South America 2007

Well, it’s departure day finally. No more sleeps (it’s almost like waiting for Christmas). Funny, I used to get this feeling when I was first leaving home for a trip, that mixture of anticipation for something new and unknown mixed with the trepidation that something might go wrong and end up cancelling the whole thing. But now that I am a certified world traveller (not certifiable, I don’t think) the departure date has gotten to be more of a relaxed thing, since I’ve travelled to the unknown several times and it’s worked out, one way or another. But this next step really is a big one, and really is into the undiscovered territory, at least by anyone I know (including Nana and Grandad, who have been all over this small world of ours). So I get that feeling again. What will tomorrow bring? Or the day after? Ahh, I can’t wait.

you’ll notice a couple of new pictures, these are from the past couple days here in Ushuaia. We’ve had sunshine now for three days in a row, so we’ve been getting out of town and seeing the countryside. I got to teach a couple Israelis how to build a snowman at the base of a glacier. I don’t think it shows in the picture, but even the snow has a blue tinge to it.

Bye for now!

First, there was no rain until 20:00h today so we got to go to the national park where there is a variety of fierce local fauna that one has to be careful around. Nice hike. Those bunnies really do have fangs.
Last night, Morris wanted GGC so we put together a little meal (Dad really doesn’t know how to cook for two – mir) that served a whole whack of the crowd in the common room. Personally, I was very proud when people started having seconds even though I made the single biggest mistake that I´ve ever done cooking. I now have another version of the meal.
Morris really does like to surf the night life portion of Ushuaia. She slept in til ?11:00h. I guess her feet were tired. I WOULDN´T KNOW.
Salud, moi

Well folks this is not an exiting week as we are just waiting around Ushuaia for the trip. The weather in Ushuaia, everyday, would be rain, clouds wind & sun, cool temperatures. We pretty much are always wearing coats and rain jackets. We have found good food and met interesting people in abundance. Yesterday at lunch we invited a couple to join us as all the tables were full. The lady was staring at my shirt, they were from Praha and did not expect to see that shirt down here.
As far as emails, expect quite a dead time while we´re sailing as internet is $3 US a minute on the boat. We will try to send some info sometime, otherwise, we´re leaving the site open to not clutter up C&C´s trip.
Enjoy like all, moi

Okay, now that the initial Yahoo!! is out of the way, here’s some actual information on the trip. It’s an 11 day cruise on an 80 passenger boat, leaving Usuaia on Feb. 11th and returning on the 22nd. The crossing of the Drake Passage takes two days each way, leaving 5-6 days for visiting the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding islands. Weather and ice-permitting, we attempt two landings per day, some on the islands and some on the continent. We’re supposed to have great chances of seeing several types of penguins, whales, sea lions and birds. Oh, and icebergs. Oh, and glaciers. So for the next couple of weeks any tanning I do will be from reflected sunlight off ice and snow. Oh yeah, what a holiday!

Cost… not for the faint-walleted.

So, since Dad is a pretty sporadic storyteller, and I’ve been mostly occupied with uploading pictures, here are a few more descriptions of what we’ve been keeping ourselves busy with. Torres del Paine was great. Really neat terrain, in that the whole trail system is a big circle surrounding a group of amazingly photogenic mountains, with all the hard climbs shooting off towards the center for better views of the rocky peaks. For those of you out there who have attempted rock climbing, the Torres sure look like they’d be a challenge. But people have made it to all of the peaks (between 1958 and 1963). After all that hiking, we decided to take it easy by boarding a (not)luxury cruise-liner (read-cargo ferry) for what was supposed to be a 38hour trip through the Straights of Magellan and the Beagle channel. The extra day we spent in a small enclosed bay waiting out a storm sure seemed like a smart idea when we finally got to Puerto Williams and heard stories about boats caught out in the waves, with one big cruise ship down near Antarctica ending up crashed on rocks and having to evacuate all on board. (don’t worry, I’m sure that won’t happen to us) After spending a relaxing day in P. Williams (which WE consider to be the southern-most city, not this uppity Ushuaia bullshit though they do have the marketing behind them) we bought passage on another small familly-run boat to get us across the channel to the North (see? not furthest south!) and into Ushuaia. The captain and crew were really friendly, it was nice and personal, especially since we were the only four passengers. Oh yeah, the other two in our group were another father-daughter pair, Kewal and Juhie. They’re from the States and have three more weeks to go, part of which they will be spending in Rio during Carnaval. Really great people.

So yeah. That’s it for now.

C&C, we´ll be a full two oceans from you by the 13th, or whenever you leave, or weather permitting.
Jo-Anne, I have you a collectable from the tip for your collection.

Well well well…

…are all I can share with you. How do I describe being safe harboured, delayed, in a small cove just south of the straits of Magellan to ride out a gale for a whole day. Winds gusting at some unbelievable rate, mingling with the fellow passengers. By the way, this was on a ferry, a very small ocean going ferry. Describe the swells off the pacific coming over the boat as we turned to the Beagle Channel. Yiou should all see the glaciers along this channel. That was really an addition to my life.
We´ve been in Puerto Williams where Morris got snowed out on her hike. Ate more centolla, crab.
Again, people are constantly providing a vast panorama of life. Juwie & her dad Kval were really nice to visit with, the austrians, lots of other tourists from all over, all friendly. The helpful locals everhwhere.
We are now in Ushuaia and have made our first tentative feel for a trip to the south, more later.
Take care all, moi

Really great experience hiking to Torres del Paine, a much photographed mountain and well worth the tortous hike up. Four hours ending in a 1 hour scaling of moraine (rock field) at a severe slopel. I did make it. I paid for it over the next two days as my legs were sore. We did a couple more hikes but Morris will show the pictures as rain cut me off one day and sore legs the other, I did try though. Basically, our first day was gorgeous, a touch of sunburn, the next was on and off rain and the third was wind, and I mean wind.
Quite a parque, the Torres del Paine (read pain for me). The refugios we stayed at were really nice and there were lots of pleasant people. Great scenery. This was an expensive bit of holiday as the rooms (shared accommodations), meals and drinks were priced at remote resort type prices but we survivied. Anybody who likes to rough it camping would find this a paradise. Lots of travellers from variousw places, switzerland, england, australia, israel, germany, france, some americans, spain, italy.
Now we are off to the tip, we sail this afternoon and will be crossing the staits of Magellan going to Puerto Williams. If anybody can´t find these locations, check with Simon as he has my map of Argentina/Chile.
Next message from the tip, moi

Well, the next few days are all taken care of. We’re really finding that there are some important connections down here that have to be booked ahead, due to a combination of schedules and complications. So there was the missed sailing from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales due to boat breakdown, then down here on the southern tip, we’re finding that either they don’t have the sailing route we would like or that they go so infrequently that we really have to match our stays and stops to fit it in. So our stay here in Puerto Natales/Torres del Paine is a bit short so that we can make it back to Punta Arenas on Wednesday to catch the boat from there to Puerto Williams (so many Ps to keep track of!) But we are booked for that sailing. Puerto Williams is on la Isle Navarino, which is just South of Tiera del Fuego.

So the next three days will be spent hiking in the national park, which we’re looking forward to. We just met a couple of girls who recently returned from a nice little continent to the south, and they gave us what we hope will be valuable information. I guess we’ll see.

So that’s what we *will* do. As for what we *have* done, we visited the Municipal Cemetary in Punta Arenas, which Grandad told me about before we left. The hostel we stayed at in P.Arenas was run by a really friendly and helpful couple, they pointed us in the direction of a great restaurant where we got to try the Chilean delicacy, Curantos (well, I shouldn’t say delicacy, it was basically a heaping plate of oh so slow-cooked meat and potatos – no knife necessary). We’re trying to put together how to cook it once we get home. Maybe some of you want to be in on that?

I took some pictures from the plane as we flew into Punta Arenas, they turned out pretty well, I think. And uploading to the new and improved gallery is really quite easy, and doesn’t take too long, so hopefully I’ll be able to do it regularly. We’re enjoying the south, but it’s not quite as warm here. If you check the photo gallery, you’ll see that even Dad is wearing pants!

Crazy!