Punta Arenas

Today was Sunday, so the town appeared to be largely dead. I went to the LANChile office but they were closed, so I went to the tourist office. From there I checked email and I was able to book a flight for the next day. Unfortunately, it was expensive (almost $600), but what can one do?

On a side note, one interesting thing that I've noticed is that I have heard Faith No More on the radio (they played "Evidence" at the pharmacy), and disturbingly, "Easy" was played as Musak at the tourist office. That made me think about how MAD Magazine once said that a sign of aging is when you hear a song of your youth played as Musak...

At the tourist office, I also booked a tour to the penguin colony at Seno Otway. That tour was not scheduled to leave for another few hours, so I had time to kill. I got lunch at a Spanish restaurant called "La Tasca" and walked around town a bit, and then went on the tour. The tour was pretty neat, the colony was about an hour drive away and the guide and the people on the tour were nice. I was the only non-Spanish speaker on the tour, so the guide would first explain things in Spanish and then turn towards me and explain things in English. The guide was very knowledgeable and as it turned out, he lived in Boston for a while twelve years ago. Also, I chatted (through limited Spanish and gesturing) with two middle aged ladies on the trip, who originally thought that I was German.

After the tour, I hoped to go to a bar and hang out for the evening, but I realized that I was particularly sensitive to cigarette smoke and any bar would either be smoky or dead, so I settled with just getting dinner. I got a large calzone at a restaurant called "Santino", then checked email, and went back to the hotel to crash.

The Penguinera

19-Jan-2004 - Got up, had breakfast and checked out. Unfortunately, my pinkeye status did not improve so I had to stop by the pharmacy to get more eyedrops. After that, I took a taxi to the airport, checked in, and bummed around until my 12:40 PM flight to Santiago.

The flight was uneventful. It stopped over in Puerto Montt before continuing on to Santiago. I arrived in Santiago shortly before 5 PM, and after getting my pack (and after being besieged by taxi operators and hotel representatives), I switched to summer mode (it was 86 degrees in Santiago.) I then went to change my travel arrangements so I could leave for home from Santiago on the 23rd. I did get penalized, but only for $126.

I then hopped on a bus for downtown, which was departing right when I got there. Riding the bus, I saw what people meant when they said that this area looked like California, specifically in terms of climate, flora and unfortunately, the smog. When I stepped off the bus near the Estacion Central, the smog was oppressive. Given my eye condition, the smog and the bright summer afternoon sunshine almost knocked me over. A wave of anxiety overcame me, because I was trying to get oriented in a new city and I had to keep one of my eyes winced closed, and trying to watch out for pick pockets and for that matter, not being run over in the traffic.

Eventually I found my way into the metro and took the subway to the Universidad Católica stop, and from there to the hotel where I planned to stay at, the Hotel Foresta. On the way, I stopped at an internet café and checked email. When I got to the hotel, I checked in and got a nice room. After checking in, I dropped off my laundry at a laundromat and got dinner at a Japanese restaurant, the Izakaya Yoko. Interestingly, all of the waitresses appeared to be Chilean, as opposed to ethnic restaurants in the US, which seem to always to be staffed with people from the relevant countries. After that, I bought some water at a minimart and went back to the hotel.