Day 115: December 7, 2007:Calafate to Punta Arenas

  Punta Arenas, Chile
Friday, December 7, 2007

Day 115: December 7, 2007: El Calafate to Punta Arenas, Chile

My alarm went off at 2:15. I got up quickly. Shirl had been awake for half an hour already, worrying that she wouldn't hear the alarm. We packed our bags and went up to the office. True to form, the cab arrived on time and the birthday party was still in full swing. We arrived at the bus terminal a half an hour early and boarded about 20 minutes later. The bus pulled out just about on time. All four of us slept most of the way to Río Gallegos.

It was raining and very windy when we arrived. We had a light breakfast in the terminal confitería. Shirl volunteered to sit with the bags while the girls and I went into town to look for an internet place. I discovered my Hotel Comércio room key in my pocket so we swung by there to drop it off. After two failed tries, we found a place that was open and attempted to get caught up. Another cab took us back to the terminal at noon.

I stood in line with the passports to get all of the border crossing paperwork out of the way prior to departure. The bus left about 1:15, fifteen minutes late. I had never been on the short stretch of road between the Cabo Virgenes turnoff and the Straits of Magellan before. The border crossing is at Monte Aymond, one of the low Neogene volcanic centers on the north side of the Magellan Rift Zone. The wind was really fierce.

The same guy who handled the papers at the bus station accompanied us to Monte Aymond so the Argentine side of the crossing was refreshingly problem free--very unusual. The Chileans showed off their prowess for getting the job done as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, one woman was missing some document so we had to return to the Argentine side and then back to the Chilean side to get her straightened out. The whole process took about two and a half hours for the completely packed bus.

I was surprised how quickly we arrived at the Straits from Monte Aymond. I sampled all along both sides of the Straits for DuPont in 1998 so I pointed out the features of interest along the way. My favorite is the large drumlin field near the northwest corner od the Strait.

The wind died down and the sky cleared as we pulled into Punta Arenas. I like this town better and better every time I come here. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. It took a little while to find a cab but he took us to the Hotel Plaza, not surprisingly, just off the central plaza. There is nothing impressive about the place from the outside but it is very nice on the inside. We got two nice rooms. I asked the girl at the desk about vehicle rentals, hotels in Puerto Natales, and buses to Ushuaia. She got on the fone and within half an hour I had rented a truck for three days, had reservations in Puerto Natales, and was on my way to purchase the bus tickets. It isn't possible to get back from Puerto Natales on time to go to Ushuaia the same day so I also made another night's reservation at the Plaza for December 10th.

Church on the Plaza Central, Punta Arenas, Chile

Elise walked over to the ticket office with me. They were about to close and needed our passports so we couldn't get it done. Even so, we had a very nice walk together. We couldn't get cash from a bank ATM because it didn't take Visa. I saw another ATM in the farmacia next to the hotel. The owner was closing up but let us in to make the transaction--nice guy. I took out 200,000 pesos--about U$S 400.

I asked the hotel guy where a good place to eat might be. He said, "Sotito's Bar!" with a smile. Until my last trip here, that was the only place I had ever eaten in Punta Arenas. The seafood is superb. On my last trip, however, I was told that the quality had gone way down so we ate somewhere else--a forgetable place that was very so-so. I suspect it was a cost-cutting ploy on the part of our travel agent. We went to Sotito's and had a great meal. We had never eaten lunch so anything would have been good but this was excellent. I had fresh Conger Eel.

We walked the several blocks back to the hotel through the quiet streets of Punta Arenas.
It was a long day but things kept working out for the most part. I had no trouble falling asleep.