January 24th
Got up this morning and had usual breakfast of banana, desert and orange juice. Packed up my gear and ready to head out at 9:00 to walk half an hour up to bus terminal. Gave the lovely lady who continually looks after the place a hug goodbye, what a great sense of humor she has. The other day I asked her if she would kindly clean the room ... she didn't even look at me and said, "No!" and then started to laugh. I high-fived her and laughed so loud as I was not expecting this ... she doesn't speak English as I do not speak Spanish, yet humor is universal. LOL It is funny how we could understand each other, one day a young couple came in and spoke only English. She was trying to explain something to them and after she spoke in Spanish, she looked at me to help translate, even knowing that i could not speak Spanish. Love this lady.
I got up to the bus terminal at 9:am and the bus pulled in at 940am.
I remember reading a great deal of people complaining about their luggage and how they were not getting it, but this company now uses stickers on your luggage and gives you the matching number ... there were absolutely no issues about this.
However, one incident did occur. The bus started to pull out at 10:04am, four minutes after. I heard two young ladies say something about their friend being in the bathroom. They ran to the front of the bus to ask them to stop. The bus kept going. A young lad went up front and pleaded with them in Spanish to please stop. They drove about half a block and pulled over. The young lad got out and ran back to the terminal. In a couple of minutes he is back with the young lady in tow. You could see she was crying because when she got out of the bathroom she saw the bus was gone. The problem for her was that all her stuff was on the bus and possibly all her money too, which would have been a huge problem.
I cannot say I had much sympathy for the young lady as she should have known that the bus usually leaves on time, so to go to the bathroom in the terminal at 10:00am was not well planned. I am glad she made it though ... don't wish any ill thoughts on someone as long as she learned something from this experience. She is very lucky they stopped.
Got into Punta Arenas at 1:15 pm and headed right to where I was staying. I was greeted by Nikolas, his sister and his mother. Such lovely people, and so kind. I went for a walk on the waterfront and saw many lovely statues-monuments.
I then stopped at the UniMark to buy some groceries. I picked up a little more than I could probably carry and the packer picked up a little box and loaded my stuff into it. I gave him a tip.
I was preparing supper and Nikolas mother came into the kitchen and offered me some red pepper, spices, garlic, etc. to compliment my cooking of pork chops and spaghetti.
After supper, I hung around with the family for about an hour and we showed each other photo's. We had a few laughs ... we had a great time. Yvone, Nikolas mother, saw a shipwreck photo I had taken and told me where I could walk to tomorrow to see one in Punta Arenas. I was happy to hear that. I truly appreciate how this family has made me feel at home.
A great day!
January 25th
Today, I started my hike at 11:00am and finished my 13km hike around 3:30pm, after many stops to take photo's.
I walked straight to the shipwreck which was over 5 km away. Along the waterfront, I saw another boat that had 4 masts. At first, I thought it was tied to a dock, but when I got closer saw that there were three ships side by side that were abandoned. On my way to the other shipwreck, I was checking to see if I could get down to take some photo's of these three ships, but saw that the land was restricted to naval. I continued my hike to the furthest ship and took a lot of photo's. I was surprised to see the anchor was still there beside the ship. What a site to see. This ship is called Lord Lonsdale. I did a little research and found the story of this ship very interesting:
Information taken from - https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lord-lonsdale-shipwreck The rusty hull of this 1899 ship serves as a tribute to explorers of the bottom of the world. The Lord Lonsdale started its final journey a world away in Hamburg, Germany, in 1909. The 10-year old ship was set to sail all the way to Mazatlán on the western coast of Mexico. With the Panama Canal still under construction, that meant a trip through the Strait of Magellan, which separates mainland Chile from Tierra del Fuego. While stopped over in Stanley Harbour in the Falkland Islands, the ship caught fire. With the blaze out of control they did the only thing they could – they sank the ship.Stanley Harbour is 560 miles away from Punta Arenas, so how and why she ended up here is where the trail runs a little cold. After the fire, the steel hulk (the body of a ship that floats but isn’t seaworthy), was sold to a company of traders called Braun & Blanchard. They may have had plans to move it to their warehouses in Puerto Natales to use it for storage – a feat requiring hundreds of miles of towing through the straits – but it only got moved to Punta Arenas before they literally abandoned ship.Punta Arenas is a small city along the Strait of Magellan, often used as a jumping-off point for excursions to Antarctica. With the Lord Lonsdale left stranded at their beach, they were stuck with it. In what may be a case of looking for a little silver lining, there is now a sign at the site which reads (translated from Spanish): “The English Frigate Lord Lonsdale - A tribute to seafarers of all nationalities who crossed the Magellanic sea and made possible the best knowledge and settlement of this region.”
On my way back, I really wanted to get some photo's of the other ships. I eventually found a path that led along the beach and then walked up to the abandoned wharf. I did see this one sign that said restricted, and I was hoping it was referring to the wharf. I walked over to an opening and got some photo's of the three abandoned ships. Quite the site, I must say.
On my way back along the waterfront I worked my way to an old town clock that looked very similar to the one in downtown Vancouver. I took a couple pics and then headed north on Independencia Avenue as far as Arauco.
I eventually made my way to a panorama city view which was quite spectacular when you think that it did not feel like I walked uphill that much from the waterfront.
Near the landing I was walking along a sidewalk and something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a piece of wood and upon closer view saw that a bone was embedded in the concrete sidewalk! Not something you see everyday.
After a few panoramics, and where the weather was so nice, I headed back to the main square to take some photo's of the Ferdinand Magellan Monument. This monument has quite an urban legend.
It is said that a Spanish sailor that was sent to work in Punta Arenas for a period of time liked so much that statue that he had it tattooed on his chest. The work was so well done that the image seemed to come alive every movement that the sailor did, but what really drew attention was the movement of the toe when the man moved his chest with great grace. The man was so proud of his tattoo that he even used to speak to it looking directly into the mirror. So when the day to return to Spain came he looked the tattoo reflected in the mirror and consulted if his business back home would be successful and with a small movement with his arm the toe moved affirmatively. Happy with the response went to the port and passing through the square looked the monument and touching his chest said: "Here in my chest I will take you with me, my friend. I want to be strong like you." And touching the foot of the statue said: "Wish me lucky". And kissing the toe said goodbye. Months later the sailor returned to Punta Arenas radiant with joy saying that his business prospered very fast. [http://magellanstraittravel.blogspot.cl/2014/01/punta-arenas-city-of-monuments.html]
Since then people come to the square to touch the foot of the statue to get lucky and also visitors kiss the toe believing it will bring them back to Punta Arenas. If you look closely in the photo, you can see the polished foot from the people who visit this monument in Muñoz Gamero square.
I sat in the park for awhile and observed many people coming and going. Just before I left an elderly gentleman sat at a bench nearby and proceeded to feed the pigeons. He picked up one of the pigeons and held it out for a young girl to pet it ... what a cute laugh came from her. As you can see by the smile on the mans face, it made his day. Love this.
Another interesting day!