Punta Arenas

So it’s time to leave Ushuaia. I am not going to get a boat to Punta Arenas but neither I’m going to pedal over my steps all the way so I’m on a bus. Luck wants that I am joined by a very nice companion in my travels and then eventually by a second, but more on this to follow.

The first part of the trip is rather sweet with me and Andrea (first companion), a Swiss girl from San Galen, chit chatting on how we got where we are and what we’re doing next. By the time we get to Tolhuin, remember the place with the bakery, the bus is making rather strange noises and we pull over into a filling station.

20160130_101211
This did not look good
20160130_115739
This looked worse.

We were there for quite some time, not really sure how long, but no less than a couple of hours I’d say.

Luckily they fix it which mean than then are on the move. Had we known we could have taken a little wonder to the panaderia, at the very least to say hola to Sebastian.

The scenery has not improved since the lat time I was  around these parts, the bus does not stop in Rio Grande so the following stop is the border with Chile. As usual the Argentinian one is fast and the Chilean is excruciatingly slow, I recon we lost another hour here.

The route now is “ripio” i.e. no tarmac. Andrea manages to sleep but I kept getting waken up by the bouncing of the bus. By now we have made acquaintance with Patrick an Australian with Chilean ascendency who is part over to visit family part to tour. Sadly he’s sleeping too.

20160130_181547
I cannot believe she could sleep through that.
20160130_193927
A culpeo or zorro culpeo that came to see us embarc

In another couple of hours of pain we get to the boat and from there things are quite simple.

20160130_194942
Patrick and Andrea on the boat.

After the boat it’s tarmac and, fortunately no borders, I’ll be in Chile for a while now. The final straw in the set of misadventures is that the top hatch of the bus had, against the advice of the conductor, been opened and it does  not close anymore now. It’s getting late and, well, colder.

Some people have left and the three of us are now together chatting away the reminder of the time. We get into Punta Arenas at 10:30 PM having left at 8:00 AM, not the best of passages.

20160131_101144
They make monuments to petrolium down here

I’m staying in an hostel at the border of town, a rather cool one. The feel is very international and it’s easy to chat up people and I eventually do so with Clelia a cool ex CNR biology researcher from Como now turned cook and traveler. We had a great chat about our life experience and in particular how it is difficult to communicate to the generation above, in Italy, a choice of life that goes against the grain. Turns out I’m very much not alone in my predicament.

20160131_153140
Magellan strait.

I’m going to be in town for two days before heading out with the bike and I make the most of it by going first exploring with the bicycle and then on foot.

20160131_154014
Cool murales on the channel front.
20160131_154817
Statue to the “Liberador de la patria”. The guy is called O’Higgins, perhaps Irish.
20160131_155222
Some serious cable work difficult to see in Europe.
20160131_155619
the Chilean flag is very nice.
20160201_120400
At these prices I am considering buying one and loading it on the bicycle.
20160201_121827
This is what a protest should be like.
20160201_122924
Somo todos Daniela

Somo todos Daniela (http://laprensaaustral.cl/cronica/magallanicos-protestan-porque-isapre-se-niega-a-cubrir-tratamiento-de-cancer-de-daniela-soto/)

20160201_125329
Dancing Tango in the street
20160201_125529
El condor, the national bird.

After I manage to spend some money in comms (Chilean SIM) and a pair of hiking shoes, just in case I decide to go walking between here and Buenos Aires, I get back to the hostel and get down to the task of catching up with the blog. I’ve been not as good as last year with it, I think all these people I meet are definitely a distraction from the writing. I think things will get better from tomorrow.

20160201_140813
Prospective

The last stop on the way is the Monumental cemetery of Punta Arena. Very interesting especially the noticing how many different ethnic groups are represented in it.

20160201_140532
Italian Brotherhood, I thought it was called differently 🙂

 

 

I’m leaving on the bike tomorrow morning and I recon it should take me three days to get to Puerto Nadales. I still have not received any response from possible WorkAway hosts there so it sounds like i’ll be holidaying again rather than working, never mind, I can do with the riding.