We arrived into town on a sunny Sunday and after checking into our B&B we decided to walk into town and grab lunch. Puerto Varas has some lovely views of the lake and volcanoes, and as with...
Blog posts from Chile
Patagonia: Alerce Andino National Park
For our last full day in the Lake District we ventured south to Alerce Andino National Park to visit a couple of waterfalls and scenic lake overviews. Unfortunately, this was also our most...
Patagonia: Puyehue National Park + Las Cascadas
We awoke to a grey and drizzly morning, but with hope that the rain would be relatively minimal, headed north on the 2+ hour drive to Puyehue National Park. Our GPS was set to avoid toll roads as it...
Patagonia: Petrohué Waterfalls + Osorno Volcano
Our early morning flight out of Punta Arenas meant we had plenty of daylight to explore after checking into our B&B and grabbing some lunch in Puerto Varas. We decided to start with the Petrohué...
Patagonia: Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas is a popular transit point for getting in and out of Southern Patagonia. Our bus ride from Puerto Natales took us through hours of open fields, before suddenly hitting the edges of this...
Patagonia: Torres del Paine food + drink
Restaurante Pehoe - This restaurant had a great view and good Google reviews, but a recent menu change and incompetent staff resulted in the worst meal we had on the trip. On Thanksgiving no less. I...
Patagonia: TDP, Day 3: Mirador Condor + Lago Gray
Since we were now staying on the edge of the park we were able to get up at a leisurely time, enjoy breakfast, and still make it into the park before 10am. We were running low on short hike options,...
Patagonia: TDP, Day 2: Salto Chico, Mirador Cuernos
On our second day in Torres del Paine we took the southwestern route back into park. This road was quite bumpy with some construction and a lot of potholes, but of course, the views were amazing....
Patagonia: TDP, Day 1: Laguna Azul, Amarga, Sarmiento, Nordenskjöld, Salto Grande
Since we were starting from and returning to Puerto Natales all in one day, our first day in Torres del Paine involved the most driving. In the morning we entered via the Amarga gate on the...
Patagonia: Puerto Natales food + drink
Puerto Natales is a small town that definitely caters to people visiting Torres del Paine. Unimarc is the main grocery store in town. The parking lot was a mess with cars parked along the perimeter...
Patagonia: a day in Santiago
After checking into the hotel, our first goal was to get some cash as we knew we were going to need it for one of the hotels in Puerto Natales and to pay for the Torres del Paine park entry. Every...
Patagonia: a day in Atlanta
Originally we had tickets to fly into Atlanta a few hours before our late Sunday evening flight to Santiago, but about three months out Southwest cancelled that flight and moved us to a 6:50am...
Patagonia: ground transportation
Santiago We booked an airport transfer through Vem Me Buscar the day before we left. The airport pickup was fine - driver was a bit late but timely response through WhatsApp. We did receive a handy...
Patagonia: where we stayed
Hotel Indigo Atlanta Airport A reasonable hotel for an overnight layover with pickup from the airport approximately every 30 mins. That same shuttle can also take you within a 2-mile trip in the...
Patagonia: overview and flights
On our 2012 trip to Chile we were told multiple times that we had to see Patagonia, and that November was a good time that balanced decent weather and crowds. In the intervening years we'd almost...
Chile 2012: Daylight Savings Time in Chile (or lack thereof…)
Sigh. It all started on Sunday, our last day at Tierra Atacama. We awoke at our normal time of 8am-ish and started packing up our bags before heading to breakfast around 8:45. Our Cejar Lagoon tour...
Chile 2012: Exploring Santiago
We had an evening flight out of Santiago which gave us the whole day to explore the city. Our first stop was the sculpture park located just across the river from our hotel. I really enjoyed seeing...
Chile 2012: Daytrip from Santiago
For our first day in Santiago we wanted to get out of the city and eventually booked a trip with AndoAndes. They had very good reviews on TripAdvisor for their main hiking excursion to the nearby...
Our Itinerary
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Bordeaux (Sep)
Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castile and León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)