Last leg 12/21
Up at 2:50 to catch our 5:30 flight to Punta Arenas. The guys at the hostel decided to change our taxi from 3 to 3:30, I really could have used those extra min. No problem getting on the plane except we had the exit row behind us again! I hate that, no reclining. Luckily the dude next to me moved so we could lay out. The flight was full of Americans and Europeans all going to the same place as us. Since we didn't have a bus reservation to Puerto Natales we had to take another bus into PA to buy tickets. I was a little concerned but the bus driver took us to another bus line that's not one of the main 3 and all 12 of us on that bus got tickets. It's 11 and we are finally on the last leg to Torres del Paine.
The ride to PN (at least from what I saw of it when I wasn't sleeping) had flat dry parts that reminded me of CA, fields of these wonderful colored spirals of flowers, lots of sheep, llama looking things and flamingos! Over two hours later we arrived in PN! The sun was shinning, the wind was blowing and we were loving being here. We walked into town to find El Patagonico Hostel. The owners are so nice and incredibly helpful! We booked the bus for TDP the next morning and decided to come back 12/26 because there's little or no room on the bus for us to come back on Xmas since everything is closed. No problem, we'll spend Xmas in TDP.
We walked around town to get lunch and snacks for the hike around 2:30. Nothing opens until 3 and a lot is closed on Sundays. Then we came across a pizzeria that sells beer! Oh hell yes! We got some Roja beers and pizzas w eggs on them, just what we needed. After we filled up we went on many journeys looking for white gas. We lucked out at the last stop and got our mag and cheese w hotdogs for dinner, and of course beer.
After the meal we went for a walk to the water since it was still light out. It was blustery and giving us an idea what it would be like tomorrow. We headed back due to a bathroom emergency likely caused by the hotdogs. It was after 10 and still light out, so awesome.
17 hrs on plane and tomorrow a short bus ride. We are off for the 5 day TDP hike tomorrow so we'll be offline until 12/26. Merry Xmas!!