Punta Arenas, The Sequel

I visited the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas in 2016, and I kissed the toe of the statue in the main square.  Legend says that if you kiss the toe, you’ll be sure to return to Punta Arenas one day.  And… voila!  There I was!  The city didn’t appear to have changed too much, though they installed a big “Punta Arenas” sign on the waterfront.  I took a selfie with the view from the Cerro de la Cruz lookout point, and the biggest difference from the same photo I took in 2016 was that I grew a beard.

I do have to mention that the protests that started in Santiago had spread all the way south to Punta Arenas.  There was more graffiti, but it wasn’t as terrible as in Santiago.  I also got to witness a Friday night protest, which was more of a rally than a riot.  There was a speaker and lots of flags in the crowd from various different movements that had come together, including the gay pride flag, trans pride flag, anarchist flag (yikes), and the Mapuche flag (the indigenous people of the country), alongside the Chilean flag and the regional Patagonian flag.  It all seemed very civilized, and didn’t really have an impact on my travel.

The real biggest difference was that the days were longer and stuff was open.  I had visited Punta Arenas in June – winter – in 2016, which is very much the low season.  It’s also the season when the penguins go away, so this time I wanted to come back and see them (because they certainly wouldn’t have been impressive after going to Antarctica!)  This was pretty much the only touristy thing I did in the day and a half that I spent there.

The penguin colony is on Isla Magdalena and a group tour is required to get there.  I arrived for my reserved spot on the 6am tour to find that it had been rescheduled for 3pm due to wind.  Grrr.  Morning Phill is not a happy Phill.  Luckily, the wind calmed and the 3pm tour proceeded (YAY!) despite some rain.  I was put on a bus to a boat to travel to the island.  The boat ride there was great for birdwatching, with sightings of imperial cormorants and petrels, along with swarms of birds likely feeding on sardines just below the water’s surface.

Upon arrival at the Monumento Natural Los Pinguinos, I was greeted by 15,000 breeding pairs of penguins – many with their chicks!  Penguin colonies are measured in breeding pairs rather than by individuals (I don’t know why… they just are.)  I hadn’t really made the effort to talk to any of the other tourists in my boat – most of them were Brazilian – so I just wandered onto the island and stood there staring in excitement at the little Magellanic penguins in their little Magellanic penguin burrows!

That’s when I heard a voice.  This man came up next to me and started explaining to me how the penguins make their burrows.  I understood most of it.  Then I looked over at the stranger and there was this big, juicy hunk of gorgeousness.  This guy was tall, handsome, and talking to me.  It was odd.  He wasn’t a model or anything, but there was just something about him that was very sexy.  He was a complete silver fox, but not yet silver.  I did my best to respond, but as soon as I opened my mouth, gringo came out, and he knew it.  I had a good 20-second interaction with this delicious looking specimen before he wandered off.  More to come.

I started to walk around the island, watching the penguins frolicking about.  There were so many cute penguin chicks, and I got to observe them being fed and cleaned by their parents.  There were also plenty of seagulls in the mix, and they too had little chicks with them!  I think the seagull chicks were actually cuter than the penguin chicks, but that’s just because they were so small, and small things are generally cuter.  I was surprised that at only 3-4 weeks old, the penguin chicks seemed nearly as big as the adults!  There were also several skuas hanging around.  Skuas are nasty brown seabirds that like to eat penguin chicks.  Skuas are evil and they need to be destroyed.

A bit later on, I encountered one of our guides and started walking and chatting with him.  We were forced to stop when we approached a group of people on the highest part of the trail.   It appears it was a group filming a documentary, and the host was the hunky daddy type who spoke to me right when I got on the island!  Of course he was the host – you have to put someone that pretty on television.  His name is Francisco Saavedra.  He hosts a show called “Lugares Que Hablan” as well as a bunch of other stuff.  He’s pretty.  He’s gay.  He has a hot, younger husband.  Of course he does.

Photo courtesy of the interwebs.

For the Americans reading this, he’s basically the Chilean equivalent of Anderson Cooper.  For the Australians reading this, he’s basically the Chilean equivalent of… Anderson Cooper.  Or maybe Hugh Jackman if we can count that?  For the straights or lesbians reading this, I don’t know how to convey this to you.  But he’s a big deal!  He’s beloved in Chile.  With all of the protests and political change, he’s apparently been encouraged to run for president.  I’ve not met many famous people in my life – hardly any actually, unless you count a few Australian politicians.  Francisco Saavedra is probably the hunkiest, most famous person I’ve met, and I didn’t even know who he was until it was too late!  I missed a prime selfie opportunity.  Life is unfair.

The boat stopped at Isla Marta on the way back to land.  Isla Marta is famous for sea lions.  There were lots of them.  They were nowhere near as enjoyable to look at as Francisco Saavedra.

It was then back to the mainland to prepare for the next part of my trip:  a hike.  Details to follow in the next blog.  But first, let me take a penguin selfie!

Santiago, The Sequel

I began my seven-week trip in Santiago, Chile.  I had visited Santiago in 2016 on my gap year, and spent a good amount of time there.  I fell in love with the city:  modern and clean with efficient transport, great restaurants, world-class museums, and a level of safety likely unrivalled anywhere else in Latin America.  None of that has changed for the most part, but there have been some other events that have altered the city.

For those who don’t keep up on the news, there have been protests in Santiago and around Chile since mid-October.  The protests were triggered by a nominal hike in the price of their metro (subway) fares.  Despite being a small increase, it appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Chile is a very successful country, but with success has come problems, most notably a growing level of inequality.  Chile is the most unequal country in the OECD.  I have quite a few friends in Santiago, and they all seem to agree that there are problems and that many – but not all – of the protestors’ demands are reasonable, and it appears that change is on the way.

The protests, however, have often turned violent – more riots than protests, complete with looting, arson, vandalism, and several deaths.  Many argue that they wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the violence, which very well may be true, though the extent of the violence seems unnecessary.  Metro stations were destroyed and buses set ablaze across the city, leaving people unable to get to work (often those who most need the income).  Other buildings have been torched and some riots have certainly gotten well out of control.

Despite all of this, Santiago remains safe for tourists, though a bit of extra vigilance is warranted.  I had ticked off many of the big-ticket tourist items on my last visit, but there were a handful that were new or that I didn’t get to last time.

Bahai Temple

The Bahai Temple of South America has newly opened since my last visit.  I had visited the main Bahai Temple in Haifa, Israel, back in 2008 and toured its exquisite gardens.  Unfortunately, it’s the dry season in Chile – compounded with a drought – so the gardens here were lackluster, but the temple itself was absolutely stunning.  It’s an architectural marvel, perched gloriously on the side of a mountain overlooking the entire city.

Museo Ralli

This art museum – which also has locations in Uruguay, Spain, and Israel – focuses on works by Latin American artists.  The collection had some brilliant pieces, and was neither too big nor too little.  I don’t know how I missed this last time around…

Cajon del Maipo

Wanting to get out of the city a bit, one of my Chilean mates – Ronny – drove my cousin and I out to the Cajon del Maipo – a gorge just outside Santiago.  The area has some great hikes, but at nearly 40 degrees Celsius, we opted to skip those.  We attempted to drive to a major dam and reservoir which is apparently very scenic, but it was unfortunately closed due to rock falls.  The restaurant we wanted to eat at was also closed, but we found ice cream so at least that was something.  I will try to visit again on a future trip, maybe in a cooler season.

Food

I had done pretty well with local food last time, but there were still some things to be eaten!  Of course, I had an empanada, and visited my favourite ice cream joint: Emporio La Rosa.  My opening meal was at a brilliant Peruvian restaurant called Sarita Colonia (Peruvian food is super popular in Chile as it’s considered the best in South America).  The décor was eccentric and fabulous, and the food delicious.  They even did a little Aussie-Peruvian fusion with a pavlova de chicha morada (a purple corn drink).  Yum!  Elsewhere, I had pollo a pil pil (a spicy chicken dish), sopapillas (which are similar to the ones in the USA but not sweet), and even a new type of wine:  carmenere.  It was too sweet, but when in Rome…

Family and Friends

I actually have a cousin in Santiago.  How random!  She and her husband moved there from San Francisco nearly a year ago and are enjoying it despite the protests.  It was brilliant getting to hang out with them every day and getting the expat view of things.  I also have a few good mates in Chile whom I hung out with:  Claudio (and his mother!), Ronny (and his mother too!), and Sebastian.  Claudio’s mom was sort of my “host mom” when I visited last time, and she continued to fulfill her duties by feeding me a full lunch (just after I had had lunch).  Ronny’s mother was also very motherly and provided some outstanding Christmas cookies!  I did not meet Sebastian’s mother but she surely would have loved me too!

Jewish Christmas

Speaking of Christmas cookies, it was indeed Christmas while I was in town, which meant traffic was heinous and the main mall was a zoo.  Lucky for me, I wasn’t on my own while all of my Chilean friends spent time with their families:  Karen (my cousin), Matt (her husband), and I (me) had a very traditional Jewish Christmas… with Chinese food!  We had Chinese on Christmas Eve (because there was literally nothing else open), and then booked ourselves into a very fancy Chinese-American restaurant on Christmas night.  I feel like the Jews of Australia don’t have this tradition – likely because the Chinese food down under is too authentic – but I was happy to keep the Jewish-American Chinese-food-on-Christmas tradition alive while with other Jewish Americans in South America.

Next stop:  Punta Arenas!  (not to be confused with Puta Arenas!)  But first, let me Claudio take a selfie.

Me with Claudio’s mother, Claudio’s brother, and (of course!) Claudio on Christmas Eve.

So, Facebook has now disabled the links to share a photo album with the public, which is really annoying.  So I won’t be sharing any more albums apparently.  Maybe I’ll switch to a Google option in the near future.  If you're my Facebook friend, you can view my photos there.