street lights in some places in case you need to grab on - and once I did!). It has a really fascinating cemetery with graves like little houses of the immigrants from Croatia, Germany, and Britain, among others.
Patagonia was fantastic, I wasn't disappointed. It's just spectacular and there was plenty more to do. I understand that for many, the big draw is trekking and that's not really my thing, but it was still great. I considered hopping over to Tierra del Fuego, but decided to leave it so I'll have an excuse to go back one day and maybe do the Argentine side.
TBC...
I keep imagining those light posts with the ropes. Like you could just totally blow away off the face of the earth.
