March 24, from the itinerary-get on plane. fly a long way. Run to catch connecting flight. Continue flying further south. Overnight in a hotel where we sleep for 2 hours. Fly further south....
First observation of the day (March 23)- when you see the flight attendant (male) giving the sniff test to the orange juice as you board, have water or apple juice with your breakfast.
Second observation of the day - how nice to be flying with carry on luggage only.
Our flight from Orlando to Panama pushed back on time, but it was a busy flight time on the apron and we had to wait 15 minutes to take off, decreasing our 50 minute layover in Panama to about 35 minutes....Coming in we could see The Canal.
This flight was uneventful. We didn't have any orange juice.
We raced off the flight and found our flight to Santiago with about 15 minutes to spare.
This leg of the flight was on a 737 max which had the nice lie-flat seats, so was an enjoyable 6 hour flight further south.
Quite a different experience entering Santiago airport after Covid. Last time was in 2022 and there were checkpoints and paperwork and checkpoints. Now it was just walking a mile to passport control. It was pretty warm out and I was wondering if I really needed my 2 down coats.
We walked across to the airport Holiday Inn, reliving old times, and had a celebratory Pisco sour before passing out for a couple hours sleep and our 3am wake up call.
Up bright and early we entered the domestic terminal for a Starbucks and Dunkin Doughnuts moment while waiting for our 5:36am flight to PNT.
The flight crew was great even if the breakfast wasn't. There was a pretty sunrise outside the window.
When we got to Puerto Natales we were greeted with some beautiful Patagonian scenery and a very small airport.
We were expecting to have to wait for 3 hours for the shuttle to the Explora Lodge and were pleasantly surprised to find our driver Ruben waiting for us landside.
It was sunny, but the weather forecast was for cold, rain and wind. We saw that coming in the distance.
We had a 90 minute drive from the airport to the lodge. The road was good for the most part, but did have several gravel sections. We didn't see any bike riders along the way because the season had just ended. We saw a lot of rainbows which we took to be a good omen.
The mountains along the way were beautiful and wa passed by Lago Toro - the largest lake in the area
We made good time to the Torres del Paine park entrance and had to check in at the ranger station.
Until we caught up with the local bus which slowed us down a bit.
We turned by the last hairpin turn and could see the lodge nestled between the lake and a river
We were greeted and made to feel at home while waiting for our room to be cleaned. We had a celebretory Pisco sour and were grateful we didn't have to wait at the airport for 3 hours.
The room is very comfortable and has a wonderful view of the lake and the massive (once the clouds move away)
We had lunch at 12:30 - soup, pot roast and a lava cake. It was so good and we were so hungry we forgot to take a picture
We took the afternoon off and had a nap to rest after this long trip. At about 6:30 we had to present ourselves for a briefing and started to arrange our week of hiking - more on that later.
As the sun set we were finally able to get some good shots of the view as the massive finally showed herself.
After the sun went down the wind really came up and the electricity went out. We had a lovely dinner of fish and soup and fruit and pisco sours and champagne. No pictures:)
We finally made it outside after dinner for a short walk to look at the stars which were magnificant. Yes, I was glad I had my 2 down coats because it was cold! Gale force wind almost blew us over as we walked up the board walk in the pitch dark to see the stars and the Milky Way.
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