{"id":1729,"date":"2010-12-25T07:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-25T07:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box2067.temp.domains\/~atinytri\/punta-arenas\/"},"modified":"2019-11-15T12:14:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:14:27","slug":"punta-arenas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/punta-arenas\/","title":{"rendered":"Punta Arenas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Punta Arenas is the gateway to Southern Chile and the Patagonia. Before you head out to trek in the Chilean Patagonia<\/a>, spend 2 days in Punta Arenas. Get ready with some duty free shopping for trekking gear and see some penguins along the way. Here’s how to spend a couple of days in Punta Arenas: see penguins, explore the town, and shop before trekking in Patagonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Arrival in Punta Arenas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our flight via Sky Airlines<\/a> to Punta Arenas was quite surprising: slightly hilly terrain, with spots of lake and grassy lands. It was nothing like the snowy mountains we expected at one of the\u00a0 southern-most points in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Magellanic penguins at Seno Otway <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seno Otway Pinguinera (Penguin Colony)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was a surprisingly sunny day as we arrived and we headed with a bus transfer to town. To take advantage of the day we immediately headed with all our gear to hop on a tour to the Seno Otway pinguinera to see Magellanic penguins from up close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ride through private ranches was bumpy but scenic with lots of farm animals on the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we got there the park area was amazing. There were lots of penguins in the grassy terrain, some of them just a meter or two away from us waddling onto land and into their burrows with the baby penguins. Several other penguins were near the water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made our way through the walkways and were truly enamored by these cute animals. From there it was back to town to find a place to stay, some dinner, and bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting Seno Otway from Punta Arenas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the Seno Otway Pinguinera<\/a> you can see penguins in their natural habitat. Tours leave every day around 14:00. A “tour” with Buses Fernandez<\/a> is 7000 CLP at booking + 1000 CLP paid as toll on the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entrance to the park is 5000 CLP. It is not recommended to go there independently because extreme wind conditions make driving quite perilous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael with Ferdinand Magellan: in Punta Arenas plaza, overlooking the Strait of Magellan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring Punta Arenas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The next day we had time to explore town a bit. The grid made it easy to get around and the cleanliness and serene vibe made for a really nice time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town of Punta Arenas is pretty nice and worth walking around the main plaza and a couple of local museums. Additionally there are various tours that can be organized from here by bus or boat. Prepare for extreme wind (all year round).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopping in Punta Arenas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Then we had one more area to get to know: Punta Arenas’ Zona Franca<\/strong> for some cheapo shopping (tax free) in big, warehouse-like, no-name stores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Zona Franca in Punta Arenas<\/a>, is a duty free zone and has mostly lots of stuff made in China. If you are continuing on to trek, there is a good gear store Balfer, that is significantly cheaper than other options in the south of Chile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We managed to get the rest of our hiking gear (made in China) and food provisions (made in who-knows) for really, really good prices! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accommodations in Punta Arenas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Joshiken Hostal<\/a>– It was pretty nice and very close to the bus station for Puerto Natales and the penguin tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Then we were off to Puerto Natales<\/a> on the bus where our afternoon was busy with last minute logistics planning: getting to the<\/em> park, buses to Argentina (!), and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Punta Arenas is the gateway to Southern Chile and the Patagonia. Before you head out to trek in the Chilean Patagonia, spend 2 days in Punta Arenas. Get ready with some duty free shopping for trekking gear and see some penguins along the way. Here’s how to spend a couple of days in Punta Arenas: …<\/p>\n

Punta Arenas<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[78],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"medium":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo.png",147,147,false],"yarpp-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a-tiny-trip-mini-logo-120x120.png",120,120,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"atinytrip","author_link":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/author\/atinytrip\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Punta Arenas is the gateway to Southern Chile and the Patagonia. Before you head out to trek in the Chilean Patagonia, spend 2 days in Punta Arenas. Get ready with some duty free shopping for trekking gear and see some penguins along the way. Here’s how to spend a couple of days in Punta Arenas:…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atinytrip.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}