Chile, Peurto Natales and back again

First and foremost
Thanks to those that posted comments on our previous post… and just for information of 8 months I finally lapsed and over-indulged – it was a one off (that I will admit anyway 😉 ) and there will be no more mention of it (p.s. I did write this before Helen commenced the barrage of innuendos and accusations in the following blog!)…

EARLY STARTS 😦
Well, we managed to drag ourselves onto the 7am bus, there in body if not in spirit, ready for our 2 hour drive to Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. I think it’s safe to say that we all had a few winks while we were on the bus, especially Dylan who was feeling a little worse for wear and smelling a little funny too, Simon and I were sure we could smell sick although Dylan denied it!

Simon and I were both awake when we got to the park and the views were breath taking, especially when we got to the Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine), which are spectacular granite pillars that dominate the landscape definitely the best view we have seen whilst being in Chile. After a few photos we all hopped back on the bus and got to the Administration to get our tickets for the park. Dylan needed a little help filling in his form and was even asked by a fellow traveler if it had been a rough last night, how did she know? (Simon and I were still sure we could smell sick!) It was then back on the bus for the last leg of our ride up to Guarderia Pudeto were we could grab a boat around Lago (lake) Pehoe to check out the scenery.

We had to wait a while for the boat and believe me it wasn’t warm, Dylan crawled up into a little ball at the front of a Refuge and just stayed there while Simon and I took a few pics, the lake was beautiful, the water was a bluey grey and looked absolutely freezing. We headed back to pick Dylan up, apologising to other trekkers who had to step over him explaining that he had caught a bad stomach bug, and headed to the boat.

We then took a round trip on the lake, we didn’t have time to stop and trek to the Glacier Grey as we had hoped (we had a day trip planned in Puntas) but had hoped to catch a glimpse of the Glacier on the boat, unfortunately this didn’t happen, but the boat trip was fun (if not a little chilly, and (I think Simon would agree) the scenery beautiful.

AND BACK TO PEURTO NATALES
After another short and cold wait (I can’t emphasise enough how cold it was down there – again) we were back on our bus heading back to Peurto Natales. Getting back around 4ish we scooted past the last lovely hostel we stayed in (Dylan: with the father Jack type weirdo owner) and made it to Marias Cafe, where thankfully they had rooms!!! A little more than the last place but we all agreed it was well worth the money (especially Dylan and Simon who discovered that there was a third sister). After a hot shower (bliss) I met Simon in the Cafe, Dylan had decided to catch up on some sleep and after a shower (no more sicky smell) crawled into bed promising to catch up with us later.

Simon and I had a lager whilst reminiscing on the last few days and chatting to the sisters. Don’t think they understood a word we were saying but they were finding something about us extremely funny (probably the bags under our eyes gave away our lack of sleep lately!!) We headed out into the bad weather and decided to find somewhere to eat for the evening, I did pop into see if Dylan wanted to join us but I just heard a bit of mumbling under the covers, something about him dying so I decided to leave him and that was the last we saw of him that evening.

We were probably a little early for dinner by the looks of the restaurants which were all completely empty. Although the restaurants were quiet the town seemed to have come to life that evening, with people actually walking around in the streets, it was amasing, where had all these people come from????

We picked up some tickets for our return journey to Puntas, however when we bought them we had a revelation; surely we would have bought returns from Puntas, it wasn’t like we were planning on staying here, yes we did buy returns – result!. I then went through my bag and found some bus tickets, oh no!! The bus tickets I had were for Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine, I had given the wrong tickets to the bus driver (Dylan: oh, and I thought the double booking of the campervans would be the last of the throwing money in the air 😉)!!!! Oh well, we had to stump up for a single back to Puntas and as we bought them decided not to tell Dylan for now 🙂 (Dylan: Little did Helen realise I probably read the blog too?)

We found a sweet little place to eat with wood fires (definitely required – did I mention that it was cold didn’t I) and it had pasta on the menu. After the last few days a good hearty bowl of pasta would have been perfect. Yes we were the only people in there apart from the waiter/owner/chef’s friend reading a paper in the corner but this was fine as we were both looking forward to some scram and were determined to get something edible. While we checked out the menu we ordered Pisco Sours to help our cokes go down, neither of us could find the pasta on the menu so I went for salmon margarita (thinking it would be some sort of tomato sauce) with potatoes and Simon went for a steak. Our meal came and we tucked in, my margarita turned out to be a seafood sauce with mussels and cockles, normally this would have gone down well but was far too rich so I didn’t eat a lot, however the potatoes were good, creamy with grilled cheese on top, yum yum!!!!

So after one last Pisco Sour, we decided that we were not actually keen on them now, the idea of raw egg in a drink just isn’t right, so finished up and headed back to the Cafe where we had a couple of beers before turning in for an early night. Yes that’s correct, no wine, no late night and no getting locked out!!!!!!

Get this, we were even up for breakfast!!!! Our bus was at 9am and there was no way we were missing it so some coffee and toast, ham and cheese and we were ready to go (even Dylan managed to keep some food down!). So with rucksacks on backs we popped to scary hostel (I had left a fleece there in the mad rush to leave the place we think we’d left our Lonely Planets too) but surprise, surprise it was all locked up, so off to the bus station where we gladly got sat in anticipation for our 3-4 hour journey back to some sort of civilisation – Punta Arenas…

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