I blew into Chile yesterday, quite literally. I scambled to the bus station a little before the scheduled departure to Punta Arenas. They had told me the day before the bus was sold out but I was hoping for come cancellations or no shows. Luckily, I think that was exactly what happened as I was quickly sold a ticket. The journey took 8 hours, mainly through the desolate unihabited grasslands of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. Part of the journey was a 30 minute ferry ride across one of the narrowest portions of the Straight of Magellan. The winds at the Argentina/Chile border were fierce, a constant 50-60 miles per hour. Poor old ladies were getting knocked down.
Punta Arenas is a very pleasant city. The central plaze has nice mature trees and the center of the plaza contains a large statue of Magellan himself. Legend says if you touch his toe you will return to Punta Arenas again someday. It is by far the largest city in Patagonia, with about 120, 000 citizens. I booked a Penguin sightseeing boat trip this mornning. It departs at 7am Thursday and it is done a smallish zodiac type boat, maybe 20 feet in length. The colony I am going to see supposedly hosts 120,000 penguins this time of year so it should be quite a sight. One side note about this trip, I booked quite an expensive tour, a lot more than I wanted to spend party because I got confused converting the Chilean Peso to dollars. Chile is one of those countries with rediculously high currency values, approx 500 to the dollar. (Not as bad as Vietnam but still, couldn´t they just change it to 5 and be done with it?) Anyways, I thought I was paying about $30 but it ended up being $60!!! Yikes! Maybe it is good though, the other tour operator going to this colony only charges about $35 but they use a huge boat with lots of people and hopefully my extra cash will by me a closer and more unique experience.
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