Having transited through Santiago airport twice before, both times with various mishaps, we were a little anxious that everything went smoothly this time. Our flight was over-booked, and the airline tried to get passengers to stay an extra night in Santiago. Fortunately, we were there in good time, and managed to get onto the flight. We will miss South America, but not Santiago airport. As we sat on the plane, we readied ourselves for New Zealand, the next leg o...

Back in our patagonian base, Puerto Natales, for our last night in Chile, we treated ourselves to an Argentian-style pizza and red wine. We stayed at a cool little hostel called the Tin House. It felt good to be back in Puerto Natales after the touristy El Calafate. Unlike El Calafate, Puerto Natales feels like a real town. This probably because the inhabitants make a living from something other than tourism; mainly mining and fishing. The slighly ramshackle co...

Puerto Natales greeted us first with blue skies and then a snow storm! Brrr! Was that what we had in store for us on the hike? We had had several recommendations of a hostel which also provided a daily briefing on the Torres del Paine trek and were glad to take refuge there (and get proper coffee - what a treat) when the snow started. After the briefing in the afternoon we decided to delay our departure to the park by a day in order to get organised. Apart from ...

We arrived in Puerto Montt from Puerto Varas early on Friday 5 October to catch our ferry to Puerto Natales. Puerto Montt is an industrial fishing port, but also a tourist stepping-stone into Patagonia thanks to the Navimag ferry which sails south once a week. Our ferry, the Evangelistas, was first loaded with its commercial cargo and then we were bussed to the embarcation point together with a small number of other tourists. After more waiting, we eventually set...

We arrived in Puerto Varas late in the evening and didn't get to see much of the town. We were both a bit sad to leave Pucón, having spent a full 5 days there, but we had to meet the ferry in Puerto Montt for our onward journey south. According to all accounts Puerto Varas was meant to be much prettier than Puerto Montt and only 30 minutes away, so the plan was to stay there a couple of days and then board the Navimag. The hostel we had booked ourselves into was...