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We woke up this morning to a great surprise. Sunny skies with just stringy high clouds and about 50 degrees outside! We are docked with a large fishing boat and freighter on our port side. The walk on the dock to the buses is about 1/4 mile long but at least we won’t have to do it in the rain. We had breakfast in the room, our normal oatmeal, fruit, scrambled egg, orange juice and coffee. Margaret added some English muffins today along with some ham, salami and cream cheese and made up some egg McMargaret’s! I had mine without the salami but they were quite tasty!
Margaret was feeling better today so she was able to go on the bus tour what was titled “Highlights of Punta Arenas”. Punta Arenas translates in English to “Sandy Point”. It is the most prominent settlement on the Strait of Magellan and the is argued by some to be the southernmost city on Earth. It really isn’t but it is probably the most prominent southernmost city.
I decided to take the lighter weight cameras today — the D200 and the S90. We had to walk a long block to get on the bus and we then drove a couple miles through the somewhat non-descript town, through their financial/bank district to a cemetery. Yes, a cemetery. It is one of the highlights of Punta Arenas apparently. There were close to a thousand highly manicured cypress hedges, some probably 30 feet tall but all the same shape…rounded cones.
The cemetery was unique in that most of the tombs were above ground — they also have a display case where the families put pictures and flowers and other mementos on display. Some of the tombs were quite elegant — made of marble with stain glass and intricate carvings and adornments. Others were more like a room where many family members were buried and when we peaked in the door we saw a very festive scene!
On the way to our next destination the bus made a stop at a place where we could see the whole city area as as well as the harbor where our ship was docked. I bought a nice alpaca sweater and negotiated hard on the price…I ended up getting it for just $27 — down from their original asking price of $28!
Then we were off to a museum that pretty much covered the entire range of things you might want to know about this area. Stuffed animals, historical artifacts, dioramas showing how the native people lived, nautical items, you name it, they had it. Multiple floors and multiple restrooms as well. The whole place had a strange smell that made you sort of nauseous after a while. The best part of this tour was waiting downstairs with a group of fellow passengers that were telling jokes and laughing a lot. Good time. One of the best joke/story tellers is Terry Waite but you’ll have to wait a couple more blogs for me to tell you the story about him.
Last but not least…and I know you are sitting on the edge of your chair just waiting for the exciting end of this tour….”we went to”….get ready…..”a”….it’s coming soon….”field”…..hang on to your hat…..”where”…..almost there….”there”……”was”…..”old”……”farm”….”equipment”….”stuff”! Yes, that’s right. They took us to a big field that had a bunch of old farm implements, steam engines and other assorted items and out buildings. And they wanted us to walk around and look at them in the windy, cold and wet conditions. A few of us actually did walk around, with me taking the opportunity to do a little creative photography (the results aren’t bad and are on the blog) you can click on this link here for the photos:
Most of the people opted to forgo the farm equipment tour and instead walked across the street to “duty free shopping” that turned out to be a big retail store much like a Kmart, only poorly stocked. That sounds like an oxymoron to me. But, if we had seen a moron ox on the tour it would have been a lot more interesting.
They took us back to the dock, giving us another exciting opportunity to buy local wares at the town square. We passed on that.
Some friends we have met, Mike and Cheryl, went on a penguin tour. Here’s a picture they took there. Definitely more interesting than our tour.
PICTURE COMING SOON AS SOON AS MIKE GIVES BACK MY USB STICK WITH THE PICTURE!
Here’s what it looked like as the Mariner left this exciting place. So I guess in the end…there was little “point” in Punta Arenas…but it is a place to stop and the cemetery was very nice.