This blog posted on February 24th from Buenos Aires at the end of Leg 5 of 8 Legs.
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In Valparaiso on February 5th I managed to post my blog from the Internet service at the Cruise Terminal. But, there was a severe bandwidth problem doing anything else as a ship with 1,700 passengers was also in port. Later in the day some stray Voyager “newbies” started arriving. They were easy to spot – lost sheep syndrome.

February 6th was disembarkation and embarkation day. It was a lovely sunny day at 21 Celsius. I spent a lot of time at the Cruise Terminal trying to sort out the Internet problem. Once I got a solid Ethernet connection on the laptop, I received 15 mandatory updates of 85 megabytes from Microsoft. I did not have enough battery to download the 8 optional ones. The attendant explained that the ship’s satellite Internet just was not fast enough for these updates and just timed out and then reattempted to connect thereby messing up all communication. He had no explanation for the iPad’s inability to receive e-mail.

Back on the ship, and feeling heavy, I searched the ship for a weighing scale. There is only one for the passengers and it is hidden in the doctor’s office. Believe it or not, after two months of three proper meals a day, I have not put on weight. Notwithstanding, I suspect that being in the Southern Hemisphere has caused a weight slippage to the southern side.

At dinner a British couple told me they had decided to take a SKI-ing cruise. This new expression means Spending the Kid’s Inheritance. I wore my souvenir dress shirt from Tanzania and got a lot of attention from the waiters. The Maitre d’ was certain I had purchased it in Zanzibar.

On February 7th I spent time ashore, both in the morning and the afternoon. Visiting a local shopping centre, I concluded that Chile was doing quite well and that prices are quite normal. The shops were full of the lovely blue lapis lazuli jewelry. A bottle of reasonable Chilean wine cost $4.

There is sketchy news of a big earthquake in the Solomon Islands with the threat of a resultant tsunami. If so, nothing happened in Valparaiso harbour.

About one hour before we sailed south I managed to post a sample album of shots using the Ethernet connection at the Cruise Terminal. The portfolio covers Portsmouth to Valparaiso at:

http://www.ironsides.net/IronTrip/CBest1

Then it was time for my fifth lifeboat drill as we sailed out of Valparaiso, passing a Chilean naval vessel named Almirante Cochrane, after Lord Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald. I will let you to Google the story, but I had been lying at the dock right beneath the Admiral Cochrane Naval Museum for three days so I knew he was an admiral in the Royal Navy, the Chilean Navy, the Brazilian Navy and the Greek Navy.

We were told that the track the ship will follow on this leg is rated as one of the five best in the world for land wildlife and sea animals.

February 8th started with some excitement as the two naturalists on board claimed that we had seen several fin whales and a very rare blue whale. I have seen many spouting whales and I have no idea how to spot the difference. On deck it was a bit cooler in that we were at 35 degrees south and 20 Celsius.

The day was mainly spent in a series of excellent lectures. In one we learned all about the rare Lapis Lazuli. Lapis Lazuli is basically calcite and is classed as a rock rather than a mineral. Chile is the principal supplier, but there is really only one mine near Ovalle at 2,600 metres elevation. Given the altitude, it is quarried only in the warmer months. It turned out that this lecture was a variation on the “visit to the carpet factory” as the lecturer had brought on board a whole collection of lapis lazuli for sale.

There was a brilliant lecture by a photography couple. They will do a series and their photos are outstanding. I must note that they cheat: each had a camera and lens that cost about $7,000 and weighed so much that only one would go in a carryon.

Then we had a very most comprehensive lecture on plate tectonics, volcanoes and tsunamis. On this leg, in counterclockwise fashion, we will traverse the Nazca, Antarctic, Scotia and South American plates. Bet you did not know that the Falklands were once closer to South Africa than South America. Chile is home to ten percent of the world’s 200 active volcanoes, and pays the price.

Halfway through dinner in the rear restaurant the cry,”Whales”, went up. The dining room emptied onto the adjacent verandah and for about five minutes we watched the spouting of a pod of six or seven whales. They were spread out from 300 to 600 metres from the ship. With only Mark 1 eyeballs, it was impossible to tell which type of whale.

I woke up on February 9th to a BBC report of a huge storm that has hit the Northeast of Canada and the US with major power outages and travel disruptions. Some 600,0000 homes in the US were without power and 5,000 flights cancelled. I have no idea what happened in Canada as all weather reports seem to believe that snow storms stop at the US-Canadian border.

We had a heavy schedule of six lectures. It was just as well that we ran into fog because deck time was cold and tricky. As we went through 41 degrees south the temperature dipped to 16 Celsius. Royal Albatross and dolphins were spotted right after breakfast, but the flat light gave no photo opportunity.

In another lecture the width of Chile was upgraded from 140 to 160 kms. Chile produces one third of the world’s copper supply, and has reserves for 200 years. The population of 15 million receives two million tourists per year. Chileans are tea drinkers and consider their country the most stable and conservative of the South American countries. Chile has been a democracy only since 1990. The original spelling of the country’s name was “Chili”, which means, “where the land ends”.

We had a great lecture on the glaciers which carved the fjords in the 1,000 kms south from Puerto Montt. There are three main ice fields that generate the glaciers, the northern one being about the size of Wales. The slope on the Chilean side is steep so the glaciers mainly dump into the sea. On the Argentinian side the slope is much more gradual so a great deal of sediment is deposited by braided rivers on the land making it more fertile. This is identical to the process that created the Canterbury Plain on the South Island of New Zealand. That reminds me that one year ago I was by myself in beautiful Wanaka, SI, NZ.

From the lectures on wildlife, as we go through this leg we might be lucky to spot any of the following: penguins, albatross, dolphins, whales, orcas, seals, shearwaters, petrels, ducks, rheas, condors, caracaras, porpoises, sea lions and elephant seals (blubber slugs). By the way, the term covering whales, dolphins, orcas, porpoises etc is “Cetaceans”.

I should mention that there are some very serious birders and naturalists in this group of passengers. They have brought with them binoculars that can examine craters on the moon and huge cameras with bazooka lenses that can pick off the feathers on wing tips – eight on the Andean Condor. Colour me green with envy.

Our approach to Puerto Montt was different. From the open ocean we turned east into the Gulf of Corcovado and then north into the Gulf of Ancud. Unfortunately, it started to rain so some great photos were missed. Just before dinner I was on the back deck in light rain and saw two dolphins surfing our wake. I told an Australian who remarked that dolphins do that all the time in Sydney harbour playing with the wakes of the harbour ferries. After dinner the sun came out and I got some shots of two volcanoes, one of which I think was Mount Orsano. We arrived at the head of the bay about 21:00 hrs and dropped anchor.

About 06:00 on February 10th the Captain woke us up when he pulled the anchor and moved to the dockside berth. It was a claggy start and the volcanoes were sheathed in cloud. Equally obvious was the presence of the “Star Princess”. She started tender operations from her anchorage in the outer harbour very early to fill up the squadron of tour busses waiting on the dock.

At breakfast the news broke that all those trying to use iPhones and iPads on the ship’s Internet had to change some settings. No mention was made of refunding wasted time. However, that might go a long way to explaining some of our collective communications problems. If so, it has taken two months to figure this out.

Puerto Montt is home to farmed salmon, regular fishing and fish processing. Our olfactory senses were tested. The farmed salmon is flown out to the world. At the airport, passenger baggage overweight charges are calculated by charging the equivalent amount for air freighting salmon – perfectly logical.

Fish farming, mostly Atlantic Salmon, is now a billion dollar industry for Chile.

Home to the fierce native Mapuche Indians, the Spanish had little success settling the area. Puerto Montt was named after the Chilean President of 1853. Germans were invited to settle with a grant of free land, timber a cow and citizenship. German is still spoken and I remember the German school in Puerto Varas, which is about 45 minutes north. The indigenous Mapuche Indians have launched some serious spoiling attacks for several years trying to reclaim their land.

From Puerto Montt the ship launched series of excursions to the Puerto Varas area. The most extravagant entailed four days off the ship and had thirty guests moving overland all the way to Punta Arenas.

I went ashore and walked for two hours. En route I visited the jam-packed bus terminal where two youths with violins were playing a mournful version of “Yesterday”. It was a pluvial early austral autumn day.

The local fish market had the usual fare and smelled as badly as ever. However, with the tide going out, the fishing boats lying high and dry made for good photos. Our gangplank steepened to almost 45 degrees so tender operations went into force. The route to and from the ship was lined with “trinkets and trash” stalls, none of the contents had any appeal.

I felt sorry for the group that launched after lunch in the rain to see the rapids on the Petrohue River east of Puerto Varas. Been there, done that.

Captain Neil Broomhall flew home to the UK for six weeks shore leave. In the interim, Captain Oleksandr Tkachuk, from Odessa, Ukrainia, took the helm.

As the day progressed the weather got worse. Just before we left port there were buckets of rain coming down. Then we had brilliant sunshine for our sail away. Minutes later a rainbow appeared just long enough for a photo. Thereafter, we retraced our steps to the Gulf of Corcovado then south to Cape Moraleda.

That evening the BBC reported a tragic accident on a cruise ship in the Canaries. During a port visit, the crew was doing a drill to lower a lifeboat. Part way through the lowering of the lifeboat, a cable snapped and several crewmen were killed and others injured. We have been doing the same drill about every two weeks.

Early on February 11th we sailed into the Aisen Fjord and thence to Puerto Chacabuco. We had a brilliant lecture by a retired Royal Marines Brigadier who had been part of the Falklands War in 1982. He was in the night assault on the Twin Sisters carrying 65 pounds of kit. We arrived in Chacabuco just as he concluded at noon.

The Captain announced that the Harbour Master had closed the port due to 30 knot winds. However, we had been granted permission to conduct tender operations. The anchors were dropped but the engines and bow thruster were needed to keep us on station in the strong wind. The weather stayed nice just long enough to get some “safety” shots of the snow-capped peaks.

At 45 degrees south, the area looked similar to the west coast of British Columbia and Alaska. I gave in to the stupid idea that it would be good to go ashore. By the time I got on all my gear and made my way down to the tender dock, it was pouring rain. The tender ground its way to shore through some pretty heavy weather. Disembarking and noticing that there was not really anywhere to go, once my umbrella turned inside out and I started to get soaked, I decided I should go right back. As I boarded the senior passenger, aged 92, was preparing to go ashore in a tropical suit – no rain coat and no umbrella. He was persuaded to go back and have a warm cup of coffee. Back in my warm cabin I did what the Navy calls “Make and Mend” – do laundry, polish shoes, fix snags in sweater etc.

I have no idea what the folks on shore excursions experienced. My guess is that they looked at sodden landscape through rain-streaked, fogged up coach windows. Been there, done that.

I don’t think anybody minded when we pulled up the hooks at dinner time and sailed back down the fjord and on to our next adventure.

I was shaken awake by the noise and the shudder as the anchors dropped at 07:00 on February 12th for the excursion to Laguna San Rafael. LSR, at 46 degrees south, is a National Park and was a last minute substitution when the ship’s owners decided it was not prudent to go into Ushuaia, Argentina given the tension over the Falklands. It would have been very easy to block the Beagle Channel and our escape to the open sea.

The ship set up an excursion so that guests could transfer to a local catamaran to cruise up to the face of a glacier. Having done that in a Zodiaks in the Arctic only a few months ago, I remained on board. Ninety passengers went out in four iterations for three hours on a catamaran for a possible total of 360. The weather declined all day and the surrounding mountains disappeared. The last serial departed the ship at 18:00 hrs in heavy rain. About an hour later the sun broke through for some beauty shots. Tour guides always tell you that dull days are best to see the distinct blue of glacier ice. You will remember that Saint Pinocchio is the patron saint of tour guides.

We had one very good lecture on Antarctica. The key takeaway was that krill, a Norwegian word, are the critical link in the food chain and that increasingly humans are harvesting this resource. Believe it or not, krill harvesting is the biggest crustacean fishery in the world.

After dinner the Captain warned that we were heading into some heavy weather. He expected winds of 35 knots with four to five metre waves. We were advised to be very careful when moving around the ship. This was the start of our 814 nautical mile run to Punta Arenas.

At 03:45 hrs on February 13th I was woken up by the smashing sound of my desk drawer. It was opening and closing in sympathy with the violent pitching of the ship. From the GPS track on the TV one could see that the ship had left the fjord and was in the open Pacific heading due west at 15 knots. I took an anti-seasickness pill and secured all movable objects. I quickly determined that the safest position was horizontal in bed. All night there were thunderous crashes as the ship either ran over a whale or the bow smashed into towering waves. I got little sleep as we rounded the headland before we headed south and then back southeast and into the fjord system that provides a protected inland passage.

After a light breakfast enjoyed in a fairly empty dining room, I went albatross hunting off the taff rail at 47 degrees south. I think I got reasonable shots of albatross and petrels.

After an enjoyable lunch for the solo passengers, we got into more protected waters and things calmed down. I sat beside an American who was travelling with the Road Scholars Group (formerly Elder Hostel) and decided this is something worth investigating.

A lecture on photography changed my view on Auto White Balance forever. I also learned just how important it is to review the histogram right after taking a photo to ensure the best shots.

The highlight of the day was the passage through the extremely narrow channel at the “English Narrows”. At 17:30 the Chilean pilot took us through a channel in the fjord that was 200 metres at the narrowest point. We took it at 14 knots with the ship heeling from side to side. The wake looked like a downhill slalom ski run. It took photographs in the pouring rain and got a GPS reading that will be transferred to a map for the slide show. About two hours later went through “Abysmal Pass”, that is only 100 metres wide, but the light had failed by then.

We are now well into Patagonia, the land of those with big feet. Unfortunately, most the the aboriginals were wiped out by European diseases or conflict.

I was awake at 06:30 on Saint Valentine’s Day and on deck just as the ship turned into Amelia Fjord at 50 degrees south. It was pouring rain as first a waterfall and then the glacier came into view. It was the classic glacier that had formed the fjord and then retreated leaving a water-filled bay. The light levels were very low but I used three cameras to try to get the blue hue of the glacier ice. The histogram saved one key shot from oblivion.

The 530 km Magellan Strait was discovered by a very persistent Magellan in 1520. It separates South America from Tierra del Fuego and other islands. Magellan was killed in the Philippines so never received the adulation that was his due.

We had a good lecture on Antarctica. I am not quite sure how that fit into the Chilean Fjords. However, did you know that Lake Vostok is a fresh water lake the size of Lake Ontario that sits 4,000 metres beneath the Antarctic ice cap?

We approached Punta Arenas on February 15th just as the sun was rising. I went up on deck at 07:00 hrs in gale force winds. There was spindrift coming off the wave tops and I could see my breath. I took photos of the sun glinting off the buildings in the town. Two tugs were on station to help the ship in the gusty winds. They were needed to give her a push and a shove to the wharf. I had last been here a few years ago when the Norwegian Hurtigruten ship Nord Norge went to Antarctica.

I walked into town wearing my heavy weather jacket, gloves, scarf and toque. The statues of Magellan and O’Higgins demanded a photo. The cathedral is small and very scant in ornamentation. While available in the Plaza de Armas, no fridge magnets appealed to me.

In the early days, Punta Arenas was settled by many Croatians. The major buildings and parks have a very European flavour. Located on the Strait of Magellan, its early economic activity derived mainly from passing ships. With the opening of the Panama Canal, other economic bases had to be established. Sheep ranching became a staple.

For $800 one excursion flew from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales to visit the star attraction, Torres del Paine. Another visited Estancia Olga Teresa, a sheep station. I had covered almost all of it in a land-based trip of South America several years before. Yet another went to see the Megellanic Penguins in Otway Sound. The Megellanic is also called the Jackass Penguin because it brays like a donkey. I saw them on the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.

The bright sun and fierce wind lasted through the day. I tried the ship’s Internet without much luck.

In the recent past, Chile and Argentina came to the brink of war over the border in Tierra del Fuego, the very large island at the bottom of South America that both countries share.

When I woke up on February 16th the ship was in “rock and roll” mode. We were at 55 degrees south and had poked our nose out into the notoriously rough Drake Passage. The last time is was here we had winds of ten out out of twelve on the Beaufort Wind Scale. Things were falling off my desk. Once we ducked into the Beagle Channel things became calmer, but it was a bitterly cold day with strong winds.

The scenery along the Beagle Channel is rugged, stark and captivating. This is still real wilderness with no evidence of man. To the north were the mountains of the Cordillera Darwin, which form the rugged spine of Tierra del Fuego. The highlight came just after lunch when we left the Beagle and went into Garibaldi Fjord. We nosed up to the Garibaldi Glacier at the end. The Captain did some very neat ship handling and spun Voyager through 180 degrees with only about four ship lengths between the fjord walls. I got a photo of a condor and chick while we were on our way back to the Beagle. By mid-afternoon we were sailing eastwards in Glacier Alley and the sun came out on cue as we passed the parade of glaciers, named Espagna, Remanche, Alemania, Francia, Italia and Hollandia. We had to stop for about an hour after dark to get clearance from the naval authorities at Puerto Williams – last time I was there you could get a bottle of Chilean wine for three dollars.

In the early morning we came down through the Herschel Islands seeking their shelter. We were headed for Cape Horn, named in January, 1612 after a ship named Hoorn, destroyed by fire, sponsored by the town of Hoorn in the Netherlands.

We were in the vicinity of Cape Horn by 08:00 on February 17th. I had just ordered my Sunday treat of Eggs Benedict when the Tannoy announced that the Chilean weather station was in view. The dining room emptied as we scrambled to the deck. We were greeted by an icy wind and the sea was very rough. I managed to get some reasonable photos in tough conditions. After that pass the two Chilean pilots decided the weather was good enough to try a clockwise circumnavigation of Horn Island. After much pitching and rolling, this manoeuvre was executed. As a final farewell, we pulled a “Costa Concordia” and came in close to the place where the Chilean Navy lands stores for their station. I could see the landing dock and the funicular used to take the goods to the top of the cliff. Most importantly I got a photo of the beautiful Albatross statue that is dedicated to all who have lost their lives in these waters.

I have seen so many albatross. At one point I counted a flock of 23 black-browed albatross flying in a loose formation. It would appear that the Drake Passage is a favourite albatross hangout.

By 10:30 we had turned our back on Cape Horn and headed for Port Stanley in East Falkland.
The albatross followed all the way using the ship as a moving ridge to give them lift in the rough wind. Given that at this latitude there is no land mass anywhere around the world to block wind and ocean, the seas can get very wild. To say that for two days we wobbled our way to the Falklands would be putting it mildly. Notwithstanding, we had a great lecture on the Falklands invasion of 1982.

At noon on Feb 18th the Captain told us he had been warned of an impending storm and was therefore sailing at flank speed to get into the safety of Stanley Harbour. By 18:00 we were in the outer reaches and we dropped the anchors at 18:20 with Stanley visible perhaps 3 kms away. We were to ride out the storm at anchor.

At 06:00 hrs on February 19th the Captain moved the ship from the outer to the inner harbour. This would have reduced the tender operations from extremely tedious to merely tedious. I went on deck at 08:00 to get a GPS fix and got a face full of hail for my effort. By 08:15 the ship had suspended operations citing gusts of 49 knots. The Cruise Director then scrambled to get some onboard activities going to amuse those who had been on standby since 07:00. It was reported that the “Grand Princess” had abandoned plans to visit Port Stanley. At 09:15 the Captain reported gusts of 65 knots, but was still hoping for a miracle, reminding passengers that it was their responsibility to pray for good weather. By the way, the temperature was 7 Celsius, or 4 Celsius with the wind chill. And this is late summer in the Falklands. My idea was to miss the Canadian winter by going on this cruise. The last week has been very cool.

Port Stanley, with a population of between 2,000 and 2,400, has an AVERAGE wind speed of 17 mph and has no traffic lights. It is twinned with Whitby in Yorkshire and lies 250 miles off the coast of South America. The British have been claimed the islands since 1834. Oil and gas might replace sheep and fishing as the principal industries.

At noon the Captain announced that we was going to depart Port Stanley at 13:00 and we were invited to join him as he headed out into gale force winds with six metre waves. We were advised to batten down and to hang on tightly. With no hope of a landing, there were a lot of long faced-Brits at lunch. That afternoon we took quite a pounding. Green apples seem to help to keep me on an even keel. As if to remind, a lecture on Shackleton’s incredible Antarctic story of endurance in 1914-16 showed us how rotten the sea in this area can be.

At dinner the very strict quarantine, that had been imposed after passengers from the previous leg came back from either Machu Picchu or the Galapagos with a version of norovirus, was finally lifted. This had put quite a strain on the dining room staff as passengers had to be handed each food item, rather than serving themselves in a buffet line. This had greatly impeded breakfast ever since Callao-Lima in that we had heretofore had a central buffet rather than ordering each individual item from the menu.

The seas were quite rough the night of the 19/20th. All through the night there were various thuds, bangs and crashes as the huge waves smashed into the bow. Various bits of internal gear seemed to break loose to smash into bulkheads. I woke up feeling quite groggy after a really rough night. I developed the trick of tucking the duvet underneath my body so that I did not get tossed out of bed when a big ones came along.

February 20th was consumed by lectures. A photography lesson on using LEVELS was a “Ta-Dah” moment. To reinforce the learning I went hunting albatross off the back deck and got a keeper.

As is now the standard practice, we docked in Puerto Madryn, Argentina at dawn. We were greeted with a clear blue sky and a forecast high of 25 Celsius – the BBC reports Toronto at minus 3 Celsius. We are now at 43 degrees south – what a difference a few degrees of latitude can make. At mid-morning, smeared in sunblock and Tilley hat in place, I took the free shuttle bus down the long pier and into town.

Puerto Madryn was settled by a small group of Welsh in 1865. The nearby towns to the south of Trelew, Gaiman and Bethel still show their Welsh heritage. After four generations the Welsh language has almost disappeared.

This is a town with lots of statues. On the windswept seafront promenade there was a beautiful stylized statue of a woman and a monument with a bas relief of the early settlers meeting the aboriginals. In a park further inland, there was a touching statue of a mother with child remembering the 30,000 “disappeared” of the Dirty War. Equally, on the seashore near the naval station there was a statue to the casualties of the Malvinas War. Like the one in Ushuaia, the base is an outline of the West and East Falklands.

An Argentinian four-engined turboprop submarine hunting aircraft made several passes over the town, its Magnetic Anomaly Detector giving away its role.

By late afternoon the onshore wind veered 180 degrees and it became hazy and cooler. Just before leaving I got a lovely sunset shot. Then we started our two day voyage of 830 nautical miles to Buenos Aires.

We bounced north in some pretty rough weather. This ship seems to be a wave magnet. For the third time in a row, the attempt to have a poolside BBQ was frustrated by bad weather. Notwithstanding, the two days passed quickly with some very good lectures.

I was up on deck at first light hoping to get some good photos of the skyline of Buenos Aires. I was greeted by pouring rain, albeit it warm rain, as the forecast high was 28 Celsius – BBC reported Quebec City as zero Celsius. I was quite surprised to discover that the shipping channel five miles out was only about 200 yards wide. I am guessing that the Rio de la Plata is very shallow in its estuary and that the shipping channel has been dredged. If so, that is a lot of dredging. I joined the early morning excursion crowd in the rear restaurant – they were rather subdued knowing that their excursions were going to be very wet.

The ship was delayed for over an hour in getting port clearance, which backed up all the tour departures. One group in particular, which included the Road Scholars, was behind schedule when they left the ship for an overnight excursion to Iguasu Falls for $1,300. This leg was 4,246 nautical miles.

Argentina is the second largest country in South America with a population of 40 million and it spans the sub-polar to the sub-tropical. It has four zones known as Tierra del Fuego, Pampas, Gran Chaca and the Andes. Argentinians annually consume 70 pounds of beef per person. Buenos Aires is almost opposite Puerto Montt in Chile in latitude, but the climate of B.A. is much milder. B.A. has 13 million citizens, about 32 percent of the country. The city has the widest thoroughfare of any city in the world with its Avenue 9 Julio at 16 traffic lanes. In the late 1800s the city was affluent and many grand buildings reflect that era. After the 1930s things went downhill and by the time of Juan and Eva Peron, 1944-1951, there were real problems. Argentina has lurched from crisis to crisis ever since.

After lunch on February 24th I took the shuttle bus from the ship and weaved through the container port to the Terminal Building. The TB can best be described as a retail wasteland with no free WiFi. With two Carnival ships also in port, the TB was a zoo.

This is my third visit to B.A.

David
Buenos Aires

This sent from the Cruise Terminal at Valparaiso at the end of Leg 4 of 8 on 05 Feb 2013
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The morning of January 22nd we sent home the passengers from Leg 3, some of whom diverted to the Galápagos Islands.

The weather in Manta was a warm 26 Celsius, but overcast. I have seen this before here and in Lima. The winds blowing onshore from the cold water of the Humboldt Current collide with the hot air on land to produce dull weather.

In mid-afternoon the Leg 4 folks started to arrive looking rather jet-lagged. Unfortunately, those from Britain brought the rain with them. Now we have to watch out for Norovirus.

Rain greeted me on January 23rd as I watched the Newbies troop down the gangplank at 07:00 hrs, in full rain gear, to visit the local Panama Hat factory in neighbouring Montecristi – been there, done that, got the hat. Of course Panama hats are in fact made in Ecuador and cost between $20 and several thousand depending on the fineness of the weave.

Over a cup of coffee, I watched the tuna boats offloading their catch. The tuna are smaller than my last visit, at about the same time of year, and the fishing fleet is about half the size. At 26 Celsius the sun broke through and I went ashore to take photos. Back on the ship, the BBC reported very low temperatures and lots of snow in Toronto (grin). Late that evening we recovered folks from the Galapagos and set sail for Guayaquil. I could have spent a day in the Galapagos for a mere $1,400.

We arrived in the estuary of the Rio Guayas to pick up the pilot at 08:00 on January 24th. Just prior we had a good demonstration of just how how difference stabilizers make. The Captain had pulled them in to make sure the pilot boat did not run over them. As as result we were rolling ten degrees to each side in just a moderate swell.

We sailed for four hours up the Rio Guayas before harbouring at Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second largest city. We had leaden skies with a cloud deck at about 500 feet with occasional drizzle. But, it was a comfortable 26 Celsius. We docked about noon to find ourselves in a container port. The ship wanted a fee of $32 to transport independent travellers the 45 minutes into the city. The city tour was a mere $68. I had flown in and out of Guayaquil when visiting the Galapagos. Since we were sailing away at 18:30, a detailed cost benefit analysis screamed four letter words. I watched the refuelling instead.

We have a crew of 227 on board, which means about a 1:2 ratio to passengers.

At breakfast on January 25th, Robbie Burns Day, the cry “Whale Ho” was raised. A single fin whale had waved at us. Of greater importance was the BBC report that Toronto was being hit by yet another cold spell and tons of snow. Yes!

The cold Humbodlt Currrent seemed to have an effect as the daytime high only got to 23 Celsius, which felt downright chilly after the heat of Panama. We dressed in black tie to honour the haggis for dinner. They did not have a bagpiper on board, thank God!

In preparation for our arrival in Peru, we had to complete a Customs Declaration as to the contents of our baggage. I was allowed only one camera and one computer. I had four and two respectively. However, there was no stated restriction on the number of assault rifles, RPGs and sub-machine guns.

Salaverry, Peru was our port of call on January 26th. The ship used it to launch excursions to view the archeological sites of the Moche people and those of the Chimu Empire. The sequence was the Moche from about 0 to 800 AD, then the Chimu, followed by the Inca mid-1400s and finally the Spanish mid-1500s. You can probably detect my excitement.

The sickly sweet smell of fish meal announced our morning arrival in the port that instantly reminded me of Safaga, on the West Bank of the Red Sea. The port was simply one of those places you go to in order to visit other centres. The nearest town, Trujillo, is a typical Peruvian place with all the same tick boxes. The ship again wanted $32 to take us to the town. From the port of Salaverry, Peru exports fish meal, minerals and fertilizer. Since we had just over four hours in port, I decided on an ornithological safari, capturing a very exotic inca tern, complete with white whiskers. It was a lovely 28 Celsius.

As we moved south towards Callao-Lima, Antarctic winds chilled things down and sea fog became a threat. The Captain hit full speed fearing that Callao would be closed down. En route we spotted squadrons of gannets dive bombing a school of frantic fish. The water roiled when the echelons of kamikazes went straight in. Later we ploughed through colonies of huge jellyfish.

I have been watching sea birds for some time and have concluded those with longer wings have learned three great tricks. First, using gravity, they dive down into the troughs between waves, thus increasing their speed at no energy cost. Second, using that increased velocity, they climb up the face of the next wave to ridge soar on the crest thus increasing altitude. Third, they take advantage of the wind gradient caused by friction at wave level. To wit, the wind speed is lowest at wave top and increases in the first few feet above the waves. This gives them an altitude boost at no cost. Smart birds. Birds with smaller wings have to flap a lot more to remain airborne. This is a clear demonstration of the Darwin Effect. Not willing to spend the five years he remained on HMS Beagle, I have speeded up the scientific analysis.

From a series of lectures on the early exploration of the Caribbean and Panama Isthmus, I have learned a lot about ocean wind and current patterns. Specifically, the clockwise winds above the equator and the counter-clockwise breezes below. I now have to find out how much the Coriolis Effect determines these directions. Bottom Line: Columbus was going to be blown to Hispaniola from the Canary Islands whether he liked it or not. In other words, he was blown down the same route as the hurricanes follow. He would never had got home if there had not been counter winds following the Gulf Stream Current.

At 07:00 on January 27th we arrived in crystal clear sunshine in Callao, the port of Lima, for a three day stay. It was a close run thing as the first group of the 140 passengers going to Machu Picchu for a very expensive side trip assembled at 07:45 hrs. I had given up the chance to visit Machu Picchu for the third time at a cost of $1,800. As the day wore on the sea fog came in and presented the usual grey visage I had always associated with Lima. Late in the afternoon the ship took on provisions from its German supplier, the last such resupply having been in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I had to wonder how it was cheaper to send melons from Hamburg.

This was my third visit to Lima, the last having been just a few months ago. The port authorities would not allow us to walk within the docks but did provide a shuttle to the port gate. But, they also advised that it was not safe to walk on city streets in the vicinity! So, I took a pass and watched harbour dredging operations. Riveting!

On the third day in Callao-Lima I took advantage of the spa special on haircuts and spent a whopping $16 to mark 56 days away from winter.

As we departed Callao-Lima, we got news that the dispute between Argentina and the UK over the Falkland Islands has caused a change in our itinerary. We were scheduled to visit Ushuaia, the largest city in southern Argentinian Patagonia, on February 17th. But, because we are going to visit Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, Ushuaia has been scrubbed “to ensure that our progress to the Falklands cannot be disrupted”. We will have to see if Buenos Aires becomes an issue AFTER we visit the Falklands.

Early on January 30th we arrived in the port of General San Martin, named after the great Argentinian liberator. He, along with Simon Bolivar, took advantage of Spain’s weakened situation after the Napoleonic Wars to liberate several South American countries, Peru being one. The GSM port was a very isolated place and we were the only game in town. It was only used to stage excursions for a $350 flight over the Nazca lines, which were thought to have been created in the period AD 400 to 650. A visit to the Incan Tambo Colorado archeological site east of Pisco was offered for $210. Pisco, the nearest town to GSM was levelled by an 8.0 earthquake six years ago: the cathedral collapsed on the congregation during Mass. There were buildings in the port that showed evidence of earthquake damage.

As we approached GSM, the circa 200 BC Candelabro Paracas, carved into the desert hills and measuring some 595 feet, was supposed to be visible. Next time.

This whole coast south from Lima was a prelude to the Atacama Desert. Although arid, just a half mile inland we did see patches of green where irrigation was used to grow vegetables in the desert.

I woke early on January 31st and turned on the cabin TV to watch the ship’s GPS. Noting a couple of minutes to sunrise, I rushed on deck to get some sunrise photos. The rest of the day was taken up with morning lectures, a Captain’s Reception, afternoon lectures and the Hotel Manager’s Reception. You can never be be received too often as you get free bubbly.

From the lectures I learned that Chile is only 140 kms from the Pacific to Argentina at its WIDEST point. The highest mountain in the Andes is almost 23,000 feet (the offshore trenches are deeper than the Andes). Condors have a wingspan of 3.2 metres and have the greatest wing area of any bird. Males can weigh 33 pounds. There are 40 names in English for the Cougar, which has a huge range spanning both North and South America. The Zorro is the Sechuran Fox. Also on offer are the Megellanic and Humboldt penguins. Huge colonies of cormorants feed on anchovies and the resultant guano was mined for fertilizer and gun powder in the mid 1800’s. Orcas are giant dolphins. The Spanish encountered huge natives in the south and named them Patagonians – the name stuck. Vicuñas and Guanacos are wild while Alpacas and Llamas are domesticated. Vicuña wool is the most expensive because the animal is sheared once in three years and there is little yield.

Before sunrise on February 1st we docked in Arica, the most northerly port in Chile, which was part of Peru until the War of the Pacific, 1879-83. In 1876 Bolivia was in a Depression when its President Daza picked a fight with Chile over Bolivian provinces that had been settled by Chileans. When the Chileans responded, Bolivia invoked the mutual defence pact with Peru. The Bolivians retreated to the inland hills and left the Chileans and Peruvians to fight it out on sea and land. Chile won and occupied Lima in 1881. It was not unto 1904 that a treaty was signed by the belligerents. Bottom Line: Bolivia lost access to the sea and Chile’s border moved north. Now Arica is landlocked Bolivia’s lifeline to the Pacific and its Asian markets.

Arica is the northern tip of the Atacama Desert that stretches 1,000 kms to the south and is so dry that some weather stations have never recorded any precipitation. Arica only gets 0.03 inches of rain per year. In 1868 a devastating earthquake and tsunami levelled the city and tens of thousands perished. A visiting US naval vessel was dumped 800 metres inland. Today the streets have huge signs painted on the roadway showing tsunami escape routes. Immediately offshore the sea drops into trenches 25,000 feet deep that provide the route for the cold, 14-15 Celsius, Humboldt Current coming up from Antarctica. In 1876 Gustave Eiffel designed the cathedral and had it shipped in pieces. As we left the ship the local tourist board gave us coca bags. In town it was 25 Celsius and dry as dust. The BBC reported Toronto at minus 10 Celsius – take your pick.

At lunch all the waiters were wearing protective gloves and passengers were not allowed to serve themselves from the buffet, clear signs that we might have Norovirus on board. Later the Captain confirmed that seven passengers had problems. As we prepared to leave port, the Captain told us that divers had found that the vibrations we had been experiencing were caused by a fishing net wound around one propellor.

We spent January 2nd and 3rd at sea. On the second we had a delightful Solo’s Lunch for those travelling singles. It was well-attended because they serve free wine! On the third we saw fin whales.

On the night of the third, the night before we arrived in Coquimbo, it rained. We were only 30 miles off the coast featuring the Atacama Desert at 20 Celsius and 26 degrees south of the equator – farewell to the tropics. That night I also heard a good explanation of why Bolivian women wear bowler hats. British railway workers in Bolivia in the 1920s wore bowlers. A shipment of way too small bowlers arrived and were sold off to the local women. They fastened them on using hat pins and a fashion evolved. To this day they wear very small bowlers perched at jaunty angles.

Coquimbo gets 4.0 inches of rain per year and it was receiving half of it as we arrived. The mariachi band and dancers that greeted us were getting soaked. The area suffers from frequent earthquakes. There is a magnificent four mile beach linking it to the town of Serena. However, as per the Humboldt Current, the water is very chilly, but not cold enough to deter the local youth. The port exports a great deal of copper and iron ore. Besides the usual fish, the fishing fleet goes after a lot of squid. A walk into town revealed little of photographic value.

The black tie farewell dinner ending this leg had Dom Perignon, 2003, on offer for only $296. The good news is that after two months at sea, I still fit into my black tie.

On February 5th I was up on deck before sunrise as Voyager pulled into the container port at Valparaiso under leaden skies with drizzle. After breakfast I could only see as far up the hills as the Lord Cochrane Naval Museum and its associated funicular. Later that morning I took the shuttle bus to the terminal building. The cruise terminal, the first we had seen since Barbados, featured almost free WiFi.

Valparaiso, Paradise Valley, is Chile’s biggest port and second largest city. There is a thin sliver of flat land around the harbour, but all else clings to steep hills. Fifteen neighbourhood funiculars make is easier to climb up to the colourful dwellings in the various “Cerros”. Santiago still uses electric trolley buses, some of which date from the fifties, and many have been imported from around the world. Easter Island (Rapa Nui) some 2,182 miles offshore, is administered from Valparaiso and is on the same time.

The whole area is on the Ring of Fire and earthquakes are frequent. In 1906 an earthquake levelled Valparaiso killing thousands. The latest, in 2010, was magnitude 8.8 and affected Valparaiso, Santiago and the San Jose Copper Mine in the Atacama Desert, the mine rescue operation of 69 days riveting the world as the Fenix capsule build by the Chilean Navy made history.

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 lessened Santiago’s importance as a seaport.

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Note: Chilean cowboys are known as Huaso and are equivalent to the Argentinian Gaucho. You just have to be careful how you pronounce Huaso!