Santiago to Puerto Williams

After 36 hours in Santiago de Chile, we flew to Puerto Williams, a small city on an island on the southern shores of the Beagle Channel in the southern part of Chile. It's a tiny city, 2300-strong and surrounded by stunning scenery - windswept mountains dusted with snow. 

It is the "southernmost city in the world", though Ushuaia, on the nothern end of the Beagle channel is bigger, and also claims the same title! We were in Ushuaia five years ago, and I have to say, it is much nicer to board an expedition ship from Puerto Williams (smaller, quieter, not crowded at ALL). 

We're on our way to South Georgia Island, crossing the Scotia Sea. We left Puerto Williams at 7ish p.m. local time, 2 hours ahead of schedule yesterday. Today we are at sea, with lots of briefings about the pristine Antarctica environmnent. 

Lots of dos and donts to protect the delicate ecosystem, stay safe (no doctors or hospitals anywhere) and how not to get bitten by fur and elephant seals. We are asked to keep our distance (15 feet) from any wildlife. 

We had spectacular plane views of snow-capped mountains and Chilean fjords en route from Santiago to Punta Arenas where we changed planes for Puerto Williams. 

Highlights of Santiago: 1) A visit to Pablo Neruda's home which is filled with objets d'art from his travels around the world and 2) a poignant visit to the Museum of Memories and Human Rights chronicling the abuse of human rights by Pinochet after the coup d'etat on Sept. 11, 1973. (I guess Chile had it's own devastating 9/11 almost 30 years before we did). 

Pictures below. 

View of our hotel patio

Our hotel -  from one of the upper floors 

Views from our hotel room 

Entrance to Pablo Neruda's home in Santiago It's called La Chascona. 

He built it for his mistress Matilde Urrutia (whom he affectionately called La Chascona because of her red hair). 

Murals in the garden room at La Chascona. The design and interior decor of the house gives one a fascinating insight into the mind of the Nobel Laureate. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed. 

Bougainvillea in Santiago. Love this flower 

Outside the entrance to the Museum of Memories and Human Rights. Old airplane stairs installed to signfify many fleeing Chile under Pinochet's rule to escape death, torture detention and other human rights abuses

Memorial to the 3000 odd Chileans who were detained, died or were torutured under Pinochet's military dictatorship - or suffered some other form of abuse such as sexual assault 

Snow-capped mountains and Chilean fjords on the way from Santiago to Punta Arenas (where we changed planes for Puero Williams)

The plane that brought us from Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams 

The "Dientes de Navarino", literally the "teeth of Navarion" rival the famous "Torres del Paine" further north. They rise dramatically ahead as we disembark the plane at the airport. Navarino is the island on which Puerto Willaims is situated. 

The ship

Sailing the Beagle Channel