Torres del Paine National Park

Nov 27 Rio Turbio to Puerto Natales

The last couple of travel days

Today marks our first entrance into Chile so we were not sure what to expect at the border. We knew there would be the usual Immigration and Aduana out of Argentina and then the same into Chile but what we did not know is how long the process would take and if there were any special requirements. The Argentine side was very fast, after all we are leaving their country so they don’t care much about searching our bags or anything. On the Chile side, they were formal enough to ask us to remove the luggage from our bikes and put it into the xray scanner for inspection. I refused saying it was a lot of work to remove all the luggage and besides it is not like they ask the cars to put all their contents into the scanner. The official agreed to a verbal search of the luggage and that we put our back packs through the scanner. We had already filled out the declaration form that states no fruit, meat, vegetables or seeds are being transported when the official finds a single plum in Brenda’s tankbag. He of course loses his mind, ranting is Spanish about false this and false that, the whole time Brenda and I are looking at him wondering what the fuss is about. He didn’t say anything about the apples and oranges in the backpack. He insists that we fill out a new form and check “yes” for the question that asks about fruit and vegetables. I asked if I could eat it, he really went into a rant then, I guess he wanted it for lunch to go along with the vegetables and stuff on the little table behind the scanner. The little table also had a knife and cutting board set up so I am assuming they are eating the confiscated goods.

No harm no foul, we get going before someone changes their mind and we are now in Chile.

A short ride of 28km brings us into Puerto Natales which is on the shore of a the mainland and looks across a channel at one of the many islands that make up the region called Magallanes_and_Chilean Antartica. 

The tourist booth is a great help and soon enough we are checking into a nice Hostel with secure parking for the bikes. 

Typical standard for our rooms.

Lounge area

The system of names for hotels and hostels is different down here. It has more to do with the number of rooms and the services provided than it does with the classification of the establishment. A hostel can be the same price and services as a hotel but because it has less than 20 rooms it is called a hostel. A Hospedaje is a house that rents out a room or two depending on the size of the house. These usually involve communal bathrooms like in any house but are also the cheapest option next to tenting. We have looked at a couple of Hospedaje’s but have not been tempted enough to stay at one. In any event we were very cold by the time we checked in and a hot shower was about all we could focus on.

Chilean money is colorful like ours

We ate supper at Don Jorge Parrilla, which had two whole lambs on spits roasting over a smoking bed of coals. The restaurant smelled heavenly and the food was just as tasty. I had a beef steak instead of the lamb and the chef cooked it on the wood fired grill that we could see from our table. It was absolutely amazing, a nice cut of meat seasoned with salt, pepper, oil, and a couple of secret spices was all that was required to make a truly enjoyable meal.

We needed all the energy we could muster the next morning as we were up early in order to get out to Torres del Paine National Park. This is rated as the 5^th most beautiful spot on earth by National Geographic. The mountains are jagged and snow capped, the lakes are like huge emeralds, but the road is like the most neglected piece of dirt in the world. We were warned about the rough roads but nothing could prepare us for 6inch deep washboards and golf ball sized gravel. We made it all the way to the end of the park and took a short hike out to see Grey Glacier, the tour boat was not running but we did make it to the viewing platform at the end of the hike. The glacier could hardly be seen due to cloudy skies and light rain; we could however see a few brilliant blue chunks of ice that had floated across the lake after calving from the glacier.

One more stop at the rapids before we leave the park and the day in the park would be over. Well ok, one more stop to duct tape my windshield back together after a rather large rock got pitched from a car and smashed it. Good thing it hit on the right side because had it hit on the left it would likely have broken my GPS as well, that means another new windscreen in Buenos Aires at the end of this trip. I may also have to rename my bike the Red Green Special as the silver duct tape  is slowly taking over the other colors.

At the rapids we bump into a couple on the trail carrying a baby and we say the usual Hello/Hola and don’t think much of it. When we return to the parking lot the family is in the car beside our bikes and the lady is holding a zip lock bag with pizza in it. She holds out the bag and ask us, in English, “Do you want some?” to which I reply “Do we look that hungry?” . We both start laughing and the conversation starts. They are from Saskatoon and she works at Waskesui up in Prince Albert National Park, I think she said she works for the Park Service. We share some Sask jokes and laugh that we may be related, and of course share some travel tips about what to see and where to see it. We ended up chatting for about 45 minutes while we ate most of her pizza, she said she was going to throw it out as they did not expect to have a fridge that evening. 

The road out of the park took a different route as we did not pass through the entry gate, it was not until we were almost at Cerrano Castillo corner that I realized this. At the corner there was a motorcycle tour group that we had seen a couple of times during the day, it turns out they are from South Africa, and came over as a group then rented motorbikes in Punta Arenas. They were riding F800GS’s and F650’s which is very typical for BMW bike rentals. Since we were stopped anyway we thought we should look inside the little corner store that was covered with moto stickers, this turned into about 30 minutes of window shopping and a cup of coffee.

All this touristing was getting tiresome so we headed down the road back to Punta Natales for a nice restful evening and some more excellent steak at Don Gorge’s. It was so good we had to try it twice.

We don't do this in Canada, at least not on the front counter.

We also had to figure out our route for the next day, we either go North via Rte 9 in Chile or backtrack a bit and return to Argentina and follow Rte 40. After some distance calculations it is decided to take Rte 40 as the gas stops are more frequent, although we would still have to pack extra fuel in addition to the jerry cans just to be safe as there was one leg that was just over 300km.