Puerto Natales

I took a transfer van from Puerto Varas to the Puerto Montt airport in the morning. My flight was at 9:30am. I landed in Punta Arenas at 11:45am and was able to exchange my bus ticket to Puerto Natales and leave from the airport at 12:50pm (My original bus was from downtown Puerto Arenas at 2:30pm).

The drive to Puerto Natales on Ruta del Fin del Mundo is very pretty and with the Torres del Paine mountains getting closer as you go further north. Bus drivers wave at each other furiously as they drive by and I found that amusing.

The hostel in Puerto Natales was ok but the owner was somewhat nice and helpful.

Hiking the Mirador las Torres

I went back to the bus station to get my bus ticket for the next morning to head to Torres del Paine national park (with Maria Jose, as they were recommended by the Conaf staff). I was also able to purchase the entrance ticket to the park from a Conaf station inside the bus terminal with a credit card, as opposed to with cash at the park entrance. I rented a poncho and trekking poles from the hostel.

The next morning, at 7am, we headed to Torres del Paine. We were at the La Amarga point at 8:30am. I got the shuttle to the Hotel las Torres and started the hike at around 9:30am. It was raining (and kept on doing so the whole day), so the poncho was very handy.

The hike is about 20km and the views were very nice, even with overcast skies. 2 hours into the hike, I arrived at the Chileno refugio where I went in to refill my water and have something to eat. I continued on and reached Las Torres at around 1:00pm. I had an ok view of the towers, but while there the weather changed fairly quickly. It became cloudier, started snowing and the view of the towers worsened.

On my way back, I stopped again at Chileno, and chatted with a couple from New York for a bit. I was back at the hotel Las Torres at around 4:30pm.

My Maria Jose bus was not scheduled until 8pm. I didn't feel like waiting and there was a Bussur bus leaving at 6:30pm. I waiting a few hours and then took the latter back.

I was back in Puerto Natales at around 8:30pm.

I spent the next 2 days in Puerto Natales. I was supposed to go back to the park for one more trek, but the one I wanted to do required at ferry transfer (both ways). So that will be around 6 hours of travel time and the ferry ticket is not cheap. As it was raining hard my whole stay, I decided to skip it and do some work instead.

I didn't like Puerto Natales that much. There isn't much to do there, and the food was just ok and kind of expensive. I would come back to Torres del Paine but only if I am able to do the O or the W trail and camp in the park.

The next stop is El Chalten, Argentina.