From the Sea to the South

South America » Chile » Magallanes » Puerto Natales
July 14th 2010

Published: July 15th 2010

We arrived in Santiago, Chile and met up with one of Chelsey´s old roommates who has been studying there for the last year. We spent the evening making pizza at her apartment before heading out for the evening with her and one of her roommtes Andrew. The next day we spent ambling around Santiago and going up to the Cerro where a HUGE statue of Mother Mary hovers over the Entire city at an outdoor chapel constructed for the Pope´s visit in i don´t know what year. It was a great spot to stop and think for a while. Something about that perfect combination of outdoor space, quiet, and just enough of my religion really struck me in the best way.

That night we took off for Valparaiso. On the bus we were calling hostels trying to find somewhere to stay when the guy across the asile and a seat behind me tapped me on the shoulder and passed me his smartphone on which he had pulled up a hostel. We called and ended up staying there... somehow we continue to magically find places that feel like we´re staying at someone´s house, a quality we love. From the bus station we asked a taxi to take us to our new found home, but he waved us off and told us just to walk pretty much saying 'silly, you dont need me´. After dropping our stuff we headed into the center of town to meet up with out new aquaintance from Santiago, Andrew. And as a bus passes i looked up across the street to see our friends from Hamline and yelled out to them before even really confirming it was in fact them. Luckily it was. They had met up with Two more Hamline students who had been studying in Valparaiso and so it turned out that the 7 of us went out for the evening. We had a blast and lit up the pub, probably seemingly obnoxious to some, however we made friends with a group of Chileans who were just as loud and enjoying themselves as we were. We made some loose plans and said our goodbyes around 4:30am. At breakfast in the morning the owner of our hostel, and new parental figure, asked us if we'd gone out the night before, and what time we'd come back.

We spent the next several days exploring Valparaiso, and the surrounding area of Isla Negra- both of which have homes of the poet Pablo Neruda to be toured. We arrived at Isla Negra the day before the poet's 106 birthday and so we were told THIS was the reason the house and museum had closed early that day and we could Not have a tour. However, i have my suspicions about the coincidence of the world cup's timing being just the same as this magical closing early time... hmmmm. Well as is South America. So my dream of walking through Pablo Neruda´s home at isla negra was caboshed on the spot...however we were able to see why one would live there. RIGHT on the ocean, waves crashing on random rock formations all around and there was one of the most beautiful sunset´s we´ve seen. Certainly no lack of beauty and inspiration for a poet who loved the ocean despite his supposed fear of its immensity. So Isla Negra was beautiful and certainly worth the trip despite the disappointment. We did however, get to see Neruda´s house in Valparaiso- which was just as whimsical, ambling, meticulous, and nautical as i expected the other to be. (He has a third house in santiago that we skipped). The rest of our time was spent exploring the windy streets of Valparaiso, where around every corner a splash of color is sure to surprise. Murals cover much of the city streets, shop walls, doors and even the steel security doors pulled down at night to cover store fronts. They´re all incredibly different, some happy combinations of objects others a bit more eerie creepy or dark but all vibrant and very well done. It was shocking alone to see art for the sake of art just peaking out between alley ways and around corners or just on public garbage cans. Art for the sake of art is not something we've seen really at all before this pleasant encounter. So we spent the majority of two days just letting the colors pull us around the streets and through some neighborhoods. We also made sure to head up an acensor which allows you to easily climb up to the top of some of the hills where other neighborhoods are located- but for us it gave a view of the city and the sea, just what we were looking for. Along with container ships the harbor is full of naval ships and uniformed men abound. Valparaiso was a really great city to spend a few days exploring and with some friends in town to meet up with in the evenings it was a real pleasure to visit.

And that is something very different about this trip. Friends. It started in Europe the same way- friend hopping to see the people we knew would be where we were going. This portion in South America has been a little less intentional, or at least less pre-planned (as is the entire trip)- but it has been really different and totally fantastic. So many times i have felt the world around me shrink as so many things about peoples of different places and cultures are the same everywhere- and i´ve been struck before by the people are people no matter where we go kind of feeling. But this time the world has shrunk in a whole new way- the people we know, too, can be anywhere at any time. And so far their ability to truly contribute to our experiences in different places has made all the difference.

Yesterday we left Valparaiso for Santiago where we jumped on a plane and headed south to the end of the world and found ourselves in Punta Arenas, Chile which is in the region of magellan.... and Directly on the Straight of Magellan. It was a bit of a long travel day and when we climbed into bed at 1:30am we passed out hard. But that did not deter us from getting up early and exploring the town. By 8am the sun was just peaking it´s head up at the cold day, seemingly being dragged into the cold by time, and we were on our way to the municipal cementary. We spent over an hour and a half exploring the place. The variety and sheer number of graves was impressive... and that was before we even found any of the explorers from ships wrecked in the area or original researchers of the islands south of the south american mainland (between here and ANTARCTICA) who just never made it home. We really just stumbled upon these graves among the masses and felt really excited to see the history of the area in such a basic and common way, no museum nor Huge commemorative statue just graves with heartfelt descriptions. Then we did come upon a bit of a statue that did commemorate the explorer and whaler who first put the flag of Chile on Antarctica and is thanked for furthering Chile geographically. It was a really neat start to our day, crunching through the snowy cemetary as the sun came up. The rest of the day was spent attempting to get close to the straight of Magellan but major construction made that near impossible... until we went to the shipping harbor and begged the guard to just let us near the water- and after simply explaining our difficulty he didn´t mind at all. So there it was. Wow. Not much south of here.

And in the evening we headed north a bit to Puerto Natales, from where I am finishing this blog. Tomorrow we will go to the national park of torres del paine for the entire day. Glaciers here we come.

Time is running short and patagonia is a much faster part of our trip than the last few weeks have been... but hopefully i get to let you in on all the magic that is patagonia... as i find it.

From the Sea to the South

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