Puerto Natales & Torres del Paine

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We arrived in Natales pretty tired after 7 hours on the bus.  It had not been a bad journey but a little uncomfy at times as the seats were the standard type.

We were booked into Erratic Rock 2 hostel, which catered for couples only.  It was a god hostel but the walls were made of paper it seemed!  Luckily peopl seemed to respect the 11pm no noise rule in general, so we were able to get some sleep. The owners were really helpful too and they had a good house and kitchen as well as a very good breakfast.

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Puerto Natales is pretty much a hikers / trekkers town.  It is the main launch pad for Torres del Paine which is pretty much one of the most revered walking spaces on the planet.  The park is massive and the walks on offer can only be done in 6 to 10 days and involved camping in the cold.  We did not have this time nor the equipment to do this.  Plus trekking all day for 10 days was not something we had come on holiday for!  So we looked at some of the day excursions, but these were big buses just stoppign at view points in the park, everyone trudging off the bus, taking photos and getting back on.

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This did not appeal to us too much so we arranged to hire a 4x4 jeep when we realised it was only 7.50 pounds each per day compared to the tour.  Basically the tour was 18,000 peso each, 15,000 to get into the park and then buying lunch etc added up.  Our jeep was 45,000 per day so not a long way more expensive plus we would have the freedom to do what we wanted.

So the next day we headed out at approx 9am to the national park, sometime after all the buses leave for the park so we would not encounter too much traffic on the way.  We drove for 20km on good roads and then we were glad we had hired a proper jeep as the roads turned to gravel and hard mud.  We had been offered the hostel owners jeep at 35,000 peso per day but realised there was no insurance included and the jeep was pretty old, so we decided to go to a proper hire company.

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After a hour and a half of driving we reached the park, it is set pretty far out and it a long ride in the car let alone in the bus.  We both had turns driving the jeep, a first for Bex in a 4x4 which was fun.  We had a good picnic on a laguna looking up at the peaks and drove some of the roads near the peaks that the buses could not reach.  One road took us to the main starting point of the treks that involved a really narrow bridge crossing.  This involved folding in the door mirrors and both of us looking out of the windows as I carefully guided the jeep across.  We also stepped out for some shortish walks in the afternoon after lunch, this was pretty thrilling as the views of the mountains and the glaciers were very good.  Also the wind was really strong and at times it would whip up the gravel off the roads and pepper you with stinging stones, something you had to turn you back too unless you wanted to receive some sharp stones in the eyes.