Heading Up the Coast of Chile

Hi again,

Here's our third message, this time from southern Chile, approaching the Chilean fjords.

South America   Update 3

The southern tip of South America is a land of extremes. We spent the day wandering around Tierra del Fuego Nat Park just outside Ushuaia with new friends Joanne and Bob Emerson from Great Britain. This is the southern terminus of the Andes Mtn Range and the fickle mountain weather patterns kept things interesting all day. Where it really got interesting however was as Margaret & I were walking down the quay to board the 'Marina'. Ushuaia, like Banff is surrounded by serious rocky snow capped peaks. The down slope, off shore winds that typically spring up late in the afternoon are so strong (average 55 knots, gusting to 60 knots - that's about 70 mph!) they just about blew Margaret & I off our feet as we were walking back down the quay! It remained so strong that it literally pinned the cruise ship to the pier!  We were 3 hrs late leaving Ushuaia. 

One of the things a cruise ship does very well is get you to a lot of out of the way places in a relatively short period of time. To travel from Buenos Aires on the Atlantic to Valparaiso on the Pacific via Cape Horn any other way would be difficult without a time frame of months.  Indeed there are locations on this voyage and others we have taken that are accessed only from the sea. Some you would revisit in a heartbeat others, not so much. Ushuaia falls into the not so much category for me. In our first visit to Chile and Argentina in 2008 with Jim & Sophie Munro we opted not to visit Ushuaia but rather spend our allotted 8 weeks in other locales. In retrospect I think we did the right thing. 

It's not that Ushuaia is that bad. Its location perched on a small coastal plain on the shores of the Beagle Channel with a backdrop of the snow capped Andes is stunning. To me however, it seemed to be a city transitioning from what it was to what it wanted to be and featured the least appealing of both statuses. 

The wind finally abated enough to pry the Marina off the pier and we were off up the Strait of Magellan and our next stop Punta Arenas,Chile. Punta Arenas if I recall correctly is Chile's southernmost city. In 2008 we flew from Santiago (capitol of Chile) to Punta Arenas and used it as our jumping off point for 2 marvellous weeks of exploring the Andean Mtn area of Patagonia. I would have no hesitation listing those weeks as one of the highlites of my life. Unbelievably, breathtakingly beautiful. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea but if you are capable of doing it, it deserves your attention.

From Punta Arenas the ship traverses back into the Magellan Strait enroute to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean.  We are now on the east coast of South America. I can feel the sea swell increasing as we get closer to that entrance. I'm betting we're back into the 5 metre (15') seas at an average again. Ho humm. We're getting to be old hands at this. 

It's summer in South America and I thought you might find the below listed weather conditions interesting. Chile and Argentina are are as long as Canada is wide and just south of their southern tip is the Antarctic. You may recall me whining about plus 37 C temps in Buenos Aires where we stated this trip. Check out the conditions outside our balcony door as I write this. Tough trip to pack for.

Current conditions: overcast - temp 6 C - sea temp 8 C - wind 50-55 knots (57-62 mph) - waves  5 metres (15') - hull speed 20 knots. Distance travelled from Buenos Aires (embark) 2495 km. Distance to Valparaiso (Disembark) 1767 km.

You would swear Margaret was born in a slicker, rubber boots and a sou'wester hat from the way she negotiates herself around a ship in high seas. I've always been of the opinion that only toddlers or drunks have that natural ability or luck, to be stepping left when the boat (or train) is lurching right. They can walk as straight as a dye! Apparently I'm married to someone with that same innate ability. 

I'm pretty sure Margaret has also made friends with half the ship's company and passengers. That would put it at 600 and counting. I expect we will be on a first name basis with the balance by the time we disembark in Valparaiso. I just get pulled along in her wake manically repeating first names over and over to myself so I don't screw it up next time we meet. Such is the life of a trophy husband

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I've been trying, in vain it would appear, to keep these updates down to something smaller than a novel. Those of you who have been victims of the updates from previous trips are aware that Stimson has never met a sentence he can't turn into a paragraph. But these trips are so damned interesting!! 

One more thing - there's always one more thing. I'll likely be saying that on my death bed. This trip is different than others with regards Internet access. On previous trips we have discouraged replies because of expense. This time we have full internet access for the entire trip. You can't accuse it of blazing speed but it works. We actually live streamed a Jets game (audio) a few nights back! We would love to hear from you and what's happening back home. 

Hey BC is anybody still out there or did you all get washed into the sea with the heavy rains and the King tide? We're thinking of you.

Never Stop Exploring

M&H 

Going South from Buenos Aires

South America  Update 2#

At last writing we were just about to set sail from Buenos Aires Argentina to Puenta del Este Uruguay. Uruguay lies immediately north of Buenos Aires and Argentina, just across the estuary of the River Plate. You might think this is a short distance but in fact the bay where the River Plate flows into the Atlantic is so large it took us all night to cross! 

Unfortunately we can't say we set foot in Uruguay because the swell coming out of the Atlantic was too great to allow going ashore. In many interesting coastal communities like Puenta del Este, the harbour may not have the docking facilities for deeper draft ships. In cases like this the cruise ships ferry passengers ashore in their 'tenders' (covered lifeboats). The tenders are lowered into the water off their davits and you step through an opening in the hull of the ship into the tender. With  the mother ship and tender both in the water and the chop frequently dictating them going in opposite directions you can see how this can be a challenge to load. On this occasion it was simply too rough. 

So we turned south and proceeded to our next port of call, Puerto Madryn. Interestingly enough as we left the estuary of the River Plate, we sailed very close to where the German dreadnought battleship the Graf Spee was scuttled during the Second World War. 

Puerto Madryn was founded by Welsh immigrants and there are still communities nearby that continue to speak entirely Welsh. We are now in Patagonia. 

The region of Argentina and Chile referred to as Patagonia is huge. It covers more than half (geographically) of their respective land masses and encompasses not only the Andes Mountain range but also the deserts, steppes and grasslands more typical of the area around Puerto Madryn. 

From Puerto Madryn we zigged out into the Atlantic and headed for the Falkland Islands aka The Malvinas. After visiting the Falklands we will zag back to Argentina and the southernmost tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego, and the city of Ushuaia.

We are now down near the 40th latitude, more infamously known as 'the roaring forties'. It comes by that reputation honestly. At the bottom of South America it's where the Atlantic meets the Pacific at Cape Horn. With the world's two largest oceans to the north and Antarctica and the South Pole to the south it has every reason I can think of to be a nasty piece of water.

This made it all the more unique for us to have made landfall in the Falklands. We spoke with a fellow passenger that informed us this was his 5th attempt. He was in luck this time - but only by a whisker. We are very lucky to make it on our first try.

The cruise across to Port Stanley the capitol of the Falkland Islands was very pleasant with a moderate sea and sunshine. Similarly the full day we had in Stanley was gorgeous. The Falklands (population 3000) is a self governed protectorate of the UK. The islands which have been occupied by France, Britain, Spain and Argentina over the past 500 years, occupy a strategic position in the Southern Hemisphere for vessels that prior to the opening of the Panama Canal were obliged to travel around Cape Horn in their passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic or vice versa. Not only commercial shipping but whalers and military ships used the Falklands as a refuelling and re provisioning stop in this long journey. It was critical to Great Britain securing control of the seas in the Southern Hemisphere during the First and Second World Wars.

Most people are more familiar with islands being the site of the Falklands War of 1982, or Maggie's War after then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Argentina, which was then ruled by a military junta, invaded the Falkland Islands but within the space of a couple of months British forces retook the islands at a cost of 659 Argentinian lives and 258 British.

Two paragraphs earlier I mentioned the seas around the Falklands are notoriously rough. We were to get a taste of that first hand on the way back across the Atlantic to Argentina. Our first hint was as we returned from Port Stanley and boarded the Marina Margaret and I noticed the crew were securing everything that could possibly move in rough seas; deck chairs lashed to railings similarly, carvings, large plants, and crystal were either removed or tied to something rigid, our cabin stewardess came in and lashed the deck chairs to the balcony railing. Hmmm.

The transit back to the mainland would take all night and the next day (today). As soon as we were out of the lee of the islands the winds went to a steady 40 knots and gusting up to 50 knots; that's roughly 46 mph or 74 kmh and higher with the gusts. The seas (waves) were in the 5.5 to 6.1 meter range (15 to 20'). We were rockin & rollin. 

I spoke with a fellow at breakfast who has a 42' sailboat. We were looking out a window from the 12th deck at what he called a 'big ass lumpy' sea. When waves look big from that high up you know they are big. I don't think I have to translate big ass but lumpy I gather means the waves weren't evenly spaced rollers but were coming from all different directions. His parting words were 'be very glad you're in here and not out there'.

We are currently just traversing into the Le Maire Strait from the Atlantic. This is pretty much the bottom of South America. I guess Cape Horn is a little further south, but not much. The ship is moving very slowly and deliberately. The sea is quite calm but it's reduced visibility due to fog. Within the next few hours we will enter the Beagle Passage and work our way up to Ushuaia. The Beagle Passage is of course named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed in on his trip that took him from England around the Horn and up to the Galápagos Islands. I am literally pinching myself right now to make sure this is real. 

One more thing before we send this update; we were watching that VERY significant sea last night and earlier today from the comfy confines of a 650' long cruise ship. In April 1916 Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 6 men sailed a 20' jury rigged lifeboat from Elephant Island in the Antarctic 1300 km in 2 weeks to South Georgia Island (the Georgia & South Sandwich Islands are sister islands to the Falklands and lay due east of the Falklands). If you are unfamiliar with the Shackleton saga get ahold of one of the books documenting it. You will come away amazed and inspired. Now that I have seen that water up close I find their feat incomprehensible. 

Never Stop Exploring

M&H

Sent from Harry's iPad

Heading South

Leaving Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires and Beyond

Hello from the Atlantic, east of Argentina,

Judging by the weather forecasts we see on the Internet it would appear we timed our exit strategy from Canada pretty well. From the west to the east it sounds like it's been snarly. As you may know in the Southern Hemisphere it's currently summer and the temps are almost completely the opposite to everything east of the Rockies in Canada. Minus 30 at home. Plus 30 in Buenos Aires! That may sound like a pretty good trade off but keep in mind they measure humidity here like we measure wind chill. So with the humidex factored in that's up around +37. By the end of the day that's more than enough to take the starch out of us.

Downtown Buenos Aires is a great city for walking and M and I logged 10-15 miles per day. We burned through multiple litres of water a day each and that's not to mention the beer and coffee. My kidneys have never had it so good! 

To backtrack for a moment our trip from Winnipeg to Buenos Aires was long but went well. About 32 hours in total but that included a 4 hour layover in Chicago and an 8 hour layover in São Paulo Brazil. Marathon flights are not new to us, but this one was made considerably easier in that we flew 1st Class. Aeroplan required that we use up a substantial number of miles by the end of January, so we thought why not fly first class. That was new for us, but it provided access to the elite airport lounges plus the individual pods on the wide body Boeing 777 aircraft. Because of the ability of the seats in the pods to fold flat it made it much easier to sleep and you arrive much fresher. Margaret said we can fly first class from here on ----- but only if we win the lottery. 

Our 5 day sojourn in Buenos Aires was fun. We were here for 8 days six years ago with Sophie and Jim Munro. It's changed quite a bit in that short time. Of the 42.5 million inhabitants of Argentina, close to 14 million live in Greater Buenos Aires - big city. There is a street here that is 15 or more lanes wide and takes you 2-3 lights to walk across! It's always struck me as a very cosmopolitan city with a strong European feel to it. The Spanish colonial architecture and colourful mix of cultures is no doubt the reason. We really enjoyed wandering the various downtown districts, reacquainting ourselves with what we encountered 6 years ago. 

But the 'Paris of South America' is starting to look a little frayed around the seams. The Argentinian economy is in crisis and you can see and feel the city fighting a rear guard action against urban decay. You are obliged to pay close attention to where you put your feet. Streets and sidewalks, many of those modernized with handicap access corners, frequently fall into disrepair ranging from potholes to debris fields with little in the way of warning signs.

The Argentinian peso has dropped like a stone. The government rate is about 8.5 pesos for one US$ but the street rate called the 'Blue Dolar' is 13.2 pesos per US buck. That's more than a 50% difference if you are exchanging US currency for Argentinian ! You absolutely need pesos for the daily requirements of travel; taxis (~60 pesos for a fifteen min ride), lunch, coffee (~77 pesos for two lattes at Starbucks), etc. You get hosed using a credit card. 

Walking down the busy streets of Buenos Aires you constantly hear the word  'CAMBIO' called out as tho' by a hawker at a sideshow. They are like quasi legitimate black market currency traders. They buy US$ for pesos at the minute-by-minute going rate. Trouble is with them being unregulated they can salt it with counterfeit pesos. Pretty hard for a tourist to tell the difference. Tricky! Interesting to watch store cashiers hold larger peso bills up to the light to check for counterfeit.

To put it in perspective, prior to our leaving, Canadian banks and currency houses wouldn't even sell us Argentinian pesos due to the volatility, and the small family run hotel we stayed at in downtown Buenos Aires required payment in US$ cash for our whole 5 day stay. To avoid getting into trouble we arranged with our hotel owner to buy pesos from him. We split the difference with him - he bought them for 13.2 AR$ and sold them to us for 11.2 AR$ - way better than 8.5 AR$ if we went to the gov't regulated banks. The people of Argentina deserve better.

When we were last here people with dogs were not required to pick up after their pets. Sidewalks were littered with dog crap. That is no longer the case. I can only assume there is now a law. The dog walking business is still a big deal. It's not unusual to pass a dog walker with 20 dogs on leashes. #herdingdogs

Those of you who have had the dubious distinction of being on the receiving end of updates from our previous trips to South America may recall us writing about the plumbing and the culturally very different approach to toilet paper. If so the below may sound familiar.

Be warned this is more information than you may feel you need. I'd forgotten about this - until now.

In South American countries the plumbing systems are not designed to accept toilet paper! They just don't. They will plug up and overflow. Washrooms are provided with an inconspicuous little trash can into which you put any soiled TP. Yup, you read that right. They also have a bidet and/or a contrivance that basically is a flexible hose with a nozzle. I can hear all the OMGs about now.

Margaret is of the opinion that it's my job to figure out and field test anything that's remotely suspicious. So here is my advice gained from personal experience. Go in stripped down for action because there is a fair chance you're going to get wet. This next bit is VERY IMPORTANT. Make sure you have a very clear grasp of which knob controls the HOT water - and - which controls PRESSURE. Failure to respect these basic principles will likely mean you're in for a high speed hot water enema. Once you get the hang of it the bidet is quite civilized - the hose and jet nozzle on the other hand is positively evil.

We boarded our ship the Marina on Monday at noon and the ship remained in dock in Buenos Aires until 8:00 pm Tuesday night. We went ashore again to check out some places we missed and to buy some fabulous Argentinian wines at ridiculously low prices. Malbecs here we come.

Never Stop Exploring

M&H