January 1, 2008 - El Calafate, Argentina
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The New Year revellers did not keep me awake last night. There were a few firecrackers burst around midnight and then there were no noises to be heard. That is the nice thing about Hosteria Sir Thomas as it a bit away from the centre.
I was the first at the breakfast table. I requested the mail to call a taxi for me around 7:45 AM. I had to be at the Bus station by 8 AM even though the bus would depart to Puerto Natales only at 8:30 AM.
After finishing breakfast, I took all my bags and knocked at Nestor´s office to hand in my keys. He took the keys and after a cursory greeting pointed me to a car waiting in the driveway. His adieu felt rather cold. Turns out that he was driving me in his car to the bus station. Apparently he had a very good celebration last night and was still groggy. Upon reaching the bus station, we bid a proper adieu and I went to the platform where the bus was to depart for Puerto Natales.
Around 8:05, two buses pulled up and parked in adjacent platforms. On going to the driver of the first bus, I was told to board the second (!) as that was the one headed to Puerto Natales. Seats are numbered on these buses and I had a window seat. After 10 minutes or so, a youngish (compared to me!) blonde prepared to seat herself next to me. Buses here have a 2x2 seat formation with an aisle down the middle and a bathroom at the end of the bus. Blondie spoke English and it turns out that the lassie was from Scotland.
The bus departed at 8:30 and we started talking. She had trained to be a doctor and had practised for a bit before becoming a medical advisor for Glaxo Smithkline beecham. The landscape was nothing great and despite her obvious need for sleep (she had partied well into the morning of January 1) we continued talking for over 2 hours on our different travel experiences, our current travel plans as well as our philosophies ranging from vegetarianism to universal health care. She used to be a vegetarian until 21, but then decided to become a carnivore once again. We had similar opinions on most of these subjects. She had a very good perspective on life where she was not too concerned about career / power or Money but was more interested in living a good balanced life.
We travelled on the famous RUTA 40 (sort of like a route 66 in the US) for most of the way to Puerto Natales. We crossed the Argentine border at Rio Turbio. There were no issues here and no departure tax was required. They just stamp an exit stamp on your passport.
We crossed into Chile at a place called Dorotea a few kilometres down the road. Chilean customs required us to open ALL our bags and they did a Physical inspection of every bag. Chile has strict laws on importing Vegetable / animal products into the country. Folks had to throw away bananas, apples, oranges etc. Thank god, all I had was some cookies and a bottle of water! The Chilean border crossing took around 40 minutes for a bus filled with as many passengers. Come to think of it, that´s not bad!
It was quite cool seeing your passport stamped with the date of the first day of a new year.
January 1, 2008 - Puerto Natales, Chile
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Puerto Natales is less than 15 minutes from the border crossing at Dorotea. The bus dropped us at their offices in Puerto Natales. Being January 1 shops were shuttered and there were no taxis near the bus offices.
I obtained directions to my hotel from a local an started walking towards it. While I initially tried to carry my duffel as a backpack, I gave up after 200 metres. As the sidewalk was decent, I decided to use the wheels of the backpack and drag it along to the hotel. After a couple of missteps, I finally found my Hotel (Francis Drake). Despite it being after 1 PM (Chile is 1-hour behind Argentina), the room was not ready! The owner (Christophe) gave some excuse about some late night revellers checking out late and the maid not having had time to get the room ready for me.
I left two bags in the hotel and went out for lunch. I found a Libro cafe (Bookstore with a cafe) and had a sandwich and a mate. The way I ordered must have given them the notion of me as an expert Mate preparer as I was provided a Mate cup with Mate leaves and a large kettle of hot water! So I poured hot water into my mate cup and started sipping it. Most VILE drink I have ever tasted. Bitter to the core! Nevertheless, I maintained a stiff upper lip and continued to sip it while I ate my sandwich. As the sandwich progressed I started adding a lot of sugar to the mate cup to make it tolerable :)
I went to a nearby bank and withdrew some money. Turns out that all Banks charge a Standard fee of US$ 5 per withdrawal (irrespective of amount). In addition they also levy a small surcharge depending on the amount withdrawn. About $1.00 for every $100 withdrawn. Despite paying $106 for every $100 you get on hand, this still works out better than exchanging travellers checks in these remote places. Being January 1, most places were closed and ATM was my only recourse to Chilean money.
I went to a local bus company and also booked myself on a bus to Puntas Arenas on January 4. The cost was CLP 5000 (US$ 10) and the journey would take 3 hours. I asked for and was given a Window seat.
I got back to the hotel around 3:15 PM. The room was ready and Christophe promised me a great room that would be very quiet. The room was indeed nice with 2 beds. The bathroom was small of course. I was being charged $57 per night for this - breakfast included. I tried using the free internet at the hotel and gave up as it was too slow even to check my e-mail. I left the hotel at 5 PM. I walked to the Esperanza gulf and tried to take a few pictures. It was quite windy with the occasional drizzle.
It was a dull grey day and being New Year´s not a lot was open. I hope tomorrow is better weather wise. I went to an Internet cafe and blogged for a few hours. Now I was just 2 days behind on my blog. I will try and find a high speed cafe tomorrow and try to upload some pictures.
I went to a place called "El Living" (run by an Englishman) for dinner. The cafe served only vegetarian food although curry of any kind is absent from the menu. One of the healthy vegetarian cafes that spring up around the world, giving a bad name to vegetarianism! As is always the case in Chile, a meagre meal cost me $13 (CLP 6500).
I got back to the hotel and booked myself on a trip to see the Torres del Paine National park tomorrow. I spent time writing my diary while watching Scorsese´s "Departed" - a really bad remake of the very good Hong Kong movie - Infernal Affairs.
There were too many guests here who were creating a racket. I could hear everything as the walls were quite thin. I need to wear my earplugs again. Damn!
January 2, 2008 - Puerto Natales, Chile
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My pickup to the Torres del paine national park was to be at 7:30 AM. When I looked at my watch as I woke up, it showed 7 AM! I started getting ready in a hurry. When I came by to put away my alarm clock, it showed a time of 6 AM. While my alarm clock had 24 time zones and was set correctly to the Chilean time zone, I left my watch set to the Argentinean time zone (an hour ahead of Chile) as I would be travelling to Argentina in 4 days time!
I heaved a big sign of relief when I realized I had plenty of time. Showered and had a decent breakfast. Being a French run hotel, they served cheese and pate at breakfast! I stuck with butter and Jam. The places was filled with French speaking guests. I am not sure if we Indians would flock to Indian run hotels the way the Europeans or Americans flock to places run by their countrymen (or women). We will definitely flock to Indian run restaurants in a foreign country.
The tour pickup finally arrived at 7:45 or so and we set out. It was a decent sized mini bus and the seats reclined well. There were around 15 people in a 30-seater bus and I single handedly brought down the average age by 10! The guide spoke decent English (relatively speaking) as he was a native Chilean who had spent a number of years working in the US.
A brief mention about the weather in Puerto Natales:
When I woke up at 6 AM, it was raining badly. By the time I sat at the breakfast table (7 AM), the sun was shining brightly although there was a heavy drizzle as well. By the time we left at 8 AM, the sun was out in force and there was not a drop of rain. I have heard of places experiencing 4-Seasons in a single day, but Puerto Natales appears to experiences 4-Seasons several times a day!
Despite the Sunshine, there was a very thick cloud cover. Our first stop of the day was a cave where a Milodon sloth was discovered a few years ago. The cave is located about 30 minutes from Puerto Natales. Due to the inclement weather yesterday, many of the small mountains (1500 metres - 500 feet in height) had a dusting of snow.
We passed the airport en-route to the cave and it looked quite picturesque set as it was amidst 2 snow capped mountain ranges. It would have been even more picturesque if there were no clouds but just blue sky! Oh well.
The cave where the sloth was found is an enormous one. While the actual specimen is in a museum, a replica is at the entrance to the cave. After spending around 20 minutes here, we headed to the Torres del Paine National park [Torres del Paine - Towers of Paine , with Paine being pronounced PIE-NAY].
Puerto Natales is a jumping off point for the touring masses who want to visit and hike this park. Most come here to do treks that range from a few hours to a few days. Our group had opted for a day tour of the park so we could sleep in nice beds in our hotels later tonight.
En-route we stopped at a place called CERRO Castillo for coffee and a bathroom break. The guide told us that Chilean Lamb has been adjudged the best eco-friendly lamb grown. As a result the demand for Chilean lamb had skyrocketed. A hectare of land (2.5 acres approx) can support 2 sheep or a cow. Most cows farmed here are Herefords. Years ago, the Chilean government apparently gave away free land to people including the patagonias.
The demand for Chilean lamb has resulted in a shortage of grass growing land and the government is now requesting more people to grow grass on their land and thus support more lambs. Many of the lands in these areas are still in Private lands. Even the maps indicate that. Sometime one wishes, the Chilean govt. should make an attempt like the Argentines in 1935 and just take over lands that are close to a national park.
We stopped at a viewpoint hoping to get our first glimpse of the Torres del Paine. It was not to be as the "Torres" were obscured by the clouds. As we continued to the main entrance of the park, we started seeing numerous Guanacos usually in groups of 10 or so. [By days end, we would have seen over 100 Guanacos] We even saw a fox eating a freshly killed Guanaco.
VICUNA is a protected species and it is hard to find products made from its wool (which is supposedly the finest) in Chile. Guanacos, on the other hand, are plenty and folks apparently eat them as well. We stopped at Laguna Amarga which had turned Salty and was drying up slowly. We also observed quite a few condors hovering above. These condors apparently scare small sheep into taking a tumble down the steep mountainsides before having them for lunch!
We reached the park entrance a little after Laguna Amarga and I had to pay an entrance fee of CLP 15000 (US$ 30). We continued into the park. After driving a few kilometres, we saw the famous "Cuernos del Paine" (Horns of the Paine). As we could not see the supposedly majestic "Torres" we tried taking as many pictures as we could of the "Cuernos".
The park has numerous lakes resulting from glacier melt and almost all of them are turquoise green in colour due to the high mineral content in these waters.
We saw a nice waterfall. Although our plans called for a hike to the waterfall, due to the inclement weather (it had started raining again) we decided not to take a hike and headed to a local restaurant (within the park) for Lunch. My vegetarian options were limited to white rice, some noodles and boiled potatoes. While the rice and noodles were bland, my tongue sought and savoured every particle of Chili that was lightly sprinkled on the boiled potatoes. I should perhaps write a book on my adventures as a strict vegetarian.
We saw some CAIQUEN (a form of Geese) close to our restaurant. These birds are so monogamous, that when one of them dies, the other half of the couple apparently dies soon thereafter as well! Took pictures of the couple and their brood (numbering about half a dozen).
The next stop was Lago Grey which was formed from the melt water of the Grey Glacier. As it looked like it might rain when we reached this place, I took my Poncho with me. The lake was not that impressive, but the paine Grande mountain range in the background provided a magnificent setting. There were a few small icebergs (or ice floes) on Lago grey but none were even remotely interesting as the ones I observed during my visit to the Upsala glacier near El Calafate, Argentina.
Even the Chileans will admit that if you have seen the Glaciers near El Calafate, there is little point in spending money to see the Glaciers at the Torres del Paine national park.
I inexplicable lost my Poncho! The arm that was holding the Poncho (as it was not raining) did not have it anymore! I traced my route all the way back to the Bus and still did not find it. I was quite mad at myself. I lost my cap and ripped my first poncho at Perito Moreno and now I lose my replacement Poncho at another Glacier.
I dozed on the way back to Puerto Natales which we reached a little after 7 PM. I headed to a local tour agency to explore tour options for tomorrow. As I had already seen the Torres del Paine park and the Glaciers in El Calafate, the only available option was an 8-hour hike in the park. I am not an avid hiker and did not fancy an 8-hour walk by myself.
I will probably get my blog up to date and take a siesta tomorrow!
I had dinner at an African restaurant that consisted of a Vegetable soup and rice with turmeric, cumin, almonds, raisins and spices. I topped it off with Vanilla Ice Cream. As always it was a $14 dinner (CLP 7000).
I got back to the hotel, wrote my diary and watched some TV. CNN anchors were frothing at their mouths as the IOWA causes are scheduled for tomorrow. You would think that with all this attention and coverage being given, someone was going to announce a cure for cancer tomorrow!
I have a free day tomorrow. Might perhaps do some Souvenir shopping or write some postcards.
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