San Pedro de Atacama and Kari Gorge

The Salt Mountain Range

Having come from Patagonia, we had been programmed to expect the weather to change on a daily if not hourly basis.  In the Atacama Desert, some days are hotter and some days are cooler, but it would be headline

San Pedro de Atacama

Salar de Atacama

It is hard to characterize Tierra Atacama.  You could call it a spa hotel, which it is, but that would not be entirely correct.  Like Las Torres, much of the appeal of a visit is the excursions led by the hotel’s staff.  But still,

Punta Arenas to San Pedro de Atacama

Familia Kusanovic

The phone rudely rang with the 4:30 am wake-up call as the wind pelted a cold rain against the windows of the room.  After another particularly unsatisfying dose of Nescafe and a quick shower, we checked out of the warm cocoon of the hotel.  Downstairs we rustled our awkward array of bags into a taxi waiting in the predawn darkness of Puerto Montt.  It was shortly after 6 am when we arrived at the small Puerto Montt airport.

“The counter is closed,” the LAN agent said as we pulled our mass of belongings through the empty line to the baggage counter.

We were confused.  Our flight was at 7:00 am, or so we thought, and we were nearly an hour early for a Chilean domestic flight.  It seemed too early to close the check-in.

The agent quickly relented, however, and took our bags and checked us in.  “The flight is boarding now,” she finished.

Punta Arenas

The cemetery in Punta Arenas

We didn’t have big plans for our day Punta Arenas.  Before the start of our trip we figured that we would visit one of the penguin colonies on this day, but we’d already made that stop on the way down.  Otherwise,

Torres del Paine and Punta Arenas

The Towers in the morning sun

I guess it is not too surprising, but the average tourist in Torres del Paine was packing a pretty significant camera.  Sure, there were some pocket-sized point and shoots, but nice DSLRs were more the standard. 

Torres del Paine: Full Paine

Glaciar Grey extending into Lago Grey

During the night, fierce winds pounded the lodge.  We felt like we were back on the Navimag ferry as the building swayed from the brute force of the Patagonian wind.  When dawn came, the cold winds mixed with rain

Torres del Paine: Lago Sarmiento

Looking across Lago Nordenskjold towards the Horns in Torres del Paine

Heading out from Hosteria Las Torres and crossing the Black Bridge, we turned southwest along the base of the collections of peaks that make up the massif of Torres del Paine.  The southeastern portion of the park is

Torres del Paine: The Black Bridge

With his head out the window, a driver creeps across the Black Bridge with a load of clients.

In our ideal world, we would have trekked the Valle Frances on our second day.  Unfortunately, the boat that transferred trekkers across Lago Nordenskjold just switched schedules to once a day.  We could have