Sunday 11th February, 2017
Today in Punta Arenas was our recovery day from confinement in airplanes and interminable queues …
… and it was a day of warm (for here!) sunshine but a very strong northerly wind. We are in the furious fifties here (53 S) and the strength of the wind reminded us of that fact. If it had been from the south it would have been frigid, to boot! We wandered around the waterfront and Centrum (the CBD), had a meal, visited a café, found a supermarket, bought a sim-card for my phone, and chatted with tourists from a cruise ship.
But first …
… I took a taxi back to the airport to see if my Visa card had been handed in to security. No. But there were plenty of others to choose from! I’d thought I might have left it in the ATM as my cash and receipt were delivered before the card was poked back into the real world. On the other hand, it might have slipped out of my wallet on a subsequent occasion, so I returned to the restaurant where we eat last night and even looked under the cushions! No luck there, either … so I cancelled it.
Punta Arenas is a port city of around 120,000 people, set on a coastal plain rising gently to low hills. The soil is full of rounded stones and gravel and doesn’t seem very fertile; perhaps it is the bed of a giant glacial lake. There didn’t seem to be any significant agriculture, but lots of light industry scattered across the plain. In the surrounds, and right across Patagonia, are grazing lands.
The city center has some attractive classic buildings, and right on the water front is a glass tower that is a hotel casino.
It does not look a rich area, certainly not by our standards. The suburban areas – e.g. where we are staying – are a real mixture of older shack-like homes and more modern houses. Our Hostal is one of the older homes about 1 km from the CBD that has been extended, or merged with another. It is simple and yet is very comfortable.
CBD buildings and street scenes
As we wandered around the CBD the place grew on us. I was very glad we didn’t follow other’s advice of visiting the maritime museum, as I felt our meanderings gave us a feel for the place and its people! People were friendly, and really tried to be helpful, but our lack of Spanish was a major impediment. Many shop workers or officials had an ap on their phone that translated text between English and Spanish. I wish I’d got one before we left!
With due respect to the French and Germans, I think for those needing to interact with the European-derived world, the two essential languages should be English and Spanish.
We had a meal in a restaurant that specialised in grilled fish and meat. Krista had grilled salmon, and was being nice to me by claiming my salmon was better. I tried a Creole black sausage: yum! But vegetarians should skip this place!
In the central park, with a statue of Magellan.
Tourism is very important to Punta Arenas, and the CBD has many outdoors and adventure sports stores. Cruise ships moor off-shore with passengers ferried ashore. When we arrived there was a huge one that looked like those we regularly see in Hobart. The following morning it was gone and replaced by the Victoria on a round-the-world cruise over many months. We spoke to a couple in their third month on board, having started in the UK and leaving in Sydney.
The harbour was very sheltered today; it might be different in a southerly! Punta Arenas is a major port for southern Chile, and no doubt a fishing port, too. It is a base for Antarctic cruises and research ships, and ferries to nearby islands. There is a rather gravelly beach; the water was beautifully clear, but frigid!
I feel we only scratched the surface here! We didn’t go into any tourist shops, nor any galleries or museums, nor the cathedral, nor visit the various monuments and sculptures dedicated to the history and culture of southern Chile.. But it is good to leave feeling it still had something to show us!
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