Around Punta Arenas, Chile

We opted not to take a tour in Punta Arenas since we’ve all seen penguins and they seem to be the major attraction in the area. These are small penguins, not the glorious king penguins from the movie, “March of the Penguins,” or we would have gone. But we did miss out on a special sight since our tablemates went to see them and were treated to the unexpected bonus of two giant condors swooping around the area. That, I would have loved to see. We did see two giant stuffed condors in the museum that we toured, and they have a wingspan of 10 feet. Incredible.
Punta Arenas is known to be very windy. In fact, our little information sheet tells us that when the winds get really blustery, they string ropes in the downtown area for people to hold onto.

Saturday wasn’t very windy and it turned so warm during our walk that I ended up taking off both my windbreaker and my fleece, walking just in short sleeves. A perfect day for walking, though we did walk further than my short little legs are accustomed to and after I hobbled back to the ship, I headed straight for the Ibuprofen.

After we toured the museum we considered heading back to the ship but then, we were only a few blocks from the cemetery. We hemmed and hawed, should we go or not? Someone had recommended it but really, what’s so special about a cemetery? None of us really wanted to go but in the end, since we were fairly close, we went. And it was fabulous.

Rows and rows of some kind of cedar trees that were trimmed to a velvety finish, a smooth green line from their rounded tops right down to the ground, shaped sort of like your thumb. Some looked a little bell-shaped but all were trimmed to within ¼” with nothing sticking out. Gorgeous.

Graves are above ground with many mausoleums holding entire families. Teddy said it’s similar to New Orleans where the dead are also above ground. There it’s due to the high water table. Here, it’s probably due to months of frost.

We walked through the main central park, which Hans and I had seen 5 years ago on our first visit here. The statue of Nelson still dominates the center and his bare foot, which has been rubbed to a golden patina, sparkled in the sun. The saying goes that if you rub his foot, you’ll come back to Punta Arenas. Must be true since here we are again. Around the base of his statue were five dogs, quietly asleep. They didn’t look hungry since there was food nearby for them to eat so I guess they were just having their siesta.

The park carried the lovely sounds of a pan flute expertly played by a local musician. The pan flute just sounds right here. It’s a South American instrument and it’s absolutely the right sound for here. Whoever the anonymous musician was, he played beautifully and we gave him our last Chilean pesos as well as a few US dollars. He was playing the beautiful notes of Ave Maria when we approached him, another song that makes me weep and I had to turn away.

By the time we returned to the ship, my legs just managed to stagger to the buffet for a late lunch (3:00 p.m) but they wouldn’t take me back to the coffee machine so Teddy delivered coffee to us on the deck.
And so ended another perfect day.
Except for dinner, of course. *sigh*