Day 140: January 2, 2008 Río Gallegos-P. Arenas

  Punta Arenas, Chile
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Day 140: January 2, 2008 Río Gallegos to Punta Arenas, Chile

Megan and I got up at 6:45 so that she could get a cab to the bus station. It was a gray day outside. After she showered, we had breakfast in the hotel dining room. I gave Chico Bags to our waitress and the guy at the desk.

The cab came at 8:15. She paid her bill and was off on her solo week of adventure in Argentina. Once she was gone, I went out to look for an internet café but it was too early. I had another cup of coffee at the Hotel Comercio and then found a place. Unfortunately, the computer I had refused to read my pen drive so I was unsuccessful in uploading my remaining fotos.

I returned to the hotel under a sunny sky and a stiff wind and finished packing my bags and left my big bag, the drill bag, and the bidon in the hotel deposito. It is so nice to be traveling very light! I'm mainly bringing shorts, bathing suits, and t-shirts. I made a reservation to return to the Hotel Alonso on January 12th.

Pali Aike Cinder Cone

I paid my bill and got into my cab at 12:05. I arrived at the bus terminal just as they called the customs check for my bus so I was second in line. I also bought a return bus ticket from Punta Arenas to Río Gallegos on the 12th. The bus left just a few minutes late. I dozed on the way to the border crossing at Monte Aymond. There was a huge crowd and near total chaos on both sides of the border so it took more than 2 hours to get through the mess: two great countries separated by a common language. I took a picture of an eroded Pali Aike cinder cone as I waited for the paperwork to pass.

I had a mild headache most of trip into Punta Arenas. I didn't have a hotel reservation because the last time I arrived by bus, I noticed that there were a lot of people hawking cheap hotels at the bus terminal. As soon as I got off the bus, I was approached by a plump young girl, named Rosa, who asked if I needed a room. I said yes and she signed me up for the Residencial Ely (Ellie) for U$S 14. She took me over to the hotel van and I threw my bag in. I remembered I had to confirm my return ticket so I left the van and went into the terminal. When that was done, we drove through a lower middle class neighborhood, two blocks off of the Straits of Magellan. The Residencial is very simple with a shared bathroom but it is clean and the people are great. The clientele is from all over. I talked for an hour with a Polish guy named Adam Wolski, a professor of Marine Navigation. He and I are on the same flight tomorrow so we will share a cab in the morning. There were also Israelis, Germans, and Dutch. Rosa kept hauling them in as more buses arrived.

I discovered that the TV in my room has CNN, something I hadn't seen in ages so I got caught up on some of what has gone on in the world over the past few weeks. A volcano erupted in Chile earlier in the day. Maybe I will see it from the plane.

I went to a grocery store and bought a couple of empanadas for dinner, not feeling all that hungry. I returned to the hotel under a brilliant sun at 9:00 and watched CNN until retiring.