 |
| Recently Updated |
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Embarassing Music.
Oh hello again. I know what you´re thinking. "I thought you were dead." "I´ve lost interest in this blog." "How much would could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?" If you are my sister Julia, you are thinking "Oh my god, I can´t do anymore school. I have to get a real job now." Ah haha. Sucks to be youuuu. You can all relax and feel better knowing that I now own an "awesome possum" shirt, WITH a picture of a possum on it? Well I don´t...but if I did, I realize I´d be much cooler.
Soooo, I went from El calafate (the glaciar), about...a month ago, to Buenos Aires Argentina. Buenos Aires, is a fantastic, beautiful city. Except it is full of vampires. Honestly, the hours that argentinians choose to live their lives HAD to be picked by throwing darts at a dartboard. "Ughh...okay. So we are going to eat dinner at 10pm, then go out till 5 am. Well get up at 10am, work till 1, then have a 4 hour nappy time, then work till about 7. How does that sound? Good? People like that? Evita what do you say? You´re down? Alright, perfect, on to making steak cheaper than lettuce..." Its completely backwards. On the positive side, the rumor about 3 dollar steaks the size of your calf are true. That was incredible. My time in BA consisted of joining a gym, going to said gym, exploring the city a little, and watching TONS of TV. Aaron and I had rented an apartment which turned out to be beautiful. It was extremely spacious, with a large back patio, 2 full bathrooms, about 4 bedrooms. It was awesome. And...maybe most important of all, a washing machine, and a big couch with cable tv. When travelling from hostel to hostel, you come to really miss lying in your boxers on a big couch watching sports, movies, etc. You just dont get to do it. I mean you can try, but they´re always like "put on some pants" or "dude, come on, we´re gonna watch the bridget jones diary." Now I´ll sit through bridget jones, but who wants to wear pants on a saturday. Not this guy. So after sort of regaining myself, working out a little, taking a few weeks of spanish, the month of May had flown by. While in BA I got a chance to go see a Boca Juniors soccer game which was pretty interesting. Its like being at a football game. Except everyone cares. Well thats not true, the awesome section was there to get drunk. But a lot of people cared. Still has nothing on a good bills tailgate. If you find yourself in BA, or Clean cheap NYC as I like to think of it, go to a steakhouse called La Cabrera. Everyone will tell you this. And you´re going to think "I don´t want to go there, everyone is going there, its going to be sooooo touristy." Stop being an idiot. It´s amazing. You always do this! You miss out on good things, because you want to be the non touristy tourist! You pulled this same move in Guam!
So yeah, La Cabrera has the greatest steak in the world. And with an appetizer that could feed St. Louis, and a couple bottles of wine, your dinner will come out to about 25 dollars US.
After embarrasing myself learning how to tango, and a beautiful city tour which I should have taken the first day there, but instead took on the last (I knowwww mommmm, you told me to do it the first day....I KNOWWWW) I headed up to Iguazu falls. I stopped in a place called Rosario. The amount of time I have allotted to Rosario is about the amount of time Rosario deserves. So anyway, I´m on to Iguazu falls, a nice little town of nothing. Played a mud soccer game which stained my feet for about the next week, and ate delicious barbecue. Everyone you ask before you see the falls say "they are amazing" which means your immediate mental reaction has to be "They are probably ok, you are probably just an idiot who gets too excited over things." Then you go to the falls, they are amazing, and you return and tell everyone how amazing they are, and they think you are an idiot. It´s a vicious cycle.
From there headed up to Rio de Janeiro, which from all accounts you would think is about as safe as having the name Dinesh and trying to get on an airplane. People make you think that if you have anything in your pockets, the locals will see it with their x-ray vision and hold you up with one of the 12 weapons they are carrying on them. Rio is beautiful, and if you don´t stay in the wrong parts of the city, quite safe. I stayed in a neighborhood called Botafoga. It has its own small beach, a 10 minute walk to copacabana beach, and 20 minute bus ride to Ipanema. The trade off is that I got to walk around at night, and go have beers on the street there, while the people staying in Ipanema would lock themselves into hostel compounds at sunset. Anyway, Rio ruled. Met an awesome group of fun people at a dive hostel, enjoyed the beaches, and finally stood in front of Cristo Redentor which has been a lifelong dream. I always thought I´d do the arms out pose in front of it. Then when I got there, I realized that everyone doing that is completely ridiculous. I kept hoping big stone jesus would kinda swat them off the mountain. Off to Salvador..aka..Bosnia.
Salvador de Bahia in the North of brazil was described to me as a wonderful relaxed atmosphere with a mix of African heritage and Brazilian tradition. Now it is a lovely mix of african culture and new brazilian traditions. However, wonderful relaxed atmosphere? Salvador made Rio at night seem like Disneyworld. Unknown to me, the bus that I took from the airport was held up at gunpoint the day before. At the same time I took it. It was held up again two days after I took it. You´d think maybe the tourist information desk lady would have helped me a little and let me know this? Nope. No doubt, she definitely has a promising career as a Navimag counter attendant. Before I was made aware of this safety issue, I took the liberty of walking basically through the entire city on foot on Sunday. I guess lucky for me, Sunday almost no one was out, and I´ve adopted a policy of walking fast when I´m alone and acting like I have somewhere to be. I duck into corner stores before I look at maps. It works, seriously. Salvador had some beautiful buildings, and nice beaches. But you are CONSTANTLY being hassled to buy necklaces from one of the billion people selling them. About 3 people in my hostel actually tried to nicely say no, and eventually were robbed by these necklace people. Salvador was the worst. And yeah, I know, people are gonna say "No, its amazing, blah blah blah blah" Good, go there, have fun. They have to rob someone to keep their economy going. Better you than me. So based on recommendations, I bit the bullet and dropped about 35 days worth of my budget on a plane flight from salvador de bahia to Bogota Columbia.
Bogota is everything that Salvador isn´t. It is incredibly safe. The people go out of their way to help you around. The museums are beautiful, you can walk around at night with little to no issue. There is also a restaurant called "Pita wok" which has the most delicious and healthy pitas on the face of the earth. Im staying at an incredible hostel called "the cranky croc" which has a beautiful tv room with a big screen and hd dvds. Its right near Monserrate, and all of the museums. The views in the soon to be posted pictures are from Monserrate. Beautiful. Breathtaking. The nightlife here is a lot of fun, I´ve learned to Salsa (which...I´m not terrible at. I´m a very poor dancer. But I´m a decent salsa dancer. (shut up sam (Sam is my college roomate who can dance quite well, and is currently shaking his head thinking "there is no possible chance Dinesh is ANY good at any kind of dancing. Dinesh dancing looks like a fish riding a bicycle.")))
I´ve rediscovered reading on this trip, which comes at quite a price. You see english books in South America are a commodity. Strike that, english books that aren´t about a passionate love affairs struck down by conniving socialites are a commodity. I´m pretty sure Anne Rice has exclusive rights to sell all english books in South America. So what that means is that if you search for an english bookstore, you´ll find a small section with 2 books worth reading, marked up at about 150%. So after plopping down 25 dollars US for Obama´s "The Audacity of Hope" (a MUST read) while reading on the back of the book "Price $6.99 US" and another 40 dollars for "The World is Flat" I´ve decided I really like reading again. Its quite inspirational. Getting me to the title of this post. I have been scouring itunes for good background, don´t pay attention to it, reading music. I´ve come to find, this music is Amy Winehouse. Make fun of me, say I´m a loser, but Back to Black is perfect reading music. I´m going to go so far as to say it´s a really good album. There. I said it. I feel a lot better.
Two days ago I was accidentally involved in a huge student protest. There are pictures and video on the link. It was incredible. It was halfway through reading Obama´s book which made me feel pretty awesome about free speech and demonstration and the will of the people. I joined in for a little bit. It was a blast. The police were actually pretty chill about everything. They were protesting a rise in tuition prices at the Universities. Why aren´t US students doing this? Colombia is actually becoming quite the progressive society.
Anyway, thats what I´ve been up to. Sorry Mom, Buenos Aires pictures are on my other memory card, which is in my bag back at the hostel. I´ll upload them next time. New pics are of Rio, Salvador, and Bogota. Hope you like, hope you are all well.
Soooo, I went from El calafate (the glaciar), about...a month ago, to Buenos Aires Argentina. Buenos Aires, is a fantastic, beautiful city. Except it is full of vampires. Honestly, the hours that argentinians choose to live their lives HAD to be picked by throwing darts at a dartboard. "Ughh...okay. So we are going to eat dinner at 10pm, then go out till 5 am. Well get up at 10am, work till 1, then have a 4 hour nappy time, then work till about 7. How does that sound? Good? People like that? Evita what do you say? You´re down? Alright, perfect, on to making steak cheaper than lettuce..." Its completely backwards. On the positive side, the rumor about 3 dollar steaks the size of your calf are true. That was incredible. My time in BA consisted of joining a gym, going to said gym, exploring the city a little, and watching TONS of TV. Aaron and I had rented an apartment which turned out to be beautiful. It was extremely spacious, with a large back patio, 2 full bathrooms, about 4 bedrooms. It was awesome. And...maybe most important of all, a washing machine, and a big couch with cable tv. When travelling from hostel to hostel, you come to really miss lying in your boxers on a big couch watching sports, movies, etc. You just dont get to do it. I mean you can try, but they´re always like "put on some pants" or "dude, come on, we´re gonna watch the bridget jones diary." Now I´ll sit through bridget jones, but who wants to wear pants on a saturday. Not this guy. So after sort of regaining myself, working out a little, taking a few weeks of spanish, the month of May had flown by. While in BA I got a chance to go see a Boca Juniors soccer game which was pretty interesting. Its like being at a football game. Except everyone cares. Well thats not true, the awesome section was there to get drunk. But a lot of people cared. Still has nothing on a good bills tailgate. If you find yourself in BA, or Clean cheap NYC as I like to think of it, go to a steakhouse called La Cabrera. Everyone will tell you this. And you´re going to think "I don´t want to go there, everyone is going there, its going to be sooooo touristy." Stop being an idiot. It´s amazing. You always do this! You miss out on good things, because you want to be the non touristy tourist! You pulled this same move in Guam!
So yeah, La Cabrera has the greatest steak in the world. And with an appetizer that could feed St. Louis, and a couple bottles of wine, your dinner will come out to about 25 dollars US.
After embarrasing myself learning how to tango, and a beautiful city tour which I should have taken the first day there, but instead took on the last (I knowwww mommmm, you told me to do it the first day....I KNOWWWW) I headed up to Iguazu falls. I stopped in a place called Rosario. The amount of time I have allotted to Rosario is about the amount of time Rosario deserves. So anyway, I´m on to Iguazu falls, a nice little town of nothing. Played a mud soccer game which stained my feet for about the next week, and ate delicious barbecue. Everyone you ask before you see the falls say "they are amazing" which means your immediate mental reaction has to be "They are probably ok, you are probably just an idiot who gets too excited over things." Then you go to the falls, they are amazing, and you return and tell everyone how amazing they are, and they think you are an idiot. It´s a vicious cycle.
From there headed up to Rio de Janeiro, which from all accounts you would think is about as safe as having the name Dinesh and trying to get on an airplane. People make you think that if you have anything in your pockets, the locals will see it with their x-ray vision and hold you up with one of the 12 weapons they are carrying on them. Rio is beautiful, and if you don´t stay in the wrong parts of the city, quite safe. I stayed in a neighborhood called Botafoga. It has its own small beach, a 10 minute walk to copacabana beach, and 20 minute bus ride to Ipanema. The trade off is that I got to walk around at night, and go have beers on the street there, while the people staying in Ipanema would lock themselves into hostel compounds at sunset. Anyway, Rio ruled. Met an awesome group of fun people at a dive hostel, enjoyed the beaches, and finally stood in front of Cristo Redentor which has been a lifelong dream. I always thought I´d do the arms out pose in front of it. Then when I got there, I realized that everyone doing that is completely ridiculous. I kept hoping big stone jesus would kinda swat them off the mountain. Off to Salvador..aka..Bosnia.
Salvador de Bahia in the North of brazil was described to me as a wonderful relaxed atmosphere with a mix of African heritage and Brazilian tradition. Now it is a lovely mix of african culture and new brazilian traditions. However, wonderful relaxed atmosphere? Salvador made Rio at night seem like Disneyworld. Unknown to me, the bus that I took from the airport was held up at gunpoint the day before. At the same time I took it. It was held up again two days after I took it. You´d think maybe the tourist information desk lady would have helped me a little and let me know this? Nope. No doubt, she definitely has a promising career as a Navimag counter attendant. Before I was made aware of this safety issue, I took the liberty of walking basically through the entire city on foot on Sunday. I guess lucky for me, Sunday almost no one was out, and I´ve adopted a policy of walking fast when I´m alone and acting like I have somewhere to be. I duck into corner stores before I look at maps. It works, seriously. Salvador had some beautiful buildings, and nice beaches. But you are CONSTANTLY being hassled to buy necklaces from one of the billion people selling them. About 3 people in my hostel actually tried to nicely say no, and eventually were robbed by these necklace people. Salvador was the worst. And yeah, I know, people are gonna say "No, its amazing, blah blah blah blah" Good, go there, have fun. They have to rob someone to keep their economy going. Better you than me. So based on recommendations, I bit the bullet and dropped about 35 days worth of my budget on a plane flight from salvador de bahia to Bogota Columbia.
Bogota is everything that Salvador isn´t. It is incredibly safe. The people go out of their way to help you around. The museums are beautiful, you can walk around at night with little to no issue. There is also a restaurant called "Pita wok" which has the most delicious and healthy pitas on the face of the earth. Im staying at an incredible hostel called "the cranky croc" which has a beautiful tv room with a big screen and hd dvds. Its right near Monserrate, and all of the museums. The views in the soon to be posted pictures are from Monserrate. Beautiful. Breathtaking. The nightlife here is a lot of fun, I´ve learned to Salsa (which...I´m not terrible at. I´m a very poor dancer. But I´m a decent salsa dancer. (shut up sam (Sam is my college roomate who can dance quite well, and is currently shaking his head thinking "there is no possible chance Dinesh is ANY good at any kind of dancing. Dinesh dancing looks like a fish riding a bicycle.")))
I´ve rediscovered reading on this trip, which comes at quite a price. You see english books in South America are a commodity. Strike that, english books that aren´t about a passionate love affairs struck down by conniving socialites are a commodity. I´m pretty sure Anne Rice has exclusive rights to sell all english books in South America. So what that means is that if you search for an english bookstore, you´ll find a small section with 2 books worth reading, marked up at about 150%. So after plopping down 25 dollars US for Obama´s "The Audacity of Hope" (a MUST read) while reading on the back of the book "Price $6.99 US" and another 40 dollars for "The World is Flat" I´ve decided I really like reading again. Its quite inspirational. Getting me to the title of this post. I have been scouring itunes for good background, don´t pay attention to it, reading music. I´ve come to find, this music is Amy Winehouse. Make fun of me, say I´m a loser, but Back to Black is perfect reading music. I´m going to go so far as to say it´s a really good album. There. I said it. I feel a lot better.
Two days ago I was accidentally involved in a huge student protest. There are pictures and video on the link. It was incredible. It was halfway through reading Obama´s book which made me feel pretty awesome about free speech and demonstration and the will of the people. I joined in for a little bit. It was a blast. The police were actually pretty chill about everything. They were protesting a rise in tuition prices at the Universities. Why aren´t US students doing this? Colombia is actually becoming quite the progressive society.
Anyway, thats what I´ve been up to. Sorry Mom, Buenos Aires pictures are on my other memory card, which is in my bag back at the hostel. I´ll upload them next time. New pics are of Rio, Salvador, and Bogota. Hope you like, hope you are all well.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Eeyore, Navimag, and Jackass.
Now this is the exact reason blogs are so stupid. I looked back to see where I left off, and it was literally forever ago. If you took the quantity forever, doubled it and added 55, thats the last time I wrote something significant on here. Hopefully you enjoyed pictures. I´m not going to be able to recount everything thats happened since, but i´ll do my best to note some highlights.
My travels have taken the following path.....Iquique (where i was last post)-La Serena-Vicuna-Coquimbo-Valparaiso-Santiago-Valdivia-Pucon-Puerto Montt-Punta Arenas-Puerto Natales.
I arrived in Puerto Natales yesterday after flying to Punta Arenas from Puerto Montt. This was not my original intention. I originally planned on taking a 4 day 3 night boat trip from PM to PN. Ah yes, this was a fun set of events.
Rumor had it that this boat trip, pending good weather, was incredible. I had been told by a british couple (seldom reliable) and a french girl (never reliable) that the boats left once a week. They were mixed cargo/passenger boats where for about 350 dollars US you could get a bunk and three meals a day. The views were supposed to be quite breath-taking. Recalling my encounter with the "breath-taking" sport of bodyboarding, I took this with a grain of salt. Actually a few grains of salt..some peppers, onions, tomato and steak. It was a pretty delicious dinner. But I digress...
Taking this advice I did some online research and looked in my guidebook, and yes, they were correct the boat left from Puerto Montt on Mondays at 4pm and arrived in Puerto Natales on Friday around 10am. I was in luck, as this was the beginning of low season, the price had dropped to 300 dollars. Including all meals, this was expensive but not a budget breaker. So although I had planned on heading from Pucon to Puerto Montt thursday night, I instead opted to stick around and go mountain biking Friday, and left saturday Afternoon. When I got into Puerto Montt I went to a Navimag (the company that runs the boat) office and asked the lady what time the boat would leave on monday. She told me that it would be best to check in monday morning, since sometimes the boats were delayed by weather. On sunday I checked the website, and it said that the boat had in fact been delayed and to call the phone number. When I called, they said that they hadn´t updated the website, but the boat was back on schedule. Sweet. Cruise me. Monday morning and I´m STOKED. Gonna get on this boat, sail the high seas, or lakes, or whatever they wanted. Didn´t care, out of my hands. Skip on down to the navimag office. This is where details become important. I walk up to the SAME LADY I SPOKE TO ON SATURDAY and in a fashion somewhat similar to a 12 year old girl buying the last ticket to high school musical 3, say "I´ll take a ticket on the boat please." "You are early" she says back. I know...it doesn´t leave till 4, I didn´t want to buy the ticket at 3:59. She responds "alright, well the boat leaves friday at 4pm, make sure to check in at noon, Cash or credit." (mind you, this is all in spanish. She said a lot of things...this is what I got. Boiled down.) Hold on...back up. Friday? But you told me....but the books said...but the website said..."Oh yeah, this is the first week of the new schedule. Now we leave on Friday." Dinesh "But, when I asked you on saturday, you said it left on monday." Lady "well, last week it did leave on monday..." Yes...I realize this, but last week monday was already 5 days past. That information isn´t really all the applicable now is it? Maybe I asked incorrectly, I mean my spanish isn´t amazing. Yes..Maybe I accidentally asked "excuse, i´m sorry, but if I want to travel backwards in time and take the boat that left 5 days ago, what time would I need to be here"...very possible. Anyway, there was glass between us. Thick glass. Apparently Navimag has had this situation before.
So i´ll fly. I walk around for a while looking for a tourist office and ask them how much it will cost to fly. After they try and sell me a few packages, I leave and go online. I buy a ticket to Punta Arenas, but it won´t accept my credit card. Its 12:47pm and it says that I´m booked on the 5pm flight pending I go to the Lan office and pay for the ticket beforehand. No problem. I´ve seen the LAN office. Its only a couple miles away...stroll up to the office. Its 1:04. Typically ´not an issue. OH WAIT, latin american NAPPY TIME. EVERYTHING closes from 1-3pm. Everything. South Americans have their own circadian rhythm. At 1pm, their bodies literally stop functioning and they fall asleep. On the spot. That or the cocaine they use to talk to fast finally wears off. Nope, can´t work for 2 hours. Want to, but can´t. Nappy time. I asked a guy at one point what most chileans do during that time period. His response "facebook". So I head off to mcdonalds and grab a double cheeseburger to make it all better. It only had one pattie, but that was fine, it was probably the most delicious cheeseburger i´ve ever had. Go to the hostal, get my things, and head back to the Lan office. I get there at 2:55, and set up shop. They are all inside, sitting at their desks, as a line starts to form behind me. They have a big clock on the wall with the time prominently displayed. The line continues to form, and they keep looking at the clock, even as 3pm comes and goes. At 3:10, they open the doors. I walk up to the lady at the desk, who promptly points back towards the door. Ah, yes, I forgot to take a number. My fault. Walk back, take a number...she calls my number immediately. It was like something out of a movie. I explain the situation, and she resolves it, albeit, very slowly. At one point she even says "Oh, your flight is at 5, you better hurry!" Yeah...ya think? Glad I got to watch you paint your nails till 3:10...thats making it very easy to hurry. We finish up at 3:45, and i run to the bus terminal about a mile away. I get there just in time to catch the bus to the airport. Arrive at 425, check in, fly into punta arenas. All in all, worked out alright. But it sure wasn´t easy. Lesson learned: Don´t trust anyone. They will lie to you, and you will miss the boat."
Television is hilarious here. More hilarious than the keyboards. ¿Ç€. booyah. So yeah, television is completely unedited here. And apparently, South Americans don´t think that tv images or violence will have ANY effect on their youth. Which has been shown to be true, since it is a well known fact that there isn´t a drug problem in south america. I am making these comments based on the general opinion here on 1)Violent bus movies and 2) Jackass.
1. On bus rides over two hours they will typically show a movie. This is nice. Even when its an 18 hour trip, and they have purchased the spanish dubbed "Top Speed" five pack, so you are forced to watch the fast and the furious, 2 fast 2 furious, the fast and the furious 3 tokyo drift, torque, and some other motorcycle movie. In a row. Without any english subtitles. (Luckily, I know all 3 fast and furious´ by heart thanks to Timmy´s love of all three. Props buddy. I was reciting lines to myself.) However, you figure that they would show movies appropriate for all ages.
Nope.
On a recent bus trip I was able to watch the movie scarface. This was sweet, I really like the movie scarface. However, so did the six year old kid across the aisle from me, also watching scarface. Now i´m not saying video games make people violent, or movies for that matter. But a six year old kid watching Tony montana blow lines and kill people with a machine gun, I don´t know about that. This kid was STUCK on the movie. Like I said, good thing south america doesn´t have a drug problem.....
Jackass. South Americans LOVE jackass. For those not familiar its a stunt show on MTV where people do ridiculous, and often painful stunts. (ie. kick each other in the groin, shoot themselves off docks on rockets). Its hilarious. To a 12-30 year old dude it is hilarious.
NOPE, WRONG AGAIN.
Here, jackass is a family event. South Americans sit down to watch jackass like your family might sit down around christmas to watch Its a Wonderful Life. It was on last night in the family run hostel where I am staying, and the father actually went upstairs and woke up one of the daughters who I presume had been sleeping, so that everyone could sit and watch jackass. It was beyond amusing.
So today is my birthday. Wheeeee, Im a quarter century old. grand. Although if you asked me a year or two ago where I thought I´d be on my twenty fifth birthday, Patagonia Chile probably wouldn´t have been my first response. If you told me that I´d be blogging in Patagonia Chile on my 25th birthday, I´d probably have punched you in the face and said blogs are stupid. Talk about your all time hypocrites.
I had an eeyore moment yesterday, as it was raining pretty hard, and it was dark and cloudy. I basically was walking through the town square and realized that for the first time in a very long time I wasn´t going to be with my friends and family for my birthday. I had a small pity party thinking no one would remember my birthday. That was a little sad. However, a lot of people remembered my birthday, even being all the way down here, and that made me really really happy. (thanks everyone for the cards, messages, emails. You guys are great) And better yet, I woke up and it was a beautiful day with the sun shining. Its been a good chance to reflect on things, making this probably one of my best birthdays yet. Ive thought a lot about where I´m at, where I want to be, where I want my life to go, and how to go about doing that. I realized that I´ve learned a lot in life, and its mostly been from all of you, so thank you for that, I appreciate it a lot. Came to the conclusion that nothing makes more sense that doing something you love, being in a place you are happy and being around people you care about. No earth shaking revelations here, but important thoughts all the same. Lessons learned? Fruit tastes way better when it is cut up. Exponentially better if someone else cuts it up for you. A smile can make a terrible day better. Don´t leave your clean clothes on the foot of you bed before you go to sleep. I can grow a sweet beard now. Ferris Bueller says it best, "Life moves pretty fast, if you don´t stop and look around every once in a while you could miss it."
Heading on a 4 day trek through patagonia tomorrow. Forecast is for rain, and temps of 35 during the day and 25 at night. Pretttyyyyy excitttedddddd. Well see how it goes.
Miss you all, thanks again for the birthday love.
My travels have taken the following path.....Iquique (where i was last post)-La Serena-Vicuna-Coquimbo-Valparaiso-Santiago-Valdivia-Pucon-Puerto Montt-Punta Arenas-Puerto Natales.
I arrived in Puerto Natales yesterday after flying to Punta Arenas from Puerto Montt. This was not my original intention. I originally planned on taking a 4 day 3 night boat trip from PM to PN. Ah yes, this was a fun set of events.
Rumor had it that this boat trip, pending good weather, was incredible. I had been told by a british couple (seldom reliable) and a french girl (never reliable) that the boats left once a week. They were mixed cargo/passenger boats where for about 350 dollars US you could get a bunk and three meals a day. The views were supposed to be quite breath-taking. Recalling my encounter with the "breath-taking" sport of bodyboarding, I took this with a grain of salt. Actually a few grains of salt..some peppers, onions, tomato and steak. It was a pretty delicious dinner. But I digress...
Taking this advice I did some online research and looked in my guidebook, and yes, they were correct the boat left from Puerto Montt on Mondays at 4pm and arrived in Puerto Natales on Friday around 10am. I was in luck, as this was the beginning of low season, the price had dropped to 300 dollars. Including all meals, this was expensive but not a budget breaker. So although I had planned on heading from Pucon to Puerto Montt thursday night, I instead opted to stick around and go mountain biking Friday, and left saturday Afternoon. When I got into Puerto Montt I went to a Navimag (the company that runs the boat) office and asked the lady what time the boat would leave on monday. She told me that it would be best to check in monday morning, since sometimes the boats were delayed by weather. On sunday I checked the website, and it said that the boat had in fact been delayed and to call the phone number. When I called, they said that they hadn´t updated the website, but the boat was back on schedule. Sweet. Cruise me. Monday morning and I´m STOKED. Gonna get on this boat, sail the high seas, or lakes, or whatever they wanted. Didn´t care, out of my hands. Skip on down to the navimag office. This is where details become important. I walk up to the SAME LADY I SPOKE TO ON SATURDAY and in a fashion somewhat similar to a 12 year old girl buying the last ticket to high school musical 3, say "I´ll take a ticket on the boat please." "You are early" she says back. I know...it doesn´t leave till 4, I didn´t want to buy the ticket at 3:59. She responds "alright, well the boat leaves friday at 4pm, make sure to check in at noon, Cash or credit." (mind you, this is all in spanish. She said a lot of things...this is what I got. Boiled down.) Hold on...back up. Friday? But you told me....but the books said...but the website said..."Oh yeah, this is the first week of the new schedule. Now we leave on Friday." Dinesh "But, when I asked you on saturday, you said it left on monday." Lady "well, last week it did leave on monday..." Yes...I realize this, but last week monday was already 5 days past. That information isn´t really all the applicable now is it? Maybe I asked incorrectly, I mean my spanish isn´t amazing. Yes..Maybe I accidentally asked "excuse, i´m sorry, but if I want to travel backwards in time and take the boat that left 5 days ago, what time would I need to be here"...very possible. Anyway, there was glass between us. Thick glass. Apparently Navimag has had this situation before.
So i´ll fly. I walk around for a while looking for a tourist office and ask them how much it will cost to fly. After they try and sell me a few packages, I leave and go online. I buy a ticket to Punta Arenas, but it won´t accept my credit card. Its 12:47pm and it says that I´m booked on the 5pm flight pending I go to the Lan office and pay for the ticket beforehand. No problem. I´ve seen the LAN office. Its only a couple miles away...stroll up to the office. Its 1:04. Typically ´not an issue. OH WAIT, latin american NAPPY TIME. EVERYTHING closes from 1-3pm. Everything. South Americans have their own circadian rhythm. At 1pm, their bodies literally stop functioning and they fall asleep. On the spot. That or the cocaine they use to talk to fast finally wears off. Nope, can´t work for 2 hours. Want to, but can´t. Nappy time. I asked a guy at one point what most chileans do during that time period. His response "facebook". So I head off to mcdonalds and grab a double cheeseburger to make it all better. It only had one pattie, but that was fine, it was probably the most delicious cheeseburger i´ve ever had. Go to the hostal, get my things, and head back to the Lan office. I get there at 2:55, and set up shop. They are all inside, sitting at their desks, as a line starts to form behind me. They have a big clock on the wall with the time prominently displayed. The line continues to form, and they keep looking at the clock, even as 3pm comes and goes. At 3:10, they open the doors. I walk up to the lady at the desk, who promptly points back towards the door. Ah, yes, I forgot to take a number. My fault. Walk back, take a number...she calls my number immediately. It was like something out of a movie. I explain the situation, and she resolves it, albeit, very slowly. At one point she even says "Oh, your flight is at 5, you better hurry!" Yeah...ya think? Glad I got to watch you paint your nails till 3:10...thats making it very easy to hurry. We finish up at 3:45, and i run to the bus terminal about a mile away. I get there just in time to catch the bus to the airport. Arrive at 425, check in, fly into punta arenas. All in all, worked out alright. But it sure wasn´t easy. Lesson learned: Don´t trust anyone. They will lie to you, and you will miss the boat."
Television is hilarious here. More hilarious than the keyboards. ¿Ç€. booyah. So yeah, television is completely unedited here. And apparently, South Americans don´t think that tv images or violence will have ANY effect on their youth. Which has been shown to be true, since it is a well known fact that there isn´t a drug problem in south america. I am making these comments based on the general opinion here on 1)Violent bus movies and 2) Jackass.
1. On bus rides over two hours they will typically show a movie. This is nice. Even when its an 18 hour trip, and they have purchased the spanish dubbed "Top Speed" five pack, so you are forced to watch the fast and the furious, 2 fast 2 furious, the fast and the furious 3 tokyo drift, torque, and some other motorcycle movie. In a row. Without any english subtitles. (Luckily, I know all 3 fast and furious´ by heart thanks to Timmy´s love of all three. Props buddy. I was reciting lines to myself.) However, you figure that they would show movies appropriate for all ages.
Nope.
On a recent bus trip I was able to watch the movie scarface. This was sweet, I really like the movie scarface. However, so did the six year old kid across the aisle from me, also watching scarface. Now i´m not saying video games make people violent, or movies for that matter. But a six year old kid watching Tony montana blow lines and kill people with a machine gun, I don´t know about that. This kid was STUCK on the movie. Like I said, good thing south america doesn´t have a drug problem.....
Jackass. South Americans LOVE jackass. For those not familiar its a stunt show on MTV where people do ridiculous, and often painful stunts. (ie. kick each other in the groin, shoot themselves off docks on rockets). Its hilarious. To a 12-30 year old dude it is hilarious.
NOPE, WRONG AGAIN.
Here, jackass is a family event. South Americans sit down to watch jackass like your family might sit down around christmas to watch Its a Wonderful Life. It was on last night in the family run hostel where I am staying, and the father actually went upstairs and woke up one of the daughters who I presume had been sleeping, so that everyone could sit and watch jackass. It was beyond amusing.
So today is my birthday. Wheeeee, Im a quarter century old. grand. Although if you asked me a year or two ago where I thought I´d be on my twenty fifth birthday, Patagonia Chile probably wouldn´t have been my first response. If you told me that I´d be blogging in Patagonia Chile on my 25th birthday, I´d probably have punched you in the face and said blogs are stupid. Talk about your all time hypocrites.
I had an eeyore moment yesterday, as it was raining pretty hard, and it was dark and cloudy. I basically was walking through the town square and realized that for the first time in a very long time I wasn´t going to be with my friends and family for my birthday. I had a small pity party thinking no one would remember my birthday. That was a little sad. However, a lot of people remembered my birthday, even being all the way down here, and that made me really really happy. (thanks everyone for the cards, messages, emails. You guys are great) And better yet, I woke up and it was a beautiful day with the sun shining. Its been a good chance to reflect on things, making this probably one of my best birthdays yet. Ive thought a lot about where I´m at, where I want to be, where I want my life to go, and how to go about doing that. I realized that I´ve learned a lot in life, and its mostly been from all of you, so thank you for that, I appreciate it a lot. Came to the conclusion that nothing makes more sense that doing something you love, being in a place you are happy and being around people you care about. No earth shaking revelations here, but important thoughts all the same. Lessons learned? Fruit tastes way better when it is cut up. Exponentially better if someone else cuts it up for you. A smile can make a terrible day better. Don´t leave your clean clothes on the foot of you bed before you go to sleep. I can grow a sweet beard now. Ferris Bueller says it best, "Life moves pretty fast, if you don´t stop and look around every once in a while you could miss it."
Heading on a 4 day trek through patagonia tomorrow. Forecast is for rain, and temps of 35 during the day and 25 at night. Pretttyyyyy excitttedddddd. Well see how it goes.
Miss you all, thanks again for the birthday love.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Here they are
Alright, so I finally found a computer with picasa and a decent connection. So after 4 hours of people in this hostel glaring at me for being on the computer so long....here they are. They are out of order...no video...but if you want to waste some time, here are like 500 shots of South America thus far. Hope you like. Its been wild.
 |
| South America Pictures March 1st to April 18th |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)