The End of the World!

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Wow, we're finally here - 6,643 miles later! We had a luggage scare in Santiago and a broken seat on our long flight but other than that the trip was smooth. We arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile around 7:30 pm and checked into the Hotel Plaza, which is right on the main square in town and about 3 blocks to the ocean. Using the little Spanish we know, we actually found a great local restaurant called Puerto Viejo. We shared empanaditos, Eric had bife a la parilla (think Las Tablas or Tango Sur ), and I had a really cheesy but good lasagna bolognese. We tried some local drinks - a Patagonia beer called Austral and a pisco sour (kind of like a vodka sour, but (as we later found out) with egg whites in it) and then headed to one of Eric's favorite places - the casino. It's in a new hotel called Dreams. Before hitting the casino, we stopped to check out the "sky bar" which is hilarious because it's only on the 11th floor (compare to the 95th at home). Being that its the only 'tall' building in downtown PA, it actually had a pretty good 180 degree view from where we sat. Altogether a pretty cool spot (complete with disco ball and American music). Interestingly, the floor to ceiling windows continued into the bathrooms! I hope no one had binoculars. 😊

The casino was small but sufficient. We actually won a bunch of money playing craps, thanks to some lucky rolls by the Aussie throwing the dice. and then lost those winnings playing blackjack a few minutes later. The dealer was on fire - I think he somehow had the deck stacked but Eric says it's not possible...

Defeated, we headed home for a good nights rest. The ceiling of our hotel was leaking and it was hot - but nothing could have stopped us from catching some well earned z's...

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