Colorful

Punta Arenas is a very colorful town, as are most of the towns we saw, probably because the landscape is rather drab. This shot was taken from an overlook and you can see our ship in the background.

I should have said last time that Camelot Fin is in Punta Arenas, Chile, almost at the 'end of the world'.

There was no photo yesterday because of a dead PC. I thought it was permanently dead. After many attempts and talks with the computer guru (his business), what finally fixed it was unplugging it and plugging it back in. Voilà! Thank you, Dr. Elyse (not the computer guru).

Camelot Fin

So now we know where Camelot ended!

Tombs

I said the cemetery was filled with the cypress trees. Of course, the main purpose of the cemetery is as a cemetery, and this is a huge one! So the main feature is naturally the tombs, plus a few other kinds of trees. Punta Arenas vies with Buenos Aires for the most beautiful cemetery in South America. I say BA wins for its general beauty plus it has Evita's tomb. I'll show you her tomb when we get to Buenos Aires.

Avenue of trees

The people in this avenue of trees in the Punta Arenas Cemetery show the size of these trees. I'm sure they are manicured to maintain this smooth shape but we didn't see anyone working on them that day.

Cemetery trees

The Punta Arenas (Chile) Cemetery is filled with these beautifully-kept, wonderfully-green trees, probably a type of cypress. Tomorrow - more about the cemetery.

TVs

This is a little interruption of the South America trip to show you a scene that greeted us near Corte Madera Creek Thursday morning. A lineup of turkey vultures on the top of a sign - and there were others flying in the vicinity. Fortunately, we never did see why they were there!

Gulls

The beach at Punta Arenas was filled with Kelp Gulls, natives of Antarctica and found in southern Africa, Australasia and South America. For more info, go here:
http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/birds/gulls.shtml

PiPi Room

In Punta Arenas (pronounced poontaRAYnus) we had lunch at an estancia (ranch). This sign was on a door in the restaurant area and I'm sure you can deduce what room it was . . .

Don't Walk!

Don't Walk! in Punta Arenas, Chile. In fact, he looks as if he may have walked when he shouldn't have, and now wears the bandages to show for it.

Amalia Glacier

On March 5, we sailed through Canal Sarmiento and viewed the Amalia Glacier, very blue. The previous day and two nights were spent sailing. Distances are great and since we were cruising in channels, we didn't make the time we could on the open ocean.

Leaving Puerto Montt

In the evening of March 3 we left Puerto Montt, Chile, to sail overnight to the next day's Darwin Channel and some glaciers. Our cruise will continue south along the coast of Chile through various other channels, including the Beagle Channel and the Straits of Magellan.

Benches

These two benches are in a small town we visited near Puerto Montt - Puerto Varas, I think. A bit different, aren't they, but stable, I guess; I didn't try them.

Roaring stream

The other big attraction in Vicente Perez Rosales National Park was this roaring stream with several falls and rapids - so beautiful.

Mt. Osorno

From Puerto Montt we took a day trip that included Vicente Perez Rosales National Park and the volcano Mt. Osorno. The weather we had on the whole trip was amazing and this visit demonstrates that: within half an hour after this photo Osorno was obscured by the clouds you can see blowing in. We were told it's rare to get the view we did.

ms Amsterdam

The first stop on our cruise was at Puerto Montt, Chile, where we took a tender to the shore since the harbor is too shallow for our ship to tie up at a pier. Onshore, we turned and took this picture of our ship, the ms Amsterdam.

Hummingbird

On my walk at Stinson Beach last Saturday, my eyes were drawn to a flash of gold - a hummingbird on a branch. Every way he turned, he flashed gold, though it doesn't show in the photo. I think it must be a Rufous Hummingbird. I would enlarge it but 1) I want you to see it on its branch as I did, and 2) he was too far away to be in good focus and I don't want you to see how blurry the photo really is! The blue background is the Pacific Ocean.

Goat

This goat may not qualify as exactly wildlife, but then it could be in other circumstances. We know goats like high places and the highest this goat can find in its capacious pen is a truck, undoubtedly tarpaulined for this exact purpose. He/she alertly followed my progress down the street, not as laid-back as he/she may seem.

Deer

The South America trip will be interrupted again for a few days to show you some wildlife from the hills above Stinson Beach yesterday. This deer stood still for a long time as I got closer to it; then a woman and her dog (on a leash) came close - the deer took off!

Sunrise

Skies were overcast during most of our trip so there were few visible sunrises and sunsets, but on our first morning at sea, March 2, there was this pretty sky.

Clover in the rain

Last Tuesday at Bear Valley it began to rain while we were out on the trail - much sooner than we expected; our umbrellas were back in the car. But it was a light rain and raindrops on this clover leaf just begged to be photographed!

Valparaiso graffiti

I know I gave you photos from the ship voyage but before we leave Valparaiso completely behind, here's one more bit of graffiti.

Towel animals

Each night on the Amsterdam our stateroom steward would leave a little towel animal on our bed. Here are a couple of endearing ones.

More graffiti

And again, here's more graffiti along the Valparaiso stream. Someone asked if the 'artists' stand in the water to create these images and the answer is: probably. As one could see in the last photo there's not a lot of water in the stream. Otherwise, I suppose a boat would do the trick.

Graffiti in Valparaiso

Someone asked why I wasn't showing any more photos of the South American trip. There were just some photos that just couldn't wait! I intend to show the whole trip but it will be interrupted now and then with those that want to show up pronto.

Here we have some graffiti on the retaining wall of a stream that flows through Valparaiso.

Blue green man

On April Fool's Day I joined 300-400 people in the 31st Annual St. Stupid's Day Parade in San Francisco. For two hours the First Church of the Last Laugh, led by Bishop Joey, celebrated St. Stupid's Day by walking through the Financial District for two hours with various stops along the way. Two notable stops are the throwing of pennies at the black granite sculpture in front of the Bank of America Building (while one of the paraders put up a police-type yellow tape saying 'White Collar Crime Scene') and the annual Sock Exchange in front of the old Pacific Stock Exchange Building where the air is filled with thrown socks. Most paraders are costumed, or in the case of about half a dozen people, uncostumed (nude). One such was this blue green man whose whole body was painted (actually I didn't see the bottoms of his feet). I know it was because he happily posed facing me but I am too chicken to send out that photo; here's the view you get of him. I went in civvies just for the experience as did quite a few others.

Wires

How would you like to have this right outside your window? It's a common sight in Valparaiso, almost as common as graffiti.

Valparaiso

Finally, we are on board Holland America's ms Amsterdam in Valparaiso, Chile. This view from the ship was taken to show the colorful boats moored there but it also shows the general makeup of the city: tall buildings near the water and the rest uniformly small residential homes.

Veramonte Winery

On our way from Santiago to Valparaiso to board our ship, we took a side trip to Veramonte Winery. It is in a climate much like the Napa Valley and looks just like it. This is a view from a large room (empty when we were there) that led us out to the vineyard where we could taste the grapes on the vine.

Graffiti

It seems that every available wall in South America's larger cities is covered with graffiti, some of it more artistic than others.