The next few days we spent traveling to Puerto Natales. We flew out of Puerto Montt with a bit of difficulty since we had problems buying flights online. We stayed in the airport for most of the day waiting for a flight to Punta Arenas. Darren met 2 Aussies on the flight; and where I sat (further back), I met nobody. I was pretty tired by the time we arrived in Punta Arenas, but we still had to find a hostel. This proved to be challenging since we ended up getting in so late; however, the hostel we found with vacancy had a very delicious scent of baking bread (Hostal Bustamante). We chose to find a bus the following afternoon to Puerto Natales.

The following day in Punta Arenas, Darren and I strolled along the coastline while watching cruise ships and cormorants. The weather was overcast and the streets we uneventful. Darren walked around in shorts and had quite a few spectators due to the cold weather; even Darren admitted to being cold. We ran into the closest bar which was musty smelling, but blared the sweet tunes of the 80s. Darren was in love at this run-down joint.

We loaded the bus for Puerto Natales in the mid-afternoon. We passed fields of sheep and even saw some sheep being herded to greener pastures. We must have passed over 1000 sheep in this herd; they cluttered the ditch for a kilometer or two. In this impressive herd, there were only about 5 people on horses - outstanding. Along the roadside, we also saw rheas. Rheas are birds that look like ostriches, but are smaller and are wild here. They look quite funny when they run.

We arrived in Puerto Natales, and here at Hostel Nancy we find the 2 Aussies that Darren made friends with on the plane - Ross and Hunter. We later have drinks with them at Base Camp and we helped them celebrate Australia Day. They were heading onto the W-trek one day before us.

The next day we prepare for our 4 or 5 day trek. I cozy up to a warm rock massage, which is quite similar to a massage at home. This was one of the first times that I was away from Darren and it was quite peaceful. With Darren, we wondered the streets and saw plenty of outdoor stores and advertisements for excursions from sea kayaking to tours to horseback riding.

We went to bed that night hoping that we were ready for another long hike and we were really hoping that it would be much easier than our last hike.