Patagonia Chapter 1 - To the end of the world and back...

Zach, Maribeth, Allison, and I left December 1st at about 6:00 from Vina to go to the Santiago airport, where our cheap flight left at about midnight to take us to Punta Arenas. Fortunately, we got to meet up with some of the kids that were leaving to go home at the airport and got some last goodbyes in before they went back to the real world.


[on the bus into town, Zach and Maribeth in front, Alli and I behind]

When we got to the airport in Punta Arenas, it was about 3 am and starting to get light outside. Ben made a nice point that Punta Arenas isn't even as far south as Stockholm is north, which explained why it was darker outside than I had expected it to be, comparing it to Swedish summer.

We got a bus to the center that cost about 4 USD per person, and walked the rest of the way to the hostel. We were staying at Hostal Independencia, which was recommended to us by two ISAers that had stayed there during there trip. I also HIGHLY recommend it for various reasons. Among many others, when we got there at 4 oclock or so, Eduardo was there to check us in.

We woke up at about 11 and had the wonderful breakfast that was included in the price of the room. There was warm bread, jam, coffee, yogurt, and freshly cooked eggs. It was so delicious and really kept hunger away until lunchtime.

Eduardo then explained to us everything about everything we needed to know. We knew exactly what we wanted to do, but we didn't really know how to do any of it. In regards to the park, he explained that our best bet would be to camp, since it was by far the cheapest, and that we could rent whatever we needed from him. He also suggested a route to take given the amount of time that we had. He gave us all the information that we would need to get around the park and see the best things that there were to see. Without all this information, our trip to the park probably would not have been as spectacular as it was.

He also gave us the information that we needed to see the Magellanic Penguins at Seno Otway, which will have a further appearance in Patagonia Chapter 2 - Los Penguinos!