Disembark at
Punta Arenas, Chile/Carlos Pueblo
After
leaving Puerto Chacabuco, Chile, the ship was two days at sea through
the fiord of
Chile, Southern Hemisphere. I comparing with the Northern, the
time of our
arrival carried less snow or glacier in the South. I could lazily stay
in the room
and observed the fantastic scenery outside. The ship disembarked
at Punta
Arenas, Chile, the southernmost city of that nation. The port was very
popular
before 1914, the opening of Panama Canal, as a major shipping route
for commercial
vessels between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. I had almost
finished my
routine walk of the old town until I ran into Lucia of Brazil again on
a street.
She invited me to join her to tour the city on private hired taxi and of
course we
had developed a way for me to pay her back. We did have a very
interesting
tour indeed.
The driver,
an elder gentleman, brought us back to his company’s command post
to register
the new venture, a tour of the government housing projects, driving
along the
coast line to a small fishing harbor, over viewing a newly established
medical
center, and finally dropped us off at a free port shopping center. He pointed
out that the
housing projects were all over the nation including the capital city,
Santiago. Chilean
citizen can own the house, a single dwelling with a small yard with
minimum monthly
payment and eventually have the title and deed. It was started
a term of
presidency of Michelle Bachelet, the current incumbent. He said that she
was very
aggressive at her first term and quite slowly on this second term for such
project. I
admire her very much and so does Professor Jim Drumond, the lecturer at
the ship. This
is an old story or current history of South America including Richard
Nixon, CIA,
Henry Kissinger, Salvador Allende, Pinochet’s Coup. I always like politic
and my
interest of such knowledge sometime surprises newly acquaintance.
The elder
driver is a gentleman as Lucia says with grown up children as lawyer and
teacher.
Before he dropped us off in front of the tax free port mall, he clearly
instructed
us how to
get back to the old town terminal. I bought a cowboy hat made in China. The
taxi is
really like a small scale of bus or van for public transportation. Passengers
can hop
on and off
with a fixed rate per person by distance. I didn’t see any of the city bus at
all.
Lucia and I
had had a very fine late lunch at a fancy restaurant with lobster, abalone, and
a bottle of
red wine; however, my share was U.S.$90 which stopped me in the future to
join her for
another taste of cuisine.
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