[Puerto Montt]
Monday, 29 March, 2004
We found this cyber cafe this mornign (the only
one open on a sunday) and its run by an american who
speaks english! What a relief to yarn to him.
Basically no one here speaks english at all - and
cause we arn´t really in the hostels we arn´t mixing
with english speaking people. I think there are a few
rich american tourists in puerto montt and other
backpackers too, all waiting for the boat tomorrow.
We went for a walk down on the waterfront last night
and saw some people walk out of a very flash hotel to
a very expensive restaurant. so we have no hope of
yacking to them if thats the way they are living.
expensive accommodation here is on a par with
expensive accom in NZ. our place is $9 a night for a
room which we can lock. it has bed bugs too which we
found this morning - but neither of us actually
reacted to them. just lots of wee blood spots on the
sheets - lovely. but after attempting to speak to
heaps of people in the last few days we have found
about two that speak real english, and about 4 total
that speak pigeon english (just some words). oh
well.... we´ll continue to use the phrase book and
use sign language, and basically guess....
went to a market yesterday to get some fruit and
veges, all very weird some of the stuff there. I
don´t know what some of it was, or how you would begin
to cook it. did find carrots though, and a very
expensive pepper.. some amazing crafts at the market
stalls though. would love to spend lots of $$ but
can´t really afford to carry the stuff around us this
early on. plus things will be cheaper up peru and
bolivia way I think. might pick up a few small things
tomorrow when they are open again I think.
Anyway, better go. my price is going up (400 pesos
per hour which is about $1 NZD, not too bad but don´t
want to be spending too many hours here when there is
stuff to see outside!!).
my next email will probably come from puerto natales
where our boat drops us off. from there there is good
tramping. yehaa...
take care
love nic
* Chinnoble #2
Sunday, 28 March, 2004
Hi again from Puerto Montt.
A lot has happened since the relative peace and quiet
of Australia. It took 30 hours from the time we
stepped on the plane in Brisbane till we got off the
plane at Santiago. All fairly non eventful. Stopped
in Auckland for an hour and a half, and saw an amazing
sunrise from the plane somewhere over the Pacific near
LA. Didn´t see anything of LA except the lovely
customs guy. We were expecting the worst but the
american customs people were great and they didn´t
even fingerprint and photograph us like everyone else.
Because we only had 3 hours to transit we were running
a little late for our connecting flight to Lima (lots
of queues and lots of walking). So they let us bypass
security and sent us to the next terminal building
with our luggage. No sniffer dogs, no scanning,
nothing. Could have walked out with anything. We must
have looked innocent enough. Didn´t get much of a
view flying in or out either because of the pollution.
Landed at santiago about 6am and it was still dark so
waited at the airport till 9am before heading into
town. The minute we stepped out of customs we were
hassled by touts wanting our business. Had to lie to
them to get them to leave us alone. We were both
pretty knackered so were glad to meed our friend to
stay with (who speaks english). The city itself was
polluted, hot and dusty. Over 30 degrees each day
which is pretty hot for this time of year. Also
managed to work out the bus to Luis´s place where we
stayed. The bus drivers are mad, they drive so fast
and seem to stop at random places at random times. No
marked stops - just stand on the road and wave
furiously - then run after it once its driven past
you. They do seem to stop if you persist.
Decided to leave Santiago for the meantime as we will
be back later with more time. Caught an overnight bus
to Puerto Montt which took just over 12 hours. Very
comfortable and nearly empty. Good value for money
(about $20 NZ for the 12 hour trip). Food on the
other hand is not too much different from NZ in the
supermarkets - cheap off the street though.
We´re having fun trying to communicate with the
locals. Pretty tiring and hard work to organise
anything but we´re getting better slowly... We´ll
probably be able to speak well about the time we leave
south america.
We´ve got another day and a half here at Puerto Montt
to explore before catching our 4 day ferry to Puerto
Natales on Monday. Should be relaxing with some great
scenery. We´re finally getting to wear some of that
warm clothing we´ve been carrying around too so the
packs are getting emptier.
Hope everyone is well.
Ciao
Andrew and Nic
[Santiago - Puerto Montt]
Sunday, 28 March, 2004
Hi there
Its nice to be able to read some english for a change.
We are in Puerto Montt - a shipping town 12-13 hours
bus ride from Santiago (we took the overnight bus and
managed to sleep ok) pretty cheap for luxuary bus.
about $25 per person for the trip and the bus was
nearly empty.
We got to Santiago after 30 hours on the run (waiting
in airports and sitting on planes). I didn´t sleep
much so by the time we arrived at Santiago we were
exhausted. Didn´t help being launched into foreign
speaking touts that just won´t leave you alone. They
want your business bad (taxis and hostels). Santiago
was really hot (30 deg plus) so its nice to be
further south in the cooler air. Its more like NZ
here. Santiago was dusty too. No where near as clean
as what I imagined. I have some postcards to send
once I´ve written in them that show a relatively clean
city. Photos must have been taken after heavy rain!
We are struggling (well I am at least) with the
language barrier. Everything is sooooo hard to
organise when you can´t understand a word anyone is
saying at all, anywhere. It was great to stay at
Georges brothers - him and his wife both speak
english. We could bus and train into town from his
place for about $4 each way per person and nearly 2
hours. Busses are totally erratic and the drivers
totally mad. They go real fast and stop all over the
place. We stood at the same intersection to catch the
bus three times (standing in a different place each
time) and everytime the bus stopped where we wern´t.
But it does seem like you can basically flag them down
anywhere if you wave madly enough. The metro system
is great though. Fast and very frequent.
We catch the navimag boat on monday and I think that
is 4 days. We need the rest so it will be good to be
staying in one place ´so to speak´. We are staying at
a hospitaje tonight and have dropped our bags off.
Its like a B&B with out the breakfast. Cheaper than
hostels and there is a kitchen we can use (we
think...). I think there is also a hot shower (not
100% sure tho). Owner doesn´t speak a word of english
and us no spanish so all we know is it will cost 7000
pesos for one night for both of us - that gives us our
own room and a padlock for the door.
Have been thinking about you all and keep dreaming
that I will wake up and everything will be in english
again and I will be able to understand stuff. We´ll
get used to it soon though. We´re both looking
forward to getting into the hills very soon. gotta
use all that tramping gear we´ve been carting around.
Nicola
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