Patagonia -- Punta Arenas, Chile

The first thing we noticed flying into Punta Arenas was the wind. From his airplane window, Asa watched the earth far below full of black Angus cattle rock from side to side. We saw pristine mountain lakes and rivers flowing from glacial melt. The winds buffetted our plane as our pilot made a smooth landing onto the strait-side runway.

Groggily, we debarked the plane, meandered through the tax, immigration, customs, baggage lines before finding ourselves in front of the airport, loading our baggage into a van-taxi full of 9 other travelers from all over the world, including some locals.

On the way to our downtown hostal, we saw trees leaning eastward, bearing the brunt of the westerly winds.

Vientos fuertes, the driver said smiling, indicating the force of the wind pushing the van along the road.

We checked in with Jose, our host, ate a delicious seafood lunch at the local social club across the street from our hostal, purchased our remaining food, gear, and transport tickets for tomorrow's trek before falling asleep after the 24 hours in transit.

This is my and Asa´s first trip to Chile, and my maiden voyage to South America.