Punta Arenas, Chile Friday Feb 22, 2013

PUNTAS ARENAS, CHILE FRIDAY FEB 22, 2013

Puntas Arenas is our first of four ports of call in Chile – we were given a customs declaration the night before to complete and have ready to show at each of the ports.

This is a planned tender port and things should and did go much more smoothly than yesterday's experience in Ushuaia.

I have two tours planned – one to Isle de Magdalena to see the penguins and then a late afternoon city tour but once again events resulted in some changes.

Because we were late leaving Ushuaia our arrival time in Punta Arenas was pushed back by some two hours.

As I was tired and went to bed early I missed this announcement and didn't discover until the next morning about the change when I checked the daily patter and saw a notice about tour time changes and there it was - due to not being able to reschedule ferry times my trip to see the penguins was cancelled – of three planned opportunities to see them I have ended up not seeing any – Port Madryn I cancelled because of illness, Falklands the port was cancelled and now this.

In hindsight I may not have missed much – apparently at Otway Sound which is also a prime viewing area by the time the tours arrived the birds had headed out to sea to feed and there were less than 2 dozen seen from the trail.

With the first trip cancelled I spent some time on the ship and them grabbed a tender ride – explored some of the town – and there was lots to see – historic buildings etc – then I returned to the port area for my planned tour – I arrived early and was able to get on the tour leaving before mine – had the last seat which was actually right at the front which made getting on and off nice and easy.

Our first stop was at the Institute de Patagonia museum where there was a display of many of the implements, wagons, artifacts from the turn of the century that were used in this part of the world.

Second stop was the Sarah Braun cemetery – named after an early pioneer who donated the land – it is much like the one in Buenos Aires and typical of the type used in many other parts of the world.

We then stopped at a museum – a Catholic one but no cameras or video allowed – it was exceptionally well done for a smallish town – the name escapes me and I am too lazy to go to the suitcase and dig out the tour description – I did stick me head inside the adjacent church sans camera and what a magnificent structure – it and the adjacent museum were established by a religious order called the Saleists – I haven't heard of them before so might have to either Google or Wiki them and see what I can find out.

Our last stop was a viewpoint overlooking the city – clearly could see the ship and the harbour.

We were dropped off at the port but I still had some time to waste so walked some around the downtown core for a little while and revisited one of the churches that was closed earlier in the day and then went to a supermarket called UniMarc which seems to be one of the bigger operators in Chile – picked up some beer, pop and junk food.

Finally back to the ship and ready for a relaxing evening.

While tomorrow is scheduled as a sea day it will be a busy one as we cruise the Chilean version of the inside passage – the Chilean fjords and visit the Amalia glacier.