Your travel life has the essence of a dream. It is something outside the normal, yet you are in it. It is peopled with characters you have never seen before and in all probability will never see again. It brings occasional homesickness, and loneliness, and pangs of longing…. But you are like the Vikings or the master mariners of the Elizabethan age, who have gone into a world of adventure, and home is not home until you return. –Agatha Christie

This morning in Puntas Arenas was a busy one arranging a ferry, two flights, one car rental, and one hotel reservation.  Originally we had been told there were no ferry places nor one of the flights available.  The key is that most reservations have to be paid for the day before.  If they are not, those spaces become available, and we were the lucky recipients.  Oh joy!  We took off for one more walk.  Look...Punta Arenas has stair walks just like San Francisco:

And the view from the top is this large city of Punta Arenas:














Today we met a fellow traveler, Ann, from the U.K.  She was one of our companions on the Austral Broom Ferry from Puntas Arenas to Puerto Williams, the most southern town in the world.

By 5 pm we were on the ferry.  It left heading west on the Strait of Magellan at 6 pm.  At 7 pm dinner was available.  It was a bit rustic and limited, but filling...2 meat empanadas, a vegetable soup with bread, a carton of yogurt, and a cup of peach juice.  We were glad we brought our own beer and wine along with some chocolate.

January 23, 2013