Andrea goes exploring again!

Fired up by the highly caffeinated maté which I shared with Patricia, I'm now heading into blog post 3 for today! Those of you who subscribe to the blog and receive the emails every time I've posted may want to scroll down if you want to read them in order! So, on Friday, I got up bright and early again (well early again...) to take a bus from Puerto Natales up to El Calafate. I was once again crossing the border from Chile into Argentina and so I have yet another two stamps in my passport! I'd planned to meet up with Heath in El Calafate but he was visiting Perito Moreno Glacier during the day so I went for a trip into town to pick up a few bits and bobs I needed before we met up and went for dinner with friends he'd made in the hostel the previous evening and then gone to the glacier with that day. They had needed to get cash out of the bank and so Heath and I went straight to restaurant we'd planned to go to. As we sat talking, who should walk past the window but...

I was very sad to leave the Navimag ferry and all the friends I'd made, but I should have known better really. I always used to say during my last trip that you just have to stick with it as things can improve very quickly and unexpectedly. In this instance it happened within about 2 minutes when Heath, who hadn't booked a hostel in advance decided to go with me to mine as I had a reservation at a nice place and given the time of year there'd likely be a free bed. Yay! I wasn't losing all my new friends in one fell swoop. It turns out, I wasn't really losing many of them. After dropping our stuff off and grabbing a coffee, we headed out for lunch and bumped into Sarah! Happy days!! The three of us grabbed a beer and then headed to the Erratic Rock Hostel (I have since discovered that an erratic rock is one that has been moved by a glacier and and then left behind way from its source when the ice melts!) where they give talks on the treks within Torres Del Paine Nati...

I'd like to say that the day of my departure on the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales dawned bright and sunny, but in truth, I'm not convinced it dawned at all! I was woken by the rain pounding on my bedroom window and Carolina's (my host's) face when I answered her question ¿Donde vas? with 'Hoy voy a ir de Puerto Montt a Puerto Natales en Navimag' was a picture! Both of us looked out the window and burst out laughing! The beautiful views of the previous evening had been obliterated by the clouds and rain...! It didn't bode well for my trip! However, we all know that a little bit (lot) of rain doesn't generally stop me and today was no exception so I duly checked in at the Holiday Inn Express as required and headed to the supermarket for supplies as we weren't boarding for another couple of hours. Now when I say supplies I don't mean food per se. The boat was fully catered (and the food turned out to be pretty damn delicious!)...