Overpriced touristic crap

Day 6: Today was a pile of overpriced touristic crap. I'm exaggerating. I went to the regional museum, which was pretty limited, as expected. There was a little bit of modern art in the basement and some historical and cultural things up above. It would have been a fine little museum if not for the woman who worked there, who was about as friendly as the snotty teenagers who work at the hostel. She sighed with annoyance when I wanted to pay because it meant putting down her book. She was reading again when I notified her that there was no toilet paper in the women's bathroom. She looked at me like "why are you telling me?" and, without saying anything, went back to her book.

Later in the afternoon, I was sitting outside enjoying the fresh sea breeze when a group of new friends from the hostel asked me if I wanted to see the penguin colony with them. I'd decided not to because I'd heard that it wasn't that cool, but they said they got a good deal on transportation to the boat tour -- 18. Wow, I thought, 1800 pesos. That's a steal. So I hopped in the cab. The tour itself was pretty short and we didn't see that many penguins, but we were all decked out in all-weather gear, which was fun. The guide kept trying to wager me about whether or not there were bears on the island. I said no, but he insisted yes. Of course, I wouldn't wager -- it was obvious I would somehow lose. It turns out there's a big rock called "bear", which was such a lame end to all of his blathering that I laughed out loud. He mistook my laughter for a sign that I thought he was clever and he smiled smugly.

On the ride back to town, the driver kept mentioning that he used to be a police officer. I took the bait and asked him about it. This led into a long diatribe about how Chile is running amok because the government is too soft. He said that unless a hard-line, right-wing party takes control soon, the country will get so bad that the military will have to take over a la the Pinochet coup. Wow. It turns out his career was first under Allende and then under Pinochet. He liked the latter years better because things were under control. But there wasn't freedom, I posited. No, he admitted, but things were calm. Double wow. I didn't have the guts to ask about all the people who were kidnapped, tortured, disappeared, etc. I did ask if most Chileans agreed with him and he said no because there are a lot of poor people who vote left because they are uneducated. Triple wow.

Then came the biggest shocker of all: the price tag. It turns out, it wasn't 1800 pesos, it was 18000. That last zero makes a huge difference!!! I had to have someone spot me money because most of mine was locked up in the hostel's safe with my passport. It was a ridiculous price and I was pissed about it, but it had already been arranged. Grrrr. I hate being ripped off.

But I had a great time in the evening hanging out with the hostel crew. We are heading our separate ways tomorrow, which is sad. It's amazing how fast you can build a group of friends on the road. It was great fun and a truly multi-cultural group. Last night at the dinner table, we had at least one representative from the U.S., France, Switzerland, Germany, Chile, Norway, and England. There was also a Brazilian guy, but he and his girlfriend cuddled up in the same bunk watching a movie after we all went to bed, which meant the light was on, they were whispering to each other, and I got to see the guy in nothing but his tighty whities. I wanted to tell them to go downstairs and ask the management for a private room, but instead I just tossed and turned, unable to sleep. I think it was the image of the Brazilian guy in his undies that was burned into my brain. And not in a good way!