A Day of Chores and Angels...

Punta Arenas, Chile

February 21, 2007
S 53°09.763
W 070°54.475

Just because we’re on “vacation” doesn’t mean we don’t have chores to do everyday… today was a long list. The majority of the tasks were things to prepare us for our hike through Torres del Paine. We had to go shopping for our provisions (rice, pasta, soup, ramen, more rice, more pasta…), white-gas for our camp stove, and a bus ticket to get Puerto Natales; the jump-off point before heading into Torres del Paine. Everyone says shop in Punta Arenas—it’s cheaper—as is Modesto vs. Curry Village when heading to Yosemite National Park.

We also secured tickets for the Penguin Tour that visits Isla Magdalena via a ferry across the Straight of Magellan. The tour is supposed to provide us with an up close and personal view of nearly 64,000 breeding pairs. We’re excited, this will most likely be the only time we will ever see penguins outside of a zoo in our lifetime.

We didn’t spend the entire day doing chores; we found time to head to the local cemetery, Cemeterio Municipal. Cemeteries aren’t the most pleasant places, of course, but this one had a lot to offer. The various family plots are morphed into a shrine for the dead. Each plot is different, but most had a place for families to place flowers, pictures, and other sentimental ornaments as a shrine for their loved ones. Many plots have very intricate headstones or complete tombs made of white marble, depending on the wealth of the family. The names on the various headstones date back to the mid 1800’s to early 1900’s outlining descendents from all over the world including Germany, Scandinavia, Spain and Yugoslavia. It makes you wonder what each individual was doing here. Were they Explorers? Escaping the war in Europe? Criminals? No matter… they must have been tuff SOB’s to survive the winters (let alone summers) in Punta Arenas without modern day technology.

On a side note… Marc experienced several very rare camera malfunctions in the cemetery. He was unable to zoom or use the auto-focus on several occasions and once the camera actually started recording without even being in “record mode.” Each time a malfunction occurred he had to power-cycle (off and on) the camera to restore normal functionality. Coincidence? Or maybe some of these tuff SOB’s were goofing on a Gringo.