Another bordercrossing back to Chile, and I made it to Puerto Natales, from where I left for a 7-day trekking and camping adventure in the "Torres del Paine" - nationalpark. We hiked the well known "W"-trail, adding some extra days for the most beautiful parts of it to make sure that we actually see the park, as the weather is just unpredictable (but we were so lucky with the weather, having only 2 days of rain on days where we could deal with it best ).We did the trek west to east - starting at the glacier Grey, hiking up into the Valle del Frances on a sunny day while leaving it the next day with the fog crawling into the valley and hugging the mountains tight so you could see nothing when looking back ....and ending the trek in front of the 3 "Torres del Paine".

I  boarded the ferry "Don Baldo" - leaving Chiloe behind on the journey further south..I watched the shoreline passing by before sunrise the next morning, breathing in the fresh morning air, and when we arrived in Puerto Chacabuco in the evening after a 26-hour trip, the mountains you saw ashore had white peaks. I raced to  Coyhaique,  from where I explored the surrounding during the next days: Hiking in the Coyhaique National Reserve, and one day we drove down the famous "Carretera Austral" through stunning rugged landscape all the way to  Puerto Tranquilo at the shore of Lago General Carrera, where  we took a little boat out to see the marvelous  "Capilla de Marmol"- beautyful caves and rock formations. Well, sooner or later I managed to leave Coyhaique behind, traveling down to the little village of Chile Chico to cross back into Argentina the next morning, and then taking a bus from Los Antiquos down the "Ruta40" to  El Chalten - the whole day nothing but argentinian steppe till finally the impressive "Fitz Roy" and "Torre"  mountainranges appeared  at the horizon. And luckily I had amazing sunshine the next days to hike to the "Lago Torre" / enjoy the stunning panorama, also when I went further down to El Calafate and the magnificent glacier "Perito Moreno" yesterday.

I kept heading south - ZIGZAGGING between Chile and Argentina: I went to Valdivia in Chile, where I ran into a german "Bierfest" - what else would you expect here, german settlements, immigrants and influences everywhere !! Then I crossed the border once more to get to Bariloche in Argentina to do some more hikes in the lake-district. Back in Chile, I had a short stopover in Puerto Varas before getting on the Island(s) Chiloè, where I got stuck for the last few days - watching penguins; hiking through the national park and along the coast; looking at Palifitios ( colourful houses on stilts on the shore); seeing some of the wooden churches in the different villages of the island and having a fiesta in one of the villages where the locals were dancing CUECA, racing horses and cooking yummy traditional local food like curanto,empanadas ( filled with seafood ) and asado.