Ushuaia to Puerto Natales

Left Ushuaia in an early morning or was that a middle of the night daze. The bus picks you up at anytime between 5.15 and 6am so nasty early start. 3 hours later we reached Rio Grande (very little to do or see there) spent another 1.5 hours waiting for the bus to Puerto Natales, then this was followed by a few hours on a rough gravel road thru the dry steppe of northern Isla Grande, the border crossing from Argentina to Chile in the middle of nowhere plus the obligatory 45 min lunch stop in the middle of nowhere also. After this another couple of hours to the ferry where we headed back across the Magellan straits. Saw a few Commersons dolphins (small, black and white) swimming and jumping out of the water near the ferry which was definitely the highlight of the day. From there the bus headed to Punta Arenas (another couple of hours across the interminable steppe) where we had to change bus again and wait for another 2 hours .... SIGH ... we had been told it was a 30 minute wait with no bus change. Eventually got to Puerto Natales at 10pm and thankfully had booked a Hospedaje ahead. Tiny room but very comfy bed, great showers, ample breakfast and very friendly owner so happy days.

Puerto Natales is basically the hub for going to Torres del Paine and is full of over priced camping shops, rental agencies for camping gear, tour agencies etc but you can get good food here. We did think about doing a 3 day kayaking trip to glaciers but at US$200 a day each had to pike on that idea. We could buy a kayak for that much money (altho not sure it would fit in our backpacks)!! Instead we booked the navimag ferry trip from here to Puerto Montt for the middle of march. More on that nearer the time.

Had a quick check of the weather (basically pointless as its impossible to predict the weather here) and decided to do a quick shop and head off on the 8 day Torres del Paine circuit the next day. Getting pretty good at packing/shopping for walks now plus its not like there´s much dietary choice on what ya can buy here - its rice, pasta or instant mash (haven´t resorted to this yet tho - I´m not sure I would be allowed back to Ireland if I eat instant spuds!) but more on that in the walk description in the next post ;)