Ushuaia, Argentina

On the 9^th we reached the southernmost city in the world – Ushuaia!  It’s located on the largest island in Tierra del Fuego.  For us, the draw was that it is the southern end of the Pan-American Highway, so we took the “End of the Road” tour. 

We went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, stopping first at Ensenada Bay.

standing in Argentina, but that's Chile behind us

At one stop Scott spotted a beaver, and the driver backed up the bus so that everybody could see.  (Beavers are not native – they were introduced in the 1940s to create a fur industry, but that didn’t work because it’s not cold enough for their fur to get really thick.)  We saw a number of new birds – including black-necked swans, upland geese, two kinds of caracara, and a condor!

At the end of the road we posed next to the sign…

If all goes well, maybe this summer we can get to the northern end above the Arctic Circle at Prudoe Bay!

After the road ends, there’s a short walk to the bay and a panoramic view.

Beagle Channel

We spent the morning cruising past glaciers along the Beagle Channel – the route named for Charles Darwin’s ship.  (He sailed through here in 1831-36 mapping the area.)  The big glaciers all had been named for countries… we saw Spain, Holland, Italy, and France.   

Italia

in front of Francia

Not quite as spectacular as Glacier Bay, but interesting.    According to the narrator, these glaciers all come off what is the third largest icefield in the world (behind Antarctica and Greenland).  

Southern Chile

Satellite internet service in the southern hemisphere is iffy, at best, so we’ve fallen a bit behind in our posting.  

We sailed late from Valparaiso... we had to wait for 100 passengers to come in from Peru.

After two days at sea, we headed into the Chilean fjords and the Straits of Magellan.  We reached Punta Arenas, Chile on the 8^th.  We were greeted at the pier by a large whale’s tail and Antarctica sign.  

Punta Arenas (“Sandy Point”) is the largest southernmost city on the South American continent, and is capital of the Magellanic Province. 

We took a city tour and visited the local cemetery, 

the mansion of one of the richest families, 

and the town square with its statue of Magellan. 

Local legend has it that if you touch the toe of the statue, you will someday return.  We chose not to touch it.  

Scott watched one  Asian lady lean in to kiss the toe,  and he almost shouted “Norovirus!” (There had been news reports the day before of 2 Princess ships in Fort Lauderdale reporting cases of Noro… we’ve heard of a few people aboard confined to their rooms, but it seems to be from motion sickness from some rough seas and not from the dreaded virus.)

I took a tour to a penguin colony here, and saw Magellanic penguins... they burrow into the sandy soils around the beach.  It was interesting to see penguins standing in a field.

Ruta de Vino!

On the drive between Santiago and Valparaiso we visited two wineries... Casas del Bosque and Morande`

Casas del Bosque

The area looked so much like Napa... dry hills and verdant valley floor with vineyards and olive orchards.

We had a picnic at the vineyard edge,

wondering how the other half is doing tonight!





The owner of the wine tour company met up with us last night and showed us around Valparaiso.





We are now in our room at a B&B near the naval museum.  It overlooks the port and we can see our ship and the Holland America ship Veendam.  We will be checking out soon and head down the hill to board Star Princess.

Santiago

We got in late Tuesday and found our apartment.
We were on the 13th floor and Bonnie was on the 3rd...
and the staff spoke no English.

We managed to muddle our way around ...

computer lesson on our balcony

Wednesday was laundry and exploring a little.

Thursday we walked across the river next door to a sculpture park. 

More Machu Picchu

Our last post said it all... the place is absolutely incredible.
Before we went to bed on Sunday we had word from the manager of the B&B in Aguas Calientes that a train had finally made it through by 1800 that night.  So we knew trains would be running on Monday.  We did the same as the day before -- taxi to the train station & bus to Ollantaytambo, but this time we boarded the train.  Hooray!

It took about an hour and half to get there on the train... we followed the raging Urubamba River the whole time.  At kilometer 82 we could see the groups leaving for the 4-day trek to Machu Picchu along the Inka Trail.

We got to Aguas Caliente about 11, then got our tickets to MP and our bus tickets.  The adventure began as we went from 8000 feet to more than 8400 feet up a series of switchbacks on a narrow road.  About halfway up, we began to see the ruins.

We climbed up to the top of the ruins and then worked our way down.

We even made a friend...

We spent several hours exploring... then the clouds started moving back in and it began to rain.  By the time we got down to the bus station it was pouring.  We had dressed well and managed to stay dry.

Machu Picchu -- Wow!!!!