12/10-Adventures in Grocery Shopping, And Making New Friends

We enjoyed another hotel breakfast today. While Alex did some yoga, Markus and I talked about our plans for the next section. We will be in Cochrane for Christmas, and Villa O’Higgins for New Years. That means we have 12 days to get to Cochrane, which will be fine. We really only need 8 days, so we’ll have a few days to play with. There are a couple of places we want to take a day off. That leaves two cushion days. Alex made the booking for Christmas in Cochrane. Should be a nice place for Christmas. 

We went back to the place we first went to when we arrived here to have some lunch. I had a mushroom burger…as in, all mushrooms. It was pretty good. Then we went to the Unimarc to get our resupply. Even though we had been there before, it was an adventure in trying to find what we wanted. Strangely, they had tons of onions, carrots, oranges, and lemons, but no potatoes or bananas. Markus went to another mercado to get potatoes. Still no bananas. 

We were ready to check out. We went to the self-checkout. Alex and Markus had done this the first time we went there (and paid with credit card). I went to one, and they went to another. I finally got everything scanned, and went to pay with my debit card (no cash accepted at self-checkout). Nope, it wouldn’t work. I then used my credit card. Nope, that didn’t work either. Then Markus tried using his phone (then I would give him the cash). Nope, also didn’t work. The somewhat overwhelmed young man who was working the self-checkout said I needed to go through the regular checkout. Fine. I put everything back in the cart and went to a regular checkout line. Then Markus came over and said they couldn’t checkout in the self-checkout either. The young man said foreigners couldn’t use the self-checkout (even though Alex and Markus had already done it on Friday). They had to load their stuff back into the cart too. 

The lines were moving glacially slow. It wouldn’t be a problem, except tonight we are meeting some acquaintances of Markus, and we wanted to prepare dinner so all we’d have to do when we got back was put it in the oven. Finally, I get my stuff checked out, and I go to pay with cash. The woman says tarjeta only. Fine. I paid with my card. Sheesh! 

We ended up eating our dinner before meeting Patricio and Camilla. We went to a bar/restaurant near our hotel. We had a nice time. They are young, but have already done a long bike tour (Canada, US, Turkey, Iran, Mexico…). They just got back to Coyhaique not too long ago. Now they are starting a cycling tour company where they will be the guides in Patagonia. Their first tour will be in January. So, if you are looking for a guided bike tour (they provide the bikes) here in Patagonia, let me know, and I’ll get the info to you. 

Tomorrow we start the “second half” of the Carratera! It’s the part that is mostly gravel.