Our Trip to the End of the World, Day One

     March 4 (Monday)  I did the few dishes we had used, then at 8:00am we took our suitcases down to the street where the van was waiting to take us to the airport. Eight of us were going: Van and Millie Layman and their friend Ida Murphy, Sister Rina Onate (that n has a tilda over it), Perry and Frances Roberts, and Jay and I. After checking in at the airport, we waited about 30 minutes before boarding. The plane was Sky Airlines. It was very nice; I think the seats were a little larger, and there seemed to be more leg room. Each row was six seats divided by the aisle. All announcements were in Spanish AND English.
      We were served two meals, not just pretzels and soda. I really liked the first - some kind of pinkish ground up meat in a croissant roll, fruit cocktail, a very nice kind of cookie, and a choice of sodas, juices, coffee, tea, wine, or something stronger. I chose orange juice. We had a short stop at Puerto Montt to exchange some passengers. Until then Jay and I had the three-seat row to ourselves. A young lady joined us for the rest of the way.  Shortly after take-off, we were given our second lunch. There was a choice between pasta and "beef". I chose beef and wish I hadnt. It was a pastel de papas (ground beef, 2 olives, a slice of hard boiled egg, topped with unseasoned mashed potatoes. Chileans sprinkle sugar over the top. I scraped two-thirds of the potato off and ate the rest. The rest of the meal was the same as the first, and I had Coke.

     It took about four hours total before we landed. We picked up our suitcases then found our guide. He was holding up a sign that said, "Layman 8". I always wanted to be looked for at an airport with a sign held up.  Before going to the hotel, the guide took us on a tour of the area and city. We followed the coastline of the Strait of Magellan and could see Tierra del Fuego on the other side. It is a large island. We glimpsed the replica of Magellan's ship and next to it the beginning replica of the Beagle that Charles Darwin sailed on. They were very small by today's standards.

     Nearing the city, we stopped at a high point with a good view of the Strait and the city. There was a table there with sweaters and hats and scarves for sale. Jay and I each bought alpaca pullover sweaters, Millie bought a beautiful knitted cardigan, for $10,000, or U$20. We drove into town, toured a "founding fathers' home and heard the history. This home would be the equivalent to Brigham Young's home in Salt Lake (without the pool table room ;D). The city plaza was just a block away, so we walked to it, shopped at the kioskos set up there. I bought a lapis lazuli penguin and then our guide told us he would take us to a place where things would be cheaper (he never did).

     In the center of the plaza, called Plaza de Armas (every city has one), is a big monument. Magellan is at the top, and the next lower level to his left and right are native indians of Tierra del Fuego and of Patagonia. We took pictures, lots. Almost finished with our tour, we had only one more stop) the mausoleum cemetery. It was all mausoleums and tall, sculpted evergreens. It looked kind of like a mini city because they all looked like old office buildings. The trees were all trimmed and trained to grow in the same shape. There was a double row of them separated by a gravel path. It felt like it went on forever (kind of like the mirrors in a temple lealing room). Sister Frances (who has a pacemaker) and I (with bad back) posed for some Alice in Wonderland type photos and then held hands and skipped down the path till we ran out of breath.

     Finally we checked into Rey Don Felipe hotel, room 105, ground level. It's a nice room with a king-size bed, fridge, TV, phone and nice clean bathroom. At 7:00pm all eight of us walked about six blocks to Cafe Brocoli (the front was painted in broccoli greens). I ordered aphrodisiac soup because it sounded the best, and gnocchi with mushroom sauce. Neither was particularly good, but we had some fun taking pictures with my spooning up the soup. The broth was good, the fish was tough and dry. It didnt affect me, however, as I fell asleep as soon as we hit the pillows.