Destination content © Wayne Bernhardson, used from Moon Handbooks Argentina, 1st Edition.
Maps © Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.
PUNTA ARENAS
Patagonia’s largest city, Punta Arenas is also the regional capital and the traditional port of entry, whether by sea, land, or air. Stretching north-south along the Strait of Magellan, the city boasts an architectural heritage that ranges from the Magellanic vernacular of metal-clad houses with steeply pitched roofs to elaborate Francophile mansions erected by 19th-century wool barons. It is home to several museums and is a good base for excursions to historical sites and nearby penguin colonies.
Punta Arenas has a diverse economy that depends on fishing, shipping, petroleum, duty-free retail and tourism. Historically, it’s one of the main gateways to Antarctica for both research and tourism, but in recent years the Argentine port of Ushuaia has taken away much of this traffic. Ironically, in a region where there are millions of sheep, it’s hard to find woolens here because of the influx of artificial fabrics through the duty-free Zona Franca.
History
After the collapse of Chile’s initial Patagonian settlement at Fuerte Bulnes, Governor José Santos Mardones relocated northward to a site on the western shore of the Strait of Magellan, long known to British seamen as “Sandy Point.” Soon expanded to include a penal colony, the town adopted that name in Spanish translation.
The Chileans’ timing was propitious, as the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought a shipping surge through the strait; it helped keep the new city afloat, even if supplying seal skins, coal, firewood, and lumber did not exactly portend prosperity. A mutiny that resulted in the death of Governor Benjamín Muñoz Gamero did little to improve matters, and traffic fell off in the following years.
What did bring prosperity was Governor Diego Dublé Almeyda’s introduction of breeding sheep from the Falkland Islands, their proliferation on the Patagonian plains, and a vigorous immigration policy that brought entrepreneurs like the Portuguese José Nogueira, the Spaniard José Menéndez, and the Irishman Thomas Fenton—not to mention the polyglot laborers who made their fortunes possible. Together, they transformed the city from a dreary presidio to the booming port of a pastoral empire, with mansions to match those of Buenos Aires, though the maldistribution of wealth and political power remained an intractable issue well into the 20th century.
As the wool economy declined around the end of World War II, petroleum discoveries on Tierra del Fuego and commercial fishing have sustained the city economically. Creation of Zona Franca duty-free zones gave commercial advantages to both Punta Arenas and the northern city of Iquique in the 1970s, and the tourist trade has flourished since the end of military dictatorship in 1989.
Orientation
Punta Arenas (population about 116,105) is 210 kilometers southwest of Río Gallegos via the Argentine RN 3 and the Chilean Ruta 255 and Ruta 9; it is 241 kilometers southeast of Puerto Natales via Ruta 9. A daily vehicle ferry connects Punta with Porvenir, while a gravel road, the most southerly on the South American continent, leads to Fuerte Bulnes and Cabo San Isidro.
On the western shore of the Strait of Magellan, it occupies a narrow north-south wave-cut terrace, but the ground rises steeply farther west. Only in recent years has the city begun to spread eastward rather than north to south.
Most landmarks and services are within a few blocks of the central Plaza Muñoz Gamero; street names change on each side of the plaza, but the numbering system is continuous.
Sights
For a panoramic overview of the city’s layout, the Strait of Magellan and the island of Tierra del Fuego in the distance, climb to Mirador La Cruz, four blocks west of Plaza Muñoz Gamero via a staircase at the corner of the Fagnano and Señoret.
Unlike plazas founded in colonial Chilean cities, Punta Arenas’s central Plaza Muñoz Gamero was not initially the focus of civic life, but thanks to European immigration and wealth generated by mining, livestock, commerce, and fishing, it became so by the 1880s. Landscaped with Monterey cypress and other exotic conifers, the plaza and surrounding buildings constitute a zona típica national monument.
The plaza takes its name from early provincial governor Benjamín Muñoz Gamero, who died in a mutiny in 1851. Among its features are the Victorian kiosk (1910) that now houses the municipal tourist office and the elaborate sculptural monument sponsored by wool magnate José Menéndez on the 400th anniversary of Magellan’s voyage of 1520. Magellan’s imposing figure, embellished with a globe and a copy of his log, stand above a Selknam Indian representing Tierra del Fuego, a Tehuelche symbolizing Patagonia, and a mermaid with Chilean and regional coats-of-arms. According to local legend, anyone touching the Tehuelche’s now well-worn toe will return to Punta Arenas.
After about 1880, the city’s burgeoning elite began to build monuments to their own good fortune, such as the ornate Palacio Sara Braun (1895), a national monument in its own right, at the northwest corner of the plaza. Only six years after marrying the Portuguese José Nogueira, Punta’s most prosperous businessman, the newly widowed Sara Braun contracted French architect Numa Mayer, who applied contemporary Parisian style in designing a two-story mansard building that contrasted dramatically with the city’s earlier utilitarian architecture. Now home to the Club de la Unión and Hotel José Nogueira, the building retains most of its original features, including the west-facing winter garden that now serves as the hotel’s bar/restaurant.
Midblock, immediately to the east, the Casa José Menéndez belonged to another of Punta’s wool barons, at the plaza’s northeast corner, while the Comapa travel agency now occupies the former headquarters of the influential Sociedad Menéndez Behety (Magallanes 990). Half a block north, dating from 1904, the Casa Braun-Menéndez (Magallanes 949) houses the regional museum.
At the southwest corner of the Plaza, Punta Arenas’s Iglesia Matriz (1901) has since earned cathedral status. Immediately to its north, both the Residencia del Gobernador (Governors’ Residence) and the Gobernación date from the same period, filling the rest of the block with offices of the Intendencia Regional, the regional government. On the south side, directly opposite the Victorian tourist kiosk, the former Palacio Montés now holds municipal government offices, while the building at the southeast corner, the Sociedad Braun Blanchard, belonged to another powerful commercial group (as should be obvious from the names, Punta Arenas’s first families were, commercially at least, an incestuous bunch).
Like European royalty, Punta’s first families formed alliances sealed by matrimony, and the Casa Braun-Menéndez (Museo Regional de Magallanes, 1904) is a classic example: the product of a marriage between Mauricio Braun (Sara’s brother) and Josefina Menéndez Behety (daughter of José Menéndez and María Behety, daughter of a major wool-growing family in Argentina—though international borders meant little to wool merchants). Still furnished with the family’s belongings, it now serves as the regional museum, replete with pioneer settlers’ artifacts and historical photographs.
From November to April, the Casa Braun-Menéndez (Magallanes 949, tel. 061/244216, museomag@entelchile.net, US$1.50 adults, US$1 children, free on holidays) is open 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m. daily.
The Museo Regional Salesiano Mayorino Borgatello holds the collection of Italian mountaineer priest Alberto de Agostini (1883–1960). Agostini, along with many others in the Salesian order, made major contributions to both physical geography and ethnographic understanding of the region from the 19th century, when the order played a key role in evangelizing southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, in both Chile and Argentina. Punta Arenas was their base, but their rosy view of Christianity’s impact on the region’s native people may be debatable.
Agostini left a sizeable collection of photographs, both ethnographic and geographical, preserved in the museum, which also has a library and a small regionally oriented art gallery. Permanent exhibits deal with regional flora and fauna, a handful of early colonial artifacts, regional ethnography, the Salesian missionization of Isla Dawson and other nearby areas, regional cartography, and the petroleum industry. For Darwinists, there’s a scale model of the Beagle and, for Chilean patriots, one of the Ancud, which sailed from Chiloé to claim the region in 1843.
The museum (Avenida Bulnes 336, tel. 061/221001, musbora@tnet.cl, US$1.60 adults, US$.80 children) is open daily except Monday 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. and 3–6 p.m.
Pleasantly surprising, Punta Arenas’s naval and military museum, the Museo Naval y Marítimo, provides perspectives on subjects like ethnography—in the context of the Strait of Magellan’s seagoing indigenous peoples—even while stressing its military mission. It features interactive exhibits, such as a credible warship’s bridge, a selection of model ships, and material on the naval history of the southern American oceans.
The most riveting material, though, concerns Chilean pilot Luis Pardo Villalón’s 1916 rescue of British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s crew at Elephant Island, on the Antarctic peninsula. On board the cutter Yelcho, with neither heat, electricity, nor radio in foggy and stormy winter weather, Pardo brought the crew back to Punta Arenas in short order; he later served as Chilean consul in Liverpool.
The Museo Naval (Pedro Montt 981, tel. 061/205479, US$1.20 adults, US$.50 children) is open daily except Sunday and Monday, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. and 2–5 p.m.
Run by the Instituto de la Patagonia, itself part of the Universidad de Magallanes, the Museo del Recuerdo is a mostly open-air facility displaying pioneer agricultural implements and industrial machinery, reconstructions of a traditional house and shearing shed, and a restored shepherd’s trailer house (hauled across the Patagonian plains on wooden wheels). In addition to a modest botanical garden, the Instituto itself has a library/bookshop with impressive cartographic exhibits.
Admission to the Museo del Recuerdo (Avenida Bulnes 01890, tel. 061/207056, 8:30 a.m.–11:30 p.m. and 2:30–6 p.m. weekdays) costs US$1.50 for adults, free for children. From downtown Punta Arenas, taxi colectivos to the Zona Franca (duty-free zone) stop directly opposite the entrance.
Four blocks south of Plaza Muñoz Gamero, at the foot of Avenida Independencia, naval vessels, freighters, cruise ships, Antarctic icebreakers, and yachts from many countries dock at the Muelle Fiscal Arturo Prat, the city’s major port facility until recently. Open to the public 10 a.m.–6 p.m. only, it’s also a departure point for cruises to the fjords of Tierra del Fuego and to Antarctica.
The late, gifted travel writer Bruce Chatwin found the inspiration for his legendary stories In Patagonia through tales of his distant relative Charley Milward, who built and resided at the Castillo Milward (Milward’s Castle, Avenida España 959), described by Chatwin as “a Victorian parsonage translated to the Strait of Magellan.” With “high-pitched gables and gothic windows,” the building features a square tower streetside and an octagonal one at the back.
At the corner of Avenida Colón and O’Higgins, gracing the walls of the former Liceo de Niñas Sara Braun (Sara Braun Girls’ School), rises the seven-meter Mural Gabriela Mistral, honoring the Nobel Prize poetess.
Ten blocks north of Plaza Muñoz Gamero, the Cementerio Municipal (Avenida Bulnes 029) is home to the extravagant crypts of José Menéndez, José Nogueira, and Sara Braun, but the multinational immigrants who worked for them—English, Scot, Welsh, Croat, German, and Scandinavian—repose in more modest circumstances. A separate monument honors the vanished Selknam (Ona) Indians who once flourished in the strait, and another memorializes German fatalities of the Battle of the Falklands (1914).
Entertainment
Except on Sunday, when the whole city seems as dead as the cemetery, there’s usually something to do at night.
Punta Arenas has one movie theater, the Sala Estrella (Mejicana 777, tel. 061/241262).
Laberinto (Pedro Montt 951, tel. 061/223667) is primarily a dance club. The stylish Olijoe Pub (Errázuriz 970) has the feel of an upscale English pub, with paneled walls, ceiling, and bar, and reasonably priced drinks; the music, though, can get a little loud for conversation.
At the north end of town, Makanudo (El Ovejero 474, tel. 09/6492031) has 7–10 p.m. happy hours weekdays except Friday, and live music Friday and Saturday nights from around 1:30 a.m.
The Club Hípico (municipal racetrack) fronts on Avenida Bulnes between Coronel Mardones and Manantiales, north of downtown. Professional soccer matches take place at the Estadio Fiscal, a few blocks north at Avenida Bulnes and José González.
Shopping
Though it’s faltered in recent years, Punta Arenas’s major shopping destination is the duty-free Zona Franca, four kilometers north of downtown but easily reached by taxi colectivo from Calle Magallanes. Traditionally, consumer electronics were the big attraction, so much so that Santiaguinos flew here for the bargains, but price differentials are not so great as they used to be. If you’re traveling by automobile, you should know that prices for replacement tires and similar items are much lower here than in Argentina or mainland Chile.
Puerto del Estrecho (O’Higgins 1401, tel. 061/241022) serves as the waiting room for Mare Australis cruises to the Chilean fjords but is also a good if fairly pricey souvenir shop; in addition, it has an upstairs café, Internet access and long-distance telephone service.
For crafts, well-stocked Artesanías Rama Chile (Independencia 799, tel. 061/244244) contains items like wool socks and sweaters and wood carvings of penguins. For media like metal (copper and bronze) and semiprecious stones (lapiz lazuli), visit Chile Típico (Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1015, tel. 061/225827). Tres Arroyos (Bories 448, tel. 061/241522) specializes in custom chocolates.
For books (including some local guidebooks and travel literature in English), maps, and keepsakes, try Southern Patagonia Souvenirs & Books; since its central Bories location burned down, it has outlets at the airport (tel. 061/211591) and at the Zona Franca (tel. 061/216759).
Information
A couple of doors north of Plaza Muñoz Gamero, Sernatur (Magallanes 960, tel. 061/225385, infomagallanes@sernatur.cl) is open 8:15 a.m.–6 p.m. weekdays only. One of Chile’s better regional tourist offices, it has English-speaking personnel, up-to-date accommodations and transportation information, and a message board.
In summer, Plaza Muñoz Gamero’s municipal Kiosko de Informaciones (tel. 061/200610) is open 8 a.m.–8 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, and 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Sunday. It also has free Internet access for brief periods (longer if no one is waiting).
For motorists, the local branch of the Automóvil Club de Chile (Acchi, O’Higgins 931, tel. 061/243675) also rents cars.
Conaf (José Menéndez 1147, tel. 061/223841) is Chile’s national parks agency.
Services
Punta Arenas is one of the easier Chilean cities in which to change both cash and travelers checks, especially at travel agencies along Lautaro Navarro. Most of these close by midday Saturday, but Scott Cambios (Avenida Colón and Magallanes) will cash travelers checks then.
There are many ATMs, such as the one at Banco Santander (Bories 970), half a block north of Plaza Muñoz Gamero.
Correos de Chile is at Bories 911, just north of Plaza Muñoz Gamero.
Long-distance call centers include Telefónica CTC (Nogueira 1116), at the southwest corner of Plaza Muñoz Gamero, and Entel (Lautaro Navarro 931). Try also Hostal Calafate (Magallanes 922), which has expanded its hotel business with an Internet café and phone center.
Austro Internet (Croacia 690, tel. 061/229297) is open 9 a.m.–8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Saturday, and 4–8 p.m. Sunday, but also keeps Sunday morning hours (9 a.m.–1 p.m.) when cruise ships are in port. Cibercafé del Sur (Croacia 1028, tel. 061/235117) stays open 24 hours. Both charge around US$1.50 per hour.
The Argentine consulate (21 de Mayo 1878, tel. 061/261912) is open weekdays 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Several other countries have honorary consulates, including Brazil (Arauco 769, tel. 061/241093), Spain (José Menéndez 910, tel. 061/243566), and the United Kingdom (tel. 061/211535).
Lavandería Record is at O’Higgins 969 (tel. 061/243607). Also try Lavaseco Sarmiento (Sarmiento de Gamboa 726, tel. 061/241516).
Punta Arenas’s Hospital Regional (Arauco and Angamos, tel. 061/244040) is north of downtown.
Getting There
Punta Arenas has good air connections to mainland Chile, frequent air service to Chilean Tierra del Fuego, infrequent air service to Argentine Tierra del Fuego, and regular weekly service to the Falkland Islands. There are roundabout overland routes to mainland Chile via Argentina, regular bus service to Argentine Tierra del Fuego via a ferry link, direct ferry service to Chilean Tierra del Fuego, and expensive (but extraordinarily scenic) cruise-ship service to Ushuaia, in Argentine Tierra del Fuego.
LanChile/LanExpress (Lautaro Navarro 999, tel. 061/241232) flies four times daily to the capital city of Santiago, normally via Puerto Montt, but some flights stop at Balmaceda, in northern Chilean Patagonia. It also flies Saturday to the Falkland Islands; one Falklands flight monthly stops in the Argentine city of Río Gallegos.
Aerovías DAP (O’Higgins 891, tel. 061/223340, fax 061/221693, ventas@aeroviasdap.cl) flies seven-seater Cessnas to and from Porvenir (US$23), in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, at least daily except Sunday, more often in summer. Daily except Sunday and Monday, it flies 20-seater Twin Otters to and from Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino (US$64 one way). In summer, it flies Twin Otters to Ushuaia Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only (US$100). It also has extensive charter services.
Punta Arenas has no central bus terminal, though some companies share facilities. Most are within a few blocks of each other, north of Plaza Muñoz Gamero.
Regional Buses: Several carriers go to Puerto Natales (US$5, three hours), including Bus Sur (José Menéndez 565, tel. 2061/27145), with four buses daily; Buses Fernández (Armando Sanhueza 745, tel. 061/242313), which has older but still serviceable vehicles (seven daily); Buses Pacheco (Avenida Colón 900, tel. 061/242174, two daily); and Buses Transfer (Pedro Montt 966, tel. 061/229613, one daily).
Long-Distance Buses: In addition to its Puerto Natales services, Buses Pacheco goes to the Chilean cities of Osorno, Puerto Montt, and Castro (US$58, 30–32 hours) Wednesday at 8 a.m., via Argentina.
Queilén Bus (Armando Sanhueza 745, tel. 061/221812) and Cruz del Sur (Armando Sanhueza 745, tel. 061/227970) alternate services to Puerto Montt and Castro most mornings at 9:30 a.m.
Besides Puerto Natales, Bus Sur goes to Coyhaique (US$50, 20 hours) Monday at 10:30 a.m. and to Osorno, Puerto Montt, and Castro Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.
International Buses: Several carriers go to Río Gallegos (US$12, four hours): Buses Pingüino (Armando Sanhueza 745, tel. 061/221812, 061242313), daily at 12:45 p.m.; Buses Ghisoni (Lautaro Navarro 975, tel. 061/222078), Monday at 12:45 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday at noon, and Thursday at 3 p.m.; and Buses Pacheco at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday.
Tecni-Austral (Lautaro Navarro 975, tel. 061/222078) goes directly to Río Grande (US$22–25, eight hours), in Argentine Tierra del Fuego, daily except Monday at 8:30 a.m.; the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday buses continue to Ushuaia (US$33, 12 hours). Buses Pacheco goes Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. to Río Grande, with connections to Ushuaia.
If you’d like to travel by boat, Transbordadora Austral Broom (Avenida Bulnes 05075, tel. 061/218100, tabsa@entelchile.net) sails from Punta Arenas to Porvenir (2.5 hours) at 9 a.m. daily except Sunday, when sailing time is 9:30 a.m. Adult passengers pay US$6 pp except for drivers, whose own fare is included in the US$37 charge per vehicle (motorcycles pay US$11). Children pay US$2.50 pp. Since the ferry has limited vehicle capacity, reservations are a good idea on the Melinka, which leaves from Terminal Tres Puentes, at the north end of town but is easily accessible by taxi colectivo from the Casa Braun-Menéndez, on Magallanes half a block north of Plaza Muñoz Gamero.
Broom also sails the ferry Patagonia to Puerto Williams (36 hours) every Wednesday at 6 p.m., returning Friday at 10 p.m. The fare is US$150 for a bunk, US$120 for a reclining seat.
Getting Around
Punta Arenas’s Aeropuerto Presidente Carlos Ibáñez del Campo is 20 kilometers north of town on Ruta 9, the Puerto Natales highway. Buses Pacheco (Avenida Colón 900, tel. 061/229613) goes to the airport at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. daily (US$4 pp); buses returning from Puerto Natales will usually drop their passengers at the airport to meet outgoing flights, but make arrangements before boarding. Otherwise, from Punta, it’s necessary to hire a taxi (US$8).
Punta Arenas has numerous car rental options, including Adel Rent a Car (Pedro Montt 962, tel. 061/235471 or 061/235472, gdreyes@entelchile.net); the Automóvil Club de Chile (O’Higgins 931, tel. 061/243675, fax 061/243097; Budget (O’Higgins 964, tel./fax 061/241696, budget@ctcinternet.cl); Emsa (Roca 1044, tel./fax 061/229049, rentacar@chilesat.net); Hertz (O’Higgins 987, tel. 061/248742, fax 061/244729); International (Waldo Seguel 443, tel. 061/228323, fax 061/226334, internationalrac@entelchile.net); and Lubag (Magallanes 970, tel./fax 061/242023, luis_barra@entelchile.net).
For rental bikes, contact Claudio Botten (Sarmiento 1132, tel. 061/242107 or 09/6913475).
It’s neither a cheap nor conventional way of getting to Argentina, but passengers on the luxury M/V Mare Australis, which sails from Punta Arenas every Saturday for a week-long cruise of the fjords of Chilean Tierra del Fuego, can disembark in Ushuaia (or board there, for that matter). Normally the Mare Australis requires reservations well in advance. For more details, see The Fjords of Fuegia section.
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