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Published: February 16th 2007
Bridge Across the Panama Canal
One of several bridges that take traffic across the Canal. This picture shows the Canal opening into one of the lakes that provide water for the operation of the huge locks that float ships up and down the Andes mountain chain between the Atlantic and Pacific.Hi folks - Dick and I are finally getting around to sending out some pictures and descriptions from our 3rd World Cruise aboard the Crystal Serenity, which left Miami January 12, 2007 for Southampton, near London. This will take three and a half months. This leg of the trip took us from Miami to the tip of South America, where there is a little Argentine town named Ushuaia (oosh-why-ya) that claims it's at "the end of the world." It's the jumping-off place for many ships bound for Antarctica, where we're going on the next leg of our cruise.
Our route took us down the west coast of South America, so first we had to go through the Panama Canal. We did this last year, but it was interesting to see the locks in operation again and hear about Panama's plans for making two more lanes twice as wide. At present big cruise ships can barely squeeze through it, and really big ones, like supertankers, can't use the canal at all. We were really struck by the difference between the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. The Panama lifts ships over a mountain range with its three locks, but the Suez
Going through a Lock
Dick took this picture from the deck of our ship as it was being guided through the lock by a pair of little engines on tracks, one on each side of the Canal. flows through land flat as a table.
Our first stop on the west coast of South America was Guayaquil (why-a-quil) in the small country of Ecuador, just south of the equator (thus the name). Guayaquil is its largest and most impressive city and port, population about 3 million. We heard glowing reports of its mayor, who took over in the late 1990's and modernized the infrastructure of the city to attract business and tourists. It struck us as very clean and well cared for, lots of public monuments and parks, a lovely new promenade along the water that replaced an ancient fish-and-flea-market (still missed by some, according to our guide). Much of the downtown area looked like a city in the US, though without the monster skyscrapers. An interesting experience was shopping for a pair of black pants for Dick, since he forgot to bring his. Department stores were scarce, so we found a T shirt and pants shop not far from the promenade. Neither of us speaks Spanish, but he had no trouble conveying his wants to the shopkeeper, though they had to palaver a bit to translate a US size to Ecuadorian. Fortunately, Dick isn't a "big
Panama Canal Tug
A busy little tug kept an eye on us as we slowly made our way through the Canal. & tall," because he would have been out of luck if he were. That's one thing we noticed wherever we went in South America: there were hardly any unusually tall or obese people. And this didn't seem to be from poverty, because they were generally well dressed, and we saw no beggars on the streets. They seemed to have a healthy lifestyle.
Next stop down the coast was Callao in Peru, which is the port for Lima, the capital 45 miles away. Peru is the ancient home of the Incas, so some archaeology was in order there. We began to hear about cold and heavy snow in the US, but the sun was hot enough to fry an egg on the many ancient stone ruins that we saw. Some parts of the desert here, we're told, have not had rainfall in recorded history. Kathy, many thanks for the "1491" book you gave me. I read it all the way down the coast of South America, and it was fascinating. I saw first-hand the "vertical culture" with rivers from the Andes flowing down to the ocean and creating long green oases in the desert. The climate seemed to be a
Incoming Traffic on the Canal
As we left the last lock, we passed a flock of small boats waiting their turn to go through the Canal. Freighters have to wait till after dark, when the cruise ships have made the colorful trip and gone on out to sea. lot like southern California, but the topography was quite different. The Andes form a long chain running all the way down SA just on the inland side of the coastal plains. The long narrow countries of Peru and Chile share this territory, one to the north and the other to the south.
After baking in the sun at temple ruins, we went to a lovely old horse ranch for lunch and entertainment. I thought about Laren when they brought out some gorgeous Peruvian pace horses and riders who put on quite a show for us with their unbelievably smooth gait. "The boss" came out and told us about taking his horses to shows in the US and elsewhere. He runs a real horse ranch, quite an old one apparently, but also has this mini-Disney entertainment on his beautifully kept grounds for tourists complete with characters, and of course, the ever-present locals selling pottery and other handcrafts. Probably what a sheep rancher in New Zealand told us is typical of all these entrepreneurs who entertain toursts in their interesting old homes. He said he made more money off tourists than he ever did off his thousands of sheep.
The
Peru - Hacienda Mamacona
The lovely horse-breeding ranch near Lima where we were entertained with lunch and a horse show, plus Disney-like characters who posed with us for pictures. next long narrow country down the coast after Peru is Chile, which borders on Argentina down to the tip of South America. Down the coast in Chile we stopped at Coquimbo, a small city that - like all the others we saw - goes back to the time of the Conquistadors and has much old Spanish architecture. The weather was gradually turning cooler as we moved down the coast, and Coquimbo by all reports was delightful all year round, in the 70s and 80s. Certainly it was beautiful the day we were there. Since we're in the southern hemisphere, it's now midsummer, which is the dry season.
Still further down, we came to Valparaiso, Chile's "Vale of Paradise," as the Spanish named it. Here we saw flourishing vineyards irrigated from rivers and wells. Wineries are their new industry and they appear to be doing well. We were entertained at an old winery, a lovely sprawling plantation house with an outdoor feast under a big tent bordering a lawn and formal garden. The next day we toured the coast by bus and visited Isla Negra to see the unique home of Pablo Neruda, Chile's Nobel Prize winning poet. He built
Hacienda Mamacona
Here one of the Disney-like characters from plantation history served us delicious goodies before lunch. his favorite home overlooking the Pacific in a little fishing village/resort town and crammed it with his collections of model boats, seashells, old maps and manuscripts, ships' figureheads, and apparently everything else he ran across. He is buried nearby in a grave above the surf crashing on the rocks below - a lovely site.
We stopped at a couple of more similar ports down the coast, one of which - Punta Arenas - was inaccessible because of high winds, with gusts up to 80 mph or so. We waited there a few hours to see if it would moderate some, but it never did. Later we heard about a cruise ship that tried to dock and ran aground, shaking up the passengers considerably. It was rumored they lost all their china and crockery. We women especially were disappointed at not stopping, because Punta Arenas was supposed to be a really good place to shop. There were also some people who were supposed to have a flyover tour to Antartica just across the Strates of Magellan, but they were disappointed too.
All in all, I was impressed at what a good lifestyle Chileans seem to have, with their lovely
Hacienda Mamacona
During our outdoor lunch we were entertained with Peruvian folk dancers. country and warm climate, never far from both the sea and the Andes mountains. It seemed like a healthy and prosperous place to live, not at all like the banana republic I imagined it might be. The guides told us they have free education and everybody is covered by health insurance. And unlike so many places we've visited, they don't depend on tourists to keep the economy going. I got the impression they could get alongfine without them, though they're welcome when they come. Most South Americans we encountered spoke at least a little English. But we saw no bilingual signs or foreign language newspapers, and heard nothing on the radio but Spanish/Portuguese and Latino music, or occasionally classical music (I have a small radio that I like to listen to in port). And there is also the political factors that make the US unpopular in most of South America right now, according to an onboard lecturer that we heard. Bush and his policies are looked on with disdain, and US immigration policies especally regarding work permits cause a lot of pain.
Our final stop in South America was Ushuaia (oosh-why-ya), Argentina, on the very tip end of the
Peruvian Pace Horses
After lunch, the horses showed their stuff with a high-stepping strut around the show area. continent where the Pacific meets the Atlantic Ocean. This is one town that welcomes all tourists with open arms, as it's small, cold and isolated and without much commerce. They say they had lots of business back when ships stopped there on their way around the Horn, but the Panama Canal ruined all that. Now they're "the end of the world," the jumping-off place for Antarctica, and not all that many people go there. However one famous visitor pulled alongside our ship at the dock. It was the "Octopus," which Dick says is owned by Paul Allen, Bill Gates' first partner at Microsoft. Reportedly the biggest private yacht in the world - though it looked more like a small cruise ship than a yacht.
Next time, our report on Antarctica!
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cruisegal
nicole a
Great travelog!
what a wonderful journey!! we are booked on a similar cruise for next Jan 2008 and are reading your blog with great interest. Sure hope we have a quiet day when we get to Punta Arenas and can do some duty free shopping!!!Just wondered what is the temperature in Ushuaia in February ? Keep up the interesting travelog and have a smooth sailing !!