Day 28 - 11/03/23 - Puntas Arenas, Chile

 While the Zaandam arrived at 7am, our bus tour of the city was not scheduled to start until 9am, so I had everyone meet in the Ocean Bar at 8:30am.  We all disembarked together and made our way down the long walk to the terminal building where we had to go through a bag search and finally show our Chilean entry document on either our phone or in paper form.  


After clearing security, the second half of our group could not find our guide and we were directed to go outside the port gate and nobody was there and the first half of our group was nowhere to be seen.  So we came back and the same worker directed us inside where finally a Patagonia Tours sign was spotted.  After several took the opportunity to get a bio break, we were taken to the bus where the rest of our group plus others not associated with us were found.  Juan was our guide for this trip which took us to a viewpoint, the museum, and the central square.  It was a total bust of a trip costing $75.  All of those locations could easily have been done on foot at no cost except for the museum admission.  So after we were dropped off at the central square, Angela and I did just that, except that we didn't visit the museum.  But we did even more.


First we used our guide's recommendation and found La Luna Restaurant and had a nice salmon ceviche and I also had the best seafood chowder I've had in a long time.  It was packed with seafoood in a soup broth.  We did a little shopping, visited the Cathedral (first heated one we've experienced) and walked back up to the viewpoint and then to a nearby cross.  There we wet up with Len and Kathy and walked with them by some cool mosaic murals and back down the hill via another street and along a boulevard to a memorial for the early explorers.  We had seen a pink or orange giant gyroscope statute and walked to that which was another 1/2 mile away from the ship.  Angela and I then moseyed our way back along the sandy beach towards the ship  enjoying the sights and sounds and little things related to sandy beaches.  















At the end of the beach area was a supermarket which we toured before reboarding the ship just after 5pm.  After dinner, the evening entertainment was the singers and dancers and their show "Rock Legends" was the best so far.  It was so good, we stayed for the repeat at 9:00pm. 


For the first time this cruise, we took in the 10:30pm "feeding".  It was good, but it's hard on my blood sugar readings, so we'll likely not partake again this cruise.


Tomorrow is our last stop on the South American continent before we head off to Antarctica.  

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