Friday 12 February 2010

DAY 31 Feb 12 - Scenic Cruising Strait of Magellan and Punta Arenas, Chile.

The Strait of Magellan is positioned along the southern edges of the South American continent, this once vital passageway is named in memory of the Portuguese adventurer (who became a Spanish citizen), Ferdinand Magellan, the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe.

The waterway is the most important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, but it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the harsh climate and the narrowness of the passage. It is about 230 miles long and just over a mile wide at its narrowest point.

Magellan's chosen route around the continent in 1520 (shown with red arrows in the map above) though dangerous at times, proved to be the fastest and safest connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for sea-going commerce and exploration.

Sheltered by mainland SouthAmerica and the islands of the Tierra Del Fuego archipelago, this route was considered much safer than the Drake Passage, a more violent stretch of chaotic water between Antarctica and South America, one frequented by icebergs and plagued by gale force winds. And just think we are going there in a couple of days time!!

Located on the Strait of Magellan is Chile's Punta Arenas harbour which although exposed to storms, was once one of the most important in Chile before the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, because it was used as a coaling station by the steamships transiting between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It had not been until 1843, however, that the Chilean Government decided to encourage settlement in the area thus establishing the town. (The photo is taken from Puerto Arenas across the Strait of Magellan to the islands of the Tierra Del Fuego archipelago).

Today it is mostly used by tourism cruises and scientific expeditions. The city is often a jumping-off point for Antarctic expeditions, although Ushuaia (Argentina) and Christchurch (New Zealand) are also common starting points.

The name Punta Arenas grew out of the Spanish term Punta Arenosa, which was a literal translationof the English name 'Sandy Point'. The city has also been known as "Magallanes" though today that term is normally used to describe the administrative region which includes the city. Punta Arenas has also been called "the city of the red roofs" for the red painted metal roofs that characterised the city for many years. Since about 1970, however, with the availability of other colours in protective finishes for these characteristic metal roofing, a greater variety of colours has now resulted.

Firstly may I offer a big thank you to all those that extended birthday greetings to me yesterday either in the 'comment' box or by e-mail. I was also interested to hear from Ann and David (and from Judy) that my UK home town had been cut off by snow!! It must be global warming as we just don't have snow down there in dear old Eastbourne and now two lots within a month!!

Incidentally the camera I use is a Panasonic Lumix model with a 12 x zoom. We considerably reduce the photos for the blog as they would take too long to download otherwise. Of course we lose a lot of definition and clarity as a result I'm afraid.

It was close on 5.30 as we came into the port and the sun was yet to rise over this the most southerly city in Chile. I watched as the boat was slowly tied up and secured. Tugs were called into action to take the mooring lines to buoys strateg-ically placed round the ship. I guess it can really blow down here and the securing of good mooring lines is key.

The Lido restaurant was already relatively busy when I arrived there at 6.00 as presumably some passengers had booked tours that left early this morning. It was good to be able to help one's self again now that novovirus restrictions had been lifted.

I was surprised to find table mate and friend Gerry up and about at this very early hour but she explained that the tug 'pushing' the Prinsendam into place this morning had been right up on her cabin window and this had awoken her!

After breakfast I managed to capture some remarkable pictures of the sun rising in the east and its rays majest-ically reflected across the now very calm Ocean. The winds had died down and it was not too cold despite the fact that we were near the bottom of the Continent of South America. It certainly wasn't warm but nothing like as cold as yesterday.

As nothing in particular had been planned by us at this port of call we agreed to Gerry's suggestion that we meet up in town for lunch. That sounded a great idea and we would later try and meet in the town square, wherever that was.

Maria hadn't slept so well and was taking a lie in this morning while I wandered round, caught-up on my blog and read the 'Britain Today' ship's newspaper. I too could have done with an extra hour in bed with my slightly light head due no doubt to my contribution yesterday to reducing the drink mountain!! I wonder how some of my party guests are feeling?

Eventually I did wake Maria up with a plentiful plate of lovely smoked salmon with lemon wedges and a couple of fresh rolls.

It was time to head into town. Fortunately the ship had laid on a shuttle bus service for the three mile journey to the centre of Punta Arenas and it was awaiting us as we departed the ship.

The journey through town to the plaza in the centre showed this to be a modern and prosperous municipality. It was clean and the population looked well dressed and tidy, something we hadn't always seen on our long travel down through Chile over the last 11 days.

The town centre square is a large pedestrian area surr-ounding an impress-ively elaborate dominating statue of Magellan, who navigated round here and discovered the area.

The town is almost equidistant from the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Many little stall holders were selling their handicrafts round the tree lined walkway that surrounds the plaza. Their prices seemed quite reasonable.

There was also a few people playing lovely Chilean folk type music on locally made instruments. This certainly contributed to the ambiance of the place.

Our next move was to find the Town Hall with a view to having a quick photo opportunity with the Alcalde or Mayor as we would call him. We soon accomplished this mission with the added bonus of also having the Deputy Mayor present in the picture.

We offered our greetings from the United Kingdom and con-gratulated him on having such an impressive town.

It was explained that the town had prospered due to the many European immigrants that had lived there over the years including the English. The municipal building housing the Mayor's office was a large and quite ornate building.

We soon bumped into friends Gerry and Gary and Mary Ellen and Bruce who like us were doing some local shopping.

Unfortunately the local cathedral front door was locked and we were thus unable to gain access. After a visit to the quite famous former home of the Braun-Menendez family, now a museum, we went off for lunch with our friends.

They recommended a particular place to eat that amongst other things was famous for its local lamb dish. It turned out it was a really classy restaurant with a huge spit displaying two lambs being roasted round a big enclosed fire. We found that we were soon bursting after eating appetizers prior to receiving the very large helpings of the main course.

After this Maria decided she wanted to do a little more shopping in the main square prior to us taking the shuttle back to the ship.

We were pleased to be back in our home from home and quickly decided that we would miss dinner tonight and maybe just have a snack instead in the Lido. We were also due a visit to the Crow's Nest to see our barman friend Gil and his staff.

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