First we begin with Punta Arenas, the capital of Chile's XII Region, the southernmost one. It has around 120.000 inhabitants and lies on the Strait of Magellan. The city had a huge Croatian influx and still has some links with Croatia. The city center is very neat with beautiful constructions and beautiful open spaces. There's also a beautiful avenue that runs North-South in the city along the Strait of Magellan with nice views from it.
I also visited Fuerte Bulnes, which is 55km South from the city. It was built in 1850 in order to assure Chile's sovereignity over the region. It was completely destroyed and rebuilt and nowadays it is extremely well preserved.
Anyway, here you are the pics.
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2 - Downtown area
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8 - Buildings in Plaza Muñoz Gamero
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15 - The square has beautiful trees, a very pleasant place in the middle of the city
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20 - Army building
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24 - Dreams Casino, probably the most modern building in town
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26 - Strait of Magellan - on the other side you can see the island of Tierra del Fuego
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28 - Skyline (if you can say so)
29 - Road to Fuerte Bulnes (roads in Chile are very good)
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31 - Puerto Hambre - first attempt of a settlement in the area by the Spaniards (1584) - all 300 settlers died of starvation (
hambre in Spanish) and/or cold
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35 - Fuerte Bulnes
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40 - I had never seen a tree like this one before
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44 - A quite modern building in the middle of nowhere, looks completely out of place
45 - Arriving in Punta Arenas again
46 - There are some abandoned ships along the coast
47 - Punta Arenas seen from the Cerro de la Cruz
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50 - Downtown again
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52 - Fireguard building
53 - Plaza Muñoz Gamero from the Cabo de Hornos Hotel
54 - The airport (this one for the airport freaks here on SSC
)
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