Chile: Stranded on an island

First of all, why were we on the island?

Picture 1/12 - We wanted to see the king penguin colony in their natural habitat.

 

Picture 2/12 - We wanted to touch the fur of a penguin! 

Was it worth? Definitely! It was a “once in a lifetime” experience!

Once the plane landed in Punta Arenas (southern part of Chile), our hearts were just about to explode from the excitement of seeing the king penguin colony, in their natural habitat. Le loves penguins and it makes me so happy, just seeing him get excited about this adventure.

The penguin colony is located on Tierra del Fuego island... a three hour ferry ride from Punta Arenas. Getting to the penguins, was no easy task. Many tourists would just skip the route, since it’s very time consuming and the tour’s cost is very high, for just one attraction. Of course, we refused to pay $1000, to sit on the tour bus, for 10 hours, so we can just see the penguins!

Picture 3/12 - Punta Arenas - our base location
in the Southern part of Chile

A rental car, from our homestay’s host in Punta Arenas, was much more reasonable than anything we could have found online. If we had the extra money, we would have looked for an 4x4 car, instead of a Toyota Prius. The roads were long and the potholes were rough, especially when it was raining.

We planned out the details as much as possible (before leaving). We tried to think of all the questions that might come up, like how much gas we would need; what we would do if the GPS signal didn’t work; where were the nearest gas stations, and how many miles were there between each stop. We knew that if we did not plan carefully for this trip, it could be a very expensive mistake (even life-threatening) which we could have prevented.

A round trip from our base location will only take half a tank of gas. The option to use the Prius's electric power was a nice plus. Therefore, it didn’t seem gas shortage would be a problem (or so we thought).

Picture 4/12 - location of Punta Areas and Povenir town on Tierra del Fuego island

Picture 5/12 - Our fancy ride!

Starting at 7:00 AM , a ferry took us across the Strait of Magellan, to Porvenir (a small town on this island). There was only one gas station in Porvenir (actually, the only one on the island). As our tank read about 90% full, we did not feel the need to fill the tank. So... we started our drive to the penguins. 

Three hours didn’t seem long at all. We had many stops along the way to take pictures. Most of the streets didn't have names; we had to remember all the turns...so we could return the same way. It didn't seem complicated at all. Some of the roads were paved, but most were just dirt with potholes (and it was raining). We didn’t know if the Prius could handle all the potholes and slippery hills.  

“You have arrived!” the GPS proudly announced.

We were in the middle of nowhere! No penguins, no people, no cars, no houses, just nothing.  We were in fact, trespassing on private property!

We turned back, to see if we had missed any signs. There were no signs!

 Luckily, we saw a tour bus that was “probably” headed for the penguin location...and we decided to tag along. At last, we saw a sign which confirmed that we were headed in the right direction!

Picture 6/12 Penguin Colony sign

 Picture 7/12 - The Penguin Colony

 Learning about the penguins was FASCINATING! We wished we could have gotten closer, but for the sake of their habitat, this wasn't possible. Even from far away, it was still a great experience.

Coming back to town was harder than getting to the penguins. We remembered taking two left turns to get us back to the main road. We made the first left turn...and kept on driving for what seemed like forever. The question that nagged us...was that the first turn… or the second one?

This is where most couples begin to argue. We tried to stay calm... as much as was humanly possible. We tried to backtrack from where we had begun, trying to remember the landmarks along the way. The GPS was there on our phone, but it had let us down on our way back to the ferry. We circled around many times! Should we have gone all the way back? We didn't even know which way was “back” anymore. The landscape looked identical, in every direction.

“We should have taken the survival class when we had the chance!" " Once we get home, you are going to sign us up for that class!” Le was getting louder and louder.  How am I supposed to think with him yelling like that?

We decided to stop the car. The best solution seemed to be to wait until another car came in sight and ask them for directions. We didn’t have any extra gas to waste, either.  We sure didn’t want to be stranded out there after dark. In addition, the temperature kept dropping the later it got.

Picture 9/12 - Chasing the truck

Something was moving in a distance…a truck! Inside were three Chileans. Our basic Spanish was of little use, but our "sign language" seemed to be sufficient. The Chileans were nice enough to lead us all the way to the ferry. As it turned out, we had made the second turn already. If we had kept driving in that direction, we would have taken five hours to get there, instead of two.

We finally reached the ferry dock, when the car's empty gas tank signal began to peep!  There was no gas station anywhere in sight, and our snacks were running low. We assumed that we would be home by dinnertime, so why should we have brought extra food? We turned off the engine, to conserve fuel, and  it was so cold (30 degrees Fahrenheit). Even our thermal jackets weren't of much use. In this stressful situation, Le joked that we would die Rose and Jack, in TITANIC! 

Picture 10/12 - Empty gas 

 The ferry's departure time came and went, yet no ferry insight! Could this adventure get any more “exciting”? The wind was howling from all directions, and getting out of the car seemed dangerous. If not for all the cars and trucks on either side of us, the little Prius would have flipped and rolled like a tumbleweed! To this day, we still wonder if this was  normal weather, or if a storm passing by.

While waiting, we decided to be practical. We would approach other vehicles asking if they would sell us an emergency liter of gas. It dawned on me, however, that they might also need their own emergency gas.  Ironically, there were two big gas or diesel trucks waiting for the ferry, in front of us. 

 What could we do? Our phones were on low battery, (and the car was of no use when stopped). We were trying to find out whether we could make it to the next gas station, and how far our car would really go after the empty signal came on. Could we figure out how to get the Prius to switch over to its electric power mode? Who could we contact...and how could we apply low fuel driving strategies?   Le thought we could save gas, by putting the car in neutral when going downhill. 

The next gas station was two hours from the dock. We were definitely not going to make it there. There was another small gas station on Google map, but we couldn’t confirm whether it was open. We couldn't risk getting there, only to run out of gas because they were closed!

Then, we had a brilliant idea...contact our homestay’s host. We asked her to deliver a litre of gas to us. In return, we would pay for her driving time and the gas. She was more than happy to help us out!

We were finally got onto the ferry at 10:00 PM, and heading back to Punta Arenas. We were never so happy when we found a hot dog vendor onboard. We were so tired, however, that we didn't have much of an appetite. We still had to decide whether to keep going toward the town (when we reached land), or should we stop somewhere so our host could find us. 

When we finally reached the mainland, we decided to wait for our host. If we had kept on driving, we would have run out of gas, and then there would have been no heat in the car. If we were forced to stop in an area with little or no light, our host might not have seen us. 

We picked an area with the brightest lights and a great big sign. We took a picture, and sent it to him.

The sky was dark, and the stars were bright. We curled up under our jackets, trying to sleep.  The light of passing cars and the cold made this impossible. We were drifting in and out of sleep, when our host arrived...at 1:00 in the morning. 

Picture 11/12 - Our last stop

Looking back, it was definitely an EXCITING trip… just to see the penguins!

 

Picture 12/12  - Taking a picture with our host, when somebody almost backed their car into our cameraman.