Going to Patagonia (Without bike)

During our 20 hrs stop over in Santiago we found the time to pay a visit to BMW, as they were not answering the phone, to see how they were doing.
The answer unfortunately was "not too well".
As we got there we were informed that the part had not still arrived and most importantly they had not chased anyone to establish why there was a 3 days delay.
Eventually they caved in under our pressure and made a phone call.
The excuse (this time) was a strike at the Chilian Customs.
We also found out by chance that the guy looking after our bike was about to leave BMW the following day.
We got the name and contact details of his boss, asking him to be kept updated regularly.

We left BMW thinking that our strategy to book flights instead of relying on the bike being ready was the right one.
At this point we had completely lost trust in BMW to deliver on any promises they would make.

We landed at Punta Arenas at 1am and after a 6 hrs sleep we boarded our bus to Puerto Natales.
The road to PN is all asphalt with no much to look at in between.

Puerto Natales is a little village sitting on a fjiord.

Clearly, given the great number of hotels and hostals it is catering for a huge amount of tourists.

There is no much to see except of course the fjiord.

We only have time to grab a quick lunch and take few pictures as our 2nd bus of the day is leaving in less than 2 hrs.

The first 70 kms of road up to Cerro Castillo is all asphalt.

At Cerro Castillo if you turn right you have 10 kms of gravel road that will take you to the argentinian border.

and if you turn left you have the road to Torres del Paine National park.

Asphalt does not last long at this side either.

After 10 kms you meet the fork towards "aministraciones", one of the entrances of the park, which is actually where our hotel is.

The bus however goes straight all the way to "Laguna Amarga", the other main entrance of the park.

In Laguna Amarga we take a quick picture of the towers that give the park its name and we jump on a new bus.

The road accross the park is spectacular and I am running from one side to the other side of the empty bus to catch a glimpse of the mountains and lakes around.

We make another stop over on lake Pehoe where you can catch a boat to take you at the other side.

Instead we jump on the 4th bus of the day heading to Administrationes.

In the meantime we have met Lucas, a nice chap that works at the Tyndall hotel, next door to the hotel Rio Serrano where we are heading to.

He tells us that there is no connection between Administrationes and the hotels, but luckily his hotel has organised a pick up for him to cover the 7 kms distance.

Don Segundo, the pick up driver, agrees to take us as well for a small contribution.

We finally arrive to our destination, 5 buses and 12 hrs later.

This is when you truly miss the freedom of movements that a motorcycle gives you.