Heading South... Hopefully!

Heading off from Santiago we found refuge for the night in a cold correogated metal shack in a small town nearby to Chillian for the night before mving on the next day towards chillian and what we were hoping was a snow covered little wooden hostel at the base of yet more snow capped mountains... Unfortuneatly this wasnt to be the case...

We found our little wooden lodge in the form of a hi hostel, so wooden lodge, Check. Snow on the otherhand was nowhere to be seen, apperantly the winter had yielded little of the much sort after snow in the area. So feeling slightly cheated we ate breakfast catching the opening of the Beijing olympic games before being accompanied by sam the alsation con pup as we took to treckking up the mountain road to the ski slopes at its summit.

Some time later after pausing occasionally to play in patches of snow we somehow managed to hitch a ride up the steepest section of road to the top of the snowy mountain in the back of a pickup truck atop alot of firewood and somebodies snowboard, thanking the driver at the top and with no intention of actually going to do anyform of snowrelated activities we wandered over to the snowy slopes... The temptation was just too much.

We hadnt anticipated on actually making it up the mountain so now that we had arrived at is summit n the doorstep of the slopes the thought of getting on the slopes was all too much... We just had to, after all, wed made it to the top, so scrounging what money we had on us we managed to pool together enough to get everything we needed forthe day... Including Snowboards, Board in hand, we were off with nothing to stop us. Literally!

Atop the mighty steed!

After a good 5 hours of boarding and mastering the seeminglessley endless slopes (and the fine art of boarding a ski lift) we called it a day as the slopes began to close and made way back down the muntain on foot until with my words of "amigo por favor" a kindly old man in yet another pickup allowed us too ride in the back, so perched atop two rather large gas canisters the size oof water tanks, we rode back down to our hostal/lodge for an expected dinner that tuned out to come with a gratituatry three course waiter service. Rather bizzare in all honesty.

Leaving Chillian the next morning we returned to the small town hoping for a train to Puerto Mont, yet however the trains were still on strile so that meant hanging round a dead town until close to midnight for an overnight bus, oh the joys, this then roughly translated meant numerous hours sitting out in the train station watching episodes of painkiller janeuntil our bus was ready to go, not the best way to cure mind numbing monotomy butit was something.

Next morning in Puerto Mont we arrived a day in advance of our four day ferry taking us further south down Chile to Puerto Natales, stocking up on food and feeling a new addiction to manajar (a toffee like substance) forming and a trip to the huge ripleys shopping centre we made it through to the next day in which we discovered upon arriving at the harbour that the ferry was a day late. So with little option but to sit out another day in Puerto Mont we returned to the shopping centre for trip to the cinema to watch wall-e and la momia tres! Thus now re-affirming never before hatered towards Brendan Fraiser and wishing his end could come rather swiftly.

Next morning we arrived at the harbour and after sitting round for a few hours, borded at 2 via a huge wagon lift that took all the ferys passengers up to the top deck in one go before the ferry left three hours late of its initial departure at 7... Four days away from land, what lay in store the next foiur days was anyones guess.

The first two nights were incredibly rough, and i can say fairly surely that all aboard were suffering the effects of the rough night time seas, at least we had three meals a day to tide us over, almost all of which were more than welcomed by us, somewhat the best we had eaten for a while. With the occasional sighting of Dolphins on and off through the day our last night was by far the calmest and the one in which we all got the most kip.

A snowy way to start the day.

Waking to a blizzrad of snow in the morning we prepared to leave our cabiny home of the last four days to swap pur newly aquired sea legs for those of a land lover, so rather shakily we departed the ferry before being jumped by a rather over enthusiasctic mad chillian woman offering accomodation in the unfamiliar town of Puerto Natales, narrowly avoiiding all out warfare and a slanging match between representatives for each house, hostel and god knows what else we tumpled upon our current lodging.

Theres not much to say about the town of Puerto Natales, its small, everything is closed, and there is no ne to be found anywhere, but saying that if you wander to the supermarket, you will no doubt find the towns entire population bustling like ants around its isles... Saying that, tomorrow (Sunday) were hopefully heading further south, and if its like this already who knows what life will be like at the end of the world!