2geonomads

Wednesday 11th March 2015

Have the usual Cabo de Hornos underwhelming breakfast at 8.30 and get ready for a 9.30 departure for Puerto Natales.

Meet Luiz who will be our driver for the next few days and set off on a reasonably clear, mild  morning.  After going through fairly flat country the scenery gradually becomes more undulating and we enjoy acoffee/ toilet stop at a cafe with a fine view over the steppes.

Make our first acquaintance with a choique, an emu-like bird which we will see many more times during our trip. Other animal life includes flamingos, a fox, a llama, black-necked swan and we have the chance to view some gauchos move a large flock of sheep with the help from some collie hybrid dogs. It certainly makes a change from watching Lyn’s border collie Indi trying to round up any dog which has even a passing resemblance to a sheep along the beach in front of our house back home!

Choique

As we proceed further north we gain our first sight of the beautiful peaks which are part of the Torres del Paine national park, our destination tomorrow.

The magnificent Condor

Patagonia Landscape

We eventually arrive at Puerto Natales, a town on the shores of a fjord with the open sea to the west.

The accommodation at Weskar Patagonia Lodge is all that we could wish for and on arrival we are greeted with a free traditional Pisco Sour drink by Lelia and the new Chilean guide for the next few days Kris, a Diego lookalike. He provides us with a brief overview of our itinerary for the next few days, after which we check into our rooms and then head off to the pleasant, if unspectacular town centre with Lyn and and Anne. We lose track of Lyn for a while when she gets caught up in a long queue at the post office so Ann and I send out our expert search party (Gail) while she and I sample the rather average local ice cream. All reunited we eventually meet up with dentist Mick for coffee/ tea and light lunches.

Heading back towards the hotel along the foreshore of the fjord I come across a stone sculptor who is working on a large sculpture of a decidedly voluptuous naked lady. Just in case any red-blooded male is letting his imagination run away with him he is not using a live model.  Anyway he is happy for me to take his photo( see below).

Although our whole group had planned to eat at Ultima  Esperanza, an apparently fine seafood restaurant in town we decide to return to the lodge and with the exception of Tom and Sue we all eat dinner at the lodge. Lovely meal and nice ambience with a view over the fjord.

End the evening by seeing Chelsea beaten by PSG in Champions League round of 16 on away goals after Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been sent off in first half. Joining us to watch the match was a fanatical French supporter of PSG who headed off to his room seemingly hell-bent on suicide after seeing Chelsea score first. He was then brought back to the TV and to life by his friends who had seen PSG equalise to seal Chelsea’s fate. In less than 5 minutes he had covered the whole gamut of a football fan’s emotions.

Turn in at a reasonable hour ahead of next day’s busy schedule.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret