Hostal Chorrillos Puerto Natales

... vaarden. Van een afstand nog een walvis gezien, maar niet meer dan de waterfontijn om de paar minuten. Er waren ook nog dolfijnen gesignaleerd maar die heb ik helaas gemist. Heb ik nog wat om naar uit te kijken. Speciaal voor de passagiers (het is eigenlijk een vrachtschip) zijn we naar een gletsjer (Pio XI) gevaren die in zee uitmond. Daar braken dus stukken ijs af die ...

... to spare either side). Buses are cheaper and flying is faster but well worth the money. The boat arrives in Puerto Natales, which is a small isolated town that heavily relies on tourism - mainly for the Torres del Paine national park. The hostel I stayed at provides daily talks at 3pm to explain all you need to know about the park. Listening to this talk I realised how underprepared I was - in terms of gear, clothes ...

... the same man by some miracle walks sober out of the police station and down the street. Wish i knew that miracle cure for drunkeness.<br>Eventually Dave plucks up to go over to the Police station to ask in his worst broken spanish can we go inside to stay in the warm. they we so helpful and we were so happy to be back in the warm.. even though it was a plocie station.. We eventually got our bus the next day across the border to Chile and Purto natales. What a journey!

... on the next section. With two down, one to go and 3.5 hours hours of daylight between us and a warmish shower, roof and possibly a bed we decided to push on and do the whole western side of the course (21km, and a few climbs) in a day. This tested us further as we again found ourselves racing against the clock. Our walk changed to a brisk jog trying to avoid camping in the vicious winds. We reached Paine Grande only a few minutes before sundown, paid for a dorm ...

... to Torres del Paine. Punta Arenas is the capital of Chilean Patagonia, and one of the southernmost cities in the world, at a latitude of 53 degrees south. It's about as close to Antarctica as I'm likely to get in the near future. While the city has a considerable amount of tourism, its main industries are oil, shipping, agriculture and fishing, giving the city a sort of industrial feel. The landscape around it is extremely remote. It really does ...

... bus and pulling into town, we were struck at just how much the landscape had changed, as the rolling brown hills gave way to dark grey mountains and the quiet Seno de Ultima Esperanza, the Sound of Last Hope. After checking into a beautiful hostel right in the centre of town, we headed out to get organized, and began a mad dash around town to purchase fuel and food for our trip, including peanut butter, which we were lucky enough to find. It ...

... some TV in English with Spanish subtitles, then went to sleep. We board our boat tonight to sail through the Patagonian channels for the next four days... we're really excited about seeing more dramatic Patagonia landscapes... this time, fjords! Chances are we won't have internet access from the boat, so we'll email again when we arrive in Puerto Montt on Monday. We realize this entry is a bit boring... please forgive us... we're exhausted.

... house. We arranged to rent some equipment and got tickets to head to Parque National Torres del Paine. Most people do a 5-6 day trek knows as the 'W', so named because of the shape of the route. We were just going to do the right most '/' part of the W to the main look out of the three magnificent granite towers.

... 2 hours watching for free. Not sure what it was about but along the lines of political oppression. I also got caught up with autograph hunters but I am not sure who was the star, a funny situation really. Good looking actor anyway. I took an overnight bus to Puerto Montt and luxury all the way. I paid for a Cama (bed), whereby the chair pulls down to a bed, I also had TV, radio and breakfast. So when I woke in the morning rather than feeling terrible I felt refreshed for the ...

We'd planned to use today as a rest day to rest our aching bodies after the 4 day trek, but what we HADN'T planned for was a deafening house party going through the night, denying us any sleep whatsoever. <br><br>We both lay there with quilts and pillows over our heads to block out the noise, but it was useless. <br><br>The racket eventually stopped at about 8am and we struggled out of bed with heavy eyes and dark moods, before going to get some breakfast. <br><br>We ...