Puerto Natales

It took us 51/2 hours to get from Calafate to Puerto Natales, the base camp for doing a Torres del Paine hike. We had to cross the boarder into Chile which took maybe 45 mins to get everyone stamped in and the bags through the x-ray. I had to empty my bag because there was a bottle of olive oil in it (which thank goodness they didn't take away!) and they let me keep the nuts and seeds I had because they were roasted. Another couple from the US threw out all their food just to be safe but accidentally left an apple in the bag and they made her refill out the customs form, claim the apple, throw it away and then wanted to fine her! I'm glad I didn't get all that! After arriving we went to our hostel, Erratic Rock, and went straight to the talk they offer at 3pm everyday to get you ready to hike the trails. Because of the talk we decided we would hike the Q. What people most normally do is hike the trail in a form of a W to see all the good stuff in the middle, it's about a 4 day 3 night hike. Less people choose to do the circuit which is a 8 day hike and the Q is the circuit plus a hike up the 'tail' into the circuit. After the talk we went into town to buy 9 days worth of food and came back to back our bags ready to go for a 7:30 bus ride to the park!