In Punta Arenas now, the capital of Patagonia. I hopped on the bus out of Puerto Natales yesterday early afternoon and hey hey three of my homegirls from Santiago jumped on as well. Two got off at the airport to see if they could do some flight swapping, I guess they did since I haven`t seen them around town at all. Maren the Norwegian and I continued onto central Punta Arenas and found a cheap room last night. We went out and had a regular good old fashioned bro down session about our thoughts on the current state of this wacky backpacker culture nonesense. I`m starting to turn away from it, thinking that in the future when I do my year long trips they`re each gonna have a running theme to them. Ever since I got to Costa Rica I`ve been thinking about spending 8 months going beach hunting through the Americas, stumbling across some unknown treasures on the caribbean coast of Nicaragua and the northern coast of Colombia. Now I`m thinking about doing the same type of thing searching out tiny mountain towns along the Andes in South America and spending time and drinking beers in very north or very south ice cold port towns around the world. We met a couple brits who told us they spent all of a day in Torres del Paine, which means that, yea, they went and all, but hell, I was there 4 days and hiked many, many kilometers and still saw jack shit of all that the park has to offer. I don`t know, we`ll see where all this goes a few years down the line, but right now it`s starting to look a lot more appealing than joining the hoards of gringos at hostels the world over experience none of the local culture of where they are and endlessly bitching about places being too touristy. It`s like going to Mcdonalds and complaining about nothing on the menu being vegan.
Maren my Viking friend split early this morning to take the ferry across to Tierra del Fuego where she`ll continue on to Ushuia, the city on the Argentinian side of the island that technically is the southernmost city in the world. Sorry Puerto Williams, an army outpost of 1000 Chilean troops doesn`t count. I`m really stoked on going there a few years down the line. I`ll actually have time this trip but it`ll probably be a bit too cold for my wimpy ass to handle.
Hey Dan, what the shit dude you`re in San Josè. Everybody write my brother and tell him to take the bus up to Heredia and go check out my old stompin` grounds from last semester. I`ve been telling him he has to go have a few beers at Bar Doble Cero for me, he better not disappoint.
In a couple hours I hop on a minibus to go see some motherfuckin` penguins, Isla Magdalena`s unfortunately closed today and this other place isn`t nearly as good but I`ll still see some penguins and that`s all that really matters right now. My flight takes off at 12:45 tomorrow afternoon, after that it`s goodbye Patagonia for a little while but don`t worry I`ll be back soon. Plus I`ve got the mandatory Patagonian flag patch for my sweatshirt, I`m on the team now. Where`s my sewing kit?