We're back sailing along the Beagle Channel in Chile. As you may know the Beagle Channel is named for the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin's ship during his explorations in this area in the 1830's. To see Darwin's timeline : http://www.aboutdarwin.com/timeline/time_04.html#0040
The next major glacier we saw while sailing the Beagle Channel was the Francia Glacier. It comes down to the water, unlike the last glacier we saw, but since it was the end of summer, there was no floating ice.
Cruising on the Beagle Channel after leaving Punta Arenas, we passed several glaciers, Italia Glacier being the first one. If you Google it, you will see that my photo shows that it is rapidly receding. The waterfall coming out of it attests to its melting. It's pretty frightening.
As I walked on deck while we were tied up in Punta Arenas on March 6, I spotted an orange face looking right at me. It was one of several buoys to which the Amsterdam was tied up; we couldn't berth on shore there. Later a boat came out from the harbor and cast off our lines. Goodbye, Punta Arenas.
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 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.
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.
The Punta Arenas (Chile) Cemetery is filled with these beautifully-kept, wonderfully-green trees, probably a type of cypress. Tomorrow - more about the cemetery.
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:
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! 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.
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.
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.
The other big attraction in Vicente Perez Rosales National Park was this roaring stream with several falls and rapids - so beautiful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How would you like to have this right outside your window? It's a common sight in Valparaiso, almost as common as graffiti.
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