Headed into the wild...

Puerto Natales, Chile

February 23, 2007
S 51°43.585
W 072°30.366

Please note... due to extremely limited bandwidth down here it may be a long time before we get any pictures uploaded, please hang with us.

We had a few last minute items to grab in Punta Arenas before we headed to Puerto Natales such as another fuel can for our camp stove.

However, my main goal was to hit a cute little bakery we found by chance the day before with incredible empanadas and delightful little cookies. We decided these were the best al horno empanadas we’ve had yet in Chile. A typical Chilean empanada contains beef, onion, egg, and olives. Al horno means it is baked versus frito which is fried. The beef is usually a ground beef mix, but at this place the carne was more in chunks which held the flavor better.

The best thing we picked up from the bakery was the cute little cookies. Two vanilla cookies (approx. 2” in diameter) with caramel in between and then the edges are rolled in coconut. Two of my favorite flavors in the world—caramel and coconut—and they were both in one scrumptious little cookie. We grabbed a few (actually eight) for our bus ride. I guarded them carefully to ensure they didn’t break or get wet in the misty weather. I forced myself to wait until we were at least half-way into our four hour journey before we shared the remaining treats.

When we did break out the treats, we shared one with a guy we met on the bus, Roger. Roger was sitting next to us and wrapping up a book at the exact same moment I was finishing my book. I was hoping to find a good home for my book when I was finished, and I immediately offered it to Roger. In exchange I was the new owner of “Notes from a Big Country” by Bill Bryson, a great travel author.

A “Yank”, Roger is in his early to mid 60’s and has traveled extensively. He has an admitted addiction to travel and was headed to do the Torres del Paine Circuit, just like us. We exchanged email addresses and blog sites. Having traveled through South East Asia, South America, India, etc. he had some great recommendations for us. It always helps to get a scouting report from travelers and those who have been bitten by the same “bug” as us.

When we got to Puerto Natales we strapped on our packs, said safe travels to Roger (sure that we would hear from him again) and headed in the direction of Hostel Erratic Rock 2, the place we planned to call home for a few nights.

After checking our map to make sure we were headed in the correct direction, a stray dog did an about face and started following us, almost leading us to Erratic Rock. The dog stayed with us all the way to the door of the place, after he confirmed we were safe he headed off into the sunset. I mention this because this isn’t the first time this has happened; this has become a fairly common occurrence during our travels. In fact, this is the third time on this trip alone where a pooch has decided to befriend and seemingly chaperone us until we found our final destination. Not to be freaky, but we thought maybe it was Spike, Sam, or one of our other dogs looking after us in a new vessel. Who knows…

We head into Torres del Paine on February 25th and plan on exiting on March 5th. Please look for a new update on March 6th.