Chile is as long as America is wide, which means very diverse climates from north to south. Arriving in Punta Arenas (where I stopped for the night after a long day travelling) it was 16 degrees. I’m glad I decided to do the trip this way around so that I can slowly start to re-acclimatise to good old Scottish weather.
My hostel (or the haunted house as I like to refer to it) was basic with my room pretty much a cupboard under the stairs and the squeakiest floorboards I’ve ever heard. Still a bed is a bed and after a late dinner of scallops a la Parmesan I at La Luna restaurant, I passed out fairly quickly. I had some time in the morning to explore the town before my bus to Puerto Natales. Punta Arenas itself is quite a nice little town, with lots of beautiful old buildings.
After a 3 hour bus journey I arrived at my hostel, The Singing Lamb, in Puerto Natales. After checking in I made my way to the tour office (I chose Fantástico Sur) where I had my pre-trek talk and received all entrance tickets, maps, lodging vouchers for my 4 day excursion. There are a few trails you can do, O being the longest, with the most popular being W. I chose to do W express (same route as W but over 4 days as opposed to 5) because I’m an athlete 💪🏼....and because 4 days was all I had!
I was quite surprised to find the town more or less deserted. Although it was Sunday, I expected a bit more of a buzz about the place, with lots of other tourists either returning from treks or about to start. Although I’m only doing a 4 day hike in the mountains, in my head I’m about to scale Everest and thought the town would have more of a basecamp feel! Even at my pre-trek talk I expected there to be a group of us, and yet I was the only one, which was a little disappointing as it would have been nice to meet some fellow travellers.
After collecting all my tickets I set out in search of a bar. Bizarrely there didn’t seem to be too many open, bearing in mind it’s after 5 at this point. Many of the ones I found had a schedule of 10pm -4am. Given most people are up at the crack of dawn to set off on hikes I found that rather bizarre. I therefore had to settle for a hot chocolate at Patagonia Dulce. They have an extensive list of hot chocolate and amazing looking cakes. I opted for hot chocolate with rum so as to get my alcohol fix!
For dinner I headed to Lenga, one of the most highly rated restaurants in the town. I was lucky to get the last available table, as the restaurant was fully booked and they turned many people away while I was there. Everything on the menu looked delicious and I struggled to decide what I wanted. After some recommendations I settled on the lamb and a glass of Syrah (both of which were absolutely delicious)! I like the wine so much I ended up buying a bottle at the wine shop (only £7 as opposed to £16 retail price in the UK). it was probably one of the best meals I’ve had so far, and only slightly ruined by the loud obnoxious Americans sat next to me. There are a LOT of Americans here. I’ve yet to hear another Scottish accent. It was a lovely meal to finish on, as I imagine the hostel food for the next 4 days isn’t going to be to the same standard!
By the time I finished dinner the bars are open, woohoo! Due to my 6am start tomorrow (and with the longest walk of 21km being on the first day) I knew I had to be sensible and show restraint, which isn’t something that comes naturally to me when it comes to drinking! I’m proud to say that I only had one beer after dinner in a bar called Basecamp. When I arrived there were only a handful of people, despite it being the most popular bar in town. It’s still high season for hiking here, so I’m wondering where the hell everyone is! I might be the only one on the trek at this rate!
I headed back to my hotel to prepare my backpack for the morning, although I think I’ll be too excited to sleep!
No comments:
Post a Comment