Lago San Rafael

WOW its been a while since I've blogged! Sorry to keep you waiting, if anyone's reading this :)

10/26/09
Today we had a surprise party for Sam, it was legit. We all hid in an upstairs rented room in Triana's apartment and when she walked in, we jumped up and yelled ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! After that everybody got together later that night to hit up Go! and Tercer Tiempo for some good times at the gringo bars.

10/27/09
My puppy, Knight, died today :(
He had a tumor and he was only 9.
I started packing for the south trip in my melencholy state.

10/28/09
Today I hung out with Hayley and some of her friends from church downtown. Vero and her sister Clara showed us some sweet secondhand stores in el centro, but they were full of american clothes, unfortunately. I'm actually convinced that this is where they send Goodwill clothes that get salvaged from the stores in the U.S. Vero was so nice, she bought us empanadas and ice cream. I also learned a lot of chilenismos from them. I was proud I was talking so well with Clara, Vero's older sister. I figured out that I speak better with certain people, I don't know why, but thats just the way it works. Also depends on how tired/alert I am. And even how long I've known the person.
Anyway later Karl and I went to check out the Vega Monumental next to our house. I had been there before, but he hadn't. We bought a ton of strawberries for only 500 pesos. Yummm

10/30/09
Today before leaving for the bus station (to ultimately meet up with the class in Puerto Montt for the south trip), Lindsay and I went downtown for the day to shop and just run around. We found a few huge artesanías where we each found some souvenirs for friends back home. We head to the bus station around 9 because we were taking an overnight bus to Santiago the next day. Unfortunately, a guy tried getting into my purse. I didn't know what was happening until Hayley told me. It was the first time I didn't have my eyes on my purse since being in Chile. I figured being surrounded by 7 people I was somewhat safer but I shouldn'tve let my guard down. I feel something tugging on my purse and I look down to see Hayley's hand on someone ELSE's hand INSIDE my purse and she's pulling it out. I was really flustered and confused, the guy stormed off awkwardly. Later on the bus I noticed he was sitting kitty corner from me, one row up! WHen we got off the bus in the morning he kept staring at me before I figured out that was the guy who tried to rob me and I glared at him and gave him the finger from afar.
Anyway on the bus, Alison and I talked about relationships with friends and family for so long since we couldn't sleep. I love that girl, we really click.

10/31/09
We checked into the boat in the morning and had a few hours to wander around the port city of Puerto Montt. We hadn't ate breakfast yet so we picked a cute little café that overlooked the water called Café Don Carlos. While we sipped coffee and ate empanadas we watched the fishermen come in with their catch of the morning. Some of them brought the bags right onto shore, straight into the restaurant beside us, and threw live seafood into boiling water. Now thats fresh!
I bought some pretty sweet pants, they're red, yellow, and green striped. Lots of people wear them here in different colors but of the same material, but I"ll prolly just wear them to bed because they look like pajama pants. We also found a super delicious dried fruit store where we bought some tried papaya, kiwi, and raspberries.
We boarded the boat, settled in, and they fed us dinner. After all that, there was a party in the common room, but of course most of the gringos had drinks and dressed up for Halloween. Half the people on the boat loved us, and half of them hated us. I myself felt like I was on a nursing home since they were all pretty old, but that didn't make it less fun.
At one point I went out to look at the stars, but the lights on the boat were too bright to see much :(

11/01/09
In the morning Alison and I went to the top deck to watch the islands go by. It was really cold up there with the wind from how fast the boat was going. Alison saw seals and dolphins when I had went back inside thanks to not feeling well.
Another time I was out on deck, I met a sweet old woman traveling with her daughter, who just so happened to have studied in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin when she was studying English in college. I was really excited they knew where Milwaukee and Oconomowoc were.
My favorite quote of the day was at lunch with Alison: "You know whats a really bad idea? Peel an orange and then touch your fucking eye."

Later we got off the boat because it stopped in a small port town called Chacabuco. EVERYthing was closed because it was a Sunday. Did I ever mention that nearly everything closes down on a Sunday in nearly all of Latin America? True story.
Alison and I went back to the boat early and played giant chess on the back top deck.

11/02/09
TODAY WE SAW GLACIER!
When we woke up we were going past huge chunks of ice and it reminded me of the Titanic. In the morning they handed us all orange life jackets, we climbed down a long flight of stairs to little boats that took us over to the glacier. Since its nearly summer here, we couldn't get very close because huge chunks of ice were falling off it. It was so beautiful! Huge chunks of ice that had fallen into the lake were floating by, some of them 4 times the size of our boats, and they were the bluest blue I've ever seen. We froze our asses off in those little boats, not prepared for the rain/hail falling that day, not to mention the cold of the extreme south. At one point we saw sea otters playing around the ice.

11/03/09
We started heading back to Puerto Montt today but stopped in Aysén for a small town tour. There really wasn't much there besides three rivers that were called "dead" rivers. When we returned to the boat in the afternoon and left the port, the waves were starting to get really bad and I think about half of us on that boat were sick that night. We could hardly sleep the boat was rocking so badly, I felt as though I'd fall off the bunk. Out of inability to sleep, a few of us climbed up on deck to watch the waves: this turned out to be a TERRIBLE idea! As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, wind hit us like a hurricane and we nearly fell over! Karl and I held onto the railing for dear life and tried to sneak around to the front of the ship but it was literally impossible slash way too dangerous.
When we returned to the living quarters we ran into a guy on his way outside to yell at us to come in because it was way too dangerous.

11/04/09
Today we finally got off the boat in Puerto Montt and many of us went our seperate ways: Some of us were headed to Santiago and ultimately Buenos Aires, others stayed in Puerto Montt a few extra nights, some went to Bariloche, a southern Argentine town famous for chocolate, and then there was the group of 8 that included me who went to the island of Chiloé. Or, I should say, Had PLANS to go to the island of Chiloé. We went to the bus station to get tickets (theres a bus that takes a ferry across the straight to get to the island) and it turns out the fishermen were on strike and nobody was allowed to cross on the ferry today. Instead, we read up on Lindsay's and Cheryl's guidebook and chose to start heading north to Osorno. We were all pretty disappointed but we decided to go a little bit north at a time and keep checking on the strike in Puerto Montt. We found a decently cheap hostel for the night and just settled in, deciding to explore the city tomorrow.