Gore-Tex parties

Clare and I are now in Chilean Patagonia, right at the end of the world, and being very surprised by the standard of the food here. The area is teeming with tourists looking to hike in the Torres del Paine national park, so you would expect boring pizzerias and burger joints - but the quality and variety has been excellent. However, everywhere you go, everyone is clad in Gore-Tex, hence my post title!

Our first stop was in Punta Arenas, the main link from Santiago into Southern Chile, a relatively big city which disturbingly feels like you´re in Scandinavia. Highlight of our travels here was seeing a colony of penguins where 70,000 pairs are resident - they were literally everywhere:

Given the ridiculously cheap Chilean wine we were quaffing, I don´t remember much of our dining experiences in Punta Arenas, except a big shout to La Luna on O´Higgins, a cosy little restaurant whose specialty was their spaghetti marinara. The spaghetti was pretty good (think spaghetti smothered in cream with bits of king crab in it), but it was the atmosphere that we really liked. There is a big world map for tourists to stick pins in for where they come from, and there is a massive beer can collection lining the restaurant. Lovely.

We are now currently in Puerto Natales, a very sleepy little town, but beautifully surrounded by mountains. Guidebooks are pretty unkind about the place, but we are loving it here. Given that it is the gateway to Torres del Paine, the town is really chilled, the people are so nice, and such a refreshing change from Cusco where people are hassling you every minute of the day.

Our first favourite eaterie here is Casa Magna on Bolnes, which features a large boat outside, and potentially the sweetest waiter alive. We were not particularly adventurous with what we ate here - grilled fish with fried eggs and chips! - but we had such a great time (yes, another terrible pic by Connie, but Clare wanted to prove to her mom that she´d ordered fish for dinner!):

The waiter was just so passionate about his food, and he even did a little wine tasting lesson for the table next door. Given that we had arrived in Puerto Natales for less than 2 hours, we were made to feel so welcome.

Our next favourite place obviously tries to cater for the tourist crowd (with foreign magazines, freshly squeezed juices and Earl Grey tea!), but it does it all so charmingly. El Living on Arturo Prat specialises in vegetarian food, and it has been a welcome relief from the typical Chilean red meat with red meat dishes. Their colourful food also allows me to take decent pictures for once! - this is their hummus starter:

And a delicious apple, beetroot, and avocado sandwich:

Their special of pumpkin, cauliflower and cheese bake went down so well that we´ve already returned for a second visit! Although I think the existence of Guardian newspapers there may also have something to do with it!

As I said, this beautiful little town is surrounded by mountains, so last night Clare and I decided to do a lovely romantic dinner by the lake, where you can see the sunset (which occurs at around 10pm!). The somewhat weirdly named Concepto Indigo on Ladrilleros is right next door to the lake, and its upstairs restaurant is currently resident to Pippa the waitress, who is so unbelievably sweet you want to squeeze her. The food is definitely expensive for the town (about USD$15 for a main), but the cooking was impressive. I had my first Patagonian lamb here, and definitely up to the standard of good London restaurants - it was even served with some achingly trendy polenta (bleurgh!):