By nightfall we made it back to Puerto Natales and settled into Casa Cecilia, the specimen Patagonian rooming house that Sandy had somehow managed to discover. Modest, but commodious, it proved to be the perfect place. Cecilia, born a couple of houses up the street, was descended from emigrants from the island of Chiloe. After a while we were able to determine that she was married to Werner, the Swiss* who came to Puerto Natales on vacation and never left. Clearly, they had carved out a nice little business for themselves due to hard work and infinite patience with the wide assortment of guests that cycled through. Werner and Cecilia even employed a panadera who would come in at midnight and bake bread till dawn. That wonderful, comfy smell managed to reach the far corners of the little rooming house and served as a nice antidote to the cold and raw wind that swirled outside.
* Ta to Detta for the correction, as she emphatically notes: "he would not like being called a German".
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