'Round Cape Horn

Santiago, Chile

Hostel Romandia

back garden of hostel

I arrived reasonably well rested since I was lucky enough to get a entire row of seats on the plane to myself! Santiago airport doesn't have a direct metro link, but does have a airport bus that goes to the main bus/train station which does, so I opted for that as the metro went fairly close to the hostel I had booked. The hostel was a converted villa in a quiet, reasonably central residential area and was a great deal because not only was it a nice place and clean, it also had wi-fi and breakfast included (which the hotel we stayed at the next night did not -and it cost ten times more!)

Cerro San Cristobal

Parque Metropoitanito

After getting settled in, I took a little stroll around and noticed a statue on top of a hill -Cerro San Cristobal at Santuario Inmaculada Concepcion in the Parque Metropoitanito- well one can only presume there must be a good view from way up there, so off I went... Having spent the last few months acclimatizing myself for winter, it wasn't long before the 25 degree heat and the switchbacks were causing me to perspire somewhat... but I eventually made it to the top (and in a little better shape than the group of 20 somethings that followed me up). The climb up was definitely worthwhile as the view from the base of the statue was magnificent and with a little wandering about it was possible to get a view of most of the city, ... There were, of course, easier ways than taking on all those switchbacks to get up there, such as driving and the tram (which would have been fun had it been operating).

Santiago itself is a very nice city - at least the places in the city that I've seen... very modern with a fair bit of modern architecture and public art - an excellent subway ( the cars of the trains are all joined in such a way you could see unobstructed from one end to the other), the people are very friendly, the motorists courteous...

Santiago street

After the trip down the hill (which was significantly easier than the hike up) a cooling cervesa and bite to eat were welcome and then it was back to the hostel to the usual computer work (download and edit pictures and GPS tracks write notes and a few emails, do a little information gathering for the next day...). As on any trip there always seems to be one or two items that you forget and it was only a short while before I discovered the first of those when the battery on my phone and computer ran down and I realized I had no power plug adapters... so no power and thus no blog posting.

Next day I found out the new hotel had no wi-fi, so no blog again....but I did find the adapters I needed at the largest mall in SA, so at least I have power now. Finding some free wi-fi in the morning probably won't happen as time will be tight due to an early bus to the coast to meet the evening sailing... so probably no posting again...

8 floors of shopping, and
each floor a city block makes
this the largest mall in SA

 

Since it was so much fun last year, I'll to do it again this trip... and since last year I managed just over 20000km, I ought to try to best that number this time round....after all I've got more time this time! Today we (dad and I) managed a grand total of 9km but with my 11484km from yesterday ....well, it looks like that ought to be do-able... :)

thursday, january 17, 2013

Valpariso, Chile

Today a bus was arranged to take us from Santiago to Valparaiso on the coast where the cruse ship awaited us. Although the drive was only two hours and we had nine hours until the ship sailed, there was of course no time or opportunity to do any sight seeing (except of course from the ships decks after we were boarded saveral hours early). I was mildly amused however, when the bus tour director noted that although they didn't normally divert, we were ahead of schedule, and thus, had a few minutes available to pop into a conveniently situated roadside stop (that just happened to sell drinks and souvenirs) and, I noticed, several other buses were also ahead of schedule...!

One thing that was very striking about the drive was the tunnels that were used to punch through the rather large (and steep) hills, avoiding what would have otherwise been fairly labourous climbs up and over. Tunnels were also to skip under the congested areas of the city, and yes, there were of course tolls involved for all of this convenience... :^) At the port and once we were finally ready to get underway, it was rather interesting backing out of the birth, while avoiding the dock, the other cargo ships and what appeared to be most of the Chilean Navy - I'm not sure that it would have been possible with only tug boats

Chilean Navy

Pilot boat doing doughnuts

Rear deck pool area

The following day was a day at sea, which, according to the schedule, will happen nearly every other day ...of course, lots of on-board activities are available all day long so I picked a few and dropped in on a few just to see what they were about. Had breakfast with a very lively group from Montreal and took a beginners Spanish lesson (which was really just a intro to a few of the common basic words and some pronunciation). The instructor was from Argentina and it was interesting to note the differences in pronunciation (such as y and double L's).
It was not really a problem that we spent most of the day 60km offshore as the fog was so thick in the morning that you could barely see the far end of the ship (It was very noisy up front with all the honking in the fog)
Tonight was one of the formal dress dinners which was a fairly spiffy affair.. but oddly (I thought) the food wasn't that great - I suppose it is difficult to mass-produce greatness. In retrospect (this being written a couple of days later) it would appear that I had the wrong expectation...although you dress up, the menu does not significantly change.

saturday, january 19, 2013

Puerto Montt, Chile

Wood carvings

Magically, when we got up this morning we were in port. Magically, it was a fabulous clear morning, and as it would turn out, the warmest day in Puerto Montt in two years. This part of Chile is very narrow, as the border with Argentina is only a dozen or so kilometers away and the mountains that were somewhat inland are now right on the coast. It's a little hard to tell from here, but they appear to be the typical rugged and very steep coastal mountains like you would find in British Columbia. Mount Washington with it's snow capped heights is quite the sight from the Vancouver shore... well, that sight is fairly common along this coast with many peaks in excess of 2500m and many snowfields and glaciers.

All wooden church

 Puerto Monttt is nearly exactly what I would expect; partially modern while much of it is not, but it is very Latin America. As I wandered through a local market, I found myself wishing I had a BBQ so I could try some of the salmon which looked excellent and was about $5/kg. And then as I was taking a shortcut through what turned out to be a particularily poor section of town, I had to laugh when I realized these people had some of the best views in town.

Fruit, vegetable and fish market

-Section; 1308km -Trip total; 12801km

Volcanoes near to Puerto Montt

Fiords/Glaciers, SW Chile

And another day at sea. This one started out fabulous again, but as the day wore on, the clouds thickened and the wind increased as well as the ocean swell, so that by mid-afteroon, most people were staying indoors and occasionally walking like they were all drunk. The swell made the pools fun though, as they would turn themselves into wave pools every now and then with a wave that would get to be nearly a meter tall.

It is now late and the fog horn is still going so I assume that visibility is still nill, which I hope changes in the next few hours as we are supposed to be stopping for some sight-seeing at a place called Amalia Glacier in the morning...

-Section; 1078km -Trip total; 13879km

sunday, january 20, 2013

Amalia Glacier (not the real name)

About 7:30am we pulled into position in front of the glacier which comes right down to the waters edge. They say it used to be 4 km longer a few years back, but that would mean that it would pretty much fill the strait that we sailed through...

The weather was perfectly clear and sunny, although cool - after all it was 8 in the morning! Wanting to give everyone equal opportunity to view, and the captain spent about an hour slowly spinning the ship in place, so we got the whole spinning restaurant effect. After we had pulled away from the glacier a few kilometers, you could begin to perceive how large the ice-field was as it climbed over the mountain behind. The rest of the morning we sailed through a series of narrow passages back to the open ocean and more fog and then late in the afternoon we began sailing up the Straight of Magellan on our way to Punta Arenas.
-Section; 934km -Trip total; 14813km

monday, january 21, 2013

Punta Arenis, Chile

Considered to be the largest most southerly city in South America...and if you can explain to me what that means, please do! The city used to be a very important port when ships had to travel around the horn before the Panama Canal, but now much of it's livelihood is associated with oil. The residential parts of town are quite spread out (not a lot of apartments) and the commercial center is quite large as well. There isn't a lot in the way of vegetation in the region as as the entire Patagonia area was covered in a ice sheet only 10000 years ago, so other than the few planted trees, mostly there is only scrubs and grass on the lower slopes and rock on the upper.... Again, the weather was fabulous today so I did a walk through town and saw a few of the sights.



-Today; 17km -Trip total; 14830km



Sheepskin rug

 

Urban art wall

tuesday, january 22, 2013

Beagle Channel, Cape Horn

In the morning we passed through what is known as 'Glacier Alley' starting at 6:30 am until about 8:00am the captain reduced speed to about 7 knots as we passed in fairly quick succession about a half dozen glaciers that used to come to the waters edge, but now the majority are hanging glaciers. On a clear day this would have been spectacular as you would have been able to glimpse the ice-fields on top and behind, but even with clouds obscuring the mountain tops it was still quite the sight - especially for those who don't get to see glaciers too often. The amount of melt water coming off the glacier and ice-fields is huge, especially considering it was early morning and the heat of day had not yet had an effect...though the drainage area may be so large that this is still yesterdays run-off?

...about a billion Lts/min coming off this ice field

The glacier water does not
mix with the sea water

Ushuaia, Argentina

At noon we passed over the border into Argentina and docked at Ushuaia which is considered to be the most southerly city in the world, and it is quite a bustling center of activity. There are two airstrips, one for small craft and the other for big, a harbour that had a number of freighters and container ships as well as three other smaller cruise ships in addition to ours, and a marina full of small boats. In town there were a lot of people about and many seemed to be locals.

 I was somewhat surprised by the number of sporting goods and outdoor outfitters clothing stores. It probably has to do with the hiking and skiing available north of here.-Section; 524km -Trip total; 15354km

wednesday, january 23, 2013

Cape Horn, Chile

Cape Horn, Chile

From Ushuia we sailed south back into Chile and around 'The Horn'. This whole territory south of the Magellan Straits has been long desputed between Chile and Argentina, and I heard a rumor that the Pope was finally called in to resolve, which he did by simply telling each to take half, with the border down the middle.

friday, january 25, 2013

Stanley, Falkland Islands (Malvides)

There was some concern initially that we might not visit the Falklands for political reasons, but that apparently had been resolved.  However, on the day we arrived the winds were 90-100km/h, and after a test run the captain decided that it would be too dangerous to run the punt service to the dock. Due to the sea conditions we were anchored about 2.5 km from the pier so that would have been a long trip through rough water. It was so rough that the punt doing the test run would disappear from sight every now and again in the waves (and this is a boat that can hold over 100 passengers). There is also the issue of getting on and off the little ferry boat. Most of the passengers on the ship are over 65 and not in the best physical shape, which may also have been a consideration.
The islands themselves have a fairly low profile and as such there is very little scenic appeal from 3 km out at sea, but we got a good long look as we rounded the eastern coast and part of the northern before heading back to Argentina. The seas are rough enough today to get the pools a rocking every now and again, and after one particularly good session, where the pool wave splash was nearly 15' high, the staff closed and emptied the pools. :( On a ship this size though (and equipped with stabilizers) it isn't particularly difficult to walk around.

-Section; 1076km -Trip total; 16430km

sunday, january 27, 2013

Puerto Madyrn, Argentina

'free' hot-spot -courtesy
of the hotel across  the street

An important port with a big aluminum smelter, the town itself seems to be in a bit of decay with a lot of unfinished streets and buildings that are in the works, but look to have been that way for some time, as well as a fair few at the edges of town that are bricked up and crumbling. The area is essentially a desert with a huge 'Death Valley' to the north and the worlds largest Magellanic Penguin colony about 100km to the south. The beaches go on for kilometers and get even larger with the receding tide -which is about 6 meters, and translates to several hundred meters of revealed beach. This area is popular for tourism due to the marine life that is abundant and can be commonly observed such as penguins, sea lions, dolphins, whales and orcas. I didn't see any.

EcoCenter Maritime Museum

Puerto Madyrn from the ships deck14

Puerto Madryn beaches

-Section; 1211km -Trip total; 17641km

tuesday, january 29, 2013

Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo old town skyline

looking a little worn

I was only in the old city area, but what I saw reminded me a great deal of Cuba. ...vehicles both new and ancient as well as the odd mule and wagon, manual labour methods, condition and architecture of buildings... It was as if a handful of Spain and a handful of Cuba were placed in a bucket and given a good mix. Very neat and tidy (in a relative sense) just like both Cuba and Spain ...though not as tidy a Spain... quite rundown in places like Cuba but a lot of repairs are underway....a lot of vacant buildings and buildings needing urgent repair. The people were very friendly and helpful.

-Section; 1343km -Trip total; 18984km

Buenos Aries, Argentina

We were very late getting into port today as there were some problems with the berth or something during the night and apparently the captain was told to hold position for a couple of hours way out in the channel. The entire trip from Montevideo to Buenos Aries is up the Parana River estuary which is extremely shallow and there is a only a narrow lane safe for shipping. (It would seem that the safe place for passing was several hours out from Buenos Aries) We eventually made it, but of course it messed up everyone's plans and I ended up going into town by myself, which as it turns out was probably a good thing. By the time I found a bank to get some money to pay for the metro, then get to the metro and then to the hostel (which fortunately had a space for tonight) a couple of hours had passed an I was drenched... I really need to get used to this heat somehow.

-Today; 272km -Trip total; 19256km