Crossing Borders - Back to Chile

Bit of a travel day as we ready ourselves for a 3 day hike in Torres del Paine. A quick taxi ride to the bus station and off we went. Not only was it a smooth ride on a comfy public bus, it was also just a short wait at the border, getting stamped out of Argentina and into Chile.

When we pulled into Puerto Natales, it was still early afternoon where we could grab a quick lunch, rent any gear we needed for the next three days and just wander around. Our hotel was located right by the water and we lucked out in getting a room with a view.

My roommate and I found a nice little Chilean place (on a local's recommendation) and had some delicious Chilean soups packed full of seafood for a late lunch. Next order of business, finding hiking poles (there's more rental shops here than El Chalten). We'd had a few places recommended to us, and I decided to get them at a place on the square since it was close to the hotel and easy to find. Back to the hotel we went to meet our local guides who'd be hiking with us the next 3 days to explain the plan and answer any questions.

Contrary to our itinerary, we'd be doing the trek backwards as there was another group. Here's how it would now go: Day 1 - Grey Lake/Glacier, Day 2 - French Valley, Day 3 - Las Torres. This they call the mini W as we'd be doing most but not all of the W trek. We tried to negotiate back to the original plan due to a 90% chance of rain on day 3, but no luck. Oh well. Day 1 would be the short hike then and we work our way up. Poles are recommended and like El Chalten, the stream water is wonderful to drink and fill up your water bottle.

Dinner turned out to be artisanal hot chocolate at Chocolateria Patagonia Dulce. They also had amazing looking desserts, had we known, we definitely would've left room. The place was really busy so we just got them to go and headed out to check out some of the shops.Les mer