Punta Arenas and Southern Chile

If your tastes run toward either tin or topiary, or perchance both, Punta Arenas is the place for you! The city of some 115,000 sits on the Strait of Magellan, within sight of the island of Tierra del Fuego. It is, for all intents and purposes, the last outpost in Chile – and it certainly has that look about it. It is known for its multi-colored houses sheathed in tin: flat tin, corrugated tin and tin shaped to look like boards. The roofs are tin, the siding is tin and the fences are – need I say it – tin.

Southern Chile is also known for glaciers. Included in the slide show on the right are a few photos of the Serrano Glacier, which can be reached after a very long boat ride from Puerto Natales. Although it was interesting to see and walk near this glacier, if your itinerary includes time to see only one glacier in the Patagonia area, it should be the magnificent Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina.