27, 28, 29...

For someone who wants to live her life to the fullest, why would I harbor such negative thoughts and why would I let such opportunities pass me by? Please understand that with the nature of my job, the fractional equation of my life is ¾ on water and the remaining ¼ obviously, on land – for months! Hence, the rejection of the two top activities that one shouldn’t let slip away when in Punta Arenas. Let me tell you though that I am a woman with a mission. My mission then was to spend as much time on LAND as possible with the following activities in mind: stay in coffee shops, hotels or restaurants with free wifi/internet access, people watch in between reading and turning pages of a book under a tree, take long walks on cobblestoned streets, take pictures of streetlamps, admire boots of all colors/shapes/make of size 5 ½ - 6 on display and on people passing by and of course, spy on Latin lovers who display their affection shamelessly much to my delight. Oh the list goes on and on! These all sound boring to normal people. Keep in mind however that I don’t live a very normal life which makes me appreciate the simpler things in life more.

As I was saying, I had a mission. Aside from dreaming of being able to inject a little normalcy into my already abnormal system, I also dream of seeing sheep! Oh yes! Sheeeeep! Baaaaaa! Punta Arenas made that dream come true *tears streaming down to my cheeks from my eyes*. There, I went to an estancia. In layman’s term, estancia is big chunk – no – massive (!), vast chunk of privately owned land where Chilean cows & horses (I say Chilean because they are the special breed of cows & horses found only in Chile – they are very particular and territorial in this part of the world), llamas, sheep, foxes (?), birds and more, roam freely. After that, nothing else mattered. Well, at this point sheep shearing suddenly mattered. We have no sheep in the Philippines (tropical country, duh?!) so I always have this idea that they shear sheep just for the wool to turn them into fur coats or whatever. I found out in Olga Estancia that they shear only the ewe (female sheep) because as the lady of the estancia said, “Sheep are very dumb”. Good thing, I am not a sheep, I am not offended.

before Marlboro Country, there was Chilean huasos! (gauchos for Argentines)

However, I certainly sympathize with them. They are considered dumb because they leave their babies out in the cold – never mind the babies – just because they are kept safe and warm by their wool. Hence, the ewe-shearing began making ewes better mothers since they are forced to find shelter in the winter with the young following them, lessening baby sheep mortality. See, for every action there’s a reaction. Everyone is happy.

penguin rookery

Now, what comes into your mind when you hear Antarctica? Penguins, I hope!

I journeyed one usual super windy afternoon to Otway Sound, 40 miles north of Punta Arenas to a penguin reserve just to see a few of them from the other side of the looooooong and dismayingly roped path. I wish I could touch them and pet them but they can and will bite anyone that’s why I had to console & content myself with just watching them walk and run or do both at the same time in their funny penguin way, cuddle and strike their “Magellanic” poses as spectators go “oohh and ahh”. Oh they’re sooooo cute and scaly!

Cathedral of Punta Arenas (a prayer a day takes the burden away)

Another interesting trivia about Punta Arenas is that it shares the same history as Ushuaia, Argentina and Australia. It was also used as a penal colony. As much as I love the present, I can’t help but wonder how life used to be back in those days. A lot has definitely changed with time. It’s great that we’re always given a choice – either to learn from the past or to commit the same mistakes again. Much of the Chilean terrains still seem to be untouched but nature tells us otherwise. However, that’s a completely different topic. The lesson I’ve learned and what I have realized as I write this blog post about Punta Arenas is that NO ONE can ever do EVERYTHING at any given time but you can always win a friend at a coffee shop, I did.

one last glance...