The last two days in Punta Arenas were a good way to recharge our batteries and walk around without haste. We stayed in a nice B&B owned by a US-Chilean couple. We walked around in the city and visited a museum which finally cleared up our doubts about the indigenous populations of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Several different tribes were actually living here until the beginning of the 20th century, eventually exterminated by wars, massacres, illnesses and alcoholism.
Houses in Punta Arenas are poorly built, with next to no isolation, simple materials and no finishing, but from outside some of them are just shining.
Food in Punta Arenas is a complex matter. There are quite a few good restaurants where you get good fish, more rarely good meat, but if you try to eat on budget you are faced with weird looking sandwiches made of rubber bread, full of avocado, chicken breast, mayonnaise and other non matching seasoning.
Good coffee is also a rare specialty here. Most places will just give you soluble coffee. If you are lucky enough to find coffee grains you will usually get an espresso cup filled to the border with a half transparent liquid, way too hot and with no taste. We had to search quite a lot for a decent espresso (not to talk about cappuccino).
Tomorrow morning we will take our flight to Puerto Montt in the Lake District. From there, we’ll travel by rental car to Chiloe and camp there for three days.