Is blogging from the pub a bad habit? Probably...
I'm in Cafe Pub 1900, just across from where I was last night. The guide book (Bradt guide to Chile, FWIW) says this and the other are two of the livelier bars (there are clubs, but I'm not interested right now and on a Wednesday I doubt they'd be any good anyway). It seems a bit quieter here but it's OK. There are some others listed in the guide but they're slightly closer to where my second Punta Arenas hotel will be, so it seemed better to give this one a try.
My stomach muscles hurt. I tried to sit up on the bed with the netbook earlier and got that unfit-person-doing-sit-ups kind of pain. I've been having twinges all day. I guess it must have been lugging the suitcase up and down the metro station steps yesterday.
Check out from the hotel is 11am. That seems a bit early but it'll be fine. Ideally I need to get up a bit early so I can pack before breakfast to avoid a rush. The hotel seems so empty and they're generally so nice I suspect they wouldn't sting me for an extra day's rate if I check out half an hour late, but better safe than sorry.
There's a bus at 9 which I obviously won't get and the next is at 1. That means nearly two hours waiting at the bus station (which is a short walk from the hotel, so at least I don't have to pay for a cab over there) but it's not so bad. At least I won't be rushing like mad as I would if there was one at say 11 which I just might be able to get after breakfast at 10. I think it's a 3-4h journey, though that's from the guide, the sign in the bus station didn't say and I didn't ask. So I should be there by 4-5pm and at the hotel by 6 at the latest, which isn't that bad. Probably a bit late to get a Torres del Paine tour booked tomorrow unless the hotel can sort me out, which I suspect they can as I waffled about earlier.
Completely random, but my apartment in Santiago was only on the 18th floor in local terms. Ground is 1 here, so it would be 17th in the UK. As if it matters, except that I need to assuage my passion for accuracy.
It hit me today that - at the hotel last night, for instance - people ask if I speak Spanish and I say "I am learning". But I have actually been saying "I am learned". Sigh. I have a nagging suspicion the way I say "I am learning", even without that mistake (estoy apprendiendo) is not correct somehow anyway (perhaps it's gramatically OK, but not good idiomatic Spanish). Must e-mail Z and ask her.
Oh, I saw a human statue earlier. A gold one. That moved. I understand that illogically the fact that he was moving does not disqualify him as a human statue. I may be wrong. Still, Santiago 1, Punta Arenas 0 for culture. :-)
Having walked around the city (maybe I should say town, probably not - the guide book calls it a city and the population in 2005 was about 110,000) it reminds me slightly of Skegness (population about 16,000 when I was growing up, apparently swelling to 100,000-odd in summer if you count the tourists, if memory serves). Probably more because that's the only small town I've really known, rather than any massive resemblance, excet for the obvious "it's on the coast" similarity. Even in the UK I've always lived in and visited big cities, and the same when I've been abroad. It's not unpleasant but it feels a bit desolate in parts. Probably this is part true, part because I'm not local (in the sense of not being a Punta Arenian, not just that I'm not Chilean) and part because I know it's kind of on the near edge of nowhere and that colours my thinking.
It's surprisingly cold. Nothing unbearable by any means, it's kind of London autumn weather. Guide book says max temp is around 14C, perhaps it's more now. I know it's simplistic but the latitude is almost exactly the same as Skegness (except for the sign) so I would naively expect it to be warmer. As I have probably already said, I imagine winters are a bit bleak, but the guide says min temp is about -1C, so they're probably not as bad as I think. I guess the seasonal variation in daylight will be about the same as in England, since that is latitude-dependent.
It suddenly strikes me as odd that this is pretty far south but Skegness (you might as well say London, what's a degree of latitude between friends?) isn't pretty far north. Yeah, I know the distribution of land is different in the Southern hemisphere, but somehow it still seems odd. Still, it must be good for the tourist industry here.
This bar definitely isn't lively. It calls itself Cafe-Pub 1900 and that's actually fair. Except for the waiters, if you teleported me in here so I didn't know where it was, I could believe it was a quiet-ish UK pub. I am not going to use the word cosy, but it is quite comfortingly familiar.
The music is largely English language again, but a lot of it seems like classic pop with a heavy drum-machine style beat superimposed. Vaguely Jive Bunny-esque. :-) The music is definitely just background though, if I had someone to talk to I wouldn't be having to shout to make myself heard.
I must look like a sad loser to people on both sides of the Atlantic sitting here on my own writing this. The miracles of modern communication technology, in the old days I could only appear pathetic to people in my immediate vicinity. :-) But seriously, it's fairly cool, I've met a few people (so far thanks to that weekend in Santiago only) and I'm sure as I start to move around more and maybe stretch myself to stay at more 'backpackerish' places I'll find people to talk to here and there.
I think I slept better last night than anywhere so far. Not that I've generally slept badly, but it felt very comfortable last night. I think it's because it's cool enough here that it's pleasantly warm in bed. Elsewhere it's been warm enough anyway that I'm either stifling in bed or have next to no sheets and it doesn't feel normal. (Probably for related reasons, it's all sheets here, no quilts, no matter how thin. I guess also quilts aren't very hotel-y somehow.)
My Spanish still sucks. But I suppose I've only been in Chile about a week. And I started off worse than I was thanks to Brazil :-) and the fact that I hadn't had a lesson or anything for a month or more before I started the trip. And it is odd but vaguely encouraging that I occasionally remember a conversation in English but I'm fairly sure it must have actually been in Spanish. So maybe I am internalising the language a bit more.
Twenty past midnight and I've just ordered another. (Austral. It's like drinking Batemans in Wainfleet. :-) Not that I've ever been to Wainfleet.) Staying out slightly too late before I have to take transport the next day seems to be becoming something of a tradition.
Ten to one. A last beer. I'm not sober but I can focus and what the hell. To be honest, getting up tomorrow is going to be crap anyway so I might as well enjoy myself. :-) But seriously, I suspect I could have gone to bed stone cold sober and still would wake up thinking 'fuck, fuck, fuck, I have to get the bus today'. I'm sure it'll be fine but still. I just hope the batteries in the dictionary hold out in case I hit linguistic difficulties. But to be honest I think most of these people speak English. There must be loads of tourists doing the Punta Arenas-Puerto Natales route. When I bought the tickets I was breezing along with basic Spanish until I asked if I had to pick a time, and the guy said I could have 'abierta' tickets. I failed to understand and he said 'open'. At least I showed willing.
Oh, the visitor book at the naval museum showed a couple from Winchester had been round today. I flipped back a few pages and it's clear they get people from all over, although oddly enough the Winchester couple today were the only Brits I could see.
I keep thinking I should try to use unusual, outlandish, even obfuscated, yet still cromulent, words in order to increase the chances of my blog turning out to be a googlewhack. :-) But my vocabularly is too limited. I need to embiggen it.
There is a callipygean woman at the next table. And my joke is ruined by poor spelling.
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