The beauties of the world longest country: Chile
From South to North, from Patagonia to Atacama — Part 1
Ok people, so there is it… My first blog ever!
I was struggling with which I trip should have started with, as I truly loved each of them. But after some thinking, I came to believe that the one that probably will always matter the most to me will always be the first real road trip I did. At the time I went to Chile, I was about 11 years old and I had this small, light blue mp3 reader that I loved carrying around with me everywhere. My tastes in music varied from Miley Cyrus and Jesse McCartney (which girl didn’t love him at the time?) to Simple Plan and Good Charlotte (a little of garage rock never killed anyone). The playlist was about 40 songs and I listened to them on repeat throughout all the trip. So, with this so-teenage playlist in the background, get ready for this journey to Chile.
My family, our friends and I left Italy one hot and sunny morning of the beginning of August and we arrived after a veeeery long trip to Santiago de Chile at 10 pm, with rain and a freezing cold welcoming us (it was winter there). Immediately the next day we took a flight to Punta Arenas, in the extreme south of Patagonia, and after other three hours and a half of bus we arrived in the small, but for me magical, city of Puerto Natales.
This city is located on the rivers of the many inlets of that area and, when the horizon is clear, it has an amazing view of the spectacular mountains on the other side of it! It is populated by a large amount of stray, cute dogs, which will quietly follow you around the city in search of food. Here, you can also find the “Monumento de la Mano”, a weird hand shaped monument that overlooks the bay. We also found a very similar one the middle of the Atacama desert, later during the trip. The highlight of this town for me, as I personally love every kind of food — sorry, not sorry — was “Don Jorge”, a small restaurant in which I probably had one of the most delicious steaks I ever had in my entire life! When we got there, we were the only clients and we were served with flavourful chicken soup and a succulent “chuletón”, a typical steak from South America. If you ever go to Puerto Natales, make sure to visit this place!
From this town, we have been able to travel a little bit around for a few days. We visited the “Cueva del Milotón”, a quarry in which they discovered the rest of giant prehistoric animal, situated near the sides of Cerro Benitez. We then took a daily ride boat to reach Cerro Balmaceda, a beautiful glacier quite near to the town. I cherish the fact that it was probably the only time in which I hadn’t felt seasick in my life (thank God).
Lastly, we took a car trip through the wildnesses of Patagonia to see the famous and impotent Torres del Paine, a breath-taking tower shaped mountains. Even though we didn’t get to see them that day (remember: weather in Patagonia goes from cute and sunny to all-white snowstorm in about three seconds), I really loved that trip: we sang during the ride, we played in the snow, and we explored the extreme South of Chile in the best way possible!
During all our stay there, we were able to see many of the wild animals that populated the area: guanacos, foxes, and also the majestic Andean condor and I really got to love that area (also thanks to my passion for winter, cold and snow)!
After these few days, we took an airplane (from where we were finally able to see the Torres del Paines) back to Santiago, to continue from there our adventure in North of the country. However, to read about the next part of this trip, you’ll just have to wait a few days! So, be sure to not miss it and I’ll see you in the next post!
