puerto natales

I dig hostels that feed you breakfast... it is like the
      ultimate bargain b&b (except that here in chile stuff is
      not as much a bargain), but I would pay a lot for our hostel
      b-fast because they give us unlimited dulce de leche - mmm :)
      we got eggs this morn instead of crepes, and when I told the
      cook guy (this sumo-looking teddy bear of a dude), his
      eggs were really good I accidentally said the spanish word
      for eyes instead of eggs (for some reason I always get huevos
      and ojos mixed up...?), anyway, he looked at me confused for
      a second then pete corrected me and we laugh and I tried to
      tell him I like his eyes too and he batted his eyelashes and
      said oh thanks, his mom tells him that also ;)
    

      after that embarrassing spanish slip up we hauled our 18 bags
      of stuff out to a taxi, which actually had (and importantly
      used) a meter (a first for me outside of the us), and headed
      to the bus station. two minutes into the bus ride we were
      both asleep (big surprise). made the 3ish hours go by real
      fast tho. I woke a time or two to take in the scenery. it was
      a gorgeous blue sky morning in punta arenas and I was soaking
      in the sun through the bus window as I dog napped (that is
      what non-cat people say)...
    

      we are surrounded by so much water here you can usually see
      some body of agua nearby. we drove through a lot of plains
      lands today, or at least that is how I would describe it.
      honestly reminded me of the african plain when we had been on
      safari in tanzania, only the trees are a bit more dense here
      and the grass is definitely greener, feeding the many sheep
      & llama/alpaca grazing alongside the road. there is the
      most beautiful driftwood strewn about the fields as well and
      we couldnt quite figure out where it had driften from as the
      shore was miles away. everything about this place amazes
      me...
    

      puerto natales appeared almost out of nowhere. it felt as
      though we transitioned from sheep territory to the tiny town
      of natales in a matter of minutes. the houses here are small
      and colorful. the streets are quaint. it is extremely
      walkable, so much so that we navigated our way to our hostel
      without much difficulty, hauling our rolling suitcases and
      carrying backpacks x2 (if overpackers anonymous was a thing,
      I would be the co-chair, with my mom by my side... and pete
      would probably come to meetings judging by how much he also
      packed).
    

      erratic rock (our home away from home, owned by 2 guys from
      salem, OR!! this is the 9th season), is amazing. our room is
      perfect, the hostel is perfect, the bar (base camp pub, only
      opened 2 years now) next door is perfect, puerto natales is
      perfect - I love this place extra a lot. and how cool to see
      a friendly face when we arrived! my college friend Trisha is
      living/working down here and she is how we found this place.
      she gave us a quick tour of town. it was sunny but there was
      definitely a bite to the air - if it is the first day of
      spring back home, does that mean it is the first official day
      of fall here? the leaves are starting to change to beautiful
      yellows and it is really throwing me off - my seasons are all
      mixed up...
    

      we walked down to the lake and took in the view - mountains
      everywhere, covered in snow and semi concealed by clouds, it
      looks like a magical world, totally unreal, I cannot wait to
      be there!! trisha took us to milodóne, the mascot of
      Patagonia. he is a giant sloth that apparently was still
      kickin it when man first chillin on earth, at least that is
      what I heard. after our photo shoot with milodóne (see
      instagram), we met one of the strays here; rocky. a
      massive tail-less german shepherd type mutt who will fetch
      any rock you take the time to throw... if he feels up to it
      that is (kind of reminds me of another german shepherd mutt I
      know ;)
    

      we spent the afternoon packing until the 3pm talk erratic
      rock gives daily for all trekkers who come through natales.
      trisha's brother, Justin, who also works at ER, gave the
      talk... he taught us about the W (named because the trek
      looks like an upsidedown M ;) ) and Torres del Paine. we covered
      everything from transportation to routes to gear and food to
      whatever other questions our fellow trekkers had... 2 hours
      of this info then we left to pack more, later escaping our
      hostel with just a little daylight, in search of camp fuel -
      yes, like all prepared backpackers we are fueless and our 7
      day trek begins tomorrow. you'd think this would be added
      incentive to track down fuel asap but when we set out the
      first street we crossed offered us a perfect view down toward
      the water where the setting sun was doing crazy things to the
      clouds and like mosquitos to a bug zapper we just turned and
      began to walk toward the light. excellent decision.
    

      this was the sunset to top all sunsets! I cannot even
      describe it - I tried to take photos but that will only be a
      sampler of the epicness that was the end of this day... by
      the time we were done walking the shoreline and had
      practically filled our camera memory with sunset photos and
      pics of the black necked swans in the lake, it was 830 and
      dark-ish and no stores were open. still feeling we had made
      the right decision sacrificing stove fuel for the end of the
      day show mother nature put on, we went back to base camp to
      get advice on other options - this stove supposedly burns
      everything so we had the option of just swinging by the gas
      station to get some unleaded, but decided against that in
      favor of 3 random bottles of fuel left at erratic rock by
      past backpacks and offered to us free of charge by one of the
      salem guys... perfect!! love the sharing here, the recycle
      reduce reuse mindset brought over straight from oregon :) the
      kind and friendly and helpful staff - we feel right at
      home!!
    

      dinner was pizza and beer at base camp and chatting with
      other trekkers just back from their trips. plenty of advice
      and excitement and we cannot wait to hit the road tomo. no
      internet in the park but I will try for updates on my phone
      that I can post once we are back on the 27th!! think good
      weather thoughts for us and we cannot wait to share this
      adventure with you... xo!!