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Today is the big day so I was up early to do a few last minute jobs and try and pack my bad again so that it was as secure as I could make it. At around 10:30am I thanked the guys stashed my spare backpack and said my goodbyes. I had made a sign with Puerto Natales (my next destination) on it and started walking towards the exit highway on the outskirts of town. My backpack is heavy but bearable and I walked about 3km with it a nice little warm-up and the boots felt good aswell. I decided to try my luck hitchiking from the gas station and after about 40 minutes with my sign out a nice old guy pulled over and offered to take me as far as the Puerto Natales turn-off; about 30km out of town. Amazingly he could understand my bad Spanish and I could understand him quite well to. Unfortunately where I was dropped off was right alongside the water on a very flat plain and I was being bombarded by freezing cold winds and to go with that it took a good hour and a half before I got picked up. Eventually a Chilean guy and his son stopped to pick me up- amazingly I didn't even have my thumb out as I was putting on my clothes but they stopped anyway. They were so nice and as the son was studying English he could speak English very well and had a heap of questions for me which was great and the father could understand me aswell. It wasn't long before I fell asleep in the warm car and only woke 2 hours later when we were arriving in Puerto Natales. I thanked my new friends and then went for a bit of a walk around the town which seems quite interesting. By about 6pm I made my way to Gloria's Couchsurfing house and was met by Gloria and her wonderful family and the 15 other Couchsurfers staying at the house. It really is incredible what she has here and how she brings so many like-minded people together and saves us all money at the same time. Gloria and her children don't speak English and their Spanish is very hard for me to understand but we had an amazing afternoon hanging out, laughing and enjoying one another's company. Gloria took a bunch of us to the supermarket where we brought some supplies and then I said goodbye and went for more of a look around the town. They were cooking dinner at the house tonight like they do every night for all the guests but as the main part was rice I explained I would get myself something for dinner on the way back. When I arrived back the house was full and a buzz with energy and good vibes, most people only spoke Spanish so a great opportunity for me to practice my Spanish. I met some very interesting people, got some great tips about the trek and worked out what route i might take. In the end there was so many people in the house three of us had to sleep on mattresses out in the living room - which was no problem and I got to sleep with the puppy that had taken a fancy to me.
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