Punta Arenas and Puerto Natalies

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We are finally beginning to come to life again after a week of suffering from the affects of Jet Lag!! We had many sleepless nights and exhausting days but our body clocks are finally adjusting and were raring to get exploring again 😊

After our 2nd little trip to Santiago we were on the move again. We hauled our bags on the metro and headed to the bus station and took a bus to the airport. We were both pretty excited as our next stop was Patagonia!! We had booked our flight with Sky Airlines and we had to make a stop in Puerto Montt before finally arriving in Punta Arenas. The flight was not the nicest we have had to endure.....it seemed the pilot thought his controls kept sticking and so he continuously felt the need to throw the plane around for no apparent reason. It wasn't turbulence, we defo know what that feels like but this was just a pilot who liked to be very hard on the controls. On our approach into Punta Arenas we were very low and we could all see the runway out the windows on our right and the sea out the windows to our left. Just when it looked like we were going to fly right past the runway the pilot tipped the whole plane to the right and everyone on the plane were saying prayers aloud!! We were very very close to the water at this point and he then threw us back level again and then proceeded to put more power in so it felt like he may go around again before jolting us forward again and landing very abruptly. All of the passengers burst into a round of applause and cheering, thanking our lucky stars we were finally on the ground and still alive haha we can safely say we will never be flying with Sky Airlines again that's for sure!!!

We took a shared mini bus from the airport to our hostel Hospedaja Costonera which was one of the nicest places we have stayed. It was run by a family who did not have much english but we managed to communicate well with the use of our phrase book and some sign language haha it was a small hostel but we met some really lovely people there. On our first night we headed out for some food and headed to a place called Lomits which is recommended in the Lonely Planet and we were so glad we did. It was a very cool American style Diner that was full of tourists and locals all tucking into amazing burgers! It was just what the doctor ordered beers, pepsi and yummy burgers after a terrifying flight!! The town is very small but full of character with beautiful markets and cafes such as 'Chocolate' where we had lunch one day which consisted of ham & cheese toasties, pots of tea and brownies!! yummy 😊

We stayed here for 3 nights and then we took a bus to Puerto Natales. The bus was fab! Huge leather seats with foot rests and the seats reclined really far back 😊 Was a nice change from most of the buses we have taken in the past few months. We had booked into another small hostel called the Tin House. This hostel only had 2 double rooms and 1 4 bed dorm. But it was fab. The owner Sarah was American and full of information. Sarah was so helpful, she booked bus tickets for us, ordered us pizzas, did our laundry for us and even booked us into another lovely hostel when we realised we needed another night and she was fully booked. During our time here we wrapped up warm and wandered around the town. We also booked a day trip in the Torres Del Paine National Park. We were picked up at 7am and our guide was very good. He spoke Spanish, English and Italian so everyone on the bus was happy and knew what was happening 😊 It was a good 2 hour drive until we got to the park but the views were spectacular and we were greeted with so much wildlife it was amazing. It was an extremely windy day and at some look out points our driver advised us not to leave the bus and to take our pictures from inside. Many people go trekking in the park taking the famous W route which can take 5 days or the full circuit which takes 10days. We were very glad we had not been brave enough to take on the challenge as the weather would have been awful and trying to hike in those winds with all of our camping gear and food would have resulted in tears haha. We stopped off at many look out points which included the famous Towers. Our favourite part of the day was a walk across a 1k wide sandbar in ridiculas winds but was so worth it when we got sooooo close to some amazing ice bergs! The colours were unreal. Unfortunately we spent a LOT of time taking pictures on our way to the look out point that we had to race back to the bus before it left without us which was a stuggle runnng through sand in 80k winds haha we slept on the bus until we arrived at our final stop the Miloden cave where a type of extinct bear was found. When we arrived back to the hostel we were exhausted. We went for a yummy meal and then headed back for hot showers and an early night. Tomorrow we head to El Calafate our first stop in Argentina and we are very excited 😊 xxx

Chat soon,

Laura & Ian xxxx

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

ENJOY PATAGONIA
I didn't think there was a worse airline than Aero Lineas...but you found one. Isn't it nice when the clapping on landing is sincere! Enjoy Patagonia. I reckon it's the most beautiful place in the World.

[Dancing Dave]

Torres del Paine
Gotta luv it