On our way south from Punta Arenas to the most beautiful of our mountain gradients, we drive along the beautiful coast of the street of Magellan. I hope to post about its beautiful nature in the near future, but now I wanted to show the most striking landmarks of this area.
Right out of the city center, you pass the rusting glory of what looks like the sad remainders of a much more important international port in the past. The water and the coast are covered with one rusty old ship after another.
It is a spooky sight to see all these once magnificent kings of the ocean rust to dust, falling on their side and slowly dissappearing underneath the waves.
In previous times, the harbour of Punta Arenas was considered to be one of the most important of Chile, at least before the building of the Panama canal. Since then, the city has been obliged to slowly shift its economy away from the sea.
I imagine the ships beached in Punta Arenas all through the 20th century as a sad reminder of these better times for the harbour. It turned out some of them got a new life as a breakwater, to reduce damage of the biting winds of Punta Arenas, but in general they seem to be completely forgotten.
The cormorants like these magnificent viewing points though, as they can dry their plumage on the poles and ropes. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find information on these majestic pieces of wasted iron and steel, so I fear there story will stay a mystery.
