We left Santiago at 11:30am on 26 February to fly down to Puerto Natales for the start of the Patagonia pre-tour trip. The flight took about three hours and despite being extra tired (we’d woken up at 5am and gone to the gym rather than bemoan the fact we were so wiped out) the view out the window was spectacular enough to spend a good portion of that time pressed up against the glass.

We crossed snow-capped mountains, passed a volcano and soared above rivers — and then we went into clouds that rocked the plane so badly I thought we’d crash. 

Great, I thought, dead before we reach Antarctica. 

But we are not a Uruguayan soccer team and this was not the Andes so we were fine.

We touched down after three, collected our bags, and joined the gaggle of people who were being taken to Rio Serrano in Torres del Paine National Park. 

Most of the group were part of our tour group — Unconventional Conventions — but despite this, our sense of camaraderie hadn’t yet set in and Glen and I largely kept to ourselves at the front of the van.

The drive to the hotel took about an hour and a half with a stop off to look at Torres Lake, the largest of the three lakes in the national park. View: stunning. People: many. Wind: strong. Verdict: amazing. 

But more was yet to come.

Rio Serrano

We arrived at Rio Serrano, the group bonding over a chaotic check-in where no one quite knew what was going on (staff and travellers) but we were eventually given our rooms. 

Glen and I had room 101 on the ground floor, right at the end of the building on the corner. The best thing about the corner room is that only the corner rooms have balconies. 

With ours being on the ground floor it meant we could jump over the railing and go wandering across the field. I did this soon after checking in and was about to go to the river which was nearby but the wind was blowing something fierce and I didn’t have on the right clothes.

The room was big, the bed comfy, the mini-bar free. Downside, like Greece, was that all used toilet paper had to go into the bin rather than down the toilet but you do what you have to haha.

We went and checked out the tour schedule and what was on offer. I wanted to see wildlife so asked for the best opportunities. 

The guide said the Aonikenk tour was the best…but that was only being run on Wednesdays. It was Wednesday already and we were leaving Saturday.

Instead we booked in for the Chorrillo Pingo/Pingo Valley tour on Thursday morning and the Mirador Cuernas in the afternoon. Friday we’d do the full-day Paine tour. There were also options to do full-day 22km hikes — but more on that later.

Conflabbing

Dinner was served a short time later with a strict sit-down time of 7pm. This didn’t worry Glen and I as we’re usually early eaters (despite not yet being 50+) but for others in the group (who were mostly 50+) who didn’t show up at 7, they got an angry phone call from the chef at 7:15 asking where they were. Busted!

We were seated as a group so this was our first opportunity to sit together and chat. Some of them had done the pre-pre-tour trip to Atacama Desert so a few friendships had already been struck, but we managed to slot right in.

On one side of us sat Sean and Sue from the Central Coast, and on the other was Pat from Dunedin and Jenny from Sydney. 

We quickly learned that despite this being a conference for GPs and dentists, there were very few GPs (about three out of 28) and most were other specialties. This made Glen and I feel a lot better as we’d thought he’d be an odd-man out being a non-GP. It all worked out well.

Dinner was good – I had salmon while Glen had guanaco (like a llama) – and there were three courses plus wine, all inclusive. Lots of chats and we had a fun time, having broken the ice and all looking forward to the next day’s festivities.

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