March 9 -Navimag Ferry Day 2

March 9 Day 22
 We slept well and Meg was all excited that they had porridge for breakfast.  It was quite windy out but that didn't keep Christian from having a yoga class out on the deck, making sure that people stayed on their mats so that they didn't end up in the ocean.
 The showers were hot and had a changing area, food was plentiful, there were lounges with comfy chairs and benches all over the ship for people to find their own space.  We were constantly passing rugged land, often with tress bent in one direction by the famous Patagonian wind.  All day I saw maybe 5 houses, everything else is pristine, looking the same as natives and explorers saw it hundreds of years ago.  Passing ships were rare, for the most part we were own our own with the water and scenery with nothing to do but chat, read, listen to music or whatever.  It was a nice setup.
 In the morning we had some dolphins splashing beside the boat.  Our guide called out "whale sighting" no matter what the animal was.
 In the afternoon our young guide gave a presentation on fauna which mainly consisted of putting up pictures of birds and telling us what colours they were.  More interesting was a presentation on Mate by a more experienced presenter. Mate is an herb brewed like tea and mixed with almost everything imaginable.  You may have seen mate straws, which  are metal and have a bowl that is spoon-shaped and full of holes to act a s a sieve.  It was bitter and strong but almost palatable when mixed with a bot of sugar.  Many health claims are made about it and for some reason it is most popular in Syria and Jordan. 
 After dinner most people went out to watch the sun set as we neared the open sea.  We had time to watch it, the colours were wild and albatrosses kept skipping across the water to get out of our way. 
 At 9 we had an interesting presentation by a Quebecois man on the Canadian north.  We could barely follow his French but many of his photos were stunning of Inuit people, travel in the north and animal hunts.  We then screened the film Neruda about Pablo escaping government persecution.  Interesting but trying too hard to be artsy and clever.  By the time it was over the ship was really rolling so we went to bed to sleep through the rough part of the journey.

The sort of views we had as we cruised.

People getting sun and keeping themselves entertained on the ferry.

March 8 - Navimag ferry day 1

March 8 Day 21
 We managed to get out of our room by 4:45 am and our taxi was waiting properly for us.  At the airport was had to pay for our checked bags but everything else went smoothly.
 When we arrived Puerto Montt we immediately noticed that the temperature had gone from 25 degrees to 5.  The transport into town was a shared taxi and traffic was pretty gummy but we got to the Holiday Inn Express where our fellow ferry passengers were gathering.  We chatted with some of them and the vibe was good, very friendly people all up for the journey.  We signed in, dropped off our backpacks and had 3 hours or so to explore Puerto Montt before we got our shuttle to the ferry.
 I first heard about Puerto Montt from a travel article in the paper referring to it as a place where many backpackers reported being pickpocketed.  The travel guide also mentioned escalated danger there as well as stating that the cathedral was one of the few attractive buildings in the city.
 We walked around the busy commercial centre of the city and visited a gallery in the Diego Rivera arts centre.  They had one room of landscapes and portraits but had a nice cafe with excellent orange juice and red current jam.  We tried to find Meg rugged sandals but failed and settled for lunch at a cafe with okay food and nice beer.  Our waitress had decent English and was Venezuelan, having escaped here with her family and managed to get a job.
 Our shuttle took us to the ferry and we hauled our bags to our room.  There were various levels of room, we had the second lowest with no window and a shared bathroom but a door to separate us from hallway foot traffic.  We had 4 bunks so lots of space to spread out our stuff and the beds were surprisingly cosy. 
 We napped a bit after our early morning and then went up for the mandatory instruction session.  We found out that there would be activities during the day as well as the basic safety instructions around fire and evacuation.  The ferry had no alcohol of wifi and advertised itself as a digital cleanse.  The literature also recommended that you bring that long book you've always meant to read along with you.  The cafeteria was nice and the upstairs bar (mocktails and 0.5% beer) had cosy couches and picture windows.
 There were many large outside decks with benches, a foosball table and a giant chess set.  Everyone was very friendly and from talking with people we heard that the ship was only at half capacity (100 instead of 200 people) and the forecast was excellent.  We were to have a less crowded and relatively smooth crossing and the crew seemed really friendly.  We also got the information that school was in (March is their September) so high season was effectively over so places and activities were unlikely to be fully booked and deals could be had.
 We didn't get going until 6 pm but the views in port were still wonderful in the bright sunlight.  People were taking pictures, lounging, enjoying the view and reading their books in the sun.  We watched as the ropes were cast off and a tug helped to push our ferry in the right direction.  We also saw a sea lion surfacing and diving as it made its way into port.
 The view of Puerto Montt as we were leaving was quite scenic as in the distance were a dormant volcano and a snow covered peak.  Also we progressed the view became more regular with water and land in the distance and we retired inside.
 We were almost constantly talking with our fellow passengers who were very well travelled and great sources of information.  Dinner was tasty salmon with interesting but not tasty seaweed stuff.  Water, coffee and tea were there 24 hours if we wanted it.
 We had an evening talk about the route we would be taking.  Our guide was still working on his English and many of his statements weren't really clear, it felt like is first time doing this.  He did inform us of the scenic and tricky bit along our route, where to take nausea pills and where to look for whales.  After the talk there was a movie that no one knew the name of but it was almost 10 and we had sleep to catch up on.

The tugboat captain does some squeegeeing while waiting to help us.

Sunset from the ferry.

March 6 and 7 - Last days resting in Santiago

March 6 Day 19

 We had a nice breakfast in our room and just hung out in the morning.  Meg still needed rest at noon so I headed out on my own to check out the funicular to the top of a big hill graced by a giant Virgin Mary and the Pablo Neruda house. 
 I decided to walk there, which took about 30 minutes.  Along the way I went by the main arts centre, which was aptly described by our guidebook as looking like a rusty cheese grater.  I went through several busy squares before I crossed the river, which was a stream of muddy runoff.  I then walked through a student area and saw a busy food truck and got a hot dog absolutely smothered in mayonnaise.  I regretted my choice when I found both a shawarma stall and a burrito joint just one block further along the way.
 There was a 20 minute lineup for funicular purchases because the ticketing system was slow and people were having long, involved discussions about the 6 or so choices of ticket types.  I purchased a one-way ticket, figuring that if they sold such a thing there must be a path down that could be taken.
 The bottleneck for the lines was at the ticket booth so there was lots of space in the funicular itself.  It was made up of two cars linked by a cable that went in opposite directions and followed the same track other than a bubble in the middle to keep the two cars from crashing into each other.  The ride was smooth and the views progressively more impressive as we ascended. 
 The views at the top were worth it.  Santiago is a very large city surrounded by mountains so the view from a steep hill in the middle of it will be impressive.  At the top was the giant statue as well as a small chapel and an area covered in old candle wax and memorabilia from people praying for their loved ones.
 After a few minutes of looking around I decided to find the path down.  The roads didn't descend at all and I wandered around for a bit before finding a map that showed several bikes-only trails heading down and one pedestrian one that seemed to go in the right direction.  I found a directions post that seemed to mark a path as a pedestrian one and followed it for about 30 minutes, but the path neither ascended nor descended so I couldn't get down off the mountain nor back up to the funicular and I could see that a large iron fence went along most of the bottom of the hill.  It was hot and I wasn't encountering anyone but occasional construction workers laying pipe so I started going down dusty switchbacks to get down from there, but they always ended in warning signs saying that pedestrians couldn't cross because of construction danger.  Eventually I decided to go through a barrier and talk to some construction guys who said it was alright to go down the road after a truck finished coming up, which would be in a few minutes.  While we waited he offered me some ice cold water, which was very welcome as I left my water bottle back in the room.
 After the truck passed I thanked my hosts and headed out of the construction entrance and found my way down.  Close to the funicular was the Pablo Neruda house.  I went in with an audioguide, this time only having 11 stops.  The house was interesting, full of knick knacks, Diego Rivera paintings, surrealist furniture and rooms based of the interior of ships.  It was nice but not exceptional and  about 30 minutes is all it took to see everything.
 I grabbed a soda and headed back to the room where Meg was sick of being sick and decided to take the antibiotics out travel medicine consultant recommended.  We then went for a walk through the neighbourhood looking for rice and soup for her.  We found a sushi place that had both and I tried Chilean sushi.
 What is up with Chilean food?  There and empanadas everywhere, but other than that pizza, sushi, hot dogs and gelato are the order of the day.  The two sushi places close to us were combination sushi/Peruvian places.  We thought it was an odd combo, but Peru has ceviche so they are two cultures that eat raw fish and there has been a Japanese president of Peru so the links are many. 
 Chilean sushi comes with no wasabi or pickled ginger, just a bottle of soy sauce and a shallow bowl of oyster sauce.  One roll and cooked chicken and cream cheese wrapped in rice, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried.  The other had salmon and cream cheese in rice with an avocado outer coating.  I had to scrape out the sweet cream cheese with my chopsticks to make them at all edible and was jealous of Meg's excellent looking chicken soup.
 We walked around for a bit in the neighbourhood and saw a lot of people sleeping on cardboard and discarded mattresses on the street, just in one area.  We wondered if they were Venezuelans like in Columbia but later on a cab driver said that they were Chileans.  They all kept to one small area and had a sense of community, maybe staying close to the local hospital.  After the walk we were ready for sleep.
March 7 Day 20
 We got up and the drugs seemed to be doing the trick, Meg was feeling better.    We did laundry and then headed out to find stamps and visit some museums.
 At the main square we found the post office with the help of a police officer and found a huge lineup, but another officer told us there was a separate office for buying stamps, but it was closed for lunch.  We left and walked down busy pedestrian streets toward the museum and stopped for lunch at a nice sidewalk patio place that had excellent microbrew beer and tasty chicken and rice. 
 The museum of Bella Artes also contains the contemporary art museum.  The building is gorgeous with huge open spaces, female figure pillars a la the Acropolis, ornate metalwork and a big glass bubble for a roof.  The main hall displayed sculptural reproductions and everything else was closed except for the contemporary stuff on the top floor, which had some interesting pieces but our Spanish wasn't good enough to get most of the context.

 On the way out of the museum I spotted someone sitting on  a bench whom I saw in the museum and looked familiar so I went up to him and said, "Peter?"
"Yes..."
"Buckland?"
"Yes!"
 He was a gallery owner in the Saint John arts scene and had retired and was travelling with his wife Judy.  What a coincidence!  We had a great chat, exchanged experiences and were all amazed by the moment.
 We headed back, Meg got her stamps and we walked to the Italian place we had been to a few nights before for more excellent food.  The pesto wasn't as good as our pasta the previous night but the soup and service were excellent and we got an outside table.
 We had to pack our stuff up for our 4:15 am flight the next day so headed back and got to bed early.

Santiago from the top of the hill.

Neruda's house from across the street, no photography allowed inside.

Bella Artes Museum main atrium.

March 4 and 5 still chilling in Santiago

March 4 Day 17
 The breakfast at the hostel was good and we spent the morning dropping off laundry and getting a sim card.  The guide book and government website say that foreigners must register their phones online and wait 5 days for approval but our little shop didn't seem to worry about that.  Violation of Chilean law #2.  They spent a good 20 minutes on our phone and only charged us $4, pretty good service.
 I booked us a better place for our last 3 nights in Santiago and we headed to the subway to get our BIP cards to use the metro system.  Then it was off to La Moneda, the presidential palace as it was one of the few attractions in the city open on a Monday.  To visit the palace, we would have to book 3 weeks in advance and so that wasn't happening.  Underneath the palace was an art installation that focused on hoses in Chile over history.  There was also a show featuring pictures of market vendors and a room of oddities from the animal kingdom.
 We walked up a long pedestrian mall and kept trying various ATMs, none of which would work.  On some of then I got a blue 404 screen which is not what one expects.  The mall ended at Plaza De Armas where we visited the cathedral and then headed back.
 We dined at a local Italian place which had tasty zucchini cilantro soup for Meg and amazing wild mushroom ravioli with truffle oil for me.  Meg also had garlic pasta, craving blandness. 
 Back at our room we had another good night of sleep.  Meg found some Youtube channels featuring Winnie the Pooh stories read by Stephen Fry and Judy Dench for mental comfort food.
March 5 Day 18
 Our last day at Chile Pepper.  Before we left, Meg was stretched out on the bed when what looked like a ladybug crawled down her stomach.  A last tick!  I picked it up and gished it and it was full of blood.  Violation of Chilean law #3, no bringing animals into the country.
 Checking my e-mail, I saw a series of fraud alerts and found that the reason I couldn't use any ATM was that my withdrawal request exceeded my daily limit.  Easily fixable, so we were able to take out money now, the only annoyance being the $13 service charge that Banco De Chile applies.
 We packed up after getting our laundry and put our bags into storage as we couldn't move into our new place until 2 pm and had to check out of our old one by 11 am.  We headed downtown to look at the highly recommended Human Rights Museum, beside Parque Quintas Simple.  We took a quick detour into the park, there was security at the entrance and all foreigners had to sign a book before entering.  There were museums in the park and it went on for 6o hectares.  The bit we rested in was shady and well-used but a little concretely, with large paved walkways and a cement-lined and really murky artificial lake.
 Like most museums in Santiago, the Museum of the Memory is free.  We paid a few dollars each for the audioguide which had more than 70 info stops.  The first floor was all about monuments and judicial processes set up since the Pinochet regime.  The second floor was about the coup and violations by the dictatorship.  It included the names of all of the disappeared, survivor testimony and the government processes that created the culture of fear.  There was video, newspaper images, documents and items made by prisoners.  The museum was very well curated and didn't shy away from brutality but also didn't get gratuitous about it.  A very interesting thing was the constant references to Sept. 11, which for them in 1973.  It has a different meaning here, just like the word "America" refers to our hemisphere, not jut the US, in South American countries.
 Refreshingly, the topo floor focused on protests during the regime and its eventual downfall.  he sheer number of protests were amazing, considering that everyone involved in these events would be risking not just their own lives but those of their extended families.  The 80s were a more active time for protest, eventually leading to a democratically elected president in 1990.  Surprisingly absent from a museum with so much information was the American involvement in installing Pinochet and Thatcher's protection of him from the European court.  Maybe those were just missing from the English translation.

 We headed back to our hostel to move our bags to our new place and Meg was up for a 30 minute shlep so we asked Francisco to call us a cab.  We were told it would be 30 minutes for a taxi.  While we waited we found out that one of the desk clerks at the hostel was a Venezuelan who was "volunteering" in exchange for room and board.   The taxi driver then didn't turn on his meter and said it was a flat $50 CDN ride.  We told him we weren't going to the airport.  I guess our hostel assumed this instead of supposing we were going to another residence.
 The taxi driver was cool with that and we made it to our new place with our host, Pimpo.  The place had a nice courtyard and the room had more space and a kitchenette but was very compact.  We settled in, I went shopping and around he neighbourhood etc. while Meg rested.  I grabbed some empanadas and Meg reheated yesterday's pasta and we watched some Youtube together.  

Meg in front of La Moneda.

March 2 and 3 Santiago and recovery

March 2 Day 15 Two days and no pictures.  Not every aspect of travel is super-exciting.
 Transit day!  We had breakfast at the hotel and said out last goodbyes.  Our taxi was 20 minutes early but had no problem waiting.  On the drive to the airport you could see many beach condos being built and the airport itself was right next to a very pleasant looking strip of sand, if you didn't mind planes constantly going over you while you sunbathed.
 As we checked in the desk clerk asked for our onward ticket, which we didn't have as we wanted our dates to be flexible.  We insisted we didn't need one but found out later in rereading our guide book that he was right.  He let us go through anyway and this would be our first violation of Chilean law.
 We transferred in Bogota at another nice, new airport.  As I looked at our gates number I saw that our tickets were standby, so went to the gate and was told that they were oversold by 10.  We had lunch and I exchanged money, then went back to the desk to hear that they had offered bonuses for people giving up their seats and we had one and needed just one more for us to get on.
 We were still waiting with a group of others after the plane had fully loaded, fully braced for news that we would have to take a flight the next day and negotiate our compensation with them.  Fortunately, he handed us boarding passes and our seats were together!  Bonus.
 North American airlines could learn so much from the rest of the world when it comes to making passengers happy..  We had entertainment screens and watched a few movies, had two meals and the drinks came around several times with free alcohol, should one desire. 
 We landed too late to get a bus to the subway (which closes at 11 pm).  We tried to get a shuttle but they were very confused and got our information wrong twice.  We then paid a bit more and got a taxi who was very confident and so not surprising got lost in our neighbourhood.
 Finally we arrived at the Chile Pepper hostel with our host Francisco waiting with a key.  It was a bunk bed room but we were used to that and so quickly went to sleep.
March 3 Day 16
 Meg needed a recovery day so most of the day was spent at the hostel.  They offered to move us to a room with a double bed so we took them up on it.  We had only booked two nights and so looked for airbnb alternatives on the advice of a friend who had stayed in Santiago before.  Unfortunately, our old account was linked to phone and e-mails that we had cancelled, so I set up a new one.  They then required a phone # to verify who we were and we did not have a Chilean sim card yet.
 I went through the neighbourhood trying to do some errands but Santiago takes its Sundays seriously.  Almost nothing was open and so no laundry or sim card purchasing could be done today.  We booked the hostel for another night, it was basic but comfortable and the sprawling layout was interesting and the staff were nice.
 We were the only diners at the pizza place we went to for dinner but Meg was happy to have a spinach salad.  A French guy helped us translate why our bill payment didn't go through.  Apparently you can choose to pay the entire bill in one go or delay it, a strange choice.
 Back at the hostel we had a good night's sleep mainly because very few other people were there.  Maybe airbnb is cutting into hostel business but if our time there is representative then Chile Pepper Hostel won't be around much longer.

March 1 Day 5 Lost City Trek - Relief and exhaustion

March 1 Day 14
 We arose after checking our boots for scorpions and had a cold breakfast but were looking forwards to what we supposed to be our easiest day of hiking.  We had to backtrack for about 5 minutes to get onto a smaller path upon which we would be the only tourists, and not many mules or motos either.  It would be mostly descending today as we were heading out of the mountains back to the city.  For a bonus, we had put our daypacks on a mule and so were less laden than we had been previously.
 The hike started off alright as we skirted farms and we up and down hills with excellent views.  Raphael would often visit people and catch up with us when he was done.  Initially, he ran to get up with us after dealing with our backpack mule and was actually sweating, the first time we had seen this. 
 One of our group was having bad stomach problems so at one of the farms we stopped to hire a mule for her to ride.  The mule was led by a smiling girl who looked about 8 years old but seemed to know what she was doing.
 Soon after the farm, Raphael warned us of an area that had a lot of ticks.  One of our group reached down to grad a dropped pole and his hand was immediately covered with a hundred black specks about the size of black pepper bits that swarming over his skin.  He brushed off what he could but ended up finding the little demons on various body parts for the rest of the day.  The group moved quickly through this area but the day's morale did not recover.
 Meg was starting to feel badly but kept moving forwards along the narrow trail.  We had to take another break when the mule's saddle broke and everyone clustered to puzzle out how it could be repaired.  We stopped in another farm with very healthy animals and watched a crew of piglets chase their mom all over the place and suckle when they could.
 Everyone was exhausted as we continued down our narrow trails in the heat.  As we neared the end we had two river crossings which fortunately weren't too difficult.  After the last one we rejoiced to see the Wiwa village of Gotsezhi.  We walked through it and saw a lively village full of people including a schoolhouse with boards on easels and kids playing ball in the street.
 Our destination for lunch was a further 10 minutes past the village and we really dragged our asses there until we could finally sit.  Everyone collapsed in their own way; sitting, lying, leaning and drinking the juice that was provided to us.
 We were visiting a Planeterra project in association with G Adventures.  The village is outside of the normal tourist route to the lost city so the funds go to building eating and sleeping areas for visitors, good washrooms and training the women to cook for large groups of visitors.  The lunch was excellent, vegetable soup followed by a whole fish with vegetables and more juice.
 After lunch, Filipe went over the project and told us we would only have a short visit with the women's weaving project as he wanted to get back to the city early because carnivale might be starting today which would gum up the streets.  We visited a small shelter where an older and younger woman were weaving and many bags of various sizes were on display for sale.  We saw the dyed fibres they used and got to ask questions and many bags were sold to our group.
 It was then time to get back into our 4 x 4s and head to Santa Marta.  The road from the village was much rougher than our road in and Meg had trouble trying to nap as the vehicle bucked from side to side and spun its wheels several times navigating the step, dusty roads.
 Everyone was cheered to see pavement and the traffic was thick and slow as we headed back into town.  We got back in good time as carnivale wasn't going to really happen until the next day.  We found our bags and had a few hours to freshen up before dinner.
 As we showered more tick removal happened.  Wendy's roommate became an expert after watching Wendy take 10 ticks off of her.  I only had one and Meg had a maybe one that we removed anyway.  It felt really good to put on clean clothes and bag our reeking hiking gear.
 We gathered in the lobby and collected tips for Filipe.  Meg and another member weren't up for dinner so we said some goodbyes.  The restaurant was a Greek/Italian beast with good pizza and I had the Greek paella which was also tasty.  We had lots to talk about and it felt good to sit in dry clothes.

 Many goodbyes were said after dinner as we had an early flight the next day.  I repacked my stuff for flight while Meg rested and caught another tick scooting along the floor.  Sleep was good but far too short.

Terrain criss-crossed by grazing animals.

Raphael shows us the old sugar cane crushing machinery.

Tired hikers and the Mamo.

Feb. 28 Day 4 Lost City Trek A good day to ride a mule

Feb. 28
 Once again we didn't have to get up at dawn but this time the other groups were a little more considerate so the noise wasn't too bad at 5 am.  The previous day at dinner Filipe had surveyed if anyone had had enough with hiking and wanted a mule for the day.  We were only hiking 4-5 hours but two of the hours were steep ascents.  Four people opted for the mules, including Meg.
 The first hour was a straight ascent for an hour, thankfully mainly in the shade.  We were retracing our steps but they were heavy ones.  We had a pineapple/orange break at the camp where there were still Columbian soldiers and rifles all over the place.  We heard about mule drama from the riding team with our equine friends kicking at each other and narrowly missing Felix.
 Next was a descent down to the river with the metal bridge where we had a break as the sun was out fully today.  We were now on a dusty, deeply grooved path in direct sunlight for another hour of ascending.  One of us would voice hope if ahead we saw anything resembling our camp for the night.  Finally we were correct and collapsed in the dining area, with the mule people already there being annoyingly fresh and perky.
 Now the fun started.  A few people had found ticks on them so everyone partnered up and had pre-shower tick inspections.  I had two, one of which I had noticed the day before but thought it was an old scab.  Wendy, with her medical training, became our resident tick puller although her previous tick removal experience was solely with felines.  Our cook, Chavez, gained notoriety when he removed one with his bare fingers from one of the women's butt.  They looked It certainly was a new and creepy experience for most people on the trip.
 We spent the afternoon playing games in the dining area including Skip Bo, dice, Scattergories and Handbanz with only Skip Bo in commercial form and the rest with pencil and paper.  Good to see so many gamers of different ages amongst the group. 
 Before dinner we gathered in a circle around a fire to hear stories from Felix and Raphael.  The pile of logs were huge but they burned quite nicely as we settled in.  Felix told a long and rambling but funny story about Unlucky Pedro, which was a trickster-like character who got into lots of trouble but solved his problems by dressing as a woman and stealing all of the treasure from a king who fell in love with him.   We asked Filipe (who was translating these stories from Spanish) why he was unlucky and he said that he didn't understand either.  Felix said that the moral was if you did bad things but made up for them later you could be forgiven, but he made up for them by stealing from someone else so it didn't seem really moral.
 While Felix was telling his story, Raphael was digging postholes for our G-Adventures banner and impatiently pointing to his watch.  His stories were more traditional ones about how the toucan got its beak and how people arose from their shadows but they were short and to the point, lacking Felix's skill for embellishment.  He told a few of them, telling us how many stories he knew and that the full creation story would take several days to properly tell.

 While we were sitting there some people noticed that there were many ticks on the ground so many of our group tucked their feet up.  I flicked off a few that I noticed on my hand, they were small and tough like fleas.  Just before dinner a scorpion walked out of the fire and Raphael chased it off.  In case anyone needed reminding that we were in a jungle...
 We dove into our dinner, which was Chavez's last with us so Felipe put out a box to collect tips in.  It was delicious and we finished off with a headbanz game before climbing into our bunks to sleep.

Meg and her gallant steed.

Jungle dressage.

Some of the scenery we were constantly surrounded by.

Felix the storyteller.