A Glimpse of Puerto Natales

What cute little towns have you found in your journeys?

Puerto Natales is a backpacker’s town and the gateway to the famed Torres Del Paine National Park. Instead of forking over a fortune to stay in the park, we opted to stay in this cute coastal town about an hour and a half away.

On our last day in the area, we opted to actually not make the drive into the park but stay in town and explore our immediate surroundings.

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Puerto Natales has a wonderful little waterfront, and the town can easily be explored in about an hour or so. Like all the other tourists, we had to take our silly pictures by the giant hand and the mylodon statue.

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Hostels of course abound. However, we had a hard time finding casual restaurants to pop in for a quick bite and a brew. Most of the places advertising beer really didn’t have much of a variety, and it was even more difficult to find one that also offered libations for Brianna, who doesn’t drink beer.

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Our favorite ended up being Wild, a restaurant attached to a hostel. There, we found some decent pisco sours and a fun atmosphere.

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We were also there during a shoulder season, so the main street was under construction, which closed a lot of restaurants.

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One day leaving the park kind of late, we passed a couple of trekkers begging for a ride (hitchhiking is the most common mode of transport in the area). With three people and bags, we sadly didn’t have any room in our pickup rental, especially in the light rain.

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However, we decided to turn back and offer the truck bed.. they looked desperate. They anxiously accepted the ride back to town, their only alternative being a long walk. They high-fived each other, and we were happy we were able to help, though a bit sad we couldn’t converse with them and hear their story.


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