Chile - Our honeymoon adventure

2011 was an unbelievable year. Terry and I took on some of the biggest adventures of our lives together. After months of training, we did our 2nd Half Ironman - the Mooseman in June and our 1st Ironman - the Vineman in July - about 5 weeks before we got married. While some may call us crazy, we enjoyed one adventure leading to the next ending with our wonderful honeymoon in Chile!

Did you know that Chile is 2 hours AHEAD of Eastern Standard Time? I thought that South America lined up right under North America because the world revolves around the US (note sarcasm) but that's totally inaccurate. See the map below....

During and after our trip, many asked why we chose Chile as our honeymoon destination. In true Tuzzy fashion we decided to go to Chile to be outdoors hiking, biking, running and the likes. We love a beach holiday as much as the next guy but we're most happy when active!

We started our trip by flying from New York to Miami. Originally we had a 3-hour layover however it ended up being more like 4 hours due to unexpected delays and a passenger that was de-planed. Once we got going, it was a smooth flight and we got some sleep (Terry more than me ) - it was about 8 hours till we arrived in Santiago. My first impression of Santiago was that it was a clean, well-established city. I was sort of expecting a little more South American flair but it looked like any other big city with modern buildings. The most notable characteristic of the city is the beautiful back-drop of the Andes mountains. When we got to our hotel and went to get some lunch in the hotel restaurant - a buffet of different seafood, meats and cheeses. I was shocked when our bill came and it cost $112 USD for just the 2 of us! GASP! I quickly learned that Chile is not like other South American countries - their economy is fairly stable and unemployment is low. I think it might be the only country I tried to bargain with tourist shop owners and all I got was the hand (in other words no bargaining was had).

The following day we left for Patagonia - upon flying into the city of Punta Arenas, I was a little surprised that it was raining and really windy. Not sure why I was surprised considering how far south we were! We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast, ilaia. What made this place so special was the staff. They were so kind and even made our room a little more special since they knew we were on our honeymoon.

There was no TV in our room so we signed up for Netflix and watched the 1st two seasons of the Tudors while we were there....man that show was addictive! Our first full day in the city we did a city tour and enjoyed it. Lots of interesting tidbits about Punta Arenas and how it began as a penal colony. The following day we went to see the penguins at Seno Otway, this was disappointing overall. There were few penguinos out and about. We walked around searching for penguins - they said that we were too early on in the season. Our favorite day in Punta Arenas was the day we went on a sea kayak trip with a guide named Claudio. He picked us up in an old school yellow VW and drove us down to the water with the kayaks hooked to the back of the car.

The water was fairly calm considering how windy it had been the other days which makes the water choppy. We kayaked in the Straits of Magellan through some old ship wrecks to a massive group of sea lions. There must have been 50 of them sitting around on buoys about a mile away from shore. I've never seen them up so close and in their element! For a moment I was a little afraid we'd have a jaws incident where they tip over our kayak and nibble on us but that didn't happen. We must have been the most exciting thing the sea lions had seen in a while as they decided to follow us for about a mile back to where we began kayaking. Terry could hear them breathing behind us. When we stopped the kayak to look at them the sea lions would go underwater again. Too funny!

Sea lions in the Straits of Magellan

The highlight of our trip was a visit to Torres del Paine National Park. If you've seen stunning photos or videos of the beautiful landscapes in Chile, many were probably taken in Torres del Paine. The drive to the park took about 6 hours including a lunch stop in Puerto Natales. We rode in a van with a driver so we got to enjoy the scenery and take a nap. The landscape is pretty baron for the first half of the ride but the closer we got to the park, the more mountainous the scenery became.

View from hike down French Valley

We stayed in an Eco Camp recommended by my friend Cat; it was cool staying in a little dome of our own. As Terry put it, it's like 5-star camping. The suite dome had a wood fire furnace and a full bathroom.

Dome suite dome

On the first day we met our guides, Claudio and Alexandro. They were two young guys that really like being outdoors! We got settled and met up with other guests staying at the camp for pisco sours. They briefed us about the hike we'd take the following day and then we had a lovely dinner. Some of the best food in Chile we had was at the Eco Camp!

The first evening was probably the most windy of our days in Torres del Paine. The wind was howling and there was no shortage of ruffling of the dome even though it was secured with iron rods and a few wind-resistant coverings. It's just that windy in the park. Terry didn't want me to get cold so he kept on waking up in the early morning to ensure that our furnace still had some heat from the logs burning. I think it would have been pretty cold without that heat the first night. In the morning we left early for our trip to the French Valley. We took a car ride to a catamaran and started our trek. It was a lovely hike, it was on the slower side since we were with another couple, a German couple. The hike began with about an hour of rolling hills. There was a little bit of rain but overall it was a really nice walk. The further up we got, the colder it became. Many folks had huge backpacks as they appeared to be doing the W Circuit or full circuit - we had our day packs which meant we could move much faster.

Catamaran ride from base to hike (note: it was as cold as it looks!)

We had lunch before hiking up a steep area with big rocks to climb. At the base of the French Valley we saw a huge glacier on the side of the mountain with a panoramic view of the valley below. It was pretty awesome! Terry and I decided to jog down the mountain - it was actually pretty fun! We waited for the German couple to make it back to us and then we jogged for another bit. At the base camp we had some beers and chips and talked about the day. We had to take the catamaran back so we had to get into line. We waited about half an hour outside in the cold. When it came our turn to get on the catamaran they said they had no more room :( We would have to wait another hour for the catamaran to drop people off on the other side and then return - luckily they let us on at the last moment so we would get back that much sooner.

Base of French Valley glacier

We got back to the eco camp and hung out for a bit before eating dinner and calling it a night. I was SUPER tired this first day - it was a long one. We intimated that we would like to do a more challenging hike so our guides said they would take us up to the Towers the following day even though that was not in the schedule. We were allowed to wake up a bit later because our guide figured we'd be a bit faster given our pace and energy the day before. We had breakfast, made sandwiches for lunch and left for the Towers. For this trek we left straight from camp. One of the big benefits of staying in the park was being so close to the trails. We hiked around pretty quickly and passed up at least 30 other hikers.

A view of the valley on the Towers trek

The first hour was pretty brutal. It was steep and the climb seemed to never-end. No rolling hills as breaks in between, just up, up, up. Terry took it upon himself to lead the guide since he wanted to go fast. Every once in a while he would look back at me and smile, then continued on. Eventually I met up with them about half an hour up the mountain and we hiked together. The next section of the hike had rolling hills and a forest. One thing we did not see much of in Torres del Paine was trees but in the forest, it felt like we were in the Redwood forests of northern California. This section was very enjoyable.

The final section of the hike was the vertical climb up to the Towers lookout point. It was super steep and rocky. Claudio and Terry made it up pretty quickly -- about half an hour when it usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour. The lookout point was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The Towers were something out of a climbers dream. They were created by glacial ice and the highest summit of the three Towers, Cerro Paine Grande, is over 9000 feet high. We had the good fortune of seeing the Towers on a clear and sunny day - we were told that doesn't happen too often. In fact, our guide did this same hike 2 days before and it was snowing! We enjoyed our lunch in front of the towers with condors circling the area before heading back down.

The Towers, Torres del Paine

The hike back down was rather fast and we got back to our camp in about 5.5 hours. Apparently we set a course record for doing this hike - that's how we roll! We ended the night with a lovely dinner with some great company. One thing I love and miss about traveling is meeting people from all around the world and learning about their experiences. After a long night of eating lots of cookies and drinking wine we had a long day of travel to see Glacier Grey, the final destination of the W Circuit we had not yet seen. We took a boat out to see it and was amazed by how large it was! It took us nearly an hour to go from one side to the other - definitely not what I was expecting. We had a lovely time in patagonia however it was time to get to some warmth and enjoying some vino!

Glacier Grey

We took off for Santiago the following day. It was a long journey but we were glad to be back somewhere warm after nearly a week and a half in cooler climates. We decided to do a bike tour with La Bicycleta Verde in Santiago to see the highlights of the city before heading to Santa Cruz, the wine region. The tour started about 3 miles away from our hotel. My brilliant idea was to rent our car early at the hotel and drive to the bike tour company for our tour. Well, this was a real test to our new marriage, why? Well, we got lost, really lost. We had a GPS navigation system that didn't find the street we were looking for, directions from the bike tour company but they assumed we would take a taxi and a Google map that would have worked if we hadn't missed our turn. We were supposed to start our tour at 9:30am so we left the car rental around 9:05am thinking we would have plenty of time to get there. After circling the city several times we arrived at the bike tour company office after 11am, over 2 hours after we left for the company! Nonetheless, the owner was very nice and offered to connect us with our group so we could enjoy the second half of the tour, which we ended up doing. We went to the markets, Plaza de Armas and the park. It was nice to get a little background and history of the city.

Cathedral in Plaza de Armas

During our bike ride we had a stray dog shepherd us through busy city traffic. Anytime a car drove near our group, particularly taxis, the dog went ballistic. He would bark and growl at the car. He lead us all the way to the park and then went his merry way. He was a fun addition to the experience!

Our little shepherd...

After our bike tour we hopped back in our car and headed south to Santa Cruz, we were spending our last few days in Chile in wine country! We stayed at a lovely hotel, Hotel Terra Vina, nestled in a vineyard. To wake up in the morning, open the French doors and see rows of grapes was truly a special experience. The hotel owned the surrounding vineyards and so we got full access to run on the dirt roads within the vineyards -- again, how amazing of an experience!

View from our balcony

Terry found a running partner while at the hotel! The owner of the property's dog followed Terry through the vineyards for a 7-mile run. The dog lost Terry at some point in the vineyards but he patiently awaited for Terry to make his way back on the same trail. The dog looked forward to running and on the day we left, he came out front thinking we'd go for one last run. Aside from running, drinking wine and eating, we just relaxed and enjoyed our last moments on holiday. On the day we left back home, we stopped at a winery with the best food we had in Chile and just sat outside, looking out at the vineyards and soaking in some sun.

It was a memorable trip for so many reasons: seeing patagonia firsthand, being active and outdoors and most importantly being with my husband and partner in life.