Day 6 - Puerto Natales

At 7 o'clock sharp, the Uber driver was waiting in front of the hostel and reliably took us to the airport. Since we couldn't add checked baggage when booking the flight, we were curious to see how much we would have to pay for our two backpacks. The friendly lady at the LATAM Airlines counter calculated around 28€ per piece of luggage, so not a big deal.

The plane heading towards Patagonia or Puerto Natales was quite full, but we were lucky to have the last row to ourselves.

After three and a half hours and a very turbulent landing, we arrived at the tiny airport of Puerto Natales. Without any checks, we left the building and hopped into Jessi's Uber. She had to take a detour to the hostel because apparently the police were conducting checks and looking for the supposedly prohibited Uber rides. Luckily, we had been using Uber without any issues throughout Chile.

We were able to check in directly at the hostel and then explored the surroundings until we reached the fjord below. The strong wind and the snow-covered mountains in the background were incredibly impressive.

Puerto Natales is a port city on a fjord, with around 20,000 inhabitants and serving as a starting point for many tours to the surrounding national parks. The small town is quite touristy but still cozy. Back at the accommodation, it was time to repack; we left unnecessary luggage at the hostel for the trek in the national park and limited ourselves to warm hiking clothes. Two beers and delicious pasta in a small restaurant marked the end of our evening in Puerto Natales before the last night in the double room for the coming days.