Santiago, Puerto Natales and Torre del Paines, Punta Arenas

Back to Santiago for two nights. After arrival at our hotel, which was swarming with clean cut young men in dark suits, referred to by other young folks as "sir", apparently in anticipation of an upcoming visit by an important international leader, we went for a short walk around the neigbourhood.
We had a city tour arranged in the morning in Santiago, and our guide started off with a drive to the downtown and central square area. One item of interest is a special style of coffee shop, with darkened windows. This is where one (generally a male one) goes for coffee "with legs". The legs are attached to attractive and minimally clad young women, who will stand around and chat. The price of the coffee (not including tips) is less than Starbucks. There were a number of these places, apparently catering to the ethnicity preferences of the patrons.

In the main square, the Plaza d'Armas, a couple of our number were accosted by a 20ish girl in shorts and tank top, with strange markings on her hide and a rather gamy smell. She was looking for money, but wasn't persistent. We witnessed the encounter and asked the guide what it was about. She told us it was a university freshman initiation ritual, wherein the victims were doused in foul smelling preparations and sent out to raise an amount of money in a short time.

Some new friends, who said they could arrange budget accomodation

Some of the historic buildings in the square still bore earthquake damage from  Feb. 2010, but we were able to visit the Catedral Metripolitana, a 19th century building with beautiful frescoes.

 Many of the buildings had a distinclty French republican look to them, as French architects were very much in local favour during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Main post office, Santiago, Plaza d'Armas

Santiago is a city of about 7 million people and as the perceived centre of economic opportunity for Chileans through the years. It is now home to around 40% of the country's population. The setting, with its hills and with the Andes in the eastern background, is beautiful. The pollution generated by the activities of so many people, and the local geography mean that the air quality suffers, and we were told that winter inversions make it so poor as to cause respiratory problems, particularly among children. Among the efforts to mitigate are a number of very nice parks, including one near our hotel with good running and walking paths, an equipped public outdoor exercise facility, and a couple of aviaries.
As always, just a taste (including a pretty good taste of Patagonian King Crab for supper), then onward and upward.

Morning meant departure for Puerto Natales via a fuel stop in Puerto Montt. FL 350, and nothing exceptional other than our first significant clouds. We were in tops for a while, then on top, the only effect on the flight being to spoil the view of the ground including some of the nice peaks of the Andes. Temperatures aloft, which have been warm at about -44, started to drop just north of Santiago, and now they are at a more normal (for us Canucks) -55 C. or so (in other words ISA). This makes some difference to our flight, as jet engines are able to produce more power at lower temps., so we can get a bit more speed if we want.  Puerto Natales is at about the same south latitude as Calgary is north. We're here one night before moving on to Torres de Paines National Park. Puerto Natales appears to be a gathering spot for young adventurers and trekkers wanting to experience the wilds of Patagonia, so lots of budget accomodations and neat restaurants. The locals are much more obviously comfortable in weather that would send other S. Americans scurrying for cover, and the place has kind of the look and feel of a Canadian town of the Maritimes.

At the road entrance to the town there is a large statue of an odd looking critter the size of a very large bear, but with a thick muscular tail and the head more like a camel than a carnivore. The road signs in town all have a representation of the same animal. Turns out it's a Milodon, a sloth-like animal that became extinct about 10,000 years ago. A skin and bones of one of these were found in a cave near Puerto Natales by a local settler and rancher in 1896, bringing the region some notoriety,

Up close at the Milodon Cave

After visiting the cave, we proceeded by van to Torres del Paine National Park about 100 km. north, our home for the next couple of days. The Torres del Paine, or Paine Towers is a group of four spires reaching an elevation of about 10,000 feet ASL. On the way in, we passed herds of guanaco (wild member of the camel family, related to the llama), nandu (rhea americana, or South American ostrich)and saw a few grey foxes and various raptors including hawks, eagles, and condor.

Nandu among the sheep

Another curiousity in a highly alkaline (ph 9.1) lake along the way was living, growing stromatolites. Last time I saw those was in precambrian fossils, but conditions at this place make it one of only 2-3 places on the planet where they currently grow. Nobody else was as thrilled as I was. There were also a couple of pink flamingos feeding on brine shrimp

 The park has a number of large, glacier-fed lakes, and our hotel, was named after the body of water adjacent, Lago Grey. We could see the foot of the Grey Glacier at the end of the lake. It's part of the South Patagonian Ice Field, the second largest non-polar ice field in the world. On arrival at the hotel, we went for a stroll along the rocky beach, and then back for more of the gourmet dining that has charactarized much of this trip. Theweather was coolish, about +7C, with very strong winds typical of Patagonia if the lean of the trees is any indication.

A (so we were told) somewhat rare view of the Paine Towers

 In the morning we went for a longer walk up the Pingo Trail to one of the park's back country camp sites and beyond, then along the morraine near our hotel. In the afternoon we took a boat tour on the sturdy looking Grey II (afraid to ask what happened to Grey I) up the lake to the Glacier, through calved bits of ice floating along the way.

View up the lake from the Hotel Lago Grey

Foot of the Grey Glacier (receding, btw, at 40m/year, about 4x recent historical average)

We were served celebratory Pisco sours cooled with glacier ice on arrival at the ice.

In the morning our transport returned to take us to the airport for the next leg of our journey, Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas, on the Straits of Magellan. This was a short hop of only about 100 nm., so we only climbed to about 17,000 feet, then descended to land. The airport is the staging point for many of the flights to Antarctica, so the weather office is geared up for briefings, with observations from many of the various camps on the polar continent.

Punta Arenas airport

 Trivia - Punta Arenas is almost the same number of degrees South latititude as Edmonton is North. they have the ocean, though.

We picked up our taxis to the hotel, which is right on a main square with a statue of Ferdinand Magellan.

Ferdinand Magellan

Magellan was the first European to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific in November, 1520, and the strait was subsequently named after him. He gave the name to the Pacific Ocean, which he called the "peaceful ocean" because of its apparently calm waters.

We had a brief wander around the downtown area and grabbed a sandwich to tide us over until dinner time. We had arranged a tour to Otway Sound, with the hope of seeing Magellan penguins. Our guide, Phillipe, picked us up at about 5:00 p.m., as the penguins come back late in the day after all day hunting expeditions. To reach the sound, we passed through a very extensive cattle station, by a couple of open pit coal mines adjacent to the national park where the penguin colony is located.

Smooching couple. They mate for life.

Penguin Pavarotti

Where's Harry? Anybody see him land?

Some facts

And the sounds

They're just so darn cute. I know - "don't anthropomorphise - they hate that."

We were at the colony toward the end of their migration, so most of the colony had lef, but we still saw plenty of action. They dig burrows where they spend the night.

After the very entertaining penguin tour, back to town, and to a restaurant recommended by our guide, Phillipe. It turned out to be an excellent choice, with a good range of nicely prepared local dishes including the locally caught king crab. Phillipe and his wife also dined their that night. The restaurant was only about a five minute walk back to the hotel.

The city has a population of around 150,000, and interestingly (at least to me) somewhere around 50% are of Croatian origin, dating from immigration in the mid 19th century. Like the rest of the Americas, this city also hosted immigrants from most other European countries, and the place has quite a cosmopolitan feel to it. Besides extensive cattle and sheep ranching, most of Chile's oil production comes from off and onshore wells in the area, and there is also coal and metals mining in the region.

In the morning, off to Argentine Patagonia.