The day we arrived in Punta Arenas, I was not feeling so well. I had a headache, and attributed it to our vigourous bike ride the day before and getting too much sun.
We were greeted at the airport by our tour guide, Robert, who took us straight to the Penguin Colony. Although Sid and I were really pooped and part of us just wanted to crash at the hotel, we really enjoyed seeing the penguins up close and personal in their natural habitat. 
The younger penguins were just starting to lose their “fluff” in preparation for their introduction to the water, but some of them were still adorable little fluffballs. We got to see the penguins fishing for food and waddling around on the beach.
Afterwards, Robert took us to our hotel in Punta Arenas. The next day, we got a nice tour of the city, then we were off on our 3-hour drive to Puerto Natales, gateway to Torres del Paine National Park. From there, we had a trip into the park scheduled for one day, and a boat trip to see some glaciers the next day. 
Our trip to Torres del Paine was amazing and breathtaking. We saw mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, lakes, guanacos, foxes, flamingos, condors, and so much more. Unfortunately, I was really feeling under the weather at this point. What started as a headache the day before had evolved into some pretty awful coughing, a sore throat, and congestion. My energy level was way down, so Sid and I had to take it slow. But truly there is no better medicine than the beauty we saw there that day - the kind of beauty and peacefulness that renews your soul.
We later found out that we were extremely lucky with the weather we got for our trip to the park – it was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day when we went, but apparently all the other days had been cloudy and the fog and clouds had blocked many of the majestic peaks. Lucky for us!
The next day, we boarded a boat for an all day excursion to see two of the grandest glaciers in the park, the Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers. It was much colder out on the water, and I was still feeling pretty sick – in fact, I had entirely lost my voice – so Sid and I stayed under the deck for most of the way out, and enjoyed the views from the windows down below. 
After a couple hours, we neared the Balmaceda glacier, and Sid and I braved the wind and the cold to head outside for a glimpse of the glacier. It was huge, surrounded by gigantic mountains coming straight out of the water. We learned that the glacier has been receding at a rather alarming rate in the last 20-30 years. The foot of the glacier used to reach the water not so long ago.
We continued on to the Serrano glacier, where we parked the boat and had a short hike. We could see dozens of iceburgs that had broken off, floating in the water near its base. 
We enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading back to the boat for our ride back.
The next day, we headed back to Punta Arenas for a day of shopping. The day after that, we took a tour to Fort Bulnes, which was the original site of the town of Punta Arenas, before it moved further north to better land.
Fort Bulnes was perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip. There, we stood at the southern most tip of the continent, and enjoyed learning some of the history of the area and exploring the old prison, church, stable, and other buildings. It seemed to be a seldom-visited tourist site, and we were happy to have the entire area more or less to ourselves. 
Afterwards, we were back to Santiago, where we spent the night before catching our flight back to Maryland the next day, then back to Wyoming the day after.
After three days in a row of being on a plane, we were happy to be back home in our beautiful state of Wyoming!
