antarctica and stuff.

Ok, not really. 

Punta Arenas is America's southernmost city. And I was there, on a trip that actually is a trip in a trip in a trip. All of this began as a wish to see Miguel, a guy from the city of Castro who for some inexplicable reason knows where Latvia is and actually wants to go on exchange to my beloved country, later developing in  a plan of seeing Niklas, an AFS-er from Germany currently studying in Valdivia, and checking out AFS Punta Arenas. And right now, approaching Chile's largest island Chiloé, home to the city of Castro and the second leg of my trip, and reminiscing on how I was listening to the 183 kph wind and rain outside in Punta Arenas yesterday, cuddling under my blanket, I can only sigh out of happiness of having seen some of the most spectacular sights around, met some awesome people and actually getting to know the Southern tip of America.

And isn't Punta Arenas an awesome place! To me it still seems that the time stopped some fifty years ago, letting us see how the life was back in the day when no rush, McDonald's or Crocs existed. It enjoys an isolated life ruled by the strong wind and cold sun of Antarctica. Small coloured houses lying on the hills around, surrounded by the interminable pampa, some 19^th century colonial mansions, now fancy hotels or memorial museums, and loads of local stores, dust on the windows and 200 year old butchers inside.

Punta Arenas has got a really interesting cemetery. Hidden behind high walls, it hides in it the history, laughter and sighs of those from Punta Arenas.

Apart from Spanish, the cemetery bears the names of many Germans, French and Croatians (I mean, Croatians?) among other nationalities, as Punta Arenas, a trading city, has always intrigued those abroad.

It is a town where people still gather to listen to music on radio and reciting poems by local authors praising the pampa, the hills and ice cold estrecho de Magallanes. Wandering around the town, never really getting lost, finding so far the best coffee in Chile and seeing the Land of Fire in background all of the time is really a moving sensation.

Apart from being home to Punta Arenas, the region of Magallanes really is the you-just-cannot-get-further-than-that place, mainly dominated by pampa, llamas, flamingos, yellow and brown.

Finally having escaped Santiago with its always protective cordillera looking down to us, or the rush hour metro horror, looking at interminable fields marked by llamas, guanacos, shipwrecks, holiday sheds and sharing the moments with the loveliest people I lived with, high school teacher Claudia and her mother.

They shared with their tiny, yet lovely and warm (for once there's a region in Chile where heating system is present!) house, two poodles, Lalida and Melody, and the guarded secret of every Chilean family - how to make the empanadas, the Chilean alternative for Latvian speķu pīrādziņi or Kiwi pies.

Now, sometimes I'm that silly I'd rather have one ear cut than continue being silly. Due to some spontaneous perfectionist desire I wanted to arrange the photos, which turned into a way greater mess than before and over 100 deleted photos, including most of my lovely empanadas. The only thing I can say in my defense that I do have a video of the instructions (sounding like a pro) in Latvian.

Another thing I deleted some really beautiful photos of, was a local fundraising event or peña, organized by the parents of Franz, a boy who is going to Norway, which was basically an underground (both literally and metaphorically) gathering in a pub, having the family members and guests sharing with the music of Magallanes, art of the great Spanish poets and immense joy. When I learn how to upload videos here, I'll share with some.

The trip, however, didn't end in Punta Arenas. Claudia and her mum were awesome enough to take me to Fuerte Bulnes, now a national park at the very tip of the continent.

The Land of Fire, the Strait of Magellan, rocky shores, skewed trees, rough wind and the colours of autumn, all of it add to the splendour of the wooden reproduction of the original castle, built by the pioneers of this part of America in mid-1800's, and the marvellous lookouts to the Pacific guarded by it.

However, it was slightly confusing to find Santa Ana, claiming to be the southern tip of the continent, if not only Google maps, but my own eyesight (especially given how bad it is) could clearly distinguish something beyond. The reserve further south, lacking any roads or human settlements, remains an area of mystery, once again proving that we humans are only a tiny fraction of everything this world has got and not all summits should be reached.

That awkward moment when you're that close to Antarctica you're afraid of falling off the map.

Slightly up north from Punta Arenas a different Chile can be encountered. Torres del Paine, one of the most breathtaking sights I've ever experienced, is a mountain range with four spectacular cliffs reaching straight up in the sky. The experience was additionally enhanced by the horrible rain and wind in the morning, all of it clearing out exactly at the moment of reaching the site. It really was like magic or a Harry Potter movie - mist and clouds suddenly motioning in immense speed revealing more hills, llamas, guanacos, deep valleys and waterfalls, all of it overlooked by the impossibly amazing grandeur of the snow covered mountains. Another moment destined for eternal remembrance occurred, as due to the clouds and my poor photographer skills I was unable to take a shot of the four cliffs, uncovered by the clouds for a moment just short enough to take my breath away.

The whole trip was amazing. I lack the words the words to describe the beauty, so there you go.

It was also nice to meet Eduardo from Chile, Ricardo from Italy, Guillermo from Argentina and his friend from Israel whose name I never got round to learning. Eventually we formed a group of five and stayed together for the rest of the trip, apart from that one hour when Eduardo wandered away in the hills, slightly lost his way back and forced us to wait for him and pose to photographs despite the just-begun rain and wind.

That's us. We all loved Eduardo, and not only because of his interminable chocolate and whiskey resources.

I wasn't only travelling around, the idea was to visit AFS Punta Arenas and help them out with whatever was on their minds. Eventually I had the opportunity to present my beautiful Latvia to them, and, believe it or not, all of them were interested to hear more about something they probably hadn't heard of a week ago. The fun part comes at the end, when I offer to sing the anthem of Latvia to justify us being "the country that sings" in exchange for the Chilean one.

Another video needed here.

I fully enjoyed meeting them and am sure that I won't forget them that soon, also because now I have 94 new friends on Facebook.

Here's some from Colegio Juan Bautista.

And some more from Liceo Nobelius.

I even got to take a photo with the headmistress. It pays off to be the local celebrity by coming from a country no one knows about!

I also plucked up my courage and asked if I could participate in one of the classes (just like in good old school days), ending up in History. The teacher did know how to explain the history of Rome in an interesting manner. I, who hasn't shown interests in plebes and Coliseum for at least 6 years now, was truly impressed by how they lived back in the day. The culture shock, however, came at the revelation that the teacher had to spent at least two thirds of her energy and time to "shhhhhh" them, ask to open the notebooks (and actually check upon that) and argue with students of whether or not the mobile phones should be switched off. I began questioning myself, was it the Liceo Nobelius or IB at pirmā (my dungeon for the last 6 years) or both, that created that sharp contrast between the classroom I'm used to and the one I saw yesterday.

South is amazing. It contrasts to everything I've seen before. And even if I lack the English to describe the beauty I got to see (and I am sure of it, having re-read the post), I've been blessed to be down there and imagine Antarctica just across the shore.

Chiloé, what have you prepared for me?