El fin del mundo

I am now further south than I will probably ever be again. Punta Arenas is the name of the town, and it is the southernmost 'city' in the world. There are other towns further south than Punta Arenas, but they are not as large (145.000 people here.) I am closer to Antarctica now than I am to Santiago. Punta Arenas is not on the island of Tierra del Fuego, but you can see that island from the waterfront. Here it is cloudy with a sprinkle of rain, and the temperature is about 9°C (it was about 30°C in Santiago). It was amusing to arrive at my hostel and find the estufas (space heaters) running. People are walking on the streets in gloves, hats, and jackets. I had heard that the wind was fierce here, so I made sure to pack a windproof jacket.

Today is Sunday, which means almost everything is closed. The streets are mostly empty and very quiet. Supposedly Punta Arenas has very exciting nightlife, but I am not sure whether I believe that or not. I guess that anything would seem sedate after the last four days in the hustle and bustle of Santiago. The flight here was three hours. You could cross Chile going east-west in a plane in about 20 minutes, but it would take about 6 hours to cross it north-south. The geography of this country is crazy.

The architecture here in Punta Arenas is largely utilitarian and only the churches really look Spanish. I assume the winters here are harsh and elaborate buildings with large windows would not be economical in the climatic conditions. I have never been to Alaska, but I picture an Alaskan town to look very much like Punta Arenas. The landscape around the town is mostly barren, with a cover of brownish-green grass.

Back to yesterday's events in Santiago: Rome may have seven hills, but Santiago only has two. (However, Rome lacks the ever-present Andes lurking in the peripheral vision of every pedestrian in Santiago.) I have now conquered them both. Yesterday I took the funicular up the Cerro San Cristóbal. The ride made me a little uneasy. I did not see any sort of mechanism to prevent the car from rolling backwards down the tracks and crashing into the station should the driving mechanism had given out. The thing was built in 1925, and it creaked and jerked the whole way up. Halfway up the hill, the lone track briefly split into two so that a car coming down the hill could pass us as we climbed. However, the timing was off and our car was forced to stop to wait for the descending car to reach a certain spot so that both cars could pass at precisely the same moment. It was a bit hair-raising, to say the least, but the view from the top made it all worth it. A statue of the Virgin Mary is atop the hill, and a shrine had been erected.

I also visited two museums yesterday: the so-so Museo de las Bellas Artes and the phenomenal Museo Chileno de la Arte Pre-Columbiano. It was hands-down the best museum showcasing exhibits of Native America that I have ever been to. I saw mummies from pre-Incan times, and there was an interesting exhibit on Andean peoples headdresses. Most of the artefacts, despite being more than a thousand years old, were in such good condition that I thought surely they must have been reproductions.

Some people from the hostel and I went to dinner last night at a steak restaurant. I had not eaten steak in at least a year, and in general do not care for it, but the meal I had last night would probably have made a vegetarian reconsider their dietary choices.