The guy I arranged to take me back wasn't at the mini-market when I got there. I was slightly perturbed but someone else took me back OK. It wasn't enormously fun at the bar, I ate about 3/4 of a pizza (and didn't bring the rest back this time) and perhaps because I felt bloated and perhaps because of the worry about getting back it was all a bit of a strain. If I can manage to eat (perhaps there, ideally somewhere else if I can find somewhere) at lunch tomorrow I may well just stay at the hotel tomorrow night, and perhaps the same on Friday.
The guy who brought me back tonight says he does a 4h tour of the island for CLP70,000. This is a touch pricey perhaps, but I may take him up on it, perhaps on Friday now I don't have to worry about going to the ferry to pay. I would need to be absolutely sure I have sufficient cash to pay for that and the ferry plus any minor day to day expenses over the next few days, as although there is a bank on the island I am not sure it has an ATM, or in fact even where it is, and I don't fancy trying to withdraw cash over the counter.
Vague plan for tomorrow is to not get up too late and either walk or cycle over into the town and see if I can find 'other stuff'. There is that museum, for a start. Cycling would in many ways be easier and perhaps more fun (on the other hand, I have visions of attracting canine attention a touch more on a bike, but then on the third hand it provides a possible means of escape and something to interpose between me and the dog if push comes to shove), but if I have the bike I can't actually go in anywhere (be it a restaurant/cafe or the museum) as I don't want to risk the thing getting nicked. Well, I suppose I just might be able to take it in with me and leave it in the passage, I don't know. (El Resto del Sur is up a steel outdoor staircase, so no chance there.) I suppose the big consideration is that I do want to eat at lunchtime tomorrow so I'm not forced to go into town, with all it entails in terms of awkwardness getting back, tomorrow night. Just have to see how it all works out I guess. I could probably go and buy some food of some description at the mini-market and bring that back to the hotel if all else fails. Or of course I could eat here at the hotel, but that's definitely a last resort somehow.
Showing posts with label chile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chile. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Seno Otway penguin reserve and first impressions of Puerto Williams
It's 8:53am on Tuesday 9th Feburary and I'm in the non-international departure area at Punta Arenas airport expecting to miss my flight in an hour's time. The guy at check in just gave me a big plastic card (like the studier kind of "do not disturb" sign in a hotel, without the hole) which they clearly re-use all the time. He told me which gate it was, but if I ever comprehended I completely forgot. I gathered it was on the second floor and indeed security passed me OK, even after I told them where I was flying, but I am now up here and there are three departure gates (admittedly, all within my current range of vision) and no monitors or, as far as I can tell, announcements. And of course there's no one to ask either. So it's quite likely the flight will go without me knowing it. Fingers crossed some people turn up nearer the time. I do happen to recall that boarding was nominally at 9:45 and I guess most people won't check in that early for a local flight.
Sat at a table at the cafe writing this off-line. Maybe I should have bought something, but no one has said anything.
Man, this sucks. I can't relax not knowing where the fucking flight goes from. I mean, the three gates I can see may be within my line for sight, but for all I know there are 30 others round the corner where I can't see.
Anyway, yesterday I got up OK and got the 10am bus back from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas. I was sort of asleep for most of the journey, waking with that inexplicably dry, gritty taste in my mouth. Checked in at the hotel OK, then dashed out to get sea-sickness tablets (sorted, there was a pharmacy basically underneath the hotel, which starts on the second floor) on the offchance I need them on the ferry back from Puerto Williams and something to eat before going on my pre-booked excursion to Seno Otway penguin reserve.
Lunch was pretty crap. I was in a rush and went in this cheap-ish but slightly fancy looking restaurant. They took ages to come and serve me, even longer to bring me my food and when they did it was frankly a bit unpleasant, which they had attempted to cover up with a bit of effort at presentation. Still, it was food within the meaning of the Act and that's what counts.
There was no need to have booked ahead for the Seno Otway trip, the coach had about 10 people on. On the other hand, if I hadn't booked ahead, I might well not have come back from Puerto Natales early enough yesterday to do it, and it would then be something I wanted to do and had to get done on my last day here in Punta Arenas when I return from Puerto Williams. So in a way it was a good thing I had pre-booked.
It was about an hour's drive away. Bizarrely, at the entrance to the reserve someone came on the bus and charged us all CLP1,000. (Me: "Un boleto, por favor", sat on my own, admittedly holding a CLP2,000 note as I had nothing smaller - Him: "Dos?" - Me: "No, uno" - Him: "Dos" - Me: "No, uno" - Him: "OK, uno"), then we drove what seemed like miles further, got off the bus (the driver somewhat surlily indicating we had an hour there only when someone asked him) and then paid a further CLP5,000 to get into the main part. I have no idea why this split pricing scheme is in effect. Maybe a lot of people like to visit the car park without seeing any penguins and this is to accommodate them. Or perhaps they find it handy for the shops, being only about ten minutes' drive down a rather badly maintained road, and they got sick of people abusing it.
Anyway, although the sense of having to rush to make sure I got back to the bus in time definitely didn't help, it was pretty cool. There's one bit where you can peer through a hole in a fence to watch all the penguins on the beach, and as you walk round the reserve on the fenced-off path you can see individuals or small groups walking around a few metres away from you. They don't seem that much bothered by people. I took a lot of photos and even some videos and those are already on flickr.
OK, by sheer luck as I was dithering around I met the three people (from somewhere near Santiago) I had met on the trip to Perito Moreno (I knew they were on the flight, but it was kind of lucky that I met them). They were about as confused as I was. In the end a guy walked through the departure area just before the flight was due collecting us all, then took us out of a locked door across the tarmac to probably the smallest plane I've ever been on. The safety card said DHC-6-300, I have no idea if that is really what it was, but it was tiny. (From a quick image search on the web, that probably is what it was.) One seat to the left of the aisle, two to the right. No overhead lockers, twin propeller engines. No safety briefing, the co-pilot (I know he was the co-pilot because he spent most of the flight reading a magazine) said "please keep your seatbelts fastened during the flight" in Spanish before we set off and that was it. The cockpit door was open the entire time, which I how I know the guy was reading a magazine. Quite an experience, and I got some half decent photos; I had one of the single seats, so got a good view.
After a bit of hanging around I got picked up by the hotel and am now here, latitude 54.93710S, longitude 67.63447W. This is about as far south as I go. The hotel seems very nice (as it ought to for USD200/night) although I don't know if they have wi-fi. It is about 1-1.5km walk into the town, which seems a bit scarily remote but I should be able to walk that, at least in daylight, and if not then it will be a bit of a rest cure.
The programme director was the guy who picked me up and he has invited me to go down to his office later to discuss any activities I might be interested in. I get the impression most people who come here are a lot more activity-oriented than I am. (There are six Norwegians arriving today who are going kayaking at Cape Horn, for example. I really don't think I fit in here.) I also suspect that anything I do express an interest in is going to be very expensive. I am here four days including today. I want to keep Friday free as I need to pay for the ferry that day and the last thing I want is to be worrying about that while doing anything else. I'd also quite like to have a day with nothing planned so I don't have to get up at some stupid time, or even a reasonable but specific time. But if they have anything suitable and not ridiculously expensive I may sign up for a tour or what have you on Wednesday and/or Thursday. I might as well take advantage of being here having spent so much time and money getting here in the first place.
I am a little hacked off actually. It really looks like there's no decent net access here, the hotel is in the middle of nowhere (at least if I was in the town I'm in the centre of whatever there is here) and seems oriented at fit, active people. I stayed here because it's the only hotel, as opposed to hostel, on the island, as far as I can tell. But it seems from my experience in Puerto Natales that although they are not necessarily super-luxurious, hostels are not synonymous with dormitories, as I had imagined. Oh well. We live and learn, and if I'm going to be stuck here for four days with no internet and nowhere to go at night at least it's comfortable.
I am in fact not going to go see the programme director right now. I will try to walk into town, no doubt getting lost, and see if I can get something to eat and if there are loads of ads for cheap tourist activities when I get there. The last thing I want is to have him sell me some overpriced crap filling up the next two days when I could have done something better and cheaper. I am taking a risk here as if I don't get back early enough he may no longer be around today, which would only leave me Thursday to do something, but sod it. I didn't come here to do activities as such, I came here to see the place and just be here, so I will now go out and manage to get lost on the only road on the island. Seriously however, I am taking my GPS so I can at least find my way back to the hotel safely.
Despite talking to the guy in the car over from the airport in English, I am genuinely unclear if there are taxis here. But fingers crossed if I need one. It's 12:24, and I may be gone some time. :-)
Oh, the room has a safe but no instructions on how to use it, just a numeric pad with letters A and B underneath and a few lights. So I'll just leave my laptop out to be stolen. I'm sure no one here is either that broke or would risk the damage to their perfect health that using a keyboard might cause anyway.
OK, it's now 3:30pm. I managed to figure out the safe, being the smart guy I am. I walked into town, which was not that difficult except that I didn't know where I was going, and nothing spoils an otherwise pleasant walk for me like the thought that I might be going in the wrong direction. However, I made it OK. The town is a little spread out but generally very small. I happened to remember from my 2005-era guide that there is a pub called El Pinguino in the Centro Commercial. I found the Centro Commercial, split somewhat pointlessly into Centro Comercial Norte and Centro Commercial Sur. It's tiny. I would say it's far smaller than, to give the only example I can think of, Cabot Square in Canary Wharf. I couldn't see the pub, but everything here seems very low-key and maybe it doesn't have a sign and you can only tell it if you know where it is. Maybe it's shut down.
I did manage to find a restaurant/bar, El Resto del Sur, which appears to be part of the Hostal Cabo del Hornos. That is the kind of place I should probably have stayed, it's in the town, such as it is, and the restaurant was acceptable. I ordered a pizza which turned out to be pretty good but enormous and (partly because I'd eaten four bread rolls while waiting for it to turn up) could only finish a bit more than half. The guy offered me the rest to take away, so I figured why not. It is sat unappetisingly in a plastic container by my bed now, I doubt I will eat it but the option is there if I want it I suppose.
There seem to be a lot of dogs barking here, which made the walk back a tiny bit fraught. The odd street dog I have seen seems as affably quiet as the average Chilean street dog, so I might infer the barking ones are pets and hence not able to get near me. It's a good job I brought the GPS, it gave me a lot more confidence when coming back to the hotel. I think it's actuallly more like 1.75km from the Plaza to the hotel, but that's OK. There was a light rain shower coming back but my non-waterproof coat held up fine. If it doesn't get any heavier I will be OK.
Amazingly enough I can now connect to the wifi network I saw here which didn't work earlier. I think my laptop must be a bit ropy about moving between networks while hibernated. Still, I have a connection now, which is the main thing.
I am going to make a few blog posts (this one, and some pending ones which got lost due to the weird behaviour with e-mails to the blog not working from my phone) and then go and find the programme director and talk to him. I think I can do no better than put myself in his hands. I saw one tour ad (a home-printed A4 page in the window of some tiny shop) offering various trips in a small boat, the cheapest being USD100 for a half-hour trip round some bay or something, most of them weighing in at USD600 or more. So unless it turns out to be insanely expensive for the hotel-organised stuff, I am better sticking with them. At the lower budget end, I have a suspicion I may be able to hire a bike from the hotel and it might be moderately pleasant to go for a ride if the weather is OK. (Lest anyone should laugh, I am a) not thinking about anything serious off-road b) I do have my own bike in London, for all that I hardly use it, so it's not as though I'm completely unable to ride a bike and c) the roads here are so quiet I can hardly get myself into trouble, especially if I take the GPS with me.)
I need to ask that programme director chap about the weather. I have this fear that unless I'm clad in £500 worth of Gore-Tex rainproof, windproof, everything-else-proof bad weather gear I am going to get stuck in a torrential downpour and catch hypothermia. I half expected the receptionist to call me back and say in a horrified voice "You're not going out dressed like that?" when I left to walk into town.
(Oh, they all speak English here very well, based on my limited experience so far. Even the guy at the restuarant did, and it's obviously a bit touristy but nothing fancy. I feel an idiot as I keep saying things to them in Spanish after they speak to me in English. And in any case I seem to be a in lose-lose situation, since if I speak bad Spanish when I know they speak good English, and they know I know, it looks a bit rude, but then if I speak to them in English am I falling into the "arrogant tourist" class? Sigh.)
I will also have a chat to the programme director about the ferry, they say they will do me a transfer there on Saturday morning (included in the room price) but I need to go over there on Friday to pay, so I need to find out where it is. I hope it's not miles away, as I still have my doubts about the existence of such a thing as a taxi in the area. (And, for that matter, a cash machine. I withdrew a further CLP200,000 this morning, so I have a fair amount of cash on me, but I need around CLP100,000 just to pay for the ferry on Friday.)
I guess I came here in part for the experience, so I shouldn't be too bothered that it's not quite what I expected. I expected something a bit like Puerto Natales actually turned out to be, in hindsight, and it's a bit shocking just how much smaller it is here. I do feel a bit better for having been able to get into town and back though. There are no streetlights on the road outside the town as far as I can tell, so unless something turns up I definitely won't be having any late nights here.
It does feel a bit less like the back of beyond now it turns out I do have wi-fi here. Good job too, that hostel in the centre has it, and I'm sure it's a damn sight cheaper than this place.
(Oh, it seems some of the blog posts from the phone did work after all. I am so confused. I was just about to give up on that and now it seems to work a bit. Oh well.)
Sat at a table at the cafe writing this off-line. Maybe I should have bought something, but no one has said anything.
Man, this sucks. I can't relax not knowing where the fucking flight goes from. I mean, the three gates I can see may be within my line for sight, but for all I know there are 30 others round the corner where I can't see.
Anyway, yesterday I got up OK and got the 10am bus back from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas. I was sort of asleep for most of the journey, waking with that inexplicably dry, gritty taste in my mouth. Checked in at the hotel OK, then dashed out to get sea-sickness tablets (sorted, there was a pharmacy basically underneath the hotel, which starts on the second floor) on the offchance I need them on the ferry back from Puerto Williams and something to eat before going on my pre-booked excursion to Seno Otway penguin reserve.
Lunch was pretty crap. I was in a rush and went in this cheap-ish but slightly fancy looking restaurant. They took ages to come and serve me, even longer to bring me my food and when they did it was frankly a bit unpleasant, which they had attempted to cover up with a bit of effort at presentation. Still, it was food within the meaning of the Act and that's what counts.
There was no need to have booked ahead for the Seno Otway trip, the coach had about 10 people on. On the other hand, if I hadn't booked ahead, I might well not have come back from Puerto Natales early enough yesterday to do it, and it would then be something I wanted to do and had to get done on my last day here in Punta Arenas when I return from Puerto Williams. So in a way it was a good thing I had pre-booked.
It was about an hour's drive away. Bizarrely, at the entrance to the reserve someone came on the bus and charged us all CLP1,000. (Me: "Un boleto, por favor", sat on my own, admittedly holding a CLP2,000 note as I had nothing smaller - Him: "Dos?" - Me: "No, uno" - Him: "Dos" - Me: "No, uno" - Him: "OK, uno"), then we drove what seemed like miles further, got off the bus (the driver somewhat surlily indicating we had an hour there only when someone asked him) and then paid a further CLP5,000 to get into the main part. I have no idea why this split pricing scheme is in effect. Maybe a lot of people like to visit the car park without seeing any penguins and this is to accommodate them. Or perhaps they find it handy for the shops, being only about ten minutes' drive down a rather badly maintained road, and they got sick of people abusing it.
Anyway, although the sense of having to rush to make sure I got back to the bus in time definitely didn't help, it was pretty cool. There's one bit where you can peer through a hole in a fence to watch all the penguins on the beach, and as you walk round the reserve on the fenced-off path you can see individuals or small groups walking around a few metres away from you. They don't seem that much bothered by people. I took a lot of photos and even some videos and those are already on flickr.
OK, by sheer luck as I was dithering around I met the three people (from somewhere near Santiago) I had met on the trip to Perito Moreno (I knew they were on the flight, but it was kind of lucky that I met them). They were about as confused as I was. In the end a guy walked through the departure area just before the flight was due collecting us all, then took us out of a locked door across the tarmac to probably the smallest plane I've ever been on. The safety card said DHC-6-300, I have no idea if that is really what it was, but it was tiny. (From a quick image search on the web, that probably is what it was.) One seat to the left of the aisle, two to the right. No overhead lockers, twin propeller engines. No safety briefing, the co-pilot (I know he was the co-pilot because he spent most of the flight reading a magazine) said "please keep your seatbelts fastened during the flight" in Spanish before we set off and that was it. The cockpit door was open the entire time, which I how I know the guy was reading a magazine. Quite an experience, and I got some half decent photos; I had one of the single seats, so got a good view.
After a bit of hanging around I got picked up by the hotel and am now here, latitude 54.93710S, longitude 67.63447W. This is about as far south as I go. The hotel seems very nice (as it ought to for USD200/night) although I don't know if they have wi-fi. It is about 1-1.5km walk into the town, which seems a bit scarily remote but I should be able to walk that, at least in daylight, and if not then it will be a bit of a rest cure.
The programme director was the guy who picked me up and he has invited me to go down to his office later to discuss any activities I might be interested in. I get the impression most people who come here are a lot more activity-oriented than I am. (There are six Norwegians arriving today who are going kayaking at Cape Horn, for example. I really don't think I fit in here.) I also suspect that anything I do express an interest in is going to be very expensive. I am here four days including today. I want to keep Friday free as I need to pay for the ferry that day and the last thing I want is to be worrying about that while doing anything else. I'd also quite like to have a day with nothing planned so I don't have to get up at some stupid time, or even a reasonable but specific time. But if they have anything suitable and not ridiculously expensive I may sign up for a tour or what have you on Wednesday and/or Thursday. I might as well take advantage of being here having spent so much time and money getting here in the first place.
I am a little hacked off actually. It really looks like there's no decent net access here, the hotel is in the middle of nowhere (at least if I was in the town I'm in the centre of whatever there is here) and seems oriented at fit, active people. I stayed here because it's the only hotel, as opposed to hostel, on the island, as far as I can tell. But it seems from my experience in Puerto Natales that although they are not necessarily super-luxurious, hostels are not synonymous with dormitories, as I had imagined. Oh well. We live and learn, and if I'm going to be stuck here for four days with no internet and nowhere to go at night at least it's comfortable.
I am in fact not going to go see the programme director right now. I will try to walk into town, no doubt getting lost, and see if I can get something to eat and if there are loads of ads for cheap tourist activities when I get there. The last thing I want is to have him sell me some overpriced crap filling up the next two days when I could have done something better and cheaper. I am taking a risk here as if I don't get back early enough he may no longer be around today, which would only leave me Thursday to do something, but sod it. I didn't come here to do activities as such, I came here to see the place and just be here, so I will now go out and manage to get lost on the only road on the island. Seriously however, I am taking my GPS so I can at least find my way back to the hotel safely.
Despite talking to the guy in the car over from the airport in English, I am genuinely unclear if there are taxis here. But fingers crossed if I need one. It's 12:24, and I may be gone some time. :-)
Oh, the room has a safe but no instructions on how to use it, just a numeric pad with letters A and B underneath and a few lights. So I'll just leave my laptop out to be stolen. I'm sure no one here is either that broke or would risk the damage to their perfect health that using a keyboard might cause anyway.
OK, it's now 3:30pm. I managed to figure out the safe, being the smart guy I am. I walked into town, which was not that difficult except that I didn't know where I was going, and nothing spoils an otherwise pleasant walk for me like the thought that I might be going in the wrong direction. However, I made it OK. The town is a little spread out but generally very small. I happened to remember from my 2005-era guide that there is a pub called El Pinguino in the Centro Commercial. I found the Centro Commercial, split somewhat pointlessly into Centro Comercial Norte and Centro Commercial Sur. It's tiny. I would say it's far smaller than, to give the only example I can think of, Cabot Square in Canary Wharf. I couldn't see the pub, but everything here seems very low-key and maybe it doesn't have a sign and you can only tell it if you know where it is. Maybe it's shut down.
I did manage to find a restaurant/bar, El Resto del Sur, which appears to be part of the Hostal Cabo del Hornos. That is the kind of place I should probably have stayed, it's in the town, such as it is, and the restaurant was acceptable. I ordered a pizza which turned out to be pretty good but enormous and (partly because I'd eaten four bread rolls while waiting for it to turn up) could only finish a bit more than half. The guy offered me the rest to take away, so I figured why not. It is sat unappetisingly in a plastic container by my bed now, I doubt I will eat it but the option is there if I want it I suppose.
There seem to be a lot of dogs barking here, which made the walk back a tiny bit fraught. The odd street dog I have seen seems as affably quiet as the average Chilean street dog, so I might infer the barking ones are pets and hence not able to get near me. It's a good job I brought the GPS, it gave me a lot more confidence when coming back to the hotel. I think it's actuallly more like 1.75km from the Plaza to the hotel, but that's OK. There was a light rain shower coming back but my non-waterproof coat held up fine. If it doesn't get any heavier I will be OK.
Amazingly enough I can now connect to the wifi network I saw here which didn't work earlier. I think my laptop must be a bit ropy about moving between networks while hibernated. Still, I have a connection now, which is the main thing.
I am going to make a few blog posts (this one, and some pending ones which got lost due to the weird behaviour with e-mails to the blog not working from my phone) and then go and find the programme director and talk to him. I think I can do no better than put myself in his hands. I saw one tour ad (a home-printed A4 page in the window of some tiny shop) offering various trips in a small boat, the cheapest being USD100 for a half-hour trip round some bay or something, most of them weighing in at USD600 or more. So unless it turns out to be insanely expensive for the hotel-organised stuff, I am better sticking with them. At the lower budget end, I have a suspicion I may be able to hire a bike from the hotel and it might be moderately pleasant to go for a ride if the weather is OK. (Lest anyone should laugh, I am a) not thinking about anything serious off-road b) I do have my own bike in London, for all that I hardly use it, so it's not as though I'm completely unable to ride a bike and c) the roads here are so quiet I can hardly get myself into trouble, especially if I take the GPS with me.)
I need to ask that programme director chap about the weather. I have this fear that unless I'm clad in £500 worth of Gore-Tex rainproof, windproof, everything-else-proof bad weather gear I am going to get stuck in a torrential downpour and catch hypothermia. I half expected the receptionist to call me back and say in a horrified voice "You're not going out dressed like that?" when I left to walk into town.
(Oh, they all speak English here very well, based on my limited experience so far. Even the guy at the restuarant did, and it's obviously a bit touristy but nothing fancy. I feel an idiot as I keep saying things to them in Spanish after they speak to me in English. And in any case I seem to be a in lose-lose situation, since if I speak bad Spanish when I know they speak good English, and they know I know, it looks a bit rude, but then if I speak to them in English am I falling into the "arrogant tourist" class? Sigh.)
I will also have a chat to the programme director about the ferry, they say they will do me a transfer there on Saturday morning (included in the room price) but I need to go over there on Friday to pay, so I need to find out where it is. I hope it's not miles away, as I still have my doubts about the existence of such a thing as a taxi in the area. (And, for that matter, a cash machine. I withdrew a further CLP200,000 this morning, so I have a fair amount of cash on me, but I need around CLP100,000 just to pay for the ferry on Friday.)
I guess I came here in part for the experience, so I shouldn't be too bothered that it's not quite what I expected. I expected something a bit like Puerto Natales actually turned out to be, in hindsight, and it's a bit shocking just how much smaller it is here. I do feel a bit better for having been able to get into town and back though. There are no streetlights on the road outside the town as far as I can tell, so unless something turns up I definitely won't be having any late nights here.
It does feel a bit less like the back of beyond now it turns out I do have wi-fi here. Good job too, that hostel in the centre has it, and I'm sure it's a damn sight cheaper than this place.
(Oh, it seems some of the blog posts from the phone did work after all. I am so confused. I was just about to give up on that and now it seems to work a bit. Oh well.)
Saturday, 6 February 2010
A brief waffle from Puerto Natales
I have been trying to post from my phone and now the e-mails themselves seem to keep getting lost. So no doubt precious words of wisdom have been lost forever.
I went to Torres del Paine yesterday and, much as I hate to say it, it was stunning. I will post my original waffle some other time if I can get my phone to work. I will upload photos once I get a hotel with internet access, I don´t have it here.
I was due to go to the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina today but there was a 7am departure and like a stupid fool I stayed out til 5am and overslept badly. To cut a long story short, I am staying on here an extra night and am now doing the tour tomorrow. I am scared stiff I am going to oversleep tomorrow morning. Definitely not staying out late tonight, one beer max.
If anyone is reading this, try not to be confused if some posts appear out of order, they will be re-sends from my phone.
Time to go get some food and then maybe that one beer...
I went to Torres del Paine yesterday and, much as I hate to say it, it was stunning. I will post my original waffle some other time if I can get my phone to work. I will upload photos once I get a hotel with internet access, I don´t have it here.
I was due to go to the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina today but there was a 7am departure and like a stupid fool I stayed out til 5am and overslept badly. To cut a long story short, I am staying on here an extra night and am now doing the tour tomorrow. I am scared stiff I am going to oversleep tomorrow morning. Definitely not staying out late tonight, one beer max.
If anyone is reading this, try not to be confused if some posts appear out of order, they will be re-sends from my phone.
Time to go get some food and then maybe that one beer...
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Procrastination
Dragged myself out of bed at 10am and am now slowly packing while also looking on here to find how to get to the airport and see if they've got back to me about Easter Island yet (they haven't).
Feel a bit rough, could be an awful lot worse but all the same I'm not looking forward to the trip down to Punta Arenas very much right now. Am glad I decided not to spend just a single night down there before going on to Puerto Natales, I hope to get up earlyish tomorrow and look round Punta Arenas but it's good to know I have the option to do bugger all.
Twelve hours until I can go back to bed. :-)
Feel a bit rough, could be an awful lot worse but all the same I'm not looking forward to the trip down to Punta Arenas very much right now. Am glad I decided not to spend just a single night down there before going on to Puerto Natales, I hope to get up earlyish tomorrow and look round Punta Arenas but it's good to know I have the option to do bugger all.
Twelve hours until I can go back to bed. :-)
I am awake too late given I have to check out at midday on Tuesday
The title says it all. But the main content of this post is stuff I knocked out on my phone earlier on while I was out. It's gone 3am here as I post this, I am going to post this without proofreading and go to bed and hope I get up in time to pack and clear out. The one consolation is I am not particularly drunk.
I went over to San Cristobal, found it no problem, turns out it's just off the end of Pio Nuno, the street with all the bars. I bought a ticket for the funicular but after about six of us queued for maybe 20 minutes it turned out it had broken down and wouldn't be running again until tomorrow.
I went and had something to eat and a couple of (small) beers at a nearby restaurant. The waitress was pleasant but seemed to have incredible difficulty understanding me. Normally I'm OK-ish with basic stuff, so I don't know what was wrong. We managed OK in the end though.
Afterwards I figured I try to climb up to the top on foot. I found some paved steps near the funicular entrance, which took me up a small part of the way to the zoo. I wasn't sure it was open and didn't have much interest in going in anyway. In the absence of a better alternative, I started walking along the road in the hope of getting up that way.
The road was practically level and I was on the verge of giving up when I spotted a sign at the side of the road indicating either a hiker or tourist trail, depending on how you choose to interpret 'excursionista'. The sign said it was a difficult trail with an approximate ascent time of 25 minutes, but it didn't look too bad so I figured I'd give it a go.
It wound up the side of the hill pretty steeply, but generally it was OK. I was heartened to see a few other people walking up wearing shorts and trainers instead of full hiking gear, although in general it was pretty deserted. The one problem was when after taking a detour to a lookout point I decided to take a shortcut down a sort of path between two 'loops' of the main track. It only saved me walking about twenty metres and despite the path down being a couple of metres, it was so steep I ended up slipping and sliding down a bit. It was probably for the best, I got away with a few small grazes on my arms and it prevented the temptation to take any other shortcuts later.
It came out near the other end of the funicular. There were some proper steps up to the top from there where, to my surprise, there was a statue of the Virgin, for all the world like a smaller female counterpart to Cristo Redentor in Rio. (I appreciate this is an obvious thought, there were a few Americans up there and one made the same observation.)
I had a litre bottle of Escudo on Pio Nono after making my way down and felt surprisingly drunk. I went back to the apartment and then out to print some stuff (primarily the electronic ticket for the fligt tomorrow) and get some cash. I assume there are cash machines in Punta Arenas but I want to take a fair wedge with me just in case they're hard to find or decide to play up with my card.
(It seems better here than in Brazil. Very roughly only one in three machines there would work for me, even though I have a Visa debit card and they all had the Visa logo on. But still, better safe than sorry.)
After that, at about 9,I went over on the metro to Candil where I came my first night and decided it was great here. I'm there as I write this and it's OK, but although I'm not drunk I feel a bit off somehow. Maybe it's the excesses of the weekend, despite not drinking anything on Sunday once I got home and today being a fairly quiet day (positively a healthy day, what with the walk up the hill/mountain and back down). Maybe I've just got that "having to leave tomorrow with all the associated hassle" feeling, although I am feeling quietly confident about it really right now.
I do like Santiago though. As I said the other day, I may spend a day or two here when I return from Punta Arenas, and failing that (especially if Easter Island doesn't happen - still waiting for a response from my last booking request) I may be back here for a few days before I fly on to Buenos Aires.
Hmm. A mime artist just came round, it must be hard times if he's out tonight as it's Monday night and the bar is hardly buzzing. I must be bursting with a yeasty benevolence as I actually gave him money.
Oh, and that reminds me - on the way over to San Cristobal earlier I walked past the university law school. I was accosted by a solo female student who gave me a poem. Being clued in now I was arguably a touch aloof, although we spoke briefly and she said something about Pinochet and Margaret Thatcher. I gave her a handful of change, so I am learning - I don't know what it was worth, but probably a quid tops. I'd have liked to have talked more just for the experience and for all I know she would have been genuinely happy to do it anyway, but although it's not exactly conversational prostitution, I knew the more we talked the more pressure I'd feel to give her more cash.
On the other hand, the last thing I want to do is talk about local politics and recent history. I have no fear of being carted off stereotypical USSR-style, but the risk of giving offence is always present. On the third hand, since I know nothing about that part of Chilean history as of now and would only be a listener, it would be interesting to hear anything anyone said. On the fourth hand, I might then drunkenly reguritate it later and offend someone that way.
I feel better now and, perhaps oddly, less drunk, the slight pain behind the eyes feeling has gone. It's not as pleasant as the first night here though, I expect that is the knowledge I have to leave tomorrow and so am no longer so relaxed. The first night I always had the option to just do nothing the next day if I really wanted. Now it's a bit like being out on a Sunday night when you have work the next day. Admittedly in my case 'work' at about 10am, but still.
Oh, a completely arbitrary (in point of time - it's probably clear, but I am accumulating this on my phone to post later tonight, alcohol permitting) observation. I am generally unapprehensive about spiders and the like here - I half feared and half hoped I'd spy something big on the trek up San Cristobal, but I didn't - but the other day I dropped my keys near the door to the apartment and figured I'd leave them there as at least it would make sure I didn't go out without them. Five minuter later I turned round and - I am ashamed to admit - uttered a minor scream as they appeared temporarily to look like a gigantic cockroach which had come out of nowhere. Two second later I felt like an idiot once I twigged. The apartment is very clean and while I may not be the most experienced traveller in the world, I've seen cockroaches in Mexico, which is at least as 'tropical' as here, and they were an inch or so long and unpleasant but not scary except when you spot one unexpectedly on turning the light on. (In fact, although I wouldn't want to touch one, I seem to recall their carapaces being attractively irridescent in some situations.) The key-cockroach was apparently three or four inches long, hence my horror.
Continuing the random observations, a few days ago I learned that the Spanish for 'still life' (as in 'picture of some fruit') is 'naturaleza muerta' or, if I translate correctly, literally 'dead nature'. I love these little differences in the language, also the times when you find the literal translation of an English expression is the correct Spanish.
More random observations. If any further evidence were needed that people are people the world over, I offer the following:
- the bus drivers here happily stop their enormous (bendy) buses across the pedestrian crossings, obscuring the green man signal and making it difficult to cross even if you somehow notice you're allowed to do so
- the other day I stepped out happily at a green man on the crossing to be yelled at by a cyclist taking advantage of the universal rule that anything is permitted when you're on a bike
If I haven't already made the observation, I find it disconcerting that it is apparently legal here (it happens so routinely I can't put it down to bad drivers) to turn right at a junction across a pedestrian crossing even when the green man is on. The drivers do show some courtesy and give the pedestrians right of way, in general, but I find it odd and a bit uncomfortable that I can't just cross blithely when the green man shows. Evidence, once again rather unnecessary, that not everywhere is the same.
OK, I'm weak and recreating my first night here. I left Candil and came to the pseudo-British bar down the road. But I shall be careful, just one or two then home, ideally walking. My flight isn't til 4pm but I still have to pack (admittedly probably 5 mins works, then 15 mins paranoid checking I didn't leave anything) and I assume I need to be out of the flat by midday. Todo bien. :-)
The waiter I spoke to the first night is here and remembers me. I apologised for my behaviour last time on general principles although I still think I wasn't that bad. He noticed I hadn't had my hair cut (I asked him for a recommendation last time), he has a treacherously excellent memory. The music here is as British as I remember, right now it's "Lola" by The Kinks.
"Spanish Bombs" by The Clash now. I don't know if it's my lack of skill, the alcohol or The Clash's pronunciation, but I can't understand all the Spanish in the song. (I don't know it well enough to already know what they sing, exactly.) I wonder how the locals feel about the song.
It occurs to me that just like the first night here, I am sucking a mint given to me by Candil while drinking my beer. An interesting but not ideal combination of tastes.
Interesting. They are now playing a cover of The Jam's "David Watts" which I have never heard before. Maybe it's not a Jam song originally, although I suspect it is. Either way, be interesting to look it up and find out who it is.
Partay. "Panic" by The Smiths now. If I haven't already observed this, at the secret bar on Sunday morning they played a lot of Smiths stuff. I fear I was inadvertently drunkenly (only slightly drunkenly, but still) annoying to a Japanese-looking guy we met there who had a Morrissey haircut. I had spoken to him a bit and he was supremely indifferent to my questions, especially about where he was from. (I was Britishly reticent to make assumptions and didn't say anything about Japan when I asked him where he was from. In any case everyone I meet here seems exotically multi-national. I only describe him as Japanese-looking here because I never got a clear answer to my questions. And yeah, I was a bit drunk,but genuinely not *that* drunk, and no one else was offended when I spoke to them. The guy I swapped e-mail addresses with was (IIRC) Chilean but with Italian parents and spoke fluent Spanish, Italian, English and also the local dialect from his part of Italy, which I don't recall the name of except that I know it wasn't Naples.) I approached the Japanese Morrissey a bit later on and apologised in case I'd offended him (admittedly at the same time saying, politely, he had a Morrissey hairstyle and asking if it was deliberate, to which he failed to respond and probably took as even more insulting, and I guess me apologising to him out of the blue probably cemented his idea I was a drunk idiot), but WTF. He probably thinks I'm a twat, if he thinks of me at all, which is fortunately unlikely. You can't win them all and although I can be an arse at times I generally think I get on well with people once I meet them. I certainly never intend to insult anyone. I felt he was probably an OK guy, but he was far less matey than the other people I met. Still, I feel a bit bad about it, although I'm sure it was just a case of him trying to ignore a drunk idiot.
A drunk idiot who is now at a pseudo-British bar at twenty to one when he has to check out tomorrow at midday. Sigh. Will I ever learn?
I do have my disintegrating book with me and I can still focus to read it. So I must be OK, right?
Odd cover version-tastic. A male vocalist and vaguely modern cover of "I will survive".
OK, last beer - ordered it with the bill. I may regret it but WTF. In the toilet - which has different music to the bar - I heard a bad instrumental cover of The Girl From Ipanema and decided I had to stay. Plus, I want to get a cab home from here and not be a twat. :-)
"Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz now. I love the sheer pointlessness of these comments. :-)
I don't know if it will be like that, but I half envision my stay in southern Chile as a rest cure from drinking. I am sure Punta Arenas, as a naval town, has plenty of opportunities for drinking, but most of the time I am there I will have just arrived or just be about to leave. Whatever, it's all good, in that sense I can't lose. I either have fun drinking or don't want to and feel virtuous.
We make progress. I got a taxi home without major problems and only was embarrased that we had arrived without me realising. Not good, but much better than my first night here. :-) Only CLP2000 including a decent tip too. Was quite impressed the driver knew Calle Dr Ramon Corvalan, but maybe my relative sobriety helped my pronunciation.
OK, for some unimportant record it's 1:45am as I arrive home. A bit of dicking around and eight hours sleep still gets me put well before midday. Todo bien.
(Never again. For some reason long memos don't sync properly between my netbook and PDA. I had to do that in about four sections. And of course it wasn't worth it. :-) I have not re-read a word of it though I think I got the breaks in the right places between the sections. If it makes no sense it may be drunkenness or it may be due to this transfer in sections from PDA->netbook->blog. Probably the former, but who knows?)
WTF am I still doing awake at 3:45am when I got home at 1:45am? Sigh^n.
I went over to San Cristobal, found it no problem, turns out it's just off the end of Pio Nuno, the street with all the bars. I bought a ticket for the funicular but after about six of us queued for maybe 20 minutes it turned out it had broken down and wouldn't be running again until tomorrow.
I went and had something to eat and a couple of (small) beers at a nearby restaurant. The waitress was pleasant but seemed to have incredible difficulty understanding me. Normally I'm OK-ish with basic stuff, so I don't know what was wrong. We managed OK in the end though.
Afterwards I figured I try to climb up to the top on foot. I found some paved steps near the funicular entrance, which took me up a small part of the way to the zoo. I wasn't sure it was open and didn't have much interest in going in anyway. In the absence of a better alternative, I started walking along the road in the hope of getting up that way.
The road was practically level and I was on the verge of giving up when I spotted a sign at the side of the road indicating either a hiker or tourist trail, depending on how you choose to interpret 'excursionista'. The sign said it was a difficult trail with an approximate ascent time of 25 minutes, but it didn't look too bad so I figured I'd give it a go.
It wound up the side of the hill pretty steeply, but generally it was OK. I was heartened to see a few other people walking up wearing shorts and trainers instead of full hiking gear, although in general it was pretty deserted. The one problem was when after taking a detour to a lookout point I decided to take a shortcut down a sort of path between two 'loops' of the main track. It only saved me walking about twenty metres and despite the path down being a couple of metres, it was so steep I ended up slipping and sliding down a bit. It was probably for the best, I got away with a few small grazes on my arms and it prevented the temptation to take any other shortcuts later.
It came out near the other end of the funicular. There were some proper steps up to the top from there where, to my surprise, there was a statue of the Virgin, for all the world like a smaller female counterpart to Cristo Redentor in Rio. (I appreciate this is an obvious thought, there were a few Americans up there and one made the same observation.)
I had a litre bottle of Escudo on Pio Nono after making my way down and felt surprisingly drunk. I went back to the apartment and then out to print some stuff (primarily the electronic ticket for the fligt tomorrow) and get some cash. I assume there are cash machines in Punta Arenas but I want to take a fair wedge with me just in case they're hard to find or decide to play up with my card.
(It seems better here than in Brazil. Very roughly only one in three machines there would work for me, even though I have a Visa debit card and they all had the Visa logo on. But still, better safe than sorry.)
After that, at about 9,I went over on the metro to Candil where I came my first night and decided it was great here. I'm there as I write this and it's OK, but although I'm not drunk I feel a bit off somehow. Maybe it's the excesses of the weekend, despite not drinking anything on Sunday once I got home and today being a fairly quiet day (positively a healthy day, what with the walk up the hill/mountain and back down). Maybe I've just got that "having to leave tomorrow with all the associated hassle" feeling, although I am feeling quietly confident about it really right now.
I do like Santiago though. As I said the other day, I may spend a day or two here when I return from Punta Arenas, and failing that (especially if Easter Island doesn't happen - still waiting for a response from my last booking request) I may be back here for a few days before I fly on to Buenos Aires.
Hmm. A mime artist just came round, it must be hard times if he's out tonight as it's Monday night and the bar is hardly buzzing. I must be bursting with a yeasty benevolence as I actually gave him money.
Oh, and that reminds me - on the way over to San Cristobal earlier I walked past the university law school. I was accosted by a solo female student who gave me a poem. Being clued in now I was arguably a touch aloof, although we spoke briefly and she said something about Pinochet and Margaret Thatcher. I gave her a handful of change, so I am learning - I don't know what it was worth, but probably a quid tops. I'd have liked to have talked more just for the experience and for all I know she would have been genuinely happy to do it anyway, but although it's not exactly conversational prostitution, I knew the more we talked the more pressure I'd feel to give her more cash.
On the other hand, the last thing I want to do is talk about local politics and recent history. I have no fear of being carted off stereotypical USSR-style, but the risk of giving offence is always present. On the third hand, since I know nothing about that part of Chilean history as of now and would only be a listener, it would be interesting to hear anything anyone said. On the fourth hand, I might then drunkenly reguritate it later and offend someone that way.
I feel better now and, perhaps oddly, less drunk, the slight pain behind the eyes feeling has gone. It's not as pleasant as the first night here though, I expect that is the knowledge I have to leave tomorrow and so am no longer so relaxed. The first night I always had the option to just do nothing the next day if I really wanted. Now it's a bit like being out on a Sunday night when you have work the next day. Admittedly in my case 'work' at about 10am, but still.
Oh, a completely arbitrary (in point of time - it's probably clear, but I am accumulating this on my phone to post later tonight, alcohol permitting) observation. I am generally unapprehensive about spiders and the like here - I half feared and half hoped I'd spy something big on the trek up San Cristobal, but I didn't - but the other day I dropped my keys near the door to the apartment and figured I'd leave them there as at least it would make sure I didn't go out without them. Five minuter later I turned round and - I am ashamed to admit - uttered a minor scream as they appeared temporarily to look like a gigantic cockroach which had come out of nowhere. Two second later I felt like an idiot once I twigged. The apartment is very clean and while I may not be the most experienced traveller in the world, I've seen cockroaches in Mexico, which is at least as 'tropical' as here, and they were an inch or so long and unpleasant but not scary except when you spot one unexpectedly on turning the light on. (In fact, although I wouldn't want to touch one, I seem to recall their carapaces being attractively irridescent in some situations.) The key-cockroach was apparently three or four inches long, hence my horror.
Continuing the random observations, a few days ago I learned that the Spanish for 'still life' (as in 'picture of some fruit') is 'naturaleza muerta' or, if I translate correctly, literally 'dead nature'. I love these little differences in the language, also the times when you find the literal translation of an English expression is the correct Spanish.
More random observations. If any further evidence were needed that people are people the world over, I offer the following:
- the bus drivers here happily stop their enormous (bendy) buses across the pedestrian crossings, obscuring the green man signal and making it difficult to cross even if you somehow notice you're allowed to do so
- the other day I stepped out happily at a green man on the crossing to be yelled at by a cyclist taking advantage of the universal rule that anything is permitted when you're on a bike
If I haven't already made the observation, I find it disconcerting that it is apparently legal here (it happens so routinely I can't put it down to bad drivers) to turn right at a junction across a pedestrian crossing even when the green man is on. The drivers do show some courtesy and give the pedestrians right of way, in general, but I find it odd and a bit uncomfortable that I can't just cross blithely when the green man shows. Evidence, once again rather unnecessary, that not everywhere is the same.
OK, I'm weak and recreating my first night here. I left Candil and came to the pseudo-British bar down the road. But I shall be careful, just one or two then home, ideally walking. My flight isn't til 4pm but I still have to pack (admittedly probably 5 mins works, then 15 mins paranoid checking I didn't leave anything) and I assume I need to be out of the flat by midday. Todo bien. :-)
The waiter I spoke to the first night is here and remembers me. I apologised for my behaviour last time on general principles although I still think I wasn't that bad. He noticed I hadn't had my hair cut (I asked him for a recommendation last time), he has a treacherously excellent memory. The music here is as British as I remember, right now it's "Lola" by The Kinks.
"Spanish Bombs" by The Clash now. I don't know if it's my lack of skill, the alcohol or The Clash's pronunciation, but I can't understand all the Spanish in the song. (I don't know it well enough to already know what they sing, exactly.) I wonder how the locals feel about the song.
It occurs to me that just like the first night here, I am sucking a mint given to me by Candil while drinking my beer. An interesting but not ideal combination of tastes.
Interesting. They are now playing a cover of The Jam's "David Watts" which I have never heard before. Maybe it's not a Jam song originally, although I suspect it is. Either way, be interesting to look it up and find out who it is.
Partay. "Panic" by The Smiths now. If I haven't already observed this, at the secret bar on Sunday morning they played a lot of Smiths stuff. I fear I was inadvertently drunkenly (only slightly drunkenly, but still) annoying to a Japanese-looking guy we met there who had a Morrissey haircut. I had spoken to him a bit and he was supremely indifferent to my questions, especially about where he was from. (I was Britishly reticent to make assumptions and didn't say anything about Japan when I asked him where he was from. In any case everyone I meet here seems exotically multi-national. I only describe him as Japanese-looking here because I never got a clear answer to my questions. And yeah, I was a bit drunk,but genuinely not *that* drunk, and no one else was offended when I spoke to them. The guy I swapped e-mail addresses with was (IIRC) Chilean but with Italian parents and spoke fluent Spanish, Italian, English and also the local dialect from his part of Italy, which I don't recall the name of except that I know it wasn't Naples.) I approached the Japanese Morrissey a bit later on and apologised in case I'd offended him (admittedly at the same time saying, politely, he had a Morrissey hairstyle and asking if it was deliberate, to which he failed to respond and probably took as even more insulting, and I guess me apologising to him out of the blue probably cemented his idea I was a drunk idiot), but WTF. He probably thinks I'm a twat, if he thinks of me at all, which is fortunately unlikely. You can't win them all and although I can be an arse at times I generally think I get on well with people once I meet them. I certainly never intend to insult anyone. I felt he was probably an OK guy, but he was far less matey than the other people I met. Still, I feel a bit bad about it, although I'm sure it was just a case of him trying to ignore a drunk idiot.
A drunk idiot who is now at a pseudo-British bar at twenty to one when he has to check out tomorrow at midday. Sigh. Will I ever learn?
I do have my disintegrating book with me and I can still focus to read it. So I must be OK, right?
Odd cover version-tastic. A male vocalist and vaguely modern cover of "I will survive".
OK, last beer - ordered it with the bill. I may regret it but WTF. In the toilet - which has different music to the bar - I heard a bad instrumental cover of The Girl From Ipanema and decided I had to stay. Plus, I want to get a cab home from here and not be a twat. :-)
"Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz now. I love the sheer pointlessness of these comments. :-)
I don't know if it will be like that, but I half envision my stay in southern Chile as a rest cure from drinking. I am sure Punta Arenas, as a naval town, has plenty of opportunities for drinking, but most of the time I am there I will have just arrived or just be about to leave. Whatever, it's all good, in that sense I can't lose. I either have fun drinking or don't want to and feel virtuous.
We make progress. I got a taxi home without major problems and only was embarrased that we had arrived without me realising. Not good, but much better than my first night here. :-) Only CLP2000 including a decent tip too. Was quite impressed the driver knew Calle Dr Ramon Corvalan, but maybe my relative sobriety helped my pronunciation.
OK, for some unimportant record it's 1:45am as I arrive home. A bit of dicking around and eight hours sleep still gets me put well before midday. Todo bien.
(Never again. For some reason long memos don't sync properly between my netbook and PDA. I had to do that in about four sections. And of course it wasn't worth it. :-) I have not re-read a word of it though I think I got the breaks in the right places between the sections. If it makes no sense it may be drunkenness or it may be due to this transfer in sections from PDA->netbook->blog. Probably the former, but who knows?)
WTF am I still doing awake at 3:45am when I got home at 1:45am? Sigh^n.
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