PUNTA ARENAS - City at the Strait of Magellan

Accommodation

Our accommodation was a short five minutes walk away from the bus station and boasted a washing machine. At this point, the cord that my dad gave me finally proved its worth. According to his story, he lacked this cord a long time ago in Florida when he was doing his laundry there :) We're now starting to realize what we appreciate in a good accommodation: the distance to the arrival point and to the centre and definitely also whether it has a washing machine. Pascal didn't feel particularly secure, as there was only a weak lock installed in front of our room door. Nevertheless, everything was clean and we could have a nice chat with the other residents. Also, the internet was so UNBELIEVABLY fast, quite odd. We took the opportunity and quickly set up a new picture backup for me while we were cooking.

Sites to visit

We were able to see a lot on the way there, for example the Nao Victoria ship museum and the Costanera del Estrecho. On a walk to the bus terminal, we also saw the Palacio Sara Braun, the Museo Regional de Magallanes (but it was closed) and the Plaza de Armas. When the rain let up in the evening, we were able to take another walk. Our destinations were the Monumento al Ovejero, the Plaza Quinto Centenario, the Monumento A Tripulantes Goleta Ancud, the Plaza Fundacional and finally the Plaza Fundacional, which serves as a resting point for many cormorants. At first, we thought they were penguins and we were very excited, but then at some point the question came up: "Wait a minute. Do they fly?". It then quickly became clear: "No, unfortunately not penguins...". Due to the limited time, we had to skip some of the sights, such as Corto de la Cruz, which would have given a great view of the city. We also missed out on the very well-known penguin expedition to Isla Magdalena with its Magellanic penguins and the less known one to Parque Pingüino Rey in Porvenir with its King penguins, for cost and time reasons. But luckily we saw these two species on Isla Martillo - more about that in the post about Ushuaia!

Transportation

On foot

Food and drink

Pascal forced me to compromise: For every time we buy sweets or cookies for me, we also have to buy meat once. Well. We bought chicken breasts and yes, ok, that was so delicious. Pascal went as far as describing the meal as "this was the best chicken breast of his life!". Then we walked past a Churros stand. Cash register sturdza, we still have 220 Pesos, so much less than a euro. When I asked the older lady if I could maybe get a single churro for the money, she just handed me a whole pack of churros. Almost given! Nom nom nom, very tasty and filled with Maní, a.k.a Dulce de Leche.

Plants and animals

Oh my God, we saw FLAMINGOS!!! In the wild!!!

Number of Germans in the city

0.5 (She was Italian-German) :D

Contact with locals

0

People we got to know

Egem (from Turkey) and a couple from Italy

Expenses

Except for the bus ride and food, we didn't buy anything here.

Laundry

We did two loads of laundry in our accommodation.

Unsolvable mysteries

When we did the check-in at the bus terminal (we're crossing the border to Argentina), two young women from Germany (aged between 16 and 18) wanted to buy a bus ticket to Ushuaia - for the same day. They were the only two people who were not on the bus. The two women were well aware that the bus only runs every two days. But why not take care of it earlier? Well, when we asked the two about it, they said: "No problem, we are traveling "spontaneously"!";D

Currency

Chilean Pesos

Bus to Ushuaia

The bus only runs every two days and costs 48000 Pesos per person. Normally, the journey is estimated to take 11 hours, but we made it through the checks very quickly, so we reached our destination after about 9 hours. We even got a sandwich, a muffin and a bottle of water on the bus - now that's what I call service!

Postscript

More pictures can be found here: https://hoenisch.eu/photo/mo/sharing/Vd7cq90Ym