Kyle Hepp

February 7, 2011

This giant rock, mountain thingy is visible from pretty much everywhere in Coyhaique. The whole time we were there, Seba just kept saying, “Sydney and Brian should climb that!” They’re rock climbing adventurers.

Everywhere we go, Seba always wants to eat in the casino de bomberos. In Chile most firefighter’s have a restaurant that’s also open to the public. They generally serve good food and have cheap prices. Not the case in Coyhaique. Prices were the same as all the other restaurants and the food was just fine, but nothing to write home about.

FYI, all pictures of people in this post were taken with their permission.

This lovely gent talked our ear off for about 20 minutes after I took the photo. He told Seba to buy me more roses. And that there are only two beauties in this world — women and roses. But roses have thorns. He was kind of obsessed.

This girl was my favorite. She was really shy about getting her picture taken.

But so pretty!

The rock again.

Mother and daughter. They’ve had their business for I think 4 years, they said.

In the plaza. Unfortunately there was no music in the plaza that day or I would’ve taken a picture of them dancing. I find this photo really funny because they were totally serious when they said yes to me taking their picture. But then as soon as I had taken it and thanked them they all started giggling like little schoolgirls.

The supermarket was amazing. It had so much more stuff than any supermarket here. But by “stuff” I mean non-necessary items. Like several different brands of Chicha, which you normally see here only around 18 de Septiembre. Different wines, tons of different liquors (multiple varieties of sake!). They had so many different kinds of ketchups and mustards, I thought I was in love.

However. I fell out of love when I realized that they had 39 different flavors of beer and no toilet paper AT ALL the entire week we were there.

The variety apparently comes from the fact that A. They are really close to Argentina, so they import different products than what we get in Santiago. And B. They are in a “zona franca,” which means no taxes. So they import a lot of crazy shiz down to Coyhaique. And everybody buys really expensive cars, because with no taxes, they’re no longer so expensive. Then they give you a special red license late that means you bought your car in “zona franca,” and your car must live in zona franca for several years ( 5? 7? I forgot) before it’s allowed to leave.

We had a picnic one day and our supermarket bag flew away. It flew really far. At this point when I was talking the picture I had already gotten up and walked towards where it was going. We couldn’t just let it fly. That would be a crime to litter in Patagonia!  I mean, it’s not good to litter anywhere, but it feels especially sinful in such a pristine place.

He’s triumph.

The rooooooooock. Again.

Lots more on Coyhaique coming soon!