Today was our long travel day, out of the Torres del Paine and Patagonia, and back to civilisation. We started our day with the catamaran ride I had been so worried about. It all went incredibly smoothly, with some beautiful views of Patagonia and the lake as we made our way out. The bus journey back to Puerto Natales was also beautiful and gave us another chance to catch glimpses of some amazing local wildlife such as guanacos.
However, the highlight of the day was our return to civilisation when we arrived in Puerto Natales. We were reunited with our luggage at the Puerto Natales coach station and even managed to buy some assorted snacks to help us move on from our sandwich-heavy diet. But this was nothing compared to the airport terminal. Once we made it through security there was a single shop in the entire area but it served hot food, which we had been missing for almost a week at this point. Granted it was just pot noodle, but the joy it brought was intense and truly one of the best tasting meals I have eaten!
The flight up to Santiago was stunning, we had amazing views of the Southern Chilean coastline as we begun. It is very varied and complex with large inlets and islands very similar to the glacial coastline of Norway, lots of fjords and fractal structures. The rest of the flight we were treated to the Andes, rising dramatically out of the sea, and with clear skies we could see them for miles out to the horizon. An incredible flight!
We arrived late into Santiago, dropped our bags at the lovely little hostel we had found in the centre, and made our way out to make the most of the city. By which I mean, find somewhere that served real hot food…. It was quite late, so we just about managed to find a restaurant and ordered huge quantities of food to satisfy two hungry hikers (truly, a kilo of chips between us, and I had a tuna steak as well!). A very satisfying reentry to civilisation and proper cuisine.
10/02/23
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