Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales

Bellingham, Washington has 7 Sister Cities around the world, and one of the longest standing relationships is with Punta Arenas, Chile.  For several years now, teacher, student and other community exchanges have stoked the fire of this friendship.  I have long wanted to visit Patagonia, so my position as the Punta Arenas chair on our Bellingham Sister City Association provided a perfect venue for investigating travel to this region.  As John and I charted our path through South America, we honed a plan that had us ending our journey in Patagonian Chile.

Punta Arenas, Chile

We met with Maria Angelica Mimica, director of Miguel de Cervantes school in Punta Arenas, and as we had planned with her prior to our visit, we spent a couple of days getting oriented and enjoying her home.  Punta Arenas is not exactly what one would think of as a “tourist mecca”, but it is clean and friendly, located on a port on the Straights of Magellan.  At the turn of the last century, many of its citizens became prosperous with wool exports and shipping in general.  But the development of synthetic fabrics and the opening of the Panama Canal created a stagnant economy for many years.  Now Punta Arenas is fairly prosperous, with well-maintained streets and homes.  The weather, even in the summertime, is hardly ever above 60 degrees Fahrenheit and my Bellingham rain jacket has hardly been off my back since we arrived.

John and I left Maria Angelica for 4 days to travel to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the Torres del Paine (Blue Towers—Paine is a native word meaning “blue”) National Park.  Puerto Natales sits on Fiordo de Unltima Eseranza (the fiord of Last Hope), named by the early settlers here.  It is a dramatic location, surrounded by water, and glaciers, and is a trekkers’ paradise.  I think I’ve said this before, but we could literally have spent our entire trip in Patagonia and hardly scratched the surface.  But we were able to get a couple of decent hikes and some tours that provided us with a sample of the spectacular scenery.

Los Torres del Paine

Serrano Gralcier

The first day we took a bus into the National Park and got fairly close to the “towers” for some photo ops.  Yesterday, we got on a boat and went up the fiord to visit 2 huge glaciers, cormorants, and condors, and ended the day having parrilla (barbeque) at an estancia (ranch) located on the shores of the fiord.  John got some incredible photos of this amazing part of the world.

Our meals here have been awesome!  We’ve had king crab, lamb, and some of the freshest fruits and vegetables of our trip.  But tourists pay for it!  Patagonia is not an inexpensive vacation, and I wonder how the young people, who abound here, finance their adventures.

This afternoon we return to Punta Arenas for the last leg of our adventure.  We’ve had some amazing experiences, and I’m ready to start prepping for the return home!