Are you Gellin'? 2-6-09

I woke up briefly to say goodbye to Sergio. He was off to Torres del Paine. We started the day with Wheat Cheerios and banana milk. Banana milk is so good. Then we went to Sernatur to get information on kayaking, Cabo Froward, and bus tickets to Ushuaia. Luckily, we somehow ran into Pali Aike...the place that Karrah (classmate) recommended. There we booked a kayaking trip on the Straight of Magellan for 26,000 pesos. I also bought a book of Punta Arenas post cards for 4,500 pesos and a flag of Patagonia for 3,000 pesos. Then we had to find bus tickets to Ushuaia. Pacheco bus company didn't have a bus for Saturady, so we tried Espana bus company. There we bought tickets for 30,000 pesos for Saturday at 7:30 am. Walking away from the bus company, we were looking for a hostel nearby. Two ladies came up to us and gave us a pamphlet for the hostel "The Blue House" for 5,000 pesos a night. They even drove us to the hostel. It's a little far from Espana, but it's not too far. The guy that set us up with the penguin trip actually owns the hostel. We dropped our bags off and went to lunch at Austria Restaurant. We got a 4-course meal for 3,000 pesos. At some point, Hanna and I climbed a tree. It was a really cool tree in the park. After lunch, we went back to Pali Aike to be taken to the place where we would kayak the Straight of Magellan. Our guides were Patrick and Felipe. They're incredibly cool and nice. Last year, they came in second in a Chilean tandem kayaking competition. The owner of the place gave us hot chocolate, chips, and cookies after the trip. The water was so clear and we had a great time. We had the taxi driver take us to Zona Franca (Duty-Free). The important thing we bought was our gas and stove. For dinner, we had wraps...mayo, avocado, tomatoe, cucumber, lettuce, cheese, turkey, and lemon juice. We drank pineapple juice. It was awesome. After dinner, we each shoved a spoonful of peanut butter in our mouths without having something to drink. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. So in my group, we call ourselves a family...and in the family I'm the crazy uncle who does crazy and unexpected things. We are sharing our hostel room with a Brazilian guy and a French guy. We met a large group of people from Israel. Most of the hostels have signs in Hebrew. We also met two guys who play water polo in California. This is their post-graduation trip. I repacked my bag and put everything in plastic bags. At Abu-Goush, I bought socks, a sham towel, and a map container for the tent rods. Hanna and I played cards with two guys from Israel (Johanatan and Sergi). We played Egyptian Rat Screw and Bullsh**. I can't even describe how much fun we had. There was a bottle of beer on the ground and Johanatan said that he thinks that it's no one's bottle so he should drink...and he did. They also gave us some great advice and told us about the Israeli army.