3 Mar - Puerto Natales, Chile
We are here for a couple of nights primarily to enable us to take a trip into the National Park “Torres del Paine”. The park is huge and it takes all day for the tour. It also wasn't exactly cheap but in the end we all considered it worth it. I thought I had seen some spectacular mountains in Canada/Alaska but these beat them hands down. Typically pictures do not do them justice. The mountains are not part of the Andes which are the result of tectonic plate activity but rather the result of magma rising from a fissure in the ground. The distinctive shape of the towers is a function of time and weather.
There are also a number of glaciers in the area but for us just to far away to see properly. You can take a boat to the terminal. It's a hugely popular park and there are a large number of trampers wearing out their joints. All in all a great day out made all the better by not having to ride the bike.
This is also a very attractive little town – neat and tidy and in sharp contrast to the broken footpaths and street litter of Argentina.