Going to Patagonia, you have two options to enter on the Chile side: Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. Both have an airport, and a convenient bus connection between these two exists.
I flew from Santiago to Punta Arenas, and after four days, I took a bus to Puerto Natales and left from that airport after five more days.
Punta Arenas is not only the capital of the area but also a charming little town. I loved walking around there and enjoying the nice breeze from Magallanes Street.
Unfortunately, it was not only a little breeze. On my 3rd day, it reached 120 km per hour, which forced my agency to cancel a trip to Pinguie del Rey.
I got a second option the day after, but this led to (the problem) of having only one trip in these four days.
The trips from Punta Arenas are mostly Pinguin trips, one to Magellan penguins and one to King penguins (and a whale-watching activity I can not say anything about). As I have seen the Magellan penguins, I went to the king penguin. It was undoubtedly amazing to see them, even if it was not that close like in Puerto Madryn, but the drawback was that it was a 15-hour day trip for one-hour penguins. But they are lovely 🙂
Three hours we spent on a ferry, 2 hours we waited for the ferry and the rest was bus driving…. As I had nothing else planned, it was okay. If you are in a rush and have to decide between two activities, take one where you move a little bit more. On the way back, we passed two ship wracks. Nice to see, but nothing significant…
Punta Arenas is not very touristic as it’s more used as an entry point to Patagonia. People are fast moving forward to Puerto Natales. This is also why (from my point of view) the food selection is not as good as it is in Puerto Natales.
One nice thing you should visit in Punta Arenas is the museum with the replicas of Darwin’s HMS Beagle and Magellan’s Nao Victoria.
The museum is small, and you only need an hour to view and a walk on the ships, but it’s worth it.
After a three-hour bus ride from Punta Arenas, you reach Puerto Natales, a smaller but more touristy place. Everyone going to Torres del Paine is resting here as the last night before a multi-day track or for day hikes.
Besides the day hikes to Torres del Paine, I just ate and slept a lot in Puerto Natales…. So please be excited about my report to Torres del Paine, the blue towers of Patagonia, and a stupid guy and his toilet paper.
Nevertheless, a nice panorama view at the shore of Puerto Natales, little bit like Austria, right?
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