January 5, 2008 - Punta Arenas, Chile

January 5, 2008 - Punta Arenas, Chile
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Woke up my 8:30 and discovered a bit later that the shower was not working. The breakfast was OK. At breakfast I came across a German couple travelling with their college going son. They had travelled across the length of Chile in a rental car and had racked up 20,000 Kilometres (approx. 12500 miles) in 6 weeks. The husband loved driving and wanted to keep on driving. Too bad the Chilean land does not extend much beyond Puntas Arenas! The lady was an artist and gave me a brochure of her gallery in Germany along with her e-mail address. Will get in touch with many of these folks once my own travels are complete.

I told Patricia about the non-functioning shower and headed to the Bus station to confirm my bus ticket to Ushuaia. Patricia has indeed made a reservation in my name (Window Seat) and I paid up for it - CLP 24000 (US$48 approx). I headed to the town square and took some pictures there. I loitered about for a bit longer in the town square as the museums do not open until 10:30 AM.

The first museum I visited was Braun Menendez. It was a good museum. The museum folks did not have any issues with my using a tripod to take pictures. I next visited Palacio Sara Braun. Braun Menendez is still a better museum. I visited a local store and purchased some pens as all this writing were depleting the inks in my single use pens!

I had lunch at at coffee shop outside of town centre. I had a decent toast and juice - when in doubt about the food stick with the basics! I headed back to the hotel for a short rest and found out that the shower had been fixed. I headed back to the town square and inquired about taxis to Forestal Magellanes and Cerro Mirador. I finally settled on a radio taxi that would take me to the Mirador for CLP 5000 (each way). Sounded good and we set off.

Reached camp Andino in about 20 minutes. I visited the office there and paid CLP 1000 (US$2) to hike up the hill. The ski lift was costing CLP 20000 (US$ 40) for 4 persons. As I was by myself, I decided to hike up the path to the viewpoint (Mirador). After following the decently marked path for about 200 metres or so, I came to a dirt road that was possibly used by emergency and rescue vehicles to go to the top. As the road was much wider (3-4 metres across) than the path, I decided to walk up the road to the top. Despite the road, the climb was really steep and I ran out of breath numerous times. I finally reached the top and had some good views over Puntas Arenas.

As always the weather was changing from fair to foul in seconds and I experienced a hail storm while at the top and had to take shelter under a concrete overhang. The winds were N-A-S-T-Y. One has to experience it to believe it. I spent more time in the shelters at the top and less time Photographing! I decided to take the same way back down and ran into some heavy showers as I neared the bottom of the hill. I took shelter under some trees. I finally got back to base and requested a taxi to be called. While waiting for the Taxi, I noticed that a nice rainbow had appeared due to the frequent changes in weather.

The taxi driver spoke decent English. We chatted about real estate prices in Puntas Arenas. He offered to drive me to the new developments around town at no extra charge. Decent condominiums. Might be a good thing to own a place here. It would be even cooler for you to know someone (ME) who owns a place in Puntas Arenas :) Then again, mentioning Puntas Arenas to a New Yorker might elicit the question: "Is that next to Port Jefferson?" Just as a NU JAISEY native might ask whether "it is next to Parsippany?". The driver had just celebrated his 30th anniversary of arriving in Puntas Arenas (from Northern Chile) the day before (Jan 4). I can´t recall the date of my first visit to the US to commemorate my 15th or 20th anniversary of being in the US! Of course, I have very successfully completed my FIRST FULL MONTH in South America today!

I got myself dropped at the Port of Puntas Arenas and paid off the driver. Wandered around the port taking pictures. Just about every store in Puntas Arenas had 'Liquidacion' notices galore. Must be the post-Christmas sale going on. I shopped around for souvenirs and found a decent Alpaca sweater and scarves. I spent some time at an Internet cafe and ensured that my blogs were up to date. I also managed to upload about 35 pictures.

I had dinner at a place called O-Sole-Mio. It was away from the city centre and was not filled with the rabble. While the Spinach Gnocchi was good, the sauce tasted more like tomato ketchup than a good tomato sauce. I had a good Santa Emiliana Cabernet Sauvignon with 13% alcohol that had no nose, was light bodied with a short finish. Interesting but I could certainly do better!
I followed it up with an Helado con Alamendras.

On getting back to the Hotel, I paid up the hotel bill for 2 nights (CLP 25000 - US$50 per night) and chatted a bit with Patricia. She is a Buenos Aires native who had spent 2 years in Ushuaia prior to living the last 4 years in Puntas Arenas. Wrote my diary, packed up and went to bed. I did notice that the Playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars was being broadcast live on the Spanish ESPN channel. I was too sleepy to stay up and watch it.

I am headed to the end of the world tomorrow.