Wearing all of those night-time layers certainly does the trick against the Patagonian chill. One more time around town and farewell to the giant sloth (it's a monument to the milodon whose bones were discovered in a nearby cave from 13,000 years ago - part of it is now in London's Natural History Museum)
Setting off on the Punta Arenas road, the scenery is less pretty than on other days, but still has the odd lake and river. And, less happily...
Setting off on the Punta Arenas road, the scenery is less pretty than on other days, but still has the odd lake and river. And, less happily...
The thought doesn't trouble a large ringed kingfisher perched on a bridge
Our plan is to take the 20 minute roll-on roll-off ferry to Punta Delgada, landing on Tierra del Fuego. It's still mighty cold - so much that our olive oil has frozen solid in the bottle!
We sidle past the huge queue of lorries to the much smaller car queue and, when the Fuegino pulls in very shortly, we're quickly on board despite the uninviting swell
and safely onto the islands
The nearest town, Cerro Sombrero (yes, named after a nearby hill shaped like a hat) was founded in 1958 as a residential and services centre for the national petroleum company (ENAP)
Its population is only 687 but it has a gym, swimming pool, bowling
alley, botanical garden, cinema, hospital, airport, supermarket... Its church is an odd A-frame concrete monster
a bit like much of town, and the
town square statue is dedicated to oil workers
Luckily, the local pristine facilities have hot showers. Don't mind if I do
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