Greetings from Puerto Natales Chile 

To see a little more of this part of the country I decided to run over to Puerto Natales, about 100km to the west of Punta Arenas in the southernmost part of Chile. The bus getting here traveled along the shoreline much of the way with the sea on the right. It is so windy the otherwise calm surface of the water shows white caps and the bus rocks with the buffeting gusts. We pass miles and miles of open range with not a telephone pole or fence in sight. A large flock of pink flamingos had adopted one of the lakes we passed as their resting place.  

Discovering all of the better hotels fully booked I settled on two just adequate hostels for the first three nights in Puerto Natales. Finally, a room became available in the beautiful $160 Hotel CostAustralis and I spent my last five nights there. Some hard bargaining and I managed to get a special $100 rate for a kingsize bed. My room faces the Fiordo Ultima Esperanza or Last Hope Bay. Puerto Natales is so small most maps ignore it, but it is not far from Punta Arenas which is on most maps. The Hotel CostAustralis is a four star lodge in a one star village, a delightful combination. Most of the people coming and going are here for camping and trekking. Many of the rugged young people I see on the streets are so over loaded with bulging backpacks full of survival gear you have to wonder how they can manage it all. One hears a lot of German spoken as well as smatterings of French, Italian, Portuguese, English and Spanish, of course. This is truly an international destination for people who love the outdoors. 

The weather is bizarre. For three days the icy cold wind blew so hard it nearly knocked me down.... and did knock my floppy hat off several times. Last Thursday the high winds canceled boat and airline departures in southern Chile. A whole boatload of passengers waiting for the ferry to Puerto Montt were stranded by the cancellation of a scheduled departure. I witnessed a good deal of hand wringing and teeth gnashing by people who had connecting flights out of Puerto Montt at the other end. The besieged ferry personnel could do nothing with the weather just too rough for the boat. In between the gale force winds it drizzled. For the past two days it is springtime; warm temperatures, bright sunshine and clouds over the snow capped mountains in the distance.  

Chamomile grows prolifically in the cracks of sidewalks here, though I never see anyone drinking tea made from the blossoms. Wood frame buildings are sometimes actually steel frame buildings and almost always with exteriors clad in corrugated iron or aluminum. If you need repairs made to your home in this part of the world, you call a tin smith, not a carpenter!

Yesterday I took a bus up to the Torres del Paines National Park and saw the awesome stone towers as well as more wild animals than I could count: red fox, Guanacos (llamas), Nandus (also known as Lesser Rheas), and several species of exotic water foul. Over in downtown Punta Arenas most of the wild life comes out after midnight... at least around the bars. The spectacular geology of the park makes me wish I had learned more about the formation of the early earth. I really must study a little of that science before my next major trek. Rob, one of the American back packers I met on the bus into the park described his travels into Cuba, something I'd like to do one day myself. ¨Isn't travel to Cuba currently prohibited by the U.S. State Department?" I asked. 

"Yes definitely, but we had no difficulty flying in through Nassau. The Cubans don't stamp your passport and the immigration people in Nassau didn't seem to care, either."  

"What did you see? Would you recommend it to other Americans?" I continued. 

"Everything's pretty run  down in the areas we visited... a lot of old cars sitting around, but the rum was great and one of the guys with me liked the cigars!" he added with a smirk. 

9-10 February 2006 Punta Arenas 

Thinking I would try ground transportation over to Ushuaia, I returned to Punta Arenas to cut four hours from the longer circuitous bus route out of Puerto Natales. Even from the closer departure point the trip still takes 13 hours. So I'll either break it into two segments... or possibly fly. Time will tell; serendipity will decide. Stay tuned. 

My photos taken while in Puerto Natales and the Torres del Paines National Park in Chile are here. 

Peace,
Fred Bellomy