Hotel Lady Florence Dixie Puerto Natales

... El Calafate), waterfalls and lakes all the while snow flurries going on in the gale force winds outside proved a good day out after all our griping about the price to begin with. Also from the warmth of the bus we were lucky to see some Condors in flight and Guanaco´s grazing on the road side. 2 of the so called Patagonian big 5.<br><br>It was upon our return that we were met by the joyful hostel owner ...

... relaxed so much to enjoy a nice cup of tea by the river side with our lunch... Once again, naivety had the last laugh as we being the first to leave (out of 3 groups), we were now over taken and sitting last with what we thought was only 1 hour to go turned into a few more, so a total of 6.5 hours. Our spirits, once again, were crushed and likewise were our quad and calf muscles. We made it to Los Perros, the last night before the famous "John Gardner" pass (climb to ...

... The toilets and showers were clean. There was a small bar with tatty old sofas and a canteen where they served the 3 meals a day which were included in the price of the trip. I didn't think the food was too bad although bland would probably be a fair criticism. But that can really be said for all Chilean food, they don't really use herbs and spices and for anyone that likes spicy food it is a massive disappointment. It is even worse as a vegetarian because it is a nation of meat ...

After our 26 hour bus ride we had an overnight stop in El Calafate. This is the main transport hub to get to El Chaltan and Puerto Natales so we´ll have a few visits here as we transfer in and out of the different Patagonian towns. An early bus ride the next day took us for 6 hours across the border back into Chile. This is a much stricter border crossing. Fortunately we declared Chantal´s new dream catcher which was confiscated (due to a fir cone); as a friend got ...

... du restaurant et donnait fortement envie d'y goûter quand nous étions passé devant... Un vrai délice!!! J'ai tout de même dû un peu rouspéter car au départ, je n'avais reçu que des côtes mais la serveuse a vite arrangé cela. Nous rentrons ensuite à l'hôtel pour préparer nos sacs à dos et laisser le superflu dans un casier sécurisé de l'hostel. Nous nous mettons au lit sans tarder car le bus vient nous chercher à l'hostel à 7h30 le lendemain matin.

... back up hill again as we slogged up the final push to the camp site. Once there you could tell this was the popular bit as the campsite although small was packed. We squeezed in, it felt like we were at a music festival as the tents were so tightly packed. We got ourselves a well earned shower as the weather by now was not windy and there was a blazing sun in the sky. Once clean we were in for the night. Next morning we weren´t too quick off the block as we ...

... us to find a doctor. We searched the site and about 5 of us went running up to the top in 20 minutes. I had a sleeping bag and hot water and other volunteers had first aid kits and anything they thought might help. We found Mick up and over the other side of the summit in bad condition. He was conscious but very confused. I was unable to get close because the amount of blood was a bit much for me. He had hit his head and was bleeding a lot and was lying down ...

... main hall to eat some food, warm up and dry off. We went in, made some food, had some hot tea, and try to wait out the weather. The rain had picked up and we were quite thoroughly soaked and could not see any part of the mountain. There were probably another 20 people who had similar thoughts to ours, just waiting out the weather. At one point, a small break in the clouds appeared and we ran out to get a quick picture of the towers, barely visible through ...

... this magnificent Torres del Paine national park behind us... <br><br> <br><br>Then it was back into the REAL Patagonia, which is extremely flat, with only the odd hint of mountains or anything interesting! <br><br> <br><br>We got home about 5pm, checked back into our hostel and I had to stop myself ...

... hostel first and there was a new girl working behind the desk who was as incompetent as she was American. <br><br>I swear that I could have helped people more if I'd hopped over the counter instead knowing nothing about the place; she was absolutely hopeless. <br><br>Sample conversation: <br><br>"Hi, we're staying at the Erratic Rock 2 hostel but we don't know the address, can you tell us how to get there please ?" <br>"Errrrr, like, errrr..... no." <br ...