Heading towards 2009

New Years Eve:


Up early and down to The British Consulate to register the fact that a pair of Ba**ards nicked my cameras. I am not sure which was the worse experience, the mugging or the visit to the consulate, which was a pokey little office on the 5th floor of a concrete block with very dark brown tinted windows. We got into the office to be faced by a 'charming' local lady who put on this sad/empathetic face when I told her what had happened. She then proceeded to get both Mandy & myself to fill out registration forms and suggested we do the same at the consulate office in Punto Arenas when we get there. I couldn't work out why we would want to do that nor could she actually give me a rational explanation, but Mandy and I both agreed afterwards that we felt we were just part of a British citizens visiting Chile head count exercise. At least the raft of photos of the Royal family made us smile as did the Union Jack mouse mat. Best of all was a mobile phone going off, with a ring tone of God Save the Queen!


We then spent a couple of hours trying to find a decent camera shop. Only one place had an SLR, and that was the most basic of ones. In the end our feet were complaining so we gave up the hunt and headed back to the B&B to freshen up before heading down the lift again to do a little tour of a few highlights of the city. Started off at the Fish Market, which was as interesting as many I have seen for the raft of strange looking creatures laid out on the tables on the side of the street. Not so many people buzzing around as it was a bit late in the day. Then we headed up a dark old staircase to a family run restaurant where we had the set meal, which consisted of salad, followed by salad accompanying omelette, and finished off with deep red strawberries and condensed milk. This was washed down with my obligatory bottle of orange chemical mire, commonly known as Fanta. For those of you that don't know, I always have at least 1 bottle of this disgusting stuff wherever I travel, it has got to a stage that it is a ritual, and proves that the corporate conglomerates do indeed get everywhere. OK, I know the whole meal doesn't sound particularly exciting, but it was needed and went down well enough as we sat at a little table overlooking a very busy street, with mariachi music playing in the background. We then headed up to see approx 20 murals painted on walls up on one of the hills, which entailed riding a different lift. The local council have evidently got their pricing sorted, only charging 10p for this lift and 30p for the one where we were staying! Have to admit that I really wasn't taken by the murals that made up this open space modern art collection. So it was back to the B&B for a siesta before the evening's festivities kicked off.

Crashed out for about 3 hours before getting ready just after 8pm. We went and joined the rest of the group that were there for dinner. There were a couple of British sisters and a Chilean boyfriend traveling together, 2 German rock climbers, another German couple all of whom were staying at the B&B. There were also a large group of Americans from Montana, made up of students and a couple of lecturers who were on a economic development trip..... Within a few mins of sitting down we had glasses of Pisco Sour in our hands (yummy) and were pinned down by one of the Americans, Merrica, who was an Anglophile. As the evening went on it became apparent she was madly in love with a British guy, she had met whilst working in Japan, and she wanted to marry him and have his babies. The 1st step in doing this was to come and study economic development at one of the Universities in the UK. Neither Mandy or myself actually asked for any of this information, it just came at us, and all the more rapidly as alcohol was consumed.

We had a meal that was prepared on a BBQ. I had a nice piece of fish, washed down with wine mixed with strawberries. Have to say the local strawberries have a lovely deep colour and taste really sweet, so much was consumed in the run up to midnight. In the preceding few hours I did get a number of texts from the UK, telling me how cold it was but friends were having a good time. There I was wearing a loose shirt, looking out over the port/bay when the fireworks started. A synchronised display covering approx 5 miles of coast line and lasting over 20 mins. Maybe not as complex as say the one on the South Bank of the Thames, but just as breathtaking in its own way. Lots of hugs, congratulations, no singing of Auld Lang Syne (thank god!) and more drinking of alcohol :)

Finally crawled to bed around 3am after the American contingent headed for their minibus/taxi back to their hotel up the coast. This is evidently an annual affair for the Montana lecturers. They were kind enough to invite us to join them on the beach later in the day, followed by a BBQ at another local resident's place.