Good Morning Chile. Well, we think it’s Chile. We are anchored in port by 8. But we’re in no hurry. The ship is in port until 8pm. We have no excursion planned. Just walking around the town. Around 10am the fog is quite heavy and as we have breakfast in the Horizon Court (Deck 16) we watch the city of Punta Arenas disappear as the fog bank drops lower and touches the sea.
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| One of the Ship's tenders making it's way back from shore. |
We head back to the room o pack up and head to shore. It is a tendered port so we que for a tender boat. Getting on is no problem. tBut 500 feet from the dock we stop to wait for another tender to drop it’s passengers. Then another tender slips in to place at the pier and we wait even longer. Finally, almost an hour later we pull up to the pier and are allowed to get off. It appears there were supposed to be 2 docking positions for the tenders. But there was only one. So, wait we did.
The fog had lifted a bit and the temp is close to 50. Layered in thermals, shirts and rain jackets we’re very comfortable as we begin to explore the port area of Punta Arenas. There is no big tourist draw to this area – at least for us. Some passengers are headed off to Villa Las Estrellas, Antartica for an 11 hour landing expedition. Seven hours of travel and 4 hours on Antartica. I hope their excursion was successful. We were told there was only a 40-50% chance of landing on Antartica. If they cannot land, the plane spends it’s time at Paine National Park instead. A great place to visit, I’m sure. But it won’t tick off a continent for ya. Oh, and no refunds on the $3,500 fee. And I digress….
So, back to our day. Our first stop is Plaza Munoz Gamero, the city’s main square. There we check out the monument honoring Ferdinand Magellan. It is said if one kisses the foot of the native statue on the side of the monument, one will return to Punta Arenas. We passed on the kiss. Not because we don’t want to return to this city. We just weren’t about to kiss something thousands of others have kissed, not to mention pigeons and other outdoor creatures. But it was cool.
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| A clock tower gifted to Chile from Germany |
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| Plaza Munoz Gamero Look closely and you can see the foot that gets the kissing. |
From the Plaza we stop at the Museo Regional de Magallanes housed in the 1906 neoclassic mansion of the Braun-Mendoza family. The first floor holds furniture and objects from this era. Toward the back of the first floor is a museum that presents the human settlement in the region, starting with the indigenous residents through the colonization of the Magallanes region of Chile. The best part, seeing the servant quarters and kitchen in the basement. Pretty advanced for those days. I don’t think my ancestors had indoor toilets back then. Especially in the servant quarters!! ;-)
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| The office |
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| The dining room |
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| Servant's living quarters |
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| The kitchen located in the basement |
We leave the museum and head down the street to find the municipal cemetery. Like Recoleta in Buenos Aires, this cemetery also contains mausoleum style family plots. No Eva Peron. The most visited site in this cemetery is the tomb of the unknown Indian, indio desconocido. It is rumored the tomb has miraculous powers.
Leaving the cemetery, we head back to the ship. Like both of our previous port stops, it is misting and we’re glad to have our rain jackets on. We stop at a grocery store, join a few other passengers in the wine aisle and pick up a few bottles of wine. None of us were familiar with any of the labels. We narrowed our selection to two bottles. I’m sure they’re winners. Will keep ya posted.
Our final stop was to taste the local brew. We were also a bit hungry and decided to stop at pizza joint were we could see the pizza oven in the front window. A good choice. The pizza was good, and the local beer was even better. So you ask “why didn’t we try the local cuisine?” It’s seafood and lamb. If you know us, you’ll know why!
By now it’s almost 5pm and we’re ready to head back to the ship. Fortunately the tender ride back wasn’t nearly as long as our morning ride. By 5:30 we’re back in our room and resting our feet. Hoping to see a production show in the ship’s theater tonight. Hope we’re still awake!
Another great day!
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