Blogs from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, South America - page 12

Tierra del fuego where the andes finally meet the sea has become known as el fin del mundo only Antartica lies beyond some 100o kms away. The end of the world and everywhere you see it from the last train to be ridden to the last beer to be drunk a lesson in marketing!!! It is made up of a main island and several smaller ones divided between Argentina and chile and is separated from the rest of South America by the straits of magellan. It is so named because when ferdinand Magellan discovered it in 1520 he saw a series of fires along the coastline as the indigenous indians tried to warn their fellow peoples of the dangers to come , and how right they were. We flew to the city of Ushuaia gateway to ... read more

In the morning we found ourselves cruising down Glacier Alley. On our west-to-east traverse, all of the glaciers appeared on our portside, so in the early morning all we had to do was open the drapes to see the scenery pass by our Lanai cabin door and foot to ceiling windows. We booked the cruise over one eighteen months ago, and we are very happy with the upgrade offer we got. There were penguins along the shoreline that were spotted by the crew, and some sea lions. One passenger reported seeing a flying penguin skimming above the water, but our exploration director assured us that what this passenger saw was really a southern cormorant. I was so busy trying to catch up with the blogs for the past two days, we sort of missed the sit-down ... read more

Over the years I had wondered once or twice how difficult and costly it would be to go to Antarctica. I never looked into and never really considered it to be achievable. It just wasn't on the radar. I can tell you now that it’s within more people’s grasp than you might think. The way it began was fairly innocuous. I met two different people in Santiago who had recently been to Antarctica. After speaking with them and listening to their stories I decided to do a quick internet search into costs for the hell of it. I looked up the companies they recommended to me but I could not find any ‘deals’ that were supposedly available. Everything was full price. I either wasn't finding the right companies, or there were no deals. After a couple ... read more

Tussen Buenos Aires en Vuurland ligt de tijd dat Sangita ons in Buenos Aires opzocht en in Puerto Madryn weer gedag zei. drieduizend kilometer asfalt, grotendeels door een leeg landschap het schiereiland Valdes, waar duizenden zeeleeuwen nesten, honderdduizenden pinguïns ons amuseren, en (in het goede seizoen) walvissen en orka's langszwemmen onze aankomst in de zuidpunt van Vuurland en het eerste zicht op de boot waarmee we naar Antarctica zeilen In Buenos Aires kijken we met verbazing naar het leven in La Boca. Een wijk waar tijdens de grote immigratiegolf de gelukzoekers stranden. Een inwoner stelde ooit voor om al die armoedige huizen in pasteltinten te verven. Kijk eens wat een resultaat ! Ook duiken we onder in de wereld van de tango. Op straat, tijdens een tangoles en in het theater. Met de bus reizen we ... read more

The first bit of good news is that we are here at all, period….. So far, so good, regarding the Argentinians asking this British-registered ship to stay the Hell out of its waters. We have been asked in no uncertain terms by the Captain to refrain from wearing anything referring to the “Falkland Islands” while in this country. We are seriously in the southern latitudes now, as sunrise is at 0530 and sunset is close to 2330. Our tour guide told us yesterday about the “winter depression” suffered by people down here, just like up in the high northern latitudes. It has affected our sleeping patterns just in these few days, and it feels weird to be on the sun deck at 0900 with the sun almost directly overhead, but it neither actually rises in the ... read more