MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Princess Anne to meet Chilean President Bachelet in Viña

Princess Anne arrived in Punta Arenas, extreme south Chile Monday at 13:30 hours aboard a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) aircraft, the first leg of a three days visit which includes a meeting with President Michelle Bachelet Tuesday evening.

At Punta Arenas airport Her Royal Highness, wearing a thick deep blue parka and bonnet, was received by Magallanes Region governor Eugenica Mancilla, Juan Morano the city's mayor, British Ambassador Howard Drake and honorary Consul John Rees, from where in a five car caravan the delegation was driven to the Jose Nogueira Hotel. Later in the afternoon she was scheduled to visit Chile's Antarctic Institute main offices at walking distance from the hotel. Back in the hotel she will be having tea with British residents in Magallanes and in the evening together with her husband Rear Admiral Timothy Laurence they will be hosted by the Chilean Navy. Dinner will be served onboard the pontoon Muñoz Gamero, the former English tall mast and beautifully refurbished "County of Peebels", which in the eighteen hundreds sailed from Britain to the Far East and finished in Cape Horn purchased by the Chilean Navy. Tuesday morning Princess Anne on her way to the airport will be visiting "Standard Wool" a British wool processing plant which was lost to fire two years ago and has been totally rebuilt and expanded. In the evening Her Royal Highness is scheduled to have dinner with President Michelle Bachelet in the presidential summer residence of Viña del Mar. Ambassador Drake who is the official spokesman for the Princess while in Chile said that her Royal Highness was interested in returning to Chile which she visited back in 1991, and in promoting links with several institutions and charities in which she is involved. These include from Antarctic research and BAS to "Save the Children" foundation. Ambassador Drake also underlined the long standing political, trade and military links between Britain and Chile, which he described as "a reliable partner" and the fact that only two other countries in Latinamerica have such close political relations with UK, Brazil and Mexico.