Patagonia Trip Logs: Days 1 & 2
So here's a brief trip log of the recent trip Silicic and I took to Patagonia.
We left LAX on a midday flight, which was far better than our original plan to leave on an early flight and suffer through an 8 hour layover in DFW. Admirals' Clubs are nice but not nice enough for that. Silicic had a bunch of electronic upgrades available and we were set to fly Business Class on the leg to Dallas.
But it turned out that for a small fee -- the equivalent of just 1 arm and just 1/2 a leg -- we could upgrade the entire downbound trip. With a 9.5 hour, overnight leg to Santiago (SCL) that would have been tempting enough. But we knew this plane would be equipped with lie flat seats. Sleep would be much easier. Sleep was much easier. And it was made really easy by taking Ambien for the first time. Take a pill, put the set back, wait 15 minutes and wake up just in time for breakfast and landing in Chile! That's how to fly.
We managed to catch an earlier flight to Punta Arenas (PUQ). That flight was another long one -- three hours to Puerto Montt, a brief layover and another 2 to PUQ. We had seats in row 1 -- a pretty lousy bulkhead row as it had very little leg room. Plus, we were mildly put out by the rather annoying behavior of a few Chilean business men around us. They did not seem to have a lot of respect for personal space or proper conversational volume levels. In the end it was ok when we realized it was just the 1st sign of being in a different culture.
Arriving in PUQ we grabbed a cab to the Hotel Navegantes. It wasn't the lap of luxury but we neither needed nor expected it to be. PUQ serves as a marshaling site for much of the research conducted in Antarctica. (Ushuaia is closer but Argentina is a hassle -- especially since the international and domestic airports in Buenos Aires are across town from each other.) And the Antarctic research season was just beginning.
Silicic just missed being able to hook up with several old friends from the ice. But one was still in town. So we met Herb for dinner. There's a little bar/cafe down the street from the hotel name Lomit's. They specialize in steak sandwich know as a Barros Lucco. They're really tasty especially when washed down with Cerveza Kunstmann and in the company of good people.
PUQ is a nice place. The people are friendly. There's nothing outrageously neat about the place. But it's reasonably clean, easy to navigate, and just comfortable. It has as certain "colonial" sense that I recall from trips to Bolivia -- especially Oruro. The buildings are colorful, the town full of statues of national or regional heroes, the streets are all named for Generales, Presidentes, or Libertadores. It's just typical of so many of my experiences in South America. I like it. Well except for the patriotic drum and bugle corp that marches around after school playing rather badly. Or the guys with jackhammers who seemed to work until 2200.
The next day we slept in. Then we wandered the waterfront, checked on our rental reservation and just adapted to being so far (~6,700 miles as the crow flies or 7,500 miles as the big ol' jet airliner does) from home. Silicic's knee was bothering her (damn arthritis, damn clot, damn, damn, damn.) So she rested in the room while I wandered. I went up the hill, past the bad marching drummers, to the Air Force and Army bases. And got some pictures looking back towards town and the Straits of Magellan. Then back down the hill to the waterfront and along it for a while. That took me past at least 2 naval bases. It's a military town... When I grew tired, I strolled back to the hotel.
Silicic had strong memories of the Sopa de Ajo (garlic soup) at a local restaurant named Remezon's. We dined there and hat what turned out to be both the worst and most expensive meal of the trip. Soup, crab (for her) and wild boar (for me) washed down with a harsh chilean cabernet. We should have gone back to Lomit's.
We left LAX on a midday flight, which was far better than our original plan to leave on an early flight and suffer through an 8 hour layover in DFW. Admirals' Clubs are nice but not nice enough for that. Silicic had a bunch of electronic upgrades available and we were set to fly Business Class on the leg to Dallas.
But it turned out that for a small fee -- the equivalent of just 1 arm and just 1/2 a leg -- we could upgrade the entire downbound trip. With a 9.5 hour, overnight leg to Santiago (SCL) that would have been tempting enough. But we knew this plane would be equipped with lie flat seats. Sleep would be much easier. Sleep was much easier. And it was made really easy by taking Ambien for the first time. Take a pill, put the set back, wait 15 minutes and wake up just in time for breakfast and landing in Chile! That's how to fly.
We managed to catch an earlier flight to Punta Arenas (PUQ). That flight was another long one -- three hours to Puerto Montt, a brief layover and another 2 to PUQ. We had seats in row 1 -- a pretty lousy bulkhead row as it had very little leg room. Plus, we were mildly put out by the rather annoying behavior of a few Chilean business men around us. They did not seem to have a lot of respect for personal space or proper conversational volume levels. In the end it was ok when we realized it was just the 1st sign of being in a different culture.
Arriving in PUQ we grabbed a cab to the Hotel Navegantes. It wasn't the lap of luxury but we neither needed nor expected it to be. PUQ serves as a marshaling site for much of the research conducted in Antarctica. (Ushuaia is closer but Argentina is a hassle -- especially since the international and domestic airports in Buenos Aires are across town from each other.) And the Antarctic research season was just beginning.
Silicic just missed being able to hook up with several old friends from the ice. But one was still in town. So we met Herb for dinner. There's a little bar/cafe down the street from the hotel name Lomit's. They specialize in steak sandwich know as a Barros Lucco. They're really tasty especially when washed down with Cerveza Kunstmann and in the company of good people.
PUQ is a nice place. The people are friendly. There's nothing outrageously neat about the place. But it's reasonably clean, easy to navigate, and just comfortable. It has as certain "colonial" sense that I recall from trips to Bolivia -- especially Oruro. The buildings are colorful, the town full of statues of national or regional heroes, the streets are all named for Generales, Presidentes, or Libertadores. It's just typical of so many of my experiences in South America. I like it. Well except for the patriotic drum and bugle corp that marches around after school playing rather badly. Or the guys with jackhammers who seemed to work until 2200.
The next day we slept in. Then we wandered the waterfront, checked on our rental reservation and just adapted to being so far (~6,700 miles as the crow flies or 7,500 miles as the big ol' jet airliner does) from home. Silicic's knee was bothering her (damn arthritis, damn clot, damn, damn, damn.) So she rested in the room while I wandered. I went up the hill, past the bad marching drummers, to the Air Force and Army bases. And got some pictures looking back towards town and the Straits of Magellan. Then back down the hill to the waterfront and along it for a while. That took me past at least 2 naval bases. It's a military town... When I grew tired, I strolled back to the hotel.
Silicic had strong memories of the Sopa de Ajo (garlic soup) at a local restaurant named Remezon's. We dined there and hat what turned out to be both the worst and most expensive meal of the trip. Soup, crab (for her) and wild boar (for me) washed down with a harsh chilean cabernet. We should have gone back to Lomit's.
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