Helen has been snoring. (Grin!)
People are more subdued now, but in this very tired state (I've only been able to get a few half-hour bits of sleep) I feel somewhat annoyed by all of these people. I'm hyper-critical because of the tiredness and stiffness & dryness. I feel surrounded by older people with a punchy, alumni-like mentality -- lots of giggling, joking about silly things, etc. I'm sure that I'll get over this stage when we get to the ship, get cleaned up and rested.
We saw Life with Mikey on the videoscreens. I slept through (tried to) Another Stakeout.
I'm really glad that I brought my slippers. Without them I'd be insane by now! (Thank you, Karen Drabenstott!)
Unfortunately, since Grandma and I are sitting in the middle two seats of a ten seat row (there are four in the middle, and three on either side of the aisles), we haven't been able to see anything since Miami. (Just light and dark.) I remember a brief glimpse of sunrise early in the morning, but nothing of the ground -- just reds and oranges and black streaks of clouds.
They're about to serve us breakfast now. I just took my first few steps up and down the aisle since I got on the plane: amazingly, I didn't feel that stiff at all. I do feel like I could stand a few more liquids (fruit?) and a good shower! We'll have to wait 'til 4pm or so to get on the ship and into our cabin & new clothes.
From the snatches of conversation I can hear, I gather that lots of these people are serious drinkers, or recovering alcoholics. After their rowdiness last night, I hope they all have terrible hangovers!
When we got to Punta Arenas, the land appeared rough and clumpy, like a battlefield: pocked and pitted. Rough-looking bushes here and there and a straw-colored grass everywhere. We waited forever it seemed, in disarray, for our passports to be stamped by a single passport officer. The, we waited for busses to take us to the ship.
On the bus, we were given a brief tour of the surrounding area (we didn't actually land at Punta Arenas, but about 20 minutes away from it, across farming lands similar to Pennsylvania but all dried up.
When we got to Punta Arenas, we were taken to a Chilean restaurant where we had a buffet of Chilean food -- very good! We saw a little bit of Chilean home life, in the houses near the restaurant and the kids chasing a dog around the block.
We then went for a tour of downtown Punta Arenas in the rain. We stopped at the monument to Magellan in the central park, and we rode up to the top of a tall hill on the far side of the city from the coast and looked down on the city and the dock area. We had our first view of the Marco Polo there, as well as some of Punta Arenas's Petroleum industry.
We then boarded the ship, found our cabin, and left to go to a local handicraft store for postcards. On the way back, we looked at the clock standing in a small square near the dock, which was a gift to Punta Arenas from Germany.