Friday, January 27, 2012

South America - part 2/17 - Punta Arenas, Chile

1/25, Wednesday. Overcast, ~15°, US$1 ~= CLP 500
Flights from Buenos Aires to Punta Arenas all route through Santiago, Chile, and cost over US$600/pp, which also means another reciprocal fee for both of us at Santiago airport. In order to save money, we flew to Rio Gallegos in Argentina for ~US$220/pp, and then took a bus to Punta Arenas for ~US$20. This became a very long day, as it happens that on Wednesday, there's only one bus going this way.

Rio Gallegos is quite bleak. The bus terminal is busy. Reached the border in ~1 hour. Terribly windy. The full bus (~70 people) filed out of the bus to line up in two different buildings, one for immigration, one for agriculture check (no vegetable, no fruit, no dairy, no meat even if it's vacuum packed). The border crossing took close to 1.5 hours. 2+ hours later, we reached the sprawling Punta Arenas.

Bought some Chilean Pesos 1. Checked in at Hospedaje Costanera 2, a 2 story house 15 minutes walk from downtown. 2 blocks from the waterfront. The owners' English is slightly better than my Spanish. The lady recommended restaurant Donde Mariano. Portion is a bit small, otherwise, not bad. Walked to waterfront after dinner. People are enjoying the colorful exercise installations. Sun sets at ~10pm here.

1/26, Thursday. Sunny - rain - sunny with clouds, very windy.
Downtown Punta Arenas is centered around Plaza de Armas. A memorial of Magellan, shaved trees, souvenir shops. An old gentleman was preaching something in fervent. Later, another old man sang through a loud speaker. Visited Sara Braun's home (now Club de UniĆ³n and Hotel Nogueira) and Magallanes Regional Museum (home to Braun's too, both ~US$2). French furniture, chandeliers, parquet floor. Not very big. We can sit on the old couches in the first museum. The later also has some window display of the original human trace, original plumbing system, and a 1906 water filtration tank.

Hid from the rain at a supermarket, ate and bought beer for the later Penguin trip, (yet forgot it in the hostel fridge). On the way back, visited the cemetery. Again, nicely shaved trees.

Travel agency Comapa offers Magdalena Island trip, a penguin colony. 5-10pm. 2 hour each way by slow ferry (~60 tourists, not a single vehicle on board). 1 hour walking to a lighthouse on top of the small island, which was closed. Terribly windy, but the ride wasn't too choppy. Penguins come here each December from Brazil and Uruguay for longer daylight. They breed and feed the young, then leave in March. It's the busiest in the morning and late afternoon, when one of the pair leaves or comes back from fishing. They call loudly hoping to find their mates. The young are already quite big, beginning to shed their fluffy grey coat. The ferry terminal is rather far from town, about an hour's walk. There's University of Magallanes and a large "duty-free" shopping complex "Zona Franca" on the way.

1/27, Friday. Cloudy - rain - sunny with rain.
Barely caught the 9am mini-bus tour (CLP10000) to Fuerte Bulnes in Punta Santa Ana, a fort founded in 1843 where a ship of 23 people, under the order of President Bulnes, sailed here and claimed the area Chilean. The fort was burned after the town was established in Punta Arenas. In 1940s, this was reconstructed. It's quite beautiful here, can even see some snowy peak in the distance. Big trees, all leaning to one direction. Well (re)constructed cabins, stable, a chapel, wood and grass mud brick. A few kilometers away is Fort Famine. In 1584, 300 Spanish settled here to block English trades in the Magellan Strait. All but one survived, without any Spanish resupply, living on mussels and grass. In 1960s, 11 skeleton was found here. A few hundred meters back on the road, is a tall white post, signed the center of Chile with map: 4000km north to border with Peru, 4000km south to the end of Chilean's Antarctic territory.

Back to town, bought stamps and postcards, and more importantly, a Sunday bus ticket from Ushuaia to Natales (with connection here, ~US$70/pp). Walked in downtown once more, checked out the unimpressive cathedral (colorful but small stain-glass windows), city hall. Many Imperial Cormorant, Dolphin Gull resting on the abandoned piers at the waterfront only 2 blocks south of the main square.

Anxiously waiting for the phone from Antarctic Shipping, which came at ~9:30pm, 3 hours after the lady of the house called them for me. Flying to Antarctic tomorrow!!!

Notes

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

South America - part 1/17 - Buenos Aires

Jan 23. Monday. Departure.
United Airlines Seattle to Buenos Aires with one connection at Washington DC. Arrived at the gate barely 5 minutes before boarding (10 minutes better on the second leg). United has cut down services. Only soft drink, no more peanuts or pretzels for domestic flights, and no free beer or wine on the leg to Argentina, at least dinner and crappy breakfast were provided for this 10+ hour flight. We had a late lunch on board with organic salad, organic roast beef, prosciutto from San Danielle on the way to DC, and supplemented our breakfast with Beecher's cheese, organic apple and pear.

Jan 24. Tuesday. Sunny with clouds. ~26° Arrived at Buenos Aires' EZE airport ~11am. Americans have to pay US$140/multiple entries, and Canadians US$75/150 single/multiple entry (Australian $40, Mexican $5). A lady at the exit kindly offered her help. Pointed us to Banco de la Nacion (right after the custom) for a better exchange rate (but much longer lines). US$1 = A$4.30. In the city, it was 4.31.

Taxi to AEP airport for A$170, plus A$2 toll. Airport shuttle bus A$70/pp, not frequent. Most people who work at AEP's various counters don't speak English, including those at Hertz and Avis. We stored our luggage with the guard (a 20+ minute process, each bag properly tagged). Big bags A$18/12hr, medium A$12/12hrs. I cannot fathom how our 3 bags came to A$39. Bought a sim card. The helpful girl tested my phone and made sure it worked. +54-1164535933.

Buenos Aires looks Parisian, ornate pierre-de-taille as well as ugly apartment buildings. Big avenues with 11 lanes in each direction. Street side cafes, leafy stately neighborhoods, some huge trees. Friendly and affluent people, tolerating my terrible Spanish.

Visited Monumental Tower next to Plaza San Martin, inaugurated in 1916. Donated by the British residents in Argentina on the occasion of May Revolution Centennial. A frieze of Thistle Flower (Tudor Rose, Wales' Red Dragon + Ireland's Shamrock). The bell chimes every 15 minutes. But the elevator and stairs are closed to visitors. An amiable old gentleman watches over the small ground floor as information center of museums in BA. However, his English is worse than my Spanish, which I found out when buying a post card. He gave us a nice map of all the museums in town.

Across the street, at Sheraton, we exchange A$10 in coins and bought some stamps. Buses here only take coins.

A memorial of Falkland Island war is guarded by 2 soldiers at the base of San Martin plaza. San Martin's equestrian statue at its NE corner, where a free guided tour departs here everyday at 5pm (too bad, I didn't know this). We may also want to check out Palacio Paz.

Arrived at Recoleta Cemetery too late, as people were pouring out of the gate. They close at 6:45pm. So checked out the yellow Design Center and the pink Fine Arts museum across the street. The Fine Arts museum has some nice collections. Many French impressionists', some old masters including Goya, 1 Rubens, 1 alleged Rembrandt. A small portion dedicated to local artists. Not very good. 1st floor was under renovation. 2nd floor is much smaller, modern paintings of no interest. 2 balconies overlooking the Law School building, dotted with abstract sculptures.

Had dinner at a small cafe on Ave. July 9th, not far from Obelisk. Mediocre and pricy, A$7.5 per head cover charge. After dinner, headed over to AEP for an early morning flight to Rio Gallegos. Will be back in a month.

Practicality:
Aerolineas Argentina refused to give me a transfer voucher, because I didn't arrive in Argentina with them, even though their tickets claims "for all those passengers traveling with the airline internationally, regionally or with a domestic connection".
At AEP, public bus 33 and 45 go to city center for $1.25 (COIN ONLY). Shuttle is A$25/pp. It's nearly impossible to get coins in the stores at AEP, only the 3rd shop where I bought a useless guide (A$19) gave me 4 A$1 change.
Most buses in town is A$1.1.