DAY 3: DEC 13 MONDAY

Punta Arenas is your gateway to the south of Chile. It is the capital city of Chile’s southernmost region, Magallanes and Antartica Chilena.

LATAM Flight to PUNTA ARENAS

Our flight was at 9.30 . We were at hotel reception, calling UBER for airport through the wifi . Some 3 drivers cancelled, w chose the Taxi option and a guy picked us up and dropped us at the airport. Later our hotel guy told us taxis run a mafia against uber operating at the airport and uber get fined.

The checkin at LATAM is for all flights, our mobility pass was not asked for.

Our flight . Landed at 12.53. Mobility pass/or negative PCR test was checked before baggage claim.

EMSA [subsidiary of AVIS] Car rental guy was waiting with a sign, took us to their downtown office in a taxi. Renault symbol manual transmission, 170000 Chilean pesos, insurance 800usd deductible. Monday 12 noon to Friday 3 pm. After collecting the car, we drove down to the Unimarc near the rental, bought provisions .

Drove to our chalet in Puerto Natales. We had earlier talked to the owner informing we'll arrive by 7 pm.

Check in guy sergio came up to the car just as w were cruising the street. lovely chalet. the kitchen even had cooking oil, alt etc.

WHY FLY INTO PUNTA ARENAS , NOT DIRECT INTO PUERTO NATALES?

There are more car rental options at Punta Arenas, at Natales one has to rely on mom n pop type . Also flights may get cancelled. I'm not too sure if these hold true, but we opted for what majority do. We did not have to pick up gear etc at Arenas though.

Report continues here

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2022/01/chile-trip-report-day-4-torres-del-paine.html

DEC 12 SUNDAY SANTIAGO Museum of Fine arts

Wasted the whole morning trying several ways to reach BIONET for the test results. Rang up LATAM and they said they accept a 72 hour prior covid negative test in lieu of mobility pass.

We went to a BIONET lab which was marked open online... there was no lab there. then son went to GENOSUR after an online booking , paid 25usd and got a test as he could not access the airport test.

At 4 pm, we salvaged the day by taking the metro to Bellas Artes.

Lot of colorful murals in the station

Museo Nacional Bellas Artes:

We found this on their website. On Sunday, December 19, the Museum will be closed, due to the second round of the 2021 presidential elections.

Admission to the National Museum of Fine Arts is free for all audiences from March 3, 2015.

Open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

No prior registration is required. The capacity is limited.

When we reached the museum, we were asked to fill an online form. Since we did not have data, we were asked for ID. We pulled it up on our phone and they copied passport info.

It was a lovely museum