Stranded (briefly!)

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From Santiago we flew to Punta Arenas, the southernmost town in Chile.

We thought it was maybe because everything was shut on Sundays that the town seemed bleak and dull, but quickly realised that the day of the week didn't have much effect on the place's appeal! We took in Punta Arenas' attractions in about an hour (1 supermarket, 1 bar and a walk along the seafront!) and retired to watch cable TV in our hotel room - saved by the 2 or 3 English channels!

We thought we were going to be stranded here for days on end but eventually found a bus company that had spaces for us so we could make our escape! Our bus across the Argentinian border took us to Rio Gallegas, which wasn't much of an improvement. Slightly more happening than Punta Arenas, it still didn't take long to exhaust the possible sources of entertainment and we again took advantage of the TV in our hotel room. Any place with a single entry of "fly fishing" under the "Activities" section in our guidebook wasn´t ever going to be that exciting though I suppose!

The point of this tour of the bleak far south was to get to Ushuaia without spending hundreds of pounds on flights. We arrived the following evening after another 13 hour bus journey which included 4 border crossings and a ferry. It was eventually well worth the hassle though.

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Photos

Hotel Ritz
in Punta Arenas. Yeah right.

Sunset
on the way to Ushuaia