The first thing my students ask me is “Por qué Chile?” (Why Chile?) and I always reply “Because of the friendly people” (this always helps on the “making friends” front!) and “Because of it’s beautiful, diverse geography” and this similarly brings a smile to a Chileans face.
I am currently living in Central Chile teaching English at a university here as part of my Year Abroad project from Hispanic Studies and I am having the best time.
My response is 100% true; the people here are so friendly and welcoming and this country really has so much to offer to a traveller “hay de todo” as a Chilean would say (“there is everything”).
Since I arrived here at the end of July last year I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit beaches, mountains, Easter Island and the amazing Patagonia region.
I went to Patagonia at the start of December with my two house-mates and it really was a once in a lifetime experience, however clichéd that may sound.
We travelled from the Chilean capital, Santiago, to Puerto Natales, known as the gateway to Torres del Paine national park.
Rather than heading straight to the national park, we took a day trip across the border to Calafate in Argentina to visit the Perito Moreno glacier.
It is the world’s only advancing glacier and it is an extremely impressive sight.
We took a boat ride right up alongside it, and although it was perishingly cold, it was a spectacular sight; we even saw (and heard!!) a couple of large chunks of ice break off it.
Whilst in Calafate, we sampled the local “Calafate sour” a drink made with rum, pisco and Calafate berries and legend has it that if you drink one, you will return to the region someday – I hope it’s true.
On our second day in the South we went to Torres del Paine, the journey there felt like we were heading into Narnia, it is such a mystical looking place and the massive snow covered mountains peaking out of the mist give it a truly magical atmosphere.
Las Torres is arguably the most impressive sight in the national park, the Torres are parts of the Andes mountain range which protrude from the snow and mist alongside a beautiful lagoon.
The eight hour trek itself wasn’t particularly easy but it was most definitely worth it and we were lucky enough to be the only group of tourists at the top when we arrived so it felt extra special.
All in all, Torres del Paine is a truly amazing place to visit – I had to keep pinching myself to prove I was actually there.
Our next stop on our whistlestop tour of Patagonia was Punta Arenas – penguin spotting.
We hopped aboard the boat to take us to Isla Magdalena, an island where for several months of the year, over 120,000 penguins come to breed.
We spent an hour on the tiny island watching and photographing the penguins who didn’t seem too perturbed at all by the many visitors to their island – some even posed for the camera.
The trip to Isla Magdalena, although short, was very memorable (and I have 250 penguin photos to prove it!)
From Punta Arenas we headed south and once again, crossed the border into Argentina, this time to Ushuaia.
The city is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world – even the tourist office here stamps your passport to say “Fin del Mundo” (End of the World) which like all tourists, I got mine stamped too.
One big travel tip for Ushuaia is to book your return journey in advance, there aren’t many buses which depart from Ushuaia and the Lonely Planet warns of tourists getting stranded here and missing onward connections.
Ushuaia itself is a lovely city, full of small shops and restaurants and has a nice harbour area where you can watch ships leaving on their Antarctic voyages.
We took a boat trip along the Beagle Channel and saw some fantastic wildlife including cormorants, sea lions and penguins again and this time, we even caught a glimpse of an Antarctic penguin.
We really did feel like we were at the end of the world.
It was astonishing to think that we were there during their summertime, its was bitterly cold and we were wrapped up in many layers, I dread to imagine what it’s like in the middle of winter.
My trip to Patagonia was THE most amazing trip I have ever been on.
I saw sights I never dreamt of being able to see and I feel so fortunate that I was able to go to these brilliant places and would highly recommend Patagonia to anyone heading to South America on a gap year, a year abroad project or just as a holiday.