I hate to say it but Torres del Paine was stunning. No doubt the photos completely fail to show that but I will upload them when I get net access, hopefully in Punta Arenas on Sunday.
The single best bit was probably the beach at Lago Grey. You're stood on this mostly flat beach almost surrounded by hills and mountains with a great view of the major peaks and (although it's 15km away and looks so small I'm not sure I saw it) a glacier.
By coincidence we stopped for lunch at the nearby Hosteria Lago Grey where I nearly stayed for two nights before giving up in despair over transport. It's nice but very pricey (a steak sandwich and a beer was CLP9,500 with tip - and it's approximately CLP800 to the pound). More to the point, if I had stayed there I would have been largely stuck round there and would never have seen as much as I did on the tour.
I was oddly knackered all day, except when actually doing the sightseeing, and fell asleep intermittently on the bus on the way out and back. But definitely worth it.
Currently back at El Bar de Ruperto, chatting to the owner, who is from Leeds and has lived here 10 years after coming for one night. He runs excursions (only been doing it a few weeks) to see condors on a nearby island, if I had more time I would go as it sounds great.
I met a Chilean couple from Santiago who were staying at my hostel and did the same trip with me today. Very nice people and largely thanks to them I appear in some of the photos.
They told me about (from memory, I am not sure this is right) Perito Moreno glacier near El Calafate in Argentina. I dithered tonight about trying to go tomorrow, my last full day here, and then the landlady asked if I wanted to go out of the blue and took me round the corner to book tickets. So I have a 7am start again tomorrow. It's 5h over there on the bus and we don't get back until 10pm. But I just have to go now I know about it and I'm here, even though I wasn't aware of its existence twelve hours ago. I can sleep on the bus tomorrow on the way out and I won't stay out too late tonight.
Slightly worried about getting Argentinian money to pay for the entrance but they tell me I can go to a cash machine over the border. Have withdrawn enormous sums of Chilean money to replenish what I spent today and just in case.
It was CLP3000 to get into the Milodon cave where we went first, then CLP15000 to get into the park. Both those are approximately double what Chileans pay, which seems a bit of a cheek but never mind. It was worth it.
I have nearly filled four 2GB cards with photos so far and am down to my last empty one for tomorrow. I have a few USB sticks I can move stuff onto but I am a bit concerned. I will have to get stuff put on DVD at some point but a DVD is so fragile I am a bit worried about losing photos through breakage. I may try to post one back home and only delete from the cards once I know the DVD has arrived intact. I may end up buying more USB sticks or SD cards here, although I suspect it will be a bit pricey.
I will be a bit happier once I've uploaded a subset of the photos to flickr, that's a good backup.
In part I'm taking loads of photos as I keep trying to take shots I can stitch together into panoramas. I have never bothered to do that yet on any previous trip, but I keep taking the photos. Also I figure if I take lots of similar photos I will accidentally get one or two aesthetically satisfying ones. The blessing and the curse of digital photography. I dread to think what 8GB of photos would cost on 35mm film, and there's no denying a 2GB card is a lot more tractable than a roll of film.
I am annoyed this isn't going to appear automatically but I will send it anyway to get that 'at the time' feeling. If I do have net access at the hotel in Punta Arenas on Sunday I may have a quiet night in, sort all this photo/blog stuff out, decide what I'm taking to Puerto Williams and what I'm leaving at the hotel and that sort of thing.
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