South America - part 14

Tuesday 27 January Puerto Chacabuco

 

We arrived about 7.00am before we were up so watched the bridgecam. The weather was wet! room service breakfast arrived about 7.20 and we finished dressing. We have to meet the group for our private tour in Mix Bar at 8.30 to get our tender tickets. It was only minutes before our tender number was called. 16 of us followed one of our group while the group organiser waited for the next tender. The tide was low and it was quite a step down into them and up at the other end. Once ashore we got the port shuttle to the main "square".
 

There we browsed the craft stalls in tents while we waited for our tour bus from Empatagonia, and waited and waited! I did manage to photograph one of four Andean Condors, soaring high above the mountains, and bought a felted collar and brooch.

Andean Condor

Slowly information began to trickle through that a strike by fish workers had blocked the road. The company had gone bankrupt and the workers had not been paid. Our bus couldn't get through whilst others could not leave.

 

It started to rain heavily and after much speculation and phone calls it turned out that all HAL tours were cancelled. We cancelled ours too and set off to walk round the town, such as it was. It was perhaps typical of these regions.

 

 

Rough unmade sidewalks, run-down houses, most with satellite dishes though. Lots of feral dogs roamed around us. All but one small supermarket seemed closed as did the cafes and restaurants. We saw two types of interesting birds, feeding on the ground and largely unconcerned by us. I discovered later they were Southern Lapwings and Chimango Caracara.

Chimango Caracara

Southern Lapwing

Finally we decided we may as well go back to Zaandam. My friend stayed briefly to buy a wall-hanging while I boarded the port shuttle and then the tender back.

The ride was smooth and disembarkation not too bad this time. As Ricardo was servicing our cabin, I walked round the promenade deck taking photos before going back to change. My friend was back so we popped up for lunch and then to a Unesco Trivia Quiz. After the sailaway, which we watched as there was a huge landslide to photograph, it was dinner, show and bed.

 

 

South America - part 13

Sunday 25 January

Up for 7am sailing in the shoals and Samiento Canal. The weather was grey but dry. We passed a large wrecked ship at the entrance to the canal.

I spotted some South American Fur Seals, lots of Giant Petrels and Black-browed Albatross and well as a Dark-bellied Cinclodes. After the spectacular scenery of Antarctica and Glacier Alley, I found this quite an anti-climax.

 

Southern Giant Petrel

Impressions of HAL. Nice to see stewards going round the prom deck with warm croissants and hot chocolate today so we could stay out and watch the scenery. They were also happy to get me a coffee in lieu of hot chocolate. They freely replemish toiletries and nibbles and found goldfish biscuits instead of nuts for me. Happy hour good value at buy one drink, get second for $1. Elemis toiletries, bed fabulous. there is an illuminated adjustable magnifying mirror at the dressing table. Sofa, height-adjustable table so you can eat fat the sofa, a DVD player with huge list of free dvds available. Best of all, it is lovely to be able to talk to such a diverse group of passengers. I have met people from Spain, Finland, Sweden, Guatemala, Argentina, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, France, Turkey and Austria.

Showered and went to dinner - had nice table by a side window with a Canadian couple and couple from Wisconsin.

Monday 26 January

Awake at 8pm so got dressed and out on deck 6 for our journey up a Chilean fjord to the magnificent Tempanos Glacier. We saw little wildlife. It appeared to me to be much like the Norwegian fjords with the addition of many small islands, not so high and covered with beech trees. We sailed along the glacier face first one way, then the other, finally leaving it and retracing our route.

 

The weather was grey with outbreaks of blue sky and occasional showers. Lunched in Lido so we could see out. Had a much-needed lazy afternoon before coming second in the team trivia again. Then it was time for an early dinner on a table of ten. After dinner we watched an excellent show with two English singers before heading to the Officers Ball in the Crow's Nest, where I got one dance with the Hotel Director.

 

 

 

 

 

 

South America - part 12 Punta Arenas & Penguins!

Saturday 24th January. Punta Arenas

Bucket list - penguins check, condors check

 

Our room service breakfast arrived 15mins early at 5.45 (they had a lot of orders and rather than be late – brought it early!) We were to meet the rest of the group at 7.15 for our private tour to the Otway Sound Penguin Colony.

 

Punta Arenas was originally a berthing port but a boat had damaged the pier so we had to tender ashore. Our tour organiser got tender tickets for all of us for the first group but we still had to wait until the ship tours had gone. About 8.45 our boat numbers were called and we went down to A deck to board. The water was a little choppy but the journey only took about 10 mins. We had to put our bags through security before going out front where the guide was waiting for us.

 

It was a bit squashed in the minibus for a 45 min drive down the motorway and another 45 mins down a dirt track. The landscape was flat and scrubby with large vistas either side.

 

 

On the way we stopped to photograph llamas and I managed to spot five condors circling high overhead - my first sighting of this iconic Andean bird. I also spotted a Caracara by the roadside with others circling above. These are large birds of prey.

Once at the gate to the colony it was another 3/4 mile walk down a gravel path and boardwalk.

  

As we progressed through the scrub interspersed with alpine-type flowers, little black and white heads popped up from their burrows. Soon Magellanic penguins were everywhere; in the scrub, marching in columns down to the beach, sometimes only heads visible as they had worn down their well-used tracks. There was a hide where we could take photos of them on the beach itself, diving down into the sea or coming out and preening on the pebbles amidst piles of seaweed and storm-driven driftwood.

 

 

One launched into an Ecstatic Display, as mentioned in one of our lectures by Chris Wilson.

After an hour we tore ourselves away and walked back to the bus for the journey back, taking a short detour past a maritime museum.

 

 

We opted to be dropped off in the main square and wandered back slowly via a craft market where I bought a locally-made lapis and silver penguin pendant and a group of three penguins on an iceflow, carved out of local stone and quartz.

I was gasping for a drink so after an unsuccessful attempt to get free wifi in the small gift shop at the tender drop-off point, I went back to the ship. The water was noticeably choppier and we slammed into the waves. As I was getting up to disembark, the boat slammed into the pontoon and I fell back into my seat much to the annoyance of the guy next to me who told me to get off or let him pass! Back on Zaandam, still a bit shaky from the tendering, I undressed and showered and changed. My friend arrived later as she had stayed ashore longer, and we went up to team trivia where we came second. went in for an early dinner so we could return to the deck for for sailaway. Then to the show and bed as another early start tomorrow for the Sarmiento Canal transit. I think I am going to need a holiday after this cruise!!

South America - part 11 Ushuaia

Friday 23 January - Ushuaia

The alarm woke us at 5.45am and breakfast arrived 20 mins later. On the bridgecam the dawn was bathing Ushuaia in golden sunlight so I rushed up to deck 6 for quick photos.

 

 

Beside us in the dock was the red-funnelled ship we had seen in Antarctica – Finally we now had a name for her - Ushuaia – an expedition ship.

 

 

My friend had to go off on her tour at 7am. I had chosen a ship’s tour sailing the Beagle Channel and then a tour through the National Park. We were assembling at 7.05am! Fortunately my tour was called almost as soon as I had my sticker as I hate hanging around waiting. We all trooped down to where the gangway was rigged - it was very steep - and then a walk along the dockside to the catamaran. I headed up to the open top deck first. It was a beautiful morning - the water like glass, the blue sky framing the jagged peaks of the Andes. Zaandam looked lovely in the morning light.

 

 

Heading out from Ushuaia harbour, and along the Beagle Channel, we first stopped at a lighthouse, the rocks below covered with cormorants. By now I had realised better views were from the walkway round the saloon deck, although you couldn’t hear the commentary from there.

 

 

Then to a cormorant nesting site. Here thousands of birds and chicks were covering every inch of space with nests almost touching each other.

 

Finally came an island of sea lions, many just lazing in the sun, some families and a huge bull male was asserting his dominance from the top of the rock.

 

 

 

Then we put on speed to sail through the Beagle Channel to drop us off at a wooden pier in the National Park.

 

Boarding a coach we set off through a landscape of scrub, beech trees, streams and along a dirt track road - the very end of the Pan-American highway! All this was against a backdrop of the magnificent snow-capped Andes. I saw families of upland geese and their chicks, and there were several camp sites beside the lakes and river.

 

 

Our last stop was at Ensenada which boasts the most southerly post office in the world - the end of the world in fact! I had left a postcard with my friend to post for me as I didn’t realise we were coming here. From there it was a 20 minute drive back to the ship through Ushuaia. After we were dropped off at the gangway I walked back to photograph Zaandam.

 

 

Then I grabbed a sandwich and beer on deck in the hot sun.  The weather was fabulous as we sailed down the Beagle Channel again and down the north arm to Glacier Alley. We spent the next couple of hours moving around on Deck 8 at the stern, watching glacier after glacier, glistening white on top, luminous turquoise lower down, both contrasting with the dark forest and black basalt rocks around them.

 

Finally we had to leave the spectacular scenery and change for dinner. We had a table in the stern with views to die for. How many times can you eat a fabulous meal with glaciers, mountains and blue sky seen through the floor to ceiling windows beside you?

 

Bed after half an hour of the show as have to be up early tomorrow for what will now be our only penguin tour.