Day 24 Torres del Paine to Punta Arenas

Today started in the Park at Torres del Paine. After breakfast we took a bus back to Puerto Natalas which was about 2 hours drive.

This was a shot from a distance at the same mountains as yesterday - it was still so beautiful I had to keep snapping.

The last shot of the park. You can see Grey Glacier on the left side and then Paine Grande and the rest of the mountains. This is supposed to be the best view of the mountain range.

We stopped at another cave. This one they call the Milidon Cave as they found evidence that a bear lived there 8,000,000 years ago called the Milidon. A big cave - no big deal.

The plane on the ground at Puerto Natalas - pretty parking. I had to really secure the plane as the wind through the night was around 70 knots.

For Chris!

After take off shot - really beautiful scenery.

I know I should be flying but it really was difficult not to keep taking photos. Puerto Natalas.

You can see the town out there on the edge of the water.

Puerto Natalas.

As I climbed toward Punta

Arenas the reality set in and I entered a cloud layer at about 8,000 feet. Unfortunately this one had a bunch of ice in it. Oh well.

Descending into Punta Arenas. The flight was only 30 minutes and it did clear up as we got near Punta Arenas. In fact it was stunning.

This time you can see the airport off on the left and the town off on the right.

Yea! Airport in sight.

A big military base and commercial airport with 3 runways.

You can see the town out there and even a cruise ship in the harbor.

Pretty approach.

Long final.

Short final - when you can see it is easier to take photos and land.

On the ground at Punta Arenas.

Chris' shot - you can read the airport in the background. Good job John Chris will love that.

Punta Arenas.

Punta Arenas.

Punta Arenas.

I had actually been here for at least one night in 1996 after finishing my treck in Torres del Paine with Deb Klein and a bunch of people. It didn't look like this then as it was a small local town. I remember someone saying that it was fast growing back then. Now it is a big new city of 150,000.

After we landed we wanted to go to Puerto Williams and then down to Cape Horn. It isn't that far from here - 200 ish miles. Little did we know that because it is a national park and a naval base - or operated by the navy, that you need a representative of the navy to be in the plane with you when you fly over Cape Horn, go figure. We actually were successful at getting the guy to come out - he was a naval officer and pilot and was ready to fly in my plane down around the cape and back. We all were very excited - plane guys - when we rechecked the weather and while we were doing all of the arranging the weather had closed in around the cape and made it impossible for us to go. Yikes, we had the naval guy, flight plans and one plane had even taken off and was heading South. We are going to try the same plan tomorrow morning. It will make for a very long day as Baraloche is 700 some miles to the North of here.