After finishing the Dientes trekking circuit we decided to start the journey North with a direct flight from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas. It was the fastest and cheapest way to get from the Island without heading trough Ushuaia again. Another way was to take the three day ferry to Punta Arenas. It supposed to be a beautiful cruise trough the glacial fiords and much cheaper, but it was sold out way ahead.
On the Dientes track made friends with Jorge and Catalina from Santiago de Chile. They invited us to stay at their rented Airbnb house in Punta Arenas for one night.
Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas seems to be a primarily industrial city. It had a lot of strong winds and duty free shopping malls, filled with food and Chinese mass products. We took a walk to the beach and explored the nearby neighborhood
Our Chilean friends took us to a delicious sushi dinner and we decided to visit them once we would arrive to Santiago de Chile. On the next morning we took a bus to nearby Puerto Natales.
Puerto Natales
Puerto Natales is a transport and tour hub for several touristic attractions around it. A port connects the city to various destinations in northern and southern Chile. The recently established passenger ferry route to northern Puerto Yungay, called Carradera Austral seemed particularly interesting. Of course the governmentally subsidised tickets were sold out for a month in advance.
The city center consists mainly of hotels, hostels, bars and other food related shops. You could even find three cloth washing services for all the sweaty backpackers. I can’t remember if I ever paid so much for cleaning our 7 kilograms of clothes, but it was well worth it. After all we needed something fresh to wear during the upcoming W-trek U-trek in nearby Torres del Paine!
We stayed two nights and hopped on the morning bus to Torres, just in time for our first campsite booking.
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