March 24th 2015
Organizing Torres Del Paine park excursions and other outdoor activities ended up requiring a day spent in Puerto Natales, a charming, if boring little town. That said while my brother and his girlfriend we’re having the time of their lives trekking to the base of The Torres my father and I didn’t have a terrible day either.
After waking up at 6:15 to help Russell find Clara’s camera thereby proving my immense dedication to this blog (his was stolen in Santiago) I drift back to sleep and wake up between 10 and 11 to get the day started. My dad’s gout is back from pushing too hard on the walk the day before but he’s a trooper and trudges with me to the grocery store to buy some supplies. We forgot to make a list so we’re left to guess what Clara and Russell might want. For those wondering here are the hours of the largest super mercado in Puerto Natales.
From there my father heads back to the hostel to rest his aching legs knowing we’ve got more to do in the coming days while I speed walk more or less across the entirety of Puerto Natales checking every car rental agency there is, looking for an automatic. There’s none available, and I’m told the few that do exist usually go for 200,000 a day so that’s out of the question anyway. If you can drive stick though cars can be had from 35,000 a day and up and offer an excellent flexibility for getting to the park and around in it. Something I definitely recommend doing.
I return to the hostel with the bad news but not empty handed. You see on my way back I stopped by 21 de Mayo tourist agency just off the main square to get a little information about their day trips to Torres Del Paine lesser known cousin, Bernard O’higgins National Park, accessible only by boat or private flights, but very very beautiful.
The asking price is 75,000 pesos per person (150 CAD) and that’s very expensive but it looks spectacular, and while we’d love to do the Glacier Grey ferry in Torres Del Paine the timing without a rental car just doesn’t work for the buses, unless you’re able to spend a night in the park, which isn’t cheap. So i head back and we talk about that option, and decide it’s what we want to do, therefore later in the afternoon we head back to the agency and making a booking. I even manage to talk them down to 70,00 each and think they might have gone lower so keep that in mind.
From there we have a good lunch, though not at my personal favourite restaurant which is Called Masay Pizza and Sandwiches. Seriously, try the Barros Luco Tocino (beef and bacon sandwich) it’s impeccable and decently priced for Patagonia at 4,900 CLP. We’ll end up having it for dinner once Russell and Clara get back from the trek.
Tomorrow taken care of we head down to the Ocean in Puerto Natales which looks just like a lake, but a beautiful one. It’s the thing about southern Chile, the ocean weaves through narrow channels between the countless islands and looks more like rivers and lakes than the Oceans I know. That said, it’s downright beautiful.
Mountains encircle the lake like a ring on the finger of a happy bride, a weird breed of swans, white with black necks and red crests swim gracefully along the calm surface and several beautiful boats are docked on the glimmering waters. I make a few canine friends and head briefly down to the beach to grab some photos and get closer to the water before retuning to join my dad.
We wander along the oceanfront pathway and come to a small skate and BMX park in the most beautiful setting I could imagine for one. Seriously this place should have been built in to tony hawks pro skater games. There’s a few youngsters practicing tricks and I enjoy snapping some photos of them, with my father gazing off into infinity in the background.
The scenery is incredible, though just a shadow of what can be found in the national parks. Still we enjoy our time there before heading back to the hostel and hanging out, waiting for our ambitious trekkers to return from their hike which you can read about here. We’re buzzing with anticipation for tomorrow knowing it’s going to be something special.
