Buses

Our plan for our last day in Torres del Paine was to go up one of the minor peaks right near the campground in Campo Las Torres. The peak was called Cerro Paine and there was supposedly a trail up it that left from Hosteria Las Torres. We tried to cut over to that trail from the campground. What we found were a lot of animal trails, but no actual trail. It gave us some excellent views and frankly we left to late to make an actual assault on the peak.
Dad ended up quitting a little bit earlier than me. My ascent took me to a place that eventually got very steep and was filled with scree. I took this as far as I could until the ridge dropped off. We should have gone way left if we really wanted to get to the top of Cerro Paine, but I would've had to have left camp a lot earlier in the morning. Frankly by this point, I was sunburned and missing my ladies back home, so I really was not as motivated as I should have been to summit this peak.

When we got back down to camp, it was time to pack up. We had a bit of extra time left, so we decided to walk the road. This was an excellent little hike where we saw a few vehicles pass us, but mainly it was just the two of us on a dry dusty road that led to a small trail. This small trail led us back to Laguna Amarga where we would meet our bus.
It was now going to be just views from buses for a couple of days. This first bus took us back into Puerto Natales where we holed up at the same Hostel that we stayed at before going to Torres del Paine. Then we walked over to the bus station and found it very difficult to get a bus out in the morning. We ended up settling on a bus to El Calafate and a new country, Argentina that following evening.
This required a long and boring day in the city of Puerto Natales. The funny part about sitting around in this city was that it was not quite warm enough to sit there and just chill because it would get to chilly. Dad did his best by covering up, but he looked kind of like a bum. We had some lunch at a burger and fry place where I got one of the worst tasting hot dogs I have ever had. The joys of not really knowing what you are ordering. Then I proceeded to walk around as the hours ticked by slowly.
Eventually, the time came to vamonos. We were on the bus and able to just sit and relax. The ride was going to be long and it included a somewhat confusing border crossing. I tried to enjoy the views and the time alone just sitting and listening to music, but I was finding the traveling more difficult than I would have thought. There are only a few towns in Patagonia, but they are separated by many miles.
We arrived in El Calafate near midnight. There was a lot of confusion and when we wandered around near where the bus depot was, we found no options to stay. So we hauled all our heavy gear down the hill and into the main part of town. Eventually, after asking a few places, we ended up at a hostel where there were a group of guys partying right outside of the hostel. This didn't look great, but Dad asked and there were rooms available. We were both a bit weary, so Dad decided that this was the place. I was slightly nervous about the decision, but I think we needed a place to crash. I wondered if we would get fleas or something worse in a rat hole like this, but I just put my ear plugs in and got some shut eye.
In the morning, we were out of there when the sun came up. We thought we would go into town to get some chores done. Unfortunately it was Sunday again and the prospects were bleak until much later in the day. No laundry and no bus ticket until we sat around playing more cribbage for a while. Eventually we did get our bus ticket and then had an excellent meal at a little cafe while we played even more cribbage and worked on a novel.
The bus came a little bit earlier this time. We had another bunch of hours on the bus that led us to increasingly good views of mountains and glaciers. Our goal was El Chalten and Los Glacieres National Park. When the bus drove up the long valley and finally arrived in El Chalten, we did a curious thing. Instead of going to the bus depot, it dropped us at the entrance to the National Park. Here, we all got out of the bus where a ranger, in English mind you, gave us one of the best Leave no Trace talks I have ever heard. Frankly, I couldn't be more excited to visit this National Park and see all the good work they were doing and see if we at Zion could learn anything.

We had a hostel reserved and ran some errands in the evening. We wrote emails and got laundry taken care of. We found needed essentials to fill our packs as we had 6 days worth of hiking ahead for us. Frankly with all the buses and hanging around town, we were ready to get to it!