Sometimes It's Better To Be Lucky Than Good

Yesterday we embarked on our trip to Patagonia.  Our voyage started with a three and a half hour bus ride from Castro to Puerto Montt, where we stayed the night.  This morning we caught a bus to the airport and took a two hour flight to Punta Arenas (the furthest south either of us have been in our lives*).  Our guide book maintained that we would be able to catch a bus at the airport for the three-to-four hour journey to Puerto Natales, where we are planning to spend the next two nights before heading to Torres del Paine National Park.  It did not, however, inform us that we needed to make reservations in advance.  The woman at the airport Information Desk advised me that we would have to make the half hour trip (in the opposite direction) into the city to purchase tickets and catch a bus going back north.  Lucky for us, there isn't a central bus terminal in Punta Arenas, so we would have to choose a company and hope it had a bus departing soon that we could board.  Crestfallen, I asked the woman about the cheapest way to get into the city.  She said we could take a van for 3,000 pesos (just under $6) each.

We trudged outside to find a van, praying that today's trip would not turn into a twenty hour odyssey.  After waiting for a while with no vans in sight, one of the Puerto Natales buses pulled up to the curb.  All over South America we have witnessed buses pick up extra passengers without tickets . We figured we had nothing to lose and might as well ask.  Unfortunately, the bus was full.  Dang it.  As the bus pulled away, we stood hoping a van would arrive soon.  Shortly thereafter, a tourism bus pulled up and we saw a few people go over to speak to the driver, so we decided we might as well too.  The driver said he was going to Punta Arenas and would take us for 1,000 pesos each.  Well, at least we would be saving some money into town, we thought, so we boarded the bus.  On our way into town we found out that the bus had just dropped off a tour group at the airport and was actually heading all the way back to Puerto Natales.  They said that if anyone wanted to come along, they could for an additional 2,000 pesos each.  I quickly said Jeff and I would, almost jumping out of my seat with happiness.  How lucky!?  Not only did we not have to wander around looking for a bus to take us to Puerto Natales and then probably waiting a couple hours for it to leave, we also saved a considerable amount of money!

Both pictures from Puerto Natales

* Punta Arenas lies at 53° 9' south, making it one of the southernmost settlements in the world, and the southernmost city with a population over 100,000.  We thought this was the furthest either of us had been from the Equator (north or south) until Jeff found out that Chester, England is in fact further from the Equator.  Jeff went there for business a couple years ago.