heading oot

Right now I'm aboard LAN flight 290 from Punta Arenas to Santiago. Left at 7:50 this morning, allowing fantastic views of the Andes throughout the entire flight so far. Through my window, I caught aerial views of a few of the sites that we have visited the past week, including our hikes at Torres del Paine, Laguna Torres, and the Perito Moreno glacier. Those sights seemed massive on the ground, but the aerial view adds a whole new perspective on the scale of what we've seen and where we've been. That said, I also saw what we couldn't see at Fitz Roy. The towers are spectacular from the air. Perhaps I'll have to drop by again at some point. (-; Overall we've had fantastic weather though, so I can't really complain. Having perfect weather for most of the rest of the trip (especially at Torres del Paine) is plenty good.

Speaking of plenty good, I continue to be impressed by transportation here. This flight is on the newest plane that I've been on in years and they even have several good music stations to listen to, not to mention in-flight magazines that are not only clean, but readable. Busses have also been great, though cramped at times. Busses in Patagonia are still newer and offer better services than those in the US. It was also nice to see that even towns in the middle of nowhere there was still more street activity than in most US cities.

So what's lacking? A diversity of food options. (-: More paved roads in remote areas would also be nice. Then again, the fact that there is very regular and very affordable bus services to virtually anywhere definitely makes up for some of this.

That's it for now. Hopefully we'll be landing shortly and I can find myself another book to read. Just finished Chrichton's Airframe. Maybe I'll get the Audacity of Hope from Lifshitz, but somehow I doubt I'd be able to. We shall see...