Punta Arenas, Chile
After four days cruising at sea around Cape Horn, the Beagle Channel and the fjords of Chile, passengers aboard the Viking Sun were on the edge of going "stir crazy." Nothing, not even rain, could stop our 900 shipmates from eagerly setting foot on terra firma in Punta Arenas! Located on the north side of the Strait of Magellan, this Patagonian city began as a penal colony in 1848. It was Chile's way of "colonizing" the territory and establishing sovereignty over the region. Today there are 100,000 inhabitants living here making it the largest, most-southerly city in the world. We walked along a promenade adjacent to the strait named after Magellan, who in 1520 was the first European to sail through here. Punta Arenas has a large celebration scheduled in 2020 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of that event. Preparing for the celebration, murals have been painted on the warehouses located along the promenade. They reflect t...