Thursday, April 1, 2010

Goodbye Patagonia!



After one night in Punta Arenas where we dined on fresh king crab from the icy southern waters, our group said goodbye to one another and went our separate ways. It wasn't really a night since my flight back to Santiago was changed to leave at 4:15 a.m., meaning I was up at 2:30 a.m. While the airport in Santiago is highly functional, the domestic flights have been relegated to undesirable time slots, and are still operating out of tents on the tarmac, hence the ungodly departure time.

I was sad to be leaving so soon. Two weeks was not enough. Jenny was going on to Easter Island, which would have been a great addition, but given the state of the airport and flights, I thought I would make that destination another time.

Once in Santiago I had 12 hours to kill before my flight home (this takes me full circle back to my first blog post of the trip). Mountain Travel Sobek secured a day room at the Holiday Inn at the airport to rest for the day, which made things much easier as I was able to take a nap and go for a swim in their unheated pool, in addition to catching up on internet time. Good karma stayed with me, and I received a free upgrade to business class on LAN for my flight home. Sweet!

Thanks for being with me! I will be back around June 10, when I leave for Eastern Europe, specifically the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Croatia, with a launch point of central Germany.

Elizabeth

Above photo: Red fox outside of Torres del Paine smiles for the camera.

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