February 17, 2014

Yesterday we arrived Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in Chile.  Some will challenge Ushuaia’s claim to be “end of the world” because it’s on an island while Punta Arenas is on the mainland of South America.  Either way – we’re close to nowhere.  Punta Arenas was founded a little more than 150 years ago and was Chile’s first permanent settlement of Patagonia.  It’s apparent the wind rules here – trees are only about 15ft high at most and every tree and brush leans over 30degrees due to the winds. 

We took the ship’s shuttle into town.  Because it’s Sunday, almost everything is closed.  We visited the tourist office and decided to take a cab to Nao Victoria Museum.  It’s suggested to look for cab #15 and as luck would have it, within seconds we see #15 and on our way.  Our driver speaks excellent English and seems nice enough.  However he had no idea where he’s going, and has to turn around passing the road to the museum.  Instead of going around the round-about, we continue straight the wrong way!  About ¼ mile later we finally got on the correct side of the road.  A few miles later, the road to the museum is on our left and our driver turns without signal and right in front of the on-coming traffic.  Screeching tires – brakes locked – Jeff hollering look out look out.  By the Grace of God, no one hit us.  And what we noticed was not one person got angry, used sign language, or hollered as they passed by.  Instead everyone waved and asked if we were OK.  Our driver offered to wait for us but we decided that was enough excitement with this driver.  This private museum is worth visiting.  Clearly a labor of love as the owner and crew have built replicas of 3 ships (Magellen’s Victoria – Shackleton’s life boat James Caird – and the first exploration boat sent by Chile, Ancud) with a 4^th (The Beagle) to be completed by summer 2015. You can climb into these boat and learn how they lived – how they survived – and the historic importance of each.

While in town, we booked a 4PM tour to the Magellanic Penguin colony at Seno Otway.  This was much later than any of the ship’s tours.  Locals know this is a better time to see more penguins with less people.  They were right!! We drive through Patagonian landscape over an hour of bumpy, dirt and dusty roads.   We continue walking almost a mile of paths, partly gravel and partly boardwalk to the beach.  Penguins – although curious – can be very shy. A lean-to has been built where we stand to peak through and view them on the beach.   Eventually the penguins begin to waddle from the beach along the path to their burrows.  Once off the beach, the only thing separating us and the penguins is a guide-rope along the path we must stay on.  We can tell the young who are still fluffy with light grey color rather than the bold black and white of the adults.  An hour of oooo-ing and aaaa-ing, we’re back in the van to return to the ship.  

This morning our program states “at sea” – however we continue sailing through the Straits of Magellen with mountains on both sides.  We watch sea lions follow our ship for a few minutes.  It’s so cloudy and foggy, there are times land disappears entirely.  Slowly pieces of the mountains come to view but quickly retreat to the fog – a little hide and seek.