January 15th Chase and I headed to the Santiago Airport again! This time we were flying to the South of Chile to Patagonia. We booked this trip last minute because we decided we could not leave Chile without seeing the south. The plane was full of back packers headed to Torres Del Paine to go camping.
Everyone on the plane jumped out of their seats and ran to the left side of the plane when we flew over Torres del Paine it really was a beautiful site.
We arrived in Punta Arenas a little after 9:00 it is about a four hour flight from Santiago. There was supposed to be a hotel car waiting for us but there was not. So we found a shuttle and headed to the hotel on our own. Chase found this great little hotel on trip advisor and besides the fact that they forgot to pick us up they could not have been nicer or more helpful. The hotel was called Ilia. Upon arriving and after being shown to our room they suggested that we have tea on their third floor.
our hotel
our cute little room.
The third floor of the hotel
The third floor had a great view of the city and and of the ocean it was the perfect place to relax before walking to dinner. While we were sitting up there a cute couple from Utah actually came and joined us. They had just finished camping in Torres Del Paine so they had some great stories and advice on places to eat and things to do. We really enjoyed getting to talk to some other Americans and hear about everything going on back in the States. It actually made us really excited to come home. We ended up talking with them for much longer than we anticipated and before we knew it was 11:00 and most of the restaurants had closed. We did happen to find one little smokey bar to grab a bite to eat.
The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. These two women cooked home made wheat tortillas which they served with fresh avocados and mozzarella cheese. There was also some fresh yogurt and granola. It was really one of the best breakfasts we have had since being in South America.
After breakfast we had to pack up and head to the bus station to catch the 3 hour bus to Puerto Natales.
Some really funny looking trees we saw on the way to the bus station.
The Bus ride was a beautiful ride through the Patagonia country side. We finally arrived in Puerto Natales around 1:30. At first we decided that we would walk around and find a place to eat but that idea did not last long as we tried to lug around our suitcases. So we hoped into a cab and went to check into the hotel and have lunch at the hotel.
Hotel Atiplanico
view from our window
a different view from our window, nice satellite dish. We did not have Tv in our room, which was actually really nice!
Our plan for eating lunch at the hotel fell through because they do not serve lunch so we had the hotel call us a taxi and we rode back into town. Our hotel is located about a 5 minute drive from the town center which ended being about a 40 minute walk. The woman at the hotel told us about a great pizza place so we headed there for lunch.
lunch at Mesita Grande
While eating here we actually ran into the boy that sat next to us on the plane down to Punta Arenas. He was with huge group of 15 people that were going to go camping in Torres Del Paine. One nice thing about Chileans is that if they see you they will always come up to and say hello.
We enjoyed lunch and then decided to walk around the town and try to find some things to buy to take home. I am so crazy because I wanted to look in all the shops before deciding on something to buy. So we actually did not end up buying anything but headed back to the hotel to relax.
Chase in Puerto Natales
After getting back to the hotel we talked with the concierge about booking tours and did some research on the computers. We decided on two different tours one to Torres Del Paine and the other a boat tour of some glaciers.
Later that night we had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early!
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