Off the ship, now in Chile, Punta Arenas(Sandy Point), feet tired,had walked the town with two couples fromNYC whomI'd met in the airport in Buenos Aires waiting for the flight and it had just turned 4am. Then we were at the same hotel in Ushuaia , and again aboard ship we were assigned to the same table on the ship's dining room.. I really like this Berg, it's about 300,000 people, a great downtown with the city square across the street, in the middle of the square is a combination statue with Magillian on the top, I think, and native American guys on both sides of statue, but one level down; one of these fellows, I've heard about several times, cause his leg & foot are hanging down from on high, and tradition says that if one kisses or rubs his big toe, the kisser (or toe rubber) gets good luck for the next year. I rubbed it vigorously, so here's hoping.
We left the dock about 6:30 PM, just as it was getting dark, got into our assigned cabins--really nice, spacious, and immaculately clean, when it was time for the first of 10 meals. I won't make you drool, but you really should, every thing was soooo good, and there were always choices. Uuummmmm! I ate too much sorry VA folks reading this but they made me do it, I simply couldn't say no. Marcia, the deserts were very similar to those grandma made. Uuummmmmm, again. I forgot, didn't have time to check my blood, but once inbetween meals it was a not great, but OK 125. I only get breakfasts includedfor the foreseeable future so I'll be in control of choices, and will be morecareful. Promise. I did get to Cape Horn, the most southern piece of rock anywhere round the world, except Antarctica. Every time we left the ship (and we left four times) we had to don our winter gear, waterproof outfit on top of that, topped off with the life preserver. So we sort of waddled instead of walking. The next step in leaving the ship, is to get our instructions from the crew, in at least two, but often four languages (Spanish first, English was often next, then Portuguese, and something else. We English speakers were usually in the fourth deck lounge, the Spanish folks were in the fifth deck lounge, as well as the Germans, Romanians, Portuguese, and and the French speakers. It was truly amazing how many languages various members of the crew spoke. The guy who I had as a guide several times spoke Spanish, English and Russian. And he was so funny, and knowledgeable too. Well the next step is to get 13 tourists into the zodiacs safely. Which we did , no one fell into the drink. The guides were strict, and safety conscious, we were all understanding and obeyed, except when we forgot a step here or there. The worst weather was at cape Horn itself. I heard that we had 6 to 8 foot swells on the way to Cap e Horn from the ship, the worst weather on the first trip. The prior trip to ours th landing at Cape Horn was cancelled, due to unsafe weather conditions. So we all tried to be good solders and followed directions, just so we could a?ctually go to Cape Horn. When we got to the island it was raining gently, so we started climbing the the first of seemingly a million stairs, I must have counted each stair more than once, for the actual number of stairs was dramatically less. On the half mile or more climb to the top was accomplished by enduring wind, WIND, and then some really strong gusts of wind that almost knocked us over. And it rained harder, the sleetfelt like bee-bee shot on my face. When I finally got to the top it was sleeting and gusting so hard it was hard to stand to have someone else take your picture to prove you were there but I have the pic. I had my camera out, and took maybe 50 pictures,but I 'd forgotten to charge my tablet, so no blog pics of Cape Horn, but I can prove I was there when I get back home in Iowa and show you my camera shots, maybe my computer geek son, said as a complement Brian, can figure out how to get my camera pics of Cape Horn posted on my tablet blog then. So be patient, I was a top Cape Horn and saw the Atlantic and Pacific merge together. Woopie!!!!! Another bucket list item accomplished. It was astonishing to just be there.
We made three other zodiac trips, two we went ashore, the third we watched sea lions from just feet away from them frolicking in the water and ashore. I'll post those, and some zodiac pics too. Another trip ashore we took the zodiacs to an island and climbed a mountantous hill or a hilly sized mountain. From the top we could see a toy ship way down below, swinging around on it's anchor in the currents of the oceanic bay below. The climb wasn't as hard as the climb to Muchupicchu, but I was winded and had to rest quite often, but I made it all the way up. The last trip. I 'll describe was one of the most interesting, except for Cape Horn, it was the excursion to the base of a glassier. The cragg's were various shades of blue. It is a huge glacier, and it winds around the mountain where you can't see most of itfrom thIe bottom, I had not anticiapted how much I would enjoy this leg of my trip, but I wouldn't have missed it.
See the pics I have on the tablet:
I really do not know what's up but I can't find tons of pics I know I took on the tablet. I didn't erase them, but I can't find them. I'll look on my camera later, damn!!!!!!
First two pics are from the Pre-Columbian Museum in Santiago wooden carved statues showing the Polynesian influence on the mainland. (Easter Island is off shore quite a way and has been part of Chile since 1888, but the islanders became citizens in the 1960's. The 'neckless' is the Incan writing system, but experts differ if the knots on the strings are writing or only accounting, the knots have as yet not been deciffered. The are grouped in tens, one string then has ten strings hanging from the first one. They were worn-carried around the neck like a neckless. And again the pedestrian streets crowded, and with street sellers of everything located everywhere. Not too many pictures tonight because the download time is slower than a small crawling on sandpaper, and the internet only works on the second floor 'lobby'. More after Valporazo tomarrow.
