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Hey everyone! A quick update before I get on a really long bus to--you guessed it--Buenos Aires!
Sooo...picking up where I left off...we took a bus from Puerto Natales to the quite bigger Chilean town of Punta Arenas, which was nice, but wasn`t really distinctive. Day after that we took this really cool plane (20 seater prop) to the tiny Chilean naval base of Puerto Williams, the southernmost town in the world! I believe the latitude there is around 55.5 degrees south...very end of the world-ish. We stayed in this very cozy hostel with a very nice, somewhat crazy Chilean woman named Patty. As Trevor`s knees were still hurting, we didn`t do any camping, but I got up a hill at the back of town called Cerro Bandera for a really good view of the Beagle Channel and the Dientes de Navarino (Dientes means "teeth" and the name of the island that Puerto Williams is on is called Isla Navarino). Williams was nice--very small and windswept. Reminded me of Dillingham, AK, where I go fishing every year.
So our next step from there was to figure a way over to the actually quite close town of Ushuaia on Argentine Tierra del Fuego. This is not as easy as it sounds, as Chileans and Argentines aren`t really that friendly (I`m with Chile, of course). We were hoping to find a private yaht to take us over, but it is apparently the low season, so that was out. We ended up shelling out a rather large sum (which I`m sure much of was used to grease some palms in immigration) to take a small zodiac over the channel. This boat was just big enough to make it, I think--any smaller and we`d have some trouble.
Thus we entered into Argentina. So, when I talk to people about Chile, I tend to be a bit critical. My reference to them can change quickly from "I love chileans!" to "those gosh darn chileans!" I actually don`t say "gosh darn."
But, I have to say, at least initially, I have liked Chile more than Argentina. Maybe it was just Ushuaia, but it just seems uglier here and I like the people less (with the exception of a porteño--a guy from Buenos Aires--that I met in the hostal). Just saying--not too impressed.
It might also have to do with the circumstances in Ushuaia. There`s not much to do around there--city kind of sucks, and the only activities besides tours is camping, which we were still not really ready for. We did go to the Parque nacional Tierra del Fuego the other day, and took a kind of nice walk, but after Torres del Paine, it was kind of underwhelming. Do this first--and then go to Puerto Natales.
We also missed our bus yesterday and had to stay around all day for the new one this morning. We arrived in this also rather ugly town of Rio Gallegos a couple of hours ago to get new bus tickets.
And here`s the big news--Trevor and I are splitting up. It just wasn`t working out emotionally--I kid. Trevor`s heading up to Bariloche on the Chilean border to take Spanish classes for a couple of months, and I have to get myself to Buenos Aires, as I leave to go back to Alaska in a little more than a month.
Soltero! Kind of scary, in a way, but I`m sure it`ll be a different experience. I have a couple of friend-of-a-friends that I might meet up with in BA, but for the most part, I`ll be on my own. Tell you how that goes in a bit.
Well, believe that that´s it for now...I really appreciate hearing from all of you, and I think I will even more when I´m by my lonesome. Entonces...escríbame! I WILL write back. Promise.
Much love,
Matt
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