PUERTO NATALES

Here we seem to be having real summer now, or else a heavy dose of global warming. For the last 4 days its been warm (25 C), long periods of sunshine, otherwise cloudy and humid. Since our day in the Park we have visited 2 local museums, one of which, this morning, felt quite wierd. It was in a big room within the Silesian College, and just contained stuffed birds and animals of the area. Taxidermist heaven. The work had clearly be done a long time ago and many of the creatures were a bit worse for wear (as well as being dead).


Yesterday Sue took a day off and I went for a hike up the local hill, Cerro Dorotea (Dorothy Hill). It was quite steep and long enough to make me feel very unfit, but the views over the Last Hope Sound and the town were beautiful. Only the heavy cloud obscured the more distant snowy mountains. At the bottom I was fed with homemade bread and jam and cup of tea by the local farmer, a sweet woman who kept me chatting for some while too.


Sue:All the chileans seem ever so sweet,and a lot of them are very small,which makes a change for me.They always stop if you want to cross the road,very polite and caring.However,this town feels as if they have seen better days,and every thing is getting a bit rundown,and many former hotels are either up for sale or are closed.I guess there are less tourists than before,and it is a very short season.Most of the houses are made of tin and wood,sort of cobbled together.Very little is thrown away,and many of the shops are half empty with an odd selection of wares for sale.We are now preparing for our big boat trip,starting tomorrow,so will be out of touch for a few days.We have our sea sickness pills at the ready as we have been warned of rough seas.