Red Book Entry: December 21, 2010

Aboard Evangelista, en route to Puerto Montt. And the adventure continues. Today the sailing is supposed to be relatively calm which is great as I get my sea legs (which I know will not be developed like my trekking legs!) Tomorrow, on the other hand, we will be passing through the Golfo de Peinas where we will be in the open Pacific Ocean, hence the name "De Peinas". For 12 hours, we could experience the ocean with two metre waves. The crew will be giving us some advice ahead of time on what we can do to cope best.

[Happy longest day of the year!
The beauty of being far south : )]

The journey, which is for three days, will take us to an island of 150 inhabitants, including the seven remaining members of an indigineous tribe. Navimag [the ship company] stops there twice a week with their provisions. It is national parkland and, weather permitting, we can disembark and trek along a path for an hour. Here's hoping.

There was a meeting this morning detailing each day, as well as safety onboard. I will be heading off for a talk on glaciars. There will be several such talks over the next couple of days.

In related news ... it is broken

Best Pisco Sour ever
(and especilly well deserved)
We got the recipe!

This is Jan having dinner at La Marmita once again this Sunday! That cast you see on her left arm is the one the doc at the clinic put on today, ´cause, well, her wrist is broken.

This happened the very first day of hiking at Torres del Paine. The fall was minor, didn´t even hurt really she says. But the next day the hand was swollen and it and stayed that way the entire 11 days in the park. But in the backcountry there are no docs (actually there was Wibke, one of the awesome people we met trekking in  the backcountry and she correctly called it a few days ago) or x-rays ... Today, as soon as we got back to Punta Arenas, we went to the local clinic and Jan got x-rays and the somewhat humourless advice from the attending doc to see a specialist when we get to Puerto Montt on the 24th.

My appetizer: lasaña de ostiones

Jan´s Ensalada de Marmita starter.

Amazingly, the break isn´t so painful and Jan´s been hiking and being her usual active and happy self notwithstanding the injury. I just help with a couple of things that were more painful, but nothing big really. It looks like the break isn´t so bad, although the doc mentioned something about the possibility of surgery). We will get the consult in Puerto Montt and she´ll take it from there.

Meanwhile tonight´s amazing dinner pics!

Inga´s main: crazy tasty fish with quinoa.

Jan´s awesomely tasty veggie dish!

Pinguinos! Yeah!

Hi! I am brand new! Just looking around!

Here are more awesome penguin pics and videos. Enjoy!

Also note, the Emperor Penguin you will see was the absolutely only Emperor Penguin there: Yes, lost, lonely and searching for his antarctic tribe!

We took a boat (similar to these
boats) run by a family (a group of brothers,
with cookies baked by their mom - yum).
We were accompanied by 22 other
penguin-loving souls.

 

The  folks in this region
proudly display the
Patagonian flag beside
the flag of Chile. People
definitely feel pride in their
heritage.

This lighthouse graces Isla
Magdalena. Here, the sky always
seems to be dramatic.

The Island is home to penguins and
their seagul friends. Respect from
humans  is required -- and expected. See the lovely Inga
as a faint green dot in the middle ground.

The only Emperor Penguin here.
Check out the video below.

And here they are! Watching them swim under water
was a true delight. Fast is an understatement!

Getting ready for trekking in Torres del Paine

For the 4th night in a row - hm,  that is every night in Punta Arenas! - we had a delectable dinner at La Marmita! That is an essential part of preparing for 9  or 10 days of independent (no guide, no cook, no donkeys) trekking in Torres del Paine National Park: We will be eatimng dehydrated foods and 5-minute rissottos for dinner ... hoping the grocery stores will have a half decent selection of actual food, even if it is 3x the price ... it will be like Canadian grocery prices or so.

All that to say, we[ll see if we can post some pics while in the Park, but most likely we will get to that afterwards in mid-December. We are also discussing where exactly to spend Christmas and New Years. We are open to suggestions! I mean, I champion Antartica, but it costs real money to fly there (not Bolivianos!) :)))) Jan is talking the beach in Uruguay ... You see the wide range of options under consideration ...

La Marmita dinner No 3

Jan has an appetizer: salad!!!

Oh. My. Goooooooood!

This place is divine.

Best food in 2 months. At the end of the world!

La Marmita. Funky place. Amazing food.

Pisco sour. Berry sour. All YUM!

Salmon and tasty veggies. Sigh.

Jan enjoyed her entree -  like so!

Taste buds rejoice!

More Pinguinos

Isla Magdalena is located in the Strait of Magellan about 35 km and 90 minutes by boat from Punta Arenas. Eduardo booked us on a 9 am departure, returning at 3 pm. So we had about 90 minutes on the island itself. This colony is entirely used to being visited. That means these 45 cm high fellows are as curious sometimes as their human admirers. 

More pics after dinner :)

Visiting penguins: adventures in the Strait of Magellan

On Magdelana Island is "Los Pinguinos" Natural
Monument. There is an estimated population of
25,000-30,000 mating pairs of Magellan penguins
in this colony.

This is a still of the video. They make quite
the sound and it´s an amazing display to witness.

They dig out their "nests" where
they lay two eggs once a year.

In the sand nest.

Waddling to the sea.

Wind and sun rule Patagonia

How different. Dusk set in at about 10:45 pm here, in sharp contrast to the 6 or 6:30 pm in Bolivia and the 5 pm in Canada this time of year!

Note the different seasons in the sky!

Yum - veggie dinner!

Ahem, seafood appetizer for Inga :)

On the recommendation of Eduardo, our host at Hostal Independencia, we also found the perfect restaurant: La Marmita. Yes, we had to go to the end of the world to get an amazing vegetarian meal!

Inga´s meal consisted of a seafood appetizer (wonder if they came from the Atlantic or Pacific - after all they converge near here!) followed by a delicious lamb stew. YUM!

Pisco Sour a la Marmita!

With apologies to Peru, we had the best Pisco Sours ever right here in Punta Arenas, at La Marmita.

Our toasty room is right here.

View from our window.

 Back to our Hostal: Here are a couple of views of the camping area and our toasty room.

Windy it is here. Something to get used to.Actually, they call summer also "the windy season". Seems odd but it is true! Coming in the dark of winter means little snow. Coming in the midst of sunny summer means wind, sleet, hail, snow and balmy sun can happen all in one short moment.

Dogs rule here. Many roam freely through towns and cities.

Hi Jan! Is it windy?

26 hours in transit ...

Jan and I have just arrived in Punta Arenas in the Chilean part of Patagonia.

We flew from Cusco to Lima, from Lima to Santiago via Antofagasta, from Santiago to Punta Arenas via Puerto Montt. Not exactly a short routing, but we made it safe (and nearly sound - those colds suck) to the most southern city in the world. (Ushuaia is apparently just a "town", so it claims to be "the most southern town in the world" - still the "most southern post office" goes to Puerto Williams across the Beagle Channel ... in any case this is the end of the world as we know it.)
.
Now, we will relax a little, post some stuff from the last week or so, go see some penguins and hopefuly find really tasty food. Jan´s been having some trouble as vegetarianism isn´t so common in Bolivia and Peru. The typical dishes overflow with meat of various sorts - which is perfectly fine with me :)

We spent the night at Santiago´s international airport. Amazingly, while Wi-Fi is everywhere there was no place for internet access via a rented computer! And you couldn´t get your nails done either. But 3 sunglass-stores were open all night. Go figure.

We played cards, drank beer (Inga) and wine (Jan), and watched Santa´s elves who were busy decorating this huge Christmas tree. The airport stays open all night, which was convenient given the layover from 2:30 am to 9:45 am.