Day 1 · Thursday

Landed safe in Santiago at 540 this morning. I didn’t sleep as much as I would have liked but it was a good flight. No issues, good seat mate - cancer surgeon who takes nature photos around the world for fun. He’s in Chile looking for a rare hummingbird. Nice to meet you, Terry. Mike’s seat mate had been to Marble Caves just a year ago and gave him some info.

11:08 We’re about an hour into the flight to Balmaceda. I’ve been watching the Andes drift by through my window. Even though the thing needs a cleaning, it’s some of the most beautiful scenery below. Blue lakes dot the snow topped peaks. It’s gorgeous. Can’t wait to see it without this cataract in front of me.

Landed in the very windy Balmaceda airport. Picked up our truck and headed for Puerto Río Tranquillo to the south. Google says is a three hour drive. He’s wrong. It’s not google’s fault really. It’s one of those places that’s so beautiful that you have to stop constantly to take pictures.

The rivers and lakes are this amazing blue color, many of the rock formations have stratus kayakers of colors, and there are literally fields of this gorgeous flower that’s sometimes purple and others yellow or orange. We haven’t figured out what it is yet, but it’s amazing especially when the landscape is divided between the blue water and the purple fields.

100+ kilometers of the drive is on a dirt road. It’s still the Carratera Austral - the southern highway that is the only thoroughfare connecting the towns in this part of Patagonia. However, it’s a dirt road for miles and miles.

We finally arrived in PRT around 18:15 and were ecstatic to reach out hotel. A full 24 hours of travel from door to door. I was exhausted.

Tomorrow we are booked on a motor boat tour of Lake General Carrera, including Marble Caves. We took a walk around town, stopping at Fogón del Sur and Ruedas & Ríos for snacks and drinks.

This nacho plate called Pinche Cabrones (translates to Fucking Assholes) lived up to its name at R&R, who’s name means Wheels and Rivers - an apparent nod to the numerous visitors on bikes, campers, and boats. Good food really, just oddly presented. After some great airport sandwiches and a giant ground beef hand pie picked up at a bodega in Villa Cerro Castillo, our food tour of Chile is off to a great start.

It’s 22:25 here now. It’s still light outside our hotel window. It feels crazy that the sun is still “out”. It fell behind the mountains around 20:00 but was still bright out until the last few minutes. Yesterday the sun set at 515p for me. The weather is cool here but the sun says it’s summer. My brain is so confused.

We are both exhausted from our 24 hour journey. Going to get some rest before the tour in the morning.

Stay tuned for more adventures! Besos xx