Punta Arenas, Chile 2025

Punta Arenas is the capital of The Magallanes Region, Chile’s southernmost region.

We found a terrific steakhouse for lunch, Restaurant Estilo Magallanico. And steak lunch for five including tip was only $105.

Here are some interesting Punta Arenas factoids:

• The city is the largest city south of the south 46^th parallel.
• It is the most populous southernmost city in the Americas.
• Punta Arenas is one of the world’s most southerly ports and serves as an Antarctic gateway.
• They have a unique time zone, using summertime throughout the year (UTC−3).
• It is  the coldest coastal city with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Latin America.
• Punta Arenas is the world’s southernmost city with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
• But wait! They claim they are the southernmost city in the world, and so does Ushuaia (tomorrow’s port) in Argentina, which lies farther south. The issue is definitional. Ushuaia has about 80,000 inhabitants. Is it a city? You decide, because South America does not have a definition for city vs town.

Interestingly, the northern hemisphere has many cities with latitudes above 46 degrees, even with populations over 1,000,000, let alone 100,000. Think large cities in Canada and Russia for example.