Today is a travel day. We left the camp at 10 and were driven to Punta Arenas, about a 4 hour drive, much of it over unpaved, rocky roads. One thing I haven’t written about is how unpopulated Patagonia is. In both Argentina and Chile we traveled literally for hours without seeing a house, just wide open land!
We were dropped off at hotel where we could store our suitcases for the day. Punta Arenas seemed like a very sleepy town. Ships leave from there to cruise the Chilean fjords but we didn’t see any tourists or ships.
We found a restaurant for lunch. After lunch we walked to the cemetery which was the one highlight according to Lonely Planet. Many of the plots included pictures of the person buried there. Here are pictures of the cemetery.
Rick’s camera had a protective screen over the view finder. The screen had gotten broken so we walked to the “duty free” zone to look for a new screen. We aren’t sure why it was call the “duty free” zone because everyone was there and it was more like a shopping district. We went to several stores but couldn’t find one that fit.
We walked back to the hotel along the water. Here’s a picture of an old dock filled with imperial cormorants.
We picked up our suitcases and took at taxi to the airport where we boarded a flight to Puerto Montt. We arrived in Puerto Montt and rushed to the Hertz counter because they were staying open late for us. We rented a Toyota Yaris and drove about 25 minutes to our hotel in Puerto Varas. Once there, we fell into bed. It was a long day.