December 13 Saturday Ushuaia, Argentina
Ushuaia, is a town of 60,000 on the island of Tierra del Fuego and looks out over the Beagle Channel, named after the HMS Beagle, the ship Charles Darwin sailed on in the 1800's.
Here we took the second and last ship run tour. (We can often get much, much cheaper tours by just stepping on shore. There are usually lots of independent guides waiting to pick up cruisers.)
We took a 4-wheel drive (jeep) tour on a very very primitive old logging trail, up a hillside. We dropped down to a ski resort, one of seven on the island....six, including this one, were for cross country skiing. At the resort, we walked among the pens and pens of sled dogs that are being trained to haul sleds in the wintertime. Because there is no snow in the summer, the dogs are trained by pulling 4-wheelers. The owners like the dogs to be around people to they can learn to socialize. We hopped back in the jeeps and headed into a wooded area where we hiked to an old logging hut. The snack we were promised looked like a small slice of sausage on a cracker plus a little Pepsi or wine. Then the real food came out....stewed beef, oranges, deserts, etc. The best snack I have ever had. We hiked through some really beautiful territory, woods, swampy areas, etc. at the southern end of the Andes. It was well worth the money.
December 14 Cape Horn, Chile
We are at the end of the world. The landscape is wild and beautiful. There are glaciers on the rugged mountains here and although it is the middle of the summer in the southern hemisphere, there is still snow on the mountain tops. These mountains are the souther end of the Andes range. From here, the mountain range goes down into the sea and re-emerges in Antarctica, not so very far from here. We are lucky to be able to sail around Cape Horn at the southern end of the world. The wind blows hard here 200 days of the year. Waves can be up to 100 meters high and the seas too rough to navigate. Two weeks ago this ship traversed the Cape in very bad weather...everyone was sea sick. Another large cruise ship, the Norwegian Sun following the same route at the same time was unable to make the passage. We were very blessed, though, because the weather was perfect and we had smooth sailing all the way. We don’t have a good horror story to tell, but that’s OK.
December 15, 16 Monday, Tuesday At Sea
Showing posts with label Chile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chile. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
SA Cruise: Punta Arenas, Chile Sailing with Magellan
December 12 Punta Arenas, Chile
Punta Arenas claims to be the southern most city of its size in the world. It is on the shores of the Straits of Magellan. This area has a very harsh and unforgiving climate. Before the Panama Canal was built, the Straits of Magellan were somewhat of a shortcut from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The other route was down around Cape Horn, a very dangerous route. At one time, the Dutch East Indies company claimed the area and forbade anyone else to use the route, forcing everyone else to go around Cape Horn.
(Below is one of the few entries written on the voyage)
Today is December 12, 2008. I don’t actually know what day of the week it is, but I can find out by getting on an elevator and looking at the floor. Everyday, the current day of the week is placed on the elevator floor in front of the door. I’m not the only one who loses track of time.
Last night, just after midnight, Greg and I went out on the deck and looked outside. We were just beginning to go through the Straits of Magellan, off the coast of Chile. We could see land off both sides of the ship. Several hundred years ago, when Magellan was looking for the Spice Islands, he found these straits which cut through the tip of South America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It was a very valuable “short cut” for ships. It was pretty awesome to image ourselves in the same area as Magellan had been in hundreds of years ago.
(Magellan was asked by Spain’s king to find a westward passage to the Spice Island of Indonesia. They left Spain on September 20, 1519.)
We rose early this morning, ate breakfast, then went back to sleep. You can do that on vacation. After we rose again, we caught a tender (one of the lifeboats used to ferry passengers back and forth to the ship when cannot dock at the pier because the water is not deep enough, etc.) then headed out for the town of Punta Arenas on foot. Tour from the ship are very expensive on this cruise, so we don’t take them at each stop. We walked several blocks into the town square where the ever present market place was set up. I think they set up special when they know that cruise ships are coming in because the ships bring so much business. I bought a few trinkets then we walked about a block to a museum. It was the old home of a local somewhat wealthy family. We spent a pleasant hour there then tried to a get a taxi to take up to the nature reserve that was supposed to have a great view of the city. We ended up walking back to the ship and finding a driver who asked for $50 to take us but settled on $30 instead. He didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Spanish, but we visited the whole 10 kilometers out and 10 kilometers back. His few words of English and my few words of Spanish along with a lot of hand gestures were enough to tell each other about our families, what they did, about the farm, about the nature reserve etc. It was pretty amazing.
The nature reserve was located at the top of a high hill and had a beautiful view of the harbor and the town of about 40,000 people. From the top we could also see the island of Tierra del Fuego and the end of the world. Tomorrow we will be almost there.
Punta Arenas claims to be the southern most city of its size in the world. It is on the shores of the Straits of Magellan. This area has a very harsh and unforgiving climate. Before the Panama Canal was built, the Straits of Magellan were somewhat of a shortcut from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The other route was down around Cape Horn, a very dangerous route. At one time, the Dutch East Indies company claimed the area and forbade anyone else to use the route, forcing everyone else to go around Cape Horn.
(Below is one of the few entries written on the voyage)
Today is December 12, 2008. I don’t actually know what day of the week it is, but I can find out by getting on an elevator and looking at the floor. Everyday, the current day of the week is placed on the elevator floor in front of the door. I’m not the only one who loses track of time.
Last night, just after midnight, Greg and I went out on the deck and looked outside. We were just beginning to go through the Straits of Magellan, off the coast of Chile. We could see land off both sides of the ship. Several hundred years ago, when Magellan was looking for the Spice Islands, he found these straits which cut through the tip of South America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It was a very valuable “short cut” for ships. It was pretty awesome to image ourselves in the same area as Magellan had been in hundreds of years ago.
(Magellan was asked by Spain’s king to find a westward passage to the Spice Island of Indonesia. They left Spain on September 20, 1519.)
We rose early this morning, ate breakfast, then went back to sleep. You can do that on vacation. After we rose again, we caught a tender (one of the lifeboats used to ferry passengers back and forth to the ship when cannot dock at the pier because the water is not deep enough, etc.) then headed out for the town of Punta Arenas on foot. Tour from the ship are very expensive on this cruise, so we don’t take them at each stop. We walked several blocks into the town square where the ever present market place was set up. I think they set up special when they know that cruise ships are coming in because the ships bring so much business. I bought a few trinkets then we walked about a block to a museum. It was the old home of a local somewhat wealthy family. We spent a pleasant hour there then tried to a get a taxi to take up to the nature reserve that was supposed to have a great view of the city. We ended up walking back to the ship and finding a driver who asked for $50 to take us but settled on $30 instead. He didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Spanish, but we visited the whole 10 kilometers out and 10 kilometers back. His few words of English and my few words of Spanish along with a lot of hand gestures were enough to tell each other about our families, what they did, about the farm, about the nature reserve etc. It was pretty amazing.
The nature reserve was located at the top of a high hill and had a beautiful view of the harbor and the town of about 40,000 people. From the top we could also see the island of Tierra del Fuego and the end of the world. Tomorrow we will be almost there.
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