31st October 2015. Santiago, Chile to Punta Arena and the Straits of Magellan (by air).

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After a brief three-hour nap in a Santiago hotel close to the Airport, I resumed my 55-hour transfer from Antananrivo in Madagascar to the Falkland Islands. I am flying the length of the Andes and very fortunate in both the weather and in having a window seat on the left hand side of the plane.

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Santiago is in a bowl, surrounded by high mountains, which also makes it subject to pollution.  These are some of the mountains to the east of Santiago near dawn.

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Initially it was clear, apart from cloud on distant mountains.

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This volcano is Descabezado Grande in the Maule region of Central Chile, nearly 4,000 metres tall and about 200 km south of Santiago.  Descabezado means “headless” in Spanish, which refers to the flat top.

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This is Lanín, an ice-clad stratovolcano on the border of Chile and Argentina.  Lago Huechulafquen is the lake behind.  Lanín is the symbol of the Argentinian province of Nequén.

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This is probably somewhere in Aysen Province in Chilean Patagonia.  I can’t identify this location through Google Earth.  In general terms,  there’s a point going South on the coast of Chile where there is a mass of islands off the coast separated by channels (sounds?, fjords?).  This is on the mainland from there, looking east at the Andes.

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This and following images show mighty mountains peeking above the clouds.

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A very distinctive river delta here below the clouds.  I thought I might be able to identify it on Google Earth but no, the topography in the general area is much too convoluted.   Perhaps a flood may have changed it too since the last Google Earth photo.

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Perhaps Rio Baker in Captán Prat Province but that’s just a guess.

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OK.  I know where we are now. In the distance is Lago O’Higgins (Chilean half)/ Lago San Martin (Argentinian half), just north of where I went in Argentinian Patagonia in 2010.

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Lago O’Higgins/ Lago San Martin again, closer up.

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Here is the ice shelf just north of Mount Fitzroy.

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And here is Mount Fitzroy.  There are a couple of views from land in my 2010 trip in this post (and also the post before).

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Mount Fitzroy, again.

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Southerrn Patagonia Icefields and Glaciar Viedma leading to Lago Viedma.  There are some distant glimpses of the glacier in this 2010 post when I was staying at Estancia Helsingfors on the shores of Lago Viedma, and some of Mount Fitroy on the previous post.

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A closer view of Glaciar Viedma.

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By now, all the people seated on the right side of the plane had gotten up and stood in the aisle, admiring the spectacular views.

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On the left is Glaciar Upsala, flowing into Braza Upsala, an arm of Lago Argentina.

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This image and the next one are at branches further south of Lago Argentina.

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This image and the next one, both mysterious, are somewhere just north of Punta Arenas.

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A wreck, probably in the Straits of Magellen.

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Still in South America, somewhere between Punta Arenas and the Falklands, not sure exactly where.

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