We woke up the next morning to the news of the earthquake near Santiago. I forgot my phone in Santiago so I had no way of getting in touch with my family, but we were on a tight schedule because we had to leave for Puerto Natales, our next destination. I didn't think much about the earthquake because little ones happen in Santiago all the time. My friend Christian called the girls that morning to check up on us and we made our way up to Puerto Natales.
We were dropped off at our little hostel Costanera. It turned out to be our favorite hostel yet. We got inside and met our two new friends Luciano y Alejandro. They are two 11 year old twins. Their grandma owns the hostel and they were really fun. They quickly learned of Cynthia's horrible fear of bellybuttons and tortured her for quite a while.
We walked around town and got some groceries for our hiking expedition. We spent some time hanging out in the hostel, conversing with the hikers, and planning our own journey a few days later. We had a really nice room but two Germans (becoming a trend here...) took some beds so we had to double up in another room, but the hostel/personnel made up for the inconvenience.
With our second day in Punta Arenas we decided to take a tour of the historic town of Fuerte Bulnes. It was a post along the Magellan strait to defend key trading outlets and things like that. It was pretty cool I guess. We had the same bus driver as the day before (yes the armadillo man) and I sat in the front again and we talked. I am pretty wishy washy on my Spanish confidence it really depends on whom I am talking to because every person speaks differently but I really understood the tour guide and was able to communicate with him about everything. On the way there the van was silent for about a minute (it was early in the morning for us gringos) but the silence was broken by a shriek from Dana "DOLPHINS!"...and she had her iPod buds in so the yell was unnecessarily loud and it got everyone's attention. I have a little video below of the dolphins, and there were many other pods along the way.
We got to Fuerte Bulnes and walked around for a while. It was a cool little town with a lot of history. Everyone died because they couldn't get food one winter but it was rebuilt again in the 40s. There's a picture of me in a little jail and they had a church too. It was also pretty cool to see the big cannons. We walked around for about an hour and hopped back into the van to tour a couple other fishing ports and things like that.
We called it a day and went back to the cheese room with undercarpet blankets for the night
Well it was a really cool feeling landing in Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas is a town right on the boarder of Chile and Argentina. We got in to PA in the afternoon and set up camp in a hostel called Danicar (it would prove to be our least favorite hostel). We walked around the center of town and booked a tour of a penguin colony the next day.
Our room at the hostel smelled like very old cheese and the blankets provided were accurately described by Kristin as "undercarpet". The showers seemed to have been purposely chilled through a refrigeration system to a refreshing drinking temperature that was not so refreshing to the naked body. When all the various living challenges were passed that night/morning, we went off to see the penguin colony. We had a really nice tour guide and I sat in the front seat so I could talk to him the whole time. On the way over to the penguin colony we found some other wild birds and a lot of sheep. The sheep are separated (male/female) throughout the summer because if they are allowed to mate now, their babies will be born in the winter and most likely not survive.
When we arrived at the colony I was very discouraged. There were 50mph winds gusting almost knocking us over, and for the first 15 minutes we did not see even one penguin. But as you probably already guessed from the pictures that changed quickly. We made our way over to the shore and found the motherload. Penguins stick together a lot of the time and they like to travel in groups. They were very friendly and they were not shy of the camera. It almost seemed like they were trying to show off. They would waddle right over our path and give a loud penguin cry to the heavens with their mighty wings fully spread ready for flight (at least they thought). Check out the video down below they were really cool to watch.
We walked around and checked out all the various penguins. They live in burrows in the ground in individual cubbies, so sometimes you could see a penguin inside one enjoying a midday siesta. Their feathers were very cool and unlike any other bird feather I have ever seen. It is almost a mix of a regular bird feather and a fish scale, pretty cool.
After the penguins we hopped back in our little bus for the return trip. About half way home the driver slammed on the brakes to show us something. He hopped out of the car went around to the passenger side, and picked up an armadillo...a very dead armadillo. He slid the van door open so the passengers could enjoy the beautiful carcass. I asked him it it was dead and he replied in spanish "yes it's dead....but its fresh" as he squeezed its belly. He asked each of us to touch it before we went on our way.
It was a fun day and we went back for another night in the cheese room with the undercarpet blankets.
Okay wow...I have a lot of catching up to do but I'm excited! I am going to start in Uruguay because I didn't get to finish that up before my adventures to the Patagonia region in the south. Here we go...
Well I was hoping this wouldn't happen but I kind of forget some of the Uruguay trip, but the picture of everyone laying down on the chairs by the pool pretty much symbolizes the experience. The vacation itself was very nice but it truly was a relaxing vacation. It proved to be a nice break between the two go-go-go vacations of the desert and Patagonia. One of our last nights there most people decided to go out to a discoteca. In Chile, the party doesn't start until around 1am...but in Uruguay the party started at 4am...yes 4am. It seems kind of ridiculous to me and I still can't really fathom how they maintain a positive GDP with everyone sleeping until midday, eating, napping, then going out at 4am to dance the night/morning away. Nonetheless, most of our party wanted to partake.
They took a nap from 1am-3am, got ready and went out. Cynthia and I decided to have a classy night of boxed wine on the beach instead...it was a really cool experience. Another night we went out for some seafood...it was decent but we were more worried about quantity over quality...things were on the pricey side.
As the vacation was winding down we had to start making our way back to Montevideo to catch our flight. We started bus hopping, watching movies and relaxing. We had an interesting encounter with a German couple on our last night. We arrived at our hostel around midnight (which is relatively early on South American schedule). We had 7 beds reserved in a 12 bed room. We turned on the lights and found two other people already asleep in the room. We quietly rolled our suitcases over to our respective beds and started unpacking. The German man awoke within seconds and said in English "Will you turn off the lights we are sleeping". Dana politely responded "yeah definitely we just need 5 minutes to unpack". About two minutes later, the German man mumbled under his breath, got down from his top bunk, stomped over to the door and slapped off the lights while we were all unpacking.
Now I personally have this theory where I tend to be polite and courteous no matter what because I am representing America as a country and it would be irresponsible of me to leave a negative impression on foreign countries due to my personal issues or beliefs...but Kristin evidently does not feel the same way...
She waited until the German man got back up into his bed and she marched over to the light switch and said something to the effect of "you are paying 13 dollars a night to sleep in a hostel with 12 other people sorry this isn't the $@#&%@! Marriott!" and ferociously flipped it back on.
For a small blond girl Kristin can be very intimidating and the German man silently surrendered in the battle for the bulb.
Uruguay was a really fun trip and I got back to Santiago with a few days to spare before my next adventure.
After the casino night we hit the beach HARD. I am not much of a beach bunny but the conditions were perfect. After soaking up some rays you could swim in the ocean for hours without getting cold. And the waves were amazing...they even had days where no one was allowed in the water because the waves were just crazy and huge. Check out the video below (it was one of the calmer days).
We spent the entire day on the beach at request of the girls. (The guys got to have their casino night so it was a fair compromise). We went back to the hostel, but because they were confused with our reservation they only had enough room for the girls and they guys had to find a new place. The picture of the fishy building is where they stayed in one section of the hostel. We all showered and hung out by the pool for a while. We cooked our own dinner that night from the grocery store of sloppy joes! It was a nice cozy reminder of dinners for me at SJU. In the hostel we some new friends. Diego and his girlfriend (forget her name). They were really nice.
We hung out with them for a while and decided to go back into the city to get some ice cream. Diego was nice enough to offer us a ride! Little did we know...he had a small car about the size of a Jetta, and we had 9 people to drive over. No teniamos miedo! We all crammed into his car, 6 in the back seat, 3 in the front and made our way into town.
We walked around for a while and found a nice place to get ice cream...I hung out with Pinto a lot and learned a lot of new vocabulary and slang...it was fun. After ice cream we walked around town more, hit up an ATM for some plata and ended up at a pizza shop. I was/have been/am really impressed with the pizza down here so far...muy deliciosa.
We all got back in the car and made our way back to the hostel. The guys had to drag their stuff down the road to another hostel a few blocks away, but I enjoyed my best sleep there...far away from the early rising nagging girls! Just kidding!!!.....but seriously
We woke up pretty late in the day since we stayed out into the wee hours of the morning. We took a cab to the bus station because we were off to our second location of Uruguay- Punta del Este.
Punta del Este is a very nice area of Uruguay where a lot of famous people visit and have houses on the beautiful beaches. We found a hostel a few blocks off the beach for about $20 USD a night. The hostel was very big and packed. We had a room with 6 beds, and I drug a 7th mattress in to sleep on so we could all stay in the same room. We settled in and hung out by the pool for a while. The hostel was very nice we stayed there for a few days so I will post more pictures in the next couple days. The hostel had burgers for dinner, I didn't get any myself but I had a bite of one and they were very good. After we enjoyed our dinner we went into town.
We took two taxis into center city...first stop-casino. We had a really good time. I learned a lot of new vocabulary, but I was a little too timid to try blackjack because there was some new terminology I didn't know inside-and-out and I couldn't risk a confrontation. I watched Christian play roulette and got some chips of my own. I played for a while with Cynthia as my good luck charm...but she proved to be quite the opposite! I lost $20USD but had a really good time and I learned a lot...it was a lot of fun.
I tried to play some slot machines, but I was a little confused with the process so I called Christian over to help me figure it out. He seemed very confident, but evidently he does not know how they work either because I was playing a $.05 machine and my first pull cost me $4! I called it quits shortly after that to cut my losses at $25...but the experience was worth every penny.
After the casino, we took all our winnings (collectively negative $100) and window shopped around town. We had a nice little stroll talking and laughing...it was a fun night.
The picture at the top is of Pinto (left) and Christian (right) the soccer teammates.
Well a few hours ago I got back from my week long vacation to Uruguay. I will start by stressing VACATION! It was very relaxing...and not as adventurous as the trip to the desert. I will try my best to keep the updates entertaining but sometimes the real entertainment is sleeping on the beach!
We left for our Uruguayan adventures on the 11th. A little bus picked me up from my house and took everyone to the airport. Before I go too far...the picture on the right (maybe it is above, the formatting is very unpredictable) is of Judith (my mom Chilena) and Francsico (my brother Chileno).
The flight was non-eventful...but I was prepared nontheless. I booked my (and Cynthia's) ticket in the last row...according to my handbook, most survivors of plane crashes are seated in the tail section. I made sure to remind Cynthia of this while we were dragging our bags back there.
With my added precautions, we landed safely in Montevideo, Uruguay. The country is beautiful...almost as beautiful as their women! The people in Uruguay claim Brazilian girls are even prettier...but I find it hard to believe.
With beautiful beaches, a beautiful airport, and beautiful women, it was wrong of me to expect low prices...even a quarter pounder at McDonalds would run you $8USD. But we were on vacation! Big Macs all around.
At the airport we met up with Christian and his friend from soccer, Pinto. Pinto is a real cool guy...we got along very well. I will post a picture of him tomorrow. He doesn't really speak English so it was nice to finally be forced to practice my Castellano among my peers. Christian found us a cheap hostel for about $16USD a night in the center of the city. The hostel had breakfast, a little restaurant for empenadas during the day, a lounge, and a little bar...it was nice.
Once we got settled in, we went out to eat dinner. I got a mozzarella pizza...it was very good. After our nice dinner we walked one block to the CARNIVAL! It was really interesting and fun. It was a party in the street. Hundreds of people dressed up, dancing in the streets, playing music, singing, and acting. I have never seen anything quite like it. And apparently they do it every night this month! There were toddlers dancing, old women, and everyone in between. People were hanging onto scaffolding dancing on the sides, drinking beers and singing along...it made us feel very alive!
After the carnival, we decided to take the party to the old part of the city. We went to a lively part of town, a long street lined with clubs and bars. At each end were a group of Uruguayan police to keep everything in order. We sat down at at table to order some food and drinks in front of a small empty bar. A "Green Day" song was playing inside with a Karaoke projector...but no one was there to sing along. I made eye contact with the manager and he waved me in...obviously the party followed! I hopped on the Karaoke machine and we ended up having a lot of fun doing our favorite American/Latin songs. As you can tell from the picture I danced along as Christian sang Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
(I was later informed the hands for "Thriller" are actually more open and claw like...I was a little too Kangarooey)
We had a lot of fun, and the girls decided they wanted to dance for about 3 hours after we sang our hearts out. We stayed out late and everyone had their fill of dance/song/rum. The drinks were expensive so I decided to save my money for traveling and put on a flawless sober concert for my fans. They were very appreciative, I'm sure I will be getting a call from the talent scouts any day now.
I will update on the rest of the trip in the next few days...thanks for your support!
Saturday we spent some time depositing into our respective sleep banks. We had been running low on sleep reserves so we restocked (mostly me). Some of the group went on a walk...but they ended up renting bikes and riding around so I missed out. We had a nice lunch and dinner and spent some time walking the town in the late afternoon/night. On Sunday we went horseback riding...it was pretty fun. The tour guides didn't talk or anything...and the desert was pretty...well...desertish. We had a good time joking around and naming our horses; Elmer, Snack, Sombra de muerte, and Michael Jackson to name a few.
We watched the Superbowl at a restaurant in town. I thought it was a pretty good game. It was broadcasted in Spanish and the announcers are very enthusiastic which makes it fun.
The next day we went to the SPACE observatory. I wish I could have taken pictures because there are no words to describe our tour of the universe. SPACE is owned by a French immigrant. He is very funny and entertaining. We started with a tour of the Southern sky. We learned how to find South, and we learned about some of the closer stars to us.
First I will start off by saying that I have never even imagined being able to see stars like I did in Northern Chile. There are thousands (about 3000 visible to the human eye). In PA you are lucky to see 100...but down here they form dust clouds in space and you can see our galaxy belt and constellations are so clear.
Then we got to look through 8 huge telescopes planted in the ground. I saw Mars, Saturn with its ring, the Tarantula Nebula, some different clusters, other galaxies...it was crazy. It looked like things you see in textbooks.
After we saw everything, the French guy came out to talk to us. He told us that the closest star to Earth (other than the sun) is 4 light years away. That means even if there is life on another planet...and we could communicate with them...it would take us 4 years to say "hello" and another four years for them to say "hello" back! We learned a lot about space and time. He also assured us that star gazing is a great way to pick up chicks. Since it is difficult to point at a certain star, you have to get riiiiight next to the girl so she can follow your arm...genius! He did not have this problem. He had a really cool green laser pointer that shot through the sky and practically touched the star he was talking about. He took us in his house and offered us hot chocolate. He was a very nice and funny guy...he spoke perfect Spanish as well. Apparently he gives tours in English as well...A trilingual astronomer.
The tour was amazing...a little pricey at $30 USD but it was worth every penny (peso)!
The next day (our last) we went into town for lunch. I had a Cheeseburger and realized America does it best...
We packed up our stuff and wheeled our luggage down the dirt roads to the bus station. We departed at a punctual 7:30pm, but encountered MORE bus problems in the middle of the night. We had an electrical failure and we had to wait about an hour for a new bus...and about another hour to load it and get on the road. It was not a lot of fun (without A/C). I watched some movies in Spanish and I could understand nearly everything...and if I didn't I would just nudge Christian and he would explain to me.
We somehow got into a discussion about September 11th. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of Chileans think poorly of the United States government. I think the media feeds them a lot of negative propaganda. They would refer to it as the "JFK conspiracy" instead of assassination, they believe that the United States sabotaged the Chilean government and ordered assassinations of their generals...and many believe that the government was somehow involved in the September 11th attacks. It was weird for me to hear this opinion about our country...and kind of frustrating...but we talked it through and figured stuff out about our opinions.
About 27 hours after we left...we arrived back in Santiago. It was nice to be home...it is 4:30am right now...and I have to leave for the airport tomorrow at 11:30 for Uruguay! I still need to pack and get my things ready...thanks for all the readers out there I will update you about Uruguay whenever I can!
We woke up at 3am to catch our 4 hour bus ride to the geysers...not very fun. It was very cold when we got there. The altitude (about 14,000 feet) makes it below freezing...even during the summer so close to the equator. I could have ridden a llama up to the geysers faster than our bus. It was very bumpy and slow...but I wouldn't have changed the experience if I could! I think it is fun experiencing different things that take effort to achieve something cool...like witnessing these cool geysers.
The geysers were actually pretty cool. It was very cold out...but the geysers spit up water that was near boiling. You really had to watch your step. After the geysers we went to tour around the mountain. But the mountain had other plans.
Our bus engine shut off on a hill, and we started rolling back down. the driver had to steer the back of the bus into the sand of the mountain to stop us. We had lost a seal to our fuel tank, and we lost all our gas. Luckily, we were parked next to an oasis with grazing Alpaca to play with! I could barely run 30 meters without being exhausted from the altitude...I have never experienced anything like it.
After about an hour they called another bus to come help us. They fixed the fuel tank, loaded up the bus, and we went off to a little desert town. We lost some valuable time with the bus problems so we had to go back home.
After an early morning and a long day...the crew was pretty beat and we hit the hay.
I didn't mean to rhyme that but it just worked out really well.
We woke up Thursday morning and went to the market. We had brought some groceries from Santiago...mostly pasta and rice...so we could avoid going out for every meal. We got some avocado and tomatoes and stuff to go in our pasta and rice dishes. In the afternoon we set off on our second adventure. Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). It was really cool. We saw some great views of the desert. There were these rocks that made noise as the sun came over them in the valley...it sounded like the whole cliff was going to collapse as they were all crackling and popping with the heat expansion...it was eerie being next to them/under them! We did some hiking through the winding passage ways, through the scorching sun, and down into caves of darkness where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
After Valle de la Luna, we went to see some rock formations. I posted the picture of the dinosaur...it's actually a pretty cool rock formation and I can definitely see the dinosaur head in it.
We went to the dunes to see the sunset...really cool. The hike was vale la pena (worth the effort). The pictures don't do it justice...the sunset over the desert was very memorable. After our day long tour of more of the desert we went back to the hostel, and went to bed early (midnight) because we knew we had to wake up at 3am for our trip to the geysers!
The bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama took about 24 hours. We played a lot of games and stuff on the bus to pass the time...but the ride was not easy. I slept maybe a total of two hours. We arrived in San Pedro Wednesday morning and started our search for a hostel. Esteban and Kristin went off looking for a place, and the rest of us hung out in the plaza with our suitcases. We met an American traveler and talked with him about his journeys around the world.
Kristin and Esteban found a nice little hostel on the edge of town called Hostal Tuyaso (I think). It was about $9.50 a night per person...not too bad. The water pressure and temperature was not too good. Sometimes you had to do a handstand to wash your hair...and even for a desert the water was chilly at night. Sometimes they just didn't have any water....but what can you expect from the driest desert on earth!
After we got settled in, we went to book some adventures. We signed up for three days worth of trips. Salt Lagoon, Moon Valley, Geysers. With transportation, meals, and guide, it came out to about $60 USD total. The deals weren't bad...but everything adds up! We had our first trip planned for the same day at 4pm. We got on the bus and headed out to the salt lagoons.
The salt lagoons have been around for thousands of years. They are natural water formations in the desert...to a parched desert traveler, however, they offer little help. The salt lagoons have 8 times the salt content of the ocean. Check out the pictures! Try taking your hands and feet out of the water in your pool and floating...really really cool. While floating, Christian claimed he was going to dissolve salt in a pool and have his very own lagoon. He quickly changed his mind when we got out of the water. The salt was caked onto our bodies! Our swimsuits were like cardboard, our skin cracked and moaned when we stretched...and it soaked all the moisture out of your skin (you barely had any to start with in the desert!) It was a really cool and unique experience.
We hopped around to a couple other cool places to go swimming and jumping in the water (note the video). I will try to get some pictures of me from my friends...but for now you can look at life through my eyes!
It was a fun beginning to the trip...but we got to bed early because we knew there was going to be a lot more fun to come!
