mountain, mountain, dedo, bus

To go to the South Pole I hitch-hiked the Austral Road southwards from Santiago. It is quite a simpático road to hike and meet people on the way. This is a picture of the famous Km 0, which I reached with Raquel, a Catalan I shared room and bed in Chiloé. And with whom we met on and off as we had a similar itinerary. A wonderful positive person to spend time with!

After the South Pole experience I started speeding my ascend towards Buenos Aires, which I saw as a social stopover, to meet friends and family. The trip to the Pole had been quite a shock to my budget and I had planned to stop my travels in the Argentinian capital.

I sadly left my white overall, my new Magallanic/European family-like environment (much love to Daniel and my  Romanian sisters) and 6 cats behind (with four kitties coming out of their kitty box for the first time, awww) to finally manage to see the Perito Moreno I missed on my way down.

I hitched a ride to Puerto Natales with a wonderful, energy-filled woman who was into hugging and I entered the town well loved and hugged up.

In Natales I stayed with a very well known family in the couch surfing community and despite the chaos of people and space, I felt quickly at home.
The highlight of Puerto Natales is the park of Torres del Paine. A well known hike to see a very curious mountain formation.

I was sure I wanted to hike the "Torres del Paine". After spending almost 3 weeks in an alpine area I had started to like going uphill and, oh  miracle! I reached one of the goals of this trip: Getting over the cold. I was ok with the cold! In fact, I quite liked the dry Patagonic/Magallanic cold.

I just wasn't sure if I was well equipped to hike in rather harsh weather conditions. No tent, no sleeping bag and worse, my backpack is pretty, but a pain to carry.
I could rent the equipment and do the short 3-day hike, I loved the space but the amount of mountain uniformed tourists was putting me off.  The forecast wasn't looking good, the wind was ferocious and it was also pouring rain.
I hadn't slept much, I was feeling a bit numb and irritated. After coming out of an informative evening for the hike and after seeing the place so packed I needed to take a walk and think. My walk included a visit to the bus station and to the grocery shops. After the station I went to buy some food for the hike and when I was about to pay I couldn't find my wallet. I swear I walked the same path 3 times back and forth under the rain and against the strong and loud winds, but the wallet was gone with the credit cards and the money I had withdrawn to do the whole hike.
So the answer to my doubts whether to do the hike or not dissipated quick enough. 
I was furious I had to stay in town to sort my situation and I hated my luck. From that point on a "yang" time began. I lost my right to a bed where I was staying although they were nice to give me a mattress to sleep in the living room. Fair enough. The bedroom was freezing cold, but not the living room.
But then more people came in and I was given the 2 seat couch. The town was 3-times above its normal capacity, the weather had turned even harsher and the tourist bus I was going to board to go to the mountain site tumbled, some cancelled their trip and were knocking doors to find a place to stay.
The reason to that craze of tourists pouring in was not only the school holidays or the weather. The park has recently become one of the 8 wonders of the world. So all those shop-uniformed hikers were box tickers. The park is now extremely popular. I had no idea of the wonder status, but after finding out I felt less bad about not going up those hills.
So I had a small couch to sleep in. Until another desperate tourist was given one seat to sleep.
Then I remembered I had the phone numbers of people from Natales I had contacted before and tried my luck to see if they had space for me that night. Hostels were booked out. With all that gushing rain, the stormy wind, no money, the door bell ringing and tourists pouring into the house, no bed to sleep... It all felt sort of apocalyptic.
Among that mess of people I got to meet a very corageous family who were crossing Southamerica by bike. It was so windy, they could only manage to ride 25km a day and, like many of us, had decided to take a break and wait until the storm ended. Here their blog, if interested:

 http://www.lifegate.it/persone/stile-di-vita/biocycling-ushuaia-cartagena-la-famiglia-bici


But here comes one of the joys of travelling: a friend of a guy who knew about my luck sent me a message, picked me up and drove me to his home.
And my mood changed as soon as he said: "I just learned how to drive yesterday". It made me laugh so much my worries disappeared and I spent the night in a military complex. Too thankful to tell how nice it felt to finally get some sleep.
So, with no money in my coat and the idea of the hike ditched I went on the road the next morning to hitch hike to the Argentinian border. I had sent myself some money to the only card I had left, but I had to wait a couple of days for the transaction to complete. Since I had had one lucky strike I felt as good as those who have nothing to lose.
A couple of fishermen picked me up. As I told them the story they decided I couldn't leave without seeing the "big wonder", they drove me to see the mountain and then dropped me at the Argentinian border.
         ... Ready to go to Calafate and see the Perito Moreno!