Puerto Natales (Patagonia)

After Punta Arenas, I took a relatively short 4-hour bus ride to Puerto Natales, the gateway to Torres del Paine.  As we were traveling, the flat plains the characterized Punta Arenas gave way to mountainous regions as we approached Puerto Natales--the gateway to Torres Del Paine.


As usual, I dragged my giant duffle bag from the bus station, checked into my hostel, and explored the town.  I came across a boat yard . . .
Although there was a sign outside of the boatyard prohibiting unauthorized entry, I entered anyway.  I walked as far as I could, and tried to walk past the guardhouse as if I belonged, but as I was walking by, the guard yelled "hey amigo."  I was caught.  He said something in Spanish, and I assumed he was asking me if I had a boat.  I just said "no."  He yelled back something that I could only surmise as saying that I cannot enter then.  I just made a sad face, put my head down, turned around, and did an ahh shucks walk back the other way.  I tried.

But there was much more to see of Puerto Natales, so I walked along the lake and saw some pretty amazing scenery.  I was definitely at the right place at the right time for these pictures.  









The next day, I decided to join a couple persons that I had met at the hostel to hike up to the tallest peak in Puerto Natales to get a nice view of the city.  It was not great weather as I had hoped, and this was the beginning of my fight with Mother Nature in Patagonia, because she rarely gave me what I wanted--sunshine.  But I still got a great view of Puerto Natales.



When I got back, the sky did clear up a tad bit, so I was able to get this nice shot of a church . . .


 That day I moved to another hostel, as the one that I was staying at was completely booked, and I had not made reservations for the next day.  This hostel would serve as my base for a few days as I went on a one-day tour and then a seven-night trek around Torres del Paine.  This hostel was owned by three sisters, the youngest one a little older than me.  During my stay, she had found out that I was an abogado (attorney), so she approached me for some legal advice, which is always a bad idea, as I know a lot of about patent law and little else.  Apparently, she had married an American and lived in Florida, and he turned out to be a bit crazy, so she pretty much left him to go back to Chile in the middle of the night without leaving forwarding contact information.  So her question was how does she find out if she is still married.  I guess one could still get on with their life without ever knowing, but yea, I could see why she wanted to find this out.  I did some quick research, and although I did not have a quick answer for her, I directed her to a few websites where they will charge a few bucks to find out this information for her.  I'm not sure if she ever did that, but if she really wanted to know, at least she has the means to find out.

At the hostel, I booked a boat tour to see a couple glaciers the next day--something I have yet to see in my life.  The weather was not great, but I did get to see this . . .







Balmaceda Glacier

Balmaceda Glacier
Balmaceda Glacier
Balmaceda Glacier
Serrano Glacier

Serrano Glacier
Serrano Glacier
Serrano Glacier

I even got to take a shot of whisky with glacier ice.  The ice was nice, but the whisky was just nasty.





. . . but the best was yet to come--Torres del Paine.

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