In Puerto Natales, same as in Punta Arenas there were people in the buss station offering places to stay. I really like this because it makes it really easy for me. I chose one and hit a check pot with it. The Hostal Nancy has beautiful rooms including breakfast for a very good price, run by friendly people. Puerto Natales is quite touristy since it is the nearest city to the national park Torres del Paine and the port where the ferry from Puerto Montt lands. It’s supposed to be a nice 3 day cruse with that ferry where you can see the fiords and glaciers in that region, but my plan was to go to El Calafate after.
But first it was time to go visit Torres del Paine. I asked around for a way to get there without having to take one of the tours, but since it is some 100 km away from the town, the only bus that goes there cost almost as much as a tour. So I signed up for one of the one day tours the next day. Certainly the tours are not cheap and neither is the entrance fee you have to pay to enter the park but now I am glad I did not skip it. You get to see amazing scenery, with green hills, emerald green lakes, waterfalls, glaciers and snow covered mountains, once again it felt like in a fantasy movie. My favorite spot was certainly the waterfall, but also the “campo de hielo” was very impressive. What happens is that the wind carries big junks of ice that break from the glacier down the lake where they strand near the beach. When you arrive at the beach it looks like somebody has built some beautiful sculptures in the water. When you get closer you see that it’s ice with an amazingly deep blue color and artistically shaped. There was an extremely strong wind down the lake that made it very difficult to walk. The park is very good for camping, so if you have more then a day you should do that (in summer that is). The next morning I took a bus to El Calafate back in Argentina.