So, as I (Gordon) type this quick little update from an industrial town in south Chile by the name of Punta Arenas. The town is quite rough around the edges, but you can find some nice walks if you stretch your legs a bit on the outskirts of the town, but it is purely a stop over (which has been prolonged due to timetables) as we make our way further south. We´ll give the town a bit more attention when we do our next, more comprehensive, post.
That said, we are trying to work out what our route is from here. For those of you that are interested, this is our dilemma.
Firstly, as we are this far down, we feel that we are this close to Ushuaia, etc that we need to get down there; but which way.
Check out a company called Transbordadora Austral Broome. They run a 38 hour ferry from Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino. The ferry ride looks amazing as it takes you through fjords, along the Strait of Magellan and through the Beagle Channel. This would also allow us to trek the island (a 5 day, somewhat tricky in places, trek that is exposed to the elements). After the trek, you can return to Ushuaia by a 40 minute, very expensive, boat ride (or try to hitch a lift on a yacht doing the crossing, very hit and miss, but is the preference) and then head back to Torres del Paine from there. We want to do this, but a recent blog from some trekkers in January, stated that they had already had some snow blizzards. The weather here is notoriously changeable and this is what makes the decision hard as once you're on Isla Navarino, getting off is also expensive and infrequent, so really you want to do the trek to make it worth your while.
The alternative is to get the ferry across from Punta Arenas to Porvenir and travel to Ushuaia and do some local kayak rides (and trek Tierra del Fuego) or try to get from Ushuaia to Puerto Williams and get a long haul ferry back to Punta Arenas in order to head north to Torres del Paine that way.
The other point that was made to us by other travellers, who have done Tierra del Fuego, is that if you are trekking the Torres del Paine and Fitzroy areas, that it is not worth the hassle and expense going south as you will only see the same thing.
As we say, dilemma. We are off to get some more info tomorrow morning which means one more night in Punta Arenas. Think it´s time for bed...the walk today in the local national park seems to have wrecked us!
Fingers crossed for tasty weather on Isla Navarino!