Punta Arenas, Chile
Trip Start
Feb 03, 2006
1
26
59
Trip End
May 09, 2006
Punta Arenas, Chile,
Chile
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
MILES: flying 8517, bus 400, taxi 43, walking 66, ship 8108, Zodiac boat 20
total: 17,154 miles
Coordinates: 53d 10.18m S, 70d 54.43m W
This is summer, or end of the summer heading toward fall. It was 45 F degrees today, which is considered pretty normal. A hot day would be in the mid-50's. When they hit 70 degrees, which happens on occasion...they melt. It seems odd to be to be so cold, but Punta Arenas is as far south as Anchorage is north, so I guess it makes sense.
Punta Arenas bills itself as the southernmost city in the world, and that is odd, because the last city I was at (Ushuaia, Arg) also claims that distinction
1. Rhea in Punta Arenas, Chile
. I think it is in how you define 'city', because on the map, Punta Arenas is definitely north of Ushuaia. Punta Arenas, though has 120,000 people, and Ushuaia only 65,000 or so, so if you define city as greater than 100k, well, then that makes everything fit.Chile uses the peso as it currency, so since I am going to be in Chile for a while, I thought it would be nice to use their money in town instead of mine. I changed $100 US at the bank, and they gave me 52,800 pesos!!! Whoa, it was hitting the lottery...until I had to buy something. Lunch was about 3000 pesos, or a little under $6.
Punta Arenas is at the far south end of Chile, and is fairly remote, despite its population. To get here by car from Santiago, you have to drive through Argentina, no roads through Chile this far south. It will take about 40 hours of driving. Otherwise it is ship, or plane. I'll use the ship, I think to depart...
Magellan is the big name around here as he was the first European to see these parts. A story about Magellan. He originally went to the King of Portugal to get funding for his little expedition, but their treasury was empty (at least the "find new continent fund")
2. Two penguins not on speaking terms
. So Magellan went next door to Spain, who funded the mission, and therefore got to claim so many places here in S. America as territories of Spain. In 1581 Spain sent some hardy folk to settle the area. Three ships left, only one made it here, just a few miles from present day Punta Arenas. The voyage took one year. After setting up camp, they sent the ship back to Spain to tell them where they were, and the who stayed, etc... (apparently their internet connection was acting up). That ship was captured by pirates, and never made it back to Spain. A few years later a British ship happened by, and found that all 100 had died, (nobody actually knows precisely why, though the prevailing theory is some type of sickness. I'm not sure why this was hard to figure out, as apparently they were all found dead in their beds). Eventually, though, Spain had more success further north and established many settlements in Chile. Wanting to make sure they had full claim to the whole area, a second settlement was planned (this was 1843). It took 3 months by ship to get to this spot, which is odd, since it is only a two day journey. They got lost a lot in the islands and thousands of fjords. The settlement grew, and the rest is history. The tribes that were already here, well, there were four of them then. At this point, only one tribe has any descendants left, and there are only 12 of them. That was probably way more than you wanted to know...but since I learned it, you get it too, for free
3. Penguin by his burrow
! Another little tidbit...Chile had their national elections just recently, and voted in a woman for President, for the first time in their history. She starts work this saturday.OK, how about some penguin info. The Magellanic penguins I saw today were named for you know who. These penguins are also known as the Jackass penguin because they make a very loud braying sound when agitated, and it really does sound like a donkey, very surprising from such a small animal. Male and female mate for life, which is about 12 years or so. The male digs a burrow big enough for the both of them, and their little egg. The male incubates the egg for two weeks, then the female, then the male, then the egg becomes a little penguin, which is blind. Both take turns feeding the little guy, and about a month later it comes out of its hole. That's all I remember... Oh yeah, these penguins are great swimmers, they actually roam as far as South Africa, then return here to breed.
I also saw rheas (like an ostrich) and a condor.
And a whole buncha sheep, but they don't really count.
