Tierra del Fuego National Park

After the late night last night of pool, poker, and pub, I slept in this morning until nearly 11am!

Rustling around in my things, I discovered a couple of bummers.

Looking at my calendar, I sadly realized that it was LAST night I was supposed to meet David and Eileen at the Dublin Irish Pub... I was there, but certainly much later than we had agreed to meet.  (For some reason I thought it was Wednesday Dec 10 that we were supposed to meet, but now I see it was Tuesday December 9 -- sorry guys!!)

Folding up my laundry from yesterday, I realized I was missing a sock.  Normally, this would be no big deal....except for the fact that (a) since I had packed pretty light, losing a sock meant I now only had two pairs which would be barely enough to rotate and (b) these were expensive hiking socks at like $15 a pair!

Regardless, I got ready for the day.

  I talked to the very-helpful staff at Freestyle and they arranged a van to take me to the Tierra del Fuego National Park for an afternoon of hiking.  $50,000 pesos for the round trip, plus $30,000 entry fee to the park. Not exactly cheap, but hell, I´m at the end of the world; it´s worth it.  (I later found out that I should have brought my passport, becuase within the park there is the southernmost post office in the world, which will stamp your passport with a cool "fin del mundo" stamp.  Bummer. I forgot mine.)

Before the bus picked me up, I did a little organizing in my dorm room.  Lo and behold, as I grabbed my towel from the clean laundry pile to hang up, there was my sock!  Stuck to it with some static cling!  Back in business!  Amazing the little things that please me these days.

The bus ride to the park was uneventful...and frankly the 3 hour hike through the park was uneventful.  It was pretty - hell yes.  But that said, it was a bit less dramatic than Torres del Paine.  One big difference was the Coastal Trail followed the ocean (or really bays and lagoons of sea water), versus the lakes in Torres del Paine.  And the neighboring mountain peaks were nowhere near as tall or jagged. 

Like I said, though, the walk was still very pleasant and scenic.  I took some photos, dipped my feet in the water, and relaxed on the grassy knolls just above the rocky beaches. 

I took the bus back to the hostel, and the rest of the day was pretty chill.  A shower, some dinner, some internet, and bedtime by midnight.  Not a lot to say.  Oh, I did enjoy some good Dulce de Leche and Flan helado (ice cream) and a couple tasty empanadas as a late night snack.

Wow this was sort of a boring entry.  Sorry.  At least it was shorter than some of the others.  =)