We are about to leave Puerto Natales, Chile, another nice town located on the coast and in the mountains. Johana took the day to go to the famous Torres Del Pines National Park to see the famous peaks. Myself and Gloria had too much to do with changing money into USD for our return to Argentina and trying to plan the best route from here to the finish line I had two choices, first, I could cycle to Punts Arenas, 186k, hope to catch the ferry the next day, stay overnight after the crossing then cycle 140k of which 100k is on the rough ripio (bad gravel).
The second choice is to cycle 308k on pavement, but there are no hotels or accommodations of any kind.
I have chosen the 308k of good road and I am hoping for tailwinds for two days. No, I am not going to ride that far at one time. I am going to tide two legs of 158 and 150. After 159 today we will drive to the nearest hotel and overnight, the next day drive back to where I stopped and do the next 150k. Our nearest hotel will be about 85k on the other route to Punta Arenas. Getting back to changing money and banks. In Chile, the banks are better than in Argentina but not by much. Here the maximum I could withdraw was 200,000 pesos which is about 230 USD. The cost of the withdrawal was 8750 pesos or 10 USD. Since I needed to take a lot of cash into Argentina I ended up paying $70 in fees. Next, we went to the Casa De Cambio to change pesos into USD because I can get a better rate for dollars than pesos in Argentina. After a day of planning, we headed to a spectacular 5-star hotel for dinner on the water outside of town. The hotel was built in an old abattoir. No luck as the hotel was full and there was no space in the restaurant. Too bad, I never got to see the inside and the museum which is also part of the development. It is the high season for tourists here in Patagonia. We did end up having a cheese and crab dish at another downtown restaurant, delicious. Crossing back into Chile was very easy and did not take a long time. In and out quickly at both places, however, the Chile officer made a mistake on the VIN of the car. When we spotted it and told them they said it was not a problem as the correct number is on the computer from our first entry and they refused to correct their mistake. I hope it does not come back to haunt us like it did in Panama.