Day #29…Saturday, February 28, 2015

Punta Arenas, Chile

We arrived at the port of Punta Arenas, Chile at approximately 8 A.M.  We decided to wait until mid morning for a tender boat to take us ashore.  There is always a mad rush to get a tender ticket and be the first passengers off the ship.  Though we are now of Princess Elite status and have tender boat priority boarding, our friends who will be accompanying us do not have the status.  Thus the four of us will wait until later to go ashore and head into the city.

Punta Arenas, Chile was populated by indigenous natives known as the Thuelche people for more than 13,000 years.  Ferdinand Magellan discovered the region in 1520.  Yet no European country settled the area and it remained off the beaten path for 300 years.  Punta Arenas was founded in 1843 and Chile founded a penal colony in the region in 1848.

The area is located on the Brunswick Peninsula, at the Strait of Magellan, near the southern tip of Chile and is known as the southernmost city in the world.  The population is over 127,000 people and is the third largest city in the Patagonia region.  The official language is Spanish and the Chilean Peso (CLP) is the national currency with a rate of 625 pesos = 1 USD.

The seasonal temperature is greatly moderated by its proximity to the ocean.  With average lows in July near 31° F and highs in January of 57° F., the area is quite dry.  It only gets approximately 1.7inches of rain in its wettest month of May.  Punta Arenas is only 800 miles from Antarctica and about a dozen passengers from our ship were planning a flight to Antarctica and back today.  We decided to refrain from going as Princess was charging approximately $4,000/person for the 11-hour excursion.  We felt we could better put that amount toward future travels!

We boarded a tender at 10:00 A.M. and arrived in Punta Arenas about twenty (20) minutes later.  We found a private tour company that was willing to take a total of 14 passengers for a city tour.  The price was reasonable at $15.00 per passenger.

We soon found out taking this tour was not a wise decision since our tour guide/bus driver only spoke Spanish.  To make matters worse, none of the fourteen in the van spoke Spanish either.  We convinced the young man who was collecting our money to have the driver give us some land marker names in her language and we would try to figure out where we were.  I guess you get what you pay for!

For two hours we drove around the city and made a photo stop at Cruz Hill, the tallest point in Punta Arenas.  It was astonishing to see a region situated so far south that was flourishing as a very rich city. 

We then stopped at the monument in honor of the sheepherders (name unknown) and took photos.  At Plaza Muñoz Gamero, a canopy of pine trees shaded the area and boasts the Hernando de Magellanes Monument dedicated to Ferdinand Magellan.  The locals believe that if you touch his foot, you will return to Punta Arenas to visit again.  Punta Arenas was officially renamed Magellanes in 1927, but was changed back to Punta Arenas in 1938.

Vendors were plentiful in this area but we were disappointed in the variety of goods.  Alpaca knit wear was the focus for most of the items with hats, scarves and sweaters for sale at every booth.

The City Cemetery was our next stop.  The cemetery dates back to 1894 and is a true reflection of the history of Punta Arenas.  Dotted with sculpted European cypress trees, the resting place is much like a city.  It has avenues that connect the magnificent tombs or the region’s founding families and immigrant colonies.  A crypt located here holds the remains of the last Selk’nam Indian of Tierra del Feugo. 

We chose not to go to a naval museum but did take some photos of a replica of Magellan’s ship that landed in the area in the 1500’s. 

We ended our tour in the center of the city and decided to walk the streets and find a local restaurant to eat lunch.  A small “mom and pop” type pizzeria offered us a flavor of the local atmosphere and was decorated with antiques from an earlier era.  We ordered a sausage, pepperoni and bacon pizza to share with our friends and the guys tried a local drink called banana milk.  When the pizza arrived, the sausage part was equivalent to our own American hot dogs but we did really like the taste.  None of us had ever tried hot dogs as a pizza topping.  Dennis and Frank claimed the banana milk was delicious!

We then walked back to the pier to check on Wi-Fi reception in the area.  After purchasing a $2.00 Wi-Fi card, we were able to spend the rest of the afternoon updating emails and cleaning up our spam and trash boxes on our computers. 

We were also able to get a good phone signal on our cell phones and called home to find out how Dennis’s dad is feeling.  We received a message that he was hospitalized in our hometown and was on antibiotics.  When we heard his voice, we knew he was feeling better.  He was glad to hear from us and hopes to be transferred to a transitional care unit in a few days.

In the evening, we were entertained by Don Bryan, a ventriloquist and his friend, Noseworthy.  We look forward to going to his next show in a few days.

We will have three (3) sea days and then dock in Valparaiso, Chile.  Sea days will give us time to catch up on editing our photos and getting the blog posted in a timely manner.