Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Fresh from our el chalten trekking adventure we headed to Puerto Natales, a town close to Torres Del Paine national park. From el chalten we had the wonderful experience of the Chilean border crossing which consisted of a long bus journey on a gravel road and a border crossing in the middle of nowhere. The only highlight being frequent beeps from the bus driver to warn off lots of guanco's, basically a Chilean lama.
We stayed at the singing lamb hostel which is more of a hotel than hostel with huge rooms and really nice common areas. Puerto Natales doesn't have much in the way of things to do but is mostly used as a stop off before or after hiking around the national park. The popular route for hikers in Torres Del Paine is called the w which takes about 5 days. There is also the O and the Q which take longer and are for more keen hikers i.e. definitely not us. Due to time restraints and our lack of trekking planning we decided to do a day tour arranged through the hostel. It consisted of driving to the park (about 2 hours each way) and then stopping at different viewpoints within the park. We were very lucky with the weather and were greeted with increasingly picturesque views at every stop which honestly took our breath away. The trip was more than worth it and we could see why people flock to hike it, feeling a little guilty being driven around rather than hiking (flashpackers you say). The tour finished at Milodon Cave where lots of extinct animal bones have been found. It was pretty average and not really worth going just to see.
The trip to Chilean Patagonia which we originally hadn't planned had given us food for thought for coming back and seeing it properly. If are thinking of visiting South America and think Patagonia is too expensive, do it. It more than makes up for it.
- comments