Feb 29 Puerto Madryn Argentina

High seas and winds made it easy for the captain to call off any visit to the Falkland Islands, long before we ever got close to them.  And we expected it, since the hit rate for cruises to the FI is probably under one half.  Since he decided early, we went directly to Puerto Madryn and arrived a day early.

We had no plans for PM since tomorrow we're heading off the ship for three nights to visit Iguazu Falls.  The extra day here meant we could just walk around town.

Sunsets really work out well on the seas.

 We just walked around for a couple of hours.  Street art.

 The great liberator of Argentina, Don Jose de San Martin.

 A tribute to volunteer firemen.

 We did find a grocery store and acquired some of the essentials of life.  We should be good to go all the way to Capetown now. (every woman needs a cookie sherpa)

Feb 26 Ushuaia Argentina

Another new port, new country, and the end of the world all in one stop.  The sail in to Ushuaia is beautiful, and not representative of the weather during the rest of our stay here.  It's also a large city, more modern than I had anticipated.  Current population is about 90K.

 Our selected tour is a Whitman's Sampler of activities, including two bus trips, a train ride and ending with a catamaran journey through Beagle Channel.  Victoria will be our guide on the bus portions of the trip.

 Our trip from the pier to the train station goes through middle class neighborhoods.  Very nice.

 At the station we board the train to the end of the world.

 This narrow gauge (60 cm) railroad was originally built by convicts to move material, primarily lumber for building and firewood, from the forests into the city.  The area started as a maximum security penitentiary for Argentina and the city grew to support the prison. Only the last 7km of the rails remain, but it's now packaged as a trip for tourists.

 The train car had its own guide.  This is Victor.  Yes, we had Victor/Victoria.

 Traveling alongside the river, the train goes through areas that were deforested by the prisoners to build and heat the city.

 There is a stop at Estacion Macarena to view the waterfall.  No dancing occurred.

 The train engines are cute little things that generate lots of smoke and steam, but not much power.  Top speed was about 10mph, with the average considerably slower.  The 7km trip took 90 minutes (with 25 minutes for a Macarena stop).

 The end of the line for the end of the world train, Lago Acigami. 

 From here you can take your boat and travel to Lapataia Bay which is on Beagle Channel  These people are taking the more direct approach, while we took the bus to get there.

 This is an Argentine National Park, and camping is allowed.  The weather during our stay was cloudy, cold, and with intermittent rain.  There was no wind to speak of, until later in the afternoon when high winds arose and prevented us from undocking and leaving at our scheduled time.  We ended up spending the night docked, not departing from Ushuaia until 7am.

 This is the end of the world because this is the end of the Pan American Highway (the leg that comes from Buenos Aires).  Puerto Montt also claimed to be the end of the PA highway, but that was the western leg.  It's a long way to Alaska from here -- and Victoria made the trip in VW Bus.  She "knew every mechanic along the way" since the VW would break down every 200km.

 Lapataia Bay, where we board a catamaran.

 After standing in the cold rain waiting for the previous group to disembark, sustenance was required.

 It's out onto the Beagle Channel for sightseeing and nature.

 These are Imperial Cormorants and they live in large colonies on the small rock islets dotting the Channel around Ushuaia.

 Another type of bird

 Impressive flying right at the surface of the water

 The local inhabitants were happy to see us.

 Territorial dispute

 Another cross cultural conversation

 There was even a pair of humpback whales in the Channel.

 After debarking the catamaran, as we walked back to Insignia we passed one of the Antarctica cruise ships with a stern full of Zodiacs so people can go ashore amongst the penguins on the seventh continent.  I would require way too much dramamine to take such a trip.  I'll stay with our small, but much larger, cruise ship for exploring the world and remain happy with just six continents.

Feb 24 Punta Arenas, Chile

Our second Punta Arenas of the trip, this one considerably south of the first.  I was expecting a small, barren town here at the end of Chile, but it's a good sized town of prosperous people.  We chose the bus tour to the original fort established by Chile to protect the Straits of Magellan, the "shortcut" around the bottom of South America.

Apparently, Punta Arenas means "long pier" in Spanish, since both PAs had a very long walk from the ship to the cruise terminal.  (Our guide says it means "sandy beach" but I'm unconvinced.)

 Our guide, a native a Punta Arenas. We usually take pix of name tag but we're remembering "Rodrigo"

 The city is large, exceeding my expectations.  Our guide said 130K while the Oceania port guide said more than 150K.   This is the view from the viewpoint in town, Hill of the Cross.

 And the houses were substantial, middle class dwellings of European influence.

 We drove the 60km from town to the original settlement, Fort Bulnes.  The coast is littered with the remains of abandoned ships.

 A monument to the "half way point" of Chile (?) and one to the Virgin Mary.  This was just a wide spot in the road along the way to Fort Bulnes.  Our guide explained the half-way reference, but it made no sense to me.

 Fort Bulnes is part of a park that has a museum.  Stokes was the original captain that Darwin sailed with, who was replaced by FitzRoy after Stokes took his life.  His relationship to pressed potato snacks was not described.

 We got the full Patagonian weather experience while touring the fort.  It was partly cloudy, about 50 degrees, a 30 mph wind blowing, with higher gusts.  Intermittent rain came along delivering bright rainbows.  Then the rain would stop and the sun would come out.  The wind kept blowing.

 Here we have bright sun and rain, as evidenced by the spots on the lens.

 That slice of water out there is the Strait of Magellan.

 Sod houses were an attempt to keep the cold at bay.  It stays below freezing for much of the winter here.

 This fort is a reproduction, since the original lasted about 6 years before burning down. 

 We walked to the viewpoint overlooking the Strait.  The trees show the effects of constant wind.

 On the drive back we passed this abandoned building.  Our guide said it was a water bottling plant that went out of business pretty quickly. Strange architecture.

 Sheep are a big business in Patagonia.  These guys have hefty coats for summer.

 A quick drive through town before returning to the pier.  This is a memorial to the pioneers and heroes of Chilean Patagonia.

 A brightly colored playground.  Not shown is an acre of basketball courts, which is a growing sport down here.  For the outdoor courts we passed, being able to apply "windage" to your shots would be a necessary skill.

 We return to the dock.  We later found out that our choice of tour was propitious.  We had considered taking a small ship to view a penguin colony, one hour each way plus walking among the penguins.  The winds we experienced on land were even worse afloat, and half the ship was deathly sick.  Since I'm in the 89th percentile for seasickness, I'm glad we stayed ashore.

 After a quick lunch, we walked back out to see the city a little closer.  This is the historical clock that tells everything -- barometer, astrological sign, temperature, rainfall and, by the way, the time.

 The Captain General Liberator of this area, Bernardo O'Higgins.  Maybe a family relative?

 Downtown

 The cathedral.  There's another church in town that is modeled after Paris' Notre Dame, but it was another mile round trip, so we didn't go there.

 The inhabitants were happy to see us..

 The Plaza de Armas de Punta Arenas, the center of town.  The monument is, of course, to Ferdinand Magellan.

 During our walk we also found the UniMarc grocery store (conveniently located near the pier -- we just had to follow all of the crew that were going there).  We stocked up with the essentials of life which we may not get to replenish before Capetown in early April.