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We were up at a reasonable hour and walked to the Hertz rental agency. We had a small diesel pick-up reserved. A bit of paperwork and we were good to go.

Next stop was the local grocery store (a Cofrima). It was just down the street. We pulled into the parking lot, turned and removed the key and...the engine kept running. And running. And running. So it was back to the rental agency where I pulled the keys and it kept running and running. Until the kid from the agency walked out just as it quit. It turns out that there was some sort of inter-cooler that would keep the engine running for few minutes. No problems.

Back to the grocery store where we stocked up on water and generally unhealthy snacks. We picked up even more unhealthy food as we stopped at the zona franca on the outskirts of town. Our goal had been to find an air mattress so we'd have something comfortable to lie on in the event we had to sleep in the bed of the truck. But the problem was that my Spanish stops at simple directions, paying taxis, and ordering drinks. What the hell is the the phrase for air mattress? It's not cama de aire ("bed of air") and it's not anything else I could spit and stutter as I tried to find the right phrase. After much effort we found one. The key phrase is colchon de aire; don't forget that one kids, it may come in handy someday.

So we finally hit the road. Our destination was a little fuzzy: we'd either make it all the way into Torres del Paine National Park or lie up in Puerto Natales. It was all weather dependent. As we drove through pampas and by lakes, senos, and fjords the clouds would fill in heavily and then open wide to show blue blue skies. The one constant was a steady gale. It seemed to just howl everytime we left the truck. And it made steering a challenge at times. But in the end things just got worse and worse as we got closer we got to Puerto Natales.

So when we got to Puerto Natales we looked for a hotel. The first place we looked at was Indigo a cool funky building with a view of the water and spa. But they wanted $155 a night which seemed stiff since we had been paying only $85 in Punta Arenas. We checked a few other places. But it seemed that we had just hit the beginning of "High Season". Even some of the less spectacular places wanted $130 a night. So it was back to Indigo.

What a great choice. The room was wonderful. A great bead, a super view, and lots of hot water. The shower was a really weird design and sprayed water everywhere which was a bit of a problem since there was no real shower door! But it was just a super choice.

We walked about town and enjoyed the afternoon. There was going to be an auto rally the next day and all the cars were tooting about town. Unmuffled. Driven by gearheads who loved to race their engines. Loudly. Kind of annoying but very heavy on "local flavor" so on balance it was fun. We found a tarp to cover gear in the truck; and, if need be, ourselves when camping.


We had dinner in the restaurant. Silicic had hake stuffed with prosciutto and I had a a grilled pork dish. They were ok. Once again, the wines of Chile were pretty underwhelming. Generally a much better hotel than restaurant.