Wednesday, March 4We were greeted by a taxi at 8am to take us to the airport for a 10am flight. All 4 of us piled into a small cab with all four giant hiking backpacks and we ran into a minor problem. We had too much weight for the car. We were bottoming out on the smallest cracks in the road and then we approached a speed bump and literally got stuck on the bump. The front wheels made it over, but then the frame of the car got wedged on the bump and we weren’t moving. After a whole lot of coaxing and scraping the driver made it over , but we had to change cars. He called in a van so that we could make it to the airport without ruining his car.
We finally made it to the airport, and our flight was on time, 
scheduled to land in Punta Arenas at 2pm. We made it to Punta Arenas and immediately got hassled by a tour guide operator who was trying to give us a “deal” on a bus to Puerto Natales. His deal was a complete scam and we told him to beat it. Our bus arrived and 3 hours later we arrived in the town of Puerto Natales…the launching pad to Torres del Paine. We found a cheap hostel called Magellania that had beds for everyone and included breakfast in the morning. It was nothing special, but did the trick.
scheduled to land in Punta Arenas at 2pm. We made it to Punta Arenas and immediately got hassled by a tour guide operator who was trying to give us a “deal” on a bus to Puerto Natales. His deal was a complete scam and we told him to beat it. Our bus arrived and 3 hours later we arrived in the town of Puerto Natales…the launching pad to Torres del Paine. We found a cheap hostel called Magellania that had beds for everyone and included breakfast in the morning. It was nothing special, but did the trick. We spent the rest of the evening exploring the town and picking up some final supplies for the hike. I was having a serious mental battle about my sleeping bag and the quality, or lack there of. It wasn’t sitting well with me that I might be freezing at night, so I searched around a bit for sleeping bags. This probably wasn’t the best place to look because everything was most likely marked up for people just like me looking for last minute supplies before they head off to Torres del Paine. Luckily, I found a quality sleeping bag for a decent price that was rated to -10 degrees Celsius. I was very happy with the purchase and felt at ease now, not having to worry about being comfortable at night.
We cooked an American dinner of hamburgers and tomato salad before rearranging our backpacks for the hike tomorrow. We split up the food and camping equipment, and everyone made their giant bags of GORP. After squaring everything away, we got to bed just after midnight. It was a bit later than we had planned because the bus to the park was picking us up at 7am, but it was another 3 hr bus ride so we will have time to catch up on sleep.
Whoa Alex some serious blogging catch-up! It's fun to read through it and remember our adventures... Don't forget to include who almost caught the first fish in Llanquihue!!!
ReplyDeleteMiss you guys lots.