Friday, April 17, 2009

Puerto Natales, Chile

From El Chalten I continued to travel south with my buddy Marcelo who was going as far south as Punta Arenas. He dropped me off at the border post across from Puerto Natales, Chile my next destination. We took one more photo in front of the immigration office then Marcelo continued on. I was on my own again to make it from the border to Puerto Natales.








Everything seemed to work out beautifully in Chile. Right away I met Oscar, a good guy who took me across to the Chilean border post and on to Puerto Natales. We actually beat the bus which was held up in the immigration line. I was shuffled into the locals line and put through with Oscar.









Like most foreigners I made it to Puerto Natales to see Chile's most famous national park, Torres del Paine. I hung out in Puerto Natales a few days catching up on a few things and preparing for my trip into the park. When I made it back from the park I relaxed after six hard days of hiking and got ready to take a cargo ship north to Puerto Montt, a four day trip. The ship never came in so I ended up taking the passenger/cargo boat a few days later.

Puerto Natales was a small town without much going on but I had a good time there staying in a terrific, very comfortable hostal called Kawashkar. It was run by a great guy, Omar, who served a terrific omelet breakfast each morning and had plenty of advice for the park. It was a good place to be; as much of a home as you could ask for being at the bottom of South America.

Puerto Natales was once more of a small fishing village than anything else. Tourism is now the economic engine of he town but the waterfront still has plenty going on. While I was there I saw a small march in the streets as well as the aging waterfront.























Rusted pipe

No comments: