PUERTO NATALES and TORRES DEL PAINE National Park

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The four saling days went really fast; much faster than the 1 1/2 days we had to wait before boarding. Once in Puerto Natales, the first task was to find a hostel where to stay and to organize the next tours. 
The weather let us feel that the antarctic was much closer now; it was raining and the wind was quite strong.  After installing in the hostel and a nice lunch I went for a short walk to explore the town. Most tourists use Puerto Natales for a short stop on their way to the Torres del Paine NP.

WITH NAVIMAG through the patagonian fjords

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The day for the ferryboat trip to Patagonia finally arrived. Navimag is the company offering the trips sailing from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. One characteristic of this trip is that it runs once a week and is sold out long before departure date. All these made it a sort of milestone in my schedule as missing the date would mean waiting one week. The only other transportation mean by land between the two cities is 2.317km long and requires travelling through argentinean roads. 
 
Boarding was done around 1am on Sunday 16th, with almost 2 days delay. The ship was not the one initially planned and had less cabins, but many passengers with a tight schedule cancelled their reservations after the delay so that the reduced cabin offer was not a problem; and the cabins were better. We were around 30 passengers on the boat.

PUERTO MONTT: bajo el cielo azul ...

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Puerto Montt is a port city in southern Chile that travellers often use as springboard for further trips to Patagonian. In the economical terms, the increased number of salmon farms in the region has helped to bring Puerto Montt to a small boom.

Puerto Montt is also the name of a song the uruguayan band Los Iracundos 
made inmortal in the late 60's. The song is considered the "unofficial" city's anthem. It talks about a couple that is sitting "frente al mar" (at the sea front) just as shown by a huge monument that was build to celebrate it. And continues "bajo el cielo azul" (under the blue sky); it seems the city planners decided to ignore this part of the lyrics.

CHILOÉ: home of Mapuche's folklore, cuisine and architecture

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Chilo'e island is the main island in the Chiloé's archipielago south of Puerto Montt. It is Chile's second largest island after Tierra del Fuego with a length of 190 km and a width of 65 km approximately.

Nowadays Chiloé is easily accesible with a 45min ferry crossing the Chacao channel, but this was not always so and was once described as “a distinct enclave, linked more to the sea than the continent" with its own folklore and mythology. All these plus its nice landscape, known cuisine and friendly habitants made it an interesting place to visit for me.

PUERTO VARAS: andes lake crossing by rain and fog

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Those who looked at the website of this tour (see "Useful Links" tab "Bariloche to Puerto Varas") know what I was expecting. The boat, route and service where as expected, just the weather was different and in this case made a big difference in terms of what you could see.

The lake crossing tour started in Bariloche around 7.30 am. We drove along the lake Nahuel Huapi 's shore to Puerto Scarf where we boarded a catamaran to Puerto Blest.

PUCON: between lakes and volcanoes

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My Navimag ticket from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales is now confirmed. This means I must keep moving if I want to visit Pucon, Bariloche and Chiloė before departing towards Tierra del Fuego. I will have to skip Santiago this time.

Next stop was then Pucón, a major center of adventure tourism in southern Chile. Surrounded by several lakes and volcanoes, it offers all kinds of summer and many winter activities. Volcano Villarrica (or Rucapillan in Mapuche language) is not just the closest and most visited one, but also one of the most actives. Its last eruption was in 1971.

VALPARAISO and VIÑA DEL MAR: back to seafood

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After one month of cordillera and altiplano tours, it was time to go west and meet again the coast, the Pacific ocean and its seafood.

Valparaiso was my next destination. It is one of Chile´s main harbours and the place where the congress holds its official sessions. Pablo Neruda said once "Valparaíso, how absurd you are ... you havent't combed your hair, you've never had time to get dressed, life has always surprised you". I wanted to see it.

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA: the driest place in the world

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Next station was San Pedro de Atacama, located at 2.400 meters above sea level in one of the driest deserts in the world. The Uyuni tour left us at the Bolivian border around 10am, where we had to complete the pass formalities and take a bus that was already waiting. This bus took us to the chilean pass control and Aduana, located at 45km of the border, at the entrance to the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

Except the caothic exit at the bolivian site, all other things went fine and we arrived into the town around noon. It was a very hot day, just as everyday.