From Patagonia to Chiloe

We arrived back to our couchsurfing host in Punta Arenas pretty late in the evening. There were three other couchsurfers there, all exchange students from the University of California. Marcelo fed us, then we stayed up late chatting with him. The next day Jesse made a pork chop parmesan dish for us all, then we headed back to Puerto Natalas on the 6pm bus. We got back and stayed in the same hostel as before. Our bus to El Calafate was at 8am and took 5 hours. We had to cross the border back into Argentina, which wasn't too bad since it isn't a high-traffic crossing. The landscape was flat with hills and mountains and tons of sheep. It felt very remote and huge.

El Calafate is very touristy, thus very expensive. It reminded me kind of a ski resort town in Colorado, just without the snow right now. It's full of wealthy American retirees on their package vacation. There are tons of artesan shops selling really cool stuff, and tons of tasty looking restaurants, so it was painful for me! We found a hostel and put our stuff down then went out to find lunch and money. All the ATM's were out of money! It took us about 3 banks before we found one with only $100 in it! Then we went to a restaurant and ate a pizza. We got back to the hostel and streamed the Packers game online. It was a pretty bad connection and was painful to watch, which sucks, because it was the best game of the season – they won with a field goal in the last few seconds of the game.

I slept in my sleeping bag on the bed because it was kind of shady place. In every place we check for bed bugs because Jesse had a bad experience with them in a hostel in Asia. We didn't see any. So we went to sleep. But at 5am Jesse woke up, turned on the light and said “Bed bugs.” And he was right. There were bed bugs everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean, at least 4 that I saw myself, which is a pretty bad infestation. They are really really tough bugs, who can live for a year without eating (sucking blood) and mate with their family members, so tend to reproduce rapidly. Every city has them, and they will eat and eat and eat. Jesse had at least 40 bites on his body. Bugs like him because he's got warm blood... maybe from those German and English genes of his. So we spent 2 and a half hours picking through our stuff looking for bugs. I found three. It was really gross. They are round and very black. They can't move fast, so it's easy to kill them. Then, at 7:30am, we left... we didn't tell the guy there were bed bugs and we didn't want to pay... because of course they would deny it and there would be an altercation.

So we were standing in the street at 7:30am not sure what to do. Jesse suggested another hostel that we saw which was only $6 a night, but I vetoed the cheap hostel idea immediately. We walked a couple blocks and stopped at the first place we saw, which was a house-hostel, not a hostel and was $15 a night each. We checked all of our stuff again for bugs, and the mattress, and went back to bed. That day at 1pm we had a tour of the Perito Moreno glacier in the national reserve.

We got to the park, which was an expensive one hour bus ride – about $50 each, then paid to get into the park, which was another $50. But the glacier was very very cool. We had 5 hours to hang out, which we thought was nuts, since it was just a chunk of ice, but it turned out to be almost perfect. The glacier was just so cool, and there was a winding platform of pathways. They had built metal walkways everywhere – I guess for in the winter, when snow and ice would make walking on the ground dangerous. We sat and ate sandwiches we'd made and watched the glacier do it's thing. You can hear it creaking and groaning, and then a chunk would fall off with a loud echo into the water. It was captivating! We wanted to see a huge chunk, but only small chunks fell. Jesse hopped the walkway and went down to the lake to feel the water. Some other guys had brought back a chunk of ice from the water, so we got to touch and taste millenia-old ice!

Finally the bus came back and we got on thankfully, since it was starting to get chilly. About 10 minutes into the ride the bus pulled over and the driver hopped out then hopped back in and yammering something in Spanish. We all looked blankly at him, so one of the Spanish-speaking tourists said in English, “The bus is broken. A new bus will come in one hour.” I was not super thrilled at this information, given our unfortunate incident with bed bugs that morning, and because it was already 8pm and by the time we would get back to town the grocery stores would be closed and we would have to either spend a lot of money on dinner in a restaurant, or eat just the 5 eggs we had with nothing else. So out we got, and within 10 seconds I saw a car coming around the corner and I stuck out my thumb and smiled big. They stopped, there was a guy and a girl and no one in the backseat. We told them our woe, and they said to jump in. They were a lovely couple, Lucille and Marcelo, from Brazil, tax lawyers, spoke English well, and were really pleasant company. They dropped us right in front of the grocery store and we thanked them profusely. Jesse made ravioli and garlic bread for dinner, and we shared it with the hotel manager lady.

The next day we were supposed to check out at 10, but since our bus was at 9pm, we pushed it to 11. We had nothing to do all day because there is nothing to do in El Calafate but eat and shop, and it sucked we couldn't hang out in our room... it was such a nice and quiet place. We walked around and visited a small park, but the wind was pretty bad that day, and then it got chilly. So we grabbed the computer and sat at a restaurant for about 3 hours. Then we went back to the hotel and asked if we could sit in the living room for 3 hours.

Our bus ride to Rio Antiguas was overnight and took 16 hours. There were tons of tourists on it. We met cousins, from Ireland. Chris had the thickest Irish accent I've ever heard and I could only understand about 70% of what he was saying. It was the weirdest thing! The road to Rio Antigues was only paved for about 3 hours in. All night we were on a gravel road, and the bus was alternating from hot to cold when the AC was turned on and off. It was pretty miserable. We finally made it to the Chilean border and had to take a little mini-van over the border to Chile Chico. Chile Chico is a cute town on this huge lake, and we had to wait a day and a half to get the ferry across. We are working our way north, to Chiloe. In Chile Chico we set up camp, and at the campsite ran into 2 Isrealis, 2 Americans, and 2 Germans. One of the Americans met the Irish cousins in the grocery store and invited them to share our asado (bbq) that night. So it was quiet a community! Everyone was so cool and we really enjoyed the company. One of the Americans, Trinity, is the girl who is walking up to Columbia with her two friends. The other American, Brad, is only 20 and is on the same University of California exchange that the kids in Punta Arenas are on. He's from Santa Barbara, and was coming our way too, so we have been traveling with him.

With 2 Irish and 2 German friends about to get on the ferry from Chile Chico

In Chile Chico we went on a small hike next to the lake. We jumped into the lake off of a rock and it was COLD! Like, painfully cold. I can't believe I let Jesse talk me into it! The lake was just so clear and blue, it was hard to resist. There were little islands just offshore that looked so cool, and it was such a shame the town did have kayak rentals or something!

We got to the other side of the lake on a 3 hour ferry from Chile Chico, then took a bus to Coyhaique. This region of Patagonia is called Aisen, and is absolutely beautiful. The most beautiful landscape in Chile, in my opinion. The road is called the Carretera Austral and is famous with travellers: cyclists, hitch-hikers, etc. It was so lush and green, with mountains, clear rivers, beautiful colorful Lupin flowers everywhere. Just so picturesque it was hard to believe it was real. Sheep and cows and horses everywhere, as well as sweet looking farm houses dotting the flat lands. At one point the bus stopped and a farmer ran out and brought the driver a big plastic Coke bottle of milk! The German couple was still with us at this point, and had arranged to work on a farm in exchange for food and board. Pretty cool!

We could only stay one night in Coyhaique because there was only one bus up north at 8am the next day. It had taken Brad a whole day at information desks to find a bus. It was a mini-van again, and we were the only tourists. The drive was again, simply stunning. There are so many reserves and parks in Patagonia, and we went through one. We saw another mini glacier on top of a mountain. We saw gringos cycling through as well, with their bikes loaded down with all their gear on either side. I can't imagine the stamina and strength it would take to do that! It was raining the whole time!

We weren't sure how to get to Chaiten, which is were the ferry to Chiloe was leaving from in 2 days. No one could tell us if there was a bus or what time. We transferred buses in another town and made it up to this road-side town called Santa Lucia, which was totally ugly and depressing and tiny. But where we found out that there was an 8am bus to Chaiten. We pitched our tents on the side of the road (literally) in the rain, ate salami and cheese and bread for dinner because there was no restaurant, then watched a movie on our laptop. It rained. And rained. And our tent leaked on the sides, where the cover didn't reach. Jesse's stuff got pretty soaked, but mine seemed okay. Packing up the tent in the morning, however, was not a good time at all.

We arrived in Chaiten and found a nice hostel and slept all day, then Jesse made pasta and chicken and we watched the Packer game of course. Chaiten is right next to the volcano that erupted last March, and it was covered in ash. There were houses mid-high in ash. It was really crazy.

Now we are on the ferry to Chiloe. It's huge and pretty comfortable. It's supposed to take us 5 hours to get to Chiloe! But at least it isn't raining and the scenery is beautiful. 

Next blog: Chiloe (which means"land of seagulls")