Punta Arenas is home to a robust contingent of the Chilean armed services; it is where rescue missions to and from Antarctica operate; the last such one was the retrieval, in early December, of passengers from the Canadian vessel Explorer that had tried conclusions with an iceberg in the Antarctic. It sits at the foot of Southern Patagonia, within a setting of scenic vistas: an expansive sky, bearing clouds as sketches gently drifting; endless grasslands adorned, with flowers in blossom everywhere; lupines at sway in deep mauve tones, glaring yellow brooms, sculpted as globes, spikes of red hot pokers, poppies as singles and doubles, flaming orange and soft pink. In town, the streets and pavements are spacious, laid out in near Cartesian order and graced with fine homes, recalling a time in the eighteen hundreds when
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