Transitions

Danny and I actually did not stumble into the town square until days into our stay in Punta Arenas. We made our way to the coast, to the hills, to the beautiful city of a cemetery.

Sheep are really important to the south and have been a main industry...I can't help but think of "10 things I hate about you" (sorry...yes I am willing to cheapen my blog with this...) "are there sheep"

The cemetery had marked streets, "mansions"

and "apartments"

 After our lovely stay with Mo, I ran some errands while Danny pieced together his bicycle, which had been folded up into a suitcase for the plane ride. Just as we met up again, the sky fell out. It was already FREEZING, there at the end of the world, so neither of us wanted to deal with the rain. We were going to make our way back to the hostel where we camped, but now we had a bike to deal with as well, so catching a collective (taxis that run on particular routes), was going to be more difficult. Additionally we were starving as it was 4 in the afternoon and neither of us had eaten all day and had to go to the bathroom.


We took refuge in the entrance to the cemetery. There were a lot of people loitering, but a tourist bus had just left so neither of us were too worried. Well, Danny wasn’t too worried. But we also both really had to go to the bathroom. We took turns using the bathroom and Danny suggested we just have lunch there as well. No one had said anything, but I really had the feeling that we shouldn’t stick around.

Just as we walked out of the entrance, a hearse pulled up with an ENOURMOUS procession behind it. I guess it had come from the opposite side of town because after it pulled over, cars passed for what seemed like 10 minutes—preventing us from crossing the street and further incriminating us of our gringo intrusion. Eep! We finally made it across and settled for a less wet spot in a park for our late afternoon meal. By the end of it, we were freezing and the prospect of camping didn’t seem too appealing. We settled for a hostel with beds (the only I’ve stayed in since Valpairiso).

Somewhere between that hostel and the next day or so, everything changed…