Around the Horn

15th March, Montevideo, Uruguay.

Off we headed 'Around the Horn".

Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and sits on the northern bank of the Rio de la Plata, across from Buenos Aires. The country has around four million people with 1.3mill living in the city. The city was established in 1724, by a Spanish Soldier Bruno de Zabala. It was the host of the first ever FIFA World Cup in 1930. They got it as they had won the Olympic Gold at the previous games. It's a modern city with many similarities to Australia.

I went on a tour with a CL group. It was great and I saw many of the hot spots. We started with a walking tour of Old Town. It’s set on a peninsular and was walled on the one side, at the start of the tongue of land. The wall and the fort are now long gone but a road commemorates it. After a burst of development (and demolition) in the 70’s, historical orders were placed on the old buildings and many were saved. Around Plaza Independencia, (Independence Square), there were so many lovely buildings and monuments, then a huge ugly 70’s apartment block. The area is now known as Ciudad Vieja. In it is Peatonal Sarandi, a pedestrian plaza, and is incredibly pretty and of course full of cafes, artist and galleries and nightclubs.

There were stunning buildings everywhere. And the sky! It was unbelievable. Amazing. The bluest sky I have ever seen.

We visited the "Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, St Philip and St James".

Plaza Zabala, is named for the city founder. There is a great statue of him with his crypt underneath.

Palacio Salvo was the tallest building in South America until 1935.

Old Town was lovely.

We then left old town and headed into the 'burbs'. The 1930’s football stadium is still the main one and hold 65,000.

On a few occasions, trotting along in the traffic were horse and carts going about their business.

The streets were really wide, and as in all of this part of the world have a great street tree planting program. So lovely.

Fire wood is purchased at the supermarket in small faggots. Everyone uses BBQs as their main form of cooking - even appartments.

We visited the fruit markets…..kind of. The Mercado del Puerto. Something was lost in the translation. When you say you want to visit markets, But…you go to the development that was done a few years ago on the site of the OLD markets. LOL.

But it was filled with little shops and was interesting. One shop was selling native rainforest plants!

The fruit was beautiful. And the meat looked amazing.

The city has a large number of beaches and many housing developments along them. But remember it is only a brown river, not the ocean. We could see out to where the river water meets the ocean water. Yes there is a line.

'Mate' (Mar -taa) is drunk all around southern South America and is the leaf of a tree made into tea. It has three times more canine that coffee. It is soaked in cold water, then steeped in hot water. The cup is shared around with everyone using the same straw. Very communal. Everyone drinks it. The cups are one of the main tourist item. No good for Australians those as they are leather around a gourd.

When we got back to the ship (5 hr tour), the guide told us that the best BBQ shops were just across the road. So I decided that I had better go over and have some. Sad to say - compared to Argentinian BBQ it was rubbish.  Maybe if I hadn't been to Argentina it would have been good.

Montevideo was lovely, and really interesting!

16th March, Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Punta del Este is a small city with a year round population of under 10,000 - until summer arrives and so do the people. A millon of them. Very like Batemans Bay. It is on a peninsular about 140 ks from Montevideo.

The Spanish arrived in the early 16th century but didn’t settle until the end of the 18th century – and that was to stop the Portuguese settling there.

It was originally sand dunes but in 1896, Antonia Lussich bought 4,447 acres and planted his own botanical gardens with plants from around the world. The trees eventually spread on their own and the area is covered in Eucalyptus, Acacia and Pine to name a few. It's a tourist/resort town and I was not at all excited to be going here. I don't like resort towns! But it was extremely attractive. Great beaches and views.

We tendered into a pretty harbour and marina. As I was stepping off the tender the sailor held out an arm. I gave him a very firm 'sailors grip' with both hands and stepped off. His eyes did pop a bit. Well - that is how I had to do it to ensure my safety in Antarctica. LOL.

The marina was full of million dollar yachts and cruisers, and a fleet of little old commercial fishing boats.

Near our dock were local fishermen cleaning and selling their catch. Of course I had to go and look. I had read about the Sea Lions that hang around for scrapes. That shouldn’t be exciting. I have just seen a few thousand Southern Sea Lions.

But OH MY GOD! There is not a chance I will ever be going to a South Georgian beach in spring when the bull Sea Lions are guarding their territory. They are giants. Their heads are as big as a car tyre. If fact....they look a bit like lions. They were well over two metres long and they must weigh hundreds of kilos.

I jumped onto a city tour - $25US for a 2 ½ hr mini bus trip – in Spanish. And saw all the hot spots. 

Faro – Built in 1860, it’s a brick lighthouse built to guide ships from the Atlantic to the Rio de la Plate. It was a crystal prism system. It’s 25 metres high and has a range of 8.8 nautical miles.

And a lovely meteorological station in a beautiful old building with tower.

We then drove down to the beach area and saw the thousands of units with amazing views over the beaches. Many were massive with amazing views. Some looked like hotels but were not!

The whole coastline was lined in units.

The coastline is divided into two regions. One is “Brava” (fierce) and the other is “Mansa” (tame). This marks the end of the Rio de la Plata (River Plata) and start of the Atlantic Ocean. The Brava beaches are a thick golden sand and the Mansa side sand is fine and white.

A huge sculpture on the beach marks the spot where Brava and Mansa meet, and warns swimmers of the rougher waters. “Mano de Punta del Este” is a huge sculpture, five fingers coming out of the sand. Pretty cool as far as modern art goes.

Then a drive through what had to be ‘Millionaire Row’. One was at least a five acre block with a huge fence around it. Tennis courts, pools etc. They were all huge.

We drove over La Barra bridge – a wavy bridge; twice; and everyone on the bus hooted with delight. It was awesome. And really pretty.

And there was Casapueblo! A giant gleaming white building, flowing down the Cliffside – nine stories down. A ‘whimsical’ local artist built it as a workshop, although it is now a hotel, restaurant etc. It took him 37 years to complete and apparently he mixed the concrete and carried it one bucket at a time.

It certainly is white and it certainly is big.

Inside Casapueblo is a shrine to the artists son who died in a 1972 plane crash where the Uruguay Rugby Team crashed into the Andes. This was the crash that inspired the movie "Alive".

At dinner my waiter told me my fish was caught by his brother off the back of the ship today.

Lucky..... It was Atlantic Salmon and we are in the Atlantic.

Wednesday 17th March
At sea - South Atlantic
Day 35 of the trip – Day 5 on the ship.

A very quiet day with a sleep in, chatting, nap and dinner at Chops.  Lovely day.

The sun was shining when I went for a nap.  I even read outside on the deck. When I went to snooze I hadn't shut the door properly and was woken up by a screaming wind. The sky was dark, rain and the water was choppy with huge winds....but no big sea. The deck chairs went wild and all ran up the deck and blocked off the entrance near the lifts, before the guys could get out and tie them up.

Two hours later everything was peaceful again. The pool was full and the deck as covered in people. 

18th March, Puerto Madryn, Argentina

Back in Patagonia! Today I joined with some of the people I toured with in Montevideo, and from the lounge. We were going out to the Valdez Peninsular to see……Magellanic Penguins, Fur Seals, Sea Lions and Elephant Seals. The brochure talked about all these, and Southern Right Whales and Orcas. All of which were checked off my list!

“Why am I going?” I asked myself several times throughout the night, and again when my alarm went off at seven am.

But off I went “ ‘cause there will be good things to see.”

The ship docked at the industrial port 15 ks from Puerto Madryn. It's in a huge sheltered bay Gulf Nuevo. The Valdez Peninsular forms the top side of the gulf. The peninsular is huge with a narrow isthmus, ‘Carlos Ameghino’, joining it.

So off we set in our van to drive around the gulf then onto the peninsular.

The whole peninsular is incredibly semi-arid and almost desert. It has a few huge salt lakes, one of them 40m below sea level.

The area is positioned between the sub polar low pressure belt (60-70 degrees south) and the subtropical high (30 south) so winds are almost always from the west. Therefore, although it is on the coast, it only gets 250mm rain a year.

I thought it was quite spectacular (not to live on, just to visit). Flat and barren with 500mm high gorse bushes. No trees – too windy for them. The temperature was perfect today. Sunshine and about 15 degrees with a light wind. Perfect.

The peninsular is a national park and a World Heritage area due to its importance for marine life.

Southern Right Whales calf in the gulf (but not now, it was the wrong season). Orcas hunt the Magellan Penguins here (but it was the wrong season). This is where all the documentaries are filmed that show Orcas beaching themselves to catch penguins, sea lions and young elephant seals… (but it was the wrong season to see it now).

The beaches are the biggest Magellan rookery with 1,000,000 penguins….but…it was the wrong season so they were not there.

We drove for about an hour then had a stop at the National Park entrance. Then another hour out across the peninsular towards Punta Delgade. It was flat and lovely.

This area is the home to Guanacos – a ‘camelid’ (the family that includes camels, dromedary’s, llama and alpacas). They are about 1.2m at the shoulder and weigh about 90kg. They have really long necks and have evolved very thick skin to protect the neck. Bolivians use the neck skin to make shoes!

They live in herds of about 10, with a dominant male. They are very much a flight creature. When they see the car….. off they go. The male runs behind to defend them.

The males are very aggressive during breeding season and fight violently. BUT the really cool thing is how they fight. They chase the other male and bite it on the balls! Yep. Bite them hard! That’s an efficient way to get rid of other breeding males.

We saw heaps of them. Guanacos – not balls.

I saw a Patagonian Mara (also known as the Patagonian Cavy). They look like they are made from the animal scrap factory, a hare / antelope cross. Much bigger than a hare with similar back legs. It walks around on its toes, but sits down on its haunches like a dog. It has a really box head. It’s a rodent and is only found in Argentina, especially the Valdez Peninsular.

The salt pans were great. They are not used for salt production any more.

We went to the famous penguin beach. There is a sand island protecting it from the gulf making a deep channel. Sadly we didn’t see 1,000,000 penguins. But there were 27 there – I counted them. But they were cute. The landscape certainly made up for the lack of penguins.

Then onto the Elephant Seal beach which had about 20 Elephants. Not the big bulls that we were told of, but the beach was amazing. It was dark ‘sand’ with turquoise water. Jutting out were a stack of rock outcrops covered in vibrant green plant life. The colours were amazing. The beach had a really big drop off so appeared to roll like a giant wave. There where huge white cliffs across the gulf. Very beautiful.

Kelp Gulls and Giant Petrels were everywhere. It would have been sad if I had done this trip for the Penguins and Elephants – but I didn’t, so it was fantastic. The trip was worth it for this beach.

But then…… as I was walking up the path from the beach there was a “Hairy Armadillo”. Didn’t even know they existed until I saw info about them at the National Park display.

SO CUTE! An Armadillo with thick hairs poking out. And a big plate on its head. It was shuffling along the path with its ‘Dumm Dee Dumm Dumm” manner. It did jump when it saw people but them went about snuffling in the sand. So cute!

On the way back we called into the only town on the peninsular. Puerto Piramides. The town started, to work the salt pans – but when the salt industry closed down they moved on to tourism. It has a population of 480 people – all involved in the Whale Watching trade…..but it was out of season……..! Funny.

I drank a local beer and look at the stunning place while dreaming of Orcas chasing seals up the beach and Southern Right Whales breaching with their calves.

On the way back we saw a Tarantula walking across the highway - as you do! I giant hairy spider, just wandering across the highway.

Back near the ship was yet another ‘ship graveyard’. It seems that in Argentine when something stops working they just leave it there. Every port has had many dead ships and Buenos Aires streets were full of dead cars.

What a fantastic day! The tour was brilliant. Landscape was amazing. Wildlife sensational. And let me tell you again….I saw a Hairy Armadillo!

Saturday 19th March
At Sea – Southern Atlantic
Day 37 of the trip – Day 7 on the ship.

Another lovely sea day.  The weather is changing. Cold and wet.

Lovely. 

I started off with a visual trivia.  Sarah – I failed.  I only got 19/20. I got the stupid Shrew wrong. I said Vole! Looser.

Then on to the progressive trivia. But I kicked butt there.

I got the weird questions like “Who was Doc’s 1955 dog in Back to the future?

How many Oscars did Harry Potter win?

And where does the address Sherman Drive, Sydney come from?

I was sitting in the Concierge Lounge and asked someone where everyone was. “They have all gone to the Lunch with the Officers”.

But I didn’t get an invite so I raced down.

When my room was changed…it didn’t change on the Loyalty Officers list. So I haven’t received my chocolate strawberries, wine etc. Someone rang me (as I had told them the old room number) and asked for me.

“Sorry, Raina doesn’t live here. But thank her for all the presents I keep getting!” Funny!

Except that I nearly missed out of my favourite perk.

So made it to lunch and all was good. We all had a great time and stayed over two hours. Food was great and the desert was awesome!

Then of course a sleep followed by a fun night in the lounge.

Now it’s time to cross our fingers for god luck!

Last cruise they did not get to go Around The Horn (and they missed a few ports). The weather was too rough.

All looks great on the wave chart and hopping that tomorrow at 2pm we get the circumnavigate Cape Horn!

Terrible internet tonight.  I'll add photos tomorrow.

20th March, At Sea – “Around the Horn” - Southern Atlantic.

Time to circumnavigate “The Horn”, “Cape Horn, or “Isle Horos”.

Isle Horos is the southernmost headland of the Tierra Del Fuego island group. It marks the start of the Drake Passage and is where the Pacific and the Atlantic meet.

We had great weather. Yay for us! I still take the credit for our amazing good luck – remember I ate the “LUCKY KIDNEY” when I was in Ushuaia last! The last to trips did not make it here. Nor the trip after us!

This was the main route for sailing ships going around the world until the Panama Canal was opened.

It was a really dangerous route with winds roaring in from the west on the “Furious Fifties” and the “Screaming Sixties”. The winds are funneled through the narrow strip between the continents of South America and Antarctica.

As well as the huge winds there are many tiny rocky islands and submerged rock. There are hundreds of wrecks there.

Don’t know why they found it difficult. We found it fairly easy to do a circumnavigation!

Maybe it was something to do with the huge metal ship, good weather (Although the photos indicate different), radar, navigation maps, two lighthouses……….

We did a two hour leisurely sail around (including a stop at the Chile base to drop in our paper work). It was harsh, ruggard and nasty.

The ship dropped staff off at the Chile Base, with two suitcases of passports. A few staff sat and stamped more then 3000 passports. That was pretty exciting. A rare stamp. As an added treat, other staff members went and picked up the same number of beach stones. We each got one. I love to pick up a rock at places I go, so Antarctic was torture that you couldn't take or leave anything. A rock from here was very exciting.

I was a little bit conflicted about them taking so many rocks......but i guess very few ships get there. And Captain Dimas was so happy to finally get 'Around the Horn'.

After our loop around the horn, we went to pick up the rescue boat - and our passports. That was a lot more difficult then planned and we spun around for about half an hour trying to get them out of the wind enough to get them back onto the ship.

And of course we got our certificates. A great day! Fantastic, I have sailed 'Around the Horn'.

Then headed off to Ushuaia. Which is good as I love Ushuaia.

21st March, Ushuaia, Argentine.

Back in Ushuaia, Argentina. And it is still a delightful little town. When I was here nearly five weeks ago (can you believe that) it was a charming little fishing town with lots of adventure activities and a cool climate. Now it is a ski resort town gearing up for the winter.

As I was getting ready to leave the ship, the room steward said that it was really cold out there – about 5 degrees. I decided to go back and put on thermals underneath – since I had a few thermals with me! I opened one of my vacuum packed bags of worn clothing from Antarctica. As I pulled thermals out the waft of Penguin and guano poured out. My room now smells like a Pinguinera. That’s Spanish for a Penguin Rookery! Pretty funny.

The temp all day was around 8-10 degrees with a sharp little wind. It snowed over night and all the hills had more then a dusting of settled snow. It must be awfully impressive in the winter with the huge rugged mountains right on the edge of town.

There was a big protest happening in town. It started just after I felt last time. A large section of the main street had been barricaded off and a ‘tent village’ has been built. They were protesting for better retirement benefits so I totally support them. But wow, such a commitment to be camping out in this coming weather. They believe they will be there for at least a month.

When I say ‘tent village’ it was more of a pallet village. Structures built like sheds out of pallets. Lots of fire drums, meat cooking and lots of people chatting. And of course many of the Ushuaia town dogs there visiting. The people were all really friendly and happy to chat and have photos taken.

And that was Ushuaia.  Wonderful.

So off we went along the Beagle Channel. In the other direction this time, where there were a number of glaciers. We saw two of them before loosing the light. It was stunning. 

Francia is high in the mountains and never reaches the Beagle.

Italia Glacier does flow into the Beagle. The captain circled the ship in front of Italia.

So it’s “Ciao” to Argentina and “Hola” to Chile.

I have absolutely loved Argentine. What a beautiful country. I’ve seen the Pampas – the flat highly productive agricultural plains, The Steppes – the absolutely flat desert country, the Patagonian mountains and highlands, the jungle at Iguazu Falls, as well as towns and cities. Buenos Aires is fantastic. Absolutely beautiful with wonderful people where ever I have been.

And Spanish is such a beautiful language. It sounds so happy and expressive.

So – I have loved Argentina

I hope it loved me.

I wonder if it will cry for me (leaving). I hope not.

 22nd March, Puerto Arenas, Chile.

Puerto Arenas is a small city on the edge of the Magellan Strait.

It was founded in 1948, as a penal colony then developed as a shipping port. It was an important shipping port during the 1880’s gold rushes then continued to grow ‘on the back of the sheep’ with many large sheep farmers living here.

Puerto Arenas is the starting point for the Antarctic Base trips and has a huge whale/penguin/wildlife watching industry.

A large mob of dolphins entertained us in the Concierge Lounge this morning, then escorted the tenders back and forth for much of the morning. I went into town and wandered around. I looked at the main tourist attractions – the monuments, cathedral and many really nice old building. I went and ate a King Crab - Seafood is to Chile, as Meat is to Argentina.

Later that day I headed over to the markets. As well as the best Empanada ever – seafood of course, I discovered a wonderful new drink. “Calafate Sour”. Calafate is a local berry made into a liquor, it’s then mixed with a Pisco Sour and topped off with a lemon drink. Amazing. So much yum!

23rd March, Chilean Fjords, Chile.

Overnight we had made our way along the Magellan Strait and at 3.30am we hit the Pacific Ocean - well, it hit us. A good storm that woke most people up, and banged for the rest of the night. It wasn’t that rough…it was just noisy.

Early in the morning we turned north and were back into the sheltered Fjords area. From then on the view went from fantastic to spectacular. I’ve sailed through the NZ Sounds, Norway Fjords, Alaskan Inside Passage and The Swedish Archipelago – all brilliant. But this was all that and more.

Such stunning country (to look at - not to live in) and so close.

After lunch we pulled up at “El Brujo Glacier” and looked. Pronounced ‘Brew Hoo’. Bruju is a Warlock in Spanish and is such a cool word! 

They sent the rescue boat out to collect ice for our cocktails. They then dropped it as they were loading the boat.

 

There was a small expedition ship at the glacier with a group off in a zodiac. I could feel them looking at me, laughing and thinking “Ha, look at her on the huge ship and look at us on the land near the ice”.

Little did they know where I had just been! LOL.

It was then more of this viewing until dark. No chance of a nap today. It's wonderful sailing past little Bergy Bits again.

What a spectacular day!

24th March, More Chilean Fjords, Chile.

Another lovely day of sailing past stunning landscapes. 

The ‘huge seas’, that we had been warned of for last night were fine. A few things did fall off shelves in my room but it wasn’t terribly rough. By mid morning we came back into the Fjords and were travelling on glassy water again.

The morning started with the Crown and Anchor brunch for high level members. It was lovely but the exciting thing was Ray, an Aussie that we met on the Asian cruise last year reached Pinnacle and got his awards. Very exciting – and so good to cheer for an Aussie. (There are three Aussie Pinnacles now).

The afternoon was spent watching more amazing stuff. The giant Jellyfish that we have seen in Aquariums were floating by, white rocks (guano) covered in Cormorants, Lighthouses and Sea Lions.

Only problem was that we were now heading due north – and the western sun was not nice. But we came up with a way to fix that. You don't get many sea days this pretty. Or calm. Lovely!

25^th March, Puerto Montt, Chile.

We sailed up in inlet and tendered into the town of Puerto Montt. The town was established in 1853 by German immigrants. It’s now a transit port and is the business district of the Los Largos Region - Lakes District.

I went with Ruth and Michael (from the Asia cruise)  and we got for $150 for 7 hours. The driver only spoke Spanish - but that was OK, the other two had Spanish.

It was then up to Largos Llanquihue. The second largest lake in Chile. First stop was at a town called Fruitllar (Fruit – ee – ar), the city of Music. German solider settler established the town in 1856 and very German looking it is. Many of the houses would be very at home in the Alps. All built with shingles. 

Teatro del Lago is the stunning theatre build over the lake and is apparently the best acoustic theatre ever built in South America.

There are two volcanoes across the lake. One erupted last year with an 18 kl plume. Only ash damage. The fog finally lifted enough to see them. It was still hazy but we could see them. They look awfully stunning across the lake.

We also saw lots of great birds and heaps of great scenery. Turkey Vulture.

And I SAW AN OTTER! Squeal with excitement. A Southern River Otter. 

It was a young one and ran onto the road where it was very close to the lake and did a few leaps and jumps in its panic. Lucky we didn’t hit it –as it was an otter – and they are endangered. How awesome! World's worst photo ......but I was so excited I just looked for many seconds then thought to grab the camera, turn on and shoot. LOL

We also saw drilling rigs and went underneath power lines. Haven't done that before in a ship!

It was getting towards the sad part of the trip. One sea day to go.

26th March, At Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Chile

Last day on the cruise. A lovely day with some Trivia, visiting people, bridge tour and final night drinks in the lounge. And of course that horrible activity called packing.

The day started with a super heavy fog. No idea what the landscape was like as visibility was about 5 metres. Fog horn was sounding every five minutes.

I did a bridge tour and saw seals and whales, and won a gold medal in Sports trivia. LOL. 

The fog was lifting by 4.30 in time for my bridge tour. That was a good thing as a whale spouted off in the distance, then numerous fur seals when sailing by.

A huge pod of dolphins played along side us for a while.

And of course the fog was totally gone in time to let the sun blast into the Concierge Lounge by drinks time.

A fun night was had.

27th March, Valparaiso, Chile      

GET OFF MY SHIP DAY!

Getting off the ship was quick and easy. It was a working port so off the ship and onto a bus to the entrance, luggage, then out. I was doing a tour with a group. A tour of Valparaiso then into Santiago. It took about 30 minutes to find our bus and all our group but then off we headed on our tour.

Chile is controlled by 10 families. All retail. All industry. All politics. The fishing industry (which farms much of the worlds "Atlantic Salmon" is owned by one family). Democracy is a bit different here. Everything was different! But amazing!

Valparaiso is the main sea port and the second largest city in Chile. It was settled by the Picunche natives. The Spanish first arrived in 1536. The first pier was built in 1810, but then the land moved and the ocean was five blocks away.

 By the second half of the 19th century it was known as the 'Jewel of the Pacific" but by the second half of the twentieth century was not kind. Many of the wealthy family left, and the Panama canal opened. Valparaiso declined. Recently there was a renaissance, with many artists moving in to the city's hillside historic districts.   

First stop was a look out over the port, with of course many tourist stalls. Yay 30 minutes! I hate 'tourist stalls'!

Many vehicles parked in a tiny "keyhole" car park, which was controlled by a little old lady who ordered the buses around then took money from them. She had a high vis vest. Not sure if she was official or an entrepreneur. But the tiny car park was very efficient. Rolling Tetris at its finest.

We then looked around at other lovely views before heading ‘up the hills’ to the poorer parts of town. In Valparaiso the poor areas are up the hill with the stunning views. The expensive areas are down on the flat.  Why? Roads and services…or lack of them.

The hills are a network of houses sprawling off each other, perched on the sides of hills and steep drop offs. There are main roads around the suburbs - but none between the houses. There were a few buses that run around the main roads - and a 'network' of cars/taxis. They drove around a defined loop on the smaller roads. You flag one down and jump in. There might be four people getting out, at four different places. It travels around its loop and you say when you want to get out. The cost is the same as the bus. Looked like they were making a good trade and very handy for the locals. But then they had to wind their way up or down - hundreds of meters up twisty, skinny steep staircases to their houses - carrying their groceries or whatever.

The Artist influence has allowed spectacular street art. The houses are painted in bright colours and many have murals. Many people pay the artists to do their houses. It was amazing.

Street Art AND rusty stuff! YAY. Unless of course if you hate street art.

The other thing they have is dogs! Millions of dogs. The houses don’t have yards – and these are not sweet little inside dogs. These are big dogs. And they all live on the street then go home for some food. Some just live on the streets. Some had kennels in lane ways and on the side of the road. And they all poo. Everywhere. 

So did I mention how many dogs there are! funny – seeing 10 of us picking our way along the skinny streets and dodging the poo. At least one poo in ever square metre. All of our group were dog people - but still worried about the smell and the tip toe game. Some of the group were not lucky at all times and had to play the foot scraping game - a lot!

And here is the kicker. As they are mainly devote Catholics……they do not believe in desexing of dogs! That would be interfering in Gods work!

We went for a ride on a Funicular down one of the amazing hills - wow, so steep.

Next to Valparaiso (right next to) is Vina del Mar – a super expensive ‘resort’ town. The urban sprawl has the two area touching each other – but the divide is dramatic. Poor to rich. Just like that. Vina del Mar is very like any expensive beach town with high rise units and trendy shops down to the water. Most of the places are holiday houses for people from Santiago. High end shops and fancy cars were everywhere. The names comes from the vineyard that was originally there overlooking the sea. People would go for evening walks in the area. We visited a museum where some of the stone heads from Rapanui (Easter Island) were visiting. Very cool to see them during the Easter weekend.

We then headed off to Santiago, only 100ks away – but we were travelling on Easter Sunday and Monday was a work day.

Our guide was brilliant - so being stationary on the highway was not a hardship as he had so many stories to tell.

We stopped at a small place for lunch. A family owned restaurant that only uses produce sourced fresh from within 100ks.

The fish had been speared that morning – a rock cod type fish. Local beef, local, figs, local wines, vegies from the organic garden out the back. It was a fairly spectacular meal. And of course wines. We also had a local drink - white wine with Pisco Sour in it. It was actually very nice.

The guide told us about roadside monuments that we see everywhere in Australia. They came from the Latin American countries. When someone dies they need to do a penance to get into heaven. A monument is built at the site of their death and people go and pray there and ask for favours. If the favour is granted the dead person is completing their penance. So rather then being just a cross marking the spot, many were very elaborate.

The traffic continued to be fun as our 100k trip stretched into the third hour.

Santiago has a population of 7 million and the smog to match. You come out of a mountain tunnel and there was Santiago – with the Andes Mountains on the other side. The first part you see are the Shanty towns. The economy here is very much a HAVE and a HAVE NOT. The divide is immense.

All within a very small area where the Shanty towns, home to hundreds of thousands, standard housing units, garbage tips and fancy parks.  So sad.

We then drove around Santiago. A big modern city with all the usual things.

Lots of festivals, Fish and Fruit markets. The main river that runs through town is contained - due to the huge rainfalls. The Mapocho River flows from the Andes mountains onto the west and divides Santiago in two.

Cerro San Cristóbal (San Cristóbal Hill) is a hill in the north of the city. It's 880 m above sea level, and about 300 m above the rest of Santiago. It was named by the Spanish conquistadors for St Christopher, in recognition of its use as a landmark.

It's one of the 10 biggest city parks in the world. With stunning views. Over the city and across to the Andes Mountains, and across “San-hatten” - the financial district!

Tens of thousands of people were up there enjoying the evening. And there thousands of dogs.

As the sun was setting we went down into the city. Stunning.

....And as the sun set on Santiago it also set on my amazing holiday. 45 days of brilliance. Now was the part I hated. Waiting and fussing around at airports.

This really was an unbelievable experience! A long time to be away but so amazing! The wildlife, the scenery, the people and so many different culture! Fantastic.

28th March, Santiago, Chile      

Homeward Bound!

I had a night at a hotel then got to the airport and checked in - and had to fuss around with luggage because (of course) one bag was too heavy! I wandered around and saw the world's biggest sandwiches.  300x300 mm square.

Premium Economy was almost empty. 

The lady next to me...had just got off the Rhapsody, so we chatted about the trip. It's funny how two people can see a trip differently. After take off we all got up and moved seats - all getting a row each! And the best thing about a row to yourself......one TV to watch movies, the other to have the flight path etc showing. LOL

I made a huge 'nest' and filled up the foot well area. Brilliant seat! Happy!

The Andes were stunning.

We flew on a vector rather than on a straight line. In this part of the world it is the shortest way. Hard to understand but remember maps don't really look anything like the world looks. We flew right down over Punta Arenas then down over the edge of Antarctica. That was cool! A final glimpse.

I arrived in Sydney - 2 days later, as we skip a day with the crossing of the time line. I took off on the 28th and landed on the 30th. Then a Three and a half hours on a bus home – as I wasn’t in time for the final flight.

What’s next? I have been to the bottom and loved it. Well of course I now have to go north and see the top of the world! 

August 2017. A land trip to Greenland and Iceland! Then back onto the Sea Spirit for 16 nights to Franz Josef Land. Home of Polar Bears, Walrus and other exciting creatures.

BOOKED!