Chile: Now We're Off to Punta Arenas, South America

We are one week into our five-week trip.  We have picked up and outfitted our camper, visited a replica of Nao Victoria — his ship in 1519 when he discovered the Strait of Magellan right outside Punta Arenas.  And we have gone to the breeding grounds of two different types of penguins.

Today, we made it from Puerto Natales, a town which is south of the park, to Torres del Paine National Park.  Considering the distances, we haven’t made it very far really.  But there are a lot of details and some frustrations hidden in these two paragraphs!  But a good friend and expert traveler wrote me:  Remember, this is all self-inflicted!

SANTIAGO, CHILE

We had a nine-hour night-long flight down, arriving at about 8 AM.  We slept some on the way down.  We had made reservations at the Holiday Inn right across the street, so we had a place to lounge until our room was ready at noon.  Everything went well on the trip down:  immigration, new plane, room for our legs in the bulkhead, and wheelchair delivery across the Dallas airport!  A REAL plus considering the distance and confusion of where to go, if we had been on our own.

A demonstration, protesting increased metro fares in Santiago, has brought a curfew at night.  Our plane for Punta Arenas leaves at 4 AM.  If we had been at any other hotel, we would not have been able to get to the airport in the middle of the night!  A lucky break.  Even the airline personnel had to stay at the Holiday Inn, to get to their return flight to USA in the morning.

PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE

Once again, we arrived at about 8 AM. We stayed at Hostel Akainik; very funky decor, but fine.  Again, we were killing time until we could pick up the camper in the afternoon.  After getting checked out on the camper, we came back into town and had a lovely dinner at a French restaurant, La Cusine.  I had beef with a red wine sauce, and Mike had the tenderest lamb shanks!

EVERYDAY LIVING IN OUR CAMPER

The next morning, we picked up our camper for the next five weeks.  It is a Andes Camper, a little diesel Mahindra pickup, with a “box” camper on the back:  dinette that makes into a bed, 2 burner gas stove, sink with water pump, garifone (20 liter  bottle) of fresh water, and storage.  What it doesn’t have is a HEATER!!  More on that in a minute. . . 

Camping spot at Chabunco

We drove to the “mall”, a several block, wire-enclosed group of big box and discount stores.  Abu-Gosch is dry and frozen foods, no fresh or produce items.  What a challenge trying to outfit a “kitchen” with whatever food we could find.  And then finding a place for it in the camper.  The Sanchez-Sanchez store filled in the rest of items like plastic bags, dish towels, scissors, etc.  Like I said — a challenge.

Out north of town by the airport are several “wild” parks, all named Chabunco, It is oceanside among low-growing trees which provide a much needed windbreak at night.  We returned there to camp for three nights and found the area quiet and peaceful.

In the camper, we must use the propane stove to heat the camper even a little.  It is never very warm, and I am so thankful I brought my hot water bottle for my feet.  At night, we are alright, because we have enough bedding, it is the lounge time after stopping for the day, that we are quite chilled.  I told some people before the trip that we were not sure the camper was much more than one step above a tent. . . . Well, the kitchen is, but the living space is mighty cold at tip-of the world temperatures of about 35 to 40 degrees at night!  Worse, if it’s windy! Thirty to 40 mph!

I am learning how to cope with the food situation.  Naturally, restaurants in Punta Arenas are quite expensive, although the French one was a delightful meal.  Since then, we have been on the lookout for less expensive cafe meals about once a day.  However, availability seems to consist of ham and cheese sandwiches, or on the ferries, nothing but snacks.

One meal at a restaurant on Tierra del Fuego was great — excellent chicken-rice soup, followed by a plate of “porteros”, a tasty ham and beans dish. I ask what porteros were and she brought out the beans to show me.  Oh, I said, frijoles!  No, she shook her head, porteros!  Okay. . . .poteros.

At the super mercado, there are no short cuts to cooking; it seems all food is started from scratch.  We could find no canned soups, or lousy Ramen noodles even, which would be so helpful with limited cooking facilities and this cold weather! And they do not provide plastic bags.  If you didn’t bring your own, you are left at the checkout with an armful of groceries!

NAVIGATING FRUSTRATING IN TOWNS/CITIES

Punta Arenas is a medium size city, with eclectic architecture and haphazard (read “no”) zoning.  There are no parking meters, only men and “maids” who patrol each block, check you in to a spot, take your money, and tell you when your time expires.  

Mike asked one maid if one could park on the street at night.  Well!!  She launched into a tirade of Spanish that let us know, not only could you not park at night; you shouldn’t even ask such a question!  Wow!

We have decided the people here are very hardy.  They walk the waterfront in a light jacket with nothing on their heads, and seem to think nothing of it.

In both Punta Arenas and  Puerto Natales, a town of about 18,000, all streets are two lane, one way.  And because of waterfronts on both, streets angle away in haphazard fashion.  To find anything, one goes round and round the block, then going two blocks and coming back again.  There seem to be no “residential’ or “commercial” or “industrial” zones — business and homes all jumbled together.

We had to have a tire repaired and went to seven different places in different locations in Punta Arenas to finally find the right one.  The same with propane in Puerto Natales; we asked at seven different places and kept being sent on to another place.  VERY frustrating!  And signs!  There are barely any, IF any signs on anything telling you if it is indeed a business, and if so, what kind! We found this to be true throughout Chile.

SHIPS AND PENGUINS AND MOUNTAINS

From the highway at Punta Arenas, we could see this beautiful historical ship, but it took nearly a half hour of driving around to find the correct road to it. (No signs of course.)  It was a replica of the Nao Victoria of which Magellan was captain in 1519.  They were the first to find this Strait of Magellan, through the islands on the tip of South America, actually quite a feat when one looks at the myriad of islands at the tip of South America.   They spent months lost among these islands with fierce winds and storms. In the summer, winds can be as strong as 120 mph, and the winter brings extreme cold along with the winds.  I shiver to even think of working in those conditions.

In addition, If you cup your hand slightly, you’ll have an idea of the curvature of the main floor of the 70 foot ship. The crew was made up of 55 men. Walking, working on deck and simply moving about had to be incredibly difficult.  After being on that uneven floor on a rolling ship for months, one could see how the men walked like drunken sailors on land OR sea, drunk OR sober!

Captains' Bed

In 1519, sailors were just beginning to learn how to sail into the wind by moving the spar or boom to best catch the wind.  It was a beautiful reproduction and interesting vessel to walk around.  At the same location they also had the small (about 20 foot) boat that Shakleton and his men took 1300 miles to escape to South Georgia Island.

The next day we took a tourist ferry out to Magdalena Island where tiny, 12-inch penguins return for the summer from Chiloe’, an island further north in Chile which we would later explore.  The tiny penguins were busy building their nests in holes in the ground. They would waddle down to the shore, gather a bunch of soft, green grass in their beaks then waddle back to their hole.  Cute to watch.  We also saw one swimming sleek as a fish, then bathing by splashing spastically.  The winds everywhere today however, were  absolutely brutal! 

We had heard about the winds here.  On Sunday, the temperature was 41 degrees  with a cold chilling wind that had flags blown flat-out all day.  In addition, snowballs were spitting most of the day.  Miserable to walk into, even with layers and layers of clothing that we thankfully had.  

Note beak full of grass.  Nest in in front of her.

Penguins in front; terns in back.

Most unusual barn I've ever seen.