Return to Puerto Natales

After almost 16 years, we are back in Puerto Natales, Chile! When we first came to Patagonia we said we wanted to return with our kids (we only had one at the time who was home with her grandparents) and it is happening! This feels so right. We are starting off with over a week in Puerto Natales to get used to the cold/wind and get a bunch of school done. 

This is truly the slow part of our journey. We take walks to explore town most every day, shop at the local grocery stores, stop for a coffee or drink, and we do school, cook, clean, pay bills, research locations, discuss future plans, watch some TV...just boring normal life stuff. 

Around Puerto Natales and visiting old favorites.

Last Hope Distillery is amazing! Great tour, creative drinks, and tasty bites. We are going to enjoy our few weeks here for sure!

Ok, it's not all boring life stuff...sometimes we get to celebrate! This week we celebrated Trent's 15th birthday. We rented a few ATV's and spent half a day exploring the dirt roads outside of town. It was sunny, rainy, windy, snowy...all the Patagonia weather! But it was awesome, even if we were super cold for a good chunk of it. We made it our to Laguna Sofia where we hunkered behind a rock to eat our lunch, and found some good, muddy roads by the Mylodon Cave. We were hit with sleet as we made our way back into town so we headed for Patagonia Dulce for some hot, chocolatey coffees! Frank and I actually had coffee there back in 2007! 

This year's birthday experience was a chilly blast!

After hot showers and a few episodes of Andor, we headed to town to buy better gloves for our future outings and to enjoy an amazing Italian dinner at Pizza Napoli--Trent's choice! Then it was back home for more Andor, some bad singing, and cake! Still can't believe my baby is 15!

Happy Birthday, Trent!

And now, back to washing all of the splattered mud from our clothing!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

35 hours in Santiago

On our way from Calama to Puerto Natales we opted for a brief, two-night, stop in Santiago and it was awesome! We stayed in a family room with a private bathroom at Hostel Merced 88 in Barrio Lastarria. How did we choose it? Well, it was priced well, had great reviews on HostelWorld, had some tempting amenities, and I saw a few parks nearby in Google Maps--that was it. As we were due to arrive at 1830 and wanted an easy trip to the city, we booked a transfer through the hostel and it was a breeze! By 1930 we were checked in to our room and headed to dinner!

So what was our first dinner out in Santiago? German food! Bierstube was a three-minute walk from our hostel and we were delighted to have some amazing house beers and tasty German food. We ended the night with some rounds of pool at the hostel. 

Our hostel worked well for us!

After a late wake-up we grabbed some coffee for a walk through Parque Forestal to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. This awesome (free!) museum features classical and modern art by Chilean artists. I personally loved the sculpture work and the modern exhibit where light strings were woven in traditional ways. It's not a huge museum and you can cover it in around an hour. 

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

Right across from the museum is Castillo Forestal, a French restaurant. Of course, our Frenchy girl wanted to go, but the rest of us ended up loving it, too! We dined on the patio, essentially in the park, and the food was fantastic. 

Beautiful food in a beautiful setting! Trent discovered that he really likes Chicken Cordon Bleu.

Next up...WINE! The kids stayed at the hostel to watch the World Cup and play pool while the adults headed to Concha y Toro vineyard for a tour and tasting. We toured the grounds, sampled Sauvignon Blanc, Carmenere, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and got to visit the Casillero del Diablo cellar. It was a nice way to spend a date afternoon!

Adult time and wine!

The Casillero del Diablo cellar was a treat. It's all naturally climate-controlled.

We opted for an easy night back at the hostel, dining and enjoying $6 bottles of wine at the rooftop Restobar before binge-watching shows on our last night of Amazon Prime access. It was a horrible plan as we needed to catch a taxi to the airport at 0500 the next day, but it was fun!

Hostel life was great! And the Restobar food was good and cheap.

We would definitely return to Santiago someday. The brief glimpse we got of the art and food scene was good, and we'd like to see more...and maybe even try Chilean food there. Someday...

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

An EPIC finale to the Atacama Desert experience

We had an epic goodbye to the Atacama Desert! After four cancellations and rescheduling due to weather, we were finally "on" for our astrophotography tour in the desert! We were so happy as that ended up being our final night there before we started our journey to southern Chile. We were picked up at 11pm and driven out to the middle of the desert near San Pedro de Atacama...and that's where the magic began.

Atacama Stargazing has a great little setup in the desert with three dedicated stations which are linked by gentle ground lighting. We started at the telescope station, which was fortunate as the moon was about to set and we managed to get a brief, very clear view of the waxing crescent. We've looked through lots of telescopes and that first peek made it clear that the viewing in the Atacama Desert was remarkable. We then viewed Saturn, Jupiter, and the Orion Nebula through the telescope, all while the guide detailed the lifecycle of a star. We could also see nearby galaxies and saw several shooting stars. Even looking at familiar constellations was new and different! Orion appeared upside down and WAY more stars were visible throughout the constellation.

From there we moved on to an "Andean Cosmovision" station where we tried some traditional Andean food, teas, and wines before learning about how the Andean people used the stars. Fun fact--the familiar constellation, "Pleiades," was viewed as a sack of potatoes by the Andeans and they used it to assess how the potato crop would be and whether they needed to ration food (based on how much of the constellation they could see as moisture levels varied). And Orion was not Orion the Hunter to them, but a God of all things. 

My non-pro photos from the first two stations.

Our final station was Astrophotography. In this little spot we all got photos taken by a pro and while we aren't models (ok, we adults aren't), these photos were amazing! They almost look fake, but I swear they are real! We sat still for several seconds for each one!

Our first family photo in forever!

Our beautiful girl against a stunning backdrop.

Our handsome guy (who is about to have a b-day!).

Trying to be all cute like the kids.

This is the one experience we booked before going to San Pedro de Atacama and I'm so freaking glad that it finally worked out. We would HIGHLY recommend doing this if you're ever in the area as we learned so much and had a wonderful night of stargazing!

The final goodbye was also epic, but rather in an epically bad way! We arrived at the tiny Calama airport with plenty of time to spare, but as we had to check our big backpacks, we couldn't move along until they opened that counter two hours before departure. No big deal, right? Especially in an airport with only three gates. But...some flight had been "reprogrammed" and the passengers were physically blockading the doors to security! What?!?!?! What in the world did they hope to accomplish by blocking other people traveling on other airlines to other places? It mad absolutely no sense. We were baffled that the tons of people trying to go through couldn't just push by them, but since the airport security team was also rather small, it took a while to get the situation cleared up. By then, we were beyond tight on making our flight and didn't know that way up at the front, our flight was being told to come on up and get through security. We were assisted by another family who knew we were on the same flight and flagged us down, and we in turn grabbed a lady that we recognized from when we had checked baggage. Suddenly this cute little airport was turning into my worst nightmare! And I HATED going around others who had been in line for over an hour with us, but we did it and squeezed through to an incredibly quick security screening. We went straight to the gate and immediately through boarding. With all of the flights getting held up, there was actually no gate for our plane to go to so we were walked out on the tarmac to it, loaded up, and miraculously pushed back only a few minutes late. What a freaking adventure! We were so tired from the late night in the desert the night before and I was getting bummed that we only had two nights in Santiago that looked to be in danger and I was NOT excited about having to rebook a bunch of stuff, but it all worked out. Really hoping we don't have to repeat that anytime soon, but that's travel. We just have to be flexible and have our credit card ready!

My word, that was NOT how I expected our departure from a tiny airport to go!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

Chile: Part 1--the Atacama Desert

We made it to Chile! After boarding a collectivo in Tacna and crossing the border, we arrived in Arica, Chile with plenty of time to spare to catch our night bus, even with the time change (Chile is GMT -3). Our 7hr bus ride started fine, but was interrupted with lots of mid-night stops and we were all pretty tired by the time we arrived in Calama. We loitered at the bus station for a few hours before grabbing an Uber to the airport (in hindsight, I would have left for the airport earlier--it's nice!), picking up our rental car, and driving the final 1:15 to San Pedro de Atacama and our AirBnB. We checked in and immediately relaxed/crashed! Grocery shopping here is a little like the Bahamas--not a ton of fresh stuff--but we stocked up for a few meals pretty easily. Our AirBnB is perfectly cute with a functional kitchen and even a wash basin outside for clothes.

Given the warmth of the afternoons, we've decided to explore in the mornings and do school in the afternoons. Wednesday we set out to visit the Valle de la Luna, but got sidetracked with a visit to Valle de la Muerte and Pucará de Quitor. This pre-Incan fort is located just outside of town and boasts spectacular views of the valley. We also got to visit the entrance of a cave used by the Atacameños people. 

Pucará de Quitor

Thursday we did make it to the Valle de la Luna! We weren't entirely sure what to expect, but about 2km into the park we began to fully appreciate how it got its name. There are so many interesting geological features to observe, including giant sand dunes, huge salt deposits, and impressive sedimentary features. And even though we came home to do school and chores, I did manage to pull of a version of an American Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a bird product and tons of veggies!

It's impossible to capture the vastness of this valley in photos.

#nailedit  Our AirBnB was perfectly comfortable for our needs and had just enough dishes for me to be able to cook a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Friday we got up a little early (but not 0300 like the tours!) and headed two hours north on a very rough road to get to the El Tatio Geysers. Tour groups go early to be there as the sun rises, but we arrived at 0900 and still thought the 80+ geysers were pretty spectacular (and we were almost all alone!).

Such an amazing, steamy place!

Considering the need to do school, the bumpy roads, and just a general desire to chill, we stayed "home" for the weekend. Saturday we walked into town to walk around, watch a World Cup game, get some amazing ice cream, and visit the Meteorite Museum (I know it sounds nerdy, but it was cool!). Sunday was a bit of Saturday on repeat! 

Tonight, weather permitting, we will be heading out on an astrophotography tour! Stargazing was one of the reasons we came to the Atacama Desert and it's been cloudy! But tonight is looking good so far so we are optimistic that tonight is the night! I hope so because tomorrow we head to Santiago after a pretty fabulous week in the desert.

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

Southern Peru: Arequipa - Nazca - Huacachina - Paracas - Lima

It's official--white water rafting > trekking for most of our crew! After knocking out a few hours of school last Sunday we headed 20 minutes outside of the city for an amazing paddle down the Chili River (which was chilly!) with Kanuwa Rafting. Easily one of the kids' favorite experiences in South America so far. The river valley was just gorgeous and the rafting was Class II-IV so it was had just enough challenge to make it exciting, but at the same time wasn't terrifying. The kids even jumped off a rock into the river for a little extra fun! This is an activity that each of us has done before all over the world (in Malaysia, Washington state, West Virginia, Maine...) and each time we go it's like we remember all over again that we love it. Keeping this in mind for our travel options next year...

We had so much fun on the Chili River! It's beautiful!

We did manage to get a good chunk of school and laundry (and eating) done while in Arequipa, so that was good, but after a week it was time to move on! Next stop--24 hours in Nazca! There was a ton of construction along the route (a theme that would be repeated several times this week) so we arrived there about three hours later than scheduled. I wasn't too crushed...we only had one activity planned so we rested up for our flight over the Nazca lines! We boarded our little six-passenger plane for a 30-minute flight around Nazca to view the images that have been there for over 500 years. Both the themes and the scale of these drawings is amazing. We saw the astronaut, spider, compass, triangles, monkey, hummingbird, condor, heron, hands, tree, lizard, and cat (and probably a few others I am forgetting) before flying over the aqueducts which are still used today by local farmers. The flight wasn't easy on the stomach (I had to close my eyes quite a few times and Katreina was in rough shape...didn't help that her first set of headphones had vomit on them!), but I'm glad we did it!

Worth the stomach-turning flight to see these spectacular images!

With the construction issues holding up the "big bus," Peru Hop offered a shuttle from Nazca to our next stop, the oasis of Huacachina. Our shuttle stopped at the viewing tower for the Nazca lines and a roadside fruit stand before losing its transmission somewhere on a detour backroad in the mountains. We all piled out while our driver used some bits of trash from the side of the road to fashion a usable wire to someone fix the transmission! About an hour later the bus filled with smoke and fumes from (maybe?) some other issue, but we all opened the windows and it went away so we crossed our fingers and willed the shuttle along the last hour and a half of highway. We arrived after dark and decided to pass on the hotel pool, but had a great meal with our travel mate, Nic, at her hostel before crashing. 

Our day in Huacachina was pretty nice! We had a wonderful breakfast on the roof of our hotel with amazing views of the dunes before heading off with the Peru Hop gang to Nietto, a pisco vineyard, for a little info on how they make pisco liquors and wines before a very generous tasting (which included some drinking games) of pisco, pisco wines, and pisco creams. And yes, our kids did sample a little. We had a surprisingly good lunch at the vineyard and met lots of interesting fellow travelers. We spent a little time just walking around the little oasis, surprised to learn it had been a tourist destination since the 1920's. You can rent little boats to paddle in the lake, walk the dunes, or just relax by the many pools. But finally, it was time for our next adventure--dune buggy rides and sand boarding! It was AWESOME! The buggy ride part was like being on a roller coaster that fishtailed a bunch and boarding down the dunes was a totally fun, new experience. And watching the sun go down over the dunes was beautiful. Totally recommend hitting this touristy are just for that experience. We barely dusted the sand off before boarding another bus for just a few hours to our next stop...

The oasis was definitely touristy, but peaceful. Didn't expect to be calling out "shot, shot, shot!" with my kids, but when in Peru at a Pisco vineyard...

The videos of the buggy ride are way better than the stills! (On IG)

We all managed to safely board down four slopes. The last one was super steep!

Paracas! We only spent one night here but had a fun-filled day in this little seaside town. First up was a boat ride (yay!) out to Las Islas Ballestas, a.k.a. "The Poor Man's Galapagos." On our way we passed "The Candelabra," another pre-Incan line drawing with many theories as to when/who/why it was made. The islands themselves were clearly active bird rookeries and right away we saw Humboldt penguins! There was also a ton of Peruvian boobies, Inca terns, and gulls, and it was easy to see how these islands were important to the local guano trade. We also saw a few seals, including a baby! We had a nice cruise back to town where we dropped the kids with some complete strangers for paragliding! They both wanted to try it so we took advantage of a break in the day to let them go and fly over a beach. They liked it! After a quick lunch we rejoined the Peru Hop gang for a tour around the Paracas Nature Reserve, which took us to stunning seascapes and through Martian-esque terrain. Then we headed out for drinks and dinner at a seaside restaurant with Nic (she really is an awesome travel companion!), watching the sunset and swapping stories about life until we had to board our final bus.

Las Islas Ballestas were stunning!

The kids got to try something the adults have never done.

And of course, Katreina found a kitten in town before we went on the tour of the reserve.

Our Peru Hop journey ended just before midnight in Lima. Overall, it was a pretty good experience. The busses (other than that one shuttle!) were cozy and the company includes some nice bonus tours and makes it pretty simple for even inexperienced travelers to make the trip. Our time in Lima was short (and I wasn't feeling awesome)--we walked around town a little but that was it. It seemed very "city."

A wee bit of Lima...and our cozy bus (which is great since we were on it forever).

Saturday night we boarded a super cozy bus with lie-flat seats for a trip that was scheduled for 20 hours--it took 25.5. Why? Traffic around Lima, extensive construction projects, hour-long stops for food, life. My four hours of "fluff" before our next bus was gone so we cancelled our next bus, informed our AirBnB that we would be a day late, got a room in Tacna for the night, cancelled and rebooked our rental car, got bus tickets for the next night, and enjoyed a great dinner and comfy beds at a nice, clean, $38/night hostel. We have "lost" a day in the Atacama desert and incurred some more expenses, but it's not all that bad. Tonight's bus is only supposed to take seven hours and we don't have the fancy bed seats, but I think it's going to be ok. I think...

~Jo, Nomadic Momma