It took awhile to unload the ship and, when we went down to the car deck, it was impossible to walk to our cars as the vehicles were all packed in so tightly. We crawled underneath the trailers of huge lorries to reach our cars, something I found very disturbing and unpleasant. We went into the Hotel Cost Australis, where we are going to stay tomorrow night, and had a coffee. After that, we drove for 3 hours to Torres del Paine through stunning scenery.
We saw condors and black- necked swans. We passed the Explora Hotel, which we will visit tomorrow on our way out of the park. The lakes are a dazzling turquoise-blue. We arrived at the Hostaria Lago Grey in time for a late lunch with Colin and the Gauls.
We had good food and wine, also pisco sours. Later, I went for a walk with Tim to try to see the lake, but it was not possible. We did see large blue icebergs, a beach area and clear cold water which came from the lake.
We crossed over a river on a rickety bridge.
Back at the hotel, we saw huemul, which are like deer and are the Chilean national emblem.
We discovered we had a view of the glacier from our window!
All 9 of us - we 3, the Moffatts, the Marklands and the Gauls - had dinner together, which was good fun. It was a buffet, but pretty good. We were shown a slideshow by the Park Ranger and I was able to show off my linguistic knowledge - that calafate is berberis! We said goodbye to Simon and Gae who are heading back to Santiago. We hope to go on a boat trip to the glacier in the morning.
Distance 104 miles
