Chile: Patagonia and Beyond...

It's impossible to describe it. There are no adequate words to make the reader understand what we saw. But we'll try anyway.

A New Year's Eve out of the ordinary. Ever new and ever stronger emotions accompanied this journey, marked by adventure and relaxation.

Finding yourself, after hours of transoceanic flight, going from the cold “Italian” winter to the dry and healthy warmth of Santiago, doesn't weigh on you at all. Already the atmosphere becomes interesting and the adrenaline starts waking from its hibernation! Shopping, a tour of the city, a visit to the typical markets, above all the fish market, and then ready for the next day's departure: PATAGONIA!

The view from the plane (LAN CHILE Excellent!!) is breathtaking, and even the two hours separating Punta Arenas from Puerto Natales are one incredible panorama after another. But the best is yet to come. The ride across the vast and endless pampa, with the wind blowing hard always in the same direction, evokes ancestral yet familiar sensations.

And then the mini-cruise on Lake Grey, with the boat dodging the multitude of icebergs scattered across the entire surface of the lake. Finally the glacier, silent, imposing, blue like nothing else in the world, inspires not terror but respect: it's a little old man of thousands of years but also as fragile as a child and as delicate as the flowers that grow on the mountains surrounding it.

Walking on it is a unique sensation: the crampons sink in firmly yet gently, and the gorges, the cliffs with a thousand shades, from white to grey, from blue to sky-blue, invite you to stop and enjoy a scene that not even the most imaginative painter could ever recreate.

It was a journey that even now, some time later, I haven't fully “digested”: thinking back to what I was lucky enough to see with my own eyes, new emotions keep arising and the feelings are renewed each time. I'll never stop thanking those who suggested this trip to me, those who were with me enjoying it, those who made sure it was perfect [exploringchile.com organisation perfect!] and life, which will never stop surprising me: now more than ever, after this trip, I'm certain of it.