Keagan’s World

Okay. A little out of order in my timeline here but as I sit on the bus panting after sprinting a mile uphill with 15kgs on my back, I think this qualifies as special circumstance.

I’m in Patagonia. Surprise!

Specifically in Chile since I’m officially out of Argentina for this trip. Also surprise!

And I was in Argentinian Patagonia for the past 5 days where I did ~100k of hiking. Also sur— ya know what I think I’ve made my point.

I’m currently en route to the starting point of one of the most famous treks in the world: the W-trek – Torres Del Paine.

Frickin piola, boludo.

–

Anyways, Steve Jobs. What’s he got to do with me in Chilean Patagonia and, better question, what does he have to do with me nearly not getting to do the hike I planned and booked 4-5 months ago?

Well truthfully, it’s probably some engineer far far away in an Apple basement that pushed a software update to my phone or something but where’s the fun in making them the scapegoat?

Story time!

I had the 6:45am bus this morning – the earliest possible so I could get on the ferry at sunrise, get some banger pics, and take my sweet time plodding up to Grey (campsite #1). Being the mature, responsible adult I am (yes I wrote that with a straight face), I set my alarm for 5:15 knowing I wanted to shower, take the 6am breakfast, and have time to walk the mile to the bus station with all my gear. Really prep everything with no stress and full comfort before sleeping outdoors in howling winds and bitter cold the next 4 days.

This morning rolls around and I wake up on my own at “5:04”. I remember because I really wanted to do the whole lay there and fake sleep thing but I knew that would only tempt me to sleep through my alarm + I could get up without waking the other unfortunate souls in my hostel. Again, mature, responsible adult (another straight face).

Then I go to ask front desk to store my extra things for the next 5 days at “5:53”.

*in deep spooky voice* But it was not 5:53.

(The following dialogue is roughly translated for your convenience.)

My man Diego: “yo what time is your bus dude.”

Me: “6:45”

Diego: “my guy you missed your bus what are you doing”

Me “What..? It’s like 5:50. It’s good.”

Diego: “No its 6:50”

Me: “No it’s 5:50. Look.” shows phone

Diego: “No it’s 6:50. Your time is wrong here.”

Me: “What?”

Diego: shows phone

Me: “oh, $@&!.” panics in unintelligible Spanish “okay can we talk through this in English?”

Diego: “Yeah”

We determine my best bet is to get to the station and hope there’s tickets for the 12pm bus which would’ve been completely fine if I wasn’t for the fact I was supposed to meet someone on the 7am bus and I had all of our food save a couple pasta sauces… oh and did I mention I’m going through Chile without cell service? There wasn’t really any other realistic options though so that’s what would have to do.

Then a Hail Mary hits.

As I’m halfway out the door, my boy Diego gets word there’s a second bus running at 7:10. And just like that, I’m sprinting down the road 6:58am with like 15kgs on my back instead of munching on my free tostado breakfast.

Wild turn of events.

Here’s a look at my brain activity from the sprint:

We’ll get back to the “wtf” part in a moment.

I get to the station, throw my pack in a corner and run to the counter to show them my ticket and explain my presumption that my phone somehow didn’t change timezones in the 2 days I’d spent there. Their rough response was “we’re full, good luck”.

Nice.

I turn to head out ready to admit defeat, but then Chevonne shows up out of nowhere with the best news of the day: there were seats on the bus. I explain this to the attendants and they tell me that bus is going to Punto Arenas. At this point I know they’re full of crap since Chevonne and I are hiking together and she’s in fact on that bus. As a last ditch effort I go outside and appeal to the bus driver.

And my man got me.

He goes inside and argues with the attendants for a few moments before turning to me and being like “come on let’s go”. And we went.

Rough summary:
1. Roses to Chevonne, Diego, and the bus driver
2. Thorns to the Bus-Sur attendants and that Apple Engineer who done screwed up

Between my 10% “wtf” brain usage and explaining to Chevonne what had happened, I came to the realization that my original assumption that my phone hadn’t registered a time zone change because of my lack in service couldn’t be true. After all, the time had been correct enough for me to meet up with Chevonne at 12pm the day before to grab our food rations and finish packing right before lights out at 11pm. There was no time change between Argentina and where I was in Chile.

Somehow my phone had registered a phantom time zone change overnight in my sleep, causing my clock to set me an hour back.

So yeah, cursing you, random Apple engineer.

But we made it! And by the time this hits your inbox I’ll have completed the trek with another post and pictures to follow. If it’s anything like El Chalten and Fitz Roy… I got just one word:

Damn.