Los Navegantes Hotel Punta Arenas

... we learnt our plane was delayed . It was nearly 2 hours late leaving. However once in the air we were blessed with a break in the clouds above a massive glacier which I think may have been Grey glacier. I was so happy I snapped photos fro the plane. Wow this are of Chile is spectacular. I can so understand how people become speechless when the go to Antarctica if this is any indication of what is down there. Arriving late at Porto Montt meant we were forced to take an ...

The day after we got off the boat we head to Parque Torres del Paine- the famous national park of Chile. We teamed up with 2 Canadians from the boat and formed Team Ripe. We hiked the W Track over 4 days and ended up bumping into loads of people from the boat. We had such a good time and the scenery was breathtaking. On our last morning we woke at 5am to hike to the towers for sunrise. It was brilliant- picture postcard weather ...

... and we shuffle into the back of a car where they pull out a huge wad of Chilean Peso's. My eye's light up and tell them the deal was $6500.00 u.s. They seem a little taken back but agreed that was the deal so Mike stayed with the bikes while we found a cambio to exchange currencies. After several minutes of negotiations the banker and the buyers had an agreement on the exchange rate. We leave the office with all that money in my pocket. I confirm with Mike ...

... valley has a giant glacier at the bottom and glaciers hanging of crevices and as you are walking you hear the noise of avalanches overhead. I was desperate to capture one on video. The climb up to the lookout, about 2 hours, was steep and not unlike the climb I faced when climbing up to Torres 2 days before. Stumbling over boulders and loosing the trail every now and then. Eventually exhausted I arrived at the lookout and the huge open face of the mountain was all around me ...

... center of the city, and maybe world domination was next on the horizon. But then the Panama Canal was built and everyone was pretty much ruined. Now the port is empty save for penguin tours, and the opulent mansions with their French wallpaper and Italian marble are on display as museums. Sad story, but still a nice town to hang out in for a minute. There´s a great museum of regional history that focuses on the Salesian Catholic ...

... even further) south to Ushuaia where I can get a flight back to Buenos Aires for not too expensive, then go catch the film festival at Mar del Plata, leaving Chile with hardly a penetration. Unfortunately it's Saturday, so the city's pretty quiet. It's a holiday, too, All Saints Day (Halloween, remember?) so everybody's out at the cemeteries and flowers are selling briskly at impromptu markets. So maybe it doesn't freeze hard ...

Got into Punta Arenas in Tierra del Fuego (land of fire). Planned to spend a couple of days here - catch a boat across the straits of Magellan and the beagle channel to get to Puerto Williams, the most southern settlement in the world (excluding the ...

... looking at us with their heads tilted to one side as if they were just as interested in us as we were in them. We were also very lucky as on the way over we attracted a group of dolphins who came over to entertain us for a while and to investigate our boat. All in all it was a good excursion. The next day we headed off towards the national park to arrange our trip into the Torres del Paine national park. Most people do what is known as 'The W' which is a trail ...

... hot off the grill. It was all quite good.<br><br>After dinner they had some horses for people to try a short ride around the barnyard, for lack of a better term. They also were giving rides in a wagon behind an old tractor. Then it was time to reboard the buses and head back to Punta Arenas. In town we made a brief stop at the main square and then took a loop up to a nice point to view the harbor area. Then it was back to the ship.<br><br>Our tender ride out to ...