Preparing

I took a 12 hour bus to Punto Arenas, and stared out the window at the country I had originally planned to bike. It was totally flat, barren, and windy. There was the occasional sheep. Canceling that bike tour is literally one of the smartest travel decisions I've made. Also, it is not easy to get around in Patagonia. There's one road. Sometimes you have to take a ferry. Sometimes the border guards search all the Israelis on your bus and you're stuck at the border for an hour.

In Punta Arenas, I was expecting a time little village but instead landed in a huge city. I was disoriented, because I'd crossed into Chile and suddenly my argentine pesos were no good and my argentine sim card stopped working. I tried to find my hostel with a physical map and it was hard. The Israelis got off the bus in Punta Arenas as well and piled into an Israeli hostel right next to the bus station. Must be nice.

The next day I got back on the bus to go to Puerto Natales and try and salvage my trip to Torres Del Paine. Turns out there is literally only one reason anyone goes to Puerto Natales, and it's to hike Torres del Paine. They don't even have hotels, only hostels. Everything's in English and they have microbreweries, little coffee places catering to backpackers, and the largest camping store I've ever seen.

The city is in crisis. No one has reservations and torres del Paine is full up. The reservation system is so complex many people are just going to the park without reservations. Once you're on the trail they have to give you a place to stay, you can't leave the park once you're in the mountains.

Also, a bridge on the w trek is broken, and there's a huge portion of the trail that's unavailable. I spent two hours in the booking office and it was a scene. People were crying because they couldn't get campsites. Other people had to end their hike early because of the bridge and were arguing for refunds. The Israelis were throwing a huge fit. I got very lucky. I decided to only do one day on the w trek, then do the less popular o trek, and skip the section with the broken bridge. It all came together and I got campsites!!

So now I'm going to go live on a mountain for 5 days. 😨

I almost forgot, yesterday I went horseback rising. I arrived at the hostel and saw some guys from the bus
They were like hey! We're going horseback riding but we're leaving now, do you want to come? I went. It was gorgeous and probably one of the best days of my life. I've never ridden a horse any faster than a walk, but we reached this big open field and the guide was like, ok we're going to gallop across this field! Hold on!

It was exhilarating, and fulfilled that little 8 year old in my heart that wanted to gallop across a field on a horse with my hair streaming behind me.Read more