After crossing the Chilean-Argentine border on the 15th, we arrived in Puerto Natales, a small town of about 20k people a few hours from Parque National Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia, and home of probably the largest burgers we have ever eaten.  They were the size of a plate, with a heap of chips on another plate on the side. We found a nice hostel called Nikos 2 with a nice English-speaking woman, whose dog took a real fancy to Allison.  Whilst we sat there waiting to organise our tours, Allison managed to arouse the little fella by showing him a little affection (a lot of dogs in South America are kicked rather than shown affection!), so much so that his little lipstick popped out and he wouldn´t let go of her.  She has a way with animals. The next day we left for the park Torres del Paine, which is home to snow capped mountains, glaciers, beautiful blue lakes and the Torres or towers themselves, which are three towering rock formations a four hour hike from our refugio.  Four hours of hiking with super-fit Nick, what were we letting ourselves in for.  Unfortunately it takes four days to hike around the whole park (a w-shaped hike up to glaciers and through a beautiful valley called the French valley), so we made do with a one day hike.   Setting off at around midday, we made it to the towers around 4pm after a more strenous hike than expected, as the last hour was a climb up rocks, some of which were loose and put most of us on our backsides (we were joined by two Irish guys called Trish and Paul too).  As you reach the towers you climb over the last few rocks, and are presented with a breath-taking view of these rock formations with a small lake below, which is fed from a glacier and has cascades running off to the bottom of the valley below.  Every one of us were taken aback as we climbed the last few rocks. We rested and took some pictures (one of which Nick and me stripped down for, but in my defence I didn´t know we were supposed to be tensing) for about half an hour before heading back down, stopping for a beer along the way (well, we deserved one). That night we had our first night in dorms (not bad for three months of travelling), after a meal at the refugio.  The refugio was quite expensive compared to most of South America, but as it´s in the middle of nowhere they can charge what they like, which became apparent at dinner.  As Allison doesn´t eat red meat we checked the menu, which said the main course was meat.  Not sure about anyone else, but when a meal is described as meat rather than beef or pork, we´re a little dubious as to what we´re eating.  We asked the girl at reception, "meat, is it beef?", and got a sort of "yeah, beef, that´s it" response, as if she was a prostitute and we asked her name and she said "whatever you want it to be"!  When it arrived, it had arteries and all sorts, and certainly didn´t taste like beef.  The next morning as we drove away, Paul commented "they´re bringing in tonight´s dinner" as we drove by a fella leading two old horses towards the refugio! On the 17th we stayed in the park and took a trip around the best sights.  First stop was a hike to a small lake with dozens of flamingoes, which all took flight as we approached, but it was great to be so close to a flock of them in the wild.  Then we stopped at Salar Grande, or Big Waterfall, which is a 12m waterfall which had a beautiful rainbow in it.  We balanced precariously on the edge for a photograph, before heading off to the Grey Glacier, not quite as big as Perito Moreno, but still impressive.  We were about 14km from the glacier, but it still looked impressive, and large icebergs had broken away and settled near the viewpoint.  As we were there a huge iceberg crumbled, creating waves and a loud roar.   On the trip with us was a Spanish fella who was staying at our hostel and in our room in the refugio.  He didn´t speak much English and kept himself to himself, though the next day he did ask us a few times to take pictures of him, as he was by himself.  Now we don´t mind taking photos for people as we often ask people too, but when they complain or look disappointed at the picture you´ve taken, we do get a bit annoyed.  This fella made us laugh though, as when he gave us the camera it was zoomed in as far as it could be.  At first I just zoomed out and took a picture, which he looked really disappointed with.  It wasn´t until Nick told us later that he had the same thing with the guy, and when he told him he replied to Nick, “I want it zoomed in, as only the face is important”.  When we say zoomed in we mean you couldn´t see the background, so basically this guy had loads of pictures of his face (oh, and he never smiled, just posed like Zoolander) with a non-descipt landscape behind him.  The funniest bit though was when he put his camera on timer and laid on these rocks as if he was doing a modeling shoot.  Even the Chilean guide had a snigger at that one. After the trip we returned to our hostel and went out for our last night together, as the next day we were heading south and Nick was heading back up north to go to Iguazu Falls before home.  We went to one of the Lonely Planets tips for good restaurants and had fish, then for a few drinks before everyone felt ill and we returned to the hostel about 12pm.  By 3am both Nick and Allison had the effects of food poisoning, and Rich didn´t feel too clever.  Nice one Lonely Planet! 

The next morning we all felt pretty rough, and said our goodbyes.  Nick gave us a good laugh when he turned up at 7am with all his bags in reception, and the woman told him his bus wasn´t until 11am and he could have still been in bed.  To be fair though, Rich did confirm the time of his bus, so he wasn´t really to blame.