Chile Guide
Southern Patagonia
Punta Arenas
Seen from the air, PUNTA ARENAS, 3090km south of Santiago, seems lost in the flat barren plains and vast expanses of water that surround it, a sprawling patchwork of galvanized tin roofs struggling up from the shores of the Magellan Strait. On the ground, however, the city looks much more substantial and modern, especially in the centre where glass and concrete office buildings have replaced the ramshackle wooden houses, paid for in part by the oil that's been flowing into the city since the first wells started gushing in 1945.
Despite this, Punta Arenas is not the most scintillating of places – Lady Florence Dixie opined in 1881: "I suppose there may possibly be drearier places but I do not think it is probable". But as the only true city in the south, it's well-equipped with services, and a useful base for exploring both Chilean Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Nearby lies the penguin sanctuary of Isla Magdalena.
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