Over the past three days the Red Cross has evacuated around 1000 tourists from here in Puerto Natales. Folks waited for hours or days at the school that was turned into a shelter, their luggage taped with tags to one of two destinations, El Calafate in Argentina or the Punta Arenas airport. The elderly and families were given priority, loaded onto an Army convoy, and transported through the blockades to the tiny Puerto Natales airport where Chilean military planes arrived to fly them out. Some waited all day at the school to no avail. We got used to the parade of people each morning, rolling their luggage down the main street to the school, with looks of cautious optimism, then the opposite, dejected procession in the evening. The lucky ones who made it out didn't fare much better. The little town of El Calafate was soon overwhelmed and the Punta Arenas airport quickly developed an enormous backlog. Luckily, these are the best equipped refugees around and soon people had fired up their camp stoves outside the airport to make up for the lack of available food.
The popular Torres del Paine National Park was finally evacuated and closed on Saturday, so 1500 trekkers who had been stuck there instead found themselves stuck in Puerto Natales. Our little band of refugees at the Erratic Rock hostel was inundated by a huge crowd coming from the park. Bill turned no one away, using every couch and even putting people in the former brothel next door, a cold and dilapidated structure that I've called home for the past week. Many people also stayed at the Red Cross shelter. We ran out of bread, but Bill still cheerfully cooked omelettes for all 35 of us each morning.
Most businesses have been closed, but the little grocer a few doors down has been doing a very brisk business selling staples. Amazingly they still seem to have quite a bit of food and wine, but the beer supply is running low.
I've been back and forth with US embassy officials, trying to find a way to get my students here. They are still in Punta Arenas, treated to a daily show of tire fires and endless processions of honking cars. Unfortunately, people are still only focused on getting people out, not in. Every day it seems like there is an end in sight to all of this, and every day it drags on. Bits of news or rumor filters through the gringo mill, and all information is hard to confirm.
Last night we heard from someone at the US embassy that the roads were briefly open. We found a van, but had trouble finding a driver willing to brave the blockades and the likelihood of getting stuck here in Puerto Natales. Finally a plan coalesced this morning. Pato drove the Erratic Rock van on a recon mission, it's logo covered by the ubiquitous black flag of the protesters. To no avail. No vehicles were being allowed to pass.
Now, a few hours later, they're trying again, this time for real, with students on board and yerba mate as a bribe.
Meanwhile, here in Puerto Natales another drama is playing out. The Navimag is approaching the port. This is the once weekly ferry that delivers people and food to southern Patagonia. Will the protesters allow it to dock? Will the hundreds of ticket-holding tourists be allowed to board? Will food be unloaded? Many folks here at the hostel have tickets on the return trip to Puerto Montt in the north, and are counting on the ferry as their escape.
Those not trying to leave are scraping up food rations for a refugee barbecue tonight. Hmm, there are a lot of street dogs wandering around........
The popular Torres del Paine National Park was finally evacuated and closed on Saturday, so 1500 trekkers who had been stuck there instead found themselves stuck in Puerto Natales. Our little band of refugees at the Erratic Rock hostel was inundated by a huge crowd coming from the park. Bill turned no one away, using every couch and even putting people in the former brothel next door, a cold and dilapidated structure that I've called home for the past week. Many people also stayed at the Red Cross shelter. We ran out of bread, but Bill still cheerfully cooked omelettes for all 35 of us each morning.
Most businesses have been closed, but the little grocer a few doors down has been doing a very brisk business selling staples. Amazingly they still seem to have quite a bit of food and wine, but the beer supply is running low.
I've been back and forth with US embassy officials, trying to find a way to get my students here. They are still in Punta Arenas, treated to a daily show of tire fires and endless processions of honking cars. Unfortunately, people are still only focused on getting people out, not in. Every day it seems like there is an end in sight to all of this, and every day it drags on. Bits of news or rumor filters through the gringo mill, and all information is hard to confirm.
Last night we heard from someone at the US embassy that the roads were briefly open. We found a van, but had trouble finding a driver willing to brave the blockades and the likelihood of getting stuck here in Puerto Natales. Finally a plan coalesced this morning. Pato drove the Erratic Rock van on a recon mission, it's logo covered by the ubiquitous black flag of the protesters. To no avail. No vehicles were being allowed to pass.
Now, a few hours later, they're trying again, this time for real, with students on board and yerba mate as a bribe.
Meanwhile, here in Puerto Natales another drama is playing out. The Navimag is approaching the port. This is the once weekly ferry that delivers people and food to southern Patagonia. Will the protesters allow it to dock? Will the hundreds of ticket-holding tourists be allowed to board? Will food be unloaded? Many folks here at the hostel have tickets on the return trip to Puerto Montt in the north, and are counting on the ferry as their escape.
Those not trying to leave are scraping up food rations for a refugee barbecue tonight. Hmm, there are a lot of street dogs wandering around........
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