Wednesday15th December-Sunday 19th December 2010
The bus trip to Puerto Natales takes 3 hours. At the hostel we met two Dutch people who had cycled from Peru! It was very windy and cold and the town is full of hostels and restaurants all to service people wanting to visit Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Our hostel Nico´s 2 adventures was absolutely fine. All provisions for this town come from Puerto Montt on the Navimag ferry ( one per week) so the locals say everything is expensive.
We took the day trip to Torres del Paine, 2 1/2 hours away on the bus. The park is geared up for trekkers staying overnight in dorms for 90USD per person plus park entrance fees and transfers. We determined that we were neither fit enough of rich enough to do the standard 3 day , stay in the park, trek.
The weather was also a determining factor as it was really windy and the peaks were only visible from time to time. The lakes were stunning and turquoise in colour except Lake Grey which was grey. Fair enough? However in lake Grey there were blue icebergs from the Grey Glacier. We saw a condor, an armadillo, lots of choikes and lots of guanacos. We also went to a brilliant waterfall where the winds were so strong that we could barely stand up. We must have been outdoors for most of the day because we slept solidly on the coach on the way back.
Our new found friends Mal and Linda came round and we ended up in a cheap restaurant that they had found. A 3 course dinner was less than GBP4 and a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc was 3 times that amount. You win some and you lose some.
Nest day, Ianne´s birthday we wandered round town and visited the Tourist Office. Our suspicions were confirmed that really Puerto Natales exists only to service the Torres del Paine Park. The Navimag Ferry coming in every Monday, we will be taking to Puerto Montt (through the fjords and with smelly cows on board) in early January. Got the Blog up to date for Ushuaia. We went to restaurant Afrigonia to celebrate Ianne´s birthday with Mal and Linda. Excellent food and somehow we managed to consume 4 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. We asked for the chicken curry to be spiced up. It was! Hot stuff. We later found out that this was the best restaurant in PN and we found out about it from a Canadian Guy in Ushuaia. If you visit PN it is well worth blowing your budget to bits with a visit.
On the Sunday the hostel still gave us breakfast even though we appeared at 10.30. Considering we are paying GBP 23 for en suite facilities we are being treated regally. Weather a little warmer and got the blog done as far as Punta Arenas.
We talked with an Israeli couple where she had broken her nose by falling over (totally sober) outside a restaurant with a heavy back pack on. She had to go to Punta Arenas for an X ray because although there was an X ray machine in PN they could not use it until Monday and this was Friday night. The moral of the story is...only break your nose in PN from Monday onwards. The hostal was preparing a parilla for the daughter´s birthday. A very large lamb was sawed in half with a saw in the kitchen.
Summary of Puerto Natales. Torres del Paine. Torres del Paine and Torres del Paine. Next stop, El Calafate.
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