Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine

Puerto Natales is a really small town far down south in Chile that other than an amazing setting doesn´t seem like it has much going on. But to be fair the little bit I saw only while running around paying illegal substance fines, after that headache was over I found out that my boat north had been postponed a day for problems with the loading cranes. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though because it allowed me to spend an extra night in Torres del Paine. A huge national park in southern Chile that at this time of the year, because of the cold weather, is more or less empty. I really lucked out with 3 perfect days and a small but great group of people that were also out there bearing the cold. A few english, a kickass mother daughter team from Germany and a guy from New York who turned out to have done Peace Corps in the Maldeves. Most of the time he and I hiked together comparing stories. The park is gorgeous but to seeit well its all tough hikes, we hiked 5 hours in, 7 hours the second day to Valle Frances (great day, we were the only two on the trail that far up) and another five hours out. Perfect timing too because that last day I got in in time to catch the NAVIMAG boat north and my feet were in need of a few days rest.