Shanewilson's travel blogs:
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Excursion to Torres Del Paine
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Today I spent the better part of the day touring Torres Del Paine, one of Chile´s premier tourist attractions. To say the least, despite being amongst FIVE bloody dribbling couples (all of whom spoke Spanish except one fantastic Dutch couple... need I say more) (god I hate that but I LOVE the dutch), I thoroughly enjoyed touring the National Park. Apart from the Dutch couple, the couples were very unfriendly and made no attempt to even say hello, albeit a conversation. I have no idea where they were from, needless to say they were a bloody dismal group to tour the park with.
Firstly, I need to get this out of my system... Puerto Natales is absolutely boring. It has nothing to offer the single, independent traveller and I can´t wait to get back to civilisation (i.e. a city such as Buenos Aires). Furthermore, there are couples everywhere which turns me off big time (sorry couples reading this but I find you so boring to travel with)... Gab is right... I am city all the way, and I have no idea as to how I will return to country WA next year. This tour RTW has reinforced in me how much I love cities.
Anyway... on to the tour. The bus picked me up from my hostel at 7.30am. After picking up the couples, we left Puerto Natales at 8am. Our first stop was Milodon´s Cave Natural Monument, located 24kms from Puerto Natales... apparently, it once housed prehistoric sloths. After 30 minutes enjoying the complete information of our wonderful guide, Jose, we arrived at Cerro Castillo Village where we made a quick stop for coffee. We arrived at Torres Del Paine National park by the main entrance of Laguna Amarga where we appreciated the first and complete views of the amazing Paine towers and Paine River. The natural beauty of the landscapes bewildered me... areas like Nordenskjold and Pehoe Lakes, the Salto Grande Waterfall and Grey Lake.
We had lunch by the Grey Lake Hostery... soup, chicken, potatoes, salad and chocolate mousse... yum. After lunch we took the bus again to get to the area near Pingo River where we trekked for 1 hour to the beach area to see... wait for it... great ICEBERGS from the Grey Glacier. This was the highlight of the tour for me given that I have never seen icebergs before... it has definitely given me the appetite to go to... Antarctica! Julio informs me that you can get good last minute deals from the southern point of Chile, Ushuaia. We returned to Puerto Natales at 6pm where I went to my favourite restaurant... CHECK name (recommended by Lonely Planet)... for a scrumptious dinner of steak. But the hostel I´m staying in is absolute crap... I returned to find things scattered all over my bed that I slept in last night. I´ll just take the other spare bed thankyou. To say the least, I´m totally over hostels and I´m starting to long for home. I really don´t think I´ve made the right decision to continue travelling because I am over it and just want to lounge on a beach somewhere, whether that be Rio, Sydney´s Manley (or Bondi), Melbourne, QLD or my home town which feels so far away, PERTH.
By the way, I´ve written this under the influence of several beers so please excuse me if I´m boring or over the top etc.!!!!! More thumbnails ...
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