The flight from New Zealand to Chile meant that I crossed the international date line for the first time in my life and so had my first experience of time travel: taking off at 4.00 in the afternoon on the 27th, travelling for 11 hours and then arriving late morning on the 27th. My South American adventure therefore started with a bonus day!
I also think I am developing a reasonably ingrained tan after five months on the road and, for some reason, I enjoyed being mistaken for a South American on the flight. Mistaken, that is, until I open my mouth: Spanish may be the loving tongue, but delivered with a Wigan accent, and full of grammatical mistakes, it loses a bit of its romance!
Landing in Chile meant that I was visiting a new continent (just Antartica left, but I think I'll leave that for another trip!) and it was exciting for me. I think the moving maps that they show on planes nowadays are a fascinating addition and I usually prefer to watch the map than any of the latest movies that are on offer. However, even for a self-confessed map geek like me, a map showing ten hours of nothing but the Pacific beneath us left me unable to muster any enthusiasm! When we did reach a land mass, the yellow grasses and scorched earth were a far cry from the lush greens of New Zealand. Still, at least the combination of a creaking, rickety plane and the girl beside me who was petrified of flying provided some sadistic entertainment!
Although Brazil and Argentina are usually regarded as the more sought after destinations, I had a long held ambition to visit Chile, so I hardly felt any jet lag at all as I made my way to the centre of Santiago to join up with the group that I'd be travelling with for the next couple of weeks.
Santiago
The centre of the city is small for a capital of a country the size of Chile. It has an unmistakably European feel to it, reflecting its history, with wide boulevards linking the open spaces where the main places of interest are situated. There are, though, only a few churches, monuments and plazas to see in the centre, and nothing too spectacular, so I don't have many photos. It's not really a tourist destination, but I like the feel of the place - especially the tables around the city where old women give tarot readings and the bandstand in Plaza de Armas (the main square), where men of all ages play chess under the appreciative eyes of the gathered crowds. An unexpected feature are the numbers of kids (and young adults) that kiss on street corners, at bus stops, park benches, and just about anywhere else: as a religious country, where I'm told people live with their parents until quite late, and where kissing at home is not generally allowed, they take whatever chance they can to be together.
The tour group I joined was very different to the one that I travelled around Asia with. Apart from three other Brits, Jose from Brazil and Maruschka from South Africa, they were all from the US or Canada, and generally older than on the Indochina tour, but I think that reflected the different nature of the two trips.
Region of the Lakes
After an introductory meal in Santiago (and the first of many bottles of Chilean wine) the first stop on the trip was Puerto Varas, which meant a morning flight to Puerto Montt.
There is not much to see in Puerto Montt; it is a working town on the coast built on the salmon farming industry, and we were just passing through. But Puerto Varas, just thirty minutes away, is beautiful; slap bang in the middle of the lake district, fairly close to the Argentina border, on the shores of Lake Llanquihue (the second largest in Chile) with volcanos dotted around the surrounding countryside. The town itself has a heavy German influence and the buildings are reminiscent of Bavaria - there is even a church which is a replica of the Marienkirche in the Black Forest. The volcanos which are scattered throughout the region as part of the Andes are still active, with a number of eruptions in the last century. During the first afternoon in Puerto Varas, a group of us headed out to get up close and personal with the surrounding countryside, by white water rafting down the Petrohué river. The rapids were grade 3 (for those who know their rapids, fun but not too dangerous for those who don't) and it was a good laugh - especially riding one of the rapids outside the raft, just floating in the water. After a couple of hours cruising past snow-capped volcanos or crashing through the rapids, the trip came to an end and we celebrated with a pisco sour - the national drink, and one that you can easily get a taste for!
The day after, the whole group warmed up for the hiking in the south with a trek around the Osorno volcano, giving great views of another four or five volcanos and mountains, as well as Lago Todos Los Santos, across which I had my first sight of Argentina. The hike followed the paths of centuries old lava flows, but after a fairly steep incline in the first hour, the rest of the walk was pretty flat and the only difficulty was the horseflies. I had my first taste of them at the rafting (or, rather, they had their first taste of me), but on this walk they were unbearable. Millions - which is only a slight exaggeration - of inch-long, flying barrels of irritation that can bite you through your clothes so, despite the heat, I had a top on over my t-shirt. Apparently, they are only out one month of the year, but it coincided with our trip and, in the space of one day, horseflies easily took over from mosquitos and sandflies as my most hated insect. They were incessant and while having one or two buzzing around you would be irritating, having 10, 20 or more at one time, constantly, is enough to drive you mad. At least we saw a few chimango caracaras on the trip - a native bird of prey. If only they ate horseflies! 
On the way back from the volcano, we stopped at a waterfall on the Petrohué river, upstream from the place we did the rafting, which was pretty (especially with the volcanos as a backdrop) but not spectacular. There are three or four really nice restaurants in the town too. The food everywhere in Chile has been good, but it is the size of the portions that staggers. I've not seen many overweight locals, so I can only assume nobody eats out, because the servings are enormous!
Navimag cruise
After leaving Puerto Varas, the next stop was Puerto Natales in the heart of Chilean Patagonia. Puerto Natales cannot be reached by road within Chile (without going through Argentina), so we boarded a ferry for a three day cruise through the fjords and past the ice fields and mountain ranges that cover a large part of southern Chile. 
The boat was fairly basic, with one bar, a canteen and several viewing decks. So, apart from admiring the scenery (which was, to be fair, very admirable), and watching some of the presentations they gave on the flora and fauna of the region, there was little to do but relax, drink and chat with the rest of the group. It was a great way of getting to know a new group, either talking one to one, in small groups or en masse, especially with Jose cracking open a bottle of wine at every opportunity. The group had a wide range of personalities (in the case of Tom and Tim, there were two in one body), but individually and as a mix, the entire group was really good and the cruise was great fun. At night, on the outdoor decks with a clear sky, you can see all the heavens, with stars visible that you can't even see in the remote parts of NZ. During the days, we passed by some glorious landscapes, with mountains rising up from the fjords and occasional glimpses of native wildlife, like condors flying high above or humpback whales navigating the channel, breaching the surface and shooting blasts of water into the air, but the highlight was seeing a pod of the rare southern right-sided dolphin. Courtney, our tour guide, managed to get some good photos of these beautiful animals, whereas a biologist who had been studying them for 10 years has never managed to get one. It is always a good sign when you see the experts get excited about something on trips that they have done countless times; it tells you that you are seeing something unusual or rare.
Away from the wildlife, the highlight was seeing the Pio XI glacier (the largest in South America) and watching the ice falls crash into the water. We also called in at Puerto Eden - a town which is little more than a circular boardwalk, linking the homes of the local fishermen and the church.
The second day of the cruise was new year's eve. Much wine was consumed, party hats were provided (very cheesy!) and, as we were in the open water of the Pacific with 7, 8, 9 meter high waves, the boat was rolling from side to side, so nobody could tell whether my bad dancing was due to an English lack of rhythm or because of the movement of the boat. (I knew, but I wasn't letting on!). It was a really good night - so different to a usual new year's eve. We even met a couple of girls from Wigan and Leamington Spa - it's a small world, as they say.
I think, though, the best day was new years day. With everybody nursing slightly rough heads and quietly recovering, Jose found himself a place on a bench and opened a bottle of red and started on an enormous block of cheese. Slowly, as the group wandered past in ones and twos and were invited to join him, the numbers swelled and before long the whole group was gathered, each person bringing their own stash of wine and food and the party that had started the previous evening continued long into the night. These impromptu drinking sessions are always the best kind, and this was no exception - 2012 could not have started in a better fashion. (Aside: the dead time on the flights, coaches and boats has also given me a chance to catch up on some books I've been meaning to read, and I've just finished Love in the Time of Cholera, which is a fantastic book that I can heartily recommend to anyone.)
Puerto Natales and Torres Del Paine
Just as we boarded the ferry in Puerto Montt, we heard news of forest fires in Torres del Paine. The last time that happened, the park was closed for months, but for the duration of the ferry journey we were cut off from mobile or internet contact, so the first thing we did on arrival at Puerto Natales was try to find out if the hiking in the national park could go ahead. We were met with positive news, but it turned out to be a bit of a red herring and only part of the park was to open and only in a few days time.
With the original plans scuppered, we had to make alternative arrangements, so most of the group decided to go on other hikes in the region - with just one day in the Torres del Paine national park itself. Incidentally, "Paine" means "blue" in the Araucanian language, so it is likely that the towers are named after the blue lakes that surround the area.
Puerto Natales is a pretty town geared up to be the launch site for hikers heading to the hills. Although there was disappointment that we would not be able to go on the famous "W" trek in the park, especially for Peter who was making his second attempt to go on the hike and whose boundless energy had been building up during the cruise, we at least did get to hike for four days and those hikes were off the beaten track, meaning we were seeing places that not many people had seen before. Staying in the town for a couple of extra nights also allowed us to get familiar with the place, and we quickly made the cervezeria which had a microbrewery on site our local.
The region has about 140,000 people (and about 2,000,000 sheep), so most of the area feels remote and isolated. Our first day of hiking was around Lago Sofia, where there were plenty of hares, condors, vultures and caracaras bounding over the scrub or flying high above. The area is also famous for the miladon - a prehistoric creature the size of a bear but looking more like a beaver - and we visited the cave where remains of this animal were discovers along with the earliest signs of human life in the area. The second day, we hiked up a large hill near to the city which gave great views of the Chilean pampas. At the top, the winds reached 150kmph and as we closed in on the summit, you could hear the wind whistling above. The winds were so strong that we could not complete the planned trip - they literally knocked you off you feet as you tried to cross the ridge at the summit- so later in the day, we explored the town.
The third day, was the day we finally made it to Torres del Paine. It was worth the wait. Although we couldn't do the full W-trek, we could do one leg of it (more of a J-trek) and fortunately it was the leg which went to the base of the three towers. It was a bit of a roller-coaster of a hike, with long ascents followed by welcome descents. According to our guide, this leg is the most difficult of the W, but as we were only doing one day in the park, it was not too bad. All the time, condors were circling above waiting fit the unfit hiker to fall by the wayside! I'm aware that I have described so many things as spectacular on my travels, but when you cross over the final ridge at the end of the final steep ascent, and see the three towers close-up, they really are stunning and well worth the effort to climb to see them. On the return, a few of us decided that a bit of fell running would be appropriate (god knows why!) and it was only partly hindered by a couple of beers at the refuge half way down!
That night, we camped just outside the national park and gathered in a large tent (with, of course, more wine and, less obviously, slices of chorizo or melted marshmallow served in cookies), where we spent the evening listening to music and relaxing after the day's exertions.
I haven't really waxed lyrical about the scenery in Chile, but Patagonia is every bit as beautiful as New Zealand's South Island. You can get a bit blasé about some of the sights that you see in these places. I remember Rita saying that while she appreciated the beauty of New Zealand, she was not standing in awe like me because she had seen it before in Patagonia. I have done the trip in the opposite direction, and I think there is some truth in familiarity dulling the senses a touch. Patagonia and the South Island are not on massively dissimilar latitudes and there are many similarities. In both cases, the sheer scale of the wilderness is breathtaking, but I will say that the one view that left the biggest impression from the entire trip so far was the one of the three towers in Torres del Paine.
Throughout this tour, especially with the disappointment of not being able to do the whole W-trek, Courtney had been pulling everything together and, wherever there were problems (it is South America, after all!), doing whatever could be done to make sure everybody got the most out of their trip. I know it is a cliche that Americans don't travel outside the US, and the ones I've met on the road are obviously exceptions to that rule, but Courtney has probably spent as much time out of the States as in it. Her love of the job was clear and, even though she had been working non-stop for months on end, her enthusiasm was infectious, so despite the vino, there was hardly a trace of a hangover on any of the days. Tour guides can just be the person who arranges the logistics and excursions, dealing with shit when it happens, but in this case, the tour was really enhanced because of Courtney's passion to get involved with all the group activities and nights out. (So, if you are reading this, thanks Ohio!)
In the next instalment, I continue my journey south to Puenta Arenas before starting to return north to Santiago and, eventually, back to Europe.
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