Buying Dried Fruit and Lentils

Now begins a series of blog posts throughout the next month that chronicle my (already experienced) month long journey through South America, specifically, through Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Enjoy.

The first two days of our travels were wildly successful. Sophie and I arrived at the airport in enough time for quick soda and palta before our flight left at 9:30 a.m. Little did I know, this would be the last palta I had for the next three and half weeks. Oh gosh... I don't think I've mentioned palta, yet. Technically, palta is simply avocado, and I already knew that I loved avocado... but the palta in Chile... holy cow. I would eat nothing else forever if I had the choice.

Much to our delight, Sophie and I found ourselves surrounded by a group of American and Canadian retirees touring southern Patagonia on the airplane. I had forgotten how awesome it was to be able to eavesdrop on every conversation that way going on around me. I can now say, with a lot of confidence, that being a nosy eavesdropper is one of my favorite things of all time. After a short stopover in Puerto Montt, Chile, Soph and I arrived in Punta Arenas. We learned that the last bus to leave Punta Arenas wasn't actually at 3 p.m. like we thought (our plane landed at 2), and we decided to grab a taxi and head to the bus station.

On the way into town, we were driving by a large body of water. Sophie asked me, "Is that the ocean?" To which I confidently responded, "Yes." Then, Sophie, showing her complete lack of confidence in my incredible intellect, asked the cab driver, "Eso es un lago?" (Is that a lake?) To which the cab driver responded, "No, es el mar." (No, it's the ocean.) As we pulled into town and took a closer look at the map, we realized it was not only the ocean, but also it was more specifically the Strait of Magellan. After we bought our bus tickets, Soph and I walked to the beach to get a better look. I'll be honest, the Strait of Magellan isn't a whole lot to look at, but it's pretty cool to have seen it.

Sophie and I attempting to take a picture with my automatic timer at the Strait of Magellan.

A kind stranger came and helped us out. Our arms are saying, "Look what we found!"

When we reached Puerto Natales and settled into our hostel, we found out that Dan and Ryan had got themselves struck in Argentina for another day. Therefore, it was up to us to buy all of the food we would need for our five-day trek, rent all of our gear, and buy whatever extra things we might need. I must say, for two people who had never gone trekking before, we nailed it. When the gentlemen arrived, we were almost completey prepared for out hike through Torres del Paine. They went with us on our last couple of errands, which included a lesson on how to put our tent together, and then we ate dinner with an Australian who was staying at our hostel at a seafood restaurant recommended by Omar, the man who ran our hostel.

Patagonia is stupid beautiful. This is the view from Puerto Natales.

 

Sophie and Dan with our friend, Australian Dan.

One picture of the Extreme(ly) Gringo Travel Gang (EGTG) before starting our journey.

All in all, the preparation we had to do to hike Torres del Paine went really well. Although I had read quite a lot online and Sophie and I both have an adequate level of camping knowledge, neither of us had ever undertaken preparations for a five-day backpacking trek. However, thanks to the fellow backpackers we met at Kawaskar Hostel, the information meeting we attended at Erratic Rock in Puerto Natales, and the general helpfulness of the people who live and work in the town (people preparing to hike Torres del Paine are a way of life there), Soph and I were able to do everything really easily. The next morning we said goodbye to Omar, promising to see him again in five days and headed to Torres del Paine.