While everyone else was enjoying St. Patrick´s Day celebrations wherever they were in the world, Jess and I were once again hauling our butts out of bed incredibly early to catch the next leg of our adventure down here in Patagonia. Today, we had to get up at 730 to get to our new ferry by 9am. This one was taking us to Porvenir, across the Magellan Strait, to Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire. This archipelago is off the southernmost part of the South American mainland and home to many species of strange animals. Unfortunately, due to our visa applications currently being processed, we are not allowed to leave Chile. The Tierra del Fuego national park is on the Argentinian side of the group of islands, so we couldn´t cross the border to go in. We did see more dolphins during our ferry ride though, and spent a nice relaxing day wandering around Porvenir.
This city was much nicer than Punta Arenas; same ramshackle vibe, but with freshly painted bright colored houses. Our day was characterized by roaming dogs, adorable babies, creepy men, and lots of lovely flowers. The taxi colectivo dropped us off near a main plaza filled with daisies, but we didn´t see any stores anywhere. We wandered back down to the shore and found a mini souvenir shop and one restaurant. We were less than enthused with the restaurant because it was our only option, but once we found our salmon again, we were happy. Jess and I each got salmon mantequilla, which
was grilled salmon DROWNED in butter. Originally we had asked for one
person to get the crispy potatoes and one to get them baked and we could
share, but the waitress made a face and explained that they would have
to dig up the potatoes and then boil them to cook them for us; it would
take a very long time. I highly doubted they actually dug them up from
the ground, but we were starving so we said fine we´ll both get crispy
ones. Good thing we did!! They were like very thick cut potato chips;
crispy and salty and potato-y and delicious. Amazing. And the salmon in the butter was also delicious, though we were a little grossed out by how much they used- it was practically like a yellow soup! By the end of our meal we were stuffed to the ears but so satisfied. 
Next we went to walk off our food coma a little, and each bought a little souvenir at the gazebo/kiosk we had seen earlier. We took a stroll along the beach, and sooooo many men were catcalling at us. I haven´t mentioned this yet because it had never been a problem for me in Santiago (like it has for some of my blonder friends), but as soon as we left the restaurant, horns were honking at us, men were calling to us, even some teenagers whistled behind our backs. Please understand that this is EXTREMELY common down here and I do not take much offense to it when it happens. It happened in Spain, it happens here in Santiago. The men make these noises at both Chilean women and foreigners alike, so there´s no nasty xenophobic aspect to it either. I just ignore it and keep walking. However, when we left the tourist shop, an old man came up and asked for a photo on his phone. I knew what he was getting at but poor Jess thought he wanted a picture of himself and not us haha. I was feeling generous so I said fine, and stood next to him for Jess to take a picture. It went a little downhill when he put his arm on my shoulder and pulled until we were super close together, but that was it. He took his phone back and we went on our way, just a tiny bit faster than last time. After some jumping pictures on the beach, we were heading back to the bus stop to return to Punta Arenas and a bunch of teenagers/ college kids started calling to us. They even offered us marijuana! Thanks for the offer boys, but we are not interested. Overall, it was a different experience than Santiago, but perhaps because it is such a small, homogeneous town, they are even less used to foreigners or foreign-looking people.
The return ferry was a little shorter than the trip out to Porvenir, but we had a blast playing Peek-a-boo with the adorable, chubby cheeked baby next to us. He was so adorable and happy! He kept laughing and stumbling over to our table; it was wonderful!
When we finally returned to our hostel, we scrambled to get our things together and then rushed to the airport. We were about 2ish hours early so we figured we were fine, and then we got to security and the lights were off! There was no one around and the machines were off but eventually someone came out to check us. We were a little nervous at the lack of security at this airport, especially because I forgot to empty my water bottle and they didn´t even mention it, yikes! But the flight was fine; Jess had finally finished reading Life of Pi and guess which movie came on for the flight home :D We got hassled at the TransVIP station in the airport because they couldn´t figure out my name to find the reservation, but finally we made it to our taxi, then to our hostel, then to our rooms and our respective, inviting beds. Pictures will be posted tomorrow! Goodnight!!
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