Home Sweet Home

Our last stop was Valpariso, Chile.  We got off the ship in the morning, went on a tour of the area, and then over to the big city of Santiago. We boarded our flight at 10:15 pm, flew 10 hours to Atlanta, Georgia, then another 4 hours to Phoenix.

It was a great trip.  Thank you to everyone who read my blog.  Now that I'm home on my own computer I can see that the videos didn't show very well.  And they took tons of time to load!  Guess I'll stick with still shots if I ever do this again. 

Also, I want to especially thank Papa C.Jay for all of his technical help.  Without him, this wouldn't have been possible.  What a good guy!

A final thought:  When I think about how big the world is, it really doesn't seem very big at all.  For us to leave the Falkland Islands and get down to the Antarctica Peninsula in a couple of days seems remarkably fast.  But then you see these wide open, isolated, uninhabited places on earth, and the earth seems huge.  So there's the paradox in my perception.

Thanks again for being part of my adventure.  Grandma Jean

The Andes Mountains, Patagonia, and the Land of Volcanos

After 2 days of stormy seas, we reached Chacabuco, Chile, near the end of the Chilean Fjords. ( A fjord is a long narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs created by glacier activity.) We have left the glaciers and ice.  Now we are in the  northern part of the Chilean Patagonia where there are evergreen trees and trout streams. Here the magnificient Andes Mountains end.

The Andes begin in the northern part of the continent of South America. They are highest there and continue down the entire continent, until they get to their lowest point in southern Chile.  Here, at Chacabuco we see the Andes disappear into the Pacific Ocean. 

When the native peoples lived here, they used animal hides as clothing.  They wrapped the hides around their feet to walk through the snow, creating very large footprints.  When the Spaniards saw the the large footprints, they named the place "patagonia" which means "land of the big feet".

This part of Patagonia has been left alone by outsiders.  The port of Chacabuco has only 250 residents.  They all came out to take pictures of the huge cruise ship, something they had not seen before.

 

       Below is a picture of Chacabuco and the Andes Mountains.                                                                                                                                                           

 

You can't see it in this picture, but at the foot of the mountains is a small city, Coyhaique. This area is representative of northern Patagonia.

After leaving Chacabuco, we went to a port named Puerto Montt, a large modern city, and got on a bus to tour what they call the lake district. 

Our guide explained that there are around 40 volcanos in the area, 10 of them are still active.  Today we went to see the Osorno Volcano, which last erupted 120 years ago. However, it still spews out smoke and ash. When these are combined with melting snow and rocks, a grey river of slush rushes down the mountain.  To keep the roads from getting blocked, they keep a path or "canal" so the slush can flow freely down to the rivers and lakes. These canals are where lava previously flowed. Everywhere you look, there is grey or black sand and cooled off lava rocks.

Here we are in front of the Osorno Volcano:

This video shows one of the canals used for runoff. They have many of these.

Here is a picture C.Jay took of me on the berm of sand filming the video above.

Is this a UFO?  When we were at the volcano, there were hundreds of huge, flying black bugs. At first some of us thought they were bees, but they acted more like June bugs. Our guide called them "petras" and they are like a very, very large weird fly.  They kept ruining my pictures!!!

This turquise water is due to the unusual minerals found in the area.

Punta Arenas: March of the Penguins

Today we went to Punta Arenas, Chile, which overlooks the Strait of Magellan, discovered by Fernando Magellan (another interesting explorer you kids should read about).  Our adventure was going to a Magellanic penguin colony 35 miles northwest of the city, on the bleak shores of Otway Sound. (A sound is an inlet off of the ocean.) These penguins nest underground in burrows that they dig with their beaks and feet. The primary purpose of the nests is to breed. After the young ones begin to swim, the colony moves on to other waters.  Penguins live 25 – 30 years, and they always come back to the place where they were born for mating season.  They usually have 1 or 2 offspring.  They swim for food every 8 hours. Couples are always the same, and they come back to the colony for the reproduction season.  No single penguin comes with them.  It is interesting to see them march from their burrows to the ocean where they swim and frolic and seemingly chat with the other penguins.

  

Below is the march of the people to see the penguins:

Here they are! You can see them coming out of their nests to go to the sea.

Playing in the sea

Below are some videos of the penguins.  The wind was blowing extremely hard; about 70 mph. It was hard to hold the camera steady.  Turn down the volume on your computer before watching; or the sound of the wind will be too loud. Some of the penguins were having a hard time walking in the wind too!

Here is the march of the penguins to the sea for lunch. They remind me of a line of school children going to the cafeteria!



 Here they enter the sea:

Now it's recess time as they swim, play and socialize:

Here's a group that doesn't have a very good line:

Cape Horn, Ushuaia (Argentina), Beagle Channel

After leaving Antarctica, we crossed the Drake Passage.  Sir Francis Drake is credited with discovering the passage when he meant to go through the Straits of Magellan, and a great storm blew him way off course.  In fact, there’s a controversy among some historians that he actually found it, since some of his shipmates denied ever seeing the open sea.  He’d be a good explorer for a school report!!

  The Drake Passage is the body of water between South America and Antarctica where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Pacific Ocean. The passage was discovered in 1578, and it wasn’t until 1820, nearly 250 years later, that Antarctica was discovered, due to violent seas keeping explorers away.

 The southern most land before crossing the Drake Passage to go to Antarctica is called Cape Horn.  There have been thousands of shipwrecks over the centuries around Cape Horn because the strength of the wind makes the seas near uncrossable.    I thought Cape Horn was the southern most tip of the continent of South America, which is a common misconception.  It’s actually not connected to the continent at all, but is at the south end of an island named Horn.  When we passed by, it was windy, foggy and cold, and we could only imagine all the explorers who wrecked their ships there. It is a famous, symbolic  place for all people on seafaring vessels.

Here is a picture of us with Cape Horn in the background.  Doesn't look like much; it's basically a big rocky island!

The next day we finally arrived  at the port of Ushuaia, Argentina, after being at sea for six days. (pronouced "oo shoo AYE ah".). Ushuaia is proud to claim to be the southernmost city in the world, and its slogan is “fin del mundo” which means “at the end of the world.”  In fact, everything in the town uses the slogan.  There is the post office at the end of the world, the golf course at the end of the world, the souvenir shop at the end of the world…you get the idea.  We went on a scenic tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park.  Tierra del Fuego means “land of fire”.  How it got its name is interesting.  Another explorer, Fernando Magellan, sailed his ships through here, and in the dark they continually saw many small fires.  Not realizing that there were native peoples already here, he didn’t understand what he was seeing, and called it the land of fire.  Some explorers were even afraid to come because of that name!

Near the city of Ushuaia is the end of the Panamerican Highway; the road literally comes to a dead end. The highway begins in Alaska, and if you had the time, energy and money, you could drive it all the way through Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, all of South America right to the sign you see us standing at below!

This little building on the tiny pier is the End of the World Post office.

 Everybody likes to stand in front of signs in Ushuaia. Here I am with Sheryl and Sandy in front of the city sign telling you it's at the end of the world. ("fin del mundo")

In the evening, after leaving Ushuaia, we cruised through the Beagle Channel.  This is a narrow channel of water with mountains on both sides.  As we cruised through, it was quiet, foggy, eerie, and isolated (we only saw one other vessel the entire time).  Then we came across a group of glaciers!  (A glacier is a body of ice that moves downhill under its own weight).  Below are some pictures we took.

Below is a picture of a melting glacier.

                                                                                                                                                 

We are traveling on the ship the Star Princess which has 2600 passengers and 1150 crew.  It is 931 feet long and 17 stories high.  All the weight such as fresh water, food, and other supplies is at the bottom of the ship to help keep it balanced.  We are traveling with friends, Bill and Sheryl and Sandy and Keith on a 17 day cruise.

Here is a picture of the ship docked in Ushuaia.  You can get some idea of its size when you see some of the other smaller ships around it.

Here's all six of us in Ushuaia: Bill, Keith, Sandy, Sheryl, me, C.Jay.

The girls bought matching Antarctica sweatshirts!!!! 

Antarctica - Day 3 continued: Videos

In the following video I show a narrow passageway and say that this is the end, and we are turning around.  That is incorrect.  The ship actually went through the passage very slowly.  It was quite a navigational effort to avoid all the ice. 

Antarctica - Day 3: Gerlache Strait

Antarctica Day 4:  Gerlache Strait

Today we are cruising down the Gerlache Strait to see the Neumayer Glacier, Wiencke Island, and Anvers Island, which are all part of the Antarctica Peninsula.  It is 33 degrees outside.  Antarctica is the coldest place on earth, and this body of water is frozen up to 3 feet in the winter.  But it is summer now, and the port lecturer, Joe May, is excited about the beautiful day we have outside.  Although the ship's crew has been down here before, they never got to see the scenery due to heavy fog.  We are going as far south as 65 degrees latitude.  When we went to Norway a couple of years ago, we passed the Arctic Circle in the north.  Here in the south the Antarctic Circle is at 66 degrees but the ship can’t go that far because Lloyd’s of London won’t  insure it beyond 65.  So this is as far south as we get to go.  This is the last year these big ships will be allowed to come to the pristine waters of Antarctica.  Due to environmental reasons, only ships using very expensive, cleaner fuel will be allowed to come.  We feel very fortunate to be able to see part of the world very few people are able to go to.

The Gerlache Strait is the Antarctica I envisioned.  Snow covered mountains, glaciers, icebergs.  Water as smooth as glass.  Quiet, peaceful, isolated. Blue and white. 



Neumayer Glacier (above)





Antarctica, Day 2 continued: Video of Iceberg Alley

Antarctica - Day 2 continued: "Iceberg" Alley

The continent of Antarctica is a series of very large pieces of land which are covered with an ice sheet (compared to the Arctic Circle and the North Pole which have no land, just ice). When Antarctica's ice glaciers and ice sheets meet the sea, they are subject to the destructive forces of wave action, the relative warmth of liquid water, and wind.  These weaken the ice, and parts of the glacier break off, forming icebergs.

After leaving Admiralty Bay, we cruised to Hope Bay which is in the Antarctica Sound, where we saw dozens of very large icebergs.  The definition of an iceberg is any piece of ice 16 feet or more above sea level.  Over 75% of an iceberg is hidden under water, thus the expression "the tip of the iceberg".  When you look at some of these giant icebergs, try to imagine what is under them.

The pieces of ice that are between 3 to 8 feet are called bergy bits.  A very small piece of floating ice is called a growler due to the sounds made as the ice grinds along the side of a wooden ship.  We hit a few growlers ourselves.

All ice is actually blue but our eyes can't pick up the blue color unless it's a big chunk of ice.  Most icebergs look white because we are seeing more than ice; we are seeing air bubbles.  The air reflects back all the colors of the spectrum which we perceive as white.  The bluest ice you'll see has no or few air bubbles and is very, very old ice (thousands of years old).  Oh, and one more thing:  icebergs are like snowflakes, no two are alike.

This iceberg is about 4 stories above the water at its highest point:

There are penguins on the icebergs below (the tiny dark spots).



The blue iceberg below is thousands of years old.

 
<> The iceberg below is about a mile long.



Majestic, Spectacular Antarctica - Day 2

First, here's a little information about Antarctica.  It is the fifth largest continent, located at the bottom of the globe.  It is the coldest, driest and windiest continent; 98% is covered in snow.  There are no permanent residents; nobody owns Antarctica.  Instead, many nations have research stations and conduct scientific experiments in what may be the last pristine place on earth. 

On the second day in Antarctica we went to the Antarctica Peninsula, to a place called Admiralty Bay off King George Island in the South Shetland Islands.  There is a research station there and we picked up some scientists from the station.  While the ship "parked" in the bay, we saw whales and lots of penguins swimming through the water.  This was a beautiful, sunny day, a rare event in Antarctica.

Majestic, Spectacular Antarctica- Day 1

On our first day in Antarctica, it snowed, the water was extremely rough (swells up to 20 feet) and the fog covered Elephant Island. 

Lots of Penguins

Jan. 12, 2011

Hello to everyone following my blog!  Today we visited the Falkland Islands which are a few hundred miles east of the coast of Argentina.  We all got into a Land Rover (like a jeep) and traveled over wet, boggy land.  Talk about off roading!  I've never done anything like that before!  This went on for literally miles while we were thrown around the vehicle.  We finally got to Volunteer Point where the King Penguins have a colony.

There is no ice or snow here. In fact, you'll see grass!  (remember, it's their summer) The penguins have been nesting and breeding here as long as the locals can remember (our guide was born and raised in the Falklands as were his parents and grandparents).

The majority of the penguins were gathered together in a circle, and many of them were sitting on eggs.  There was a white rock border around them.  We could freely walk among the penguins that were outside the rock barrier as long as we didn't touch them.  Over the hill from their nesting grounds is the ocean.  The mama and papa penguins take turns going into the ocean to eat.  They are gone anywhere from days to several weeks.

The noises you hear on the videos are: 1) rain (it was raining fairly hard which is why the pictures are a little grey); and 2) the "trumpeting" noise the male penguins make to announce their availability to the females.

The majority of the penguins in the pictures are King Penguins.  They have orange feathers and are the second biggest penguin next to the Emperor.  King penguins are 2 - 3 feet tall.  They sit on their eggs until they hatch which is 54 days.  Some were "molting" and growing new feathers.

There were also several magellanic penguins in the area.  They nest underground in burrows.  We almost stepped on a couple of burrows as we walked around.  It was interesting to us that the tourists can walk so close to them, and that they weren't as protected as the King Penguins.  We observed the penguins for about an hour and headed back to the ship on another rough ride in the Land Rover. 

About the Falklands:  The Falklands are a colony of Britain (look on a map; it's very far away).  In 1982 there was a war between Argentina and Britain over the islands.  From that there are a number of unexploded land mines left on the islands in the open spaces of land.  The people can't find them because they are made from plastic and metal detectors won't work.  The mine fields are marked "danger mines"

so people won 't go there.  The roaming sheep are too light to set them off; but cows can and have. Apparently there aren't any where we went off-roading, but like our guide said, if there is one, "we'll never know!"



Grandma and Papa C.Jay

 

This little guy is sitting on an egg!

An Adventure at Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls are located on the Iguazu River on the border of Brazil and Argentina.  There are actually 275 falls.  The Devil's Throat is the name of the highest falls at 269 feet.  When the water hits the river, mist rises up, creating a cloud-like atmosphere. Iguazu is one of the largest falls in the word; it is often compared to Niagara Falls in New York (which is smaller) and Victoria Falls in Africa (which is bigger). 

The falls are located in a national park.  We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel, the only hotel in the park.  There are many different walking trails down to the falls.  My grandson Tommy, who likes the outdoors, would love it here! 

We walked down to the Falls and signed up for a boat ride.  They put life jackets on us, and we got into the boat.  I should have been worried when I saw the boat crew putting on heavy duty raincoats.  Well, we were finally all seated and off we went!  It was exciting as we got closer to the falls.  Then...even closer...we could feel the mist.  Then...it was raining - hey wait...someone is POURING WATER on us...we are UNDER the falls!!!  I can't see.  I only hear the roaring of the falls. We literally got soaked from head to foot, hair, clothes, shoes.  Then they take the boat around and do it again!  We returned to the trail and hiked back up, wet shoes and all.  It was the best ride I've ever been on!!!



Visiting Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is an enormous metropolis with over 12 million people.  There are many different parts to the city and surrounding areas.

A neighborhood I'm going to tell you about is called La Boca. Historically it is Buenos Aires' "Little Italy" where Italian immigrants came in by boat. Years ago there were many "cantinas" with lively music and good food.  In fact, I was there at one of the cantinas when I was 19 years old and on a student tour!  Now all of the cantinas are boarded up and long-ago abandoned due to economic reasons.  A sad sight.  But in other areas of La Boca, the main street, El Caminito, is a touristy roadway with interesting history.  Here the immigrants settled into haphazardly built houses made from metal sheeting, which was leftover material from old ships.   The people painted with whatever paint was left on the shipping docks, and when they ran out of one color they used another.  I took pictures to show you.





Another thing about Argentina:  the food is good!  Their economy is based on agriculture and beef which has resulted in great restaurants!  We went to Las Nazarenes which is a steakhouse with meat and more meat on the menu! The meat is cooked on a spit over the fire.

One night we went to a tango show.  This is a beautiful dance that tells a story.  We had dinner and watched the performers on a stage in a theater-like production.