Chilly in Chile

Sorry, couldn´t resist the ridiculously obvious pun of a title. However this post could have the alternate titles of "I heart snow capped mountains" or "Misadventures of backpacking with random travelers with British accents." Have had a full and exciting, if cold, several days. Stuck now in Puerto Natales, Chile for 2 days until the next bus out to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world, the true bottom of the world. Lets recap the week, shall we: I last left you in Argentina, at El Calafate, before doing a day at the Perrito Moreno Glacier. Well, the day was spectacular, the glacier was pretty darn big and beautiful and it was very cool to sit and watch and wait for huge chunks to fall off, sounding like thunder and making tiny tidal waves. It was a very cool glacier. The next day I caught a bus to Puerto Natales, Chile (current location). After happening upon a hostal, a british guy (who´s name turned out to be Jack...ha!) also turned up and was looking for someone to backpack the 4.5 day W circuit in the Torres Del Paine national park nearby, which is really the only thing to do in this area and is quite spectacular. So after debating (I had been wanting to do some hiking and/backpacking but am quite ill prepared for such things in freezing temperatures at the moment) I decided well why not, we rented the equipment, bought a whole load of pasta, and set off in the morning. We hit the trail with a couple of Kiwi guys, who were quite loud and crazy but very fun, and did the first walk to the camp at the base of the Torres, these large rock towers for which the park is famous for. We were fortunate to see them on really what was the last clear day, and even then there was some misty clouds covering the tops. And it did snow while I was up there as well, and the wind nearly bowled me over while I was trying to take my pictures. The weather was cold, at night frigid (the season for such things ended about 2 weeks ago and with good reason...) but I had rented a stellar sleeping bag so I was alright. The next day brought buckets and buckets of rain, which didn´t let up, so after one more night, we actually all called it quits and came back to town on the third day. All the other vistas (the french valley, the grey glacier) were covered by clouds and not visible. And I guess we were wimps. Whatever. It was fun while it lasted and definitely something I want to come back to do in nicer weather. So we all came back to the hostal last night, along with two british girls who I had met and a guy from Holland, and had a grand old night being loud and obnoxious last night. whoops. Met tons and tons of travelers and backpackers, most with british accents. I seem to have stumbled onto the beaten backpacker track in patagonia, which is ok but in high season would be too crowded for my tastes (you either get too many people or bad weather, these are the choices we make). The vistas and the mountains, when clear, in the park were spectacular, and made me smile, like mountains do. And it was very nice to have a group of people to shoot the shit with. Most are doing the whole continent in anywhere from 3 to 12 months. But Chile likes to screw tourists and backpackers over by charging ridiculously high rates for pretty much everything....it´s very very expensive here. But they didn´t charge me the $100 penalty for being an American at the border, so I gotta hand them that. In other news (I say that a lot, huh) and as most of you know...while I am having a fabulous "time of you life" time doing the whole "experiencing the world" thing, I am growing weary and tired of moving around and of buses and it all just goes back to everything...so with 2 weeks left on this proverbial road, I am excited to come home, which makes me a little bit mad to admit, but sometimes it´s just time I guess. As for pictures, maybe later, but I am having problems with my ipod as a storage device so I am anxious to sort that out first. Anyway, that´s all folks.