Monday 26thJanuary 2015 Note: the last blog had thirty-one photos so went on to two pages. We dropped anchor in the natural harbour of Port William on East Falkland, at 7.30 a.m. this morning. We were tendered ashore to the pier at Stanley, dolphins followed the tenders to and fro all day, and an elderly sea lion was asleep on the pier. We were welcomed with Brit voices saying “Hello, how do you do?” and we felt so at home; it felt good. The Falkland islanders are so patriotic, with Union Jacks flying everywhere; it felt like England in June 2012, for the Diamond Jubilee. In the Falklands, it is like this every day! Even on our cruise ship, the day before as we were heading for the islands, the American Grill Bar became ... read more

Thursday 22nd January 2015 Adjectives like “awesome” and “amazing” are hackneyed and over-used, but they are needed here, to try to begin to describe the Amalia. We were amazed and struck with awe and wonder, at the magnificence of this work of Nature´s art. The only way to see it is by ship, and only a few cruise ships and expedition craft venture here. The weather is often so bad that the glacier can hardly be seen, so today was a rare experience. The sea was calm, the sky was cloudless and the sun rose to make the ice sparkle. Julio, our Spanish voyage lecturer, said that he had never before seen the Amalia so clearly. We are most fortunate and privileged people right now. The Amalia Glacier lies 50 degrees south of the Equator, 1,425 ... read more

Monday 19thJanuary 2015 We spent our last day in Valparaiso walking around the dockyard, to one of the old batteries from the Pacific Wars, and found a nice clean beach (a rarity in Valpo). “Bateria Esmeralda” was built in 1879 and was one of nineteen emplacements around Valparaiso Bay (Los Fuertes en Bahia de Valparaiso); each had three huge canon, so the place was pretty well defended! Early on Saturday morning, at around 5 a.m. the “Golden Princess” slipped into Valpo in the fog. We set our alarm clock, and headed down to the dockyard, to see this impressive “Grand Class” ship shrouded in the dawn mist. It was a beautiful and most impressive sight. Later on, we took a taxi down to the cruise terminal and in no time at all we were checked in ... read more

Traveller’s reviews of Valparaiso are polarised; some people rave about this city and others don’t quite “get it”, using words like ‘underwhelmed’ or “over-hyped”. Our views lie somewhere in the middle, although we are not ashamed to say that we tend to fall into the latter group, despite understanding this city´s charm and appeal for many. The view from our hotel window is stunning, indeed we would say that “’Valpo” as it is generally called, is vibrant and vivacious with wonderful vistas. It is also, however, grim and grimy with awful graffiti. It is this dichotomy, in fact, this faded chic and shabbiness, that has in the past attracted artists and poets, but like its faded grandeur, these talented bohemians seem to be long gone. Valpo is all a bit ‘passé’! “The ... read more

If one flies into the city of Iquique, in Northern Chile, one lands on an airstrip more or less on the beach, surrounded by desert and at the foot of a giant mountain of sand. The gigantic sand dunes and the desert, spread from the Andes in the east, to the ocean in the west. Virtually the whole of Northern Chile is desert, from the Peruvian border down to the Atacama, where it hasn´t rained for over one hundred years; it is an endless landscape of sand. If, however, one crosses the desert url=file:///C:/Users/Vivien/Documents/Blog%2039%20%20%20%20Four%20hours%20of%20desert%20and%20a%20brush%20with%20officialdom.docx#_msocom_1 bus, as we did on Monday, then it is necessary to descend one of these monster dunes (not quite in the style of Fifth Gear) to reach the city. It is quite an experience, seeing the city and the Pacific far below, ... read more