January 29th
I returned the car this morning early, took a small 5km hike around the town to take a few photo’s of a couple of monuments. I then headed back to my accommodation to fix up some of the photo’s as I was showing them to the family tonight.
About 6:00pm I went out and bought a few groceries for supper. I cooked my meal and continued to work on the photo’s. The family had prepared supper and invited me to join them. Nikolas was there to translate and we had a marvellous time. After a wonderful meal, I brought out the beer and chips and we looked at some of the photo’s. Ivonne truly liked a couple of the photo’s and I gave them the two photo’s as a gift in appreciation of their hospitality. Before you knew it, it was 12:15am and time for sleep.
January 30th
This morning I walked to AVIS as I had forgotten to get a copy of the car checking report. I arrived at 9am and the young gentleman quickly gave me a copy. I decided I would see if I could arrange for a tour to Isla Magdalena to see the penguins. It is never a good idea to try to book last minute as the popular tours are usually full by then. Anyway, I thought I would take a chance and I was fortunate as they had room for 12 more people. I quickly booked my ticket which was just over $100.00CDN. I had to be at the port for the tour by 2pm as this is where you get on the boat. After purchasing the ticket, I then asked how far the port was … it was about 1 hour walk away and 5 minutes by specific taxi which would only cost $1.00CDN. Where it was only 9:30am, I returned to my home and worked on organizing my items for the flight next day.
I talked to Nikolas, and his mother and father, about my tour arrangements that I would be going to see the penguins. The father mentioned that if he finished what he had to do and made it back to the house, that he would drive me to the port. He did make it back in time and both he and Nikolas drove me to the port, so much appreciated.
The boat tour was 5 hours long; two hours on the boat to the island, one hour to tour the island and then two hours back to Punta Arenas. This may sound like a lot of boat time, but that one hour on the island was certainly worth the price. The boat left the dock at 3pm and we returned at 8pm. It was a fantastic time! I only wished we had more time on the island. Even still, I took over 350 photo’s that I have to sort through. LOL
On the way back to the port, I met this lovely lady, Chantelle, from Quebec. She was full of energy (she looks a great deal like cousin Jean) and asked if I would do an interview with her for her YouTube Website. We had a lovely conversation and she was certainly enjoying life to the fullest.
When we got back to the Punta Arenas port, I decided I would walk over to the mall to get a bite to eat. This mall was a tax free mall and in this specific mall the only thing they sold was international items, no local items could be sold here. This was the cheapest meal that I purchased in all of Chile, 3,500 Chilean Pesos ($7.00 CDN) for a quarter of chicken, fries and a soft drink. I then walked back to the home and was about to go to the bedroom to download the photo’s when the family reminded me about taking a group photo.
We had a lot of fun doing this and I had time to edit three of the photo’s. When I checked on my Wifi, Ron and I were to meet in Santiago tomorrow, his flight was cancelled due to storm! It turns out that he now is delayed 18 hours and we won’t meet in Santiago, but in El Calafate! What a bummer!
When I got back to my accommodations I was greeted by my Chilean family and I took a few photo's. They were such wonderful people and so welcoming. From their super hospitality and making me feel like part of their family, it was an awesome time to learn about Chilean culture. I will miss them.
January 31st
This morning, I finished packing and started to work on the family photo’s. Nikolas knocked on the door and his mother had offered me breakfast, eggs, etc. I told Nikolas that I just finished eating some fruit and orange juice, that when flying I have to eat a light breakfast. It was understood and I truly appreciate the offer.
At 11:00am, both Nikolas mother and father drove me to the airport. I said my goodbye’s to Nikolas and appreciated everything he had done for me. I did not get a chance to say goodbye to their daughter, so I say farewell and thank you for your kindness. We drove onto a side road to show me some different part of the country. He mentioned about “Walking through the ancient sand”, I really like this saying.
I was a little nervous about check-in as I usually try to get there at least two hours before check-in (only about an hour and 15 minutes). There was only one lady at the counter and a fairly long line. I get up to the counter, get my ticket and the lady informs me that the plane is delayed 1.5 hours. After going through all the procedures I get to the gate and found out the plane was going to be 3 hours late. Glad I didn’t have a connecting flight.
Got in at the airport and from the email I received from the hotel with directions to find the shuttle service that will take me to the hotel. It was a simple process and I got dropped off, checked in and now needed something to eat. Once in the room I looked on line to find nearby restaurants, the only restaurants were in the hotels. I went down to the hotel restaurant to check out the prices and walked in … who should I run into but Michel and his partner! We met and chatted in Puerto Natales and did not know we would be staying in the same hotel in Santiago on the same night.
I sat down with them, ordered a steak with fries and a beer … I was surprised that the price was very reasonable for a hotel restaurant and it was very tasty!
I had to bid adieu to Michel and partner as I had to get up at 3:30am to catch the shuttle to the airport. I have an international flight to El Calafate. I got all my gear ready got into bed and checking in to see what Ron’s status was. We were to meet in Santiago, but his flight was cancelled due to snow storm in Nova Scotia. His travel agent was trying to make new arrangements, but Ron did not seem too optimistic about it. Before I knew it, it was close to midnight and I had to get some sleep to be alert for my flights scheduled in morning.