Monday, September 20

We decided to drive north and east through the Chilean Patagonia to the Argentina border. If we had more time, we would have visited Parque Nacional Torres del Paine instead, but we were leaving the following day. The drive along Route 255 is a nice paved road with almost no traffic.

I forgot to ask the rental car lady if we could drive into Argentina, so I assumed I cannot and parked the car at a restaurant next to the Chile border control office. The restaurant was closed at the time.

I know a little Spanish, and I had a Spanish phrase book, but neither I nor the book had a translation for the phrase “We would like to walk to Argentina because I must leave the rental car in Chile.” The officers couldn’t understand what we were doing there with no car and not having just gotten off a bus. We finally were able to communicate what we wanted to do and got our Chile exit stamps in our passports.

I was disappointed at the mundane Argentina border. Going back is more welcoming, with the Chile welcome sign and map. In the Argentina office, again we had trouble communicating what we wanted to do. I tried a different approach and said “passport stamps”. Then, the officer understood, and he stamped our passports “entry”, typed in some stuff in the computer, stamped “exit” and wished us farewell, pointing us back to Chile.

On the way back to Punta Arenas, we took a detour to the Strait of Magellan at one of the points where you can take a ferry to Tierra del Fuego. This was a nice looking beach although the cold and the wind gets to you after a while.

Route 255 has a parking area (estacionamiento) at frequent intervals (every 10 km it seemed). At first I couldn’t figure out why there were so many parking lots when there is nothing around, but then I figured that these are actually rest stops. They don’t have restrooms and picnic tables and so forth; just a place where you can safely pull over and rest. I wish the US Interstate system would do this. Having to drive 50 or 100 miles to the next rest area when all I want to do is take a nap in the car is annoying. One of the estacionamientos was paved while the rest are gravel.


Tuesday, September 21

We flew to SCL by way of PMC, ZCO and CCP. PUQ has some interesting looking jetways. I suspect the circular shape is to keep the jetways from blowing over in the wind. The jetways face north and the wind blows out of the west. It is so windy in Punta Arenas that it was actually windy inside the plane until the doors were closed!

We had a meal on the flight to PMC and had a lovely view along the way. At PMC we had a two hour layover. Check this out – a reserved parking space for expectant mothers. I’m sure this would be banned in the US for discriminating against senior citizens (don’t worry, there’s disabled parking next to it).

The connecting flight to ZCO with continuing service to CCP and SCL were short and at night. We got a beverage service on each flight (anything you want, too, not just bottled juice or water). There were four flight attendants, which is probably why they didn’t have to rush as much as Southwest does on short flights (three flight attendants and no cart on Southwest). Other airlines in the US are getting pretty lazy, tossing water bottles at you, or worse yet, having no beverage service at all on short flights.

When we arrived in SCL, I bought a ticket on Centropuerto for 1,000 pesos per person ($1.50). Not too shabby for semi-express service (a couple of stops along the way to central Santiago).

We stayed at Residencial Vicky for 5,000 pesos per person ($16 total per night). Being cheaper than the place we stayed in Punta Arenas, not surprisingly it wasn’t as nice. The shared bath had no hot water at night, and there was no breakfast.