Patagonia, Day 17 - trip over, the return to reality

The anticipated late start didn't materialise as we agreed to all meet at 7am for breakfast and goodbyes to those on the early flight. Group hugs, and with the first few gone, most of us had a few hours to kill before we had to leave. Except Steve and Gerard who had planned to stay an extra day to do some penguin watching, only, they already did that. And the alternative whale watching tours had been cancelled due to bad weather (although it was ok here). Several calls to tourist info places yesterday drew blanks to other options. So, Punta Arenas was their oyster for the day and ours for the morning.

Fun packed it was not. Punta Arenas is basically closed on Sundays and after seeing the very unusual cemetery (multi-storey graves), the local supermarket and a walk through the town (statue of Fernando Magellan), the bitter wind got the better of me and I sought refuse back at the hotel. Some of the others had coffee and churros at a burger place, and then found a chocolate cafe to while away the minutes. We all met back at the hotel for 1pm when the next group was due to leave.

Multi-storey graves in the Municipal Cemetery

Fernando de Magellanes

More hugs, slaps on back, etc and we too were off to the airport, leaving Gerard, Steve, Christopher and Tpong to entertain themselves with all Punta Arenas has to offer on a Sunday. Which is not much as even the local museum is closed until Tuesday. Enjoy the wind and rain boys!

Huge queues at the airport with only three desks open and self check-in machines crashed, but Mark, Duff, Brett and I made our flight. It's not left yet; hopefully Mark and I will arrive at Santiago in time for our early connection to Madrid.....

The trip is definitely over. Back to reality.

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Sent from the dusty road using my rusty BlackBerry