Week 9: Musings from the end of the world

While thinking of what to do for my week of vacation in Chile after my internship ended, my first thought was to go to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). As a Filipino, I feel connected to other Austronesian island people, and I am fascinated by isolated places where humans still somehow live. But long story short, the flights were too expensive and infrequent. I had to figure out where else to go. 

To figure out where I should take my vacation, I opened Google Maps and randomly decided to zoom in to the end of the South American continent to see what was there. I had heard of Ushuaia, Argentina's southernmost city, before, but it would have taken me too long to get there with the time I had. I scrolled to the Chilean side of the continent and saw a city called Punta Arenas. I had never heard of it before but looked up flights there from Santiago. There were direct flights, they lasted only three hours, and a round trip ticket cost a little over $100. I was sold!

Took this screenshot right when I landed in Punta Arenas.

I started to get excited about the prospect of going even farther south than New Zealand to a part of the world I only previously knew as an outdoor clothing brand. I didn't start looking up things to do until after I got the tickets, but I figured there'd be something. At first, I looked up cruises to Antarctica. They were too expensive, and I would have needed twice as much time as I had. Eventually, I came across a national park called Torres del Paine. It looked spectacular, and I decided I would try and do a day tour there. Fortunately, I found one, but learned that I would have to take a three-hour bus from Punta Arenas to another town called Puerto Natales because most tours left from there. My vacation thus would look like this: the Saturday after my internship ended, I'd fly to Punta Arenas. That Sunday, I'd take the bus to Puerto Natales. That Monday, I'd do the day tour. That Tuesday, I'd take the bus back to Punta Arenas. That Wednesday, I'd fly back to Santiago. I had just enough time and decided to do it. 

Before I get to the musings part of this blog entry, I'm changing things up a bit and going through what I did on my little solo vacation first! 

On Sunday, August 20, I arrived in Puerto Natales. It gave me very strong Iceland vibes. I thought about how I also went to Iceland in January of this year, which according to this map is around 13,626 kilometers (8,466.8 miles) away. I realized that my flight to Patagonia was probably that cheap because it was winter, the off-season for tourism, and very cold. I didn't mind though, considering I also made the deliberate decision to travel to Iceland in January. Guess I just love winter!

Early the next day, Monday, August 21, I got picked up by the tour van for the day trip to Torres del Paine National Park. Unlike a certain national park tour I did over a month ago, this tour was going to be far more chill. We would spend the day driving through the park and making stops at different viewpoints to take pictures, and then go on an optional short hike to the edge of a lake, and then walk through a cave. It was just the thing I wanted for my vacation. 

After pickup, we stopped by a souvenir and food store in a tiny settlement called Cerro Castillo, close to the Argentinean border. Once we acquired food and souvenirs, our first photo stop was to see a herd of guanaco, which are a wild cousin of llamas and alpacas. It was snowing and very cold. 

If you zoom in you can see the guanaco. 

Our group and the van.

Then we went to a couple of lookout points where we could see the famed Torres del Paine. They were hidden away by the clouds at first, but we waited long enough to see them come into view. 

You can see them on the 1000 peso bill!

One of my go-to poses for pictures.

My travel buddy, Haku Alvinito the alpaca. Haku after a certain Quechua word, and Alvinito because James got him for me from Lake Titicaca, where he met a real alpaca named Alvin.

While learning about the animals of the park, our guide Nico told us that there were pumas, but that they were a very rare sight. I was fine having seen them on an Obama-narrated nature documentary about Chilean Patagonia, but then while driving along the park, one of my fellow tour mates squealed, "UN PUMA!!" The van immediately came into a halt. Our driver Jaime slowly backed it up so we could see better. We all crowded towards the windows to catch a glimpse of the puma, and we saw that there wasn't just one puma–there were two. We couldn't believe our luck! 

Thank you to my seat mates who took this picture on my phone for me.

We felt especially auspicious because the pumas just chilled there, staring at us, not bothered at all by our presence. But then another van started coming up behind us, and that was when they made moves and trotted to the other side of the slope until we couldn't see them anymore. 

One of my favorite viewpoints was that of Lago Pehoe. When I Googled pictures of the national park, this was probably the one I was most excited about seeing because of the little island with buildings of it in the foreground, the lake, and the towering mountains behind it. Although the clouds prevented us from seeing the full view, it was still gorgeous. Nico told me that the buildings on the island were the first lodgings built for guests to the park, but they are only open during the summer high season. For now, the only people there were caretakers. I saw a couple of them crossing the bridge while we hung out on the view point and wondered what their lives were like. 

After Lago Pehoe, we made our way to another lake, Lago Grey. We stopped by what would have been a cafeteria, but it was closed for the season. Instead, we could eat our packed lunch in the van or brave the cold and eat at the outdoor picnic tables. I did the latter because I needed a table, and then went on the short hike to the lakeshore. 

Probably one of my favorite pictures of me, taken by my guide!

Apparently much of this plain is filled with water in the summer.

After Lago Grey, we left the national park and headed for Mylodon Cave. The cave was formed after a glacier melted into a lake, and the waves lapping at the edge of the rock formed the cave over thousands and thousands of years. It's called Mylodon Cave because the skeleton of a mylodon, an extinct species of giant sloth, was found there. Unlike the two-hour, physically-involved cave tour I sat out of in Bolivia, the tour of this cave was a calm stroll, complete with pleasant water noises. 

Entering the cave.

The Mylodon and me.

Finally, we went to the Mylodon Store (literally La Tienda del Milodón) for warm drinks and souvenirs. I got a cute magnet with a wooden carving of a mylodon, made from local wood, and also asked Nico to take one last picture of me with the glorious Andes Mountains in the background. 

My five days in Patagonia were the perfect vacation. I left my laptop, ukulele, and carry-on luggage in Santiago and traveled only with a backpack. It was relaxing, refreshing, and liberating all at once. As much as I would have loved to have James or any of my friends with me, it felt right to have spent that time in that place by myself. Maybe it's the winter chill, and the way that life moves more slowly in the off season that is conducive for self-contemplation. Maybe it's the mountains and awe-inspiring landscapes that lead people to reflect on how minuscule we are and how brief our time on this planet is. 

Whatever it is, I felt humbled in the presence of the mountains. Seeing them reminded me of a poem by Khalil Gibran, one of my favorite poets (not that I read much poetry). The relevant part of the poem, "On Friendship," goes: 

  When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

  For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

  And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Considering how many old and new friends I've had to say good-bye to on this trip, and how the Andes have accompanied me almost the entire time from a distance, I thought these lines fitting. 

Something else I thought about while traveling through Patagonia was the human desire to "conquer" mountains, or reach their summits. I feel no desire to summit mountains or go on extreme hikes and am perfectly content admiring them from afar, and wondered why some might feel the urge. I guess it's exciting to hear about humans' triumphs on a physical and mental level, and to want to challenge yourself. It is important to challenge oneself, though I tend to favor intellectual and social challenges like learning new languages and making friends with people from other countries. But I can't help but think of other ways that the desire to conquer has led to harm. 

Apart from the mountains, I thought a lot about the person the Magallanes region of Chile is named after, Ferdinand Magellan. In the Philippines, we learn in elementary school about how Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans who came into contact with indigenous Filipinos. This contact led to the Battle of Mactan, which is the first recorded instance of anticolonial resistance in the Philippines, and also the battle where Magellan got killed. A lot of people mistakenly assume that Magellan was the first person to circumnavigate the world, which drives me bonkers. While we do feel a sense of pride in the defeat of Magellan and consider Lapu-Lapu (the chief involved in his death) a national hero, there is a monument dedicated to Magellan in Cebu City (aka my hometown) called Magellan's Cross. Supposedly it's the cross that Magellan and other colonizers planted to bring Christianity to the Philippines yada yada but the accuracy of this is contested. Whatever the truth is, this desire to conquer people–who already had their own customs and traditions–in the name of spreading religion led to centuries of violence. 

It was fascinating being in Magallanes as a Filipino and Cebuana, where so many things are named after Magellan. The region is obsessed with him because on his way to the Philippines, he and his crew sailed through what is now known as the Strait of Magellan in 1520. It is also the body of water along which Punta Arenas is found, and there is a huge monument in the city's main square dedicated to him. 

I thought a lot about the people who live in a region that also proudly refers to itself as the end of the world. They celebrate Magellan and the precedent-setting journey he embarked upon, and live in the place that marked an important landmark in his journey. I, on the other hand, come from the place where his journey ended, where more than anything we celebrate the bravery and resistance of our island ancestors. While in Punta Arenas, I had fun chatting with locals, either born and raised there or who moved there from other parts of Chile. When I could, I tried to spread the gospel (lol) of how Magellan actually died in the Philippines. Every time I am in Latin America, I love telling people who are shocked about my Spanish about how I come from a place that was also once part of the Spanish Empire, although Spanish is no longer spoken there. Talking to people in Magallanes made me realize another angle to this story I hadn't previously considered: one of historical connections across oceans that predates the onset of colonialism itself. While I once had no desire to learn Spanish, I am now proud to speak it because it connects me to people with whom I share an important historical connection, although it arises from an unfortunate history of oppression. It is another small dream of mine for more Latin Americans to be in solidarity with Filipinos in the anticolonial resistance movements of today. 

On Wednesday, August 23rd, I flew back to Santiago. It is now the afternoon of Friday, August 25th, and I am trying to finish this blog entry before I leave for the airport to fly back home. Here are some final pictures and anecdotes of the last few days of my trip! 

I haven't posted much about food but man this grilled octopus really hit the spot.

I visited the Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights) to learn more about Chilean's history and what the country went through during the Pinochet Dictatorship. The exhibits that stood out to me were these comments about fascism that are sadly relevant in today's world, copies of a girl's diary (with the real thing encased in glass), and the role organized labor played in the movement against Pinochet. 

For some final souvenirs, I visited this indigenous art and products fair. I bought two bags of merkén, a type of Mapuche spice, and two ocarinas. I got to meet the Aymara man who made them and very enthusiastically demo'ed them. At his shop, you could even choose informational sheets containing sheet music for famous Andean songs or explanations for the symbols found on the ocarinas. 

My last night in South America, I met up with Fran again. Two of her friends, Fernanda and Paula, came along. Both of them also happen to have studied the law. Fernanda's last name is also Flores, and we laughed about being long-lost cousins. What made the joke even funnier was that she actually lives in the same building where James and I stayed our first few nights in Chile! Meanwhile, Paula is preparing to leave for France to spend a year on working holiday. We spent the evening at a place called Oculto Beer Garden and had so much fun. Fernanda and Paula were sad to know I was leaving so soon, but we were all glad to have met even briefly. I hope to see them again on some future travels!

Thus concludes my weekly South American blog entries. Thank you so much for reading, however much you read. This trip will remain engraved in my memory for a very long time, so please chat with me about it either virtually or when we cross paths in person. As for future me reading this, hope you enjoy reminiscing and aren't tiring yourself out on whatever adventure you're on! And for whoever you may be, enjoy these final pictures from Punta Arenas, the end of the world, at the end of this series of blog entries.