Jaunted

Our current location is Punta Arenas, Chile where the total population is about 100,000 and there are approximately six restobars in town. Here are three things we tried in our quest to watch the Cards and the Steelers last night. Live and learn.

1. Do some research before arriving to your foreign destination:
Since we didn’t know anyone in the small city of Punta Arenas, we decided to check out couchsurfer.com. No, we didn’t need a couch to sleep on, but thought it would be another way to connect with locals in the area. Bingo! Gonzalo Velasquez is a student and local tour guide who offered some advice:

No one is really having a "Super Bowl" viewing but you can give a try to the Lomit's Restaurant. If you ask there they might put ESPN so you can watch it.

Thanks Gonzalo! When I stopped by Lomit’s last night, the manager didn’t even know what Super Bowl was, “We don’t play it, we only have one channel here”. The channel she was referring to is Chilevision, Chile’s free TV station.

2. Ask your front desk where they’re playing the Super Bowl:
We’re staying Hotel Rey Don Felipe, where the woman at the front desk not only didn’t understand what we were asking because she didn’t speak English, she then she responded:

No se Super Bowl

Ok, we’re getting anxious.

3. Check out the local bars/restos:
In our case, this was an easy task considering there are around six in the area. (We mentioned far far off land didn’t we?) After sitting down to eat at La Luna, where the only bowl we indulged in was a way too rich Crab parmesan bowl, we started asking tables nearby the big S question. Our Swedish neighbors indulged us by actually speaking English. While they laughed and didn’t seem to care about the game, they did reveal that they had some American friends who were watching at the restaurant, Tuken, next door. Touchdown!

They say third times a charm, but unfortunately the game was practically over at this point. While we might have struck out this time, we think glass half full and of course there’s always next year. We also believe all things happen for a reason--there’s a reason why no one knows what the Super Bowl is in Punta Arenas and it’s not just because it’s located at the bottom of the earth.

Related Stories:
· Chile Travel Stories [Jaunted]
· Shira in Chile [Jaunted]