Wednesday, Mar 12 – Day 86
Puerto Natales is a city of about 5,000 people, it’s in Chile, about 80 km (50 miles) south of El Calafate, and is the only civilization near Torres. To get there, you start by driving an hour and a half to the east. That’s where you find the first road south, which is really not much more than a gravel trail. After about an hour of scaring wild emus off the trail, you find pavement again. Check out of Argentina; get through customs in Chile, and after 5 1/2 hours all-in, you’re there. I saw fewer than 10 other vehicles on the road (7 actually – I was counting them).
Puerto Natales is in the Provincia de Ultima Esperanza, which means “Province of Last Hope” in Spanish. After what it took to get here, I can see why. Again, this place is just so vast and empty, it’s almost scary. It’s incredibly beautiful, but you can also tell that if you make a mistake out here, Mother Nature will absolutely kick your ass. This is the gateway to Torres, and we found an American that lives here and does a “3:00 Rock Talk” every day at a local hostel. He gave us a lot of great advice on how to do get to the park, how to do the two basic trails, how to pack, provision, and use the campgrounds. This made us re-think our plan a bit, and we need to get a few more things in order, so we’re going to start out on Friday, a day later than expected.
The money in Argentina and Brazil was pretty easy to grasp; exchange rates of 3.2:1 or 1.7:1 don’t take a lot of thought. Taking $200,000 Chilean pesos out of the ATM, however, feels a little different. I’m walking around now with a bunch of $10,000 pesos notes in my pocket. My dinner of swordfish, rice, a cheese tart, and a couple of nice glasses of sauvignon blanc (all of which were excellent) cost me about $7,000 pesos. Turns out to be about US$16.00. The long-johns I bought, however cost $26,000 pesos. I believe that they will be well worth the price.
No comments:
Post a Comment