CHILE PART 3 – PUNTA ARENAS AND PUERTO NATALES

GETTING TO PUNTA ARENAS
The flight from Santiago went without a hitch, even the travel to the airport utilising both bus and metro – result (looking good so far). I thoroughly enjoyed the flight over (at the window looking at the snow capped and covered mountains with turquoise lakes) and it was a good flight for Helen who caught up with couple of hours heavy snoring 😉

When in Punta we decided to get taxi for 7,000 soles rather than 3,000 each to be crammed into minibus and probably have to circle the whole of Punta before arriving in the hostel that Simon (H’s uncle) had already booked for us.

SETTLING IN: Hostal Especiones
We duly arrived at Hostal Especiones and settled into our triple room with Helen spreading the contents of her rucksack all over the place almost instantly :). Wandering around the hostel it had a friendly vibe (run by a local family that live within the hostel). There was a nice clean kitchen to cook in (with a good old fashioned Arga), free internet (most seem to offer this within South America), a couple of chill out areas for reading etc. and lots of little heating systems dotted about (little did we realise at this point just how cold Punta was going to be).

Unfortunately I was unable to connect to the wifi – probably related to the earlier incident of buggering up the original Asus O.S. and using Ubuntuu instead (H-who cares!!). Fortunately I got chatting to a French chap and it turned out he had a portable USB DVD with him so I finally (after months of trying) managed to reinstall the original OS and thus connect to WIFI – those lovely French people (H-blah, blah, blah) 🙂 !

TRADITIONAL ‘ARRIVAL WALK-ABOUTS’
We had a walk around the town but it kept raining and it was quite cold so we didn’t go too far, we did find a supermarket and bought dinner and a bottle of wine to go with it (at 1,000 kleggies we couldn’t grumble). We then checked out a few restaurants for the next night got back to the hostel and Helen made dinner for us using the agar spicy chorizo with spaghetti, we had this while sharing the wine and enjoyed our private room with cable TV, sad I know but the room was a treat (with our own on suite) so we made the most of it and had an early night on a lovely soft bed under mounds of blankets to keep warm.

DAY 2
In the morning we were up in time for breakfast (bread and scrambled eggs with hot coffee, lovely!). We then headed out, Simon wasn’t arriving until the evening so we had a day to explore. We started at the main square, Muñoz Gamero Square, where they had a market full of woollen clothes and blankets, the lama jumpers and hats were very colourful but we decided against them as it seemed all gauged for the tourists and therefore a little expensive.

The tourist office was in the square so that was our next stop. Thankfully the lady spoke English so we got a map and they directed us to a book store as we required a phrase book and they also told us where some of the sights could be found. Some of the sights were right in the square including a statue erected in tribute to the discoverer of the strait and surrounded by ancient trees of various species; you have to rub the foot of the statue for good luck so obviously we had a go 🙂 we also took in views of the Cathedral and the surrounding mansions built at the beginning of the century by the big stockbreeders of the area, among the most important of which is the Sara Braun Palace, built in 1895 with an interior entirely imported from Europe. It now houses the Club de la Union and Hotel Jose Nogueira.

It was then off to the Cerro La Cruz viewpoint, with an extraordinary view of the city and the Magellan Strait, as you can imagine a few pictures were taken here (just before the rain started), the views really were great from up here. Again the rain got the better of us so we headed back to the hostel, having a nice (but very expensive) cup of coffee at one of the many cafés around the square.

At the hostel it was back on the internet and I did a bit of hand washing while Dylan did some research on Porto Natales (a spot we fancied visiting with Simon), then by the time we had showered Simon arrived just in time for an evening out!

Simon had checked in to his room (i.e. thrown his stuff in the room) and come up to see us. I had moved my mass of belongings off the spare bed in our room thinking Simon was sharing with us but as it turned out we had a triple and Simon had a double – so here we are taking 5 beds between the three of us – most luxurious.

OUT ON THE PISCO
Dylan and I had spotted an intruiging looking Argentinian restaurant just down the road so we headed out for a bite to eat. Simon enjoyed his first Pisco Sour and we ordered wine whilst we chatted about each others’ travels. We were somewhat entertained by the waiter – we couldn’t quite work out if he was just just camp or full-on but we all agreed he certainly seemed as though he’d had a drink or two!

The BBQ was really cool and I just had to go for the BBQ lamb – so much so I had a go with the BBQ!

Pics to be uploaded…

Simon and I both enjoyed an afters whilst Dylan was too full (Dylan: Oh how I’ve changed! lol). We were both pleasantly surprised to find the afters came with a shot and after the many wines we’d indulged in, the Pisco Sours and the free shot we enjoyed a short spurt of ‘Show me the way to Amaretto’!!!

Dylan: It wasn’t long after the musical outburst that we could no longer purchase wine so we decided the night was not over yet and wandered towards the centre

We found Discotheque Barica. After paying to get in I was told that I would have to wait for my change so we did so and then went into the discotheque. Dylan: that’s not quite all, after Simon and I had paid 4 cleggies for us and 1 cleggie for Helen we were then asked to wait for some change from a 20. This was fine until H decided she’d waited more than enough (albeit only 2-3 minutes) and started to practice her Spanish on the attendant – demanding ‘donde estas mi cambio’ which we understand to be similar to ‘where is my change’. Fortunately the attendant saw the funny side and didn’t have us thrown out but gave us our change when she had it!

So as we entered what should be described as ‘a sauna without steam – with scary boys and girls all around we selected a seat out of the way. Simon and I were chatting and sent Dylan for beers. Whilst Dylan was gone we were asked we if wanted serving and ordered. Dylan returned shortly after with three very strong rum and cokes to join our three drinks – here we go!

Simon and I carried on chatting for a while Dylan ended up chatting to couple of people nearby and at some point decided to dance. Dylan: However – the dance floor had a definite ‘Hendon’ feel (bars on the bars!) to it so I decided to avoid crossing the scaffolding surrounding the dance floor and remain in a relatively safe environment with H and Simon!

Several more very strong drinks and we decided it was too micey even for our drunken state so we decided to leave. Dylan: ‘Leave’ being a general term for Simon and I walking out and H being carried over the arm between the two of us! – Mixing drinks – never works! 🙂

Once outside it’s a little blurred and the time line, quite frankly, is unknown! We think we took a few steps and once we fell down the wrong street we decided we’d just hang about for a taxi – all I recall is Simon and I propping Helen against the wall and once she was ‘stable’ it’s pretty much a blur. We managed to get a taxi (we think) and we arrived back at the hostel. Simon assisted me in carrying H to bed as she was absolutely dead weight by this time and after we threw her on the bed we both took a couple pictures to mock her with (like she wouldn’t have done the same!). Then sleep!

THE NEXT DAY: GOING SOUTH
Rough would be an understatement. We awoke around 10ish and in somewhat of a hurry packed our bags and met up with Simon who was equally as rough! After an hour or so of looking for Simons camera (which we found in his quilted jacket – oddly enough!) we concluded we would head South!

OR NORTH
After we finally managed to navigate the simply laid out streets on Punta Arenas (H was map ‘reading’ at this point) and we found a joint that seemed to sell bus tickets. They did and to go south we could wait until Friday and we’d get a seat (It’s Wednesday today!) so onwards and forwards we thought we’d head North instead (this was good as the previous night I’d spent 4 hours researching Puerto Natales – Puerto Natales, a picturesque city on the banks of Seno Ultima Esperanza – and the Torres del Pain). Eventually (H still had the map at this point) we found the office that sold tickets for Puerto Natales (one office – one purpose – one location – one pain in the ass!) and purchased accordingly. By this time we were quite hungry and decided we’d pop by a taverna for some food (and a hair o’ the dog too).

After eating our plate of chips on top of chopped up hotdogs and a hair fo the dog (I don’t think they even bothered naming the dish nor the lake of fat underneath – although I was surprised when Simon verbally considered that this may be a dish to offer at a B&B in the UK sometime!) we realised it was 14:00 and given we were told that we should be at the bus for 13:50 we had a mad rush!

On the bus we chatted as we passed the Magellan Straits (and contemplated voyaging over to Tierres del Fuego), spotted trees leaning at unearthly angles in retreat from the wind and watched the earth just drop off over ‘the end of the world’ and now I drop off to sleep whilst Helen and Simon snore away!

PUERTO NATALES
After reading the Lonely Planet and being warned of the hoards of touts we should expect Simon and I formulated a plan to sit out of the way and not get hassled. As we exit the bus we arrive, not to a mad rush of touts, just to a couple asking if we’d like to check out their hostel and straight away we replied yes!

HOSTEL KNUDSSON
On the walk to the hostel we deduced this was one very odd, Danish, bird; apparently with a child of 2 years old that had feet as big as hers. None to surprisingly we arrived at the hostel and everything just seemed odd. It was a quiet place and we had the attic room – not negotiating a better price of stating we felt all was odd – I think we were all pretty scared (moreso after she’d declared that this place – as opposed to the previous hostel her and her father ran – was much better as there were no shapeless, colourless ghouls or demons!?!?!?)

Demons maybe not but her father had a sense of someone that would walk around in his undies and dirty vest usually so we avoided to much chit chat here and exited as soon as possible!

Next…

• A visit to the ‘From dusk till dawn’ bar!
• More Peurto Natales
• Torres del Pianes
• Tierra del Fuego
• The Megallen Straits

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