Not so Chilly Chile, Punta Arenas

            

View of the City from Observation Overlook

Welcomed by a Penguin

After smooth but foggy sailing around Cape Horn where the Pacific meets the Atlantic and 50-foot swells are not uncommon, we sailed to Punta Arenas Chile, Ushuaia Argentina’s rival outpost for Antarctic explorations and the "end of the world" status. Downpours are unusual but misty rain and cloudy skies predominate in this city, and winds...110 mph was recorded two weeks before we arrived. Downtown used to have ropes between buildings so people walking the streets would have something to grab. These have been replaced by iron fences for that purpose. Serious gardeners need some type of wind protection to succeed.

A Rare Beach Day in Punta Arenas behind a Cormorant Colony

We arrived to warmth and blue skies and spent two beautiful days walking the city. The beaches were packed with locals wading in the 42 degree Magellan Strait waters, some even swimming. Around the ship monument to the immigrants were drummers and dancing on this record-breaking 75-degree day...the warmest in 15 years.

Monument to Past Immigrants 

Locals enjoying the Warm Sunny Day 
Water was 42 Degrees

Founded in 1848, as a penal colony after several failed attempts by missionaries and military outposts, Punta Arenas has thrived. Chile saw the need to lay claim to this area, and literally gave away land plus a monetary stipend to white Europeans (except from Spain of course) who would settle the area. Thousands came, seeking a better life. Punta Arenas became an anomaly, a true melting pot of immigrants. More arrived during a short-lived gold rush followed by another wave during the wool boom. The city is now 50% Croatian. Austrian-Hungarian Jews were especially eager to come since it was not until 1945 that European Jews could own property. Three families in particular, became very wealthy, including Jose Menendez who was known as the King of Patagonia. He along with the Nogueira and Braun families amassed 2.5 million acres of land for sheep farming and then branched out into shipping and finances.

Home of Sara Braun, now a Museum

Their French designed homes surrounding Magellan Square remind people of a time when the city thrived as the main stop for ships going through the Strait until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1915. This downturn was temporary, as geologists found oil, and tourists discovered penguins. Sara Braun was the city’s main benefactor, yet she is controversial for her involvement in the genocide of the Ona people, whose land had been taken.  Not understanding private property, they had helped themselves to some of the sheep. This along with European diseases lead to their extinction.

Monument to Sheep Herding

This vast sheep land empire was divided during the military dictatorship, but the area still has many sheep and cattle farms. Now oil and natural gas are the biggest businesses, along with tourism. Rigs are in the surrounding waters, so a spill is a threat, mainly to the vast penguin colonies that help support tourism. When explorers first arrived, these “black ducks” were easily taken for meat, but because they did not taste good they were left alone to thrive, and thrive they did...on one island there are 120,000!

Homes by Observation Deck

Murals on Buildings by the
 Waterfront

The Intersection of Magellan and Columbus Streets

Note the Neatly Trimmed Cedars Lining the Pathways

Punta Arena is proud of its cemetery which is considered the 6^th most beautiful in the world. Grave markers were mainly in Spanish,  but Croatian, Italian, English and Scottish groups also were easy to identify by names as well as epitaphs. As we walked around, we were touched by the many families paying respect to their ancestors on this beautiful Sunday.

Many Families Paying Respects

City Cemetery, a mixture of 
ethnicity and Social Status

Memorial to those who died under Pinochet's Regime

Mausoleum to Sara Braun and her family perched on what used to be a small hill before the rest of the cemetery grew up around it.  We were lucky since both the mausoleum and the surrounding fence had been opened by the groundskeeper, to allow family into the crypt, and was again locked after we left. 

The Open Braun family Mauseleum

Below... gardens around

the Braun's crypt with other typical graves in 

front 

We enjoyed the clear view of the city and the Strait from a city observation deck and then higher at a local ski resort where we took a chair lift to the top for magnificent/rare views of the Darwin Range before hiking back down through beautiful beech woods learning about the flora and fauna of the Patagonian Andes. The ski resort closed down a few years ago, since the mountain no longer gets enough snow or cold weather for skiing. Now the chair lift is only for hikers and bikers.

Darwin Mountain

According to local lore, we're destined to return to charming Punta Arenas since we ate the blue calafate berry on our hike, and kissed the foot of an Ona man on Magellan's Statue in the city square.