On-the-Road Tales

I boarded a bus and went 3 hours north to Puerto Natales. The mountains loomed as we neared the town and I think I found where they took that photograph up top that I use as my border! I settled into my hostal and went off to downtown. This is the gateway to Torres Del Paine National Park. Home of infamous treks, camping, iceclimbing routes that attract outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world. I felt like I walked onto an REI photoshoot. Each person was dripping in North face, Columbia, Patagonia gear, goretexed to the hilt all with backpacks, nalgene bottles, trekking poles you name it. If they suddenly outlawed microfleece, this town would be naked. It was great. While most of the world wears this gear as a fashion statement – here it means survival. During the summer, now, the region can encounter winds in excess of 100 mph and snow is not uncommon. The weather changes rapidly and bitterly. When standing in the sun, it feels like there is a magnifying glass above your head intensifying the rays into your skin. In the next seconds, when the clouds roll in, you are getting beat with hailing ice pellets. The sun issue is due to a pesky little hole in the ozone layer – the UV is killer here and sunglasses are a must. This is the environment the clothes were designed for, hence named after, and people here test them to the limits. They are pretty hardcore, I love camping but one day in that park and hearing some stories of ice weighing down the tents, I thought twice about someday returning to trek. I broke out the fleece that has been occupying so much space in my bag, purchased a goofy earflappy knit hat at the market and was glad every minute for them. The cold water tap in the bathrooms must be siphoned right off some nearby glacier. It is so cold you have to yank back your hands at times and hope they are dry before you walk out the door.

I explored the town, stopped in at mass. My schedule is so screwed up I never know when it is Sunday or for that matter Friday and hence when I am not supposed to eat meat during Lent! I watched the sunset from a waterfront restaurant and tested out the local Salmon. I am a bit discriminating since the fresh atlantic Salmon in Donegal is hard to beat but it was not bad, a bit tougher like a tuna almost but tasty. Headed back to the Residencial to rest up for the next few days touring. My houselady warned me to take a shower the night before since stepping out into the morning with wet hair puts you at risk to it freezing! Lovely – I have to say, in all my days in the region, I was lucky to avoid the winds and had only one day of rain. The infamous windstorms are something I am okay missing out on.

The first thing I realize about Chileans – I can not understand a word they are saying. Just after finally after picking up on some of the portuguese verbs, wham I am back into spanish. Did I forget all my spanish already, is that what is going on? No when I speak they understand me, I just can not catch the rapid fire response they give me. After they repeat everything 3 times I can usually make out enough of it. With exhaustion kicking in, my other major obstacle is the money. There are 535 pesos for 1 dollar. First of all taking out hundreds of thousands of pesos form the ATM was wierd enough but then I was having extreme issues dealing with this conversion. Instead of $1.50, I gave the Naval museum attendant 15 cents and the internet lady 15$. Thankfully they were honest people and pointed out my errors. I explored town and figured out what to see in the next few days.

I went to La Luna for a bite. I ordered a big tasty Iceberg lettuce salad. Yum. You really miss salad when you can not have it. I could feel all the restaurant patrons staring at me as the waiter delivered my beverage. Was this chick crazy? Did she really just order a beer? Does she not realize we are in arguably the finest wine producing country on the planet and it is dead cheap? Yes, yes, I know but I always like to test out the local microbrews and I am a sucker for dark beer so I had to try it. Besides I had to banish from memory the taste of that brasilian syrupy oscuro and the Austral negra was not bad at all. These people take their wine very seriously. They even have a drink with wine and icecream, wine float? ewww. The supermarket is stocked with aisles of the stuff, 2-3$ a bottle. They also claim to have invented the Pisco Sour but I think I will leave that one to Peru.

Patagonia considers itself somewhat seperate since it is so far removed from the rest of Chile particularly the capital – it selfproclaims to be the Independent Republic of Magellenes due to its proximity to the Magellan strait. They have their own flag and all. The indeginous Indian population was wiped out to extinction after settlers arrived from slavery and disease. The English and Germans settled in the area 2 centuries ago to breed sheep. I was told there are so many lambs in the region that if you want one, you can take it you just must leave the wool behind. I thought this was a bit far fetched until a pickup rolled up with 5 or so de-skinned lambs legs up. No doubt off to the nearest 5 star for lamb roast.

Wrapped up mystay in Brasil with some errands, writing postcards at the 11th hour as usual and burning CDs of photos since I am already 1800 pictures in, my 7.5G of compact flash cards are not going to cut it. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Marcelo, Carolina and I headed 2 hours south to Sao Paulo for a cultural day. We stopped at the park to see a photo exhibit and I was a but hesitant about lunch. We were going for Japanese ... [Continue reading this entry]

Headed to lunch and had an incredible garlic carne fillet. I made the mistake of ordering a dark (oscuro) beer to try and it was just nasty. Sweet, like pure soda syrup. Of course Dononvan and Marcelo ... [Continue reading this entry]

Donovan met me at the security post at Embraer and I got signed in. I finally got to meet some of the people in his division who I had worked with for year by email and phone. We ... [Continue reading this entry]

Last day in the big city, U headed to the Cristo Redentor statue. This is the infamous icon you see on all the advertisements of Rio. You board an old cog train and go up through a mini ... [Continue reading this entry]

Rio´s metro system is easy and efficient and it dropped me a few blocks from Copacabana. Yes, 3 days technically speaking on a beach in the span of a week? Must be a record for me, the sun-shunner. ... [Continue reading this entry]

So, I hopped on a bus and headed north to the city known for Carnival and beaches. I heard sketchy things about Rio and was on guard like Lima but I am happy to report - not even a ... [Continue reading this entry]