Blogs from Torres del Paine, Magallanes, Chile, South America - page 41

After a one night stop-over in Rio Gallegos way down on the Atlantic side of southern Patagonia, we caught the bus over the border to Chile (best bus ride yet with the energetic, helpful bus assistant who made me turn over my salami though at the border crossing- boo hoo), passing through lovely Punta Arenas (the outskirts of town reminded us of Mendocino in CA) and on to Puerto Natales- the jumping off point for our fabulous no-guide 3 day tour/trek through Parc Nacional Torres Del Paine. The torres are towers, and we are talking Lord of the Rings, Mordor-type towers! These craggy mountain towers are surrounded by glacier lakes of colors you never see- milky grey and aquamarine/turquoise. Somehow we booked a trek-tour through an agency and we never spoke to our agent or met ... read more

While down in the south of Argentina we took a trip to Chilean Patagonia to see the Torres del Paine, part of a montain range in the southern Andes.... read more

I've decided to open the museum of blistered feet with my own feet as the key exhibit. I think at this point in time my feet are actually more blisters than skin, and I also think that my boots are somehow not going to find their way back to Australia. I used to love Scarpa boots, now I'd love to hire a terrorist to blow their factories up. However, I more than survived our five days walking the 'W' in Torres Del Paine, I loved it, we had near perfect weather the whole trip, the views were magnificent and it was another real highlight. I'm sure that there are hundreds of descriptions of the walk out there, so I won't bore anyone with details of the route other than to say that if I had taken ... read more

After another wobbly, 5 hour long journey back to El Calafate, we only had a couple of hours to spare before our next bus; this one would take us through the border into Chile, and our next destination, the small town of Puerto Natales. As we were arriving quite late (11pm), we had decided to book accommodation ahead. It wouldn’t have been necessary; as soon as we stepped off the coach somebody offered us a room in a hostel. This has happened a few times already, and we wonder why is it that whenever you need accommodation nobody harasses you, and when you don’t there’s always at least one punter trying to get you to his hotel?!? Anyway, we later came to wish we had risked it. The place we had booked via the internet proved ... read more

Found an old triplog journal, slowly converting these to blogs. Seno Ultimate Esperanza (Last Hope Sound), the name evokes the feeling of somewhere desolate yet exotic. Arriving around 9 pm, the sun was still shining throught he clouds and illuminating the mountains around the sleepy town of Puerto Natales. Now overrun with tourists, travel agencies and Internet access, this once-remote town is now easily accessible from Santiago i less than a day. The town still retains some of its character with brightly colored metal-clad houses. dec 02 - Enroute to Puerto Natales It's been an eventful 24 hours, all traveling and still have an hour to go. Arrived at the airport yesterday to find that the first leg of my 5 flights was delayed, not a good sign. We ended up leaving nearly an hour late, ... read more