We got a bit adventurous, so rather than driving to JFK or Ubering from Penn station to JFK, we Amtraked to New York City and then took the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica Queens. There is an “Air-Train“ that leaves from the Jamaica Queens Station and loops JFK dropping passengers off at their respective terminals. The train was packed with passengers traveling to and from JFK. As is customary in our household, a husband was genuflecting to his wife and saying “you’re right dear,“ apparently he believed no one used the Air-Train service; silly man.

We are now sitting at our gate waiting for our overnight flight to Sunny Santiago, Chile via LATAM Air.

Stay tuned and we will keep you posted.

Because of the intricacies of our itineraries, our trips are usually planned in advance of present occurrences. Case in point, was our Puerto Rico trip a few years back. We were faced with multi-hour long traffic jams, street closures and crowds because former President Obama was in town. On this trip to Santiago, Frankie was visiting; that’s Pope Francis to the rest of you. We’ve attached this moniker based on his cool factor. Irrespective of your religious believes, the issues we all may have with the Catholic Church, or your political stance with respect to the Church, there is something cool about this Argentinian Pope, his Harley Davidson and Lamborghini not withstanding.

Although tired and somewhat jet lagged, after checking into our hotel, we took the Metro to the center of the city, walked around the open market and had lunch at the Mercado Central, which incidentally opened in 1872. We were surprised at how many stores were closed and at how barren some of the major roadways were. We were told by some nuns that Pope Francis had spoken at a nearby park and would be speaking at the Cathedral that afternoon. So we strolled towards Plaza de Armas where the Cathedral is located. We found that all streets and alleys leading to he Plaza de Armas were barricaded and Police manned each gate. We were told that the low volume of traffic and the store closures were because of Frankie’s visit.

Since we it was “So Hot” ( just a dig for all of you snowbound) we taxied to a very hip part of town called Patio Bellavista with eclectic shops, bistros and restaurants. It wasn’t until our late afternoon return to the hotel that we learned there were huge anti-church protests and riots near Plaza de Armas, sparking police to use use water cannons. Despite all of the news coverage, including CNN, we never noticed and most locals were not phased.

At the fear of sounding scatological, one of the things we find fascinating is public bathrooms and bathroom etiquette. For example, in Singapore their bathrooms are immaculate and you will get fined for not flushing the toilet. In Cambodia and parts of Thailand, toilets don’t have running water but rather have a pot and a barrel with water to flush the toilets. Here the public bathrooms are fairly clean but all charge between 400 to 500 pesos to use, that’s around $0.66 to $0.82. \240What they don’t warn you about is that the bathroom stalls have no paper. The paper is in dispensers as you walk into the bathroom. We learned to travel with wet-wipes but if you don’t and happen to be having a Montezuma moment, well let’s say things could get messy and it’ll cost you a perfectly good pair of socks.

Bars are bars but Café’s are so much more!

We spent our second full day touring Santiago, stoping at many of the major sights in the City. \240We had lunch at a very cool and popular spot called Quixote, near the governmental center known as Plaza de la Constitución. The city was completely alive today with street vendors and performers. At the Plaza de Armas metro entrance, a five-piece jazz ensemble performed, while at the entrance to the Plaza a woman in a wheelchair sang Cumbias with a PA on her lap.

After lunch we were in the mood for a coffee to ward off the afternoon lag. After walking past sidewalk restaurants and bars we found a café that had a piping cup of coffee pictured on the door. The contrasting and telling piece of evidence should have been the blacked out windows and thumping music emanating from the “café.” A slight crack of the door displayed other cracks in the coffee scenario as it revealed that the café was a strip joint. Strike another victory for cultural education and semantics.

Valparaíso is known as the “City of Steps”. \240It is comprised of 43 steep hills, each with a distinct name and many surpass San Fransisco’s elevations. Although other cities throughout the world use them, Valparaiso is the only city to use funiculars (a form of elevator) as a mode of daily public transportation. At one time they had between 26 to 30 \240working funiculars, (the number varies depending on who you ask) however, they are now down to 8. For only 100 pesos ($0.16) each way, workers and people going to the larger markets in the city center at the base of the hills, use them rather than climbing up and down the intricate and steep stairways. We booked a place called the Sutherland House on one of the hills overlooking the city. We were warned it had no elevators but we hadn’t counted on the dramatic incline just to get to the lobby. We ended up in a room with great views, which meant 3 flights up narrow stairs. The views were worth the climb.

The more we’ve travelled, the more we don’t preplan or pre-schedule a lot of tours because we want to determine from locals what they recommend. The tourism office and TripAdvisor recommended a walking tour of the city that started at $60.00 per person. In town we discovered free (tip) walking street art tours of the city. At the end of the tour, if you wanted to, you could tip the guide. We signed up for the 2 hour-15 minute walking tour, which started at 10:30 AM. We’ve quickly learned that time and timetables are relative in Chile. For example, in Santiago we discovered that “immediately” meant 30+ minutes. Upon returning to the hotel after a long walk, we asked the concierge where the ice machines were. He told us not to worry assuring us various times (both in Spanish and a heavily accented English) that he would personally deliver the ice to our room “immediately.” More than 30 minutes later the “immediate” ice delivery was made. That was sort of the case here. The 2hr-15 min tour actually took 5 hours. Our two tour guides spoke Spanish, English and French and were well versed in Chile’s and Valparaiso’s history. We learned a great deal about the city’s history and much about the street art, which more than made up for missing lunch.

No It’s not a Barbershop and Sexstore!

In addition to the street art, there is a great deal of tagging in the city, which they claim is related more to deep seated national causes and propaganda than it is to U.S. type gang graffiti and tagging. They maintain that there is an unwritten agreement with the artist; once a building is artfully painted, with few exceptions, it does not get tagged. We came across one such tagging that the guide interpreted as “make Love not War.” However, the literal translation (thank you Grandma for ensuring I learned to read Spanish) was “more orgasm, less beatings.”(yes! Viva Chile!!) \240At the end of the tour we enjoyed a late lunch, known also as Onces (interesting story about the origins of Onces that we will cover in a later entry), at a restaurant called Café del Pintor (the Painter’s Cafe). It is owned by one of the street artist and the murals inside the restaurant were stunning.

One of the eight remaining Funiculars

On our last evening in town we rode a ‘Micro,’ a small version of a city bus, into town. It is a combination of a carnival ride and a death trap. Only mere cents to ride it, they crisscross the entire city. We boarded the bus, paid our fair and stumbled to our seats. No sooner do you get on the bus, it starts to roll. The driver collects the fare, gives you change and a receipt all while careening down narrow cobblestone streets. \240Chile has no shortage of attractive, mostly young, men. As some of you know, Mary’s decades long Argentinian hairdresser, Leo, is a pretty man. There are countless Leo replicas all over Chile. So when we were trying to decide where to have dinner on our last night in Valparaíso, the waiter with the spot-on \240Agador Spartacus “good evé-ning” accent gained our attention.

Stairs Leading to our room

Valparaíso is a complex town with a culture clash and an identity crisis. On the one hand, it has a huge active shipping port with seedy bars and roughnecks loading and unloading container ships and on the other the artistic, college town, \240bohemian side. \240One side is phrenetic with traffic and hordes of people coming and going and the other, more laid-back and deliberate. The more we travel, the more we realize how connected we are through commerce. There are Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, KFC and other U.S. fast food joints all over the world. All of these were present in Santiago, yet, we saw none of these in Valparaíso. \240Interestingly, McDonalds tried to establish itself here but was not able to survive.

Intricate murals inside the ‘Café del Pintor’

Valparaíso is the second largest metropolitan area in Chile and the third most populated region. \240It was an important city in the late 19th and early 20th century because the city served as a major stopover for ships crossing the Straits of Magellan, traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It became an immigration destination for Europeans and was known by international sailors as "Little San Francisco.”

The completion of the Panama Canal and the subsequent reduction of ship traffic through the Straits of Magellan negatively impacted Valparaíso’s economy. However, over the past decade or so, the city has staged a recovery, attracting artists who have set up in the city's historic districts and it boasts having seven universities. Consequently, thousands visit Valparaíso to enjoy the city's labyrinths of cobbled stone alleys, street performers, cool bistros, coffee houses and colorful buildings.

Many of the street paintings are very intricate and themes are built upon and elaborated throughout the town. In 2003, the historic quarter of Valparaíso was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Despite the constant up-hill down-hill trekking, this was truly a worthwhile stop.

Great Jellyfish

“Make Love, not War”

One of the art-rich alleys

These three pieces are some of the oldest street art in the city

Azul Pacifico B&B

Our plans after Valparaíso were very fluid. So when an older couple sitting at an adjacent table in a restaurant in Valparaíso recommended doing day trips from Valparaíso to the beaches and wineries to the north, we decided to look into it. \240They claimed the towns to the north were quieter and more laidback, with less tourists or things to do. They had us at “laidback and less tourists .” We found a B&B, the Azul Pacifico, in the coastal town of Concón, and rented a car in Viña Del Mar.

Azul Pacifico Room

A local car dealership, Rosselot, rents cars throughout Chile. The big car rental companies are located in the major airports and not as convenient. We had a vague idea of where the rental office was, as did the Valparaiso cabbie. All we knew that it was 999 Avenida Libertad. \240So upon seeing the Rosselot sign on Avenida Libertad, I announced “there it is.” Are you sure Senor? said the cabbie, these are the 800’s, referring to the block. Cocky me, si, this is it. Well No! this was not it. Apparently, Rosselot sells every brand of car in Chile, and about every corner has a Rosselot dealership. We were told the rental office was two blocks up and across the street. So we schlepped our bags on the walk of shame up and down the city streets trying to find the rental office. After walking into yet another dealership, we were told it was a second floor office at the Mitsubishi dealership.

When we finally got to the rental office, the rental agent apologized because the car we reserved was not available so we were getting upgraded at no extra charge. I’m skittish about car rental companies to begin with and it’s one of the few times I start to lose my cool. I always feel like I’m getting scammed by some sleazy sales person. I had booked through the Rentalcars app, pre-entering all of my information and preferences. The agent simply verified all of the info, had me sign the contract and we were on our way; no hassle no pushing for extras — nothing. It was the easiest experience we’ve had renting a car. When we went outside however, we started to laugh. A few years ago we had rented a Fiat Panda in Italy and as the cute name suggests, you could barly fit one bag in the trunk of the toy car. Sure enough, this one was about the same size. If this was the upgrade, we could only imagine the size of the clown car we had reserved.

Casa Del Bosque (Houses of the Forest)

Both Viña Del Mar and Concón are on the Pacific coast. The drive to Concón from Viña Del Mar is along an amazing coastline. We dropped our bags off at the Azul Pacifico, and headed to the Casablanca wine region to sample some of the local award winning wines. \240After numerous wrong turns and an exasperated GPS, we ended up in Casas Del Bosque winery, a medium size winery and scheduled a tour and a tasting. Not only were the wines delectable, the wine steward took her time making sure we properly tasted each wine and knew what we were experiencing in the different regions of our palate. It made it easier to understand what wines we would like with which of our favorite foods. We’ve been to various wine tastings as we have travelled, (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Italy and the US) this experience was easily the best, most personal and unique we’ve had.

Sea glass booty from Concón

When we returned to Concón, we walked across the street to a local restaurant recommended by Antonia, a lovely, jolly, grandmotherly type innkeeper, head cook and chief bottle washer. Just before the restaurant there is one of the many beaches in Concón; this one, a small mostly rocky beach. Our Pavlovian response is not to walk past a beach without at least walking a portion of it. No sooner had we stepped on the beach, Mary finds a perfectly honed piece of sea glass followed by another and another. It was like watching a frenetic cat chase a light beam. I finally dragged her off the beach with a promise of a Pisco Sour and a later return to the beach. As I waited for the dinner check, Mary disappears, I think to go to the bathroom — No! She had gone down the stairs to another adjacent beach to continue her sea glass hunt. To the beach attendant’s fascination, we’ve gone to that beach at least twice per day; early morning before breakfast and as part of our evening walks.

The Azul Pacifico is a beautiful small B&B with only 4 guest rooms. Each room has a balcony facing the ocean. The mornings are foggy and the days warm up as the fog lifts. Consequently, the beaches do not get populated until noon or so. Nothing moves too quickly here. Breakfast at the B&B starts at 9:00AM and we are inevitably the first ones at breakfast. The B&B is owned by a youngish woman named Francisca, a Yogi who lived for a short time in Boston and for about a year in London. Although self conscious, she speaks fairly good English. There is a welcoming serene vibe at this B&B. Her Innkeeper and cook, Antonia, greets us at breakfast with a hug and a kiss, laughing as she tells Mary stories in Spanish, knowing full well she doesn’t understand. The quintessential grandmother, she makes sure all the guests are well fed for the day’s adventures.

Farm Stand in Zapallar

One of the things we often muse about is finding a place to spend a month or two each year, immersing in that community and culture. But like Goldie Locks and the three bears, we find Europe too cold during our winters and tropical areas such as Southeast Asia, too far and Central America not conducive to what we want for a prolonged stay. So on Sunday we traveled up the coast to a town called Zapallar, about an hour north of Concón. It is a quaint village with a couple of commercial streets surrounded by beautiful upscale homes, narrow streets with a lot of pedestrian traffic, locals and visitors meandering in and out of boutiques and bistros and others simply sitting at street side café’s people watching. In the center of town there is a large farm stand and young families walk up and down the streets. The weather is perfect, what you would find in northern New England in the summer. This could be a possible contender for that winter retreat.

Promenade in Viña Del Mar

On our last full day in the area we drove to Viña Del Mar to explore that city. Many of the locals compare it to Miami Beach and it does have some pretty close comparison. \240There is a flower clock (Reloj de Flores) at the southern entrance to the city. It was erected, using Swiss mechanisms, to showcase Viña Del Mar during the 1962 Soccer World Cup which was held in Chile that year. Like the Trevi Fountain in Rome, local folklore maintains if you have your photo taken using the clock as your backdrop, you will return to Viña Del Mar.

Driving in Chile, especially in Viña Del Mar, is an adventure. Buses (micros), taxis and delivery vans zoom and zigzag on traffic laden streets, passing on both the left and right lanes and often making right hand turns from far left lanes. I don’t know why but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone as much as a US tourist driving the wrong way down a one-way street — twice. Well in my defense, there are no obvious street signs indicating “one-way” or “do not enter.” Underneath the street name, there is a small arrow indicating in which direction the street runs. That took a bit to get use to. The other heart stopping practice is 4 way intersections with a couple of yield signs. After mastering one-ways and 4 way yields, we felt pretty confident, until we were pulled over by the Carabineros, Chile’s version of state police. Stateside there is usually probable cause for a \240traffic stop, that is unless you are driving in Jeff Sessions’ Alabama, here it is totally random. They check your papers, vehicle documents and vehicle. I think the young officer got a little glassy eyed trying to read the name Narragansett on my license.

We are flying to Temuco for a day and then off to Pucon. Temuco is the second city Frankie visited during his Chile tour. It is heavily populated with Mapuche, one of Chile’s indigenous tribes. One of The Popes reasons for stopping in Temuco was to urge equitable treatment for this tribe of people. There is interesting history between the Mapuche, Incas and Spanish. The Incas and Mapuche were in constant struggles. The Incas in Peru convinced the Spaniards that there was gold and silver in Chile in the hopes the Spaniards would eliminate their rivals the Mapuche. Unfortunately for the Spaniards, the Mapuche were fiercer than they had anticipated. As a result, the surviving Spaniards returned to Peru and killed the Incas who deceived them.

There is a percolating issue with immigration in Chile, which we will talk about on our last entry in Chile. Suffice it to say that our problems in the US are not unique. Poor people a from all over the world, here it happens to be Haitians and Colomians, escape to developing countries, bringing with them social issues and political controversies.

Santiago Airport, check in line

There is never a sense of urgency down here. In the States, we’re used to ordering a meal and having the entire order arrive within a reasonable time. \240In Chile, depending on the number of patrons in a given restaurant, you could wait 45 to 50 minutes for ONE of your plates to arrive. Getting wise to this, we order dishes we both would enjoy. \240Inevitably, we end up sharing the first plate while waiting for the second plate to arrive.

Since we had no idea how long any of our preflight activities would take, we left the Azul Pacifico B&B in Concón early, drove to Viña Del Mar to return our little Tonka toy and took an Uber to the local bus station. The bus left on schedule, within 20 minutes of arriving at the terminal. We took a 2 hour Condor bus ride back to Santiago and arrived 5 hours before our scheduled flight. We had enough time to taxi up to Patio Bellavista for lunch and still make it back to the airport with nearly three hours to spare. The Santiago airport is obviously too small for the number of passengers flying in and out. Despite checking in online the previous night, it took us well over an hour and a half to check our bags and get through security. The flight to Temuco was uneventful and a short but rather fast cab ride later, we arrived at the very Irish themed Goblin House Hotel. Every room in this hotel is named for some town or county in Ireland; our room was the Limerick room. The previous tenant in that room was a man from Nantucket. Because we needed to prepared for another day of travel, we grabbed a quick bite at a neighborhood pizza joint and went to bed.

Early the next morning, we went out for a cup of coffee before retuning to the hotel to check out. For reasons known only to the hotel management, the hotel checkout and front desk were not available until 8:00 AM. As I noted, nothing happens with urgency. The first two coffee shops we tried didn’t open until 9:00 AM, we finally found a bakery that opened at 7:30 and served coffee. \240We grabbed our caffeine fix and headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and checkout. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the front door to the hotel was locked. We had unlocked the electronic lock upon leaving, not realizing that it automatically relocked itself after a certain period of time. So rather than checking out of the hotel at 8:00 AM as planned, we ended up like a homeless couple pacing the mostly empty streets, waiting for the Front desk staff to arrive. At about 8:10 AM a woman leisurely strolled towards the hotel and asked, “are you checking in early or did you lock yourselves out”? You would think that if it happened this often, they could warn someone or give residents a key to the front door. \240We finally grabbed a cab on the corner and headed to the JAC bus terminal.

As you can guess by now, bus travel in Chile is relatively easy and commonplace. When you purchase your tickets you are assigned seats. \240JAC Bus line covers most of the southern cities and has the most varied schedules. However, unlike Pullman,TurBus or Condor, JAC continues to pick up passengers along the way. At one point during our trip to Pucon, there were almost as many passengers standing in the isle as there were seated. It made you feel claustrophobic but you also felt sorry for the people standing for over an hour.

Typical Chile style bus, no chickens or goats

As soon as the Bus pulled in to the Pucon terminal, you immediately felt a cool bohemian vibe in the town.

Breakfast at the JAC Bus Station

Vientos Del Sur Hotel

Except for the cacophony of languages and accents, you would swear you are in a small Northern California town. Coffee shops, bistros, pizza houses, restaurants and pubs teeming with people and playing live music, line the streets. A culture shock for us was the variety of music heard in these establishments; pop, heavy metal and techno dominate, with a little R&B and some reggaeton thrown in for good measure. The occasional souvenir shop will have Latin music playing. Even the bus ride to one of our excursions had 60’s and 70’s classic rock playing.

Villarica Volcano

Pucon is a beautiful adventure destination. We met Scott, a youngish expat who lived in Colorado but was originally from Duluth, Minnesota, who is a coffee roaster and owns a small, Seattle-esque coffee shop currently named Patagonia Roasters. Because of licensing, he is renaming the shop Madd Goat Coffee. As he affirms, and we can attest, coffee in Pucon sucks, so he decided to remedy that by roasting and brewing his own coffee. It is very good, Cool Beanish** coffee. An avid paddler, he came to Pucon because he thought the rivers here rivaled Colorado’s — that was twenty years ago, he never left.

Expat Scott and Mary at Madd Goat coffee

After meeting Scott, we decided to try our hand at whitewater rafting. \240We booked the excursion through one of the many local tour offices and left for the river at 11:00 AM in an old Mercedes Benz bus. We stopped at a rafting camp to pick up the guides and equipment. However, before the bus came to a full stop, a young slender man, sporting shoulder length dreadlocks, held back with a colorful bandana, jumped on the bus exclaiming and rhyming with a thick accent, “hello everybody, buenos dias, ¿donde esta la energia? (where is the energy) He ushered everyone off the bus and into a wood and tin shack. The would be rafters were quickly surrounded by a group of fit, Adonis looking young men that appeared as though they stepped off the pages of a Men’s Health magazine. They started giving out instructions in Spanish and then asked “anybody English only”? Mary and I raised our hands. Okay you, go with Mike they said. Of the 30 participants in this whitewater excursion, Mary was the only non-Spanish speaker. We gladly headed over to Mike, whoever he was, for individualized instructions.

For us, directions and safety instructions are much better understood in English. Although I speak Spanish, Chilean Spanish is the most difficult to understand, especially the farther south you go. For example, para ti (for you), becomes pati and aqui esta la comida (here is the food), becomes aqui ta la comia. To put in context, Spanish is Spanish like English is English. Castellano or Castilian Spanish is equivalent to Queens English, which coincidently is a reason so many Spanish teachers in the US fail to adequately teach Spanish. If you are in the Northeast and someone asks, “geet yet” they want to know, did “you eat yet.” If you only studied Queens English, you would be totally confused. \240The language is the same, yet diction and phrases are different. As someone down here put it, it’s like someone from Appalachia or the deep south trying to speak to a Scotsman or Britt with a cockney accent. You can survive a conversation but you’re screwed with directions and instructions. Their rapid-fire truncated Spanish is like listening to Brad Pitt in the movie Snatch.

As it turns out, Mike is from California but has lived and worked as a river guide in Colorado for the last few years. A good looking clean cut kid, he looks like a young version of Sylvester Stallone. Because of the reversal in seasons (our winters being South America’s summer), he works down here as a river guide during Chile’s summer. The other guides are quick to rib him, he also fell in love with a Chilean woman, so all the more reason to return. His girlfriend, who works for another rafting company, is a very talented guide and was the first female guide to work the upper rapids. They have tried to get her a work visa to the US so she can guide in Colorado but as he claims, under our present administration, the work visas are now impossible to get. She can only go as a tourist while he’s working at home. So instead, they are moving to Canada during the northern hemisphere’s summer and then back to Chile during this season.

We were fashionably attired in wetsuits and booties and piled back into the bus. Now we were accompanied by all the guides seated on wooden benches in the isles, playing loud music and pulling pranks on the participants and each other. We travelled up a dirt road to the jump off point as some of the guides literally hung from the side of the bus. Ivan, the dreadlock laden guide looked at the passengers and loudly proclaims to the other, “hay un olor a miedo” (there is an odor of fear.) No sooner do we disembark, the phrenetic frat-boy behavior disappears and they are all business. Life jackets and helmets are donned and they make sure everyone is properly suited up. They painstakingly go over the safety instructions and six passengers are assigned per boat. We obviously are with Mike who makes sure we all understood the safety briefing. He then goes over the commands he will be using on the raft and gives each of us our seating assignments. He places Mary closest to him as the commands will be given in Spanish but assures us he’ll switch to Spanglish as needed. There are five rafts and three kayaks in our group. Two of the kayaks are for rescue and one for photographs, which will double as a rescue kayak if needed. \240They made sure everyone had fun but most importantly that everyone was safe.

The Trancura River is a category 4 whitewater river with a couple of category 5 rapids. At the category 5 rapids, we were escorted off the rafts to walk the edge of the river while the guides rode the cat 5 sections by themselves. They are considered too dangerous to take passengers and despite their expertise and experience, we witnessed a senior guide capsize one of the boats. \240In order to return to the boats, we were given the option of diving off a cliff into a deep narrow pool or schlepping \240down the path to the waiting rafts. Although many opted not to jump, Mary, the illegal bridge jumping aunt couldn’t wait to be one of the first to take the plunge. Besides our guide Mike, we shared the boat with a Chilean family from Santiago; a man, his wife, his son and his son’s \240girlfriend. The man was borderline ADD and was more concerned with waving to his friends in other boats than paying attention to Mike’s directions. That’s why on the first rapid, when we were all supposed to shift our weight to the right, he went left and toppled over the side. As soon as he surfaced, Mike grabbed him by his lifejacket and muscled him back into the boat. All of a sudden he started paying more attention — go figure. Overall it was an adrenaline charged fun-filled day.

Termas Pool

To our bewilderment, we were sore the next day; arms, shoulders and core from rowing. So our last night we went for a dip in the Termas Geometricas (Geometric Spa). It’s a complex of 17 hot and cold water pools nestled at the base of a volcano. The hot pools are naturally heated and the cold water pools are fed by the waterfalls. \240The ideal time to visit the termas is at night because a hot midday sun and hot water pools are not a pleasant combination. The pools range from about 40º for the cold and about 110º for the hot. \240We left Pucon at 6:00 PM for a two hour drive to the pools and returned to the center of Pucon after 1:30 AM. True to South American culture, at 1:30 AM when we returned, all of the restaurants, bars and shops were packed with locals and tourists alike.

Termas Geometric Spa

Semi-Cama Bus seats

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and boarded a JAC double decker semi-cama (semi-bed, which simply means the seats recline 3/4 of the way back) bus to the southern city of Puerto Montt.

** Cool Beens is our local funky coffee shop in Narragansett.

The bus ride from Pucon to Puerto Montt took a little over 5 hours. \240Five hours on a bus may seem a little drastic, but remember, Chile is a very long and narrow country. At it’s widest, it is approximately 400 kilometers and only about 12 kilometers at its narrowest point.

Buying a new Suitcase

On our short walk to the bus terminal my trusty Samsonite fell prey to a wide gapped cobblestone walk, resulting in the amputation of one of its wheels. If we could find a suitable (pun intended) replacement, we would have to put the old Samsonite down. \240Because we were out so late at the Termas the previous night, it was a good opportunity to relax and do some writing. We rode the lower compartment of the double decker bus. Large wide seats with a footrest made the five hours fly by. The long periods of head bobbing, chin drooling, deep throaty snoring sleep didn’t hurt either.

Center of Puerto Montt

We had picked the town of Puerto Montt because we wanted a jump-off point to the big island of Chiloe. Puerto Montt is the largest city in the area with a few malls and a bustling center. It’s a very gritty and dingy city and, according to the locals, \240walking around after dark could be dicey. \240Alcohol is relatively cheap down here so it isn’t \240uncommon to see the homeless, along the waterfront promenade, passing around liter bottles of booze. \240It reminded us of our house every 4th of July. \240Because our intent was to travel back and forth to Chiloe, we wanted access to a transportation hub. Therefore, the brand new Ibis hotel, adjoining the bus terminal, was perfect. Ibis are inexpensive, no frills hotels and this one in Puerto Montt was very modern and comfortable. The only drawback was the row of gin-joints and gauchoesque honky-tonks across the street. Because of the cool evening breezes, most hotels are not air conditioned. A slight crack of the windows is enough to cool the rooms. However, that slight crack was just enough to suffocate you with a head thumping, three chord, banshie screeching twang that the euphorically amplified locals call music. Those cucaracha stomping sonatas would drone on until 3:00 AM.

Ferry To Chiloe

Chiloe is actually an archipelago of about 50 Islands. On Chiloe’s \240big island, the shoreline towns survive mostly as fishing villages and the inland ones on cattle ranching. There is an over representation of natives, or \240“first people” as we hear them called, on the island. They’re mostly Mapuche, as they were one of the few native tribes to survive the Spanish and European conquest. On the big island we visited the town of Ancud and the “Pinguenera,” which translates to penguin colonies. These penguin colonies are protected via a collaborative agreement between Chile and the German government.

People Carts

The colonies are heavily regulated and only visible from a boat. Since there are no docks, the boats are beached. Groups of tourists are literally carted onto the boats, allowing one to embark and disembark without touching the water. We experienced a little trepidation when we realized that some of the life jackets identified the boat as the Titanic III. Knowing the fate of the first Titanic, we were afraid to ask what happened to Titanic II.

Each boat had a captain and a guide. Our Captain was named Juan, a burly gregarious man with a gold front tooth and our guide (wait for it) ...... was name Juan, not as burly or gregarious but extremely knowledgeable and informative. Juan the guide, indicated that the male penguins are monogamous; Juan the captain said that the female penguins are not. They’re smarter, they will often look for a younger virile partner, while the males just die of a broken heart. True or not, cute story.

Sea Lions

The small cove of Puñihuil, in Chiloe is a unique area for penguins because Magellan penguins travel here from Patagonia in the South and Humboldt penguins migrate from Peru and Ecuador in the North. It is the only place in the world where the Humboldt and the Magellan penguins live together. The Humboldt penguins are slightly larger than the Magellan penguins and both are able to peacefully co-mingle and cohabitate. Reportedly, when Humboldt and Magellan penguins procreate, their offspring are born sterile, not allowing the mixed breed to flourish. We had seen smaller penguins in Australia a few years back, so any chance to see these adorable creatures in their natural habitat is a treat. Along with the penguins there were varieties of seagulls (or sea-whales as our guide pronounced it), sea lions, otters and at least three varieties of cormorants.

We ended the excursion with a Tour of Ancud. It was a fun old town to see but it was nothing remarkable. A small plaza with a timber constructed church, a few shops and, because it was Sunday, a vintage car cruise event in the center of town. Even that was tired. The cars looked as though they were props on the TV show, Junkyard Wars.

The old church still had Christmas decorations up and an effigy of Jesus with a beard, long black wig and what appeared to be giant forks stuck in it’s head. Instead of crucifying this one, it looked as though he was forked to death by an angry Chef Ramsey. \240We had a great bilingual guide named Cristobal and our driver was a young Mixto (Mapuche and European) named Victor. We had toyed with the idea of taking the following day’s 10+ hour tour of Castro but Victor claimed it was a bigger version of Ancud, but not as nice. That’s all we needed to hear.

The next morning, we checked out of the Ibis and headed 20 minutes north to the town of Puerto Varas, on the shores of Lake Llanquihue. \240We found a nice hotel in a residential area called Hotel Puelche, with views of the lake and a short walk to town.

View of Lake Llanquihue and Volcano from Puerto Varas

Pablo Fierro Museum

A short walk from the hotel is the schizophrenic Museo \240(museum) Pablo Fierro. Pablo Fierro is a local artist that depicts on canvass historical Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas homes. His free museum, however is a disjointed assembly of stuff that is more akin to hoarding than to art.

Puerto Varas Casino

Puerto Varas is the antithesis of Puerto Montt. It’s a clean, tranquil, pedestrian friendly town. It was named after Antonio Varas, a former Department of Interior and Foreign Affairs Minister, who in 1852 promoted the German colonization of the Llanquihue region, encompassing Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt. German immigrants were brought by the thousands and given large plots of land, provided they had male heirs who could continue to farm the land . You can see German influences in the architecture, food and the very Nordic looking people.

Laundry

In Puerto Varas we found a much needed Lavanderia (a laundry) and although we toured the craters of one of the local volcanos, it was \240mostly a time to relax. We did walk to the casino in the center of town one night before dinner. We found a roulette table with a $500 minimum and decided to play a few hands. We started with $20,000 and walked away with $51,000. Not a bad few hands. Unfortunately these were pesos and not dollars so our $31,000 profit translated to approximately $52.00 US dollars. It was like playing with Monopoly money. \240On Wednesday morning we again grabbed a bus and headed \240to Valdivia.

Borderio Hotel, Valdivia

We arrived in the the port city of Valdivia by 3:00 and took a taxi to our very funky hotel, near the docks. \240Valdivia is a safe but active city, however many of the hotels and inns go a bit overboard with security. \240Our hotel was not different. \240The hotel is in an older structure, resembling a New York brownstone but they have gated off the front porch and placed gates with pop-locks. Those pop-locks as well as the ones on the front door can only be activated from the front desk, which resembles a correctional center’s control room. \240There are high resolution, motion activated digital cameras with night vision throughout the property. \240People that had rated the property on a couple of sites indicated that all the security made them feel nervous. \240For some reason we found it to be inconsequential.

Valdivia’s vibrant Waterfront

More than a just a port town, Valdivia is located inland at a confluence of several rivers. \240We hopped one of the many boats at the pier and in about an hour we were able to navigate the four rivers and view the surrounding wildlife.

Sea Lions Adjacent to Fish Market

On May 22, 1960 Valdivia was hit with the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the world. They call it the great Chilean Earthquake. The tremor caused localised tsunamis that severely battered the coast, with waves up to 82 feet. \240With a few minor exceptions, nearly all of the houses on the islands surrounding Valdivia proper were completely destroyed.

Like Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, Valdivia is a German settlement and has a huge German population. It is known as Chile’s beer brewing capitol. We were there on the cusp of their beer fest so we ran into countless German nationals there on holiday.

Local Valdivia Beer

The docks are a hub of activity for Valdivia. Numerous tour companies take tourists out for river tours; there are kayaks, paddle boats, row boats and even some contraption with two pontoons and a regular bicycle attached to the top. The pedals activate a propeller attached to the front wheel, allowing the cyclist to steer the pontoons. We figured we would bring back photos to see if Mary’s cousin, Ken Ackerman can replicate it.

Pontoon Bike

The docks also enjoy a large fish and fresh produce market. \240Like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, sea lions bask in the sun on man-made docks adjacent to the fish market. \240According to our river tour guide, the sea lions and the fisherman have a symbiotic relationship. \240He maintains that the sea lions chase the fish up river facilitating the fisherman’s catch. \240In turn, the market’s workers gutting fish feed the begging sea lions bellying up to the market’s dock.

A few blocks up from the docks, there’s a town square with street performers and sidewalk cafe’s. \240An elegant couple, accompanied by a large sound system, dances the tango to the amazement and amusement of onlookers. The tall attractive young woman agrees to dance with a man who appears to be in is early 90’s. \240He turns out to be very agile and a gifted dancer.

The hotel offered a van transfer to the small Valdivia airport and despite our apprehension about being late, the entire check in and security process took less than 15 minutes. When the woman at the LATAM Airlines counter handed us the boarding passes, she pointed to a glass door and said, security that way. \240We figured security was somewhere beyond the door, nope, that was security. \240We were the first to walk up to the door. The PSA (we can only assume they are somewhat like our TSA) agent came to the the door and told us it would be a few minutes. Within minutes they opened the door, they herded us through a metal detector and blindly pushed our bags through a conveyer. \240Minutes later we were joined by other thumb twirlers, waiting for over an hour for the only flight that afternoon to arrive and leave.

The next few days were a blur. Ultimately we were headed to the “end of the world” in Ushuaia, Argentina (we’ll provide ad nauseam details about Ushuaia in a subsequent entry), however, as the old phrase says, “you can’t get there from here.” We flew from Valdivia to Santiago, stayed overnight in Santiago and flew the next day to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We stayed in Buenos Aires for one night and took an early flight to Ushuaia. We will give you a little more detail about the three days of travel when we write about Ushuaia and El Calafate.

Chile Overview

Chile was a beautiful and diverse country to travel, \240and although we saw a lot of the country, we had to pick and choose things we wanted to see during a finite chunk of time. \240For example, we had to forego the Atacama Desert, one of the most arid deserts in the world and where the oldest mummified human remains have been found. We also had to skip Easter Island as it would have taken too long to fly there and back. \240In previous Chile entries we have discussed our highs and some comical lows but overall we have to say it was a great experience. \240It is not a place for bargain hunting as the food and hotels are comparable in price to the US. \240However, food and alcohol is far less expensive if you go to local markets. You also feel the impact of a global culture here; there are times you forget you are in a foreign country based on how similar the people and activities are. \240We spent part of an afternoon watching rock climbers scale ocean-side rock formations and witnessed kids in Rip Curl gear surfing in Concón. \240All that said, we don’t want anyone to assume that our following critique is in any way an indictment of Chile or it’s people.

An interesting point about Chile, is the lack of accommodations for non-Spanish speakers. We have travelled a lot around the world. \240Whether we were in Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam or even Nicaragua, we were always able to find bilingual tours. In Chile, very few tours were bilingual and the few that advertised they spoke English, provided limited information. \240A lot of the vital details they provided in Spanish were omitted when they switched to English.

Chile appears to be a land of contradictions. \240It is mineral rich so there is a lot of industry and high paying jobs, especially in Santiago and along many of the costal communities. \240In many of those places we saw beautiful homes, Jaguars, Land Rover Defenders and Mercedes parked in driveways, while laborers grapple and toil with antiquated tools and equipment. \240We watched as they repaired sidewalks with hand tools such as sledge hammers rather than jackhammers and landscapers working in city parks trimmed large bushes with hand pruners rather than hedge clippers. We also recognize that there seems to be a conscious effort to create jobs rather than automate. Finding parking in any city is a challenge; yet in all metropolitan and some rural areas, there are street parking attendants that help you find parking and help you park. Rather than parking meters, they hand you a slip when you park and upon your return, only charge you for the time you were there. No expired meters to worry about.

By English proverb standards, we assume worms must abound in Chile as there are few early birds to catch them. \240Nothing seems to get moving early in Chile. \240Finding a breakfast place or coffee house that opens before 8:00 AM is miraculous. \240One place that opened at 8:00 AM was still dead at 8:30 AM. \240If you happen to find a place that opens early-ish, the breakfast rush does not start until after 10:00 AM. That means lunch is later in the day and dinner is not until way past nine. \240We landed late in the evening in Temuco and headed out to find a place to eat. \240When we left the restaurant at nearly 11:00 PM, families with young children were still arriving. \240

Many businesses close in the afternoon and do not open back up until after 6:00 PM. \240Unique to Chile, in the late afternoon they engage in a practice called ‘Onces’, meaning eleven. \240It resembles a British high tea but just about anything from breakfast items to full meals are served. \240Why they call it ‘onces’ (eleven) is debatable. \240Folklore professes that after work men would go drinking Aguardiente (fire-water / burning water). \240In response to mounting complaints and objections from their wives, the men wouldn’t say they were going out drinking but rather claim they were just going out for onces; onces (eleven) representing the eleven letters in Aguardiente. What could we call a whiskey and a beer? \240Going out for a fifteen? \240We did not try Aguardiente but we did discover Pisco Sours. \240Pisco is a liquor made from grapes. \240We were introduced to it when we first arrived in Santiago as the restaurant we went to offered free samples with lunch. \240That started our quest to find the best Pisco Sour in our travels, which meant trying one almost every night at dinner.

Pisco Sours

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived in Chile was the disproportionate number of Haitians arriving in Santiago. \240Chile is faced with an exploding immigrant population and a rise in nationalism (sound familiar?). Haitians are scammed in their homeland to sell everything they own and go to Chile, where they are promised a work visa. When they arrive in Chile they are told they have a tourist visa not a work visa so they cannot stay or work. Without resources to return home, they stay illegally taking jobs Chileans are not willing to do or pay too little for Chileans to take. Chile’s moral dilemma is that compassionately they want to help the Haitian immigrants yet from a geopolitical perspective, the Haitian’s willingness to work for sub-standard wages prevents the minimum wage from rising. The other major immigrant group is Colombians. While the Haitians are willing to do any kind of work, according to folks we spoke with, some of the Colombian immigrants are more interested in establishing criminal enterprises such as organized crime and street level robberies.

Our final observation was very apparent in the Southern parts of the country. There is the palpable juxtaposition between natives, or first people, and Europeans. \240As we all know, the Spanish settled Chile but major German, Eastern European and Italian settlements were established in the mid to late 1800’s, displacing many of the the natives. \240In addition to Pope Frankie’s call for equitable treatment of the Mapuche during his trip to Temuco, protest signs and calls for Mapuche resistance can be seen throughout Puerto Montt and Chiloe.

We are grateful and feel blessed to have met some wonderful people along the way and for the chance to learn about Chile’s culture, traditions, idiosyncrasies and wines.

We left Valdivia, and flew back to the capital city of Santiago, Chile. \240Since we arrived in the early evening and had an early flight to Argentina, we ate at the hotel and enjoyed their complimentary Piscos. \240This trip through the Santiago Airport was much easier, probably because we knew what to expect. The flight over the Andes Mountains was beautiful and, in contrast to flying north and south in Chile, the international flight east to \240Buenos Aires, Argentina was less than two hours.

Buenos Aires’ Neighborhoods

Buenos Aires is a fascinating city but because we only spent one night there before flying to Patagonia, we will reserve comments until after our actual stay in a week or so. \240Suffice it \240to say that the city is made up of different neighborhoods, each with its own character. \240It resembles the Manhattan neighborhoods like Midtown, Tribeca, Upper East Side or Chelsea. \240In Buenos Aires, you have neighborhoods such as La Boca, San Telmo, La Recoleta, Palermo and Palermo Hollywood. \240It has two airports on opposite sides of the city, one primarily for international and one for mostly domestic flights. \240Therefore, as we did, you may land in one and fly out of another.

Dazzler Polo Hotel In Buenos Aires

We stayed in the Palermo area because it was near the domestic airport and found the area absolutely charming. \240We walked the neighborhood and ate at one of the local cafés. \240It is a city with many pockets of poverty and numerous testaments of opulence. \240In the heart of the city there is a formula one auto race track and polo grounds a block from our hotel.

Dazzler Polo Hotel in Palermo

We flew to Ushuaia early the following morning, which meant a 5:00 AM cab ride to the airport. \240Our cabbie has been driving cabs for 25 years, 24 of which have been on midnights. \240He was a ‘Jeff Spicoli’ sort of stoner who stepped of the set of a Fast Times at Ridgmeont High set. \240Heavy metal rumbled from the speakers as he sermonized his life philosophies; cool way to start another travel leg. \240Travel is as much about the characters we meet as it is the places we visit.

Buenos Aires Formula one Racing

Although we are not the weekly business traveler, we are accustomed to flying \240regularly, yet one of our most exciting and adrenalin charged activities so far has been landing at and taking off from Ushuaia. \240On one side of the plane, eye level mountains pass by while the other reveals the the Beagle Channel and the sea below. \240During the landing and takeoffs the plane girated with quick descent and ascent. \240In addition to the wild bouncing, there were numerous stomach churning dips. \240No one told us that for the price of an airline ticket, we would be getting a wild carnival ride.

Ushuaia is in the heart of Patagonia on the southern end of an Island known as Tierra Del Fuego (Land of Fire). To the north of Tierra Del Fuego is the Straight of Magellan and to the south, the Beagle Channel. \240Please pardon the history recap but we find this stuff fascinating. \240During the Spanish Crown funded 1520 expedition to find a western passage to the Maluku Islands, a key location on the spice route, Portuguese sailor Fernando de Magellan discovered a land mass with plumes of smoke rising from it. Upon his return to Spain, he called it Tierra de Humo (Land of Smoke). \240Map makers in Spain however, surmised that where there is smoke there must be fire, naming the land mass ‘Tierra Del Fuego’. \240It is believed that the smoke was from the Yamana (Yahgan) \240Indians’ campfires. \240The Yamana were some of the inhabitants of the island at that time.

The entire region, which encompasses Chile as well as Argentina, we all know as Patagonia. \240The name, Patagonia, comes from “Patagones”, which means big feet. Knowing this brought Mary much comfort and she’s sure a DNA test would connected her to “Patagones.” Due to the bad weather, Magellan had decided to stay in what is now southern Argentina, until the spring. \240The first sign of the local Indians, the Tehuelche, were some huge footprints on the beach. That is why Magellan called them “Patagones.” According to Magellan’s chronicler, the Tehuelche were really tall and hefty. \240However, the big footprints could be due to the fact that the Tehuelche covered their feet with guanaco furs (a small alpaca looking animal) in order to protect them from the cold.

Artists rendering of original penal colony.

Ushuaia is the only Argentinian city west of the Andes. In fact, you can’t drive to and from Ushuaia without going through Chile. \240Initially, it was a military outpost that, because of it’s remote and barren location, was turned into a penal colony. \240Many inmates volunteered to come down to work but also many dangerous inmates were sent down against their will. \240The initial group of inmates lived in military barracks while they constructed the prison. \240The prison was a patchwork of cell blocks built at different times. \240Although the footprint is the same for all five cellblocks, each block is slightly different based on time of construction. \240The newer cell blocks had wider stairs with hand rails and concrete upper tiers while the first cell blocks had narrow steep stairs and wooden tiers.

The inmates worked primarily as lumberjacks in the nearby mountains. \240A very narrow steam locomotive (El Tren Del Fin Del Mundo/The End of the World Train) made a daily 14 kilometer — I think I can, I think I can, I think I can — trek from the prison to the mountainside forest. \240Other inmate work crews help build the town, populated primarily by prison workers. \240They built homes, sidewalks and the basic infrastructure.

End of the world train

Because the Beagle Channel (which was named by Captain Robert FitzRoy after the HMS Beagle, the ship he commanded and was used for Darwin’s expedition) is rocky and shallow on the north side and numerous shipwrecks occurred there, inmates were even used to build the lighthouse that still guides navigation in the channel.

Inmate Constructed Lighthouse

As Ushuaia flourished as a port town, recent Spanish immigrants followed to work the docks and the prison. \240Because of the rapid growth of the city, Italian immigrants were brought in to construct homes. \240They were such proficient builders, they competed to see which crew could build the fastest house. Reportedly, one crew built a house in a single day.

Don Fernandez

Although Ushuaia is a city, the number of inhabitants remained relatively low, generally under four thousand or so, for decades. \240However, that has dramatically changed in recent years. \240On one of our walks we spotted a beautiful yellow tabby kitten, just inside the gate of one of the town’s older homes. \240For some reason kittens trigger an ADD, “squirrel!” response from us. The kitten’s human stood just behind him. \240He scooped up the kitten and made formal introductions. \240He was Don Fernandez and the curiously playful tabby was “bigoton” (roughly, huge mustache). \240With a perpetual smile and a heavy Spanish accent, he said, where you from? \240When we said USA, he unlocked the gate, waved us in exclaiming “entren, entren por favor.” \240Don Fernandez ushered us into his modest home as he conspiratorially told us in a hushed tone, \240as if someone else might be listening, that his children warn him not to let strangers in the house. \240“But I know good, kind people when I see them.” \240Don Fernandez is a spry 92 year old widower, who not only misses his recently departed wife, but also pines for company and companionship that is denied those who outlive their contemporaries.

Teletype Machine

Señor Fernandez was born and raised in Ushuaia, although his mother and father were born in Spain. \240He recounts that in 1912, his father and a group of his Spanish friends were in a bar in Buenos Aires when they read about work opportunities in Ushuaia. \240The entire group decided to relocate to Tierra Del Fuego. \240Don Fernandez and his siblings were all born in Ushuaia, he married a descendant of one of those Spanish families and raised his children in Ushuaia. \240He worked as a radio and telegraph operator for over 40 years, working for the military, police and subsequently a petroleum company. \240His numerous awards and radio call signs for radio stations throughout the world are proudly displayed on his makeshift office walls. \240 His siblings long gone and his children moved away, his telegraph machine is now replaced with a computer, \240which he still uses to communicate with people all over the world.

Some of the World’s Call

A recent law provides tax exempt status to multinational companies as long as they employee locals and provide higher wages. \240Consequently, numerous Chinese electronic firms have opened massive manufacturing plants and those electronics are sold domestically and internationally without any import or export tariffs. \240The unwelcome consequence has been a population explosion in Ushuaia. \240There has been no city planning, so the city is growing chaotically and haphazardly. \240Large housing developments are popping up all over and with the legal migration of workers has come an unsavory population that have built shantytowns in the foot hills. \240Don Fernandez, despite his love and fidelity for Ushuaia, claims it is a sad state for his childhood home. “Everybody left their keys in their cars and home doors were never locked; now we all have to live behind gates.” \240In such a beautiful part of the world, progress is not always a move forward.

Obligatory Double Decker Bus

Ushuaia is not only a jump off point for Antarctica expeditions, but it is also a dream come true for wildlife lovers. We did the obligatory double-decker bus tour of the city, which took all of an hour and took the End of the World Train ride into the National Park. The current train system serves no actual purpose other than a tourist attraction. It now only covers the last 7 kilometers the original lumberjack train would take with inmates and staff. Without a doubt, the highlight of the Ushuaia trip was an excursion to the pinguinera (penguin colony).

Like in Chiloe, Magellan Penguins populate most of the island, although a small colony of Gentoo Penguins, a sub Antarctic penguin, also make the island home. \240The tour is highly regulated and only 20 individuals are allowed on the island at a time. \240We were told in advance not to touch the Penguins or do anything that would alarm Tennessee Tuxedo or any of his friends. \240We had expected to walk behind barriers and observe the little guys from a distance. \240However, like a waddling ensamble at some formal red carpet event, they weeble-wobbled onto the beach to welcome the arriving boat.

The adult Magellan Penguins have two distinct stripes on their upper breast while the molting juveniles are mostly grey. \240It was not unusual to have a curious juvenile walk up and peck your shoes or tug on your pants. \240Kneeling down to take photos was often an invitation for them to walk up, Stevie Wonder bob, and examine the camera. \240It was one of those spiritually transcending moments, like snorkeling along side sea turtles, petting cheetahs or washing elephants. \240On the boat ride back from the island we were flanked by humpback whales that accompanied us part way, we observed sea lions (or sea wolves as they are called in Spanish) lounging on rocks and a stop at the inmate constructed lighthouse revealed hundreds of cormorants of several different species.

Curious Juvenile Magellan Penguin

Celebrities posing for paparazzi

Original Cellblock

Because the genesis of Ushuaia was as a prison colony, we were compelled to tour the old prison. \240After years of working in and with prisons and jails, we have not lost our fascination with them. \240If you examine them from a biological perspective you realize how organic they are. They have a birth, a mostly dysfunctional existence and, upon their eventual closing, a death that, despite detrimental conditions, is mourned by both former inmates and staff. \240Watch any documentary on Alcatraz and listen how melancholy the former inmates and staff are.

Prison Museum

Prison Fine Arts Wing

Sculpture in Prison Museum

The Ushuaia prison opened in 1902 and closed in 1947 because of rampant neglect and abuse. \240Initially, an equilibrium between rewards and punishment was used to manage the inmates. \240However, harsh living conditions and low salaries failed to attract the best qualified staff to Ushuaia. \240A prison worker would have to work three years before he could afford a house. \240Discipline degraded to severe punishment including long periods of isolation with only bread and water, ‘boxing’ inmates in small quarters where they were forced to stand for days and denying them basic food rations. \240The entire prison has been converted into a museum. Although the initial cellblock (cellblock 1) has been left in its original condition, the rest of the prison has been dedicated to a different genre. One is a maritime museum, one for Antarctic expeditions, one is fine arts and there is even one wing for modern art. \240In all, it is a great way to bring new life and repurpose an old prison.

After our death-defying landing and eventual takeoff into and from Ushuaia, we headed to El Calafate. \240The e in Calafate is not silent. \240We had to allay our own confusion because of its resemblance with the word Caliphate. \240An Islamic Caliphate is a state run by a Caliph, considered a religious successor to Mohammed. \240El Calafate is a barren land that appears to be an amalgamation of the Grand Canyon and the South Dakota Bad Lands with a little Kingston, New Zealand thrown in for good measure. \240Although barren, it boasts some of the most breathtaking vistas.

El Calaphate is a small town on the shores of Lago Argentino (Argentinian Lake). \240In the early 1900’s, when wool was a precious commodity, El Calaphate was just a stopover for the wool merchants, making the month-long trek to sell their wares at the Atlantic ports in Rios Gallegos. \240Every once in a while some ‘crazy’ would turn up interested in seeing a glacier. \240El Calaphate is the gateway to the National Glacier Park (Parque Nacional los Glacieres) and the town is now a booming tourist destination with thousands of tourists flocking in to glimpse the numerous glaciers or spend a few days experiencing frontier life in one of the many Estancias (ranches) in the National Park.

Resembling the German settlements of Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas we talked about in Chile, in order to populate El Calafate and establish an Argentinian stronghold in that region, the Argentinian Government offered European immigrants huge parcels of land in the Santa Cruz region to be used for ranching. \240If the immigrants stayed and worked the land for at least 30 years, the land would be deeded to them, free of charge.

In the early 1900’s, wool was called white gold. \240Ranchers supplying wool could not get their product to market quick enough. \240Dress suits and military uniforms throughout the world were made of wool. \240Lambs were sheered in December so by mid to late January, ranchers would make their year’s salary. For many of us that would be a budgeting nightmare. \240After WWI, synthetic fabrics were introduced and the demand for wool started to plummet, creating an economic crisis for the Santa Cruz region. \240Sort of like investing your life savings on Blockbusters video stores or Motorola flip phones.

One of the many wild horses captured and domesticated - Now that makes two of us!

Following the declining demand for wool, sheep shearers and rural laborers staged strikes and work stoppages between 1920 and 1921. \240Since ranch work was exclusively man’s work, among the worker’s grievances was their inability to marry and have a family while employed at an estancia. \240Because of mounting frustration, some of the strike rallies became violent. \240In response, military forces were deployed to intervene. \240Apparently some genius thought soldiers would make good labor negotiators. \240By the end of their negotiations operation, they had killed approximately 1,200 workers. \240Strikers and sympathizers were arrested and shot by firing squads. Time to run for the hills if you heard one of the soldiers say, “Okay, what’s the next item on your list of grievances?”

In spite of Argentina’s promise to the European settlers, in 1937, it converted all of the lands west of El Calafate into a national park. \240Families that settled the area after 1907 lost their rights to the land. \240As a concession, families were allowed to keep their homes and were granted grazing rights as long as they had an heir. \240The properties could be passed on to subsequent generations but could never be sold. \240The government also placed limits on the number and type of livestock each estancia could keep. \240Many hopeful land owners simply abandoned their estancias. \240Consequently, there are still hundreds of wild cows, bulls and horses roaming the National Park. Those who opted to stay, were compelled to convert their estancias into tourist attractions.

Pimped Out Hotel Van

We booked a hotel with views of Lago Argentino but hadn’t realized that it was 15 minutes from the town center. \240Luckily the hotel provided hourly shuttle rides to and from the town center, although the shuttle was a matte-black pimped-out camper-esque type van with carpeted walls and ceiling with tassels dangling from the ceiling lights.

Transport or Night at the Roxbury

The room was clean and comfortable but the most remarkable thing was the view of the Lake. \240As the Glaciers move, they grind the rocks. \240This friction creates what is called Glacial Milk, a blueish gray dust that is suspended in the water. The Glacial Milk, the clouds, the different stages of the sun and shadows generated by the clouds and the mountain, continuously change the appearance of the Lake. \240During the morning, afternoon and evening, the Lake morphs into alternating kaleidoscopes of blue, bright white, dull and vivid green; making the 15 minute ride into town well worth it.

Hotel Edenia Punta Soberana, El Calafate

Beautiful views of Lago Argentino; Especially wearing these glasses

The main attraction in El Calaphate are the Glaciers, so we scheduled a boat tour of various glaciers, a walking tour of the famous Perito Moreno glacier and a day trip to one of the estancias. The boat tour on Lago Argentino left from Puerto Banderas and cruised along various arms of the Lake. The views were stunning and, as we neared the glaciers, we cruised past numerous icebergs. The glacier boat cruise brought us within viewing distance of numerous glaciers, including the Upsala, Spegazzini and Seco glaciers.

North Face of Perito Moreno Glacier

The highlight of the cruise was a stop at the Perito Moreno’s north face. As the ship approached the glacier we couldn’t help but think of The Wall in Game of Throne’s. \240At an imposing height of 240 feet above the surface of the water the three story ships near the glacier dwarfed in comparison (yes for you true GoT fans the fictitious Wall in the north is 700 feet). \240Despite the low hum of the vessels engines, we could hear the deep throated popping and cracking of the ice. \240Deckhands dropped colander looking nets into the water scooping up large chunks of ice. \240Not only did they serve as props for photos but the bar used the crystal clear ice for drinks.

Quick, Get a Bigger Glass!

A few days later we returned to Perito Moreno to walk the maze of walkways that offer up-close views of both the north and south face of the glacier. During both trips, we were able to experience the seemingly violent calving of ice chunks plummeting into the Lake, creating surfable size waves. \240We then watched as the the newly formed iceberg gently floated away from the glacier. \240A remarkable spectacle for us to witness and experience.

Extra Purified Scotch

On one of our days in El Calafate, we took a very bumpy and uncomfortable two-hour van ride to the Nibepo Aike Estancia. This estancia was settled in the early 1920’s by a Croatian immigrant named Santiago Peso. \240Initially, the government had given Peso approximately 70 thousand acres in which to ranch. \240Borrowing livestock from a neighbor and fellow Croatian, he named his estancia “La Jerónima,” after his Croatian neighbor’s mother. \240In 1924, on a trip to deliver his wool to Rios Gallegos, Peso met a recent Croatian immigrant named Maria Martinic. They married in 1925 and had 3 girls: Radoslaba (nicknamed Niní), Ángela (nicknamed Bebe) and María (nicknamed Porota).

A Gaucho Hand Sheering a Sheep or Date Night in Putnam, CT

In 1937, La Jerónima, along with all of the other estancias in the area became part of the National Park. The Peso family would maintain grazing rights but lost all claims to the land. \240In 1938 Santiago died of tuberculosis leaving Maria alone to manage the farm. \240With the help of her three daughters, María successfully took over a role exclusively reserved for men, the administration of the estancia. \240Because of the glass ceilings shattered by Maria, this estancia is one of the most interesting in the area. \240In 1947, having paid off all of the estancia’s debts, as a tribute to her daughters, María changed the name of the estancia from La Jerónima to Nibepo. The name Nibepo was created by using the first two letters of her daughters’ nicknames; Nini, Bebe and Porota.

Amazing Testament to the Strength of Women

In addition to the glaciers and the the estancias, El Calafate is a great town to explore. Needing a break from our organized activities, we spent the day exploring the town, having our laundry done and we even found a funky barber shop. The barber claims he is the only barber in all of southern Argentina; there are plenty of unisex hair salons but no barbers. \240We walked down to the Reserva Laguna Nimez, a lagoon and bird sanctuary at the edge of town, and watched countless birds frolic near the lagoon. \240We even witnessed a flamboyance of flamingoes at the water’s edge. \240With time to spare waiting for our laundry, we hopped a bus and toured The Glaciarium, a museum dedicated to the history and study of glaciers, and one of only three in the world.

It’s Just water in the JD bottle. Very informed Barber on Geopolitics

Flamingo Party

A very interesting phenomena, if you can call it that, was the stray dogs in El Calafate. \240There was a pack of them that slept at the base of the visitor center’s stairs. \240In the evening, as they trotted off to sleep, they would gently nudge those of us waiting for a bus or a hotel van as a sort of ‘goodnight’. \240During the day, the same pack huddled at the four-way intersection half a block from the visitors center. While the rest of the pack looked on, one of the pups patrolled the intersection, mirroring the traffic cop directing traffic. \240As the officer faced and waved on a row of cars, the pup would turn in that direction as if he too was directing traffic. \240He then would come back for an obligatory head rub by the officer.

New Meaning to Police Dog

We wrapped up El Calafate and took a mid-morning flight to Iguazu in Northern Argentina via Buenos Aires.

On Monday, Feb 12th we flew to Iguazú Falls through Buenos Aires. \240As we wrote on February 10th, the last time we flew into Buenos Aires on our way to Ushuaia we flew into the international airport (EZE) and flew out of the domestic airport (AEP) the following morning. \240This time we were reversing the process and flying into AEP and flying out of EZE, however, this time we only had a few hours between flights. \240That meant a taxi or remis from one airport to the other through city traffic. \240It would be like flying into LaGuardia and flying out of JFK on the same day, except the distance is a bit farther here. Fortunately, the ride went smoother than we had anticipated. \240Who knew that Carnival is a national holiday in Argentina. \240The Carnival celebration had started the previous Friday and would go through to the following day on Fat Tuesday. \240Consequently, there was virtually no traffic as we traversed from one airport to the other.

View of Brazil and Paraguay from our balcony

The flight to Iguazu was unremarkable. \240We flew into the local airport and taxied to our hotel in Puerto Iguazu, about 20 minutes from the airport. \240For the longest time, Puerto Iguazu in Misiones, Argentina had been a sleepy little border-town. \240It sits immediately below Brazil, and southeast of Paraguay. \240The tri-country locals are able to cross all three borders without going through immigrations, using nothing but their driver’s license.

Sleepy Puerto Iguazu - Six-way Intersection, no Stop Signs

Argentina has extreme weather on opposite ends of the country. \240Although it is summer here, Ushuaia and El Calafate were cold while Iguazu was sweltering. Although Iguazu sits below the Tropic of Capricorn, it is still close enough to the tropics to be plenty warm. \240We got use to the sun setting after nine in El Calafate and it remaining light well past ten. \240However, because of how far north we were in Iguazu, the sunset was closer to seven.

While in Puerto Iguazu we stayed in the Amerian Portal Hotel, with views of Brazil and Paraguay from our balcony. \240The cab driver, Fernando, who dropped us off at the hotel offered to drive us to Iguazú Falls, claiming that \240it would be cheaper than booking an excursion. \240He also claimed that if we wanted to, we could even pay him with a credit card. \240Because of how late it was, we decided to book the trip with him for the following day rather than going out to find a tour company. \240As we mentioned, Carnival is a national holiday. \240Our hotel was right next to Las Tres Fronteras Park (three borders park). \240Families armed with drums and colossal tambourines, and young women and men in parade costumes and masks, made their pilgrimage to Las Tres Fronteras Park. \240We thought it was adorable until they continued to dance and drum until 3:00 AM.

The following morning, Fernando was at the hotel precisely at 9:00 AM. \240He was a pleasant, soft spoken, well dressed older man. \240He was well informed regarding international politics and was tremendously knowledgeable regarding the Iguazu region. \240As he drove us to the Falls he talked about the history of the area, the relationship with the other two countries and the relationship with the Guaraní Natives. \240He noted that individuals born and raised in the area spoke all three languages and when they spoke with each other they spoke a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese and Guaraní that would be indecipherable to outsiders. \240He drove us by a Guaraní village and upon arriving at the park, he helped us procure our tickets and made sure we arranged the in-park excursions we wanted. \240He said he would return at 6:00 PM to pick us up but also gave us his card in case we wanted to return early.

High Speed Zodiacs

The Iguazu Falls are spectacular. There are continuing debates by the locals as to which side of the Falls is better for viewing. The Brazilians we spoke to said the best views were from the Brazilian side, while the Argentinians argued that the best views were from Argentina. \240We can’t judge because we decided to stay on the Argentinian side. \240In the park we started with a safari truck ride through the jungle that dropped us off at a departure point on the river. \240We boarded high speed zodiacs designed to run up the rapids and given some preliminary safety instructions; basically stay seated until we tell you and don’t fall off the boat. \240We were warned we would get wet and we were given dry bags to store our gear for when we went under the Falls. \240Getting wet and getting pounded by cascading water are two different things. Once the boat pulled under one of the Falls, it was like being completely submerged under a vertical wall of water.

Getting Ready to go Under the Falls

Getting to view the Falls from a boat, especially when you get to ride under them, is thrilling but walking over the Falls and feeling the thunderous sounds of the rushing water pounding your chest is as, if not more, exciting. There are numerous trails and even a small train that takes you to the different viewing points. The last stop on the train drops you off at a series of metal walkways that traverse over the river and ends at La Garganta del Diablo, The Devil’s Throat. \240The walk to the Falls from the train stop is long and, because of the constant sun exposure, extremely hot. \240However, the payoff is an amazing view of the Falls complete with rainbows and the roar of water.

Capuchin Monkey Enjoying his Pilfered Lunch

Lunch was also entertaining. \240Many of you know that in the seaside town of Noank, Abbott’s Lobsters in the Rough is a popular spot for hot lobster rolls. Despite its popularity, every summer some unsuspecting tourist has their meal stolen by a crafty seagull. \240Not much different in the jungle. \240As a gentleman carried a full try of food to his family’s table, a capuchin monkey swooped down and pilfered their lunch. The man’s bewilderment enhanced the entertainment value for the rest of us.

Yerba Mate Set Up

As promised, Fernando was at the park entrance precisely at six. \240Because most of the jungle animals are nocturnal, the park closed at six. The guides and the rangers constantly remind visitors that this is the wild animals’ home. We are but guests in their home so we have to respect it and share it with them equally. The park opens and closes during daylight hours allowing animals like Pumas and Jaguars to hunt at dusk and dawn without being spooked by people.

Fernando offered to take us to a local mine the next day but we declined. \240We wanted to spend the following day just relaxing before flying back to Buenos Aires. \240When we tried to pay him for the trip he declined and said we could pay him when he dropped us off at the airport on our last day. \240We thought it was extremely presumptuous of him, it would have been his loss if we decided to take a different cab to the airport. \240He was extremely pleasant and reminded us we had his card. \240He told us he was going to Brazil that evening to play in a futbol (soccer) match but if we needed anything all we had to do was call him.

Our Mate Masters at the Resto Bar

After another night of drumming and singing, \240luckily only until midnight, the following morning we walked into town after breakfast. \240We explored some of the shops and found a little Resto Bar that served Yerba Mate. Yerba Mate is an herbal drink that is more of a social and cultural activity than the mere consumption of a beverage. \240We witnessed some of it in Chile but it was most apparent in Argentina. \240It is usually a hot drink but standing in line waiting for the safari truck to arrive, we noticed a young couple drinking cold Mate. \240When we asked about it, they explained that Mate can be served cold with natural juices in the summer. \240They immediately passed the ‘calabasa’ to us for a taste. \240Throughout Argentina and Uruguay you see individuals walking with a calabasa in hand and a thermos of warm or cold water to steep their Yerba Mate. Throughout our tour of the Iguazu Falls we spotted individuals walking in the blistering heat with their mate set up.

Because we had never tried Yerba Mate, the owner of the Resto Bar set up a service and demonstrated how to drink it and how to replenish the calabasa. She explained that Mate is a social event and that you drink, rehydrate the calabasa and pass it on to the next person. Kind of like a peace pipe in a spaghetti western or Jimmy’s activities during the 1960’s. We have to admit that like an herbal tea it is an acquired taste and provides a natural source of energy without caffeine jitters. Although we can buy into the health benefits and are attracted to the taste, we have yet to understand the obsessive behaviors associated with the practice; like carrying it as if it were a security blanket wherever they go. We have seen people on the beach, the grocery store and even at a sunset celebration at a museum, clutching onto their calabasas sucking on the brew.

After our mate and lunch, we spent the day at the hotel, enjoying the pool and gym and of course their restaurant and bar. \240When we requested a glass of wine with dinner, we were surprised at the amount of wine in the glass. \240We looked at the wine and looked at the waiter to which he said, “this is an amigos pour”. \240Well God bless the Amigos!

Lounging by the Pool

At precisely 11:30 AM on Thursday morning, Fernando pulled up to the hotel. We asked him how his futbol game turned out and he admitted they lost, but they would get a chance at redemption in Paraguay the next evening. \240The normally quiet Fernando was more chatty this morning. \240He talked about his daughter, his three grandchildren and a career in the military and merchant marines, spanning thirty years. \240When not sailing around the world, he perused his other passion; tourism and driving tourists around from all over the world. \240As it turns out, Fernando was a licensed tour operator and owned the town’s largest taxi service. \240He also owned the taxi concession at the airport and, what we gauged as presumption was merely fact. \240Any other taxi we took to the airport, would have been owned by Fernando. \240He explained how he owned a house in town to be near his daughter and grandchildren but his main house was about 20 minutes outside of town. \240His history was chronicled matter-of-factly and not in a braggadocios fashion. \240It was refreshing how humble and down to earth he was and despite his station in this remote corner of the world, how kind and attentive he was with us.

A Bird for my Sister’s Enjoyment

A few years ago we started to purge ourselves of stuff, selling the boat and properties that no longer had utility and served to tie us down or stifle us. \240We treasure collecting memories of places visited, but more importantly collecting memories of the people we get to meet along the way.