Flying North

Our flight north from Punta Arenas was like a recap of our five weeks in Chile, in reverse.  As we took off, I could see the windy grasslands of Patagonia, lakes, fjords and snow-capped, jagged mountains.  Flying north, the mountains became more prominent and frequent, as the landscape became greener.  We flew over the part of Chile that consists of mostly islands and remote peninsulas and stopped over in Puerto Montt.  From Puerto Montt, we flew over the Lakes District, with its lush and well-tended farmland, and its trademark volcanoes and lakes (of course) in the mid-distance.  It was easy to make out Osorno and Villarrica among the most prominent of volcanoes (cool to see Villarrica from above after being up at the crater!).  Soon fertile greens gave way to dry browns, as we entered the wine country and the central agricultural zone, and then into near desert surrounded by mountains as we finally approached Santiago. 

South of Puerto Montt

Vulcan Osorno from the plane

The entire flight, the vast brown expanse of Argentina was in the distance, always dryer than the Chilean side.  And of course, there was a whole lot of nothing – most of Chile just doesn’t have too much in it, and there were parts where signs of human settlement were scarce.  I was also reminded of how long Chile is.  In four hours of flying, we only covered half of the country.  Our last week there, there had been some strong earthquakes and tsunami alerts in the far north of the country.  My parents called, concerned, until I explained that we would have to fly for about six or seven hours to get to Arica, where the quakes hit.

The views were inspiring, like most of the Chilean landscape.  But they were difficult to photograph in a way that does them any justice.  My advice: if you are ever flying the length of Chile from south to north, try to get a right side window seat.