25.10.19 Bus trip to Puerto Natales, Chile, Day 6

We leave the beautiful Amercia del sur hostel in El Calafate around 7:30 a.m. towards the bus station.

Our bus departs at 8:00 a.m.

The bus ride to Puerto Natales is estimated to take 7 hours.

We go through the Pampa, and apart from guanacos and Darwin rheas (ostrich-like birds), there is not much to see.

We also see flamingos, which we did not expect to see here.

After about 3 hours, the bus turns onto a gravel road and we reach the Argentine border.

Everyone has to get off the bus to obtain an exit stamp.

Then a chain is opened and one can pass the border.

We receive forms where we have to declare what we are bringing into Chile.

At the Chilean border, everyone has to get off again and get a Chilean visa. The carry-on luggage is scanned to check if there is nothing prohibited and a sniffer dog is sent through the bus.

So far, so good, the sniffer dog seems to still be in training, because shortly after the border, we realize that we still have 2 mandarins in our bag 🤦‍♀️

We arrive in Puerto Natales earlier than planned, around 1:00 p.m.

Our "Wild Hostel" looks pretty good and is centrally located.

The owner tells us that we are the only guests today, which is rather rare.

Since we cannot yet go to our room, we explore the town.

It seems much poorer here than in Argentina 🇦🇷, but the prices are twice as high, about like in Germany.

We buy provisions for our day trip to Torres del Paine tomorrow and have something to eat.

A long table for all guests

There are also protests in Puerto Natales, but everything seems to be very peaceful, contrary to the media reports, as our Finnish hostel owner told us.

Trash cans in Puerto Natales👍