In addition to taking photos of our approach to Chile from our balcony we also had a stroll around the mostly empty promenade deck.

We had a couple of views of the tender boats being dropped into position to start ferrying passengers ashore.

I imagine there were a few cancelled excursions at Punta Arenas due to our late arrival in the port. Luckily for us, we’d booked a short trip as nothing else really appealed and this was still doable as it wasn’t due to start until the afternoon. I’m not sure but I think that there was a long trip to Antarctica (by plane) and to a Chilean national reserve park that could have been taken in this port; the former was definitely cancelled and I suspect the latter might have been too as they were full day trips. We’d considered booking the Antarctica trip at one point although it would have meant doubling our cruise price with no guarantee that the flight to the southern polar region would even have taken place. We decided that if we are to visit Antarctica at some point (and we do want to) then it will be on a ship heading there for a number of days to reduce the chance of cancellation.

Arriving at the museum (a large field, part of the Institute of Patagonia) we were first entertained by some local musicians and dancers wearing traditional dress. A lot of people simply walked past them without glancing (knowing the people on our cruise many were probably already looking for a toilet or somewhere selling coffee or both) but we waited a while to appreciate the effort being made and grabbed a few photos.

The open air museum consisted of a large number of old houses or forms of transport or pieces of equipment from the last century or so in the region. Almost all the buildings could be entered, in which there were bits of historical memorabilia around. Our guide was taking those interested in hearing about the various places through the buildings and showing them highlights but we were free to wander off on our own and take photos or explore at our leisure before returning to the coach at a designated time.

I wouldn’t say it was the most interesting of places to visit and we’ve certainly seen better museum pieces, open air or not, but it was enjoyable enough. It was also something a little different from a standard museum or a visit to a church, etc. Whenever we go on cruises we like to try to mix our excursion types up as much as possible so that we’re not stuck seeing the same sort of place over and over again. To give away just how nerdy I am I usually prepare a spreadsheet with lists of excursions and types of things in each so that we can plan for the greatest variety every time.

As with other places that we visited in South America on this cruise there were a number of dogs, whether stray or simply part of the scenery. They seemed well looked after and content.

As a group we stayed with our guide and I made sure to not wander off too far when snatching photographs of the attractive cemetery. While the grounds weren’t huge there were quite a lot of tour groups shuffling around and looking at the Chilean national monument and it would have been quite easy for me to lose track of which particular gathering of coat-wearing Americans and Australians (for the most part) I was with.

Both La Recoleta and Punta Arenas Cemetery feature in a list of most beautiful cemeteries in the world compiled by CNN Travel.

Before the coach deposited us back at the port where we would be able to take the tender boats back to the Star Princess cruise ship we pulled in at a viewpoint overlooking the Chilean city. We had enough time for the majority of people to browse the stalls set up by numerous vendors while some of us grabbed a few photographs of Punta Arenas from the high vantage point. The city was quite colourful under the mostly clear blue sky and it was great to see our cruise ship just off the shore.

There were many incidents of spotting culturally different behaviour during our cruise around South America but it was also interesting to see that the habit of people attaching locks to railings appears to be a global one.

I’m quite fond of street art and love seeing the different styles when I’m abroad on travels. The street art we saw in Punta Arenas was less abstract and more realistic than that we’d seen elsewhere, with some even being in the form of trompe-l’œil.

We spotted a rather disquieting sign indicating that this area of Punta Arenas was a tsunami hazard zone. This made sense on account of the number of volcanoes that were in that region of South America.

The maritime monument marked the northernmost point along the Punta Arenas shoreline that we reached as we were conscious of just how much time we had left in the city.

The walk along the seafront area of Punta Arenas produced plenty of opportunities to take some photos with interesting compositions thanks to numerous straight lines in the form of collapsed piers or tram lines. The flat sea conditions helped a lot too.

Later that evening we would hear one American woman remarking how amazing it had been to see all the penguins along the beach. They weren’t penguins. They were cormorants and they were in abundance as we walked back towards the city’s dock to catch the tender boat back to the Star Princess. Quite how she thought they had got up onto the wooden pillars or how she hadn’t seen some of them occasionally flying off in exactly the way penguins don’t completely escaped us.

We liked seeing the chess boards set up along the shoreline. We imagine it would have been a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon in Punta Arenas.

The port area had the usual collection of souvenir shops and information points but we didn’t find anything of interest to us there and headed straight to where the tender boats were pulling up and ferrying passengers back to the cruise ship.

It’s always nice when you can sit up top on a cruise ship’s tender boat and we were lucky enough to get this chance as we left Punta Arenas and made our short trip back to the Star Princess. This gave us some lovely views of the other vessels in the port, the numerous other tender boats moving between the land and the ship, and the ship itself.

The conditions may have been calmer but the general weather was dull and overcast with occasional rain. The overall effect was to drain the colour from the surroundings which was a shame although pretty atmospheric.

As we got deeper into the channels the surrouding rock faces loomed larger and there was more low-lying cloud rolling between the peaks. The geology of the rocks was quite nice to look at but in terms of fjords the ones in Chile cannot compare to Norway’s offerings (or Alaska’s from what we’ve heard).

Most of the photos of the Chilean fjords were taken from our balcony as the cruise along them coincided with a period where there was nothing of interest to us taking place on the ship. We’d been informed over the tannoy when we were expected to arrive at the glacier so knew that we could get an afternoon quiz in just before then. We took advantage of this fortuitous timing to take a walk around the promenade just prior to this in order to get some fjord photos from a different perspective.

It would have been nice to see the glacier under clearer skies but this wasn’t to be with us instead experiencing the shipboard view of the impressive work of nature under low grey clouds and persistent drizzle. This made for very challenging photo conditions; my telephoto lens in particular struggled with light range and colour balance, persistently adding far too much purple into the shot that had to be removed almost completely in post-processing.

We’d made our way onto the promenade deck rather than seeing what could be seen from our balcony simply because we didn’t know which side of the ship would have the best view. As it was it didn’t really matter as the Star Princess moved into position alongside the glacier then proceeded to rotate on the spot with its thrusters several times ensuring that no matter where anyone was on the ship they would get a decent view.

The Amalia Glacier was the second glacier we’d seen, that first one being the Kjenndal Glacier in Norway. As with the fjords we think that the Norwegian experience was more impressive due to proximity but we’re still incredibly glad we got to see this Chilean glacier and surrounding landscapes too as just how many people can say they’ve seen one, let alone two in different hemispheres of the planet? With the worsening impact from climate change seeing this glacier before it retreated completely out of view from a vessel like the Star Princess was also something worth doing.

At times as we cruised along the fjords we would see distant mountains lit by the sunshine and we caught glimpses of other glaciers too. Waterfalls were a common sight as well and although they appeared small this was probably quite illusory on account of our distance from the rock faces down which they poured.

When the low clouds did make a reappearance they flowed softly around the tops of the very craggy rock faces we were cruising past and were fascinating to look at.

Our arrival at this part of Chile had been to low, grey cloud and poor visibility and with our day’s planned activities to include a trip up a volcano we were initially disappointed. However, as our guide pointed out, it was early in the day and the sun had not yet had time to burn off the cloud that had come down from the mountains and the mist that had come up off the sea and lakes in the area. He was proven right as just minutes before our arrival at the waterfalls the conditions seemed to completely change and blue sky lit the area.

The waterfalls are not your “thundering down the edge of a cliff”-type of natural feature but are, instead, described as “chute-type” which makes them far lower-lying. Nevertheless, they and the river were very pretty, with striking blue colours. With some sheer cliff edges around the area of the river and its falls we were in deep shade for a lot of the time at this viewpoint which allowed some of the cool mist to still be present just above the water. It also made light metering for photographs a bit tricky.

Probably more impressive than the waterfalls were the views of the relatively nearby volcano, Osorno, which was to be our next stop. Against the clear blue sky the volcano looked incredibly impressive.

We’d been told by our guide when we left the coach that because of the limited time at the tourist stop we should walk directly to the waterfalls and view of the volcano, then we’d have a better idea for how long it would take us to get back and so we could visit the souvenir shop and take in the landscape without being too rushed. As it was we had plenty of time looking at the Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano so could saunter back at some leisure; we didn’t find anything at the souvenir shop here with much of it appearing mass-produced which doesn’t really appeal to us.

We arrived at the highest point that vehicles are permitted to get to where there was a car park, a souvenir shop, a café, and a chairlift station. When the snow is around it serves as a popular station for skiers. We’d been told by our guide that we had enough time so that if anyone wanted to they could buy a chairlift ticket and take that up one section (there were three I think) before coming down. Naturally, we went straight to the ticket hut and I used some horrible Spanish on the guy there to buy what we needed. Also naturally, we were in the minority. On our coach of forty people I would say that perhaps six of us went for the ride while the others headed straight for the café. Bear in mind that our next stop would be for a meal at a restaurant. I will never understand people who pay to head off around the world and pay for an excursion only to skip out on interesting, unique things you can then do there.

It was so quiet. It was incredibly serene being on a chairlift riding up the side of a volcano with nothing but blue sky above able to look down on volcanic rock and even clouds, and with views across to neighbouring volcanoes in the region (one of which – Calbuco – had erupted just the year before).

At the first chairlift stop we got off and had a walk aroud the flattened area of the station to take in the lovely views of Osorno towering above us. We couldn’t see the first station we’d alighted at as it was beyond and below a dip on the volcano’s side. A number of pathways were also visible with people on them; you didn’t have to take the chairlift if you fancied the walk but we didn’t have the time for that and, hell, why would you?

Advice from our guide on this excursion was to slap on the highest strength sunscreen on account of the far thinner atmosphere and subsequently far stronger sunlight reaching us. We duly covered ourselves in Factor 50 but even though the time we spent on the mountainside was under an hour we still managed to get burnt, most notably on my wife’s calves that she’d not completely covered and which were exposed to the sun behind us as we descended back to the base station.

On our return to the base station we still had time to pick up some souvenirs before getting back on the coach. Our guide had also mentioned before we’d arrived that the station did a fantastic local chocolate drink with alcohol in it at the café that had sounded very appealing. Upon asking the passengers if they’d tried it he was met with a chorus of negativity and an announcement from everyone that they’d had coffee. He looked disappointed. We weren’t surprised.

We didn’t get to see the crater at Osorno which was a shame as we’ve still not seen an active volcano with lava but that still leaves something on the bucket list. We did get to ride a chairlift up above the cloud level, though, and that’s not bad. A very enjoyable trip.