We arrived in Buenos Aires around 8:00 at night – tired & hungry. What a pleasant surprise to arrive at our Hotel – Hilton Curio & find it located on the Plaza Dorrego – with tango dancing, live music, food & drink- all just 50feet from our hotel. This would continue to be great fun as an easy place to relax in true Argentino fashion. San Telmo area is old & authentic. Which at Times can be a bit grimy! And as we have been traveling in South America for 3 months – we have experienced – a lot. Both beautiful and not-so-beautiful and always interesting.

We took a walking tour of El Calafate. And while there are no grand cathedrals nor government buildings, we gained an appreciation of how remote these towns were just 25 years ago. That is when a bridge was built over the river & the ferry to El Calafate was retired! Tourism is the name of the game/economy today. However maintaining the national park & sheep herding is still strong. And a basque heritage is proud & present. During the tour we met two ladies- aged in their 90s who are members of the founding families.

A note: we see dogs -everywhere in South America. Some with collars – others with none. Some well cared for – others not. So far – all are well behaved- all sizes-all breeds. We have never feared that we would be bitten. The dogs are street savvy & accustomed to shari g the street with humans!

It is tough to leave Chile & Torres del Paine & we will be back! Now it is on to El Calafate & Perito Moreno glacier. We head there via a 6 hour bus ride. Pleasant, timely, clean, inexpensive- all good! It is wArmer in El Calafate& it is a tourist town with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants & chocolate shops. The Perito Moreno glacier is huge, growing, calving, & we can get close! We spend 5 hours watching it!

We stayed at Grande Refugio. It is situated on an aqua blue lake & we took a catamaran ferry to & from the lodge. You can stay at a room in the Refugio or in a tent. You can rent sleeping bags. There is a little store, nice bar, and decent food-cafeteria style. You meet fascinating people ftom around the globe. And some of the hikers when they come in are smiling & laughing and others look like ‘death wArmed-over’!

Our second day of hiking wAs to the lookout point-mirador of the grey glacier. The wind subsided today- making it a much easier hike.

The grey glacier is huge – 6 km wide, 30 meters high, 17 miles long. So our photos can’t possibly give it the respect it deserves. To put it in perspective- a tour boat is a speck in one of our photos.

Glacier is definitely the highlight. And watching two condors soaring was icing…

However, in a few days we will be visiting the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina – where we are much closer! Stay tuned!

We stayed right in the park at a Refugio – hostel. Location. Being right in the park – at the trails – surrounded by beauty & fun people! okay – brace yourselves – photo overload!

Hiking the first day was quite easy / except for wind gusts. One knocked me to ‘all fours-crazy’ and the wind did wear us out. Our Refugio was well located, clean & neat. We ate breakfast & dinner here. Slept well. And were right at the trails. I do recommend the refugios. Next time when we do the W trail we will stay in them!😁

Chile is such a narrow long country that has so many natural treasures. Honestly, we were skeptical that Torres del Paine could be that much better – we are wrong! It is stunning. Here are a few photos from our bus ride to the park at dawn.

Why would anyone go to Punta Arenas and then to Puerto Natales? To see the Torres del Paine national park! It is truly amazing. You have seen photos of Punta Arenas it is a pretty humble port city. It has some amazing smallish buildings in the city center, nice airport, and a number of military bases. However, it’s claim to fame is a protected port on the straights of Magellan. It was summer in Punta Arenas and we kept our down jackets zipped up and purchased ski hats to stay warm. On the bus trip from Arenas to Natales we saw windswept trees – only a few – and a few hearty homesteads. —not much to see. Then once our bus arrived in Puerto Natales this town is very modest. The town is about 5 blocks wide and about 1 mike long. The town has small shops and cafes and small homes. The economy is tourist driven with trip planning to Torres del Paines being the driving force. Life in Chile and South America is basic. People live simply. They live in small homes, walk to the local market / daily for their food. Do not go out to eat. Dress simply. Most do not have cars. The local buses are packed at all hours of the day and the long distance buses are filled with tourists and families and are nice, timely, and reasonably priced. ….okay….why these two towns? To see Torres….coming next…but first a few photos of getting to Torres…

We saw this from the window of the airplane

Punto Arenas – summer-brrr

Beautiful port – hearty residents. Our Airbnb hosts live here for 35 years – working g in petroleum industry