Patagonia 2025 - Part II
Patagonia - Torres del Paine National Park
Punta Arenas was our first stop in Chile and we quickly passed through on our way to the National Park.
As we are doing the long drive up to the park, I was looking out the window and saw … was it an ostrich (or Rhea)? NO WAY! Way. We stopped to get a batch of photos from the bus… Totally unexpected.
And then we were buzzed (again) by a condor.
We arrived at our Rio Serrano Hotel for a 3 night stay. The views are fabulous! From every room! This is from the Hotel, not even the park… We really lucked out with the weather!! Glorious sun, surprise rainbows and incredible views!
And we get most of the group.
Left to Right: Barbara, Pat, Jerry, Gay, Maria, MG, Dave, Karen, Marilyn, Tom, Ramona, Rodger, Tammy, Emily, Mike, Ray and Lu.
We came back to the hotel and did a short walk around the area. We came across a duck family, birds and a batch of cows straight from “The Far Side” that clearly were smoking dope in the high brush. The next day we went out again to the other side of the mountains.
Another group photo. We do dress up nice!
I think this is my “hero” shot of the trip.
Thanks to good spotting by Mike, we saw a Puma in the wild. Just walking away from the road probably heading for some fast food (Guanaco -“One-Nah-co”) We watched him go WAY up the hill to the point where he was hard to spot without binoculars.
Our lunch spot at the far east side of the hills.
Guanaco -“One-Noh-co” on lookout.
And we say goodbye to Patagonia and the Torres del Paine National Park.
We drive back the 6 or so hours to Punta Arenas. We get a farewell rainbow on the way out…
We have a lunch break at Punta Natales where Barbara does a perfect faceplant on the sidewalk. NOW she gets to come home with a bruise on her chin after sticking the landing.
Even better than beer is a fancy cocktail with a bubble on top.
Good thing Beer covers all problems.
And it’s so much fun to see it pop. We even had the bartender show us how it’s made. I want a smoke gun!!
Santiago Chile
We fly from Punta Arenas to Santiago – a quick 3 hour flight and arrive in a nice Pullman hotel. We go for some walks around the big city and then on Wednesday March 5 (Day 15) we take a bus 1.5 hours east to Valparaiso. A delightful city by the ocean that has taken to house art in a big way. Colorful and fun.
On the way back to Santiago we stop at a Chilean winery and have a tasting. What’s not to like? Later we have our farewell meeting and goodbye dinner. Nice place! Some of the group goes off to do other things and return home. It was our last meal all together.
Santiago reminds me of Los Angeles. Hot, dry with hills surrounding it. A layer of smog to give it that official feeling. But then again, many more high rises all around (not like LA).
They had a protest by teachers for promised payments that the new administration was not going to continue.
Street hustlers. Where is Elmo?
The amazing museum, then the Presidential office building and the end of our tour of Santiago. We head to the airport at 6pm for a 10:45pm 9.5 hour flight to Houston, then a 3.5 hour flight to San Francisco to arrive at 9am the next day… Good to be home. Great trip.
If you JUST want the photos you can go to: https://jerrypierce.org/photos/