Chile- Jan 2023
My planning started with a map of Chile. I googled top things to do and see and then I
narrowed it down to the places in my blog.
Our journey, in Chile, began in Punta Arenas, almost at the tip of
Chile. Ferdinand Magellan, the explorer is like the patron saint of this town.
We rented a car with Avis. The rental company will send a driver to get you- but you must call them when you arrive at the airport- I call using an app called Whatsapp. We had a nice manual mini SUV for about $50 a day. You need a high clearance vehicle if you are going to Torres del Paine! Europcar was located at the airport- no shuttle necessary, they were a bit more expensive.
Punta Arenas had a really nice waterfront walk that stretched for miles. People were walking, skating and riding their bikes along the paved beach front. There is some nice street art on the opposing side of the street. As well as statues and works of art.
Our first stop was actually a 5 hr drive to the Torre del Paine National Park. I pre-purchased our entrance tickets at ventas@aspticket.conaf We actually qualified for the senior discount. Our 3 day pass was $39USD per person. We stopped in Puerto Natales at the Unimarc Grocery for snacks, beer and wine and then were on our way! Driving to Puerto Natales was all paved roads, but soon we were on graded roads- and then less graded roads and then dirt washboards- I don't know how the bicyclists and and the motorcyclists survived all the dirt the cars kicked up! This is a busy road with lots of traffic during high season - December and January- summer break!
We did the Grey Glacier Boat tour (need reservations in high season) About a 20-30 min walk in sand and gravel to get from the Lago Grey Hotel where you check in, to the boat. This walk would not be appropriate for people. with mobility issues. I enjoyed the boat ride, my first pisco sour and seeing the glaciers!
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| Left is a Calafate Pisco Sour and the right is a traditional one |
In Torres del Paine NP, we attempted the brutual “W” hike. It was so hot that day (85F), no shade and
the trail went straight up, no switchbacks.
The trail was mostly loose rocks, so you had to watch your footing, we
were so glad we had our hiking poles. We
made it to the Refugio after 4 hours, had a beer and called it quits. It would have been about 2 more hours of
hiking to get to the “W” with some boulder hopping at the end, so we turned
around and walked back 3.5 hours. We were disappointed to not get the iconic “W”
photo. Parts of this trail were stunning, but mostly it looked like New Mexico
desert with larger mountains. It is rated as a moderate hike, which it might be
if the weather was cooler and if you start early.
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| The trail starts out nice- cross a bridge |
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| but soon it gets rocky |
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| we are heading towards this |
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| we started way down low by the triangle and if you look at the circle you can see the trail straight up then down then up again- ugh! |
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| The best beer at the Refugio - and admitting defeat- ching-ching! |
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| you can see the trail we came from |
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| going down was a bit faster, but the rocks are brutal |
I hike all the time, and I rate this hike as long and difficult.
Below is what we wanted to see- sniff- in another lifetime, I suppose.
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| I think the boulder field approach and the scree would have killed us! |
After 3 nights (2 full days) we drove back to Punta Arenas, spent the night and caught a plane to Puerto Montt the next morning. We picked up our rental car from Europcar at the airport. I ordered a small SUV (high clearance needed again) They tried to give us a small car…so I smiled and told them I needed a huge discount…suddenly they gave us a medium sized, brand new, SUV and it was an automatic!! Cost was about $60 a day.
The Puerto Montt area of Chile is called the Lake District. I called it The Lake, Volcano, and Hot Spring District- I picked this region for these 3 things!
First stop was in Puerto Varas for 2 nights. We stayed in a container house for 2 nights.
We had a great view of the Orsono Volcano on Lake Llanquihue.
Puerto Varas is a
nice town with good stores and restaurants. The have a Lider (Chilean Walmart
to stock up on picnic stuff and wine). This town had a long stretch of swim
beaches. During the weekend the town was
crazy crowded. January is summer vacation for schools, so the town was full of
families enjoying themselves.
We enjoyed strolling through all the artist tents set up, some are there everyday in the summer. Others are just there on the weekend. The pathways were planted with flowers.
We had a nice meal at La Vinoteca restaurant. I recommend
the grilled pulpo and the salad!
A fun stroll down the lakeside is a strange artist house .
I found out about this place on one of my favorite websites called Atlas
Obscura. This bizarre house was closed
the day we walked by, but the outside is worth examination. It was a good way
to digest our dinner.
Next stop was Conaripe a 3hr and 15min drive from Puerto
Varas. We stayed on a farm. I found this place on Airbnb. It was $60 a night.
It was a bit spartan of a stay. It was
clean and fun to see all the animals…..but the owner spoke no English and there
was no “how to use the cabin” in Spanish or English. I wish there had been a book that told us
where we could walk on the farm. The other issue was no heat- and we needed it.
There was a wood stove, but no kindling and no paper to start it. So we just got dressed quickly and pretended
like we were tent camping- lol- it warmed up quickly, so it wasn’t that
bad. The reasoning behind the rental of
this cabin was the proximity of all the hot springs we wanted to go soak in. There are a ton of cabins in this area- but
book early- January is summer vacation for all the kids and families.
Our first hot
spring was Vergara Termas (about $30 per
person) This place was really nice. The
gardener should be given an award because the gardens were spectacular. There were 7 pools of varying temps, changing room and lockers. We went 2.5 hours before
closing time and there were very few people still there- most people come for
the day!. They had a nice looking restaurant, but we were having dinner back at
the cabin that night.
The next hot spring- Quilalelfu Termas was a smaller
place- only 3 pools, but set beautifully along a river, with a few hiking
trails that lead to a foot soaker warm pond.($25pp) Online google reviews said
to get there at (or a bit before and queue up) the 9:30 opening time, because it is so small, they limit the number
of people. We were glad we got there early to get covered lounge seating. They
had nice picnic tables and charcoal bbq grills. We ate our lunch there at noon
and then left, just as the crowds were arriving.
In the afternoon, we went for a hike to view some
volcanoes. This area is full of volcanoes that look exactly like a third grader
would draw a volcano- they are active volcanoes, so smoke was coming out of
them! CRAZY!!
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| Careful crossing this bridge |
The next day was something I was really looking forward
to, we had a reservation for the last 4 hours at Termas Geometricas. ($50 pp) I tried to make an online reservation, but it
wasn’t accepting foreign credit cards. I was persistent and kept trying until a
week before… finally they emailed me and
got my name to hold my reservation. However, because we chose the last 4 hours,
most of the people were leaving. This is the best hot spring I have been to IN
THE WORLD…and I have been to Iceland and Colorado, Idaho, and many places in between! There were 18 hot springs of varying temps in
a canyon with a ¼ mile red painted walkway leading to a waterfall. It had a
very Asian feel to it with the lush greenery and black and red painted water
features. There was a small restaurant
with good pizza, and firepits to warm up by.
They are open 365 days a year!
Time to move locations again. It was under a 3 hour drive from Conaripe to the Pacific Ocean town of Niebla, a suburb of Villarica. On the road to Niebla was a tourist attraction- Kuntsmann Craft Beer Restaurant. There is a huge population of Germans that settled in this area in the late 1800’s- so you see signs for KUCHEN and EMPANADAS at roadside stands. Anyway this Brewery is so popular that they have waiting lines cordoned off like at amusement park. Thankfully we got there around noon and most Chileans don’t eat until 1 pm , so we didn’t have to wait in line. The food was decent- we shared ribs, and the beer was delicious!
Now if you like action and excitement, you could rent the
fabulous house we had in Niebla. You needed a high clearance vehicle. We had an
automatic which made it a bit easier, but a 4X4 with a good confident driver
experienced with shifting a manual transmission would be fine. The first time
up was very white knuckled as you had to stay on the one set of concrete tracks
that took you to the top!
It was a 2 min 30 second drive 20% incline
and you have to stay on the concrete tracks
and pray no one is coming the other way
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| View of the Pacific Ocean |
We spent the next day exploring. We found the most magnificent beach, Pilolcura Beach. It had big rock formations and cows eating seaweed, what more could you ask for?? You could swim here, if you are fond of cooler water. We stayed here for hours. I found my heart shaped rock to add to my collection!
We found another beach worthy of exploring, down a bunch of cliffside steps. But first we had lunch at a cute café with a view at the top of the cliff. Their fish was good- but the sopapillas they brought to the table as a bread, were fabulous- served with a spicy savory sauce.
Then down the stairs to the beach! You have to lose those sopapilla calories somewhere!
The next day brought a 2 hr hike at Punta Curinanco – a protected coastal area. The trail was fantastic. It meandered through well groomed shrubs, went up and down hills using switchbacks. The trail included a whole grove of 700 year old coastal olive trees. There were plenty of miradors (lookout points) to see the ocean.
We loved the tree tunnels 
Old grove olive trees
As a side note for
the Punta Curinaco hike, we got to the entrance gate, and it said “ABIERTO”- “OPEN”, This is the entrance to the hike!
But the gate was locked from the opposite side with the key hanging out. We had to yell “HOLA” a few times and finally an older man came out and let us in. The cost was $3000 pesos (about $3.75 pp). The man talked to us in Spanish for 15 minutes- I could figure out most of what he was saying because he was pointing to a map and pantomiming the rest. We were ready to hike and then he said “NO BACK PACKS”… he said just put them under this blanket on my porch. Thank goodness I had pockets to stuff all our money, credit cards and phone. Of course when we got back, everything else – like the car keys, were fine. So just a heads up.
In the afternoon, we couldn’t resist going back to
Pilolcura Beach, this time bringing a picnic lunch and beach towels. We always
travel with our sand free towels- they come in handy for picnics, covering
beach chairs and swimming AND they don’t take up much room in your suitcase.
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| We just couldn't get enough of this beach |
Our time was up in the Lakes, Volcanoes, and Hot springs District.
It was time to head back to the Puerto Montt Area to catch our next plane to
Santiago. We actually stayed in Puerto Varas again, but at the other end of the
beach. I made sure our hotel had
parking. Parking is tough in this vacation town. Puerto Varas is about 30
minutes from the Puerto Montt airport. (use GPS- not a lot of signage to the
airport- we missed a turn!)
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| So crowded on the weekends- people were parking ON the sidewalk |
Now I do want to share with you, that though my highlight pics are beautiful, most shops and restaurants in the smaller towns are small mom and pop places.
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| mini mart |
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| zinc siding for construction store |
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| funeral home |
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| car repair shop |
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| local market |
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| roadside restaurant |
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| The fresh fish market |
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| shopping center |
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| local bar |
BIG CITY TIME. - SANTIAGO I must say it was culture shock to go from all the natural beauty to a huge city with graffiti and homelessness and petty crime- which kept me gripping my purse! We stayed in a nice hotel, Ishmael Hotel. There are only 2 neighborhoods that are fairly safe one is Barrio Lastarria where we stayed, and the other which is probably the safest, Providencia. I didn’t choose Barrio Providencia because it was too far from the things I wanted to see. I wanted to be able to walk to everything. We just hung out in the hotel either rooftop or lobby in the evening. I didn't think it was safe to be out after dark (9:30 pm during the summer)
Hanging on the rooftop of our hotel 
small plunge pool with a view
WARNING- The Central Market is inside the old architectural building that a huge tourist draw. Because of this the druggies and thugs come
here. We were told by 2 separate people that they witnessed a woman’s necklace
being ripped off her neck and a man had his cellphone grabbed out of his hand. We
went there early in the morning and got pics- but were on guard the whole time.
Below are all the things we walked to from our hotel.
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| There was cool street art |
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| some nice architecture |
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| ivy covered building with sad graffiti |
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| Lots of sculptures in Parque Forestral across from our hotel |
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| Castillo Forestral |
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| The Cathedral Of Santiago |
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| Cerro Santa Lucia Park |
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| San Cristobal a top the mountain |
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| We took the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal |
We did one Airbnb experience which I would recommend. We were picked up by a high clearance vehicle at 3 pm near our hotel and driven two hours up into the Andes Mountains to hot springs (with a stop at a cool chocolate shop and garden, to use the restroom and get some ice cream 😊)
The hot springs were rustic- but it had bathrooms and a changing area and 5 pools of varying temps built into the side of a mountain. It was so quiet and so stark out there.
After soaking for about an hour, they took us for sunset shadow pics and then onto a barbeque.
The food was passed by our hosts on wooden boards. There were empanadas (the cheese and olive were great), cheese and crackers, nuts, roasted sausage, roasted veggies and the BEST steak. Of course there was unlimited Chilean wine, pisco sours, beer and other soft drinks and water. We watched the stars come out.
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| Our new friends on the ride home |
Santiago Airport There were 14 flights out of the airport between 10pm and
3am. Our airline (American) had 3 flights out that night. The line at AA check-in
was 1+ hours long. Then the line going
through security and immigration was 1+ hours long – we were flying on a
Thursday. I thought we would never get to the gate. AND there was 1 more screening by United
States TSA agents on the gang plank before we could board the plane. Who knows what they were looking for??? It is a 9 hour flight from Santiago to Dallas
Fort Worth direct.
LANGUAGE-Not many people in Chile speak English. At our nicer hotels they did speak English fairly well, but all our Airbnb hosts spoke little, to no English. I know just enough nouns and verbs in Spanish to get by and I can read Spanish pretty well. However after meeting some bilingual Chileans, I was told that they don’t speak the proper Spanish, they speak super quickly and they clip the ends off of many words. But don’t worry, if you are polite, smile, have a few words of Spanish and have the google translate app, in most cases, it will be fine.
If you need help planning a trip to Chile please reach out to me at jackiebarnes217@hotmail.com
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| One last view- Torre del Paine and our hotel on an island on Lake Pehoe |
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