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Boss Penguin and his boys breaking up a fightToday was mostly uneventful and spent as a transit day between Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas.  We almost missed our bus because we were squatting on the sidewalk outside one of the hostels using their internet connection to upload our journal entries.  It was down to the wire and finally we ran to the bus and made it just in time!  We settled in for the 3 hour journey down to Punta Arenas. 

When we arrived it was raining and we had to walk around to find a hotel that we thought was worth the money they were trying to charge. It took us about 5 hotels/hostels before we finally found one that had a nice room (Hotel Mercurio), and Mario talked them down to $50 from $88, since we have to leave at 6am tomorrow.  We were going to go to the Isla Magdalena to see the Penguins there (there are quite a bit - somewhere around 150k!) - but it was raining - and we had already seen a few penguins to make the 5 hour trip not worth it.  We grabbed a quick lunch and then spent the next few hours at an internet cafe (we've had a hard time getting any kind of connection in our rooms down here) to do some research on the next few cities - finding hotels, things to do, etc.  It was pretty frustrating using the internet - as the city lived up to what we've read - the internet connection comes and goes here at the end of the world - even at the larger internet cafes - oh well.   Later on, we had a small dinner at our hotel and will go to sleep early since we're getting up at 5:15am in order to eat and catch a ride to the airport.  Tomorrow -> Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Torres del Paine at sunrise
Final thoughts on Chile:

Food: Food in Chile didn't impress us too much overall.  We never felt like we got a good breakfast for our entire stay here - when there were eggs, they were extremely watery and slimy, but mostly we were served bread and jam :(  The one thing that was good was the availability of fresh seafood, which we enjoyed in Vina del Mar and in Patagonia.  They also serve a "chile" sauce (tomatoes, onions and spices) with the bread at dinner that is very tasty.  Pizza seemed to be very big on the Chilean menu - everyone was eating it and every corner had a Pizzeria.

 

Beer of Choice: We have 2 beers of choice - Cristal, for the Santiago area and Austral, for the Patagonia area. 

Los Cuernos from Lago Pehoe (on the Catamaran)Memories: figuring out how to drive without a map and no idea which way you're going and all the signs are in Spanish, internet in your hotel = you can use the phone to dial up if you have a modem, wine tastings cost more than a bottle of wine, crazy crowded beaches at Vina del Mar, submarines and battleships in the water off the beach, penguins trumpeting, trying to find a place to stay in Torres del Paine (and giving up to tenting it), hurricane-like winds and the tent caving in, heavy loaded down packs for camping, Torres del Paine at sunrise, eating 2 dinners after returning from our 3 nights of camping, sun setting late at it isn't dark until 11 pm!  

People: The people here didn't seem to take much time to want to get to know us or engage in conversation.  So many people smoke cigarettes here and smoking is still allowed in most places - even the airport terminal, work offices, hotel rooms and all restaurants (luckily for us it wasn't allowed on the bus!).  Outside of the cities, horses are still used by some to get around and I've seen quite a few cowboy-looking men with their horses along the road.  People here like to listen to a lot of old 80's music from the United States.

Economy:  Chile is one of Latin America's most developed countries.   Copper accounts for about 1/3 of the countries exports - with industrial goods account for another 1/3.   The services industry accounts for half of the countries GDP - and it's no surprise that the hotel costs are sharply higher compared to other Latin American countries (this was the most expensive place we have been so far - in terms of tourist costs).   In Patagonia, the economy seems to be driven by tourism and the adventure sports such as fly fishing, climbing and backpacking, in addition to fishing exports (too bad for Patagonia when the Panama Canal opened!).  Farming is also a significant part of the countries GDP - we saw quite a few sheep and cow ranches along the road. Santiago and the city areas seem very modern with a lot of businesses and commercial buildings.  Much of the central valley is centered on wine production and farming. 

Trumpeting Penguin at Otway SoundClimate (Janurary/Feburary): It's hard to sum up Chile's climate, since it spans much of the Western coast of South America.  Santiago and the central valley were hot, dry and sunny.  The coast had a more mild temperature, but when the sun was out, it could get pretty hot and very easy to get sunburned.  Patagonia is cool (especially considering it's the middle of summer!) with highs in the 60's and very unpredictable weather - we had a mix of rain + clouds, sun, and extremely powerful winds.

Exchange Rate: 1 US dollar = 530 Chilean Pesos

 

 

Recommendation to friends:

5 of 10 for Santiago area (the beaches and the wineries) - it was just too crowded on the beach, and the wineries really aren't set up to handle the type of touring that we were used to from visiting Napa so many times.   Big cities don't excite us - so we didn't even spend an hour in Santiago.

9 out of 10 for Patagonia - there is a lot to do there, if you are willing to put in a little work to figure it all out (the tour agencies are a little unorganized).  The range of activities can keep anyone with a passion for the outdoors occupied for some time, with cruises through the icebergs down to Antartica or the Straight of Magellan, viewing the penguin colonies, hiking and camping in Torres del Paine National Park, climbing in the Andes Mountains, or fishing in the many lakes and streams.

View Patagonia Photo Gallery

View Santiago and Vina Del Mar Photo Gallery

Day 39 - Puerto Natales < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 41 - Buenos Aires