Pire Mapu Cottage — Hotel in Puerto Natales

I walked in, the front desk lady was very welcoming and when I asked about a nearby laundry service, she said no problem, just give my bag of clothes to her and she’d take care of it and showed me a clothes hanger I could use to dry them if need be. Two hours later I went out to talk to the front office manager (owner I believe) to ensure I had the right price in pesos. There was a $13 USD difference which he noted was the charge for the laundry. I mentioned that seemed a touch pricy, he said it’s pricier in town, I said fair enough, and then I said, “Separate from price, just on the principle of...” and at that moment he interrupted me and tried to talk over me. We each spoke over each other for a serious 5-10 seconds, before I finally asked him to “please not interrupt me,” to which he replied, “you interrupted me,” to which I helpfully answered, “As you interjected halfway through my sentence, it is you who interrupted and spoke over me,” to which he said, “you know what, forget about the $13 (10,000 pesos), it isn’t worth it,” and I said, “No, I’m going to pay, I just think that - as I was about to say before being interrupted - on the principle of the matter I think people should always be informed if something is being charged and how much, because I was under the impression my laundry was a courtesy.” He didn’t bother acknowledging what I said and that was that. What I should have said is, you can’t pay off boorish behavior. Then I was given my bag of ‘dry’ clothes, half of which were damp. I asked the lady who appeared to have spoken English earlier for the ‘drying rack’ and she got extremely anxious and defensive, grabbed the bag of clothes from me and said, no, all clothes in there, you didn’t give me anything else! I said, no, the rack you showed me earlier for drying the clothes. No no, she exclaimed, I don’t have anything else, all your clothes are there! It was extremely uncomfortable. In desperation I went to the man and he brought it over, at which she turned to me accusatorially saying, you said MY drying rack. It’s not mine. Why did you say mine? I still don’t really know what she was talking about. As for the place, my room opened directly and immediately onto the breakfast table, and I could hear everything and was therefore awoken by earlier breakfasters. My room’s window also opened directly (3 feet) onto the sidewalk, which I found uncomfortable. Otherwise comfortable, clean room. Quite a walk from downtown in a rundown residential part of town.||||Update - I asked the guesthouse to call me a taxi to the Singular hotel upon my departure, and the lady working there told me any taxi in the city costs 1,500 CLP as a flat rate. When we arrived the taxi driver quoted me 4,000, so I assumed I was being ripped off. I asked the driver to come into the hotel with me and the receptionist confirmed that taxis cost around 4,000. Confused, I asked him to call Pire Mali to clear things up. He was kept on the phone for five minutes and I could hear the other side screaming at him. He finally got off the phone and said unprompted that they were extremely rude and aggressive, telling him that why should they know the price, they don’t take taxis in their own city, and it’s not their fault the price was wrong. He also told me the Pire Mapu lady unprompted told him I was rude and that I had created problems for them. Really incredible how absolutely awful these...

I walked in, the front desk lady was very welcoming and when I asked about a nearby laundry service, she said no problem, just give my bag of clothes to her and she’d take care of it and showed me a clothes hanger I could use to dry them if need be. Two hours later I went out to talk to the front office manager (owner I believe) to ensure I had the right price in pesos. There was a $13 USD difference which he noted was the charge for the laundry. I mentioned that seemed a touch pricy, he said it’s pricier in town, I said fair enough, and then I said, “Separate from price, just on the principle of...” and at that moment he interrupted me and tried to talk over me. We each spoke over each other for a serious 5-10 seconds, before I finally asked him to “please not interrupt me,” to which he replied, “you interrupted me,” to which I helpfully answered, “As you interjected halfway through my sentence, it is you who interrupted and spoke over me,” to which he said, “you know what, forget about the $13 (10,000 pesos), it isn’t worth it,” and I said, “No, I’m going to pay, I just think that - as I was about to say before being interrupted - on the principle of the matter I think people should always be informed if something is being charged and how much, because I was under the impression my laundry was a courtesy.” He didn’t bother acknowledging what I said and that was that. What I should have said is, you can’t pay off boorish behavior. Then I was given my bag of ‘dry’ clothes, half of which were damp. I asked the lady who appeared to have spoken English earlier for the ‘drying rack’ and she got extremely anxious and defensive, grabbed the bag of clothes from me and said, no, all clothes in there, you didn’t give me anything else! I said, no, the rack you showed me earlier for drying the clothes. No no, she exclaimed, I don’t have anything else, all your clothes are there! It was extremely uncomfortable. In desperation I went to the man and he brought it over, at which she turned to me accusatorially saying, you said MY drying rack. It’s not mine. Why did you say mine? I still don’t really know what she was talking about. As for the place, my room opened directly and immediately onto the breakfast table, and I could hear everything and was therefore awoken by earlier breakfasters. My room’s window also opened directly (3 feet) onto the sidewalk, which I found uncomfortable. Otherwise comfortable, clean room. Quite a walk from downtown in a rundown residential part of town.

Update - I asked the guesthouse to call me a taxi to the Singular hotel upon my departure, and the lady working there told me any taxi in the city costs 1,500 CLP as a flat rate. When we arrived the taxi driver quoted me 4,000, so I assumed I was being ripped off. I asked the driver to come into the hotel with me and the receptionist confirmed that taxis cost around 4,000. Confused, I asked him to call Pire Mali to clear things up. He was kept on the phone for five minutes and I could hear the other side screaming at him. He finally got off the phone and said unprompted that they were extremely rude and aggressive, telling him that why should they know the price, they don’t take taxis in their own city, and it’s not their fault the price was wrong. He also told me the Pire Mapu lady unprompted told him I was rude and that I had created problems for them. Really incredible how absolutely awful these...

Not sure how old my cabin is… but it looks brand new and the design and layout is exactly what I was looking for this trip. Everything is prefect. The first thing I noticed was the scent… I can’t explain it but it smells so good and just right for the environment. Only negative is that it does get cold in this part of Chile, the unit has an amazing heater, however the type of heat it produces, doesn’t travel far. So bedroom can get a lil chilly (you have enough blankets to stay warm. The shower has amazing hot water, good water pressure… some water leaks under shower (it’s normal for Chile). It’s located close to the center of town… 12 min walk or you can take a Uber for 1700 CLP ($1.79 USD). Saw someone complain about not being close to town… not sure how much closer he expects to get. During my stay so far the WiFi has worked great without...