Getting to Patagonia

Sorry for not updating this in a while, things have been happening quickly the past couple weeks and we’ve spent most of that time in places without internet access, so here’s a big update to start to get you caught up.

After leaving Mendoza we moved into Chile to spend a little time checking out Santiago and Valparaiso. Truth be told we weren’t even sure we were going to go to Santiago at all since it has the reputation of being one of the more uneventful cities in South America. That basically proved to be true so we spent only a short time in Santiago before heading just a little further west to Valparaiso. Similar to Santiago there isn’t particularly a lot to say about Valpo other than the fact that it is known for having some colorful and vibrant neighborhoods, in a kind of hippie or bohemian way. So we spent only about a day and a half in Valpo before it was time to make our way into Patagonia. Here’s a couple pics from Santiago and Valpo …

From Valparaiso we took an overnight bus down to Puerto Montt which was really our official launch pad into Patagonia. From Puerto Montt we took a 3 day ferry ride through the glacial fjords on the western coast of Chile which eventually brought us down to Puerto Natales, one of the main towns in the heart of Patagonia. Aboard the Navimag (the name of the ferry) we basically just relaxed and made friends, watched some amazing scenery stream by day after day, drank quite a bit, and at one point got a little sea sick where the boat passed into some rough waters in the Pacific ocean.

Once we got to Puerto Natales we had a day to gear up before it was time to see the wilder side of Patagonia in Torres del Paine National Park …