navi-GAG

yes, unfortunately, the navimag got me. as our dear chilean compadre on the boat so poetically expressed, the dormitories turned into vomitories on fine day at sea along the coast of chile. happy happy. joy joy.

we got off this navimag boat last night. after having nothing but good weather our whole trip trekking around the south, we had to get the bad weather on the freakin boat of all things. the patagonian channels seemed like they would have been spectacular, if we could see through the fog and withstand the intense wind that attacked you whenever you stepped foot on the upper decks. it rained pretty much the whole time, cooping up about 150 foreigners in the dining area/lounge. it was, at times, pretty hellish. at least they had lots of films to keep us occupied but there were barely enough seats to accomodate everyone....we ended up sprawling everywhere on the floor and people got pretty vicious over seat-saving.

we encountered the most americans we've seen the whole trip... several retired couples, a pack of alaskans, an obnoxious duo from california, and one very drunk connecticutian. he was the highlight for sure. sivan and i were already getting a little tired of the whole hostal foreigner scene and the daily dose of conversation ("so how long have you been travelling? where've you been? where you headed next? when you going home?") and the irritating competition over who is the more budget-savvy backpacker, or more hardcore trekker or has seen the most people. then we spent 4 days cooped up with nothing but this...i'm starting to want to stray from this type of travelling for a while....
we did however meet a sweet couple who were our bunkmates, an argentinan girl named paola and a hysterical california transplant eric. they met in calafate and were travelling together ever since...super cute and funny and we had a great time heckling drunk passengers with them. we now have a place to stay in buenos aires with paola if the need arises, woot!

on the second day of the boatride we were supposed to leave the patagonian channels and enter the pacific ocean for 14 hours of ocean time....they advised us to take a seasick pill, so we did, and then drugged up and drowsy, they announced a few hours later the weather was too intense and so we would anchor in the channels and wait for better weather. so we ended up staying the night anchored and then, without warning, they launched onto the high seas at about 6am. i awoke to anchory sounds and a sensation like being in an oversized cradle/tilt o whirl ride at the foster city fair. at first, it was kinda fun, then, without warning, el mareo hit me and i leapt off my bed and stumbled my way into the bathroom, slamming back and forth into walls teh whole way there. the loudspeaker lady calmly announced a bit later, "we are now sailing in the golfo de penas", and now i know why they named it such...pena being misery. me dio mucha pena, de verdad. i spent the next 12 hours in bed, ipod firmly implanted in my ears, clutching a plastic bag while my life swayed on in the distance. i've never been on a freakin boat, and i doubt i ever will again. so much for my future as a sailor...

luckily we had nice weather the last day so EVERYBODY was on the upper decks in the sun, after that day of misery. ugh. we arrived late in puerto montt and had the good fortune of meeting a lady at the station who offered us a private room for a good price...turns out she bakes this amazing wheat bread from scratch everyday (maiken! the germans left this influence behind!) so we had the best breakfast we've had in a while. sivan's a bit under the weather (i still feel like i'm on a freakin boat today too) so we'll stay here one more night before heading north again. yay lakes district and araucania!