Chile is chilly

A ha! A decent internet connection! This is exciting. Chris and I are currently in Puerto Natales, Chile. Yesterday, we took a 15 hour bus ride from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas, Chile and then changed buses and now we´re in Puerto Natales. We thought we were clever getting in the front of the bus, but it turned out we had zero leg room so our knees are sore today. Boarder crossings were rumored to be hour long affairs, but we managed to get into Chile pretty easily. We even got a little ferry trip out of the deal, as Ushuaia is on a large island and we needed to get back to the main continent.

So far, everyone has been very helpful and we really like this town. On our bus in, a guy that spoke zero english called his friend in town to give us directions for our bed and breakfast so we wouldn´t waste a taxi ride. For dinner last night, we had hot fresh rolls with homemade salsa and butter. We ordered a bottle of Chilean wine. Chris had salmon cooked in butter and a mixed salad with tomatos, lettuce, and some of the best avocado I have ever had. I had a grilled white fish with two fried eggs on top, grilled onions, and a side of french fries. The total (with tip) was 14,300 pesos, which is approx. $32 US. So not as cheap as we had hoped but def. very good for all that great food.

The exchange rate right now is approx. 460 pesos to the dollar. When I took money out of the ATM yesterday, the balance said I was a multi millionaire. Probably the only time I´ll get that.

This town is close to a national park that has a lot of glaciers. On our last full day in Ushuaia, Chris and I hiked to the top of one of the galciers close to town. It was kind of hard for me with lots of mud and it was really steep on the way up. Apparently, that glacier is big pile of crap compared to the ones that are up here. There are refugios (little hostel type places) in the parks and Chris and I might stay there and hike through the park. I´ve done more hiking here than I have ever done in my life and I´m honestly not all that excited about it. But I am enjoying the exercise so it´s not all bad. We had a meeting at a hostel today that can help us book a place to stay there and arrange buses and boats to the park, so hopefully we can get up there on Monday. I can FINALLY upload my pics from Ushuaia, so take a look at those. Chris got all of his us as well. In the future, we´ll combine out pics into one link for each place, but for now, they are a bit seperate.

We really appreciate everyone checking in.