31st January - Torres Del Paine to Santiago 4 hours by bus then 3 hours by plane

Another early morning rise. This time to vacate our rooms and be ready to be picked up at 6:30 for the long drive to Punta Arenas. Breakfast was ready for us in the dining room and our driver arrived whilst we were having breakfast.

Our last gorgeous sunrise from our hotel for us to watch ...

We were concerned that we wouldn’t reach our destination in time to catch our flight but we needn’t have worried. Our driver kept going without stopping. However, at one point I could see him nodding off and was a bit worried. Although, at that point, he pulled over into an estacionamiento (one of the many lay-bys on the road) and quickly poured himself a drink.

Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful journey, raining most of the time. At one point we passed an effigy on the roadside with the name Cristo Del Camino and our driver crossed himself as we passed it. As we approached Punta Arenas we noticed a series of domes and tall aerials beside the road. We also passed a series of large wind turbines. The first we have seen on our travels. Surprisingly there weren’t more considering the high winds experienced.

Our driver Juan Francisco dropped us safely at the airport in good time. He then told us he was going to drive all the way back again !!!!

Once inside the terminal, we first of all had to check in on terminals. Long queue waiting for the bag drop. All our bags were well within the 23 kg baggage allowance. Fortunately, Heidi noticed our luggage labels were printed with the onward journey all the way to Brisbane!!!! Luckily we were able to get them changed to only going to Santiago.

Didn’t have to wait long in the departure lounge before our flight was boarding. Strangely our seating wasn’t together, but fortunately, the seat next to Heidi and Bill was vacant so Linda was able to move over. Tejal had a good window seat much further in front with a good view.

Our snack on the plane...

Uneventful 3-hour flight. A looong walk along corridors to our bag drop. Lots of carousels with luggage on and lots of people around.

Heidi took this of Bill as he was not in our Chile sign photo at the beginning of the trip...

Took ages for our bags to come off the plane. Finally got outside where Fernando was waiting to meet us to take us to our flash hotel Cumbres. He told us that he couldn't speak English but he still communicated with us various things one the way. He also recommended a Wine bar very close to our hotel.

Took us a while to reach our hotel. Streets were busy and there seemed to be a lot of one-way streets

The hotel was in a fantastic area.

We just had to walk out the door and the streets were lined with street vendors with all sorts of interesting wares. We all made some purchases for souvenirs.

There was also a huge choice of restaurants in the area to pick somewhere for dinner. We made an excellent choice with the restaurant Tres Valles with us all choosing delicious meals.