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Published: February 21st 2017
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David & Janet
in Punta Arenas Happy President’s Day! Would you believe that is NOT a big deal down here at the bottom of the world? Oh well, we found other things to keep us interested today.
Today we have come to our final destination in Chile. We are very happy to report there were NO strikes in the port and we were able to have our tour as scheduled. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
We got up at 7:00 so we could get dressed and off to the dining room for a leisurely breakfast. Guess what Janet had – yes, it was the Eggs Benedict. She did not have to strong-arm anyone to prepare it for her this time because it was the special of the day. David had a Denny’s Grand Slam with eggs, pancakes, and ham. Anyway, we wanted a big breakfast because our excursion was going to be all afternoon.
There were a couple of groups which left the ship at the first opportunity – those going to Antarctica or to the high mountains of Patagonia. Each would have been a trip of a lifetime, but frankly they both sounded more extreme
Condor
in a museum than we really feel we can handle at this stage of our lives. Besides, the first cost $3400 per person and the other costs $1000 per person. We found something less strenuous and less expensive, although not as much WOW factor. We did hear there had been 35 people on each of those two excursions.
We were not able to schedule the morning excursion (sold out) so we had an afternoon trip with the morning free to lounge around the ship. We spent some time resting in our cabin and then went to the Piazza and stayed there for a while. We did some reading and talking to other people, but actually we just kind of wasted away the morning. Then about 11:30 we each got a small sandwich from the International Café to keep us properly full through our tour hours.
We went to the “gathering point” in the Wheelhouse Bar and then boarded the tender to take us to shore. Janet evaluated it as “the tender ride wasn’t so bad – not too choppy”, which is a good comment because she usually does not like them. We arrived at the bus and
Mausoleums
in the cemetery left for town right on schedule at 1:00. Our guide was named Patricia and she spoke with a slight accent but her English was very good and we understood her just fine.
Punta Arenas used to be a very busy port back before the Panama Canal was opened. The town sits on a bay and is protected from most of the strong winds coming from Antarctica. Their average high temperature in the summer is 54 Fahrenheit. Today was closer to 60 degrees and overcast so this was a day she was very proud of. In the winter the average high temperature is 5 degrees with the low around -20 on average. During the windy season they frequently have winds up to 70 mph so the town puts up ropes along the sidewalks for people to hang onto to keep from being blown away. Anyway, our clouds turned to light rain about an hour before our tour was over, but Patricia was proud that they had such a good day for us to visit. It stopped raining before we got on the tender for our return to the ship and was sunny in the late evening before the
Dancers
at the second museum ship left port. As a point of reference, we are now located about as far south as Edmonton, Alberta is north of the equator. By the way, yesterday at the Amalia Glacier we were roughly equivalent to Kamloops Canada (where we were a couple of years ago in the Canadian Rockies).
There are roughly 150,000 people in the Punta Arenas area. Of those nearly 40% are originally from Croatia. That surprised us. This had a busy sailing route before the Panama Canal and they established a “free port” area in town where goods can be bought and sold without paying any taxes. The Croatians came as some of the earliest European immigrants and their community attracted more and more people. These days it is still a popular kick-off location for expeditions and cruise ships heading to Antarctica.
Our tour took us to 5 locations. The first stop was at a museum which documented the original inhabitants from 4 different tribes. They showed a lot of artifacts and examples of the tribes and animals which were common during the period from when Magellan sailed through here in 1520 until the first European settlement was started
in the 1800. There was an interesting collection of birds (including penguins, flamingos, and two condors), pumas, llamas, foxes, and others. Patricia told us that a French ship showed up one day after the Spanish ship, so this could have been a French-speaking region except for that one day. This was a 4-level building with steep stairs. It did have a lot of interesting displays.
The second stop was at a cemetery. They have constructed an impressive array of mausoleums and graves. The people of Punta Arenas do not believe in cremation, but there is limited space available to bury people. Our guide explained that once a family mausoleum is filled, they have a practice of opening an old casket and crushing the bones and placing them in a small box which is buried in the coffin with the new person. Patricia just completed this activity with her grandfather moving into her father’s new burial. One Dec 31
st the cemetery is opened to only people with family members buried there and they have a celebration just before midnight with lots of champagne and singing and dancing. At least that’s what she told us.
The
third stop was at a museum which was comprised of several different houses in a field. First there was a musician playing some kind of guitar and was he singing while two children danced a local dance. Then we went to the houses which represented what life would have looked like in the 1915-1920 timeframe. There were all sorts of interesting displays, including a seamstress shop with ancient sewing machines that Janet found fascinating. There was also a foot powered scroll saw in the woodworker’s shop. There were 3 vintage cars in a garage, an apothecary show, a mercantile store, and many other displays. There was a clock shop which was pretty cool but the dentist chair was kind of scary. We found this museum quite interesting.
The fourth stop was at an overlook of the city. This was only a 10 minute photo-op and was as the sprinkles were just beginning. Then it was on to the final stop at the city square. There is a statue of Magellan and the legend is that if you rub the toe of the statue then you will return to Punta Arenas someday. As it was still sprinkling, Janet
stayed on the bus, but David did not rub the statue. There were also bunches of crafts carts trying to sell trinkets around the square, but we did not buy anything in the rain.
We got back to the port terminal a little after 4:00 and we returned to the ship by 5:00. We were just a bit too tired to go up to deck-18 for their appetizers, so David went up to the Horizon Court and got a plate of cheeses and crackers for us today. Then we met back in the cabin to have a glass of our own wine. Somehow Janet had demagnetized her key-card and was waiting for him in the hall.
For dinner all 6 of us were at the table and we got to compare our day’s activities. Fay and Monte had gone on the same tours as us, but they had a different guide so they heard a slightly different version of everything. Janet had the melon balls, Crab Cake, and Sea Scallops. David had a Chicken appetizer with salsa, a strawberry smoothie, and the Cowboy Steak. On of cruise last year, we remember our friend Jerry
Deming as being very fond of the Cowboy Steak and David’s was excellent this evening. For dessert, Janet had a Hazelnut Pudding and David had Carrot Cake.
We went back to the cabin via the Passenger Services Desk and got Janet a new card. There is a musical mystery show tonight, but Janet thinks it is too late compared to how tired she feels. So we will wrap up for today and will send another update tomorrow. But we had a good time on our first actual excursion from the cruise.
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Jerry and Joyce
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At the bottom of the world!!
Sounds like a good excursion. I liked hearing about the cemetery. The museum's sounded interesting and one always learns a good deal of history. And, we are getting hungry for a cowboy steak!! So good! Have fun on your day ahead!!