Chile: Punta Arenas

26th: bus to Punta Arenas. The initial plan was to get back there to catch a bus to go more north of Chile (much cheaper to buy the tickets in Chile rather than to go directly from Argentina). I had found a couchsurfer to host me (another Cristian). In the bus I was with Cristian from Ushuaia, a friend of his from Columbia and Egon (from Brasil) another friend that Cristian made in Ushuaia. When arrivin Egon and I went directly to try to find buses to leave toward the norh of Chile but all was closed already (2 hour delay because a stupid French couple brought in some skins of animals from Argentina to Chile and they were not allowed to do so... Had to wait 2 hours at the frontier for them to do all the paper work and pay the fees). As Egon didn't have a place to stay he came with me to Cristian's place to see if he had some suggestion... But instead of suggestions, Cristian propsed to Egon to stay as well at his place. He has a quite big house and we were a total of 7 the first night!!! A spanish couple going from Ushuaia to central america by bike, another Spanish guy (from Barcelona I think for who it might be a difference ;) ), Jose ( a friend of Cristian leaving partly in his house (works on a salmon farm 4 hours from Punta Arenas) Egon, Cristian and I. We all ate together (Jose is a cook :) ) and spent the evening at the house. Ah one thing I didn't mention: the fucking music which was non stop in the bus!!! A shity cumbia all the time and lots of time the same songs... One was singing "se mira, no se toca" and it got stuck in my head for ages!!!

The next day, Egon and I wanted to buy our tickets. Jose joined us and we then went to the tax free zone. It's a quite big zone just next to the city which is like a dutyfree but not in an airport. It's to make the price not to expensive considering how it cost to bring the merchandise all the way to Punta Arenas. It's huge and you can find every thing! I bought some stuff for hikking there and some shoes later in another place where Cristian brought me. Ah and in the morning we tried Choripans with leche con platanos which is a special breakfast from here. Super good :) In the afternoon we prepared some food because a friend of Cristian was having his birthday at Cristian place in the evening. We were something like 15 people and spent a big part of the evening at the house chatting. At 2:30am we went to "The Club" and stayed until it closed at 5am. The music in the club was a mix of "usual" American music and some hiphop/electro/cumbia stuff. Quite fun and we were dancing like crazy on it (apparently cause I don't remember it so clearly... Due to my encointrance with honey jack daniels). Because it's so south, it was almost sunrise when we left the club and Cristian and I went to 2 spots to watch the sunrise... Super nice! And when we got back to the house, the others were still up. Some of us decided to climb in one of the weird trees in front of the house. It was pretty fun to see the sun rising from the very top of the tree :)

The next day we (Cristian, Jose, Egon and I) went to a small park just behind Pu ta Arenas which gives a great view on the city and the bay. After, we passed by a replica of Magellan's boat and Egon quickly jumped in the ocean (I chickened out...). Then we went to see the cemetery famous for his trees (the same as at Cristian's house) and then came back home. We all ate together (the spanish couple was back) at the house. This all time in Unta Arenas was super cool and we went all really well along. And Cristian and Jose told us abiut the Chilean expression "weon" whih can be used to say anything and somenother stuff.

December 29th, Egon and I took the bus from punta Arenas to Osorno for Egon and to Ancud (on he island of Chiloe) for me. The bus was 35 hours as it had to pass by Argentina because there is no existing road in a big region of south Chile.