Santiago and Punta Arenas, Chile
Why is it always a late night or early morning arrival when traveling? This trip was no exception with a very early morning arrival. We were met by the Wilderness Travel rep and transferred to Hotel Santiago Park Plaza, in Providencia (a very hip area of Santiago with lots of restaurants, hotels and shops).
Santiago, the capital of Chile, is one of the largest cities in South American with a population of 5,500,000. An afternoon tour was included. Unfortunately, Santiago has tremendous amounts of smog and pollution and every viewpoint was hazy including the snow-capped mountains in the distance. (They told us there were snow-capped mountains out there, somewhere!) One reason is geologic and the other, atmospheric - the Andes trap the pollution in the valley. Other than the ambiance of Providencia along with great food, I don't remember any "must sees" in Santiago. It was just a jumping off point for us.
The group gathered in the evening for our "Welcome Dinner." Wilderness takes a maximum of 15 travelers on each departure and that is what we had - six from the East Coast, two Texans, two Californians and five Midwesterners - a full trip.
"James" was our Wilderness tour leader (I won't give his last name because I didn't like him at all - and, perhaps, he didn't like me). He explained a little more about the trek and what to expect. All campsites would be in National Parks. We'd camp and do day hikes from there. Some of the hikes would be on well-marked trails and other would be cross-country without any markings. On the marked trails, you could hike at your own speed and go ahead if you chose. It went without saying that you shouldn't leave the guide on the cross-country trails unless you were planning to spend the Austral Winter lost in a National Park!
An early morning flight the next day to Punta Arenas. Most of the people flying on our plane were heading to Ushiua (after a stop in Punta Arenas) to take Antarctic Cruises. December, January and February are the optimum months to cruise the Antarctic. We, however, got off in Punta Arenas, loaded up the vehicles and drove north to Hotel Estancia Pionero for an overnight near the boundaries of Torres del Paine National Park.
