Mi primero dia en Punta Arenas - My first day in Punta Arenas

It´s interesting getting used to speaking Spanish again...I´m really enjoying it.  Although I stumble across a lot of things, I´m proud of what I can remember.

Today was quite productive.  I woke up and had breakfast at my hotel - simple bread with butter and some kind of orange marmalade.  What was really cool, though, was they had cookies that looked exactly like Grammy´s spritz cookies.  Of course, they didn´t taste as good, but it made me feel at home.  One weird thing though - they served instant coffee.  Yes.  Remember the scoopable folgers you used to be able to mix into hot water and voila - coffee?  They served that.  Gross.  I don`t even like coffee to begin with.

After that, I went down to the ship to get my cold weather gear.  All stocked up...got some really neat gear.  A set of Carhartt gear (jacket, vest, pants), some sweet steel-toed boots, and an official orange/red parka that apparently isn´t warm at all but will be really cool for pictures.  I´ll post pictures of that later, along with other things.  My laptop died and for whatever reason it won´t charge with my adaptor so I have to wait until I board the ship tomorrow.

Speaking of, the Laurence M. Gould is awesome.  Huge ship.  Orange hull with tan elsewhere.  Google it.  I´ll post pictures.  Just a great place...excited about the lab.  Setting it up and weighing chemicals tomorrow...should be exciting.

Afterwards I ate lunch at this neat place called La Luna.  I had a great dish called chupe, which is basically a baked seafood casserole.  They recommended the king crab, which was really quite good.  I even got to try the Chilean salsa (pebre) that was addicting...

The next stop was the cemetery in Punta Arenas.  I kept hearing great things about it but couldn´t understand why a cemetery would be such a big deal.  But let me tell you...it was.  Full of mausoleums and gardens on top of plots.  Again, pictures are coming, but it was just magnificent.  For a cemetery, it looked amazing.  So full of color and life...for a place for the dead.  I was impressed.

I ended the day by getting postcards (that I may not be able to send, seeing as how I can´t get stamps anywhere on Sunday) and got some snacks for the ship.  We board tomorrow and set out Monday morning for Antarctica!  So excited.  I had dinner with my "assistant" at a nice restaurant by the water.  I had a filet tierra y mar - a steak with seafood sauce and stuffed with shrimp.  It was amazing.  And a nice last meal before ship food (which should be fine too, but no steak).

Alright, time to leave.  I´ll update with pictures and when I get settled tomorrow.  Hasta manana!  Adios!