8 days in Chile. We flew from LAX to Santiago and transferred flight to Punta Arenas. At Punta Arenas airport, we rented a car and drove to Patagonia. Then we drove back to Punta Arenas airport and few back to Santiago. After staying 2 days at Santiago, we flew back to LAX.
Logistics and Planning
- Bring a European type L power plug adapter. We didn’t know that but luckily we brought laptop which was used as the backup battery to charge phones before we got a chance to find a local store and purchase a adapter.
- Cell phone signal is bad or nearly non-existent in small cities or Patagonia. Download and save offline Google maps and pre-set destination and stop points before you go out. This was quite a surprise for us. We are used to ubiquitous 3/4/5G coverage in US. But even in Cost Rica, the Wifi/Cell coverage was way better.
- Plan ahead if you are interested in Museums or places in Santiago. Some closes on Monday, other close on weekdays. Some free places such as the presidential palace requires reservation in advance.
- During Christmas season, we experienced 80F in Santiago and 40F in Patagonia. Especially in Patagonia, the temperature changes significantly between day and night, with or without wind, in the shade or under the sun. So bring your layered clothing for both winter and summer. Think visiting Mammoth and Palm Spring on the same trip.
- Credit card/Apple Pay is accepted everywhere, you don’t need Chilean Peso. Prepare some USD just in case but you prefer to pay by credit.
- In Santiago, you can speak English without much trouble. In small towns, you should bring google translate or learn some Spanish. But considering poor cell signal, you should learn some basic Spanish words. e.g. Where is the bathroom?
- PDI receipt. When you enter the passport control, you receive a piece of paper as PDI receipt. Don’t throw it away. You need to keep that for two reasons: 1. 19% tax exemption at your hotel, 2. can’t exit the country legally without it.
Driving in Patagonia
We booked a rental car with a local company in Punta Arenas and got surprised when receiving the car. They were very nice to deliver the car to the hotel we stayed. From the Airport to the Hotel, it’s 20 min drive. They just saved the time for us. The surprise wasn’t the Toyota Corolla Cross. Based our Costa Rica experience, we knew we are going to get a crappy car. Last time it was a Hyundai Tucson. The real surprise was the unsolicited guidance we received when signing the papers. Beyond the terms of the contract, he went on, via the hotel manager as the interpreter, covering: please wear seat belt all time, don’t speed etc. I have never received such a lecture anywhere else from a rental car company. Anyway, Toyota Corolla Cross is an upgrade from Hyundai Tucson, I have no complaints.
The road in Patagonia is terrible! First of all, large portion of the roads are unpaved washboard roads. Something like this:
Moreover, the paved roads are often full of potholes, large and deep ones.While I was driving zigzag evading potholes, my son found it very entertaining, as if we were playing a live video game. I wasn’t racing for speed, but perfecting the art of dodging potholes. I was glad that the little guy was entertained, instead of being scared or annoyed.
Serenity in Patagonia
Animals in Patagonia
Animals in Patagonia are enjoying their peaceful life. People must have been kind to them. They are so calm and trusting. You can simply walk close and pet them.
- Horse
- Cow
- Dog
Base Las Torres Hike
We visited several waterfalls and glaciers in Patagonia. But if I can only tell you one thing of the entire trip, it has to be the base Los Torres hike. It’s a 12.5 miles round trip hike, with 3,326 ft elevation gain. The climbing up happens at the very beginning, middle and end. We finished it in 10 hours. This is the most challenging hike we have ever done. If you are very fit, you might be able to finish it in 7 hours but not less. Because there are many people on the narrow road, you won’t be able to pass them in many places. There are two checkpoints where the rangers will close the road at 3pm and 4pm respectively. Apparently it’s out of safety concern. They don’t want people to be stuck in the dark on the dangerous trails.
- Start early and keep a good pace. I mean you should. Because the trail becomes more challenging when you don’t. We learned it the hard way. We got up late and started the hike at 10:30am. After 2 hours of continuous climbing and lunch break, we learnt about the 3pm and 4pm checkpoints. Then we had to go as fast as we could. We made it to both checkpoints and stayed at the destination (the lake) for 30 min. At 4:30pm, the ranger asked us to leave the lake and go back.
- Trailhead
- Creek
- Last 2 miles were very steep and rocky
- The lake
View at the lake was great. But it was the sweat and scenery along the way, mood swing accompanied by the up and down of the road, that made this hike an unforgettable experience.
Exhaustion and pain accumulated faster than my walking steps. Many times on the way up, I was thinking about giving up.
At the end of the first climbing up phase, just as we became desperate, we were relieved by some flat and downhill roads. Then lunch break at the cafe helped us a lot to recover.
In the final rush to the lake, the road was so rocky and steep, turning back was equally terrible as moving forward. So we were kind of carried along by the traffic.
On our way back, we were able to refill our water bottle from the creek. The water was cold and clean. It tasted better than tap water. This allowed us to carry less water
from the beginning and saved some weight.
In the end, we were very happy that we endured and broke our hiking records.
Penguin Island
Taking a boat 1.5 hours from Punta Arenas, you will reach the Penguin Island. The small island is reserved for penguins and birds.
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Overview
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Penguin
- Seagull
Santiago
When we came back to Santiago, despite sore legs, we still managed to visit some places.
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Plaza de Armas
- Presidential Palace
- Bookstore in a Mall
- Police
Final Thoughts
We were lucky.
We ran into several logistic and planning issues but overall we were extremely lucky. At Patagonia, the weather was perfect.
According to the locals, the weather is fairly unpredictable. And we booked the trip 4 months ago. It was mostly sunny but very windy when we were visiting several places.
We took a lot of nice pictures thanks to the clear sky. When we went on the hike, the wind was very mild. Imagine strong wind on the steep and rocky trails! If it was raining,
we would end up grounded at the hotel. Adding rain and mud to the unpaved washboard roads would be a disaster.
We are very grateful that Gods of Patagonia were gentle on us.
The beautiful scenery in Patagonia brought back a lot of memories of our past trips. Alaska, Banff, Yosemite, etc. It almost felt like my brain intended to solve the Patagonia puzzle with old memory fragments. Such attempts were unfortunately futile, for Patagonia is unique. It has etched into our memory.
Do I want to visit again? Probably not. I am still working on putting the pieces of my butt together. Those crappy roads!