BUENOS AIRES

We picked up the Rio Plata pilot at 3 p.m., then it took until 8 the next morning to get to Buenos Aires.  The whole delta area is very shallow, and very muddy with all the flow from the rivers in central South America. 

Coast Guard watches our approach

It was a tight fit getting into the port… we were next to a COSCO container ship and there were three other cruise ships that day.  Chaos reigned in the terminal and on the street.

Luckily, we had picked a tour that took us out of the city.  We went through one of the older suburbs – San Isidro – stopping briefly at their cathedral before heading to Tigre port for a visit to the delta.

our tour boat

cruisers!

This is an area of islands where there are many homes, rowing clubs, parks, etc.  Although most of the city people visit on the weekends, there are people who live there permanently.  There’s regular mail deliveries, and groceries are sold from market boats that you signal by putting out a flag.

market boat

Boats come in all shapes and sizes (“paddlewheel” and catamaran tour boats, workboats with cranes for construction, garbage boats, water taxis, scheduled “bus” service that haul people and cargo… even down to kayaks and canoes.)

coast guard

artificial beach at delta hotel

On the way back we found we had made a good choice to avoid downtown… there were protests by conscripts who had been in the Falklands war and never got veterans status.   Our guide told us to avoid the main squares.

COSTCO Vietnam, fuel barge wait as Costa Fortuna passes

As we were leaving port, the captain announced that we were going to be part of an convoy of large ships.  The port groups traffic because the channel is so shallow they have to limit who can be inbound or outbound.    We were supposed to leave right behind the Costa Fortuna, but our fueling barge took forever to clear the berth…   (We did note that the Costa ship had two tugs attached, while we had none – perhaps a response to the recent grounding off Italy.)

Falklands War

On the way back our guide Derek showed us some of the battlefields of the Falklands War.  He was captured by Argentina while he was working for the phone company… held about 2 hours, then released, so we got a personal insight into the skirmishes. 

He showed us the remains of two Argentine helicopters downed by the Brits… and some of the minefields that remain.  (Of 30,000 mines they have only cleared about 300… we saw workers off in the distance.  

He said they were contractors from Africa.)  He even showed us where they kept the 12,000 Argentine soldiers who surrendered to the British.  

In addition to being a “war” veteran, Derek is a sharpshooter.  His team has been invited to shoot against a military team this weekend, so everyone was wondering whether Prince William would be involved.  (One of the other drivers had seen Will at the military base on the north end of the island.)

The islands remain staunchly British!

One extra – as we came into town, this one guy has a display of whale skeletons on his lawn.  (He’s anti whaling, and has a harpoon gun on display as well!)

Penguins!

We signed up for a tour to Volunteer Point penguin colony.  We were told it was a 4-wheel drive expedition, and they weren’t kidding.  We drove on roads for one hour, then spent 1.5 hours cutting across farms in a caravan of SUVs.  At one point we got to the edge of a bay… we couldn’t even see a road!  We drove down the bank and into the edge of the water before coming out on the other side (it was high tide… on the way back we actually had a beach on which to drive.)

Our tour guide worked two summers as Warden at the site, so he knew the area well and told us all about the wildlife we were seeing.  As we got to the point, it was foggy, and suddenly we were seeing sheep and penguins.  Lots and lots of penguins!!!  Thousands of penguins!

This area is home to three types of penguins – King, Gentoo and Magellanic. 

 

The Kings are about 3 feet tall, and so colorful with yellow markings around their heads.  They keep the egg on their feet as they stand in the colony.  As we approached the colony we began to hear them call… they raise their heads and sound off… wait until we get the DVD out!  We even watched a group “parade” to the beach.

king chick with adults

The Magellanic penguins burrow into the sandy hills.  They are about 12-16 inches tall and have two stripes below their heads. 

The Gentoo penguins are a little bit bigger, and they have a white mark on their heads.  They build nests of pebbles on the hill above the beach.  None were nesting, but we saw various aged chicks.  What was the best thing about it was that they were curious and would come close to the humans.  Our guide explained that these were the juveniles… that the parents had gone to sea to feed in the morning.  In the afternoons they come back and call to their young.  Somehow in the chaos of thousands of birds, parents find their chicks.

We were eating lunch, and suddenly around us the Gentoos all started falling over.  Apparently it was naptime.  Some “fell” going up hill, others just picked a quiet spot.  It was so funny to watch.

the end!

Cape Horn!

On the 10^th we reached our southernmost point… Cape Horn!

We’d been warned to expect bad weather, but woke to a spectacular day.  

(The narrator said of his 100 trips around the horn, this was one of the best!)

We circumnavigated the Isla del Horno (Cape Horn Island), seeing spectacular cliffs and natural sculptures on the north side before passing south of the 1500-foot peak that officially is the horn.  

north end of island

old salt checks out the horn

Here’s the photographic proof of us at that moment, crossing from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

rounding the Horn

There is a marker on the east side of the island.  It is called the Albatross Monument.  

One of the Antarctic cruise ships was near the island, and as we were looking at the monument, it took us a minute to realize that all the specks of orange we were seeing were the passengers from that ship climbing the hill to the monument.  (That ship was smaller and could get close enough to launch boats and take people to the island… we just sailed around the horn.)

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.