It was wet and cold when we woke up which gave us some comfort in our decision not to hike the 22km to Grey Glacier.
We caught the 11.30 boat to Pudento and then jumped on a bus back to Puerto Natales. It was sad saying good bye to the spectacular Torre del Paine.
We also said goodbye to some fellow travelers who we met and really enjoyed on the journey – Mike and Robyn the Japanese American couple, Jason who was travelling with his American family for a year and finally the two American sisters Lorraine and Dotty.
We had a great feed back in Puerto Natales at our favourite cafe – Hamburgeuseria https://www.wearepatagonia.com/es-es/dining while all our trekking gear was cleaned in the local lauandromat. Ah, the simple pleasures.
The next day was 2 bus trips – 5.5 hours from Puerto Natales to El Calafate and then 3 hours from El Calafate to El Chalten. Leaving Chile was easy(ish) whereas the first thing you noticed on entering Argentina was the much heavier police presence. Two girls in front of us got dragged off the bus for carrying some unknown substance.
Walking through El Chalten in the freezing dark trying to find our house was a bit of a challenge but after knocking on a few doors we found our home.