Day 303: Return to Punta Arenas
We had a short journey back to Punta Arenas this morning: we caught the ferry before breakfast and the drive back to town was quick and uneventful (except for the odd herd of sheep causing a traffic jam). Our first stop was back at the Europcar Rental Agency, where Lindsay shamefacedly brought back the key to the old rental car and apologized profusely for the inconvenience (BTW – the car was still parked out front, still covered in dirt, and still had the emergency spare tire on it). Luckily for us, the staff was really chill about it (once we had reception, we were surprised to see that they had neither called nor emailed us looking for the missing keys) – they just smiled and said, “Oh! There are the keys!” They must have assumed they lost them in the office.
Lindsay enjoys a Nutella & banana sandwich for breakfast as we ride the ferry back to the mainland
Traffic comes to a halt as we wait for a horseback riding gaucho to herd his 500-head of sheep down the highway
Once the keys were returned, we had a few more errands to take care of in town before returning to our cozy B&B. We did a Google search for a post office, and ended up in the Duty Free Mall. We found a small “Express” kiosk, and were a little worried that we would have to drive to a bigger location, but surprisingly the young woman behind the counter had no problem bundling up our bag of extra clothes (the Seabourn parkas, Igor’s suit and Lindsay’s formal dresses from the cruise) and souvenirs (booklets on Antarctic wildlife and Seabourn-branded mementos), and packing them in a sturdy mailbag destined for NYC.
Unfortunately for us, we arrived at the mall around lunchtime – we had discovered by now that many businesses close between noon and 3PM for lunch – so a lot of the stores were closed while we were trying to finish up some last-minute shopping. One important item for us was a replacement dive-housing for our GoPro (the original one somehow got a small chip on the lens which splintered into a web of cracks during the cruise – so much for being “shock-proof”). Sure enough – anything you need, Chile will have it – we soon found an open camera store with a whole wall of GoPro accessories and found exactly what we needed (at the same price we would have paid in the USA, to boot). After that, all we had to do was drop off our clothes at a laundromat (since we hadn’t done any lake-laundry in Tierra del Fuego, our stuff was smelling a bit ripe) and wander around town until they were done (during which time, we discovered our old cruise ship had just returned from Antarctica!).
We returned to our B&B and kicked back in our warm, comfortable room – our epic Patagonia road trip was officially over.
Running some last minute errands in town: mailing extra clothes and cruise souvenirs back to the States and doing some much-needed laundry
Seriously – Chile has EVERYTHING. We find a camera store in the Duty Free Mall that sells replacement GoPro accessories, so we can fix our busted dive-housing
Looks who’s back from Antarctica! When we were in Punta Arenas two days ago picking up the new rental car, we saw the Holland America cruise ship in the harbor. Today, we see Seabourn! If only we hadn’t just mailed our orange parkas home – maybe we could have snuck back on the ship! J
Back at the Casa Escondida B&B, where we are staying in a private cabin this time. Our host helps us light our wood-burning stove and we relax in our cozy digs