Santiago & Vina del Mar

So we headed from Mendoza back across to Chile to Santiago where we would catch our flight to New Zealand.

It didn't start off to well. Fairly hungover we boarded our bus, which was due to take 7 hours (the shortest one to date). In true South American style it actually took 10 hours, including 3 hours at the border crossing leading to two very grumpy English travellers on arrival in the city.

Unfortunately it didn't get much better the next day. We got up and set off to explore Santiago by foot.

Torres del Paine

Loathe to leave, we departed Ushuaia at 5am and headed for Chile with the aim of making it to Torres del Paine national park. The trip was an experience. Border control took a lot longer than on the way down and 12 hours in we arrived at Punta Arenas. We decided to stopover before heading to Puerto Natales, the gateway town to the park the next day.

I have to say we were less than impressed with Chile´s southern Patagonia´n towns compared to Argentina´s, however the park itself more than made up for this.