Introduction

My name is Benny Chan, Asian-American, in my mid-40s. I am currently working remotely and living in Chicago, United States, though I was in born in Hong Kong originally. In late 2009, I traveled in South America for 2 months on my own, I visited most of Peru, part of Chile and Easter Island. Four and a half years later in Spring 2014, I did another solo trip to South America and visited Argentina and part of Uruguay. Partly it was influenced by my favorite film - Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together. As an Asian man who does not really speak much Spanish, my two trips to South America have been some of the most memorable trips I have ever taken. My third South America encounter was Ecaudor in May 2018. My fourth trip to Colombia was originally planned for April 2020. And again, my fifth trip to Patagonia and Antarctica originally planned for December 2021. Both trips were postponed by over a year due to COVID. Columbia trip took place in Nov 2021. Antarctica trip has occurred in December 2022.

During these trips, I have dropped down what I did, where I went, and how I felt every day in this journey log, along with photos and commentary about places. Possibly this may help other travelers making similar trips, I don't know. But selfishly and more importantly, I think what I have written here will forever be good memories for myself. When I will look back many years later, hopefully, it will again bring these amazing experience back to me. Even since I landed in South America, I knew I wanted to visit to all the countries in this continent, some countries may be more challenging to visit than the others, but I will be best. There are still a lot of things I have not seen yet, The Amazons, the Angels Falls, the Galapagos Islands...etc. Who knows, I hope to continue this travel blog for a long time. We'll see.

Here are some quick links:
Part 1: Two months in Peru, Chile and Easter Island

Part 2: Two weeks in Argentina and Uruguay

Part 3: Ten days in Ecuador

Part 4: Sixteen days in Colombia

Part 5: Seventeen days in Patagonia and Antarctica

Day 17: Making The 6,528.82 Miles Journey

The distance between Puerto Natales at the bottom of South America and Chicago is 6,528.82 miles. I am making this journey by 3 flights: Puerto Natales to Santiago, Santiago to Miami, and Miami to Chicago. And there is a 11 hours layover in Santiago. I would arrive at SCL at 1pm and I would not leave for MIA until 11:59pm (i.e. practically midnight) of the same day. It is all good. I cannot wait to be home, get to sleep in my own bed, get to see Shelby, get to see Abby, get to see and touch my records. It is always a good feeling to have someone and something to come home to, I think. This was a trip in the making for two years. I thought I needed something so extreme to bring me back to life from the Covid hell, so I booked the Antarctica trip. I actually don't need it afterward, but I am glad I did it. Scott was a motivation as well, I told I would go to Antarctica to fulfill our dreams to visit all 7 continents for the both of us, I am glad I have made it, I try to be man of my words.

And now I can finish the other dreams: visit all the countries in South America, visit all the states in the US, learn to speak fluent spanish and whatever else that comes to the mind of this boy. Like while I was flying to King George Island, looking over those untouched land, I also started thinking about going to Norway and navigate to the northernmost land. That may make a good contrast. Like Shelby said, I better finish this one before thinking of another adventure.

The first flight from Puerto Natales to Santiago was one of the scariest takeoffs ever, it was so windy, our flight was constantly shaking as we ascended, and as we passed the cloud line, we got knocked off course, my heart literally skipped a beat. That made me think of how beauties are often hidden in the most hostile places. Antarctica is one, Torres del Paine is another. Just to get to those places is a challenge in itself. The layover in Santiago went by slowly, there was not much to do in that airport. The custom did take me an hour and a half, like when I arrived. I made it, it is another packed flight. All the flights I have been on in this trip are all packed. Before we landed in Miami, I saw some of the most beautiful dawn scenery. Unfortunately, I did not have a window seat to take pictures. The Miami to Chicago flight was also full because of the whole Southwest's complete meltdown, all the empties were filled by frustrated people from Southwest's cancelled flights. Meanwhile, I am just glad to be home.

Day 16: Torres del Paine National Park

Weather was not a friend today. When I got up at 6am, I poked my head out the door to check, half the sky was clear, while the other half (towards the mountains) was somewhat greyish cloudy. It was windy and chilly, the ground was wet, there was evidence of overnight rains. I remained hopeful, maybe we could still see the mountains with a partial cloudy sky. The tour van came to pick me up just before 7:30am, I hopped on and just sat at the first seat by the door, there was a masked Chinese guy to my left. The folks in the back also seemed to be english speaking, so it seems we would have an english tour today. We continued to pick up guests along the way, and a few other folks hopped on. When we got to this last hotel at the edge of town, it picked up a family of 4, Indian. The young ones all went to the back, the mom looking woman being total Karen right off the bet declared that she would not sit in the back, because she would get sick as the car turned round and round, meanwhile she drew the circles in the air, she demanded to sit in the front and asked the guide who was sitting up front, the guide said herself and the driver would sit up front only. She said she would get sick and vomit and if that is ok. The naive me said you can have my seat if you want, I moved a seat over toward the chinese guy, and now I am sandwiched in between them. That bitch took my seat, which was practically the best seat with a huge window to the right and in front.

The Indian family was from Pittsburgh, the Indian Karen mother evidently is a doctor. She was literally nonstop asking the tour guide and driver questions, who were sitting just in front of us. Some questions are kind of intrusive in my opinion, who on earth would have asked if the tour guide is married and has children. It is absolutely none of your business. Turns out the tour guide is a single mom, it was kind of awkward. She also asked me where I came from, I said Chicago, and she assumed the Chinese guy was with me, I said I did not know him, and we asked him where he was from. Simon (I later learned his name) was from China, but he has been a student in Singapore. This trip is a reward for himself from graduating and a trip before he goes back to China. Nonetheless, Simon honey, you might want to take a mint. The mask may have sealed the germ, it did not seal the odor. No actually, he seemed like a good kid. We were supposed to buy the national park ticket ahead, and of course, he did not. And he was also anxious and scrambled to buy the ticket online. That ticketing system was in spanish, he had so many questions. While the driver was driving, he asked him what is the reason he should pick for visiting the national park, the options are all in spanish. I said to just pick "fotographie". Who cares really. After he successfully completed the transaction, he was holding on the phone screen until we had a stop, like a studious student, he rushed to show the guide that he finished his homework.

Our first stop was a shop, where we stopped briefly for a morning coffee and souvenir already. The shop was quite close to the Argentina border, I had no idea that the Argentina border was only 30 mins from Puerto Natales. The spot was so windy, it dawned on me I better put on the wind gear. Just as we headed out to the car again, it was raining. So, I put on my waterproof pants too. I am glad I had that. We were warned by the guide that we would unlikely be able to see the 3 towers, which are the famous mountain peaks. Oh well, what do you do? We can control a lot of things but not the weather. We got to the first lake where we were supposed to see the mountain range which was completely hidden under the heavy clouds. Our tour soon became more like a safari tour in which we started spotting different animals: guanaco (aka lamas), rheas (aka ostrich), flamingos, and condors. We were taken on a journey to look for pumas, but we did not see any.

Indian Karen never stopped her questions, she asked Natalia (our guide) what is on the left, it is a bloody "river". What do you think it is?! We got to the first waterfall, which was quite stunning, but it started to rain quite heavily. I think my tour mates all rushed to the car, while I hiked up to snap a few more shots. I had my waterproof gear, so I did not feel too bad. But when I got back, Karen said, you are all wet. Studious Chinese gave me a wrap to clear off the rain on my pants and jacket.

We got to the viewpoints, where the turquoise blue river or lake again the mountains which we saw faintedly. It was beautiful. I could only imagine it would have been even more beautiful on a sunny day. After seeing a second waterfall, we went for lunch. I noticed that there was a lookout path next to where we had lunch. So, I quicked finished my burger and just started walking on that. It took about 12-15 mins, I ended up at a beach which connected to a lake, in the distance, there are two isolated icebergs in the lake. I didn't think about it at that time why there were icebergs in the lake. It was where the glaciers were, but from where I stood, I did not see the glaciers. If I had walked out toward the middle of the beach, I would have seen the glacier. Nonetheless I walked back since our lunch hour was about over, we were going to hike to see the glacier. Little did I know that what I had just done was the hike we were going to do. Since it started to rain again, we took a vote and decided to skip the hike and take the easy route to drive to a hotel and walk 6 mins to see the same glacier. I am so glad that we did that, it was a much better view than the beach where I was clearly not impressed. And the rain started pouring down soon after we took a quick peek at the glacier, it disappeared from view completely within 5 mins.

The weather changes in that region are no joke. The guide said one could experience 4 seasons in Torres del Paine, I could totally see that. After the not so impressive glacier view, we drove to our last stop of the day, Milodon Cave, which has been inhabited by animals and humans since 11000 years ago. The weather was slightly better there, I was hoping to scatter the last bit of Scott's ashes in Torres del Paine national park, which did not happen, I did not even see the mountains. So, I decided to scatter them at the Milodon Cave, which has a nice view of the valley. My mission was accomplished. I have brought Scott's ashes to Antarctica and Chile. One of his last wishes was to have his ashes scatter everywhere in the world, since he loved to travel. I am glad I did this for him.

I wished I had seen Torres del Paine, but oh well. Every trip has to end at some point, and this trip has to end here. There is always a next time of course.

Day 16 Photos: Here

Day 15: Feliz Navidad en un Pueblo Fantasma

"Merry Christmas in a ghost town" is the title of today's blog. I did allow myself to sleep in a bit, and did not wake up until 8am. It is Christmas afterward. I was warned that most shops would be closed. After fixing myself some breakfast sandwiches and coffee, and catching up with some blogging, I decided to head to the bus terminal to check if there is a bus for me to go to Torres del Paine, maybe walk an hour and take the bus back is what I had in mind. The bus terminal was a mile from my B&B, the street was deserted. There were occasionally a homeless person and one or two tourists with a backpack walking by.

Got to the bus terminal, the bus company indeed was open. I checked if I could speak english, of course she said no. So, I said in my broken spanish "hay bus a Torres del Paine hoy?" I intended to ask "are there buses going to Torres del Paine today?" She is Yes. I followed "y regresso?" (and coming back). She asked "Hoy?" (today?), I nodded, and the answer was No. That means, I am going nowhere. I should have planned this better, I thought inside when I was walking back. But then I also could use a day off to catch up with my blog, video chat with Shelby to wake him up and say Merry Christmas, to just chill for a change. It is a very beautiful day though, it seems like a waste. But the bus company made the choice for me, esta bien then.

I finished all my blogs for the past few days, sorted out the photos, chatted with Shelby, ate the leftover pizza. It was 3pm when I ventured out to walk around town. Puerto Natales is really just a small town, surrounded by all these mountains. It is really pretty, I have found this old pier with just the woods remaining. It gave the mountains a wonderful perspective. There are some people now in the afternoon, still there is really not a whole lot to do. Plan to watch The Thing (1951 film) about the crew of a remote Arctic base fighting off a murderous monster from outer space. It would have been a perfect thing to watch in Antarctica. But we did not get the chance to do that. Someone mentioned it though during the last 2 days when we were trapped in fog.

Day 15 Photos: Here