Into Chile

We arrived by bus in Puerto Natales on April 1st. This was our first international bus journey, crossing from Argentina into Chile. Border crossings are always interesting, and this one took quite some time. Getting out of Argentina was easy enough, but at Chilean immigration we all had to get out of the bus and retrieve our big bags (sacks in our case) from the back so that it could go through the X ray scanner. Although there were two desks for checking passports, only one was designated to each direction. So, while one had a queue of a busload of people, the other watched MTV.

A dry-ish moment in Puerto Natales

We spent a couple of days in Puerto Natales, mainly sheltering inside from the freezing winds and snowstorms. But our main reason for coming was to attend one of the daily talks at Erratic Rock hostel, all about Torres del Paine national park and the famous W trek. This was extremely informative (highly recommended if you visit this part of the world) and useful in helping us plan our future itinerary. The local beer on tap was a bonus! We now think we may end up having to come back to this trek at the start of next season, when the weather is better, more places to stay are open and Kev's leg has recovered.

The Strait of Magellan at Punta Arenas

Not letting the cold deter us, we pushed on further south to Punta Arenas, arguably the southernmost city in the world. The other main claimant is Ushuaia, which is further south but smaller. We're pleasantly surprised by how nice this city is - lots of grand buildings and history relating to various early Antarctic expeditions. Plus the weather has been good - we're not missing the horizontal freezing rain we'd heard about. We've also purchased some crutches so that Kev can walk around without using his bad leg. This combination of weather and crutches has allowed us to go for walks along the seafront, with lovely views over the Strait of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego. There are also burnt out piers filled with cormorants and gulls. Most things are closed over Easter, but we plan to make use of the duty free shopping area to replace some of our petrol damaged gear.

Imperial cormorants and dolphin gulls