Punta Arenas-Lounge Day

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Day 8

There is not much to blog about on this day. Upon waking I discovered that I do not fell so well. We lay in bed until noon before showering and heading across the street to the center square. There are two cruise ships into town and they are also frequenting the center square to shop among the local merchants. The local merchants are selling jewelry, keychains, and hand made wool items from little carts resembling mini stagecoaches. There is a local man painting a picture from an early1900's photo under a tree in the square. We stopped by and admired his work as he mixed colors to stroke on the canvas.

We attempted to visit the southernmost beer brewery in the world but were disappointed when we arrived and found it closed. We rode in the cab back to a local restaurant near the hotel. Lunch was very good but I was restricted to soup because my stomach was still not at optimal operation. Warren enjoyed the King Crab Canneloni.

A short walk back to the hotel left us wondering what we should do for the rest of the afternoon. We decided to go back into the square and do some shopping. The artist from earlier in the day has completed his painting. It is beautiful with the wonders of old Punta Arenas and Ford model A's navigating the snow covered streets. Out of curiosity we asked the gentlemen how long he had been working on the painting and how much he would charge for his painting. He responed by stating that he had been working on the painting for three days (Christmas eve, Christmas day, and the 26th). Then he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know 25,000 pesos?". After converting the pesos to dollars we realized that he only wanted $50. A quick glance at eachother and we knew we were going to buy it. We made sure he signed the back before carefully wrapping the painting for transport.

After dropping the painting off back in the room, we were off to secure an excursion trip to the nearby penguin island. We arranged the trip and went to an early dinner at La Luna, again. This time we experimented with different dishes. It was a short cold and windy walk back to the hotel. We went to bed early because our excursion the next day was to start at 6:50 A.M. This was very early considering that we have gotten accustomed to sleeping until 10.

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Photos

View from hotel room
Over looking the main square and merchants

Town square
Monument in the Punta Arenas main square

painting
The painting we bought from Louis. He painted it from an early 1900's picture that his grandparents gave him.