Patagonia (Chile): June 2008

Patagonia forms the southern part of Chile, referred to as 'sur del mondo', south of the world in Spanish. I had the opportunity to spend a week-long vacation there last month. It was last week of June and hence in the middle of the winters. There were not many tourists around.

I started from Santiago and took a flight to Punta Arenas, the second-southernmost city of the world, next only to Ushuaia of Argentina. The flight lasted 5 hours and had two stops in between.

There are regular transfers to the city center, Plaza Muñoz Gamero, via taxis and buses. Several hostels are located around the center and I took a room in the hostel El Calafate. You may like to refer to the Lonely Planet guidebook on Chile/South America for a bigger list and addresses. The room cost me 8000 Pesos (16 US dollars) for a night.

Punta Arenas is a small, delightful town with helpful people and adventure gear shops. Lomit's is a big, happening restaurant. I ordered a chicken burger with 'Shop', a popular local drink of beer mixed with Fanta. I was also intrigued by the number of hair salons in the city; I got a nice haircut at one for 5000 Pesos.

The Plaza Muñoz Gamero features a statue of Ferdinand Magellan, the great Portugese maritime explorer who navigated the channels around southern Chile and Cape Horn. The Straits of Magellan and the Magellan Clouds are named after him. It is customary for sailors to kiss the foot of the 'Patagon', a giant Patagonian inhabitant sitting below Magellan in the statue.

The main attraction of Punta Arenas is the centuries-old cemetary which has the graves of some of the earliest settelers in the region. I can't read Spanish but I've heard the inscriptions are quite heartfelt and touching.

Near the cemetary resides a German family that makes cholocates in-house. They sell from their home under the name 'Norweisser'. These are amazing chocolates in a variety of flavors.

From Punta Arenas, I took a bus to Puerto Natales up north. It was an amazing 3-hour ride on a straight highway running through the infinite, unending, yellow Steppe grasslands. With only our bus on the highway and utter silence all around, it was a transcendental, spiritual experience.

I arrived in Puerto Natales late evening where dense fog, frost and bitter cold welcomed me. I had to take a cruise ship from there, which would navigate through the fjords of Patagonia along Chile's coast, northwards to Puerto Montt. This service is run by Navimag; they also offer southbound and glacier cruises.

I had booked the cheapest ticket - 390 dollars for the 4-night trip, all meals and bed included. Luckily due to the off-season, I got an upgrade to a 1000-dollar cabin with private bath. We were only 20 passengers on a ship with a capacity for 200.

The following 4 days were truly memorable - I get nostalgic even as I write about it. The first two nights went well; the sea was calm and the wind, though strong, was bearable on the deck. On the third day it started getting bad. We had to cross a stretch of the open ocean as the last leg of the course. However the weather gods seemed to have different plans. The captain of the ship told us he had never navigated in such conditions before. We were advised to take sea-sickness pills considering what awaited us in the open ocean. I decided otherwise - I wanted to experience it once at least. We waited before steering into the ocean, but seeing no respite coming, the captain took the plunge. The ship tossed wildly - the panels of cupboards went crazy, doors were banging, it was total chaos. The stomachs were now complaining. Not many came down to the hall for dinner that night. I wanted to climb on the deck, but it was so impossible. The wind would've thrown me into the ocean which would then happily swallow me without leaving a trace. I'm glad I listened to my mind and not my heart that night! The captain, during the rough night, carved out a lovely sculpture out of soft wood, depicting the ship caught in the storm.

The next day we woke up (with body-aches) to a calmer sea. The wind was still strong and we faced a delay of one day before finally docking at the lovely Puerto Montt. The ground was still swaying beneath our feet!

We 20 'voyagers' developed an amazing camaraderie during these 5 days. The gloomy weather outside was forgotten among wine, poker, chess and pictionary games. We exchanged our Facebook contacts and plan to remain in touch.

Puerto Montt is also a lovely, small port city. The main plazas and the bus terminal are built on the waterfront. I took a flight back to Santiago the same day. All included, I'd spent around 800 US dollars on this vacation.

This week-long trip was a lifetime event for me. It felt like I met myself somewhere along the way. Don't remember where.