We woke up this morning in Punta Arenas. For the first time on the cruise, we were greeted with sun and blue sky. Unfortunately, the wind was howling at 60 km/h, with gusts up to 100. The Captain sailed back and forth in the bay waiting for the port to open. Normally ships are not allowed to dock unless the wind is 20 km/h or less. After an hours delay, two tugboats came to our rescue. With one at the stern and another at the bow, they managed to push us sideways to the dock against the strong winds coming from shore. It took multiple lines to keep us in place.
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These Little Guys Helped A Lot
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Multiple Lines to the Dock and Mooring Balls - Both Ends
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The entire region we are visiting is known as Tierra del Fuego. It is literally the “toe” of South America and is comprised of lands held by both Chile and Argentina.
Punta Arenas is the largest southern-most city in Chile. It was established as a penal colony in 1848. In the 1880s and ’90s, it grew with the discovery of gold and the proliferation of sheep farming. Most of the immigrants were European, with Croatia and Russia providing the bulk of immigrants. The government supports the city due to its strategic location in defending the sovereignty of the region from nearby Argentina. It is also the jumping off point for many Antarctic Expeditions.
We were scheduled to tour the nearby Penguin Island to full fill Deborah’s bucket list desire to walk amongst the penguins. Our original tour was slated to depart from the boat at 6:20 am but the late docking killed that. We were rescheduled at 9:15, disembarked and boarded the bus to take us to the ferry pier to Penguin Island. After waiting for a half hour on the pier we received the news the tour was canceled due to overly strong winds.
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ViewPoint - At Least It Wasn't Raining
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Dejected, we decided to make the best of it and embarked on a walking tour of the town. The bus dropped us off at the city’s viewpoint lookout for pictures and after that, we wandered the town. The city’s main square was alive with tourists and locals alike.
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Magellan - First Explorer to Find the Inside Strait.
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Chilean Flag
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Good Old Ferdinand Magellan
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Found Penguins
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Local Children in Their Sunday Best
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Touching the Toe - It's a Thing
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First stop was the Regional Museum located in a former aristocrat’s mansion. The upstairs is left as if the owners were just out for lunch, albeit in the 1920s. The basement also had many artifacts of the exploration of Patagonia. Unfortunately, all the descriptors were in Spanish.
We walked five blocks to the Maggiorino Museum, just off the main square. This was an excellent museum to visit to learn and see the artifacts depicting the flora, fauna, mineralogy, paleontology, missions, and history of the region. Each display had a full English description.
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Found More Penguins
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The Condor - 8 to 9 Foot Wingspan
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We ended our day with a taxi ride back to the boat and at dinner, we enjoyed views as we entered the Strait of Magellan. We are well over 50 degrees south latitude now and we enjoyed daylight views until after 10 pm.
Tomorrow we leave Chile via Glacier Alley before entering the Beagle Channel and on to Ushuaia, Argentina.
