Day 7 - Puerto Varas to Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales

Not a lot to write today because it has been a travelling day. As we didn't need to leave our hotel until 12:15 we decided to take a walk into the centre of Puerto Varas but there wasn't a lot there. We did have a look in the supermarket and bought some fruit and a bottle of wine for equivalent of £4. The same bottle at home would be about £8 so not bad. Admittedly it hasn't had to travel very far as it is Chilean. 

Had a nice FaceTime with mum, Lisa and Claire. Claire was amazed that we could stalk her from Chile and we even had a FaceTime whilst she was walking the dogs in Cwmbran. As we were checked out we were with our group and they were amazed at the clarity of the communication considering Claire was out walking. What a wonderful thing the Internet is and better still it's been free in the hotels. 

The flight was 2 hours, which went quite quickly with our noise cancelling headphones on and an iPad for music and reading. Now we are on the bus on our way to Puerto Natales. Waiting for us on the bus was a bag with a bottle of water, a very nice chicken salad and a fruit salad. This is in lieu of dinner as there is nothing but wilderness until we get to Puerto Natales. 

It's amazing how the temperature and the landscape has changed. It's still very sunny but much much cooler than we have had up until now, hardly surprising when we are now so close to Antarctica and getting closer with each passing day. We have been advised to dress in layers with lots of warm clothes for the next few days. 

Every ten miles or so there is a very pretty bus stop, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. 

En route we passed a gaucho rounding up his cattle. We jumped off the bus for a few minutes and were surprised at how cold it was. The wind was fierce. I think we'll be glad of all those warm clothes after all. 

Passing the Argentinian border with Chile