Advertisement
Published: December 10th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Our last day In Punta Arenas was at leisure. We got up at a civilized time, and had one of those giant breakfasts that were inevitable at the hotels. I honestly had every intention of not eating very much, because we had two additional food stops planned for that day, but it is impossible not to eat in excess at these occasions.
We checked out the Spa and pool area in the hotel, which was spectacular, and also did a walkabout of the Casino, which was not too large, by our standards, but nice.
Our hotel was perfectly located, only a couple of blocks from the Plaza Mayor, where we headed to look at some of the goods in the stalls that dot the entire plaza. Lots of wool goods, as you can imagine. Legend says that if you kiss the foot of the Indian statue in the Plaza, you are guaranteed to come back to the City, so I made sure I did that.
We saw close hand the Croatian influence in the buildings, mostly due to the multitude of colors abounding. It is a visually striking town.
We had been told that we were not
to miss going in for a Choripan at Kiosko Roca, a tiny snack bar crammed with people three rows deep and bustling ladies dishing out the small little sandwiches. We were not hungry at all after our recent breakfast, but I am glad we made the effort. They were exquisite!
Then we continued to attempt to do some walking and sightseeing, in spite of the wind. It gets so windy that they place ropes around the corners that people can hold on to, to make sure that they can pull themselves forward. It was blowing 50 MPH, but nobody was using the ropes. I guess they are used to more wind than we were. I was struggling in a few places, and stumbled back a couple of steps once or twice during particularly strong gusts. With much giggling involved, we managed to make it to the Mercado (Market) just a few blocks from the hotel, on the waterfront for a seafood lunch.
The building was typical of a Latin Market, a building three stories high, with an open center and stalls all along the walls. The first floor had a couple of shops and mostly fresh fish stalls,
and the second level had shops and tiny restaurants with one or two tables each outside and a few more tables inside.
The one we chose, Cocineria Puelpun, which had come recommended by an acquaintance, only had four tables inside, two for two people, and two a little bigger ones. We had to squeeze between the other tables to sit. The food, seafood, was very good, freshly caught and cooked. I had a Centolla crab, (Chilean King Crab) meat already removed from the shell. It was so very good!
Afterwards we struggled against the wind to get back to the hotel and finish packing before we got picked up for our ride to the airport. The plane was about half an hour late, but I am happy to say that the plane took off flawlessly in spite of the wind, and we managed to make up the time so that we arrived in Santiago at our scheduled time.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0302s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb