Patagonia Day 2

Where to begin? I'm now in Puerto Natales, Chile, in a hostel, awaiting my fate tomorrow: hiking the W Trail in Torres Del Paine National Park. Dane, Emily, Cristel and I went on a 2 day hike in Shenandoah a few months ago to prepare just for this, and now here we are. 

Wellllllll, Shenandoah probably didn't really prepare us. For one, we will be out on this trail for 5 days, 4 nights. We will have no access to wifi (weefee as the Argentinians call it) and the weather is really and truly going to be a mess. It's summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, but we are so far south that we are practically in Antarctica, aka it's cold af and the wind howls and my cute lil one person tent will undoubtedly blow away with me inside. Maybe it will carry me to Santiago and I can begin my fun, relaxing part of the vacation early. 

Today was spent in prep: we bussed 5 hours from El Calafate, had to cross 2 immigration stations (had to exit Argentina...and then 10 minutes down the road we entered Chile...real pain in the butts, let me tell you), and even waited at a gas station for about 30 minutes, thinking our bus driver was getting gas. Was he getting gas? No, no in fact he was preparing to give himself gas: he was getting himself a pizza!! We were famished, hangry, and couldn't believe that this little man bopped back on the bus with a freaking personal pan pizza. Welcome to Chile!

Terrible pic of PN, but today was a rather photo-less day so you'll just have to deal!

El Calafate was cute and small and rustic. Puerto Natales is ugly and small and dilapidated. None of these places are truly charming me, tbh. Stray dogs are everywhere, and Cristel told us about her friend in Mexico who got flesh eating worms from casually petting a stray dog...so...no thanks. I witnessed a girl at the Argentina exit station pat her legs to get a stray to jump on her, it then licked her face. I silently said a prayer for her face, which is probably now rotting away. 

The scenery surrounding these places is just awe inspiring though. And I guess I can't judge these towns too harshly: they are really only inhabited about 5 months out of the year, and even then it's super transient due to the hiking and traveling visitors do here. The winters must be so extreme that everyone vacates. 

Once we got to town, we got bus tickets for tomorrow to get into the park, then ran to the hostel (running because we were so hungry), threw our stuff down, scurried off to exchange money (684 Chilean pesos is $1...they love big numbers down here) and then finally got food. I got a beefsteak avocado sandwich and split egg and onion topped fries with Dane. Sounds weird and gross and I promise you it was weird but good. 

From there, we grocery shopped for our 5 day test of wits and emotional endurance. Then shopped for other supplies (how was I supposed to remember to bring cutlery? Can I even bring a butter knife on my carry on?) and then here we are. Our stuff is packed and we're ready...at least we appear to be. Everyone I talk to so far has just raved about the W, so I'm sure it will be a joyous and adventurous, if not wet and windy, time. 

Time to sleep. I'll write in my lil notes on my iPhone despite probably never getting wifi, so in 6 days I'll update (hopefully) 6 times. 

Ciao bella