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Punta Arenas is the regional capital of the Magallanes y Antártica Region located in Chilean Patagonia. Punta Arenas (formerly Punta Arenosa, "Sandy Point") is located on the Brunswick Peninsula and was founded in the 17th century by Englishman J. Byron who gave it the name of Sandy Point. It is the largest settlement on the Strait of Magellan and is located 1418 km from the coast of Antarctica. The history and economic growth of the city is based on maritime commerce, oil extraction, and sheep breeding.
The city has all kind of facilities, in particular, an abundance of banks, shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, hiking gear shops and a duty-free zone called "Zona Franca".
Don't trust the weather forecast, usually, you can get rain, wind, and sun all in the same day. Snow is always expected to fall in the winter.
Punta Arenas is the regional capital of the Magallanes y Antártica Region located in Chilean Patagonia. Punta Arenas (formerly Punta Arenosa, "Sandy Point") is located on the Brunswick Peninsula and was founded in the 17th century by Englishman J. Byron who gave it the name of Sandy Point. It is the largest settlement on the Strait of Magellan and is located 1418 km from the coast of Antarctica. The history and economic growth of the city is based on maritime commerce, oil extraction, and sheep breeding.
The city has all kind of facilities, in particular, an abundance of banks, shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, hiking gear shops and a duty-free zone called "Zona Franca".
Don't trust the weather forecast, usually, you can get rain, wind, and sun all in the same day. Snow is always expected to fall in the winter.
The English 18th-century explorer John Byron is sometimes credited with naming this area, calling it Sandy Point. However, it was not until 1843 that the government tried to establish a fort and settlement at Fuerte Bulnes. The name Punta Arenas was derived from the Spanish term Punta Arenosa, a literal translation of the English name "Sandy Point". The city has also been known as Magallanes. Today that term is normally used to describe the administrative region which includes the city.
Punta Arenas has been nicknamed "the city of the red roofs" for the red-painted metal roofs that characterized the city for many years. Since about 1970, the availability of other colors in protective finishes has resulted in greater variety in the characteristic metal roofs.
Located on the Brunswick Peninsula, Punta Arenas is among the largest cities in the entire Patagonian Region. It is roughly 1,418.4 km (881 miles) from the coast of Antarctica.
The Magallanes region is considered part of Chilean Patagonia. Magallanes is Spanish for Magellan and was named for Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer sailing for Spain. While circumnavigating the earth for Spain, he passed close to the present site of Punta Arenas in 1520. Early English navigational documents referred to this site as "Sandy Point".
The city proper is located on the northeastern shore of Brunswick Peninsula. Except for the eastern shore, containing the settlements of Guairabo, Rio Amarillo and Punta San Juan, the peninsula is largely uninhabited. The municipality of Punta Arenas includes all of Brunswick Peninsula, as well as all islands west of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego and north of Cockburn and Magdalena channels.
The largest of those are:
Except Dawson Island, the islands are largely uninhabited.
The city is built around its main square "Plaza de Armas" where the imposing monument of Hernando de Magallanes is located. There is also a monument of a Magellan native, or Ona, that according to local legend if a tourist touches his foot it will return once again to the city. Another local legend to come back to the city is to eat Magellan Barberries (calafate), similar to blueberries.
Many of the main public buildings such as the town hall or the Union Club (Club de la Union) are found around Plaza de Armas. In general, Punta Arenas is compact and walkable, but it can get really windy. You will only need transportation for lengthier trips outside of it. For these trips, you can ask for a cab (taxi), a minivan (minibus), or a collective taxi (colectivo).
The city is also known for its number of cafés, to name a few:
There’s a small open market ("feria") for touristy merchandise downtown. You can find department stores, supermarkets, and a lot of outdoors shops (like Timberland and The North Face) on Calle Bories nearby.
There is a large outlet mall on the outskirts of the city, called "Zona Franca", a duty-free zone, with supermarkets, perfume, clothing, and outdoor stores, all with very reasonable prices. Also on the outskirts of the city, the recently-opened Mall Espacio Urbano Pionero (Pioneer Urban Space Mall) offers three department stores (Falabella, Ripley and La Polar), a food court, various smaller stores, and a "Lider" supermarket.
LOCAL TIME
4:44 pm
May 19, 2022
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LOCAL CURRENCY
CLP
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We arrived in Punta Arenas . This is how the Strait of Magellan looks. The city is small. The tourists we meet there seemed to be people who came here as a stopover before traveling somewhere else. Everyone was practically dressed, given we were surrounded by nature.... |
Punta Arenas is the capital of Chilean Patagonia and the closest city to the South Pole. I've already been in Punta Arenas since many expeditions to Antarctica start exactly here. However, this time there was no rush and I was able to explore the city's life more closely. There were mayoral... |
Our ship stayed in the city of Punta Arenas from 6 am to 18 pm (at least it was supposed to stay there during this period of time).
Punta Arenas is the city on the shores of the Strait of Magellan. Its name is translated from the Spanish language as "Sandy Point".
We bought in... |
First part:
Patagonia, Tierra Del Fuego, The Chilean Fjords
The most popular car in
Punta Arenas
is this old Nissan:
As in many Asian countries, people here don't worry about dangling wires:
In the afternoon we went on a tour to look at Magellanic penguins for the last time:
We... |
Patagonia: today we will go over a brief geography lesson and history lesson about the
Strait of Magellan
, Patagonia,
Tierra del Fuego
and the Chilean Fjords
Passing through the narrow Glacier Avenue in
Ushuaia. Here there are five ice streams that... |