Friday, January 12, 2024
Today was our travel day to Santiago. Because the bus wasn’t leaving until 11:30 am, we were able to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After breakfast, we decided to venture upstairs to see what was on the floor above the restaurant. To our surprise, there was a whole upper floor that had been refurbished but not yet put to use. The upstairs windows provided beautiful views of Puerto Bories and Senoret Channel below. We wandered through a huge vacant room, descended another set of stairs, then headed back to our room to pack and place our luggage outside the door for a 10 am pickup. Eventually, the Viking group assembled at the hotel entrance, were provided lunch bags (sandwiches, trail mix, and dessert), and boarded the bus.
Gallardo Airfield was only a few miles down the road but Sol took the opportunity to hand out gift maps showing our post-cruise extension route and provide us with instructions for how to proceed after disembarking. The airport was tiny and only had two gates. After waiting in a short line to check our baggage and get boarding passes, we waited in a longer line that started downstairs and extended up the stairs to go through the security checks. Jane & I ate our bag lunches while waiting to board. We boarded around 2:20 pm. The Viking-assigned boarding passes had Jane and I separated on the plane and each sitting in dreaded middle seats on the full Latam Airbus 320. Somehow, the flight was bearable (I occupied my time playing Reversi on my iPhone) and we made it to Santiago around 6:30.
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| View from the unfinished Upper Level of the Singular Hotel |
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| Upper Floor |
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| Enjoying the View of Senoret Channel |
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| Window View of Puerto Bories |
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| Sol kept us in Line up to the End of our Trip |
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| Aeródromo Teniente Julio Gallardo (Lt. Julio Gallardo Airfield) |
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| Inside the Busy Puerto Natales Terminal |
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| Our Wings from Puerto Natales to Santiago |
We were transferred from the Santiago airport to our Singular Santiago Hotel in the heart of the city. We’re staying at another Singular Hotel. Although it is very nice and in a good location for pedestrian touring tomorrow, it doesn’t have the unique ambiance of the Singular Patagonia Hotel that we just left. We freshened up and relaxed in our room for awhile before heading downstairs to join the Viking group for an excellent dinner. Afterward, we returned to our room for an early bedtime.
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| Our Singular Santiago Room |
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| This Salmon and Risotto Dish was Delicious |