Skip to main content

4/1/2018 Punta Arenas and Isla Magdalena penguins

By Anonymous
Breakfast in the Hostel Keoken is really nice and around 10am we walked short distance to the centre.  I forgot to mention, we had a private room and a private bathroom and all was very clean and comfortable in the  hostel. 

The town is clean and nice and feels so much better than Ushuaia. We can also see a Bata shoe shop (Czech brand) on the street. Firstly we are going to get tickets for the Isla Magdalena to see penguins. We found Comapa travel agency which sells one ticket for 50000 pesos. And we are lucky, there are only 3 spaces left for today. We paid by Revolut payment card and very shortly after us, another couple asked about the tickets too, so we were very lucky. We could speak English here without any problem. 

Then we wanted to withdraw some Chilean pesos from a cash machine and tried our Visa debit card in Banko Credit de Chile and for 150000 pesos, the cash machine asked fee 6500 pesos. So we tried Santander and for 150000 pesos the fee was 5000. So we used this cash machine. After this, we checked a statue on a little square and then very nice old house (museum) nearby. 

We had to rush back to the hostel, to prepare some food for the penguins trip and we met Florian and Natalie in the lobby and agreed to take a taxi together to the penguins trip (they were going on the same one). We asked the hostel reception to call a taxi for us and the taxi driver was here on time at 13:00. The taxi ride was around 10 minutes and costed 2500 pesos. The place from where you get the ferry to the Isla Magdalena is called Terminal Tres Puntas and it is on the northeast edge of Punta Arenas Town. 

The ferry ride took 2 hours, so we reached the island around 4pm. There is a circuit path and the guides from Comapa travel company make sure all 160 people from the ferry walk on the path and don’t stay too long, so the ferry can leave at 5pm back to Punta Arenas. 

Then all four of us took a taxi together to uninark supermarket. The taxi costed around 3500 pesos. We needed to do shopping for dinner together as we decided to we can cook curry for all four of us in the hostel. We couldn’t find coconut milk, neither cream. The only thing we found just before we left the supermarket, was a tin with coconut substance mixed with sugar syrup (which we found when we opened it during cooking). 


Anyway, the dinner was excellent, we shared two and half bottles of wine together and had really nice chat. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

24/1/2018 Chiloe Castro, car hire, Teneun, Dalhacue, Cucao

By Anonymous
We woke up around 10am, Denisa went to buy something for breakfast and we ate in the hostel. Then we packed all things and left to the tourist information centre, where young English speaking girl gave us a business card of local car hire place we headed to straight after.   The car hire place we used in Castro Chiloe is called Hostal Cordillera. They asked us what type of car we want (no English speaking) and what the prices are. We chose the smallest car Kia Morning (3 cylinders) and the lady told us we need to wait until 12 as someone will return the car to use for us. So we walked to see the main church (UNESCO) on the main square and we bought some really tasty potato bread, or something, filled with minced meat. And also kuchen with special local berries called makui (they grow only on Chiloe). Each was only 1000 pesos and it was amazingly good (we ate the kuchen later on the road).  At 12, we were back in the car hire place. Jorge spoke very clearly Spanish and slowly
Post a Comment
Read more

3/1/2018 bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas (Chile)

By Anonymous
As I wrote before, be got our tickets from Marga Taqsa office in Ushuaia (Juana Genoveva Fadul 126) on the day we arrived (Friday 29/12/2017). The bus company is Barria Ghisoni. It is standard long distance bus with tiny toilet and one deck. The ticket costs 1000 pesos (only cash payment) and the bus is leaving at 8am.   We got up at 6:20am, had quick breakfast and packed our rucksacks. At 7:30am we reached the omnibus terminal and handed our rucksacks to a guy from the bus. They didn’t want to see the tickets, neither passport. And they didn’t put any label on our rucksacks either.  Shortly after we departed on time, they gave us a Chile customs declaration form (I’ll upload later) to fill in. I was looking forward to have some amazing views from the bus, all the windows inside were steamed and wet, and it was raining outside anyway. So no views. There is no USB, neither good air con on the bus. The bus was packed.  The first stop is Argentinian border at San S
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting a taxi (cab) in Buenos Aires using smartphone app

By
While in Buenos Aires, without knowledge of Spanish language, this mobile app can come handy. I found it when I was browsing app store and searching apps built around Buenos Aires. What made me feel like this taxi cab application can be a good option, is the fact, that it is sponsored by the Argentinian government. They have few more apps available for iPhone as well as for Android. So I felt much safer using this and not knowing Spanish. The smartphone app is easy to download and you need to fill in few details about yourself after first launch of the app. Then you are ready to get your first taxi. This app also helps you to see the estimated prices before ordering a cab. The interface is very simple even without knowing Spanish and you can order Buenos Aires taxi in few simple steps.  The prices you see are in pesos and you can access/reject the driver if you don't like him for whatever reason. Paying is in cash to the driver in pesos at the end of your journey. The taxi
Post a Comment
Read more