Today we stopped at Punta Arenas, the capital of Chilean Patagonia and the farthest Southern city of Chile.

Since Alan wanted to hike down a mountain, and I didn’t, he went one way and I headed out to visit a sheep ranch or estancia, as they are called here. The ranch is on the small island of Riesco, across of lake from the town of Rio Verde. The island has about 100 inhabitants, all of whom raise sheep, cattle, and alpaca. On the way out we made several wildlife sightings including rhea, guanacas, upland geese, black head swans, and several birds whose names I didn’t catch.

Once at the Fitz Roy estancia, we got to see loads of old farm equipment, which I love.

We watched a sheep dipping demonstration, toured the shearing barn, saw a five legged cow, explored the chapel, and met Zena the Pet puma.

We then had a lunch of home grown, outdoor roasted lamb and a great variety of vegetables and salads, all accompanied by pisco sours and wine.

After lunch the herding dogs demonstrated why they are so invaluable and one of the shepherds sheared a sheep using hand clippers.

We left and drove back via the hourly ferry, to Punta Arenas. It took about an hour and a half including a stop at an overlook to see the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego Island. A quick tour around Punta Arenas (which is quite a nice town) took us back to the ship.

I got back about five and Alan was already back from his hike. He’ll now take over and wrote about his day. The drive to the ski basin at Club Andino took only a half hour and would probably have taken less if the bus had more energy going up the hill. The Little Engine That Could came to my mind. Once there, we took the chair lift to the top of the hill, only about an 800 foot elevation change. The view was beautiful and the day was perfect, not too much wind and for the first time in a few days we had relatively clear skies. As the trail descended into the forest, we were sheltered from what little wind was present. The ground was soft and, in places, muddy and slippery from the rain from the preceding two days. There were lots of lichens, Spanish moss, ferns, and mosses as well as a few flowers and some streams. A few of the hikers slipped and wound up covered in mud, but I found it an easy hike of about 2 ½ miles. Hot chocolate and cake were waiting for us when we got to the bottom.

After we got back to the dock, I went exploring the city and had lunch with a couple of British ladies. Then I went off looking for a place to repair my watch band which I had broken while playing soccer. The shop didn’t open till 3 so I wandered around the Plaza de Armas and got a coffee.

After the repair, I went back to the ship and just showered and hung out in the room until BJ’s return.