The picture is me crossing the Straits of Magellan yesterday to get to Tierra del Fuego. Easter Island is the most isolated inhabited islad n the world. Tierra del Fuego is the largest island in the Americas and maybe the world. Yesterday I spent the day on Tierra del Fuego in the Chilean side. It is split down the middle between Chile and Argentina.
The ferry wasn´t running from Punta Arenas in the morning so I was driven by Igor to Punta Delgada to catc the ferry across the Straits of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego. Angelo met us at the ferry and Igor dropped me off with him. Angelo lives on Tierra del Fuego. He is in college at Santiago now, but is home for their summer vacation. He works for this tour company and on a sheep farm, or an Estancia as they are called in Chile. Sheeping is the main industry on Tierra del Fuego and the farms are very large.
We crossed the Straits and then drove to Cerro Sombrerro to have lunch at Hosteria Tunkelen. It was very good. Then we were back in the van to drive to Povenir. The road was thier main highway, but it was gravel. It was so strange to see highway signs on a gravel road. The land was very vast and lots of sheep. Also, we saw lots of guanaco. This is Chile´s llama. It is much prettier than the Peruvian llama. It took almost 3 hours to drive to Povenir. Along the way we drove through the gold corridor. That is where the first settlers mined for gold and what ultimately populated the island--the gold rush. Also, all along these highways you see small buildings and I asked what they were for, Angelo said they were for the "passengers", which I finally understood were hitch hikers. I put a picture of one up. It also has the highway sign in it on the gravel road.
Once in Povenir, we went to the museum first, where the owner met us and opened it just for us. Povenir is small. 5000 people live there. It is on a bay on the west cost of Tierra del Fuego. The pictures I put up pretty much shows the entire town! We also saw the plaza and some of the main architectural structures, but there isn´t a lot to see here.
We left town and drove outside of town to the east and visited an Estancia where Angelo works when he isn´t being tour guide. In fact, he had been there Saturday shearing sheep. It was Estancia Boquern owned by the Gosfodnetich family. It has been in thier family for 100 years and 3 or 4 generations. The owner´s wife invited us in for tea or coffee, which i tried to politely decline since i drink neither, but then we went to leave and had a flat tire. So, i did indeed have tea and sopapillas she had while we waited on them to change the flat. She didn´t speak any English so not much conversation. But it was very nice and interesting to see her home there on the estancia. They also have a home in Povenir.
After leaving the estancia, we went back to town and took a few more pictures and then to Angelo´s home, which is also Snack Bar Karukakini, to check on the ferry schedule. In the museum there are pictures of all the towns architecture and one of them was Angelo´s home. I met his little brother and his father. We had some juice and water and looked at the map to show me where all we had been and then it was time to go catch the ferry. The ferry was supposed to leave at 21:00, but it was late and we didn´t end up leaving until 21:40. It took almost 2 1-2 hours to get back to Punta Arenas. Igor met me at the dock and returned me to the hotel. The ride back was pretty interesting. It was rocking and rolling pretty good. I journaled and got some pictures of the sun setting between 21:40 and 22:40. And still at 22:40 it wasn´t completely down!
Today i am just waiting to be picked up for the trip to Torres del Paine. So i came down to the internet cafe to kill time. We leave at 10:30 and then go to the airport to pick up the rest of our group. I don´t expect any internet access in the park so that´s all until next Monday!
