Punta Arenas, Chile. Excursion: Kayaking the Strait of Magellan.

I have had a wonderful day, doing something different for a change.  Kayaking.

The small group of us headed on a drive towards Agua Fresca, stopping off at the kayaking office headquarters to get our kitted.  We looked quite a sight with over-trousers (toes to waist), wind jacket, kayak ‘skirt’, water bootees and finally, a life jacket.  All in the name of keeping warm, dry and afloat.

After getting kitted up we were taken on a short drive to a beach on the edge of the strait of Magellan.  The usual information was given to us - how to paddle and steer the kayaks.  The weather was good, the water smooth and calm; dolphins were spotted as we kayaked.

We were joined from start by a pregnant dog (husky-cross) who ran alongside our mini-bus to the beach and then along the beach as we kayaked.  She swam out to us when we formed a pontoon with our kayaks, just happy to paddle around and make sure the humans were ok.

While the kayaks were being stashed away I asked the guides if I could take a quick dip in the water.  Yes!  So I stripped out of my gear down to my swim suit and had a very brief dip.  It was exhilarating.  In the meantime one of the guides, Ricardo, went into the water fully kitted up in his kayaking suit – he wasn’t brave enough to swim in his swimming trunks.  (Well… it was icy cold).  Yes, my skin turned a mottled purple colour but I enjoyed the swim even though everyone else thought I was completely nuts.  It will be the last swim for a while - we are heading further south and it's getting colder.

After packing up we headed back to the kayak office headquarters, got out of our gear and had a nice snack at a nearby restaurant on the site.  Hot tea or coffee went down a treat to warm everyone up.  I had to make do with hot water - because I don't drink tea or coffee ☹️.  Our friendly dog friend wagged her tail at us as we said goodbye to her.  What interesting visitors she gets to meet and greet!

Then there is the story of the eternal search for shoes!  Ha ha, Lorna and myself (this is written by me, Paul, her lesser half) went ashore in the afternoon in Punta Arenas, shopping, exciting, even more exciting than it was supposed to be shoe shopping...!

Walking into the not too exciting town it appeared the shopping mall was close to the dock, ...., where we used to dock, on the edge of town while today we were docked right downtown.  Oh well, so we explored the centre a bit, across a square where despite the rain they were watering the grass of the square!

It appeared that most shops were actually closed in the afternoon. Looking at some of the signs it seemed regular shops were mostly on siesta time, not open till about 16.00.  This made finding shoes of course not the most easy task of the day.

We had nevertheless a good walk around town and were nearly back at the ship when we decided to go into a shop that had a name like "China mall" or so, clearly something with "made in China" stuff.  It was actually open and had shoes, ladies shoes!

We first had a browse around the mini warehouse being amazed by the "made in China" quality wares on offer.  We had a good laugh at the formal wear that looked nice, from a distance, but on closer inspection they just looked tacky with plain unfinished backs. The underwear section was also interesting and there was enough that would put blushing cheeks on some of the shoppers!  Anyway Lorna did find some underwear to her liking and me, as a bloke (ha ha) had some fun browsing all the mini female bottom wear on sale as well.  If not, why not, have a laugh!

In the end we visited the shoe section again and Lorna found a nice shoe she liked, the left shoe being on display.  Bear in mind Lorna has tiny feet (US 3-4/UK 1-2 or EU 32-34) so she was trying her luck in this Chinese shop.  Any way, the attending sales rep went in the back storage only to come back 10 minutes later without the left shoe which was nowhere to be found!  Bummer.  So the next best model chosen, same ritual, also no right shoe!  Now you would think that is a coincidence but, guess what??  the 3rd model was chosen and exactly the same thing happened!  One might wonder why have shoes on display if you can't even make a complete pair with them. Or is the sales rep just having a smoke in the back and not actually interested in finding the shoe?!   Anyway, with the 4th shoe - bingo.  Although that at first also was a no right shoe but the rep did a 2nd search and it did surface.  Although it was not the first choice I actually liked it, very modern but also very stylish, red, and, sorry Dutch, cheap as well - so happy faces good hour later, a good laugh and success!

So, what did we actually do in Punta Arenas Chile? Uh, left shoe shopping!

The Prinsendam's next destination is around Cape Horn!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Instruction time.

Our guides

It's "broke" but can be fixed - another time.

The garage thought the headlight washer part would arrive on today but it didn't.

According to the law, if headlight washers are fitted as part of the car - they have to be included in the roadworthy test.  If they fail then the car fails the test altogether.  Unfortunately we had to collect the car away today without having its roadworthy certificate because we need head back to the Netherlands tomorrow.  Paul has an appointment on Monday that he has to attend.  We will come back to the UK re-MOT'd later this month to get the part fixed and car.

When we collected the car the technician at the garage advised that the headlight washers were broken and someone had glued them back on, ditto the washer covers (small flat plate cover in the bumper). They are washer and washer covers are only ever taken off for repair or MOT therefore they are easily accessible.  But these were GLUED on!!??

Paul thinks that when KwikFit in the Netherlands fixed the radiator last year (and did a botch job which left us stranded in Croatia ) they didn't know how to remove the bumper so broke things and patched it up in the hope we wouldn't notice.  Paul is not a happy bunny and neither am I.

Reward!

Paul and I made the most of a lovely day to do yesterday's drive in reverse - because we get to see a different angle/aspect to the scenery that we don't see when driving in one direction only.  We were not disappointed and enjoyed our drive.

Our last evening was spent in the pleasant company of Sue and Ian.  Their dog, Kai, is learning new game puzzles that involve a reward at the end.  E.g. putting a paw on a remote button and a feeder doles out a few treats for him if he manages to press the remote button.  Another thing was to move wooden lids, with a paw or nose, over a hollowed out piece of wood to find a treat underneath.  He started to 'cotton on' a bit and work things out.

Tomorrow we head back to the Netherlands tomorrow via the Chunnel.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Brecon Beacons

New puzzle game for Kai

Why is mum putting my treats in THERE?

What do I do with THAT thing?

Something like this?

It flipped over so now what?

If I can just somehow flip the darn thing over or
do something to somehow get my treats....

I jumped on the thingumy and heard the sound of treats
somewhere

Success... oh yummy.

Tigger at the catnip again, almost 'out of it'.

In England and car hiccups.

Our route from the Netherlands to Wales.

Yesterday we caught the Chunnel train from Calais to Dover without any hiccups but there were delays on the motorway up to Wales because of some accidents.  Fortunately it didn't delay us too much and I was able to make it to a nurse's appointment well in time.

We are staying with friends for a couple of days and it was good to see them again when we arrived at their house.  Their dog, Kai, made us feel right at home; as did the 3 cats - elderly Strawberry and Lightning, and younger Tigger.

Kai (foreground) and Tigger (zzzing near the fireplace)

Paul booked the car in at a garage to first get a new left headlight washer fitted and then an MOT
(roadworthy).  Instead of hanging around at the garage while the car to get sorted we hired a van (cheaper than a car but it drove well!) so that we could get around and about for the day.  Sometime just after lunch I had an appointment for a routine eye test.  My reading glasses will have to be updated but my distance vision is still fine and the glasses didn't need to be updated.

Back at the garage we discovered that nobody there had listened to the instructions/read the instructions we had specifically noted regarding the car.  The car failed its MOT on the basis that the headlight washer wasn't working - BUT it should have been fixed prior to going through MOT.  Needless to say, the part was not in stock and has been ordered in for tomorrow, and another MOT organised for after the re-fit.

We ended up extending the van rental - fortunately it hadn't been booked by someone else.

Tomorrow is another day.