January 3-4, 2008 - Puerto Natales & Punta Arenas, Chile

January 3, 2008 - Puerto Natales, Chile
===========================

I woke up much later than usual and was the sole occupant at the breakfast table. As today was a free day, I decided to visit the tourist office to explore the options. The tourist office is less than 100 metres from the hotel.

For all the noises caused by the Idiotic guests at night, I must say that Hostal Francis Drake is situated in an excellent spot. One can have a view of the snow capped mountains and the Esperanza Gulf while having breakfast. I would perhaps rank it as the next hotel to Liberatador in Trelew. Libertador is a terrific value for money but in terms of a room with a view, Francis Drake is much better than Libertador.

The folks at the tourist office were extremely helpful. They provided me with a much nicer map (a photocopy of which was given to me by Christophe upon arrival at Hostal Francis Drake) and pointed out some viewpoints of Puerto Natales and some high-speed internet cafes. We shall see about their Internet speeds!

There was a heavy wind blowing. I had difficulty walking straight through the city to the viewpoint (hereafter referred to as Mirador) at Santiago Buenas. I reached it after about 15 minutes. This is located a bit away from the centre and the touring masses were nowhere to be seen around here. This is an excellent mirador. It was high enough where one could see the entire city of Puerto Natales along with the Esperance Gulf and the distant snow capped mountains.

I headed back to the city and located a radio taxi office (all taxies in these places are radio taxis) to explore my options of visiting Cerro Dorotea - apparently a hill which supposedly provides excellent views of the surrounding mountains. Cerro dorotea is located about 8 kilometres (5 Miles) from the city centre hence my decision to take a cab. The weather was fantastic as well with the sun out in full and it would definitely be worth it to go up the hill and take some pictures.

The taxi was to cost me CLP 3500 (US$ 7) each way. They told me that I could call the taxi company once I am done with taking pictures and they would despatch another taxi to pick me up from Cerro Dorotea and ferry me back to the City centre. The singular advantage of having an UNLOCKED GSM Phone!

The ride to Cerro Dorotea took about 15 minutes. I was surprised to find the driver stopping at what looked like a farm house. Behind the farm house, the mountain loomed. It appeared to be a difficult climb. The lady of the farm assured me that is it quite easy and that lots and lots of people do it. I paid the taxi and sent it off. I was asked to fill out some mandatory information (Name, Citizenship, Passport No, Hotel I was staying in etc.). I also had to pay a fee of CLP 3000 (US$ 6) for the pleasure of walking through the farm and climbing Cerro Dorotea. Being a Chilean, the lady started with some rapid fire instructions. I had to say ("Habla mas lento - Speak SLOWLY) multiple times before I could comprehend what she said. Follow the red posts and you will reach the top and follow them back down and you will be back at the farm. Don’t try climbing up (or down) through the path on the left hand side of the mountain or you will fall down! Seemed easy enough:)

I trudged through the farm opening and shutting some wooden gates as I went past different fences which I presume were to keep different animals in their respective grazing areas. On reaching the base of the hill, I walked about a 100 metres onward. I came to what appeared to be a sheer wall! Well, the incline was not 90 degree (closer to 60), but it may as well have been 90! I am the type who prefers gradients of 20-30 degrees maximum! I stood there weighing the options on whether to attempt this or act sensible. In the end, despite myself(!) sensibility won.
I decided to abandon my attempt and trudged back to the farm. I was mad at the fat lady was conning me into believing that it was a piece of cake. I was equally mad at my guide book that made it appear as if I could either saunter up the hill or have a chauffeur driven rolls Royce take me up there to admire the view! Need to write to those idiots to put some difficulty levels (as they do in national parks) whenever they talk about hiking something that is NOT flat ground.

As I reached the farm, the fat lady appeared headed somewhere with 2 men. When I told her that it was too difficult, she said something about people doing it from all over the world (with her rapid fire speech, all I could decipher was "Todos al Mundo" - and I assumed the rest). She initially thought that my shoes were the issue. I tried explaining to her, the "Well researched and Purchased - Made in Vietnam, Thank You)" shoes were not the issue but the climb itself. I gave up and decided to walk back to town.

The wind decided to increase its velocity by another 50 mph (it seemed that way anyways). I figured the 5 mile walk might take me about 2 hours roughly as it was all on paved road with very little gradients. After about 200 metres of walking, I heard a car honk. I turned around to see a man waving at me to get into his van. As I got into the van, I realized it was the fat lady and her husband who were apparently headed into the city to party with my 3000 pesos :) I gratefully accepted the free ride. During the ride I explained yet again to both of them that given the steep incline of cerro dorotea, most climbers must be professionals rather than city walkers like myself who have little appetite to wear a ´crown of thorns´! While her husband readily agreed with me, she accepted my explanation somewhat reluctantly.

They dropped me off at the centre of Puerto Natales and I thanked them once again. I headed to the "fast" Internet cafe and found it to be slow as usual. I copied the pictures taken in the last 2 days from my memory card to my portable hard drive and decided to quit after an hour as the place was too noisy as well. While I do not mind music that is played in some places, I completely abhor the idiots who talk loudly in internet cafes especially those folks who use SKYPE or some similar services to ask about their dogs back home or tell them about their latest greatest ´discovery´! While talking to friends and family is certainly admirable, it ought to be done without disturbing ME!

I walked out and stumbled upon another internet cafe that was not only charging lesser per hour but was hardly occupied. The reason was not hard to fathom. It was 2 streets removed from the centre! I blogged for 4.5 hours and was up-to-date on my blogs. The internet speed here was not good enough to upload pictures although I did attempt it.

It was close to 5 PM and I headed to a local super Mercado. I bought some cookies for the bus ride tomorrow. I went back to Hostal Francis drake for a bit of rest. I met Christophe who inquired about my tours in Puerto Natales. He was quite upset at the weather. Apparently it has never been this bad for so many consecutive days in the summer. While there is always the wind, the temperature was apparently never so low for so many days. He was seriously considering flying to Santiago (which was experiencing 35 degree centigrade weather) for a few days an return to Puerto Natales when the temperatures had climbed a bit.

I was wearing 3 layers and I felt cold. The wind was "violently" strong. Those who talk about Chicago being windy should come here for 2-3 days and they will shut up forever about Chicago being windy! Compared to Puerto Natales, Chicago has Zephyrs :) And this is during the SUMMER here.

I tried souvenir shopping and found nothing interesting. Maybe I am losing interest in souvenirs and shopping. I don´t think that is such a bad thing. I went to "El Living" for dinner again and had a nice Carrot and Coriander soup with Walnut, vegetarian sandwich. Soup was really good. Sandwich was tolerable.

I headed back to the hotel, wrote my diary, packed up and hit the sack. I still have until 1 PM tomorrow before I take the bus to Punta Arenas.

January 4, 2008 - Puerto Natales, Chile
===========================

I woke up even later and headed to breakfast by 9:15 AM. While at breakfast, I requested that my bill be prepared (for my 3 night stay here). I checked out of my room, left 2 of my bags in the lounge area and paid the bill (CLP 85500 - US$ 171 @ US$ 57 per night). As I had misplaced my map of the area, I headed to the Sernatur (Chilean tourism) office again to obtain a map.

As my Phone card had run out of money, I headed next to the MOVISTAR office to recharge my card. I was 10 minutes early! I wandered around for 15 minutes before heading to the Movistar office again. It looked like the store had been vandalized the previous night. A display window was broken and a couple of rocks were lying near the entrance of the office. I guess this must be news for the next 7 days here (apart from the weather, of course).

I chatted with a Sales rep at the office (in broken Spanish and sign language) explaining that any new card I buy must add money to my existing telephone number rather than generate a new number. He assured me that it was possible. The office, however, did not sell prepaid cards. They directed me to a kiosk close by. I purchased a card for CLP 3500 (US$ 7) and headed back to the movistar office. I ensured that the sales rep. walked me through the process of adding money to my existing Phone number. It seemed to work. Thanked the sales rep and left.

I headed to (yet another) supposedly high speed (256 Kbps is considered high speed here) internet cafe. Needless to say it was far from it. While at the cafe, I received a call from a friend in the US. We chatted for about 20 mins. (There was no one in the room when I received the call and I did not disrupt anyone´s reverie!) I obtained some confirmation printouts for my stay in Ushuaia (Argentina). I had also received an e-mail from the Carnival Organizers in RIO who wanted to know the address where my tickets need to be delivered. The e-mail message was on time as they had promised. I provided my Hotel address in Rio. Hopefully the actual delivery will be prompt as well :)

As it was close to noon, I paid up my bill at the internet cafe and started heading back to the hotel. En-route I called India and spoke to parents and reached the hotel around 12:15 PM. I requested for a cab and one arrived presently. The ride to the bus station took about 5 minutes and cost me CLP 1000. Many different companies run long distance bus operations in these places. While they all depart (and arrive) at Central bus stations such as Puerto Madryn and EL Calafate (Argentina), the buses in Puerto Natales arrive and depart from the bus company´s offices. As I had taken a different bus company to arrive into Puerto Natales and would be taking a different company to go to Punta Arenas, I arrived and departed from different street locations within Puerto Natales.

I ensure that my ticket was all good and it was. While waiting to board the bus, I chatted with a young German exchange student who was spending an year in Buenos Aires. Despite being here for almost a year, her Spanish was no better than mine as she hung out mostly with other German exchange students and International students at the college in Buenos Aires. She was travelling in Patagonia for 3 weeks.

We boarded the bus around 12:45 PM and the bus departed at 1 PM sharp. That is the good thing about buses here. They always depart on time.

As this was a 3:30 journey and the scenery was not great, I open "In Patagonia" and started reading the preface - written by Nicholas Shakespeare. I felt asleep after 10 pages. I don´t think it had anything to do with the writing. I just needed the sleep, I think.

January 4, 2008 - Punta Arenas, Chile
===========================

On reaching Punta Arenas, people were dropped off at different locations starting with the Airport. We were finally dropped at the company offices. The German student and I bid adieu with the comment that we may see each other again ("Hasta Luego" - Till next time). I waited outside the bus station for less than 2 minutes before a taxi stopped by. The hotel was less than 5 minutes away and cost me CLP 600. The taxi driver wrote down his cell phone number on a card, in the event I wanted to use his services for touring the city or places outside the city of Punta Arenas.

Patricia Picco greeted me at the reception and after filling out the required information was shown to my room. The Hostal Art Nouveau appeared to be converted from a old colonial style house. The room was nice with twin beds and the bathroom (for the first time in this tour of mine) had glass doors rather than shower curtains around the bathtub. The tub of course could not fir anyone more than 3 feet! I left my bags in the room and was worked on what I wanted to do next. It was hardy 5 PM and the sun was out. I received a call from another friend in the US and we chatted for 20 mins.

Patricia told me that she was successful in getting me a window seat on the bus to Ushuaia. Being a 10-12 hour ride on Sunday, I wanted a window seat in case there was something to see and I did not read or sleep!

I headed to the Sernatur office and obtained information on what I could do this evening and the different tour options for tomorrow. I headed to a tour agency as well and obtained some additional information on pricing.

I headed to an Internet cafe and finally found some decent speed to upload about 20 pictures. I am talking 1 MBPS speed here. I had a Milkshake while the uploads were taking place. After spending an hour at the cafe, I headed to see some of the sights in Punta Arenas. It used to be a flourishing port city on the straights on Magellan before the Panama Canal opened and ships stopped calling here.

I visited a couple of Miradors and took some pictures. As I had read about the torn Ozone layer above Punta Arenas, I had a nice big floppy hat and a pair of oversized sun glasses that fitted over my regular glasses. I had terrific views of the straits of Magellan. My early geography lessons finally come true:)

I headed to a place called "Santino" that was recommended by my guide book for an early dinner. While the pasta and service was good, the biggest drawback was the ALL smoking area. Despite the food, I would not go there again.

As I walked out after dinner, I noticed that most shops and even some restaurants had started to down their shutters. It was not even 9 PM. This is by far the biggest town I have seen outside of Santiago. There are lots of grapes grown here although wine production is still done in the wine regions close to Santiago. Punta Arenas is famous for King Crab and fishing is still a big industry here.

I might do some more walks around the city tomorrow morning. Not sure about the afternoon. My room had heaters in operations as did my bathroom. I travelled to south America to escape the heaters in North Eastern US and I have to experience heaters here again:)

Maybe I should have planned separate trip to the summer places like Santiago, Easter Island, Atacama, Brazil and planned a separate trip to the colder places like the Argentinean and Chilean Patagonia as well as Antarctica!

When I returned to the hotel, Patricia and a friend of hers were talking in the lobby. They continued talking well into the night. I could not sleep and I did not want to be rude and tell them to shut up. After the talking, I think Patricia started to re-arrange the furniture for tomorrow morning´s breakfast. I could not take it much longer. I went out and told her to pipe down as I could not fall asleep. For added insurance, I turned to my trusted ear plus again.

Hope this does not happen again tomorrow night.