To get to the southern-most part of the continent, we hopped a 3 hour flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas. Waiting at the gate, it was obvious based on everyone’s attire that we were all heading south to the national park Torres del Paine. I’ve never seen more ThermoBalls, GoreTex, and hiking shoes outside of an REI. We were amongst peers. Or at least John was. I feel like I’m just posing as an outdoorsy type.

We continued to see our peer group while waiting to pick up our luggage. Someone else who was waiting for their backpack commented on our MSR Hubba Hubba tent (that’s its real name, not one we gave it!). He struck up a conversation about how small it was and couldn’t believe how little space it took up. We said we’d never used it before, which led another random stranger waiting on his backpack to comment about how much we were going to love it.

This conversation was killing me because I’m certain I’ll never ascribe loving thoughts to a tent. I’ve never been much for camping, tents, or sleepovers. This started when I was a child, and my best friend would always celebrate her birthday by having a group of girls over to camp in the backyard. I could never sleep! Like up all night, exhausted the next day, hating life. The same thing would happen during sleepovers, to the point I just wouldn’t go anymore. Basically, any time there’s pressure to sleep, I can’t – tents, sleepovers, red-eye flights, etc. No pressure, and I can sleep anywhere. Literally. I’ve slept against John on buses, planes, park benches, subways, the DC Circulator. I’m hoping we’ll be exhausted enough from trekking that I can add tents to this list, but I’m not counting on it. But according to randos at the airport, I’m going to love it!

Punta Arenas

Anyway, Punta Arenas was our first stop during our adventures in Patagonia. The plan for our time in Patagonia is 3 nights in Punta Arenas, 3 nights in Puerto Natales, 4 nights in Torres del Paine, another night in Puerto Natales, followed by 3 nights in El Calafate in Argentina. Most guidebooks say there isn’t much to see or do in some of these places, but we didn’t want to be rushed or not be able to see the sights because of weather.

On our first day in Punta Arenas, we wanted to see the penguins. To do so requires a two hour boat ride to Isla Magdalena, where a large colony of penguins nests. Most of you know my thoughts on boats, and some of you have even been unfortunate enough to experience a boat trip with me (Mother, Mmay). I’m truly a joy, waiting maybe half an hour into the ride before vomiting profusely. Or, I take Dramamine and experience drug-induced narcolepsy. Either way, fun for everyone involved! Back when I was on dating apps, I’d swipe right on anyone that had a boat in their pics. So I feel pretty strongly about boats.

I also feel pretty strongly about penguins though. So armed with not one but two packs of Dramamine in my pocket, John and I headed out. (Note that being the loving husband he is, John promised to prop me up Weekend at Bernie’s-style in front of a penguin and take a picture in case I was too drugged to remember the penguins.)

Our AirBnb was a bit out of town, so we started our walk to the dock. The boat goes out at 9am and 3pm every day. Since we’re not morning people, we obviously opted for the 3pm trip. We walked 2 miles to where GoogleMaps told us the boat company was. Which, of course, wasn’t where you were supposed to board the boat. So with less than 30 min. before the boat was to pull out, we had another mile to walk.

We started to book it, knowing there wasn’t much chance of making the boat. We arrived at the dock sweaty with about 5-10 minutes to spare. The boat was still there! And so was everyone who hoped to take it. We were told the winds were too bad to go out… There were some sad faces at the dock. But the best part about taking a year to travel, as opposed to a week or two, is we’re not on a strict timeline. We can leave time for error, and down time, and sleep. So we happily re-scheduled for 9am the next day (leaving us the 3pm as a back-up in case the early boat was canceled), and took a colectivo into town to explore.

The guidebooks and online sources said there wasn’t much to see in Punta Arenas, but we enjoyed strolling around the cute downtown square and shops. As the town is on the Strait of Magellan, there’s a big statue of Magellan in the city square. Naturally we snapped some pics!

Isla Magdalena

The next day we hopped an Uber to the dock (we figured we got our steps in the day before!) and boarded our 9am boat to Isla Magdalena. I braced myself for the rocking of the ship followed by the familiar feeling of nausea. And it never came. Mostly. So long as I stared out the window, didn’t look at my phone, and thought calm thoughts, my stomach stayed where it should. Towards the end of the trip, I was starting to feel slightly queasy, so John and I stepped outside, and froze while watching the island approach.

As we got closer, the crew had everyone come outside and down into the lower part of the ship. This part was exposed to the air and looked like where a car or two could be kept. As we got closer, the ship lowered its drawbridge like I imagine a WWII boat would’ve on Normandy, and we disembarked on the island.

Penguins!

The penguins on the island are wild, and the island is a national park, the Monumento Natural Los Pingüinos. You can only walk along roped off paths and clearly can’t touch the birds. They were everywhere, as were their nests/homes (caves they’d dug into the ground)! You’re only allowed to stay on the island for an hour, so we walked the paths, stepped into the lighthouse, and snapped as many pictures of the birds as we could.

Based on the time of year we went, most the chicks had already left the island to migrate north to Brazil for the winter. The adolescents were getting close to leaving, and were molting so they could put on their swimming feathers. They looked pretty frumpy! The adults are last to migrate, and still had about another month on the island.

The boat trip back to Punta Arenas was even smoother than the ride out, and I managed to fall asleep against John. Add boats to the list, I guess. Once again, I can sleep anywhere when there’s no pressure to sleep!

Puerto Natales

The next day we checked out of our AirBnb and hopped our bus to Puerto Natales, the staging ground for our entry into the Torres del Paine national park. The bus ride was a little over three hours across the Patagonian landscape. Somehow the time flew by just staring at the landscape dotted with large sheep farms. So many sheep! The landscape itself had flat land as far as you could see, kind of like the savanna, with little shrubby bushes, but also large, snow-capped mountains that started to materialize the closer we got to Puerto Natales.

Along the way we saw what we thought were llamas, but later found out were guanacos, a wild animal native to Patagonia that kind of looks like a furry llama. Dumb face, fluffy butt, super cute. They were everywhere and in herds, which is why we thought they were farm animals. From what we could research, they seem to be like deer here, in terms of prevalence and seeing them occasionally on a restaurant menu.

During the bus ride, at long intervals, I kept seeing an ostrich. I’d get excited, point it out, but by the time John would look up, he’d already missed it. This happened so many times I was pretty sure he thought I’d gone nuts. At one point I even pointed out sheep, so that he would know that I knew what a sheep looked like. Then he finally saw the birds I’d been seeing. They looked similar to an ostrich, but were much more gray. After some googling, we learned these were rhea, a wild bird similar to an ostrich that lives in Patagonia.

To cap off our unexpected wildlife tour, we passed a pond filled with flamingos! So cool!

Arriving in Puerto Natales, we settled in at the Casa Hospedaje Costanera, a cute 8-room hotel run by a lovely family, and started to prepare for our trekking expedition. They were so friendly and welcoming, and we absolutely loved our stay with them. When we booked this place, we’d also needed one night on the day we come out of Torres del Paine. The Costanera wasn’t showing as available, so we’d booked somewhere else. Just to be sure, though, I asked them if they had any availability. She assured us we absolutely could stay there! We were appreciative and thrilled, as it would be great to come back to a place we knew after four days of camping.

What’s Next?

We had three days to slow down, relax, and get ready for our trip into Torres del Paine. Come back soon to read all about that! In the meantime, check out how beautiful Puerto Natales is: