All good things

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Despite the relative extravagance of our room I had a rubbish sleep. The wind was back and rocked the room from side to side. I was less than impressed, and my thoughts wandered onto our variety of transport methods to take us out of the park.

Generally speaking its naff leaving somewhere when you've had a brilliant time. In anticipation of the onset of melancholy caused by leaving torres del paine our exit from the park was intended to be somewhat entertaining. Initlally we were to take a zodiac ride past the serano glacier before another boat would take us onto Puerto natales and finally a public bus (perish the thought) to Puerto Natales.

At breakfast we were told the boat wasn't sailing beacuse of the wind, neither was the zodiac. So it was a bus all the way. Then the zodiac was back on. But no boat. Not to worry they said it'd all be sorted and somehow we'd get to Natales in good time. I didn't believe them but wasn't in a position to argue.

Off we went to the zodiac ride which commenced by wearing massive bright orange coats which were more like sleeping bags. So big were they that we lost the wife for a full hour, it was the quietest hour of the trip. The boat ride was good fun and a nice way to exit the park. The rain and sun created some good rainbow action.

We had booked an english speaking trip because our spanish is rubbish. Now i'm a little cynical but this is how the conversation generally went. We got to the glacier and the spanish explanation took about 5 or 6 mins. Then for the english the chap pointed at the glacier and said 'serano glacier'! Cheers for that mate.

Serano glacier was indeed quite impressive, descending steeply from the hillside down to the river. Quick tourist walk few photos, lovely. Then off for some dinner at a random hostel type place. Where commenced much excitement again all in spanish. Fortunately by this point we had befriended a chilean family who acted as translators for us and informed us of a little local history and that the boat would now be sailing to Puerto Natales. Tres bien i said - dripping with irony, to the delight inevitably of no-one but myself.

The boat ride was a sedate but emmanently pleasant affair. Cruising past a seemingly inifinite number of impressive peaks. The scale of this area of wilderness is quite a sight when compared to the cramped nature of the UK. We got our final views of Torres del Paine and reminisced with intense fondness of a cracking walking trip.

Upon docking at Natales the usual confusion arose and we ended up following on blindly in hope of retreiving our bags and getting the bus. Fortunately our newly found Chilean guardian angels rescued us, got our bags and sorted out a change of bus so we could get to Puntas Arenas early. Genuinely they were absolutely brilliant, we'd have been stuffed without them.

The bus ride was comfy and the slowly setting sun provided sufficient entertainment along with the Alan Partridge radio series - genius.

Our hotel at Puntas arenas was largely unspectacular aside from the cannon on the front lawn - impressive. Further interest was the rug in the hall which was exactly like my grandmas and a large clock in reception precisely like Nana's - i was until this point unaware of my family's exotic south american taste in furniture - interesting.

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