Punta Arenas is a port city in the extreme south of Chile. The city has a good infrastructure, in particular an abundance of shops, such as supermarkets, pharmacies and hiking gear shops.
Punta Arenas (literally in Spanish: "Sands Point" although real English speakers might know this as "Sandy Point") is the largest settlement on the Strait of Magellan and the capital of Chile's Magallanes y Antártica Region. It has a population of 120,000 (2002).
It is on Brunswick Peninsula, 1418 km from the coast of Antarctica.(Source: www.wikitravel.org)
A group of researchers from continental US will travel to Puntas Arenas (PA), Chile to participate in a scientific cruise (Processes Regulating Iron Supply at the Mesoscale, Ross Sea - PRISM-RS). We will be boarding Nathaniel B. Palmer on December 23, 2011 and leave PA the next day to start an adventurous albeit rough trip across the Drake Passage to our destination - the Ross Sea. This swath of the ocean is home to the world's fastest and largest deep current (Antarctic Circumpolar Current - ACC) which transports some 130 million cubic meters of water through the passage! This challenging but by all means not impassable body of water should be a lot of fun to cruise over and will test every cruise member's seaworthiness. Stay tuned - more to come!
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