Patagonia

On Nov. 22nd at 1am we caught a flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas.

Punta Arenas is in the far south of Chile, in Patagonia. It's cold there. About 45 during the day. We don't really have the gear for this type of weather and are reluctant to buy it for the week or two we'll be down here... so let the cold begin!

In Punta Arenas we had arranged another couch surfing, but our flight got in at 5am so we slept at a table in the airport until 9am, then took a taxi to Marcelo's house. He had a nice house and it was really warm! The use natural gas there, and it's a lot cheaper then petrol. The first day we went on a tour to Fuerte Bl....., which was the first fort established by the Spanish in the area, but was abandoned because it was so cold. The locals, natives called …...... , then took all the wood the fort was made with and used it for their fires. So the fort was rebuilt in the 1940's. It still looks really cool. That night Jesse made a beef stew with dumplings for us, and two other couch surfers that had just arrived. It was really good.

Then the next day we went for a hike in the hills over-looking the city. It was really beautiful, but really windy!

The next day we took a 12 our bus ride to Ushuaia, which is the southern-most city in the world. There are other towns, but not of any significant size. The bus had to cross on a ferry to the island Tierra Del Fuego, which is half Chilean territory and half Argentinian. We rolled into town about 9, but our couch surfing host was not home from work until 12:30! So we ate, then sat around at a cafe. Yep, tired! Our couch surfing host is Andres, a lively guy who is from Buenos Aires, but has lived here for 4 years and works at a hotel. His little apartment has this tiny loft that we are sharing with another couch surfer, Nitsan, from Isreal.
Ushuaia had a lot of Croatian immigrants after the area was colonized, and it reflects in the architecture, which gives the city, which is half surrounded by snowy mountains, a ski-resort in Switzerland feel. It's really cute, and really expensive! We can't afford to go on any boat tours, they are all about $80 each! Which is too bad. But we will go hiking tomorrow in the national park, which should be amazing. And today we went to a really great museum about the indigenous peoples the Selk'nam and Yamanas. They were amazing people who lived on the shores of the waters and lived off mussels, seals, whales, otters and guanacos. They didn't wear clothes, because the clothes they wore would get wet from the continual rains and would only make them colder. They would wrap themselves in huge animal skins and go about like that. It's astonishing to me they could survive with no clothes in the climate there!

The next day we took a 9km bus ride to the national park, Tierra del Fuego, which means Land of Fire. It was called that by earlier European invaders because as they sailed by, they would see all the fires from the indigenous people.
We went to the park with another girl who was couch surfing at the same house we were. Her name is Nitsan, and she's from Israel. The park is truly beautiful. Lush, damp, cloudy, snow-capped hills, thick forest. We were having a great time hiking along the coastal trail, when Nitsan slipped on a wood bridge and hurt her ankle. She couldn't walk. We had a passing tour guide radio to the rangers what had happened, and then Jesse piggybacked her to the beach. We weren't sure if help was coming, but we suspected it would. Passing tourists gave Nitsan asprin and candy for energy. She is only 22, and had just started her 8 month tour of South America. Finally a ranger came and waited with us until more rangers came with a body board to strap Nitsan too and carry her out. It was a long way! 3km, I think! Jesse helped to carry for awhile, until some beefy Spanish guys came by and offered to help. I was taking pictures on Nitsan's 35mm the whole time. They finally got her up to the road where and ambulance was waiting. When Jesse and I got back to the house later that day, she was lying in bed with a cast on her ankle. She had fractured one of the small bones on the outside and needed minor surgery the next day. Luckily, she wasn't in pain though. I felt sooo bad for her. She will probably have to go home, since she can't walk for 30 days and then can't strain in for another 30.

We made it out of Ushuaia the next morning on a 5am bus back to Punta Arenas, where we were spending another night with our couch surfer host, Marcelo, who we really liked, and then heading up to Torres del Paine, a very famous national park in Chilean Patagonia. I will write about that soon!

We've had limited internet access, since none of the couch surfing hosts have had internet! It's been pretty cold and wet here in Patagonia, even though it's Spring here. It reminds me a lot of England, Ireland, and the Isle of Man - always overcast and raining. There are also millions of sheep and cows to add! But it is just so beautiful here, that it's magical, and sucks you in and makes you want to stay. I just wish I was in better physical shape, so I could hike more!