Penguins!

Day: 178

The priority of today was, of course, to see some penguins.  The tours didn´t leave until later on in the evening so Alex, Eleanor and I started our day with a late start (much due to the late night from the day before) then it was off to the gigantic graveyard just outside of town which houses some huge musoleums as well as graves stacked atop each other for the lower classes of Chilien society.

Bored of death, we went for a cafe con leche and passed a slow afternoon in a cafe on the main street anticipating our evening among flightless birds.

Our tour guide (who was actually just a taxi driver) picked us up at our hotel and took the long road to get us out to the penguin colony, about an hour away.  Eleanor and I (Alex had declined, saying he had seen penguins before) had extreme fun taunting these little guys and learning how to speak penguin (which is more difficult than one might expect.). Our “tour” was far too quick, it being the actual first nice afternoon (weather wise) we had in a long time, but before long we were on our way back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel  (later):

“I just checked my e-mail and realized it´s Austrailia day!” Eleanor (being an Aussie) said to me.

I figured it was some big doings down under from the excitement on her face and asked “Well, how does one celebrate Austrailia day?”

“Normally we just get drunk and grill something…” Me, being a man who is always willing to indulge in the culture of others, was happy to be deputized as an honorary Aussie for the evening and forced to drink excessive amounts of booze.

Sometime later I asked what the day celebrated, and to my amazement she actually didn´t know. She figured it was important and we just decided to figure it out later, seeing as we were already deep in celebration.