Lomito’s

We’ve pretty much checked all the boxes Punta Arenas has to offer, so our flight to Easter Island has come at just the right time (figuratively anyway, as the 1:30am departure time isn’t exactly a sweet spot). With the afternoon to kill, we wander back through town, stopping at all the “handmade” craft stalls, snacking on some empanadas, and watching street performers in the park. The unequivocal highlight however is our lunch stop.

While Chile lacks the infamous Lomo Completo, they do have a signature sandwich called the Lomito. It’s pork rather than beef, so seems a little less exciting, but is something we have been keeping an eye out for. And what better place to give it a try than this one:

We get two seats at the counter where we can watch the chefs work their magic. They’ve got the process down to an art, and in just a few minutes, we’re staring down this tasty looking creation:

It’s a pile of grilled pork, lettuce, tomato, mild sauerkraut, and the obligatory heavy dose of mayo (which comes in bags here so that you can just cut off the corner and squeeze it on everything). Fortunately, I’m splitting one with my trusty travel companion, as it’s far more than a meal, but so delicious that you would just keep eating until it was gone.

We’re more than stuffed as we head back to the apartment to collect our bags. Given our well-planned red-eye to Santiago, followed by a five hour flight to Easter Island, we figure we may as well set up camp in the airport lounge and work through some emails.

There’s not much more to the place than a couple of small areas connected by a shared bathroom, and a counter with a few bowls of banana chips and dried fruit. The hand dryer is very loud, and every few minutes dutifully announces that someone has completed their business. The puzzle I can’t solve is how the guy I watch walk out and then dig his hand into the banana chips, muffled the sound of dryer so much that I couldn’t hear it at all.

On an unrelated note, I have a bag of banana chips from the Punta Arenas airport if anyone wants to try them.