After the Monday morning dash to the airport in Santiago de Chile we had a few hours to make the most of at the airport before flying down to Punta Arenas . . . so it was a bit of plane spotting for an hour or so after having lunch before the four and a half hour journey to the south of Chile which included a 45 minute stop at Puerto Montt.

Once in PA we boarded a taxi and headed to our hotel - the taxi driver was a Punta Arenas native and explained how things have changed since our last visit to the city ten years ago. The road between the airport and city centre is now a smart dual carriageway, new hotels have sprung up, a high rise casino complex has been built next to the harbour - but basically more flights are arriving every year, bringing more tourists, needing more hotels, more taxis, more restaurants, more coffee shops (etc), generating more flights . . . . . and so the cycle continues.

Our hotel - The Albatros - may not have been in the best part of PA, although the hotel itself was great value, clean and served up a great fresh breakfast. A few 'adult' clubs were nearby and one review used the word 'sketchy' to describe the area. If honest it was just a couple of blocks from the main square and restaurants, but it all felt safe. Our first night was had at the La Casa de Dona Maria which had a great ambience but failed to cook a steak well - and by that I mean it was vastly overcooked rather than undercooked and also tried to overcharge for the wine too.

Chris, Gail, Simon and Linda were arriving into PA on Tuesday afternoon so that left us some time to explore before they checked-in. Being the advanced scouting party we had the opportunity to sort out a restaurant reservation for the Tuesady evening meal and suss out possible coffee and cake stops too.

As well as getting our bearings in PA, we also visited the municipal cemetery on the outskirts of the city which was an interesting place to wander around. Some of the family burial plots were very large and fancy whilst others were far more modest. The individual but mass graves, resembling a 1960s concrete building, where probably the most bizarre. These included what was a bit like a library style ladder to enable families to maintain those on the top floor of these mass graves. As said, it was a bit bizarre, but also quite interesting.

Once the rest of the party had arrived into PA we at least knew that everyone was in the same city ahead of us catching the boat on the Wednesday evening to Ushuaia in Argentina.

Our second evening in Punta Arenas was a contrast to the first. La Cuisine, a French restaurant, was first class as was the wine and service. It ended up being a lovely evening and our first real group meal too - it was no surprise that the place was very highly rated on TripAdvisor.

With time to fill on the Wednesday before we could check in for our journey on the Ventus Australis, we got the chance to see the ship arriving into port at just after 11.00. This gave them around seven hours to replenish and clean the ship before we could board at 18.00. This particular part of the trip was booked nearly 18 months in advance, so it did seem as though everything was now coming together in PA.

We visited the Braun-Menendez museum in PA, the family were rich early settlers in the city and seemed to also put money back into the place including some fine buildings, the municipal cemetery as well as one of the local schools. The museum was free entry and allowed us to fill some time up until lunch at Lomito's, which is a bit of a PA institution, serving up hamburgers, churascos (sliced beef sandwiches), Lomito's (sliced pork sandwiches) and Hot Dogs.

And that pretty much was PA done and dusted ahead of boarding our ship in the evening from the port of Punta Arenas to start the trip to Ushuaia in Argentina sailing through the Beagle Channel.

More photos from our time Punta Arenas are available in the Photos section of this blog (below) . . . . or my clicking on more photos from within the entry. Bizarrely, this entry also picks up some previous photos from our last trip to PA ten years ago . . . . which is interesting in itself!