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So we have to keep telling ourselves, we are lucky to be on this bus with our calamity of the previous day.... Yes you've guessed it we have the 2 back seats that don't recline and are next to the toilet....... Thankfully everyone kept yesterday' s tea inside of them and the lads in front did not feel the need to recline their seats on top of us, which is literally what would have happened... I have to say when you're used to long flights these long bus journeys are a pleasure.... Comfy seats, great views out the big windows, regular stops to get off and stretch your legs (even if you have to go through the pain of lugging your bags through a border crossing and giving up a few of our 5 a day) our journey even had an open air ferry crossing across the straights of Magellan.... And the sun was out, so you can't ask for more than that!!11 hours in, an hour ahead of schedule we arrived at Punta Arenas and chilled out in the sun waiting for our bus to Puerto Natales, our gateway to Torres del Paine..... 3.5 hour journey on an uber plush double decker with seats that fully reclined.... Check us out..... Not that we needed them as we got chatting with a lovely French lad who sat across the isle from us, who saw us struggling with our Spanish (that's what we spent the whole of our journey doing, trying to teach ourselves the lingo......) and he offered to help us..... He was great, a botanist who worked in the Pyrenees. The other person that made this journey so memorable was the bus host if that's what you call them? He was so attentive looking after everyone, interacting and genuinely a lovely helpful person, he was also completely dumb, which reminded me that we shouldn't stress about not knowling the words and focus on the non verbals... After all the words you speak only make up 7% of communication... But considering one of my goals is to be fluent in spanish after 6 months, I best keep trying..... Finally arrived into Puerto Natales at 10.30pm and got to our hostel just before 11pm... More of a home this one with bedrooms let out.... Hostel al Patagonco on O Higgins.... Can't fault the hosts Andres and Monika... Spot on! They'd arranged a whistle stop tour of Torres del Paine for us, as, after our little bus hiccup we only had 1 day to see one if the must sees in South America....... and boy did it not disappoint....We were picked up just before 8am and didn't arrive back until 6pm, it was a little cramped in the mini bus and Jon was at the front and me at the back as we were the last pick up but nothing could spoil this day....This is claimed to be South Americ's finest national park... It really does have everything from Pumas to Magellan Woodpeckers with their red crested feathered heads.... to Condors....and of course lots and lots of guanacos.... As far as that lot all goes we saw them all bar, you guessed it... The puma..... Most people come here to do the infamous W trek, which takes 4/5 days and involves the dreaded 'C' word...... And some hard core nuts do the circuit, which is double...... Our day got us to all those great views of lago grey and glacier, mirador las Torres, Valle Frances with much less effort..... Plus a thundering water fall for good measure and some outstanding caves that cost £4 to go into ....bargain! There were a couple of hikes during the day but nothing too strenuous, however fighting the wind back from the glacier view point wasn't for the faint hearted and was easy an hour and fifteen round trip.....Highlight was Jon spotting the red crested woodpecker - the Magellan....on the way back and it was quiet so we could watch him for a while, which was lovely......He does reckons though that we're giving up on glaciers if I remain to be unimpressed when we see glacier Perito Moreno in El Calafate later next week....Glacier Grey was something to see when you could see the whole picture, which you only get if you walk all the way out as we did.... If you can picture a huge frozen elevated river that is so stark it looks like it has been frozen on the spot if that makes sense and 100s of meters away from it, large blue blocks of Ice likes mini ice bergs just sit there in the river.... It really is something to see.... So all in all a great day out and again the weather was kind to us, although bitter with the wind at times.... The really sad thing about this park is that it's just suffered another big fire, because some idiot decided to burn his toilet paper rather than take it back with him as he should have...The fire started on the 26th December and is still burning underground in places.... The park in total is 181,000 hectares and 17,000 have been destroyed...... He got a fine!!!!!Can you believe it!!! So after a full day we returned back, confirmed our bus and went out for some well earned solid grub and a cheeky bevie!!The winds howled last night and the rain poured.... Shame we weren't in a tent eh doing the 'W' Trek!!! Hasta Luego Michelle and Jon

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