Southern Hospitality

To those of you who have been so generous as to visit my blog, I’m sorry it has been so long since my last post! My trip to the south took an unexpected (but good!) turn, and I have not had internet access since then, besides the occasional police station.... But I’ll start back up two weeks ago. Its been quite a learning opportunity, and while not in Spanish, it has certainly pushed my limits….(oh and I've seemed to have lost the port that connects my camera...so I'm afraid these will be without photos :(


So, Punta Arenas…

Danny and I have made it ALMOST to the end of the world.  Punta Arenas is the southernmost city in Chile.  I don't think either of us were fully prepared for what that meant. Punta Arenas is an unexpected little town. It actually is quite big for being in the middle of nowhere, and based almost entirely on tourism.  There is a hostel on every block. I was given about 8 maps of the city today, one from each vendor I visited. An enourmous cruise ship docked today, and you see backpackers and cyclists all around.  However, tourists only see a very small part of it.  A little boy stopped to stare at the two of us running in our leggings and bright wind breakers.  He turned to his dad for explanation, who just shrugged and said "Gringos".  We are still a strange sight to the eyes.

The town square and tourist attractions are all within walking distance—all besides the Zona Franca, which became a very crucial part of my upcoming adventure. But the actual town—where people live and work, study and play, is a good deal further and stretches for miles. This section of the town has not been developed for tourists and has a slightly aged and run down look, like a blue collar town at the downturn of the industry it is based on.


The town square, on the other hand, is elegant and regal. It retains its very European look, colored by local vendors pushing coordinated city-owned carts through the park in the middle. Danny, proud of his Czech heritage, was quick to point out that this is why Europe is so attractive and has been so successful. Noone has matched the beauty of European architecture without imitating it. Haha, we are so different in our thinking. Still, next to the coast, and filled with banks, tourist agencies, and government buildings, you would never think to look for the rest of the city, hidden behind the hill overlooking the coast.
We thought the town would be cold--and it is, but what really gets you is the wet.  It rains a cold rain here that is almost impossible to escape.  You would think there would be covered areas since the trend seems to be that every afternoon the building clouds release their freezing fury on the earth. 

The past two nights we spent with Mo, a cs connection that Danny had.  This young man, early thirties and recently on his own, like many Chileans who stay with their families through their twenties, welcomed us into his home for two nights.  He is an ESL teacher, so also had a wonderful conversation with us in spanish when we first arrived (he was very patient).  He suggested places to visit around the city and even drew us a map to help us find our destination.

Our first night at Mo's, we made Chilean style lasagna.  Cheese here is surprisingly scarce and expensive.  We bought one bag of what turned out to be super salty mozzerella looking cheese and then a tube of light cream to imitate ricotta cheese. As seems to be common here, we did not have access to an oven, so we cooked our lasagna on the stove, layering in the vegetables we found. At some point during the preparation, Mo looked at us a bit confused:  "You two haven't known each other very long have you?"  I believe it was the point at which I discovered how conservative my hippie Gtown friend is.  Most women travelling are travelling with their boyfriends or husbands...so a couple like the two of us is rare.

 We devoured the lasagna over wine and beers.  It certainly tasted differently than all my previous lasagnas, but the guys loved it! After dinner, Mo showed us how to play blues on the guitar and we stayed up laughing and fiddling on the guitar. It was quite a fun time!