Chile - Puerto Natales

We flew into Punto Arenas from Santiago on a rescheduled (again) flight which was further delayed by about 40 minutes. This would have been no problem except being the super organised person I am I had pre- booked a bus direct from the airport to Puerto Natales saving us having to make our way into Punta Arenas to find a bus. We should have still had an hour between flight an bus but due to the delay we were now cutting it pretty fine.

We landed with zero minutes to spare and decided that since Warren is bigger (and often more persuasive) he would run and hold the bus while I collected the baggage.

Was succeeded in tracking down the bus and asking the driver to wait five minutes. He managed to communicate this through the glass doors to where I was still waiting for our bags to come out. We heard the hooting, that would be our bus signed Warren. What can I do? I signed back. More hooting and we decided it would be best if Warren waited next to the actual bus to delay it departing. The bags came out, I raced to the bus where Warren his now bus driver mate were waiting to load them. We got on the bus and found we had the best seats (except on Bolivia where they are two of the most dangerous) upstairs right in front of the window where we were able to gaze out at our first glimpse of beautiful Patagonia. While the other people waiting on the bus glared at us.

The wide open landscape of Patagonia is incredible, there is just so much open space.

On arrival in Puerto Natales we saw a giant prehistoric bear like creature with a short tail guarding as you entered the town. Turns out it was prehistoric and found in a cave not far from the town - strange looking thing. We had got some directions from the bus station for our hostel, but they weren't particularly good and we could not find it. Somehow I had also book the furthest possible accommodation from the centre of town. It must have had really good reviews online?

We found our way back along the water's edge to the tourist information where we managed to get a map with the hostel's location drawn on to it and finally found our way.

Puerto Natales is a tiny place, along Sena Ultimata Esperanzo ,an inlet from the Pacific Ocean. There is a main road, a small plaza and a lot of pretty little corrugated tin buildings painted in varying colours. It still feels like a fishing village when you venture off the main street which is full of outdoor shops.

We headed out for dinner, taking Liz and Felipe's advice to try Patagonian lamb and salmon. El Asador's food was amazing!

The following day we had a 2.30pm bus booked to head out to Torres del Paine. A quick wonder through town to pick up some provisions for our 5 day trek and to try and find Warren a new fleece (he had left his on a bus) and were ready to go.

Half an hour before the bus left Warren again headed off to panic buy a fleece. He grabbed a no name brand grey £12 fleece and made it back to the bus as I was loading our bags. Off to Torres very excited!

P.S. On arrival at the Refugio Was whipped out his panic buy fleece only to discover it was a bit of a crop top. Those who have seen his panic buy triathlon top will realise this crop top thing is becoming a trend.