Today, we have a car rented and plans to hike in the Magallanes National Forest.  As always, we are off the ship early, making our way over to the Europcar office with 30 minutes to spare.  We had been reading that they will require our passports, but the ship has them, so we are hoping a color copy of our documents will suffice.  Sadly, this was not to be the case.  When the agent arrived, he very nicely told us we had to have our original passports (he was far nicer than the Frankfurt guy who was ridiculously rude!).  We showed him the copies, but he said it didn’t matter because if the authorities stopped us and we didn’t have our documents, they would take the car.   Yeah, well, we can understand not letting us rent in that situation.  Oh well – plans scuttled – thank heavens for CD Ed and his port talks!  On to Plan B!  Walking around the port city hitting all the highlights CD Ed told us about.

Punta Arenas was created as a Garrison to protect the peninsula.  The town became very prosperous as a stop on the shipping routes in the 1800s and early 1900s, but when the Panama Canal was opened the town’s fortunes began to dry up.  A businesswoman, Sara Braun, who immigrated from Latvia in the late 1880s, married a local businessman and built an empire together, convinced the residents to introduce sheep and sheep farming here, and it saved the town.  Her house is a museum now, which we intend to visit later in the day.  But now?  It’s walking/climbing time to the viewpoint up above the town! It is a lovely brisk day, perfect for a walk and stair climb, as we make our way up, up, up to the Cerro de la Cruz viewpoint – which gives a bird’s eye view across the town and the harbor, and the locks of love!  Tons and tons of locks – just like Venice, but apparently they don’t remove them here.  It is a lovely spot, and we pretty much have it to ourselves, until a couple of private tour vans arrive and we skedaddle.

Next on our agenda is walking the length of one of the city parks that runs along the main thoroughfare to the Al Ovejero shepherd statue – an homage to the industry that saved the town. 

We backtracked over to Cemeterio Municipal Sara Braun, reputed to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world.  And it doesn’t disappoint.  Laid out in grid fashion, almost like a city plan, we wandered down pathways lined with those amazing pines or firs or some sort of bush/tree-type thing that are sort of conical shaped.  We pass the central area with the mausoleum of Jose Menedez who was a livestock and shipping businessman, then the grave of Adolf Andressen, captain of a whaling ship recognized for hoisting the first Chilean flag in the Antarctic continent.

More mausoleums, more interesting graves, with the photos of the deceased, and on to Sara Braun’s Mausoleum, one of the grandest of them all in the cemetery.

Even though it is a cemetery, it is quite beautiful and peaceful.  A wonderful walk on a beautiful day.  We continue on our wanderings trying in vain to find the burial site of the 100+ crew of the Doterel, a British gunboat that exploded off Punta Arenas port in 1881.  We didn’t find the Unknown Indian monument either, the map defeated us – but nonetheless we had a fabulous time walking around and exploring. And bonus!  We got a free postcard with postage when we paid our entrance fee (have no idea why, because the 2 people in front of us didn’t get it!).  The sweet guy who gave it to us pantomimed about sending it anywhere and pointing to the mailbox right in the lobby where we can mail it.  So of course – since it is my birthday and Maggi’s is coming up and we are doing what she absolutely adores to do – exploring cemeteries – we send it off to her as a birthday greeting  We shall see when (and if) it arrives! (PS – it did arrive…April 7th!)

Trekking back into town (oh yeah, this will be a good walking day!!!), we pass the Santuario Maria Auxiliadora catholic church, with the Museo Maggiorino Borgatello right next door. We had thought about going into the museum; everything said it was closed today but the doors are open and busloads of ship people are there – the busloads of ship people sort of made our decision and we kept on going into the center of town passing over the Rio de las Minas, where workers were industriously painting the concrete barrier walls in different pastel colors. 

Finally reaching Plaza de Armas, we find the large stone and wrought iron fence surrounding what is supposed to be Sara Braun’s palacio, but we’ll be darned if we can figure out how to get inside.  There are large stone stairs on either side of a vestibule, but on one side it looks like it is under construction.  CD Ed had mentioned that in order to get into the restaurant you had to knock – but he didn’t mention anything about this.  Hmmmm…..

Thoroughly perplexed, we circle the exterior of the building only to find no other entrances.  There is a hotel right next door however, into which we go and ask one of the front door guys how to access the palacio.  He tells us to just go up the stairs there – we were in the right place after all, just not the right side of the staircase!  Ok – another Google Maps moment without Google Maps.

So, back we go, and this time we do make it up into the vestibule and pay our entrance fee and begin to wander through the 2 stories of rooms available for viewing. Because there is a large tour group on the lower level, we start up the narrow staircase and explore the 2^nd floor first.  There is a dining room up here along with a billiards room and an awesome loft like area that surrounds a cut through to the first floor entrance lobby.  All very 1800’s European Belle-Epoque feeling.

The tour group begins their ascent upstairs, and we wait patiently (well, ok, not patiently, but we do wait because you can’t fit up and down traffic on that staircase) until it is clear to walk down. As with the upstairs, we have this level all to ourselves so we can freely wander through the corner music room with the grand piano and the two gorgeous sitting rooms with all the beautiful wood carvings and accents that wrap around the entry hall.  A wonderful look into the life of a very successful businesswoman from the time period.

Finished with our tour, we head outside and just in time too!  A huge group tour is just walking up the stairs to enter the palacio. Phew!  We made it perfectly. Now we are off to wander the streets in search of a restaurant, which is harder than you would suspect!  They are few and far between and we’re in the middle of the downtown area.  Weird.  We do pass by some great architecture, but that isn’t going to feed us!

Finally we stumble upon Restaurante Azuca Beach which features a lot of fresh Merlusa – meaning we are all in!  That fish is great.  The restaurant is very cute, but small and narrow with booths already close to filled up. But the server points to another room and says we can sit there, which is perfect!  There is no one there – an no one comes in during our entire meal. Everyone is jam packed into the other teeny room.  We have a lovely peaceful lunch of Merlusa and beer and wine, all on our own, while listening to the absurd conversations from the next room (they were that loud!). 

Now that we’ve lunched, we need to walk it off (those French fries! Didn’t need them, and to add insult to injury, mine cost extra – not the cheapest of meals, we can tell you that!).  We walked back to the waterfront and followed the promenade (mostly sidewalk) down the coast to find the Lord Lonsdale shipwreck, which CD Ed said caught fire and was scuttled in 1909 in Port Stanley and then 15 years later popped up here.  What? No way!  (Actually, no way is correct.  He made it sound like it literally disappeared in Port Stanley and magically reappeared here.  But the real story is that the steel hulk was sold to a company of traders who moved it to Punta Arenas for reasons unknown, and then literally abandoned ship – leaving the rusting hulk to sit since 1940.  CD Ed’s story is much more fun though!)  It is a decent hike down to the ship, about 1.5 miles, but a lovely day to do it.  Brisk without too much wind, beautiful sunshine.  And the wreck is pretty cool to look at – as you can see from the pictures we took!

The walk back to town was equally invigorating.  We were lucky enough to stop at a grocery store right out side the port terminal to stock up, and voila! We were back aboard and greeted with a birthday balloon outside the cabin door and a lovely birthday cupcake, compliments of the chef and Patrick our concierge.  So sweet!

Somehow we had managed not to book specialty dining tonight for my birthday, who knows? So we went to the main dining room which was pretty chaotic, but whatever.  Patrick had said he would have a birthday cake delivered at dinner, to which I told him he really didn’t have to, but which never came because the waiter was so slammed, he never came back after the main meal service.  Which was fine – we didn’t want or need the cake – I just hope if there was a cake the waiter didn’t get into any trouble about it….or Patrick!

Tonight we are actually going to see the dancers, who are very good – and much better than the Westerdam for some reason.  I think there are different shows, Ed doesn’t think so, but whatever the reason, they are fantastic and now we are sorry we missed the first night’s show. Then it was back to the cabin and the balcony, watching the world go by. Lovely birthday and excellent day.  Tomorrow is another early morning; glaciers at 6am!  We can sleep on the crossing!