Backpacking Week 1 ~ Patagonia, Chile
- Mary Kate gKing
- Mar 18
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 20
Hello Family and Friends,
While I have received much unsolicited, yet thoughtful advice from my siblings and others on how to document and share memories from this world travel, I have decided to go back to my roots of making blog posts. I really tried to do the whole instagram thing again, but I cannot bring myself to use the social media (I know, very boomer of me). Thank you to my sister, who taught me about music on posts and the “bubbles” (highlights?) on Instagram; however, at this point in time, the only way I’ll be sharing memories from our vagabonding experience will be through blog posts. Maybe down the line, I’ll be inspired to share photos and videos in other creative ways, but for now, here is my blog. I’m hoping my IT guy (Nick) can help show me how to get people to “subscribe” to the weekly email list for entertaining updates from our trips and photos.
Welp, here goes the first post about our first week Vagabonding.
Vagabond: Latin-derived term that refers to a wanderer with no fixed home.
I finally finished the book Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts, that Nick had been begging me to read. It provided great advice for Vagabonding and also provided some great quotes. I’ll start us off with one that was dog-eared:
“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes to learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can in our ignorance and knowledge to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” - Pico Iyer, “Why We Travel”.
The Travel: After our 40 hour drive home from SD, one week in RVA, we caught a two hour flight to Miami. After a 15 hour delay at the Miami Airport, we finally found ourselves in Santiago, Chile. We spent a quick night in a hotel near the Santiago Airport, then caught a domestic flight down to Punta Arenas the next morning. This “end of the world” southern location is where we picked up our ~manual~ van. This van will be our main form of travel and accommodation for the next 20 days.
Where We’ve Been Staying: Obviously, we’ve been staying in the van. We’ve found ourselves in both established campsites and wild (dispersed) camping within the southern part of Patagonia. Here are some spots where we enjoyed our rest.
What We’ve Seen: I’ll let the pictures do the talking here. No edits on any of these photos thus far, just raw footage taken on the iphone 17 and our camera. (Pictures are best if viewing on iphone to click the image to make larger then swipe).
Now, Let's Play a Little Game of "I Spy"
Funny Story of the Week: It only seems fitting to share the FSOTW from my first hour of driving the van. For starters, I haven’t driven a manual car in 10 years, and Nick never learned how to drive a manual. We knew it would take a few (hundred) stalls between the two of us to become experts. But, first things first, we had to get out of the parking lot. The funny part is, when I went to put the van in 1st gear and pulled away from the rental agency, a perro came out of nowhere to play a fun little game of chicken. While he ran alongside the van, I approached the daunting gravel hill. It was at this time that the dog decided to run in front of the van, having me slam on my brakes, leading to a stall right in the middle of this steep hill. We continued this fun game with me actually successfully getting into first gear every 5-10 stalls, then slamming my breaks in fear of hitting the dog. Cars from both directions piled up and had a front row seat to an American who didn’t know how to drive stick with a local Chilean dog getting their entertainment for the day. After Nick convinced me that this native pup was an expert at the game of chicken, we agreed that I would not slam on my brakes. Rolling back, I gave it full speed ahead. The dog went quiet. We looked at each other in silence. Nick slowly got out of the car with the unspoken fear that I had run over a perro within my first 5 minutes of driving in Chile. Nick looked at the front of the car, no dog. Nick looked under the car, no dog. Right next to the driver’s door, the dog was wagging his tail as if to say, “I won.” Thankfully, the doggo has a sick sense of humor and began running and barking once he made eye contact with Nick. Eventually, we made it over the hill and onto the main road with no other obstacles… that is, until we realized we forgot our linen at the shop… Nick graciously offered to walk down the hill to avoid another incident, but I was determined to conquer the hill. The Chilean perro immediately greeted us with excitement to play another game of chicken. Linen secured, I was ready to go full speed ahead, not stopping on the hill. This time, while smirking, the dog bucked the van even more aggressively than before, leading to a complete “de-ja-vu” moment and replication of the previously described incident. Spirits remained calm enough in the situation, but it is especially funny to think about now that we are no longer stopped on that hill. I now join my cunado, Peter, with mixed emotions towards roaming international doggos.
Lesson Learned of the Week: Don’t mess with the cows. After a peaceful and relaxing day at our campsite alongside Rio de San Juan, we decided to go for an exploratory walk. As the Chileans love to refer to their rules as “so, so”, we followed the path of some fishermen through a broken gate to walk along the river towards the Strait of Magellan. We could hear the “mooing” of vacas all day long, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that we stumbled upon some grazing cattle. At first we just saw two sitting abuela cavas who seemed harmless. It wasn’t until we saw the big Mamma that we decided to back up. Shockingly, Nick’s determination to complete a task pushed us further towards the ocean as the cows shifted with their grazing. While Nick was pushing forward, I cautiously followed behind about 20 yards, walking along a wooded area. All of a sudden I heard some movement in the bushes and saw a grazing cow within 10ft of me. While facing the cow, I started slowly backing away, quietly signaling to Nick that something was in the woods. He slowly made his way towards me, despite not being able to see what I was pointing at. As soon as Nick and I were reunited about 20 yards away from the cow, the cow locked eyes with us and started running at what appeared to be full speed parallel to us, which was the direction of our escape. With one of us keeping eyes on the big lady running from the woods, the other was watching the remainder of cows, as we power walked towards a tree. Surrounded by cows, hearts were pumping as Nick explained that I would climb into the tree first if the cow decided to charge. At this point, the granny cow was even looking intimidating as she was also now standing and staring at us. We waited about 4 long minutes by the tree before we saw an opportunity to escape. Speed walking with our heads on a swivel, we identified new trees to climb with each step as I grabbed a large stick for protection. We passed back through the broken gate with hearts still racing. I guess there were multiple lessons learned here: 1. Chileans might look at rules as “so, so”, but they are there for a reason. 2. Sometimes it’s okay to turn around before you reach where you were trying to go. 3. Don’t mess with the cows.
Cultural Insights & Fun Facts:
A strait is a body of water between two pieces of land (usually narrow and naturally made) that connects to larger bodies of water.
The Strait of Magellan connects the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean and was the primary trade route before the development of the Panama Canal. It also has the most magnificently colored waters and wildlife that we got to experience during our boat ride along the Strait of Magellan.
Humpback whales swim all the way up to Costa Rica between May and September to avoid the Chilean winter.
When looking at the night sky in the southern hemisphere, you cannot see Orion's belt. The night sky in Patagonia is also breathtakingly beautiful.
View of the night sky during a pre-bed potty break outside. Nicest bano views I've ever had.
NK & MK’s High, Low, Unexpected, & Learned From The Week:
Nick:
High: Boat day, specifically how close we got to the glacier and how active the whales were.
Low: Getting off the plane in Miami at 2 am, learning that we had another 12 hours of delay.
Unexpected: Standing at the base of a tree, surrounded by cows, being prepared to climb if the cow started running again.
Learned: In Chile, the rules are considered “so so”, unless you are in the national park. They take the rules very seriously in the national parks.
Mary Kate:
High: The breathtaking views of nature. The ones not looked at behind a camera lens but with my own eyes. The views too good to even try to take a photo of them. The wildlife interactions that only exist in my memory. Rolling hills, mountains, and valleys of Patagonia were stunning throughout the drive along the Routa del Fin Del Mundo. Moments of driving and looking out the window to see a herd of wild horses running through a valley with mountains in the background that are only attempted to be replicated in movies. The jaw-dropping moments looking up at a massive glacier, waterfall, and watching five whales swim together still give me shivers when I think about it. Not one particular moment was my highlight this week, but having the opportunity to enjoy Southern Chile’s wildlife ~in the moment~.
Low: The moment where I had my hands on the tree branch, surrounded by staring cows, and was imagining what people would say at my funeral - taken out by Chilean cattle - smh.
Unexpected: Dancing to electronic dance music in the home of a local fisherman while he cooked us salmon for dinner, despite neither one of us being able to communicate with one another. (Thickest Chilean accent we’ve encountered thus far, but also possibly the best salmon I’ve ever eaten).
Learned: Guanacos are completely wild in Patagonia, unlike their counterparts, llamas and Alpacas, who have been domesticated. There are also wild horses in Chile, specifically in Patagonia, in areas like Torres Del Paine.
More photos from our unexpected dinner with our friend, local fisherman, Manuel.
.. Of course, if anyone was wondering, I’m sure we’ll have some guest posts from Nick in the future. I know his witty writing has definitely created a fan base after his Tomorrowland Winter blog post. And for my voice memo, audio-book lovin people, I’ll try to get some audio pieces together so you can listen to the updates during your commute or while folding laundry.
We’ll see what this adventure brings. Gracias para leyendo. Adios!
~Love, MK & NK
Once in a lifetime experience no doubt! Can’t wait to see & hear your next blog update!!