Punta Arenas - Fun in Small Boats

Richard got up early to be on an early tender, to go on his scheduled kayak trip. The driver met him at the dock, and took him to the kayak outfitting place. The kayak guide was Juan, an ex-military cartographer. The other kayakers were from the Norwegian Sun cruise ship, which is on a similar schedule to ours. The kayak tour followed the shoreline for about 7 km round trip. The guide was nervous about the weather forecast, which promised high winds later. Richard was the only guest in a single kayak; the guide had to tow the clueless French lady back.

Richard called Marianne on the cell phone to ask her to meet him at the dock. Her tender ride was somewhat exciting and rocky; some water came in the door, so the Guatemalan tender captain slowed down.

We stopped by to take a photo of a house for someone Richard knows, and then on to the Salecian museum, which is noteworthy for artifacts of a now extinct native people. We had lunch at Sotitos, and walked to the port, only to find that the winds had shut down tender operations. We waited in the port building, going into the outer room. We had not heard anything for a while, so Marianne went into the other room, only to find that the last tender was about to leave! We got on the last tender to the boat, another rocky ride.

Norwegian handled their tender line differently, and had long lines on the dock, in the wind and rain. Glad that we were on Celebrity.