Eat, Sleep & Ship

The poor Chileans have a really hard time when it comes to country maps. With their skinny noodle of a country stretching 4,300km from north to south, their maps have to be in the form of:

(i) a huge movie poster-sized board;
(ii) a long narrow trail of paper resembling Rapunzel's never-ending rope of hair; or
(iii) a collection of at least 5 or 6 smaller maps, each showing a slice of land (which is a pain for travel planning.)

So when I tried to pinch an image of our route map off Navimag's website, I had to upload it in 4 different sections below. In total, the 4 images only represent one third of Chile's entire length.

By the time you read this caption, your right index finger should have gotten some exercise from all that scrolling

Stretching across 1,500km, Navimag's passage through the Patagonian Channels is the longest ferry ride in the world. We had booked our places on the boat about a month before departure, which was scheduled for 30 Oct. Being the last departure from Puerto Montt for the low tourist season, prices were still at their lowest at US$299 per person for a 4-day 3-night journey, inclusive of meals and accommodation in the lowest category of cabins (which is basically a bunk bed along the corridor.) Moving into high season just a week later, prices were set to rise to US$500 for the same entitlements.

Hurrying to board the Navimag ship before the summer crowds and summer prices arrive

With the boat just slightly more than half full, we got upgraded from Scum Of The Earth class to the next class of cabins - a quad-share windowless box. But hey, at least we had a door and 4 walls now. Upon being shown our cabin, we were pleasantly surprised to find that only our 2 bags had been delivered to the room... Could it mean that we had the whole 4-person cabin to ourselves? We waited with bated breath for our room-mates to arrive.

The ship blew its horn and set sail from the dock. Still no room mates.

YES!!!!

Whoo hoo! And we're off to Patagonia!

Not that we don't like meeting new people. But the cabin was really tiny. Even with just the two of us, we had to squeeze around each other and our bags. Plus, whoever had to room with us would probably have voluntarily downgraded themselves to the corridor bunks for the full 3 nights to escape from Dan's snoring, which is not terribly loud (provided I fall asleep before it starts) but within the confined space of the cabin, it would have been thunderous to untrained ears.

That's all the space there is! No space for a bathrooms either - we had to use the shared toilets and showers

Upon arriving in Santiago on 25 October, the hostel owner there had told us of the recent terrible weather along the sailing route, and had advised us to postpone our trip by 1 week to allow the weather to clear up. He clicked on The Weather Channel website and showed us dismal-looking cloud and rain icons marching steadily through the next 10 days. He warned that in bad weather, we wouldn't be able to see anything from the boat at all. We were highly reluctant to postpone our departure, given the onset of high-season prices in November and also, what were we going to do in Santiago for a week till then? So we stubbornly stuck to our guns and prepared to ride out the bad weather, should there be any.

While in Santiago, we chanced upon a couple of lost backpackers wandering around the neighbourhood in search of a place to stay. Before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth and told them that our hostel was just around the corner. I even handed them a flyer with the hostel's rates. Only then did I remember the consequences of a similar do-good action earlier in Huacachina, where I had also gallantly provided information about our accommodation to a fellow traveller on the bus, resulting in us having to share our room with him. Ah well. It doesn't pay to be selfish when it comes to sharing information about cheap and good accommodation. Plus, I knew how unpleasant it felt to arrive fresh in a big new city and to be wandering along the streets with a heavy pack under a quickly-darkening sky. We could only hope that these 2 guys wouldn't transform from weary backpackers to rowdy drunks during the night.

I casually mentioned that maybe my good deed would amount to good karma, which would in turn equate to good weather over the next few days on the ship.

Well, well, well! Check out the glorious blue skies and golden rays in the photos below! :)

Walking on sunshine

Well, you can't exactly tan in a bikini out here, but it's sunny and that's good enough by Patagonian standards!

Guess which legs belong to the cold tropical guy? But hey, he makes long thermal underwear look sexy and isn't shy to show them off under his berms!

A path of sunshine lights up the dark waters

That said, we did have a few overcast moments and light drizzle but these didn't last for long. In fact, the rain and fog helped set the mood for some of the places that we sailed past.

Uh huh, just the slight touch of gloom and doom here please as we're passing the shipwreck. Thank you.

We also got tossed around a bit on the second night as the ship ventured out into the Pacific Ocean and encountered some "small" waves, "just" 2 to 3 metres high - hardly anything to rattle our teeth or shake our bones. Instead, all that rocking only lulled us peacefully into deep slumber. Once back in the calm sheltered fjords, the rest of the journey continued on a very uneventful note.

Given the lashings of creamy soup and cheese doled out with our meals, I think most guests were thankful for the calm seas. I didn't have very high expectations when I saw the cafeteria-style set-up (grab a tray and accept what's handed out to you) but the food turned out to be pretty good! For breakfast, we had yogurt (haven't seen that for a long time), cereal (finally!), hot oatmeal (I last ate that in July), eggs, ham and cheese. And to top it all off, we got brownies. But because it was so very strange to eat dessert in an early morning meal, I saved the brownies for afternoon tea. But hey, who's complaining about being presented with chocolate first thing in the morning?

Lunch and dinner menus included staples like potatoes, rice, pasta, salad and fresh fruit (kiwi was in season!) But what really got us raving were the huge pieces of fresh salmon and hake, fished right out of the chilly Patagonian waters. Even though he only got his jowls around one piece of chicken over those 4 days, my furry blue Chicken Monster was appeased with the offerings from the sea.

Unlike a cruise liner, Navimag's main responsibility is to bring people from Point A to Point B, so it doesn't call at other ports en route, and passengers can't disembark at anytime throughout the 72-hour journey. But Navimag tries their best to entertain you anyway. Each day is peppered with short lectures in English and Spanish on the flora, fauna and glaciers found in the Patagonian Channels. Local movies and documentaries such as March of the Penguins are screened. Guests can also purchase cards for the only over-water Bingo game in the whole of Patagonia. BINGO!

Amidst the daily activities, people would occasionally crowd the deck for the day's highlight, such as when the vessel called at Puerto Eden on the third day to drop off passengers and pick up new ones.

Puerto Eden at a glance

Zodiac and speedboats are involved in the quick exchange of passengers

The highlight of the fourth day was when the huge vessel had to navigate an exceptionally narrow channel, dotted with windswept islands. Breakfast was postponed just for this event! Everyone lined the sides of the deck and watched with bated breath as our floating giant slowly inched its way through the watery narrows, barely skimming past the dangerous line of rocky outcrops flanking the ship. Once safely through, the captain blasted the horn to signal success!

It may look like a pretty big gap between us and the rocks but when you're on such a big vessel, such gaps are but the breath of a whisker.

Although pricier than traveling by bus down the Carretera Austral - the main highway running down Chile's spine to Patagonia, sailing was a welcomed break from life on a bus. We enjoyed eating hot meals fresh from the kitchen instead of chewing on cold dry sandwiches filled with strange-tasting pink pate. We sipped hot coffee and tea in the morning, which we usually decline on bumpy bus rides, for fear of dousing our laps in hot liquids. No need to ration our drinking water or worry when a clean toilet was next going to appear. No need to lug our bags between hostels and bus terminals. We had proper beds. We could shower (and piping hot showers too!) We could walk about while traveling.

As you can see, there was lots to celebrate on board the ship!

After almost 72 hours of eating, sleeping and shipping in the Patagonian Channels, we arrived at our final destination, Puerto Natales - the gateway to Chile's famous Torres del Paine National Park.

But more on that later!

Southbound for Patagonia

From Santiago, we pressed on southwards, spending the night on the bus and arriving 14 hours later in the port city of Puerto Montt.

En route, we managed once again to almost disembark too early at the wrong city. Why don't the long-distance buses in South America ever announce the name of the places they stop at?! Thankfully, the bus conductor recognised us as The Chinese Couple Going To Puerto Montt (it's not difficult, really), refused to hand over our luggage and shooed us back up the bus. We sheepishly returned to our seats, only to find that another passenger had happily claimed them for himself. We mercilessly shooed him back to his seat and continued the journey to the correct destination.

Arriving at the bus terminal in Puerto Montt, we lugged our bags uphill along the waterfront in search of a guesthouse. We found one at the top of the knoll, right next to the police station (how much safer can you get!) and settled in for the night - in the only bedroom with a view:

Gorgeous, isn't it?

The neighbourhood

Having read Lonely Planet's dreary description of Puerto Montt ("a grinding hub of commerce and industry"), I was expecting a grey, ugly, industrial city populated with smoking factories. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find colourful hillside settlements gently leading down to gravel beaches and meeting the rainbow-hued fishing boats bobbing gaily in the fjord. A fellow guest and I agreed how important it was for guidebook writers to present cities as accurately and comprehensively as possible, and to find a balance between turning readers off a place completely and overly romanticising it (we have given up on following LP's recommendations to stop by "must-visit pretty colonial villages".)

It's nice wad! Why Lonely Planet say until like dat?

We were in Puerto Montt to board one of the Navimag ferries the following morning. Now, before anyone says "What? Yet another cruise? So nice!", we have to highlight that Navimag is not a luxury cruise line along the likes of Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruises. Its bare-bones ferries transport passengers and cargo across the Patagonian channels. Along with 150 other passengers, we boarded our ship at 2pm on 30 Oct for a 1,500km-long journey over the next 3 days to Puerto Natales.

Waiting to be released from the dock at Puerto Montt

We'll let you in on the route, life on board the ship and scenery as seen from the deck in the next 2 posts. In the meanwhile, since we're on the theme of sailing, here's one of my favourite quotes for you to mull upon through the day or before sleep overcomes you at night:

(I've a feeling that I've shared this before on one of our very early posts on our old Blogabond blog. But since I really like it - and this is our blog - I get to share it again!)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

- Mark Twain

And here's another good one:

Explore. Exchange. Entertain (at Marina Bay)

- Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore

Fueled by Commitment, Challenge, Adventure and Life.

What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?

This post is dedicated to our foreign domestic help at home - we affectionately know her as Mana. She has been with us for the past 3-4 years, I think, and is due to go back to her family soon. I know my parents will miss her for sure, and we will definitely miss her helpfulness and her cooking!

With our realisation that our budget cannot last us till our scheduled return to Singapore in March 2010, we did what anybody and any company would do - we looked for additional revenue, and we tried to reduce costs.

So, not only are we selling some of our prized photos encapsulated into a lovely 2010 calendar, we are also looking for ways and means to reduce costs. So we have cut out tours that may be repetitive in nature (like taking a cruise to see sealions, because we have already seen sealions lazing on a beach along Highway 1, from Los Angeles to San Francisco). We have also decided to tighten our purse strings by cooking more often again.

Inspiration for the blog title

However, unlike the early days of the trip when cooking meant cooking instant noodles, we have decided that it is high time we expanded our repertoire. Seriously, we don't want to come back bald and malnourished due to MSG, right? I mean, I have a beautifully-shaped head and can look pretty good bald, but I think the wife will be a horror to look at!

More importantly, how can we forget that we were in the country of the most delicious steak we have ever tasted and it was only USD 10 for both of us??! How can we ignore that and just eat instant noodles??!

So, we decided that we would try to cook more interesting meals. Include some meat! Toss in some veggies! In the cauldron boil and bake, eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, these are a few of our favorite things!

And, whaddaya know! I think our first few creations turned out pretty good! We probably still don't qualify to be mentioned in food blogs by my ex-colleague or the wife's friend, but hey, we've levelled up in a skill that really matters!

Our first experimental meal was in Mendoza, where we hopped into the supermarket to buy a few slabs of meat from the thigh of a cow, and some canned mushrooms. Chucked it onto a saucepan with some oil and flipped it around every minute or so. And... voila!

Cost of this meal? About USD 2 for both of us!

Experiment 2 also featured beef - this time, we chose meat from the rump. Added some unidentified leafy green vegetables and fried some of our leftover instant noodles. Rounded it off with a small bottle of Argentinean red wine at USD 1.

This was slightly more expensive, at USD 6...

But that's because we are still experimenting with the quantity to buy as well. We will get better! Cheers!

Our third experiment was in Santiago, where we got ourselves some curry-flavored rice, brocolli and chicken thighs. Chicken was more difficult to cook than beef though. Took a really long time before the meat turned white enough for us to trust. And this was also the meal where the hostel owner complained to me about us splattering oil all over his kettle and stove.

Food in Chile was more expensive. This meal cost us USD 7.

Our conclusions after these 3 experiments?

1) Cooking is fun!
2) Cooking together is fun!
3) Cooking is also challenging, but it is fun!

Now, I have a request for all those friends and readers who have been posted overseas or studied overseas before - give us some ideas on stuff that is easy to cook! Personally, I would really like to tackle fish soon, but it does seem pretty complicated...