Winding Down

April 4, Monday

Yesterday I felt the beginning of a sore throat. Dear Son had had some problems along that line, bothering him for the last three nights, but feeling o.k. during the day. We had visited a pharmacy to pick up some lozenges and look for some antihistamines. So he gave me some of the lozenges and that helped a lot overnight.

In the morning we had our "hostel breakfast." I took a picture because this particular bun was so egregiously dry and hard, but on the picture the breakfast looks great. D.S. had three buns, since the other two people staying overnight were in a rush this morning to catch the bus to the park and took only their yogurt containers.

We stayed the morning in the hostel, packing and doing some reading. Our bus to Punta Arenas left at 1 p.m. We had the front seat with a marvelous view out the front window. But after a bit it started to rain and the good view was wasted. The defroster was going full blast and the warm air flowed straight to us. That became quite uncomfortable, as my throat was pretty scratchy.

By 4 p.m. we were in Punta Arenas and checked into the hostel we had reserved right around the corner from the bus station. We have a nice room with its own bathroom, warm and with lots of hot water for a good shower.

For supper we went back to The Pines café where we had been introduced to the "monster" burger, and ordered the same. D. S. had to finish mine for me.

Then we took a walk up to the cemetery because Carla had said there's a very fine cemetery here. And sure enough, it was large, very well kept with many interesting mausoleums. One of the most interesting features was what looked from a distance like an apartment building, but was actually a kind of "grave apartment." Each of these cubicles is a grave compartment. Pretty much all of the burials here are above ground.

Some of the mausoleums had beautiful stained glass windows. The colours here were very much richer than the camera could capture.

There were avenues of these "popsicle" trees.

Some of the mausoleums near the entrance were

extremely elaborate.

By the time we had finished touring the cemetery, I was finished for the day. The sore throat was escalating into a flu-like fever and chills. I was ready for that nice bed in the warm room at the Hostel Avenida.

Our flight to Santiago tomorrow morning is supposed to leave at 10:55, but D.S. saw a chart in the newspaper that listed that flight as 9:55, so we thought we should get to the airport no later than 8:30. Our hostess at the hostel was very gracious when we asked for an early breakfast, and also agreed to make sure a taxi was at the door at 8 a.m. to take us to the airport.