Exploring the End of the World

After a couple of days of travel, we landed in the windy little city at the southern tip of Chile: Punta Arenas. We arrived on a Sunday, which meant the town was pretty much a ghost town. Most shops, restaurants and cafes were closed and the streets were empty - empty of people that is. We were amazed at the number of dogs that roamed the streets. Each time we have shown photos to our family and friends, they all ask “oh, are you at a dog park?”.  No, we are just in Chile.

Apparently, Chile has an outrageous number of stray dogs. But the strays there are not the mangy, scrawny mutts you might imagine. These are pure-bred golden retrievers, looking well-fed and happy. Pitbulls wearing bandanas, Labradors that are stocky and cheerful. Everywhere you look there are dogs roaming the streets, laying in the parks, and following the few humans that happen to be out and about.

We heard that some tourists have run into aggressive behavior when they tried feeding or petting the dogs, so we left them be, allowed them to follow us, and thoroughly enjoyed their company.

My family is really into beer. REALLY into beer. Beer is our own family form of currency “I’ll trade you two Bourbon Countys for one Barrel Aged Narwhal” is not a phrase that would sound out of place in my house. We have spreadsheets dedicated to tracking the rare beers we are able to find, and what our stock looks like of each (and of course, our rating and review of each beer). So, as soon as we had a rough draft of our itinerary in place, we began researching the local breweries and mapping the walking path from our hotels.

We managed to visit 4 breweries, 1 taphouse and try one other local beer. Overall, I have to say, there is a reason Chile and Argentina are known for their wine...and not their beer.  We tend to prefer really dark, rich beers, and this is not South America’s forte. We had some black beers that looked like they should have been fabulous...but they were the equivalent of drinking a black colored Bud light.  

El Calafate was our winner for beer towns. La Zorra had a pretty good porter and Don Diego de la Noche (where we had the best service out of any restaurant on our entire trip) had a porter that was, by far, the best beer we drank the entire trip. A great recommendation from a fabulous server! Punta Arenas came in second with Hernando de Magallanes Brewery’s Imperial Stout. The downside is that you aren’t allowed to drink at that brewery, so we had the pleasure of enjoying that beer while walking the streets in insane winds.

Overall, even if you are a loyal beer drinker, it might be worth switching to the life of an Oenophile during a trip to the bottom of the world.

Along the drive from Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine, we had the chance to stop at Cerro Negro Ranch. This ranch is owned and operated by the same family who runs Las Torres Hotel and it has been in the family for over 100 years.

Normally, you transfer in the morning with a larger group, and stop at the ranch for a tour, sheep show and big Patagonia BBQ. Since Kepler and I were transferring in the afternoon, we happened to be the only ones on our “tour”. This gave us a fun and more intimate experience at the ranch.

We toured the family farm house that was full of unique treasures, and then enjoyed a quiet snack of homemade breads, meats and cheeses. The sopapillas were incredible. After relaxing for a bit, they asked if we wanted to watch a sheep be sheared, fully expecting us to say “no”. They were shocked and amused by our enthusiastic “yes!” and happily led us to the barn. The gaucho did a series of intricate whistles, and the two dogs we were petting jumped up and leapt through the barn, returning with a dozen sheep that they quickly sorted into pens. The gaucho pulled one out and sheared it for us. He did it with such skill that he was left with one giant fleece of super soft merino wool!  After explaining their full process to us, they asked (again, waiting for a “no”) if we wanted to see a sheep-dog show. Again, laughing as we excitedly answered “Yes!”. The gaucho took the sheep and dogs out into the field and performed a private show for us before we loaded back up and made our way off to Torres del Paine.

While we were sad to miss the BBQ, the private show and the hospitality and joy of the employees more than made up for it!

I’ll be honest. Patagonia has never really appealed to me. I live in a beautiful valley in the mountains, and Glacier National Park is my family’s weekend camping spot, so traveling thousands of miles to see mountains that looked less impressive to me in photos than what I see in my regular daily life just seemed silly. I know, I’m spoiled. But, I can only win the “where to vacation” argument so many times, and a trip to one of our top destinations was long overdue.

I was not impressed by the scenery in Punta Arenas, and as we made our way from Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine, the majority of the drive was through fairly barren land. Nothing spectacular.  Then, as we hit Puerto Natales, everything changed. There were mountains shooting up out of the water (something we don’t have here in Montana) and as we continued north, Torres del Paine’s famous Towers began to loom on the horizon.

As we spent the next full day exploring the National Park, our guide took us to amazing hidden lookouts - away from crowds and onto cliffs where we could see majesty for miles in every direction. In the end, I had to admit, the photos of Torres del Paine do not do it justice. There is certainly beauty and majesty there that is worth flying thousands of miles to see!

If you want to see just about all of Torres del Paine in one day, the “Paine by Van” tour is the way to go. It is essentially like driving the two loops in Yellowstone National Park in one day. With a fabulous guide and driver to lead the way, we piled into a van with some Americans, Aussies and Brazilians and made our way across the park. Our driver would pull over on the side of the road in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Our guide would hop out and lead us walking off the path until we would come over a ridge to the most beautiful sites you have ever seen, with no other humans or cars to spoil the views - maybe just an alpaca or two! Stunning mountains, rumbling waterfalls, flower-filled meadows and glassy lakes were all a part of the magic of this full day. In the mid-afternoon, we left our guide and driver behind as we set out by boat for Grey Glacier - another wonder to behold! It was a long day and a lot of driving, but it was well worth it to be able to check so many of the top highlights of the park off our list in one amazing day!

The infamous Towers Trek. The one excursion that everyone swears you MUST do while in Patagonia. The normal trek that most hikers do is an 8 hour ordeal. You have 4 hours of hiking up to reach the towers, and then 4 hours of hiking back down again at the end. The hike is not an easy one, or a horizontal one. You are making your way up and over boulders, through brush, over log bridges, all the while the trail continues to rise above (or drop down below) you.

If you want to see the towers but do not want to hike 8 hours, there is only one option out there. Las Torres Hotel has a stable in the park and their horses are used to carry supplies up the trail to the refugios where hikers can camp if they are doing the full W trek. Las Torres is the only operator allowed to use this trail for horses, and so if you stay at this hotel, you are one of the lucky few who can take a horse for half of the journey. Kepler and I chose to go this route, and it was fabulous!

We met our feisty companions as the regular trekkers took off by foot. We had time to get geared up and get to know the horses a little before setting off. Once we hit the trail, it was easy going! We happily road along through rivers and brush, over boulders and up, up, up for 2 hours, passing all of the weary hikers along the way. After two hours, we tied up our horses and set off by foot to do the remaining two hours up. This was still quite a challenge, so I cannot imagine having done this AFTER hiking the first two hours.

After enjoying the beauty of the towers, we hiked 2 hours back down, saddled up, and finished the final two hours by horse again. How lovely it was not to have those final 2 hours laying, daunting, ahead of us after our 4 hours of hiking. And how smug we felt as we passed the other 99%, exhausted on their way back down. While we probably didn’t earn our drinks that evening quite as much as the other hikers did, we certainly enjoyed them just as much!

The border crossing from Chile to Argentina was one of the strangest I have ever made in my life! Our journey began at Las Torres where we loaded into our van with our driver who spoke very limited English. We picked up another traveler at EcoCamp and then made our way to the border. There are 2 stages to crossing the border: Leaving Chile and Entering Argentina. To leave Chile, we stopped at a tiny little building that had 2 rooms - the first was a Customs/Immigrations office, the second was a convenience store. We used the restroom on the convenience store side, and then went to the Customs side with our driver. He filled out a bunch of paperwork and we left - no one said a word to us and we did not have to do a thing.

Then, we drive for a little less than 10 miles in “no man’s land” - this barren strip of nothingness that is not claimed by Chile OR Argentina.

Next, we pull up to a solid cement building with no windows, just 2 open doors. There is a line about 50 people long on one side, waiting to exit Argentina. We walked in the other side and were greeted by a little black pug! As we pet him, our driver walked up to the table, filled out some more paperwork and we left. Again, no one said a word to us. Our bags were not inspected, we signed nothing, did not have a chance to declare anything, and gave no prospect of when we would be leaving the country.

We were loaded back into our van and driven another mile to an empty gravel lot on the side of the road in Argentina. Argentine drivers are not allowed to work in Chile, and vice versa, so here, in this weird kidnapping sort of exchange, our bags were thrown from one van to another, the drivers shook hands, we were loaded into the new Argentine van and then were off for our adventures in Argentina.

El Calafate was not quite what I expected. I’m not sure what it was that I had expected - maybe something similar to Ushuaia or Punta Arenas. Instead, what I found was what you would expect in a high-end mountain resort town in the US. It reminded me a bit of Big Fork, MT, Leavenworth, WA or Park City, UT in the summer.

The main street of town is full of tourists and every shop along the way is geared towards them. Not in the “cheap souvenirs” way that Ushuaia is, but in the “we expect you are a tourist with a lot of money” sort of way. Everything has “artisan” in the title - there were Artisan Chocolate Shops, Artisan Souvenir Shops, Artisan Ice Cream Parlors, Artisan Breweries and more. The shop faces were all constructed of similar materials in a similar fashion, so the whole town had a cozy, upscale mountain town vibe. While it was a little rich for our blood, I can see it being a great place to shop and relax for someone with a slightly higher budget!

Our day on Perito Moreno Glacier reminded us that it is best to always be prepared! Something we were careful of in our early traveling days, but have gotten more lazy about with age.
As we packed our backpacks for our day on the glacier, we basked in the sun that streamed in through our open windows in our room in El Calafate. We enjoyed the views of the blue sky over Lake Argentina and then headed downstairs to meet our guide.

The further we drove from sunny El Calafate, the darker the skies grew. About an hour out of town, there were only looming, dark storm clouds as far as the eye could see. And then the rain began. Did we have full waterproof gear in our suitcases, ready to protect us from the worst kinds of inclement weather? Absolutely! Did we choose to leave those at the hotel and instead wear clothes that were heavy, thick and would take forever to dry? We sure did!

While our day hiking on Perito Moreno Glacier was definitely a wet one, it was still amazing. To see the beauty of the glacier up close was fabulous. To peek into seemingly never-ending crevasses and admire the deepest shades of blue was an experience absolutely worth having - rain or shine! We will just be sure to tuck that rain gear in our backpacks next time...just in case!

The story behind the establishment of Puerto Williams is almost like something out of the Butter Battle Book. Argentina has Ushuaia, the “Southernmost City in the World”. Well, Chile, who is simply not to be outdone by Argentina, decided they would establish a city even further south than Ushuaia, taking the title away from their neighbor country. So, they created Puerto Williams. Unfortunately, Puerto Williams was not quite large enough to be considered a city, and was designated a “town” instead. Thus, Ushuaia and Argentina still hold claim to the southernmost CITY in the world, while Puerto Williams and Chile hold claim to the world’s southernmost TOWN. Men.

There are several Antarctic itineraries that include Cape Horn as a possible stop, but most are never able to make it there due to weather either at the Cape itself, or along the Drake, forcing the ships to rush the crossing to beat a storm. The Antarctic Express cruises make the most earnest attempt to land here, and we were lucky enough to be on a successful attempt!

Even when landings here are possible, the conditions are not ideal. There are usually strong winds, cold temperatures and rough seas that make the landing quick and not a highlight for many travelers. Well, the travel gods were smiling upon us, because our day at Cape Horn was GORGEOUS! The seas were flat, the winds were calm, the temperatures were perfect, the rain held off and the sun even peaked through at us a few times - our guides were beyond giddy! Most of them had never experienced a day such as this at the Cape!

We made our way to shore by zodiac (passing some Magellanic penguins merrily hopping in our wake) and climbed the never-ending staircase to the top of the cliff. From here, you could see the the path laid out before you. There was a single boardwalk making its way across the cape. At one end, a tiny church and lighthouse where the captain assigned to duty here lives with his family (YES - his FAMILY with children) for a year). At the other end, the monument paying tribute to sailors lost at sea.

We made our way from one end to the other, taking in the magnificent views, meeting the young boy who called this barren land home, and feeling the wind against our skin at the end of the world - standing in places very few had ever stood before.

When it was time to leave the Cape, our guides had one last surprise for us! The winds and waves were actually calm enough that they could take us in zodiacs to round Cape Horn! Something most of them had never done before! We piled in for the ride, discovering caves, watching birds and laughing at giant piles of sea lions fighting to be king of the rock at the very tip of the Americas. It was incredible!

My last journey to Antarctica was filled with incredible storms and unrelenting seas. The guides do an amazing job of filling each day with lectures about the upcoming land you are about to explore, and the crew keeps you entertained with music performances, hilariously molded food, and other fun surprises. Unfortunately, I spent most of the journey sleeping thanks to using both the prescription patch AND over the counter medication to keep me from getting sick on the incredibly rough voyage.  

As you can see from the photo above, the journey on this trip was quite a bit different!

I only took over the counter medication for this adventure, and was able to spend most days “sunning” out on our balcony with a drink in hand. The seas were calm, the sun was shining, and it was almost balmy compared to the snowstorm we left behind in Montana. My husband and I enjoyed lectures, movies, delicious meals, too much wine, relaxing naps and beautiful walks on the outside decks in the evenings to enjoy the sunset. Overall, it was not what you would expect for a trip over the dreaded Drake Passage! In fact, as a parent of a one year old on my first “escape” from parent-hood, the two days at sea might just have been my favorite days of the whole trip!

Our first official stop in Antarctica was at Half Moon Island. I visited this island during my previous trip to Antarctica, but only by kayak, so this was my first time on shore (and my husband’s first time setting foot on Antarctica!).

We loaded into our zodiacs and headed to shore. They dropped us off on one end of the island and we then made our way by foot across to the other end. There were low-lying clouds that made the surrounding scenery look really spectacular - glaciers peeking out as the clouds shifted and moved - deep shades of blue, black and white surrounding us!

Once we arrived at the far side of the island, we were able to spend time in a rookery of chinstrap penguins. Though I saw them on my last trip, I saw them parenting and chasing around their chicks. This time, I had the chance to watch them in the hilarious process of nesting. We watched as penguin after penguin stole pebbles from their neighbors nest, bringing them to their own to build up their walls - only to have another penguin come and steal one of their pebbles. It seemed like such a fruitless labor - taking one, losing one, taking one, losing one, but it was entertaining to watch.

We hiked around to the different rookeries and then made our way down to the beach to relax and watch the penguins play in the waves. The nests were up on top of a tall hill (well, tall by penguin standards), and we could only imagine that their constant trips back and forth from the shore to the nest were exhausting (sometimes just to carry that perfect pebble...that will most likely be stolen as soon as it is in place)!

After a good couple of hours enjoying the “show”, we made our way back to our zodiacs and returned to the ship where we were greeted with a wonderful “warm-up” drink, complete with alcohol!

At Yankee Harbor, I had the chance to experience something I had not experienced during my last trip to Antarctica - encounters with Elephant Seals!

We arrived at one end of the harbor and made our way with the guides on a walk along the shoreline. As we went, they taught us about the geology, history and ecology of the landing site. We examined a dead penguin carcass and saw a few more lives ones waddle by.

We reached the other end of the harbor where the shoreline was covered in wildlife. Gentoo penguins had set up several colonies, and the parents were hard at work sitting on their nests. As we drew closer, we noticed that almost every nest was full. There were a few with eggs still, but mostly, every parent was sitting on one or two chicks! They were adorable and ranged in size from super tiny to over a foot tall. Some lucky parents had two hatchlings, but most only had one. We watched the daily routine take place as one parent made the journey between sea and nest to deliver food to the little ones.  It was great!

Right along side the colonies of penguins were piles of giant elephant seals. While a few had the giant noses you envision, many of the smaller ones did not. But that did not prevent them from making the most incredible caucauphany of sounds! It was one of the strangest noises I have ever heard. Sort of like a crazy, deep bubbling of gases. It was non-stop the whole time we were there!

Our two favorite moments at Yankee Harbor came from the wildlife. First, we watched as en elephant seal made his was from one side of a penguin colony (where he was all alone) to the other side to join a giant pile of his friends. Rather than going around, he went directly through the colony. He was massive compared to the penguins, and we thought, for sure, at least one penguin would be crushed or one nest destroyed as he flopped his way through the crowd. To our amazement, he made it through casualty-free! When he got to the pile of seals on the other side, he didn’t just take his place on the edge of the group, but rather, forcibly flopped his way into the center-top of the pile. The whole process took about 10-15 minutes and was hilarious to watch.

The second moment was a bit of dark humor. It was an incredibly windy day - to the point that you had to brace yourself as you walked forward in order not to be blown backwards. As we were standing watching the seals, we watched a giant dead penguin carcass blow across the beach and completely take out a live penguin who was making his way to the shore!

At the end of our visit to Yankee Harbor, the more hearty passengers on board were given the chance to do a polar plunge. They stripped down on the beach and ran into the water, then ran back out. They did this one at a time. I have already experienced a polar plunge in Antarctica - and I felt like my last experience was a better one. It was off the side of the ship where you were actually jumping into the ocean, you had to swim a distance, and then, once you got out, you could run right into the hot tub or shower.  These people had to run into the water from zero-depth (I never would have made it past my ankles), they were running in where the water was full of penguin and seal droppings (no thank you!) and then they had to come back out, freezing and soaking wet, wait for everyone else to go, and then ride a zodiac for 20 minutes back to the boat before they could get dry or warm. I decided my previous plunge was more than enough to check that off my bucket list and decided to take a nice, dry, warm ride back to the ship, fully clothed instead!

On our final morning, we were informed that the Russians had granted us permission to land at their base. So, for our final disembarkation, we took zodiacs to shore and had about an hour to spend on the Russian base before our walk to the Chilean base to catch our plane.

On the Russian base, there was a giftshop the size of a bathroom where you could go and buy a tshirt or sticker and you could have your passport stamped for a small fee. There was also a tiny church up on the hill that you could visit. Apparently, this tiny church was the entire reason some people went on this trip! It was part of a mission for their church back home!
After the hour, we all met and began the walk across King George Island. There is a gravel road that connects the Russian base and the Chilean base, and it takes about 15-20 minutes to walk it very slowly in all your gear.

Once at the Chilean base, we waited around outside for the plane to land, bringing in the next set of passengers for the ship. Then, we were off. New passengers to one side, departing passengers to the other, we walked along the gravel runway towards the little plane that was painted to look like a penguin. We were given the “all-clear” and loaded into the plane. There were no assigned seats, so you chose where you wanted and settled in.

They served us a light lunch of sandwiches as we took off and watched Antarctica disappear beneath us - a site only a few in the world can say they have ever seen! After making the trip 3 times now by Drake Passage, a two full days at sea each time, it was amazing to be back in Chile in about 2 hours!