Punta Arenas, Chile, is the southernmost city on earth. It
overlooks the Strait of Magellan and, for this part of the world, serves as the
gateway to the Antarctic Peninsula. The place is both ruddy and grand. Gorse
shrubs with yellow flowers, purple and white hyacinths are a-bloom by the side
of the road. The sun shines brightly, and the sky is a beautiful blue even as
the wind blows hard and cold. It's 8 degrees C, and it's supposed to be summer!
We stayed at Hotel Rey Don Felipe, a relatively new lodge built in the Tudor style. The hotel is only three blocks away from the church, a school, the Plaza de Armas (the main square, which is dedicated to Ferdinand Magellan), and a historic hotel, Jorge Nogueira. We had a sumptuous dinner at this hotel. (King crab salad, shank of lamb, apple and rhubarb strudel for dessert - the best in Punta Arenas, they say.)
You'd be forgiven to think an isolated place like this would hold less historical significance. But it doesn't - Magellan passed by, Amundsen (first man to the South Pole) stayed here before sailing, and the locals saved Shackleton and his men in the early 1900s. Punta Arenas is also the center of Chile's wool trade, has a petrochemical industry, and serves as a jumping point to various tours. The family and I had a wonderful time, brief though our visit was...
Read about our touchdown, and our experience with an emperor penguin and humpback whales in my Antarctica Journal 2.
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