November 10, 2015 – Pomaire is a small town about an hour outside of Santiago that is known for its skilled potters that make earthenware ceramics. They are especially known for their clay pigs with 3 legs, called chanchitos, which are supposed to bring good luck. I had wanted to visit this town for years after finding a cute little chanchito in an import store year’s ago in Louisville, KY.

We rented a car to get to the town so we could continue on to Valparaiso afterwards and then to the wine country. You could also take a bus ride to the town. You won’t need very long to see the town as most of the shops carry the same things and the restaurants appeared to be very similar as well.

Pomaire is also known for its traditional Chilean food such as large empanadas and a dish called pastel de choclo (a corn casserole dish with a full chicken leg and hard boiled egg inside). We ate at the San Antonio Restaurant.

Here is an even BIGGER empanada we saw in town.

Other interesting sites around town.

 

 

November 7-9, 13, 2015 – We spent a total of 4 days in the Chilean capital of Santiago. It was a fun city with some amazing restaurants and lots of parks throughout the neighborhoods, but I think two days is ample time in this city. Here are some highlights of the city.

The Restaurants – especially in the Lastarria and Bellavista neighborhoods, which are very trendy.

Mercado Central (Central Market) – fish market

La Vega Central Market – fruits, vegetables, nuts, olives, eggs, dog food and more

Concha y Toro Winery – the most famous Chilean wine. Located in the suburbs of Santiago.

Wine Tasting and Exploring the Grounds

Exploring the wine cellar, including the devil’s cellar

Lunch at the vineyard – excellent food

Cemeterio General

Cerro Santa Lucia – a beautiful park in the Lastarrio Barrio with a great view of the city (when the smog clears)

Plaza de Armas

Graffiti around the city

Stray dogs – it was heartbreaking to see so many stray dogs in the city, but some of them appeared to be quite smart, like the one in the below picture waiting for the light to change so he could cross the street.

Other random sites – Opera house, lots of motorcycles in the city, a Lapis Lazuli House – popular stone sold in Chile, an Abe Lincoln stature we found in a park (not sure of the story there), and the Bellavista neighborhood.

 

November 6, 2015 – We explored the town of Puerto Natales a little more on our last day before catching a bus back to Punta Arenas.

At the bus station, some stray dogs kept us company while we waited for our bus. Bus tickets from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas cost 6,000 chilean pesos with the Buses Fernandez company and the buses were quite nice.

Back in Punta Arenas, we decided to walk the 5 blocks to our hostel, Antarctica Hotel. Unfortunately, it was 5 blocks uphill the entire way. At least we got in a good workout for the day. The hostel was very clean and nice, with one of our best bathrooms of the trip.

After settling into our hostel, we headed back down the hill to the center of town to grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately, most restaurants do not open until 7:00 pm for dinner, so we stopped at a cafe for some ice cream before our meal. When 7:00 finally arrived, we headed over to La Marmita, a restaurant suggested to us by our first hosts in Punta Arenas. This was by far the most amazing meal of the trip. If I had stayed longer in Punta Arenas I would have eaten every meal here.

 

 

Spending two days in Torres del Paine National Park was the highlight of the trip. Torres del Paine is a large national park in Patagonia that includes mountains, lakes, glaciers and rivers.

Wednesday, November 4th – We awoke early to be picked up at our hostel by the kayaking tour company, Kayak en Patagonia. Our two guides, Jose and David, were excellent and I would recommend this company to anyone. The park entrance is about an hour’s drive from the town of Puerto Natales.

On the ride into the park we got to know one of our guides, David, who had just moved from Ireland to become a kayak guide for this company. This was actually his first day in Torres del Paine, but he was a very experienced kayaker.

Travel tip: If you are going into the park multiple days, be sure to let them know when you pay the first day (fee is 18,000 chilean pesos). They will give you a special stamp that allows re-entry into the park.

Once we arrived at our kayaking entry point at Lago Grey (Grey Lake), we changed into our kayaking gear and had a quick lesson. The gear was very intricate and involved multiple interlocking layers. (Make sure you go to the bathroom before getting  all of your gear on). Although we were only wearing our thermals under the gear, it kept us very warm in the ice cold water and fierce winds. David and I were in a tandem kayak with him taking the rear seat in charge of the rudder. It is important to row in sync with your kayaking partner, which we did a pretty good job of most of the time.

The start to the day was a little rough as some of the other kayakers in our group could not get the hang of kayaking and kept getting stuck or falling behind. The winds were quite rough on the lake though, so it is understandable if you were new to kayaking. We only spent a little time on the lake due to the high winds, which made the water rough. Therefore we weren’t able to get right next to the icebergs floating in the lake, but we were still able to get some good pictures.

After a little bit of time on the lake, we entered the Rio Grey (Grey River). We had the wind behind us for most of the trip down the river, so this was much easier kayaking. The sights were absolutely stunning, surrounded by mountains and pristine nature that has barely been touched by humans. However, there are still the scars of a big fire in the park a few years ago that was started by a careless camper.

There were so many condors flying above that I asked Jose if this was normal. He replied that they were more visible than usual this time of year because it was birthing season for the sheep, the primary livestock in this part of the country, which leads to more meals for the condors. 😦

We stopped along the side of the river for lunch, where I also had to take a bathroom break. Unfortunately I was strapped into my kayaking gear pretty tight. The only way to go to the bathroom was to pretty much get undressed. Luckily I was able to find a tree in the brush to hide behind and begin my 10 minute ordeal of getting undressed and dressed again just to use the bathroom.

Our lunch break allowed us to get to know our fellow kayakers on the trip a little better. They included Italians Lorenzo and Federico, who were living in London. They had already been traveling in Argentina for a couple of weeks and were heading back after this portion of the trip. Loline and Marx from New York were actually doing a two day kayaking trip that included camping overnight, which sounded amazing. Had I known how much fun the kayaking would be, I would have opted for the 2 day trip as well.

After lunch (sandwiches, fruit, cookies, hot tea and coffee) and a group photo coordinated by David, we headed back out on the river for the remainder of our trip. This portion of the trip was a little tougher as we were facing the wind. We also encountered a few small rapids and currents that you had to be careful not to let pull you to the edge of the river, where overhanging branches posed a serious threat. David and I had a close call where we were swept dangerously close to the bank near some trees, which would have been disastrous, but we made it out. Unfortunately, the Italians, Lorenzo and Federico, were not so lucky and capsized into the river. After that, we all had to pull over to a sandy bank and wait while they pumped all of the water out of their kayak.

The final stretch of the river was the toughest – a combination of facing the wind and exhaustion from a long, physically grueling day. The kayak company van driver met us at our final destination with cold beer and our bags with our clothes. It was nice to finally get out of the kayaking gear and hit the road back to Puerto Natales.

After catching some sleep in the van, we arrived back in town. We were exhausted, but needed to get groceries for the next day and grab some dinner. We had dinner at Baguales, a burger joint at the Plaza in the center of town. The service was lacking and the food was mediocre, so I would recommend skipping this place if you are in town.

Thursday, November 5 – We headed back into Torres del Paine today with a tour group to see several highlights of the park and do some light hiking. I am not a fan of tours when I travel, even day tours. And this tour reinforced that for me. We were crammed on a van with several people, including seats in the aisles once all seats were filled. David and I were stuck behind two young men who decided to bathe themselves in cologne that morning, yet refused to crack their window. This made for quite a claustrophobic day.

After a mild panic attack at feeling trapped on the bus, I was able to get over this and enjoy the beautiful day in the park. We saw large herds of guanacos and rheas and enjoyed beautiful views of mountains, waterfalls and lakes.

The highlight of the day was returning to Lago Grey and taking fun pictures in front of the icebergs.

Once returning back to our hostel, we decided to research some restaurants on Trip Advisor before heading to dinner in order to avoid another disappointing meal. We were not disappointed by El Living, a wonderful vegetarian restaurant in the Plaza. Not only was the food amazing, but our server, a British ex-pat was excellent company. She had been living in Chile for several years in Santiago and Puerto Natales.

Summary of Torres del Paine: This was the highlight of the entire Chile trip and I wish I had spent more time in the park. In hindsight, I would camp in the park instead of staying in Puerto Natales. I was hesitant to commit to this when planning the trip because I was unsure of how rustic the park would be. But now that I have been there, I know it is very developed and no different than visiting a national park in the United States. An alternative would be renting your own car and visiting the park sights on your own and at your own pace. Although the day tour we did of the park was nice, I would have enjoyed it much more on my own, stopping to take pictures whenever and enjoying the sights without a large group.

Tuesday, November 3 – Our day started over breakfast at the hostel with Geoff and Alex, our new friends from Scotland, and Nini as our hostess. Nini shared with us that her family had been in Punta Arenas for five generations. She and her sister learned English from a European woman that ran their first school. It was so nice getting to know the sisters that owned the hostel that I regretted not spending more time there, but our next destination was Puerto Natales, about three hours away and near the entrance of Torres del Paine national park.

After breakfast we hopped in the car with Geoff and Alex. On the way to Puerto Natales we saw a lot of wildlife along the isolated road (condors, rheas, guanacos and flamingos) as well as a lot of livestock (mostly sheep, with some cows and horses occasionally).

One of the things I love about traveling is meeting new people along the way. This is why I still prefer the backpacker style of traveling – staying in hostels, avoiding tours, traveling by local transportation when possible. One of the highlights of this trip was getting to know Geoff and Alex. They have traveled to around 65 countries around the world. They love the outdoors and often travel to climb mountains, go diving or ride bikes across Europe. We also had some fun comparing pronunciations (highland cows would be “heeland coos” in Scottish) and different words for common things (they refer to a windshield as a windscreen).

After arriving in Puerto Natales, we went to our respective hostels but agreed to meet for dinner later that night. We checked into the Amerindia Hostal. It was a cute place with  quaint cafe, but it lacked the warmth of our last hostel and the room was lacking (especially the bathroom).

Travel tip: Always bring flip flops to wear in the shower, especially when staying in hostels.

After exploring the town for a while, confirming our kayaking trip for the next day, and sending some postcards (which have yet to arrive 3 weeks later) we met up with Geoff and Alex at Pizzeria Mesita Grande, a nice brick oven pizza joint right off of the town square.

After dinner, we returned to the hostel to attempt to get a good night’s rest prior to our early morning start of kayaking the next day. Unfortunately there were a few distractions before that finally occurred. I mentioned the bathroom earlier in the post – well the shower head was cracked and sprayed all over the bathroom when in use, which made it look like a “war zone” in David’s words. Then the sink wouldn’t stop dripping and there was a dog fight outside of our window that night. Despite all of this, I finally managed to get some sleep before our big day tomorrow.

The adventure began about a week before leaving. My good friend and travel partner David discovered his passport had expired just last month. Our first reaction was to panic, but he quickly calmed down and put together a plan to get in touch with a congressman from his state….which worked!!! He was able to get the contact information of a staff member of the congressman on a Friday night, which lead to David getting a new passport by the following Thursday morning! I wouldn’t recommend anyone waiting until the last minute to get a new passport like this, but if you ever find yourself in the situation start with reaching out to your congressman. 

 
Sunday, November 1 – I started my long journey to Punta Arenas, Chile in Phoenix and met up with David in Atlanta. Although it had been 2 1/2 years since seeing each other it felt like just yesterday, as it does with old friends. The plane ride to Santiago was pretty uneventful, aside from the unpleasant odor coming from my gassy neighbor during the first part of the flight. 

Monday, November 2 – After landing in Santiago on Monday morning, we had to go through customs and catch our connecting flight to Punta Arenas via Puerto Montt. Luckily I had a window seat because the view from the plane was amazing. The snowcapped mountains and lakes were visible the entire flight. We flew over an active volcano with smoke spewing out of the top, which the flight attendant said was called Villarrica. We also had a nice view of the Paine Towers, one of the main attractions of Tierra del Paine.

  

 
After finally making it to our destination of Punta Arenas, the next step was to catch a cab to our hostal. Unfortunately there were no money exchange houses in the airport, so in order to get some local currency to pay a cab, I decided to use the ATM to pull our some cash. I thought that worked out well until a Chilean woman next to me at the ATM starts trying to tell me something about the ATM. At first I thought she was asking me how to use the ATM – then I realized she was telling me that the machine took my card! I was so focused on getting my cash and receipt that I didn’t grab my card out of the machine. After so long, the machine took my card and there was no way to get it back. Not the best way to start the trip. After my brief moment of panic, we caught a cab to our hostal in Punta Arenas, the Innata Casa Hostal.

  

  

 
At the Innata Casa Hostal we met the owners, sisters Marisel and Nini. This is one of the best hostals I have ever stayed in mostly thanks to the amazing owners. Marisel made us tea and toast when we arrived and told us about the other guests staying there. They just opened the hostel in August of this year but the building was previously their father’s office. 

The city cemetery is quite famous so we decided to check that out before heading to dinner. It was snowing and very cold, so we only walked around a little at the cemetery, but were able to take some fun photos among the topiary cyprus trees throughout. You can read more about our visit to the cemetery on David’s blog, http://www.ancestorsleuthhound.com.

 

  

 
We had dinner at Fusiones Gastrobar. The food was mediocre and I had to start using my rusty Spanish to communicate with the staff, but we made the most of it as usual.

Back at the hostel, I fell asleep early while David went to the community room and met Geoff and Alex, our new Scottish friends who offered us a ride to Puerto Natales the next day.

 

Welcome to my website, where I will be sharing stories, photos and videos from my adventures around the globe, both far away from and close to home. My love of traveling started with my first trip abroad when I was 18. I went on a two week tour to Spain and Morocco with my high school Spanish teacher. Not only did the experience of different cultures and places pique my interest in seeing more of the world, but also my Spanish teacher’s travel advice. The two of us were talking late at night on the train to Costa del Sol and she told me that she would much rather spend her money on seeing the world than on having the newest, latest car or other material things. That made a lasting impression on me and I decided that travel and adventure would always be a priority for me. Even at times when I had very little money, I found a way to see the world (albeit not in the nicest or most comfortable accommodations).

Since that first trip to Spain, I have traveled to 28 countries on 6 continents. I also love traveling extensively in the U.S. and the great state of Arizona where I reside. I created this site to share these experiences with my friends and anyone who may be interested. I hope you enjoy!