Day 10 - Punta Arenas (2/19/13)

Today we fly to Punta Arenas which is a port town on the southwestern end of the continent. The city was named by early sailors and it means Sandy Point. Here we stood looking at the Strait of Magellan which is at the foot of the Chilean Andes. We met Yerko (pronounced Jerko) who will be our local guide throughout southern Patagonia. First stop was a replica of the ship that Magellan sailed. We are in the Province of Magellan and the people from this province are very proud – they are the only province with their own flag. We carried it everywhere and had our photos taken with it at each stop. It was interesting to see how sailors of old suffered at sea for up to three years. These vessels are not as big as you think. The guide at the museum was very knowledgeable about the history of Magellan and the discovery voyages.

 

The wind here is UNBELIEVABLE. It does get to hurricane force winds. No sense in worrying about fixing your hair – it’s going to be a bad hair day no matter what you do. The winds get so strong that in the town they have ropes tied to stanchions along the sidewalks to grab onto if you get swept off balance. We did a walking tour of the town and Yerko explained the unusual home construction. Most of the homes are made of rectangular sheets of metal. The people here drink a lot of tea and in earlier times, the tea was shipped in metal boxes. They used the sides of these tea boxes to "side" their houses and then painted over them.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking the town square. Judy did not feel well (those darned fish raviolis) – called room service and went to bed. Jim went with the group and had a seafood dinner. I heard later from one of the fellows that Jim had a great time and went right along with the belly-dancer.

I slept about 10 hours. Jim didn’t get back from dinner until 11:00 (which is pretty standard here). And, he returned with a cold. Not good for the day ahead of us.