SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 - Punta Arenas, Chile

The sun is out, the sky is bright blue with fluffy white clouds and Punta Arenas is showing its colors this morning.

 

We wake already tied up at the dock even though it is only a little after 7AM. It is a free day for us. We just couldn’t face another 4 to 5 hour tour so we canceled our tour. Our plan is to go ashore and see what we can find to do. From the ship the town looks really nice. An agent from the city’s tourist board is in the lobby. So after we dress, Carolyn goes down to see what they are suggesting. He is a nice man with good English and gives Carolyn a city map and marks the points of interest. He suggest getting a cab for an hour or so and marks a route for us. He says there will also be some guides offering tours similar to the ones from the ship.

We go to breakfast as soon as the dinning room opens. Since it is Sunday they have caviar and all the trimmings plus champagne. Dick has some and we both have eggs benedict. Back in the room, Carolyn calls on the A/C again. Same old story, some one near us called and complained about their room being too cold so they adjusted the system for warmer air and now our room is too warm. They turn the air back down and our room begins to cool off. We explain that they should tell the neighbors to just turn their thermostats to a warmer setting, because if our room gets warm again (we keep our thermostat on the coldest setting all the time) we will call again as there is nothing we can do. Guess we will be seeing them every other day or so until our neighbors learn that they can turn their heater on if their room is cold! Oh well, we have this problem often.

About 9:30AM we head ashore. There is a man getting taxis and tours arranged at the terminal entrance. We could go to Otway Sound to see the penguins in a private car, but even though it is sunny, the wind is blowing hard and it is cold. We would still be tempted if we hadn’t already been to Antarctica and seen many of the cuties up close and personal, but not today. Instead we hire a taxi for an hour to take us around to some of the sites in town. The drive turns out to be very nice and we have a great little tour.

Punta Arenas was founded around the 1860's and was Chile’s first settlement in Patagonia. It was home of the country’s prison and grew in importance and affluence until the opening of the Panama Canal changed the shipping routes. We first stop at the beautiful cemetery. It is a small version of Recoleta in Buenos Aires.

 

Then we head to Cerro de la Cruz. This is a spot on the hill above the city with a great view of the city as it flows into the sea , the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The city is really colorful with its red, blue, green and yellow houses and roofs.

Finally we drive to the Plaza de las Armas check out the Monument to Hernandeo de Magellan,

the cute and colorful little market, where Carolyn get two neat hats,

and the ornate stone buildings that surround the plaza. The Cathedral was built in 1892 and is similar in style to the one we saw in Puerto Montt.

The government building, a department store

 and the Sara Braum Palace, (1905)

home of one of the important families and now a museum, are very European looking as are a number of other buildings on and near the plaza. Puntra Arenas was obviously a very wealthy city in the early 1900's. Today the city is clean and still prosperous looking by Chilean standards. We walk back to the ship from the Plaza and pass many nice looking restaurants that are in the process of opening.

Back onboard we go to the dinning room for lunch and later Dick goes to Trivia. Then we join Ray for his Sunday church service and adjourn to the Horizon Lounge for sail away before going to dinner. Spaghetti Bolognese is on the menu tonight which suits Carolyn just fine. Dick has the destination dish of Chilean salmon. We finish with a dark chocolate tart that is probably the best dessert we have had.