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<\/a><\/p>\nWe then came upon the most visited site in Punta Arenas, Plaza de Armas.\u00a0 This statue of Ferdinand Magellan, commemorating his discovery of the strait of Magellan in 1520,\u00a0 is definitely the most photographed spot in the city.<\/p>\n
This monument was unveiled in 1920 on the 400th anniversary of Magellan’s discovery.\u00a0 On the other side of the statue is this indigenous person with a dangling foot that has a bit of folklore.\u00a0 As can be seen by the highly polished foot, if you touch this you are guaranteed to come back to Punta Arenas.\u00a0 I don’t get it, the spot is nice and all, but would I want to come back?\u00a0 We opted out of touching the foot.\u00a0 Let me say, it was hard to get a shot without somebody gleefully starting at the camera while touching it!!<\/p>\n These huge trees encircle Plaza de Armas.\u00a0 It is a gorgeous spot.<\/p>\n Directly across the street from the plaza is the Cathedral of Punta Arenas, this pretty little church.<\/p>\n We loved the colors of this church, particularly the ceiling.<\/p>\n As well as the mosaic of Jesus Christ above the altar.\u00a0 Love the colors!<\/p>\n Across the street Kim and Julie found this King Penguin and her baby looking for attention!\u00a0 I can’t believe they put a chain around the poor mama!!\u00a0 Would somebody actually steal this?<\/p>\n We then started making our way up the street to Mirador Cerro de la Cruz, a viewpoint looking over the city.\u00a0 On the way I noted more excellent electrician work that must be recorded for posterity!\u00a0 WTF??<\/p>\n Here is the view from the top!<\/p>\n Our cruise ship is on the right, with a Regent Seven Seas ship on the left.<\/p>\n Looking back down the street towards the city center.\u00a0 Note the church we just visited on the left side of the street.\u00a0 It’s a pretty small city.<\/p>\n Kim, Julie and Tony at the viewpoint!\u00a0 I’ve gotta say that Tony and Julie have been awesome to travel with!\u00a0 This is our 3rd trip with them (Iceland, Canada\/East Coast and now this trip).<\/p>\n If I see a compass rose somewhere I pretty much always take a photo!\u00a0 For those that don’t know, west in Spanish is oeste.<\/p>\n Not too far away, on a somewhat hidden street, is this beautiful set of mosaic murals!\u00a0 I only found this because I was scrolling on my phone while we were at the viewpoint.\u00a0 This should be a top destination if you already made your way up the hill!\u00a0 First up is Ferdinand Magellan’s ship in the strait.<\/p>\n Followed by this mosaic of sea life.\u00a0 These are so cool, and they are in the middle of a rather distressed neighborhood.\u00a0 This town is covered in graffitti, but at least they have the common decency to leave these works of art alone.<\/p>\n These would make an excellent series of t-shirts, or at the very least an awesome set of coasters!<\/p>\n We turned the corner and lo and behold, there are more!<\/p>\n This one was so colorful it had to be in the blog!<\/p>\n This one has a very angry dude at the bottom of the mosaic, which is some sort of uniformed officer?\u00a0 Not sure, but he’s pissed about something.\u00a0 Click on the photo, zoom in and then let me know your thoughts.\u00a0 It was at least nice to see the American flag.<\/p>\n On our way back down the hill we passed these directional signs.\u00a0 They even list Sacramento and Silicon Valley, a mere 11,000 or so km away.<\/p>\n We stopped for lunch at this excellent little restaurant near the viewpoint called La Yegua Loca, which I had noted was #1 on Trip Advisor when I was thinking about eating dinner in town.\u00a0 Lunch will do though!\u00a0 The food was excellent, so make a point of having lunch here!\u00a0 The view is also quite good.<\/p>\n From here we walked to a supermarket in hopes of finding the local beer I had at lunch, Austral Yagan Dark Ale.\u00a0 They had every other beer of theirs but this one.\u00a0 Damn.\u00a0 We then walked to the waterfront along Magellan Strait.\u00a0 This sculpture is a monument to Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe.<\/p>\n Further along the waterfront is this monument to the crew of the schooner Ancud.\u00a0 The Ancud and her 23 crew members sailed into the Strait of Magellan in 1843, claiming it for Chile.<\/p>\n Pretty cool statue!\u00a0 Here is the view of the port side.<\/p>\n These city signs are in every port!\u00a0 It was surprising to not have 20 people posing around it!<\/p>\n This ghostly relic of a pier makes for a nice photo.<\/p>\n It also provides a safe spot for the birds to hang out!<\/p>\n One last statue along the shoreline before we headed back onboard the ship.\u00a0 This is a monument to Chilean naval pilot Luis Pardo, who led the heroic 1916 rescue of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s crew from Elephant Island in Antarctica after their ship was lost in the ice.\u00a0 The actual bow section of the rescue vessel “Yelcho” is featured in the monument, along with a statue of Pardo pointing towards Antarctica.<\/p>\n That night we were treated to an excellent sunset!<\/p>\n That just kept getting better and 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