Advertisement
Published: December 22nd 2015
Edit Blog Post
And so we hit the far south of Chile and Punta Arenas, the capital of the Magallanes region which also includes Chilean Antarctica. This area is commonly known as the end of the world and the cold and wind made it feel rather like that when we first arrived. The other thing that struck us was how solid the city seemed with substantial late 19th/early 20th century buildings making it look a little like a European city - very different from the simple wooden buildings we have seen in most other parts of Patagonia. These were largely built by Europeans who moved there to at various points to set up large scale farms, search for gold or benefit from the Magellan Straits which allowed ships a safer passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It felt like a relatively prosperous city but that first day, with mid-summer temperatures in the region of 5 degs, I was thinking it would not be my first choice.
As you will already have seen, H abandoned me there for 3 days while he went off into the Magellan Straits hunting for (and finding!) humpback whales. Not quite as exciting, I went off the first
morning for a kayak trip a little outside Punta Arenas. I was put in a kayak with a 20-something guy from the US who was clearly a little put out to have the middle aged fairly feeble woman from the UK with him as he seemed to want to race the other kayaks. Getting all togged up in dry suits and suitable gear took some time and we were still sitting in kayaks on the beach when I spotted dolphins out in the bay. They were putting on quite a good display, leaping out of the water but were some distance away. Unfortunately, by the time we were in the water they were even further away and we never caught up with them. The kayaking was quite tough as the wind was quite strong blowing off the beach and I was exhausted by the time we got to the point to turn around. Getting back onto the beach was really hard work but the guys running the trip made us do some exercises on the beach to work off the pain!
We had some very sweet snacks back at the place they start from and were dropped back into
town. After being constantly on the go for some time, I had a late lunch then took a snack back for dinner and spent the evening crashed out watching a hopeless film, the only thing in English on the room TV!
The next couple of days I spent discovering the city and its history and catching up on some planning for this and out next trip. There are a few really interesting museums in the city and I learnt a lot about the original indigenous people of the area - a number of different groups with very distinct cultures and lifestyles but that ultimately were largely wiped out by the arrival of Europeans. It's a story that familiar the world over but still quite depressing. I hadn't been aware that small groups of some from this area were actually taken to be exhibited in different parts of Europe almost like animals in a zoo.
I also learned about some of the original families that settled in Punta Arenas that were hugely influential in making it the city it is today. And I got to see a piece of Milodon skin from the same creature that the piece in
Bruce Chatwin's grandmother's cabinet came from - the inspiration for his visit to Patagonia and the subsequent book!
In part of my wandering, I visited the cemetery that is known as the Sarah Braun cemetery after one of those early settlors who is credited with much of the early success of some of the businesses. The cemetery is full of huge family vaults but also has paths lined with topiaried cypress trees which look amazing.
Just as I was about to go out for dinner on the last night H was away he texted to say he was going to be back early so I waited and we went back to a place we had been for dinner the first night - possibly a mistake - it was still good but not quite as good.
For our final day in Punta Arenas I had arranged ferry tickets to go to Isla Magdalena to see the 60,000 strong Magellanic Penguin colony. It's a couple of hours on the boat but we had beautiful weather and sat up on deck in the sun. We spent an hour on the island, not really getting very far as the penguins were
just delightful. There were a few very fluffy chicks peeping out of burrows but mostly hidden by their parents. There were other sea birds, mainly gulls and terns, that at times made a huge racket and would suddenly all take off from the beach together and circle around screeching.
All too soon we had to get back on the boat but we stayed outside on the lower deck scouring the horizon for any sign of dolphins. Eventually it got too cold and we moved inside but stayed near a window. Suddenly H spotted something – not a dolphin, but a blow from a whale! We dashed outside where one or two others had also noticed. H recognised it as a Sei whale having seen a couple close up on his whale watching trip. While none were very close, there were at least 6 in various parts of the bay on one side of the boat and we could easily see their fins as they arced through the water. We watched them for about 15 minutes until they all disappeared but that was a fantastic end to the day.
And so to Torres del Paine, a place we’ve been
planning to go for many years.....but that's next time.
Sarah + Hugh xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0542s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb