Patagonia, Part 1: Santiago, Punta Arenas, and Tierra del Fuego

March 30, 2025 by Nicole Harrison in Chile

It’s been five years since we (Nicole, Jason, Emilie, and Ally) last went on a big trip together. Over a year ago, we decided that we wanted to prioritize going to Patagonia and started planning a 2.5-week trip that combined trekking, a penguin detour, and city exploration. This blog post includes the first part of our trip, including our time at the bottom of the continent (much farther south than any of us had been before).

We all arrived in Santiago fairly early on Thursday morning. We planned to just drop our bags at the airport hotel, but in an unexpected but greatly appreciated turn of events we were able to check into our rooms at 9 AM, so we showered before heading into the city for the day.

We had signed up for a free walking tour (always a good start when you’re trying to figure out what to do in a new city), so we spent a few hours learning from a local about the history of the city. The area was brutally taken over by the Incas, and then less than 100 years later by the Spanish, so there was a considerable amount of violence and forced assimilation. Almost everyone who gained power in Chile is somewhat controversial, including the founding father who has a lot of monuments and streets named after him, Bernardo O’Higgins. The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowning family with Irish noble lineage, O’Higgins led the successful revolt against the Spanish (who were at that point moderately under the control of Napoleon). After an exile, some backstabbing, and many battles, he eventually became a somewhat successful leader for six years, but was ultimately deposed by a conservative coup in 1823. If you’re interested in learning more about that whole ordeal, the Wikipedia page is wild.

Santiago also feels different culturally from Patagonia, which was physically harder to take over and still has some cultural ties to its indigenous heritage.

An interesting statue at Plaza de Armas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pigeon perches on a tall fountain in a courtyard. — A pigeon looks down on us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bicyclist with an Uber Eats bag bikes down a pedestrian street. — A pedestrian street in downtown Santiago (photo/Jason Rafal)

A clock tower reaches into the sky above a red wall. — The clocktower of the San Francisco Church (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at historic buildings in the Santiago city center. — The very French Edificio de la Bolsa building (photo/Jason Rafal)

A convenience store with a painting of a cat on the outer wall. — A convenience store with a painting of a royal cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of the inside of a church with elaborate pillars and painted ceilings. — The incredible interior of the Metropolitan Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man sitting on a horse in the street and typing something on his phone. — Modern mounted police (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also explored the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago by taking the funicular up the hill and the gondola down the other side, which provided some nice views of the city (Emilie, who agreed to ride the gondola despite a fear of heights, also entertained us with her pained facial expressions, but she also had fun).

View looking over the city of Santiago. — The view from the top of the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie and Ally sitting in a gondola and laughing. — Emilie had lots of emotions on the gondola ride (photo/Jason Rafal)

After about 24 hours in Santiago we flew to Punta Arenas, one of the most southern cities in the world. We liked it immediately, despite the constant weather changes and considerable wind. There are great parks, a long beachfront to stroll, interesting buildings, and good food. We spent an afternoon wandering, eating, and wishing we could adopt all of the cute stray dogs.

Nicole, Emilie, and Ally petting a black dog on the beach. — The first dog we met, who we all fell in love with (photo/Jason Rafal)

An old dock stretching out into the strait, with a container ship in the background. — Old docks were very popular with gulls and cormorants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of gulls taking off from the beach into a partly cloudy sky. — Birds being alarmed at the dog running along near us (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole sitting next to and petting a black dog. — Nicole probably would have taken this dog home if she wasn’t 7500 miles from home (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two poles with signs pointing to different areas of the world and noting distances. — We were fascinated by which cities were on these signs (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset over a city street in Punta Arenas. — Sunset over Punta Arenas (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we went on a quest to see penguins, a trip that involved a ridiculous amount of transit but was also amazing and definitely ended up being worthwhile.

The first part of our day was a ferry ride across the Strait of Magellan. We had hoped we would see some animals on the crossing, but it surpassed our expectations almost immediately. From the boat we saw dolphins, sei whales in the distance, sea lions swimming by, Magellanic penguins hunting, and lots of other birds flying around. The two-hour ferry ride flew by.

View over the front of a ferry toward water and a partly cloudy sky. — Our view after boarding the ferry (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunlight lights up buildings on the shore. — Sunlight on the shore (photo/Jason Rafal)

A seagull perching on top of a light pole. — A dolphin gull perched on the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two dolphins swim in the water in front of a container ship. — Southern dolphins swimming by (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two water birds flying over the waves. — Imperial cormorants flying over the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large black and white bird splashing the water as it takes off. — A black-browed albatross performing the impressive feat of getting its huge body out of the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A whale blow in the distance. — A sei whale in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three sea lions swimming and looking at the boat. — Southern sea lions swimming by (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two small penguins floating in the water. — Magellanic penguins hunting in the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Once we docked at Porvenir, the capital of the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, we picked up bag lunches at a nearby cafe and drove east to Inútil Bay. Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago that encompasses the southernmost parts of both Chile and Argentina. It was given its name by the Spanish Explorers, who arrived to see bonfires that the indigenous people were using for warmth and communication dotting the coastline. It’s an extreme climate, with lots of scrubby brush and grasses. The landscape was dotted with guanacos, a wild relative of the llama, and we enjoyed spotting them throughout the drive. There were fences everywhere to contain herds of sheep, but the guanacos, for the most part, jumped them easily whenever they needed to get to another area.

A guanaco standing in a field and looking at the camera. — A guanaco observes us from afar (photo/Jason Rafal)

A baby guanaco standing in front of a wire fence. — An adorable chulengo (baby guanaco) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up image of a guanaco winking at the camera. — Guanaco wink (photo/Jason Rafal)

Eventually, we reached the Reserva Natural Pingüino Rey, which feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere (because it very much is). We were all relieved by how seriously they were taking the safety and well-being of the penguins; they allowed a limited number of people in for an hour time slot, and we were kept back at designated viewing areas appropriately far from the colony. The reserve opened in 2011 to protect and study a colony of penguins who had just appeared there, lured by the shallow bay and protection from predators.

A wooden sign that says Parque Pinguino Rey. — Parque Pinguino Rey Sign (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole and Emilie standing on front of the ticket office at the penguin reserve. — Yes, it was this cold and windy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie looking through binoculars at penguins from behind a wooden wall. — Our first glimpse of the penguins from behind a wind block (photo/Jason Rafal)

The penguins who live at the reserve are king penguins, the second largest penguin species. They are simultaneously so beautiful and so absurdly silly. They’re contrasting black, bright white, and vibrant orange, except for the babies, who are a fuzzy uniform brown with adorable fat rolls. They also waddle around ridiculously.

A group of adult penguins with fluffy brown chicks. — There were about 70 penguins at the reserve when we visited (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins laying on the ground, grooming, and flapping their wings. — Some of the penguins were just stretched out on the ground (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins in long grass, one of them rotating its body to shake. — So beautiful, so silly (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of king penguins, including brown fluffy chicks. — We loved the little brown fluffy chicks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins standing together, one molting a fluffy coat. — The brownish penguin in the center group is in an awkward molting stage (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins and chicks, with two of them raising their beaks toward each other. — No idea what these guys were doing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two penguins walking down a hill from the group. — Two penguins wandering down to the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide also used her scope to find and point out a surprise—a Snares penguin, native to New Zealand, who had landed in Chile and was hanging out with the king penguins, who seemed to have adopted it. It was much smaller than the king penguins and had adorable yellow eyebrows.

A group of king penguins with a smaller Snares penguin among them. — Can you spot the little Snares penguin? (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also saw some other animals at the reserve - a fox looking for penguin eggs, upland geese, and rufous-collared sparrows.

Two geese walking in the grass. — Upload geese living near the penguins (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fox walking through the grass along a river. — The adorable South American gray fox (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fox trotting through low grass and moss. — Cruising around looking for lunch (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fox sitting in the grass and looking off into the distance. — The fox was amazingly well camouflaged (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bird perched on a bush and looking up at the sky. — A rufous-collared sparrow peering up at something (photo/Jason Rafal)

After spending an hour watching the penguins from a couple of viewpoints, we headed back to the van for the long ride home (made longer by some unfortunate car issues). It was a long travel day, but completely worth it. The penguins were magical, but we also felt like we were on a safari the rest of the day, too.

A person looks out the window of a boat into a sunny ocean. — We only had an indoor view on this shot ferry ride (photo/Jason Rafal)

Next blog, we head north to Torres del Paine.

Stuck in Palermo

December 22, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in Argentina

When we got back to Buenos Aires from Mendoza, we spent some time wandering around the botanic garden and the Japanese garden.

The view from the rooftop deck of our Palermo apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fountain in the botanic garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yerba mate plants (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant crane in the Japanese garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Because the area where Buenos Aires is located has few large native plants, many larger trees were brought over from similar climates in the southern hemisphere - eucalyptus from Australia, jacaranda from South Africa (the jacaranda trees were blooming when we were in Buenos Aires, which was a really beautiful sight). There are also a lot of palm trees, which lends a slightly tropical feel to the city.

In order to get another country stamp on our passports, we took the ferry over to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, for a day. Colonia is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and right across the river from Buenos Aires, and there are several ferries that go back and forth every day. Luckily, we had bought our tickets for the day before the G20 shut down all of the ports in the city, so we were able to get out (and back in) to Argentina.

Colonia del Sacramento, which was passed back and forth between the Spanish and Portuguese a ridiculous number of times, has an old town center that’s designated as a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s really adorable, with colorful historic buildings, a lot of art galleries, and good food.

Cute streets and cars in Colonia (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the classically old streets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The beauty of Colonia (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Colorful buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The lighthouse, which was built on top of a ruin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason tried the local specialty chivito, which is a sandwich with steak, ham, cheese, an egg, and condiments. It was quite good but thoroughly excessive.

After we explored the town and had lunch, we still had some time until the boat back to Argentina, so we spent some time walking along the water, sitting in trees, and taking lots of pictures of birds (that was mostly Jason).

A preening green parrot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another bird (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Pigeons taking flight (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The second half of our trip was highly influenced by the presence of the G20, which we learned about 6 days before the leaders of the world descended. For the two-day summit, the city shut down the trains and subways, the domestic airport, and all of the city’s central ports. When we disembarked the ferry from Uruguay on the 29th, Trump had already arrived, and customs was vastly slowed because immigrations was making handwritten lists of the names, nationalities, birthdates, and passport numbers of every individual entering the country.

On Thursday night we went to one of the classic jazz clubs in Palermo, Thelonious Club. There was a big band playing, and despite not understanding much of the commentary from the band, we had a great time sharing a bottle of Malbec and listening to the music in the intimate room. Since there were so many players, a lot of the audience was friends and family, which gave the place a cozy, welcoming feel.

The performers at Thelonious Club (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Friday, because we were not able to take a biking and kayaking tour to the Delta el Tigre, (the train to the delta was not running), we booked a tour that took a boat from Buenos Aires up the river and explored the delta area. The tour organizers had their work cut out for them to make sure the tour could run with all the road, train, and port closures - we had to meet in Recoleta in the morning, then a minibus took us to a port far enough from the city center to be open. On the way to the port, our guide told us about how porteños (residents of Buenos Aires) love the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd to an unhealthy degree, how they are heavily influenced by the heavy Italian immigration after the First World War, and how their passion for futbol is supported by 32 professional stadiums in the city.

When we arrived at the boat, the skippers congratulated our guide on making it. Then, we set sail (er, motor) into the delta. Tigre’s delta is the third-largest river delta in the world, and its canal system is extensive. The locals who live in the canals are not able to drive to and from their houses, so there is an entire boat system to support them. There are grocery store boats, taxi boats, and even pool delivery boats.

A beautiful private dock (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The house of President Sarmiento, which is weirdly encased in glass (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bus on stilts (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A grocery boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A boat delivering a pool (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we went through several of the main canals, the boat docked at the town of Tigre and we got out to explore. Our guide took us to the Puerto de Frutos market, which used to be a fruit market and is now a combination of artisans products and surprisingly upscale, hipster home furnishing stores. After we spent a while wandering, we drove back to Buenos Aires through San Isidro, where we got out for a few minutes to take some pictures of the rather impressive cathedral.

Approaching Tigre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Securing the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A man and his dog heading out to the canals (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A three-sided mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A San Isidro Cathedral (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we arrived back in the city, our guide dropped us off at El Rosedal, where we were disappointed to see that the rose garden was already closed for the G20. We walked around outside the fence anyway before heading back to our apartment to get ready to go home.

Taking pictures of hummingbirds kept Jason busy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A dog chases geese in the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The incredibly beautiful canopy in one of the parks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A Holocaust memorial (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable collection of stores under the train tracks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday, our last day in Argentina, we spent the day walking around Palermo Soho and eating. We explored Parque Centenario, which had a weekend fair happening, and sat by the fountains for a while.

The making of a mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the evening, we got in a taxi with plenty of time to get to the airport, started driving, and…our driver couldn’t get on the highway. Police were blocking off the exit. Our driver, who spoke no English, made a frustrated noise and took off on the frontage road. We took frontage roads for an hour and a half, fighting the traffic from everyone else doing the same thing, and then finally came to a complete stop because the police were blocking the frontage road as well. Many people called out to our taxi driver, asking him what was going on, but he hadn’t heard anything about the highway being closed. At this point, we were getting fairly anxious about missing our flight. After we sat still for about 15 minutes, the driver started talking to the people around us again. After a few moments of our driver trying to ask us something and us not understanding, we figured out that someone had yelled over to our driver that the police had said the highway on ramp would get reopened at 9. Our flight was at 9:15, and the driver was asking if we wanted to try to take a back way and see if that would work. We enthusiastically said yes, worried that our 15 wasted minutes sitting would make the difference in catching our flight.

Our driver spent the next 15 minutes winding through side streets until we got to the very last entrance onto the only highway to the airport. And it was blocked off. We resolved ourselves to missing our flight and our driver went outside to smoke a cigarette.

After a few more minutes, we saw a huge group of police motorcycles drive past, followed by a motorcade with American flags. Trump’s motorcade had made us miss our flight.

Fifteen minutes later they reopened the road, but we only had 15 minutes before our flight at that point, and they wouldn’t check us in. We spent the next hour and a half rebooking our flights for the next day and trying to find a hotel that we could actually get to, since there were so many road closures. Eventually, we found a hotel back in Palermo, and we had an hour and a half to get there and check in.

It was a 40-minute drive back to Palermo, but the road to the airport had been closed for hours, which meant taxis hadn’t been able to get in and pick people up, which meant the taxi line was insanely long. After several minutes of waiting in line, we noticed that some people were going over to the drop-off point and hailing taxis as people got out. We went over there and I was immediately able to hail a taxi, and we ignored the traffic controller yelling and scrambled inside. We made it to our hotel with half an hour to spare, checked in, and ate some fish and chips down the street.

On our unintended bonus day, we were excited to be able to visit El Rosedal, which had reopened since the G20 ended. It was really beautiful, and I’m glad we were able to go. Between the gardens and the story we got out of out delayed flight, I think it was probably worth the very stressful six hours.

El Rosedal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant bee (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Coated in pollen (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Planetario Galileo Galilei (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable pair of dog friends (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Adventures in the Mountains

December 13, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in Argentina

On Sunday, we flew to Mendoza for a couple of days. We booked two tours while we were there - a wine tour, as one tends to do in Mendoza, and a gaucho day (gauchos are the Argentinian cowboys). We also spent our evenings walking around the city of Mendoza, which is an interesting mix of working class areas and very loud tourist parties.

The view from our apartment in Mendoza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We have a habit of visiting places while fountains are under construction (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A performer at a weekend craft fair (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Monday morning, our guide Tim, our guide-in-training Tomás, and Syrah, the company owner’s dog, picked us up in a small truck and we began a 90-minute drive into the foothills of the Andes. By some ridiculous stroke of luck, no one else had booked the tour for that day, so we had two guides to ourselves. Tim and Tomás were great conversationalists as we drove past the man-made Potrerillos reservoir, through the little town of Las Vegas, and finally arrived at Daniel’s ranch.

Mist over the Potrerillos reservoir (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The reservoir, which is low from an alarming lack of snowfall in the past couple of years (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Daniel, his wife Marisa, and his son didn’t speak any English, but they were very nice to us. Immediately upon our arrival, I was handed a four-day-old goat, which was probably the nicest thing they could have done for me. The working ranch had a sizable herd of goats, quite a few horses, some cattle, and 12 dogs, who all eagerly asked for attention. I carried around my baby goat and watched as Daniel saddled the horses and his son let the goats out for the day. After I reluctantly handed back my baby goat, we had some mate and sopapillas for breakfast before mounting our horses and heading up into the mountains.

A cup of mate with breakfast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Syrah, who is clearly not allowed in the house (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The baby goat that I wanted to keep forever (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Daniel’s son monitoring the goats (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A dense crowd of goats waiting to be let out (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A baby goat stuck in the fence (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The goats running to their daily grazing (and a cranky mule) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dogs in the yard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The foothills of the Andes are beautiful on any day, but while we were in Mendoza there were low-hanging clouds that gave the entire landscape a misty mysteriousness. It was both stunning and completely surreal.

The riding was at a surprisingly intermediate level - we rode up and down steep gullies and across streams, and we spent some time trotting and catering the horses through the flat areas. My horse, a blue roan gelding, was very calm and surefooted, and we only sometimes argued about the best path to take on a steep hill. Syrah and five of Daniel’s dogs came with us, and they all ran alongside and randomly took off barking at cows.

Finding the route (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading up the hills (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A pretty great couple’s photo (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We got up to about 9,500 feet and stopped for lunch. The low, heavy clouds were threatening rain, but Daniel and Tim got a fire going and we feasted on cheese, sausage, bread, asado, and the mandatory Malbec. The dogs alternated between defending us from nearby cows and begging for the scraps. Tim and Daniel put up a tarp roof in case it rained, but it just got very cold and damp for a while, and we huddled around the fire.

Putting up the tarp (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Snacks on a makeshift table (Photo/Jason Rafal)

My favorite dog, begging for scraps (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After lunch, wine, and conversation, we got back on the horses and headed up to a lookout point, where we could see the reservoir and the rest of the valley below. From there, it was a steep ride down the mountain and back to the ranch.

The view from the top of the lookout (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Crossing streams on the way home (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A hen among the saddles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Puppy toes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a truly great day.

On Tuesday, we had a much fancier tour of the area. We were picked up by our guide and joined two other couples in a minibus on the drive to the Uco valley, Mendoza’s new hip wine region.

Jason and I made the mistake of assuming that because we got picked up at 8, which is very early in Argentina, we were going to be fed breakfast. The fact that we were not fed was through no fault of the tour, because everyone knows the harm in assuming, but it did mean that we were very unprepared to drink the equivalent of 6 glasses of high-alcohol wine before lunch. By the end of the first tasting, I was definitely feeling it.

The first winery we went to was Bodega Piedra Negra, which was is one of the foundational wineries in the valley. They had roses planted next to their roses, not because they needed to see signs of fungus like in France, but as a nod to the beautiful, rose-edged French vineyards. Our guide at the winery, who was from Minnesota and fluent in English, Spanish, and French, walked us through the spotless fermentation and barrel rooms, where we were able to try wine directly out of the barrel. One of their prize wines was a combination of Argentinian and French Malbec. Weirdly, the Argentinian Malbec is an older strain - after grapes were originally brought over from Europe, all of the Malbec in France died from the phylloxera epidemic and had to be re-seeded from the grapes in Argentina. This means that now, the strains in Argentina are a closer relative to the original French Malbec than current French Malbec is.

The beautiful front view of Piedra Negra (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Walking onto the terrace (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A room of white wines (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Trying Malbec straight out of the barrel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The second winery, Corazon del Sol, is owned by an doctor based in Texas who also has wineries in Napa and the Willamette valley. He bought a plot in the communal network called The Vines, which is a growing town that will eventually have 10 boutique vineyards, a resort, and shopping within a consolidated area. Corazon del Sol is interested in mixing different types of grapes to create the most well-balanced wines, instead of focusing on the traditional Malbecs of the area. Our guide at this second winery was great, and we were also getting pretty drunk by that point. We learned that the only real threat to grapes in Mendoza is the devastating large hail, which can ruin a crop for multiple years. Some vineyards are not traditionally in storm patterns, but for those who are, their only real protection is nets that need to be removed to allow the grapes to get light, and then replaced when a storm is in the forecast. It increases labor in the vineyards quite a bit, but it’s better than losing a crop. They also bomb the clouds to try to prevent hail,but the effectiveness of this strategy is very debatable.

Baby grapes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Signs of a recent spray (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Humidity being pumped into the barrel room at Corazon del Sol (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our third stop was Alpasion, which is a combination of the words for soul and passion (you may be sensing a theme about the romantic quality of Argentinian winery names). There, we drank four wines over a four-course lunch. Jason and I were delighted to eat more than crackers, and the lunch was delicious. The view was also pretty amazing.

Our view for lunch (Photo/Jason Rafal)