Punta Arenas (Sandy Point)

We have arrived in Punta Arenas, the capital city of Chile's southernmost region. Located on the Brunswick Peninsula north of the Strait of Magellan, it was originally established in 1848 as a small penal colony. It has been called the “city of the red roofs”, due to the proliferation of red-painted metal roofs.  These days the roofs are multi-coloured, as are the walls of the town, which are covered in murals and graffiti (street art graffiti is becoming quite the signature in South America!)

I felt like putting a few people behind bars after the debacle that was our trip from Santiago to Punta Arenas.  After our unhappy experience with the Santiago airport-hotel transfer, we were determined that was not going to happen again!  A phone call the night before gave us the assurance that our driver would be on time, which was critical as we were departing on a 6:40am flight.  The transfer was for 4:45am; at 4:40am the hotel received a phone call from the driver saying he would be there in 15 minutes!  At 6:05am the driver rang to say he was 5 minutes away, as he had “a flat tyre”.  Of course, the sod had slept in!

Fortunately, at that time of the morning on a Saturday, there was very little traffic, and the airport is only about a half hour drive, so we arrived in plenty of time to drop our bags (we were clever enough to check online). Travelling with LAN, we found our gate – at least we thought it was – I saw Gate 21 on the monitor, Tim saw Gate 27, we went to 21 and checked with the staff at the desk, who said yes, we were at the correct gate.  That flight was actually going to Easter Island, a small detail discovered as they tried to scan my boarding pass.  A quick run to Gate 27, we found many people milling around, with huge camera backpacks (perhaps I was one of them??!!)

So, we stood, waiting, waiting, waiting, the time for departure passed, still waiting, then the announcement of a change of gate.  So off we all ran, downstairs to the gates where you have to get on the shuttle to go out to the plane. Again, we were waiting, waiting, waiting, until another announcement that we needed to go back to Gate 27!  By that time I was starting to get alerts from LAN on my phone, with the final alarming one saying “Please change your reservation”!  We were told that the departure would be now be delayed until 8:30am (which we brushed off with a “pfft”, as by now it was about 7:30am and we had been awake since 4am!)  At 7:45am, another announcement, another change of gate, back downstairs, this time for keeps, and we were on the plane and flying by 9am.

We arrived in Punta Arenas, certain that our luggage would not make it, and that our transfer had given up and gone home. Our driver was waiting for us!  SHE had the common sense to check the flight arrival times, and our luggage was first off the plane!! The drama did not finish there, however; the flight was continuing on to Mount Pleasant (a British army base in the Falklands), which is where all the heavy camera gear people were going.  Just as we were disembarking, the stewardess announced that the flight to Mount Pleasant had been cancelled, due to “meteorological effects”. We left an unlucky LAN person trying to find overnight accommodation for around 50 people.  As it turns out, touching base with Ted and Scott, my buddies at Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris (with whom I am travelling, and writing the ship's log for), Scott emailed me to say he was stranded with his group in Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, waiting for the weather to lighten up (it's the wind!)  Hopefully they will arrive safely on Sunday.

The positive outcome of all this was that when we arrived at our hotel, Cabo de Hornos, our rooms were ready!  The joys of travelling in South America – I felt right at home!