Wednesday, 4th February, Punta Arenas 8 degrees

It was a beautiful at dawn as the sun was coming up and that heralded a beautiful day! Punta Arenas was laid out before us. Gone are the mountains and instead there are low hills acting as a backdrop to what looks like a fairly modern City, but with no where near the high rises of the cities of Brazil. Punta Arenas is the capital city of Chile’s southernmost region, Magellanes and Chilean Antarctica. It is the southernmost city in the Americas

This morning it is bathed in sunshine. We have to take the tender to get to it. We saw the tenders being lowered, but regrettably this process plays havoc with us getting around the promenade deck as bits are roped off, so we retreated to breakfast and then waited for our time slot to leave the ship. (Staff looking after the tenders are called Tender Assistants, which is a fab job title. 🥳 Ed) We have booked ourselves on a tour to learn more about Ferdinand Magellan who led the European expedition that discovered this area.

After the usual test to see if we were agile enough to get off and on the ship, we were ceremonially led to our tender. We eventually reached Punta Arenas and the bus that was to take us on our excursion to find out more about Magellan. First stop was a museum of replica ships, built faithfully to the size and makeup of the original. What immediately struck us was how small the NAO Victoria (Magellan’s ship was!

Would I like to take on the Atlantic Ocean and eventually the Pacific in this ship? No I would not!!

The NAO Victoria was one of 5 ships in the fleet consisting of 279 men that set off from Spain in 1519 to discover a new route to the East by initially sailing westward. Magellan was actually from Portugal but was forced to take on Spanish citizenship to get the funding for the trip.

The fleet hit land first at Rio de Janeiro and then travelled down the coast looking for a way through to the ocean on the other side. Despite having to wait out a winter, losing one of the five ships in a storm and mutiny amongst the other ships’ crews, they eventually found a passage through which is now called the ‘Magellan Strait’. Indeed the very same that we have travelled along to reach Punta Arenas.

Just to finish the story of Magellan (mine is a very potted history) he did eventually get to the Philippines which is where he died having fallen foul of a local chappie who did not stick by the arrangements Magellan made with another local war lord. He is was killed during fighting in the shallows on the beach on the island of Mactan. His body was never found. Something of an ignominious end for the person who led the first circumnavigation of the world. Only the NAO Victoria and 18 crew got back to Spain.

Life on board was pretty sparten

As indicating by the above. The replica crew member looking particularly lifelike!

The captain’s quarters did not look much better!!

Particularly as they had the wrong flag up! I think the bedding could have been original and the chap had a nasty looking neck brace……

The next ship was the replica of The Beagle, which those readers who have been keeping up, is a bit of a favourite of us Gregorys. Our Captain Fitzroy again!!

We have now jumped a couple of centuries as Fitzroy set out on his 2nd tour as Captain of the Beagle in 1831. The survey voyage with Darwin was to take five years.

As you would expect, I undertook a thorough review of the ship, but found facilities not much improved to be honest. It still looked pretty bleak for the people on board.

Returning from my inspection……

I was also surprised to find cannons on board. Not very matey. Particularly as they were supposed to be just surveying …

Amongst the other replicas in the Museum was a boat that Shackleton used as part of his Trans Antarctic Expedition.. I was rather amused by the advertisement he put in the press in 1914

Apparently he had thousands of replies but chose just 26 to travel with him on the polar exploration ship Endurance. His intention was to cross the Antarctic on foot. The Endurance was eventually crushed by the ice and sank which left Shackleton and his chosen few with just the provisions they had rescued to wait out the thaw. They eventually escaped with the lifeboats they had taken off the Endurance before it sank.

To cut a long and perilous story short, they found the uninhabited Elephant Island and Shackleton left 22 of his people there and went to get help with just four men. They left on the 24th April and eventually arrived at a Whaling Station on the 2nd May. On 30th August all the men on Elephant Island were rescued. I feel exhausted just recounting the tale!!

We left the Replica Boat Museum to go to another Museum which I can only describe as a bit ‘dry’. We were, however, interested in their display of stuffed birds but even they were a bit moth eaten. They did, however give us a bit of a greater understanding of the size of some of the birds we had seen out at sea. It is very difficult to get a sense of their size / perspective in a huge ocean.

Our trip back to the town centre took us up to a hillside look out where we could look down on Punta Arenas

There was also another of those ‘how far do I live from here’ poles. The things people find to do … They could be better employed improving the wiring! It is almost at Indian standards!

Descending back down the hill, we abandoned the bus in the very pleasant square.

We wandered around a bit and obtained a bit of local currency as we are going to be in Chile for a bit.

Keith had done a bit of homework on the food scene and we happily came across one of the recommended restaurants where we had a very enjoyable lunch. I had conger eel for the first time. It was very good and came with an enormous mountain of what I can only describe as crisps. I was a very happy girl!! (My local lamb dish was superb too! Ed)

So back to the ship for us, passing on the way a rather complex clock tower. There was no indication of what it was all about!

It was no supper for me, too full from my lunch, but Keith popped upstairs and gave a bit of support to the curry evening.

Tomorrow is a sea day and we will spend time at our first glacier.

Before we adjourned for the evening we did another few turns of the deck as we were pulling out of Punta Arenas and got one last glimpse as the sun went down …