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Punta Arenas
Introduction
Known for its numerous monuments, close vicinity to antarctic expeditions and for its chilling wind, Punta Arenas is a waterfront city found in southern Chile. Most tourists arrive in Punta Arenas as a port stop in their adventure cruise expeditions. While a smaller minority of leisure tourists, such as myself, do so as part of the trip to Torres Del Paine. In fact, many trekkers heading for the park skip Punta Arenas altogether in favor of heading straight to Puerto Natales, gateway city to Torres Del Paine. I spent close to two days here, enjoying its coast while ducking into diners to escape the freezing temperatures.
Behold, the City of Monuments.
Introduction to Punta Arenas
Found in southern Chile, near the bottom of the world, Punta Arenas is a peaceful and quaint city on the coast. Flanked by coast on one side and mountains on the other, the place closely resembles the thin but long shape of Chile. Many antarctic cruise expeditions either start here or make this their last major port to dock at. As such, it is often not viewed as a proper tourist attraction. Nonetheless, the city of monuments offers no shortage of photography opportunities and an interesting window into the lives of people living near the bottom of South America.
The City of Monuments
Punta Arenas has three main types of tourist attractions
- Day trips to nearby parks
- Museums that showcase the origins of the area
- Monuments scattered throughout the city
I mainly set out during the day to walk to various monuments and landmarks, soaking in the rich coast breeze and shivering whenever the sun disappeared behind clouds (all the time, except for sunrise).
Cementerio Municipal
One of Punta Arenas’s main attractions is its cemetery. Now now, i get those of you who would shy away from the thought of visiting a cemetery on a holiday or see little point in visiting one, but coming from land depleted Singapore, the cementerio was fairly interesting. Here, families are often laid to rest within the same structure, with ample space for people to enter and pay their respects. Additionally, the more wealthy families have extravagant graves while the cemetery as a whole boasts pretty landscape designs.
The Coast
Many little monuments and other attractions, accidental or not, are found on Punta Arena’s coast. This includes the Naval museum and the shipwreck of Lord Lonsdale. If you are willing to shiver against the bitterly cold wind, the coast is definitely the place to be in the city. In fact, many of the townsfolk can be seen exercising (jogging and biking) up and down the coast, I guess tough environments make tough people.
Sunrise
I had all of 3 hours of direct sunlight during my time in Punta Arenas. With tons of cloud overhead, sunlight was a precious little thing for me. Yet, it was during these hours, that I found some of the more spectacular sights in the city.
Arriving on a Sunday
I arrived in Punta Arenas on a Sunday, a big no-no as a tourist. Almost every shop and restaurant was closed, making it difficult to find food for meals. Coupled with bitterly strong cold wind and near 0 degree temperatures, and I found my optimism damp a fair bit.
However, the quiet and lack of traffic gave a very pleasant feeling to the town. In fact, having described the place as a ghost town earlier in the day, I found it heartwarming to see lights coming on in individual houses at night time, catching silhouettes of families settling down for dinner. Reflecting on this, I find that often times as tourists, we rush to see places with the biggest and grandest attractions, in doing so, our tunnel vision leads to us simply missing out on little magical things like these. In stark contrast to the bright lights of Singapore, I found this night to be highly refreshing.
I really like the look and feel of the houses in the town.
Up Next
5 blog posts on the W-Trek in Torres Del Paine, Patagonia are up next. Am really excited to share my 5 days in the national park where I caught some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Stay tuned!
