Sunday, January 06, 2008
Patagonia Trip Three – December 2007 – Part Three:
The Ship and Cape Horn:
I'm using my journal notes and our photographs to share this incredible portion of our journey. I didn't want the Eco-Camp to imply that we failed to have a great time, or that even all of that part was bad – it wasn't. We saw some very beautiful things in the park where the camp is located.
Day One aboard The M.V. Australis:
From my travel journal: Talk about day and night! The ship is wonderful! Our room is very comfortable and nice for a cabin aboard a small ship, (200 passengers maximum and about an equal crew compliment. Four decks of guest quarters. Two lovely lounges with huge windows on both sides and astern. An open observation deck and haven for the smokers aboard.) The dining room is lovely and comfortable and the food is excellent.
Tonight at sunset there were a pair of dolphins that followed us for two days, often playing with the zodiac we used to get from the ship to the landing points, (islands and peninsulas along our route to and from Cape Horn.)
The Fried family; Paul, Judith, Reena and Ian from NYC; are still with us, and we continue to enjoy their company. In addition, a lovely couple (Stephen and Ting) with a charming one year-old boy (Jensen) at our table are from San Mateo, and Stephen's best friend is a guy I went to high school with, (though Stephen was raised a little farther up the SF Peninsula.) Sometimes it's a very small world, when you end up running into your neighbors halfway around the globe.
It made meals both pleasant and comfortably familiar. Our waiter, Rene, is great. He works very hard to make our meals enjoyable, and we greet him by name every time we sit down. It's that kind of wonderful intimacy aboard this ship. Even the people we talk to in the lounges and on the zodiac trips are very nice and share our love of travel. We felt very welcome and enjoyed every minute aboard the Australis.
Day Two aboard:
It was a very low-key day, which was fine by us. There was an engine room tour and talks about the area while we traveled along the Ballenero and O'Brien Channels, as well as an afternoon zodiac trip to the Pia Glacier, and an evening sailing along the spectacular, "Avenue of the Glaciers."
A made a couple of notes in my journal here. One was that Erik plans these wonderful trips for us, and how much I love that he makes these happen, and how much I just love the guy in general. Another was how grateful I was for the Scopamine (Scopolamine) Trans-Dermal (TD) patches we placed behind our ear, because we would both have been sea-sick without them, (especially rounding the Cape.) As it was I could drink a little and eat with my usual gusto, even without medical cannabis to help promote my appetite.
The stairs aboard the ship, combined with the zodiac launches and nature walks, along with 20 push-ups every night; kept me in good physical shape. It's important to exercise a bit even on vacation. When we were in New Zealand I gained ten pounds, (which is good for me.) The night we rounded the Cape the push-ups felt a little weird with the rocking of the ship, but it was kind of cool, too.
Day Three:
Another fairly mellow day. In the afternoon we visited a colony of Mellgianic Penguins. (Guess who they were named after.) We landed the zodiacs but didn't get out of the boats. It didn't matter because there were dozens of penguins within feet of us. (No snow on the island and absolutely no Penguin Sledding allowed.) Erik got a bunch of great shots and I got a few myself. You can see some of our pics at Erik's Flickr site. (I'm going to post some to my web site as time allows over the next few months. I'm going to be pretty busy, but I like building on my Valdemar web site even if it's a slower process.)
We arrive at Cape Horn late tonight and land via zodiac early tomorrow morning.
Day Four:
This was the morning we landed at the southern most tip of the South American Continent – Cape Horn. There was a statue dedicated to Peace, a small marble monument to all the lost and killed sailors. There was also the famous little chapel they maintain very well, and a lighthouse that houses a Chilean military officer and his family. (There's a house attached to the lighthouse that was quite large and looked comfortable.) They watch over the island and sell souvenirs to us touristas. Then we came back to the ship for breakfast.
In the afternoon was a stop a Wulaia Bay, a beautiful place where once lived the aboriginal native Indians. Erik took the hike and I took the beach walk. Like much of this place, beautiful, awesome and grand. This area of the world in incredible and reminded me how important is to fight for the health of this planet we live on. My wish is that more people could see places like this and realize there's too much to lose by destroying our natural world. They are building a museum in this desolate place and I hope everyone who reads this gets a chance to see it when it's completed. They renovated an old military communication post that later was used by crab fishermen.
During dinner the Chilean authorities came aboard and stamped everyone's passport. The ship kept our passports while on board and it saved us from having to deal with any of the border crossings. Then we crossed back into Argentinean waters as we docked back Ushaia, (the city where our aquatic journey began,) around midnight. We spent our last night aboard in port, and began our journey home the next day. We shot 905 pictures with our digital camera, (before editing,) made new friends, and returned home with many happy memories of our journey.
I would highly recommend both the journey and the ship itself.
The Ship and Cape Horn:
I'm using my journal notes and our photographs to share this incredible portion of our journey. I didn't want the Eco-Camp to imply that we failed to have a great time, or that even all of that part was bad – it wasn't. We saw some very beautiful things in the park where the camp is located.
Day One aboard The M.V. Australis:
From my travel journal: Talk about day and night! The ship is wonderful! Our room is very comfortable and nice for a cabin aboard a small ship, (200 passengers maximum and about an equal crew compliment. Four decks of guest quarters. Two lovely lounges with huge windows on both sides and astern. An open observation deck and haven for the smokers aboard.) The dining room is lovely and comfortable and the food is excellent.
Tonight at sunset there were a pair of dolphins that followed us for two days, often playing with the zodiac we used to get from the ship to the landing points, (islands and peninsulas along our route to and from Cape Horn.)
The Fried family; Paul, Judith, Reena and Ian from NYC; are still with us, and we continue to enjoy their company. In addition, a lovely couple (Stephen and Ting) with a charming one year-old boy (Jensen) at our table are from San Mateo, and Stephen's best friend is a guy I went to high school with, (though Stephen was raised a little farther up the SF Peninsula.) Sometimes it's a very small world, when you end up running into your neighbors halfway around the globe.
It made meals both pleasant and comfortably familiar. Our waiter, Rene, is great. He works very hard to make our meals enjoyable, and we greet him by name every time we sit down. It's that kind of wonderful intimacy aboard this ship. Even the people we talk to in the lounges and on the zodiac trips are very nice and share our love of travel. We felt very welcome and enjoyed every minute aboard the Australis.
Day Two aboard:
It was a very low-key day, which was fine by us. There was an engine room tour and talks about the area while we traveled along the Ballenero and O'Brien Channels, as well as an afternoon zodiac trip to the Pia Glacier, and an evening sailing along the spectacular, "Avenue of the Glaciers."
A made a couple of notes in my journal here. One was that Erik plans these wonderful trips for us, and how much I love that he makes these happen, and how much I just love the guy in general. Another was how grateful I was for the Scopamine (Scopolamine) Trans-Dermal (TD) patches we placed behind our ear, because we would both have been sea-sick without them, (especially rounding the Cape.) As it was I could drink a little and eat with my usual gusto, even without medical cannabis to help promote my appetite.
The stairs aboard the ship, combined with the zodiac launches and nature walks, along with 20 push-ups every night; kept me in good physical shape. It's important to exercise a bit even on vacation. When we were in New Zealand I gained ten pounds, (which is good for me.) The night we rounded the Cape the push-ups felt a little weird with the rocking of the ship, but it was kind of cool, too.
Day Three:
Another fairly mellow day. In the afternoon we visited a colony of Mellgianic Penguins. (Guess who they were named after.) We landed the zodiacs but didn't get out of the boats. It didn't matter because there were dozens of penguins within feet of us. (No snow on the island and absolutely no Penguin Sledding allowed.) Erik got a bunch of great shots and I got a few myself. You can see some of our pics at Erik's Flickr site. (I'm going to post some to my web site as time allows over the next few months. I'm going to be pretty busy, but I like building on my Valdemar web site even if it's a slower process.)
We arrive at Cape Horn late tonight and land via zodiac early tomorrow morning.
Day Four:
This was the morning we landed at the southern most tip of the South American Continent – Cape Horn. There was a statue dedicated to Peace, a small marble monument to all the lost and killed sailors. There was also the famous little chapel they maintain very well, and a lighthouse that houses a Chilean military officer and his family. (There's a house attached to the lighthouse that was quite large and looked comfortable.) They watch over the island and sell souvenirs to us touristas. Then we came back to the ship for breakfast.
In the afternoon was a stop a Wulaia Bay, a beautiful place where once lived the aboriginal native Indians. Erik took the hike and I took the beach walk. Like much of this place, beautiful, awesome and grand. This area of the world in incredible and reminded me how important is to fight for the health of this planet we live on. My wish is that more people could see places like this and realize there's too much to lose by destroying our natural world. They are building a museum in this desolate place and I hope everyone who reads this gets a chance to see it when it's completed. They renovated an old military communication post that later was used by crab fishermen.
During dinner the Chilean authorities came aboard and stamped everyone's passport. The ship kept our passports while on board and it saved us from having to deal with any of the border crossings. Then we crossed back into Argentinean waters as we docked back Ushaia, (the city where our aquatic journey began,) around midnight. We spent our last night aboard in port, and began our journey home the next day. We shot 905 pictures with our digital camera, (before editing,) made new friends, and returned home with many happy memories of our journey.
I would highly recommend both the journey and the ship itself.
# posted by Phillip T. Alden @ 11:56 AM 
