Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales

We crossed the Strait of Magellan the 4th of March by ferry, being really lucky as at first several dolphins accompanied our boat and later on we even caught a glimpse of a whale! :-) Once in Punta Arenas, we were warmly welcomed by Albine, I friend of our mom, and Francisco, her partner. We then spent 3 days in and around Punta Arenas, relaxing a bit, walking around the city center, visiting Fuerte Bulnes, the place the first Chileans settled in Patagonia and where we learned a lot about the history of Chile's Región XII, the famous cementery, and and and...

View over Punta Arenas

In the famous cementery of Punta Arenas

El Ovejero - Homage to all the sheep shepherds in Patagonia

After 3 days we decided to get on our bikes again... But we weren't lucky at all, the day we left was very (yes, really very!) windy! So after only 10 km I gave up, as it was simply impossible to bike. Every 10 to 20 meters I had to get off my bike as I was simply thrown off the road by the wind. And as it was raining and cold as well, I decided that it was time to hitchhike for the first time. Fortunately the people in Patagonia are really nice, so after only a few seconds standing there, the very first pick-up that passed stopped and took us with him for about 40 km until the next crossing. There we heard that it was possible to stay and as there was a Cafeteria as well, we decided to drink a hot chocolate and stay in the warm for a while. We then met a Canadian couple that stopped there as well because of the wind and were invited to share a nice empty house with them for the night.

Cafeteria at the crossing where we hitchhiked to :-)

The next day we got up early again and even though the wind was still strong, we fought our way all the way to Villa Tehuelches, a small village out in the nowhere where we again found a Cafeteria. Enjoying the warm sun outside the cafeteria, we decided to tackle the next 50 km as well that day to get to Morro Chico. As the wind calmed down in the afternoon, we reached Morro Chico pretty soon and I was lucky to have continued, as it was an amazingly nice place just next to a river and with an amazing view onto the Morro Chico (a Morro is Lava left over from a volcano that was stuck in the volcano's chimney and that is more resistant to erosion than the rest of the volcano).

The amazing view over the river at Morro Chico

The Morro Chico

The refuge we were offered to pass the night in Morro Chico...

The next morning we started cycling in the rain (oh yeah, it's completely normal that the weather changes 180° in a night, actually sometimes in only half an hour...) and soon we were completely soaked! Therefore after about 35 km we stopped again at a Hotel located absolutely in the nowhere for another hot chocolate. After this break, the rain became less and less and the landscape started to change as well: From the typical pampas with a bit of grass as the only vegetation, more and more bushes started to appear and eventually even trees until we found us in the woods. Together with the vegetation changes, it also got a lot hillier until we finally reached Puerto Natales. Then we had to go shopping in order to stock up for our planned 5 day hike in the Torres del Paine National Park, as we bought a bus ticket to get to the park the next day early in the morning!