Day 173: Feb. 4, 2008 Pto Natales to Punta Arenas

  Punta Arenas, Chile
Monday, February 4, 2008

Day 173: February 4, 2008 Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas

I got up at 8:00 and felt fine. The hotel didn't have breakfast so I walked around the nearby blocks looking for a place to get a cup of coffee. All of the eatery-type places were closed but I noticed that a small, self-service grocery store was open. I walked in and asked the owner where I could get a cup of coffee. He said there wasn't any place open until 10:00 but he was about to have a cup. He invited me to join him and I gladly accepted. We stood in the store and drank two cups of coffee, talking mainly about the US elections. We concluded that the desire to see Bush gone from office was one of the few points on which most of the world was in agreement.

I returned to the hotel and prepared to travel. The woman from the hotel and her son gave me a lift over to the Pacheco office and within half an hour I was on the bus and we were underway. An extremely unpleasant young woman from Montreal sat next to me. I don't know what her problem was but I can understand why she was traveling alone.

The sky was clear as we traveled south. I got a good view of the channel where the Seno Última Esperanza enters the Magellan Straits. I'm not sure I had ever seen that before. The bus ride went fairly quickly and we arrived in Punta Arenas a little after 1:00, after making a stop at the airport. I was planning to stay at the Residencial Ely again but did not see anyone from that establishment so I got a room at the Hospedaje Charita for $18/night. It is a dive bed and breakfast a few blocks off of the main plaza. The people are very nice and there is a small but international clientele. I got a large room with a double bed and cable TV. Bathrooms are shared but there are two of them. The locks on the doors are a little tenuous but the family that runs the place are good, honest people so I'm not too worried about having anything stolen.

I watched CNN for awhile and wrote an entry before heading out on the street. It was nice to see some real news again. I wandered around until I found an internet place. Their MS Explorer version must have been ancient because I kept getting messages saying that it couldn't open the page. Frustrated, I left and found another one, in a pool hall, Gary's Ciberpool on Errázuriz, just a couple of blocks from the hotel, which had an excellent connection. I'll go back there!

I walked into a restaurant on the main plaza but left because their prices were really steep. I ended up at a dive bar near the hotel and had a sandwich and a couple of beers. Back at the hotel, I watched Apollo 13 but fell asleep before the end. When I awoke, I turned off the TV and went to sleep.