2geonomads

Friday 27th February 2015.

Punta Arenas

Slept well until about 5 am but then decided to catch up on all the blogs to date for this trip. Complete this task by about 8.00 am and after a shower head down to the hotel breakfast room. The breakfast is fine although the service is ordinary at best.

We now have problems with the plumbing in our bathroom so it’s perhaps a blessing that our system is as blocked as the hotel’s! We report the problem to the girl at reception but all the staff seem to be working on mañana time. The weather is surprisingly fine and the temperature higher than the previous day which was in itself fairly mild. First priority is to find a pharmacy and try to source some adhesive tape for my knee and some thyroid prescription drugs for Gail ( she had forgotten to take them out of the fridge at home). Successful on both counts thanks to a very helpful lady with whom we were able to communicate in spite of her almost non-existant English and my equally rusty Spanish.

Set off to walk up Juez Waldo Seguel to the lookout at Cerro de la Cruz. This offers a fine vista over the town and the main square which we had strolled through earlier in the day. Gail purchases a hand knitted beanie complete with ear flaps So if we can find a herd of alpacas for her to take on board the Antarctic vessel she will look the real deal.

Back to the hotel where I once again request a plumber to look at our loo. He duly arrives and ‘ solves ‘the problem . A very temporary solution as it later turns out. Gail spends the next couple of hours doing camera, website and travel blog updates while I watch Man City being outclassed by Barcelona in the Champions League and nodding off from time to time ( that’s me not Man City! )

Nothing left for us to do now other than to have an early dinner, attend the briefing by the Aurora team and turn in for an early night. ( We have to be up by 5.00 am the next morning prior to flying down  to the expedition vessel.) As we will be out of contact for the next 10 days this will be the last blog for a while.

Cheers The Obese Ferret

Stop Press. We decide to give the undoubted culinary delights of our hotel a miss and instead head over to the newer Hotel Dreams on the waterfront. We are rewarded with a superb meal of savoury crepes ,  a berry tart, and the best coffee since we arrived in Chile. In short it was our hotel before the rigor mortis set in.