Window-seat views of the Andes

Callan Bentley’s post earlier today of some photos he took from the window seat on a flight from California to D.C. motivated me to take a few minutes to post some of my own window-seat photos. These are from a flight from Punta Arenas, Chile (southernmost city in Chile) to Santiago. I don’t have the time to try and figure out exactly where all these places are, but they are roughly in order from south to north. Brief captions are above each photo.

This is a few minutes after departing Punta Arenas; that body of water is Estrecho de Magallanes (Straight of Magellan).

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I was really hoping to get lucky and have a clear view of the Patagonian Ice Sheet but, alas, it was shrouded in clouds, which is typical. But … there was one small clearing in the clouds that provided a spectacular, if fleeting, glimpse of the ice cap and its glaciers.

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Further north (somewhere a bit north of Puerto Montt is my guess) I spotted this nice snow field-capped mountain.

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I’m a huge fan of river mouths, but then again, who isn’t?

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The beautiful Andes.

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The Andes has its fair share of volcanoes too — Puntiagudo at left, Osorno in the center-foreground, and Calbuco at right in the background. Many thanks to @robbstoner on Twitter for identifying these for me.

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This might be my favorite of this set of photos — the sinuous river, a beautiful river mouth, and nearby mountains. Gorgeous!

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As we started the descent into Santiago we got great views of river systems draining the Andes and making their way west across the forearc basin.

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Here’s a view a bit more zoomed in on one of these river systems.

If anyone happens to know the specific locations, names, etc. of anything shown above don’t hesitate to comment below.