Hotel Indigo Patagonia Puerto Natales

... the time our lift turned up the rain and wind seemed to have stopped. There was only the three of us on the trip to Parque National Torres del Paine, therefore we had complete control over what we wanted to do. Torres del Paine is the continent's number one national park and is 112km north of Puerto Natales via a decent but sometimes bumpy gravel road. Due to the time of year we were visiting along with the limited time we had, we decided upon a day trip ...

... 1 "The Grande Circuit - This trek is the longest, with varying grades of difficulty, and passes through the wonderland of craggy, granite peaks, snow clad mountains, glacier-fed lakes, waterfalls and rivers, pampas and thick Magellanic forests. " 2. "Trekkers and backpackers should have experience with rough country, and climbers must have experience with ice and snow climbing. Be prepared for bad weather to interrupt your itinerary. Flexible planning is necessary." 3 ...

... leaving the tent behind so we could return to it at the end of the day (what a big<br>mistake!). In doing so, the risk was that we would only have one chance to see the towers as we wouldn&#8217;t be able to return for sunrise. It was already a cloudy day but we prayed it would clear by the time we reached the top. It didn&#8217;t. I was not happy. The picture of the towers<br>(the one I was saving my camera battery for) ended up being me standing next to the sign at the top ...

... as well as some emus and a few foxes. A bit of research told us that there was a great boat trip to Grey Glacier that we could take leaving from the Grey Hosteria at 2pm. Leaving Puerto Natales at about 10am, we figured we would have plenty of time to get there. We hadn't counted on the poor state of the dirt roads, nor on taking the long route or on our frequent photo stops, so we ended up rushing a bit to make it there just in time. As it turned out, 2pm was on Chilean time ...

... and I was too close to the max of my budget with the cost of life there. So sadly I had to give it all up. But it gave me a chance to talk with people coming back from the Torres park telling horror stories about the weather. I didn't feel like getting wet, and anyway I don't have a tent nor camping gear, so I decided to only do an organized tour the next day. We started with the Mylodon Cave, where remnants of that gigantic sloth were found. It's a huge cave, an in ...

... all the way for. After a travel/rest day, we headed to the Moreno Glacier. The two Dutchies went down to Ushuaia so only Jesse and I went across to Argentina. Ushuaia was orginally on my iteniary but running out of time to get to Rio and a trip down would cost me something like 5 days. The Moreno Glacier is world famous for being the only non retreating glacier in the world (I wonder about that stat though - a bit hard to believe) and also for the way huge chunks ...

... I got the bike thru. I needed a new rear sproket and chain and was going to try and get one sent down once I got to El Calafate but the guys had one on board so I went to there hotel and changed it with the help of the mechanic and by the time it was done it was around 4.00pm time for cerveza's with the guys in the tour, so that was it book in the same hotel and stay the night, it was the shortest distance I have travelled in a day since I started, bloody poms.

... the rain had slowed down but the skies were still cloudy. We realized at this point that the one smaller tent was far warmer and Teresa and Frizo awoke refreshed and warm where as I was cold and tired. To add to my disappointment the only thing we had for breakfast, at the suggestion of an experienced trekker was a watery cup of soup, not enough! So we set off hungry, wet, tired and cold back tracking 5 hours to the refugio where we needed to then continue ...

... take a mini van to the hostelria and then climb up to the towers and back) and sucked in one last panoramic view before we headed down to the plains below. <br><br> <br><br>When we reached the bottom 45 minutes later I took a quick snap of the park itself, see if you can make out the "W" trail in ...

... people from our table on the boat were just arriving in town and got their driver to beep us! Small world!<br><br>The hotel was basic and given the prices we paid in other places may have been over priced for what it was but then it has a captive audience of people on the way to Torres Del Paine. <br><br>We had a look around town and found a lovely sandwich/coffee bar which sold ...