In mid December last year – how the world has changed, hopefully everyone is staying safe by practicing physical distancing – we made our way to Chilean Patagonia. It’s quite a trek to get there. We first flew to Houston and caught an overnight flight to Santiago, Chile. We looked for a place to spend the afternoon in Santiago and chose Las Condes, a high-end neighborhood of Santiago away from Plaza Italia. Plaza Italia was Ground Zero for the recent social inequality riots – we’ll stay near Plaza Italia on our way back.

Uber operates in Santiago, but its not quite legal. At the airport, you’ll be ask to meet the Uber in a parking lot and sit in the front seat. (Chilean peso symbol is $)

The next day we caught a 4:30am flight to Puenta Arenas. The Santiago airport was busy even at that time. From Puenta Arenas it was another 5 hour shuttle ride to Explora hotel in Torres del Paine National Park. On the way, we stopped at a roadside cafe and had a late breakfast.  Once arriving at the hotel, we had lunch and went for a half-day guided hike.