January 30, 2015 Ushuaia, Argentina The train at the end of the world started as a convict work train. It’s a narrow gauge railway that used to run from the Prison in Ushuaia into the forests of Tierra del Fuego. … Continue reading Railway at the End of the World
January 31, 2015 Drake Passage Dear Friends, My respect for the captain grows. He saw the weather in the Drake Passage and decided to hold the ship in Ushuaia for several hours, giving us more time in the city. We … Continue reading An Earring and an Ear Patch
January 30, 2015 Beagle Channel, Chile It’s called Glacier Alley with glaciers to the north of the Beagle Channel pouring down from the Tierra del Fuego ice field. Beech trees line the South shore of the channel. It’s pretty spectacular, … Continue reading Quick, Before it Melts
January 30, 2015 Ushuaia, Argentina. Here is the second claimant to “end of the world.” Ushuaia is a newer town than Punta Arenas. It was founded in 1870 by missionaries from the Falkland Islands wishing to convert the natives of … Continue reading Or is This the End of the World?
January 29, 2011 Punta Arenas, Chile Dear Friends, Punta Arenas, Chile and Ushuaia have a rivalry. Both claim to be at the end of the world. Both claim to be the furthest south city in the world. Looking at a … Continue reading Is This The End of The World?
January 29, 2015 Tierra del Fuego Dear Friends, Penguins! What else can I say? Morning came too early after the “night of bells and whistles.” We anchored off Punta Arenas (see separate post) and got on a bus to take … Continue reading Penguins!
January 29, 2015 Sailing the Magellan Straits We were jolted out of bed by the ship’s horn and alarm bells. I turned over in bed and said to Suzi “This can’t be good.” We had just gotten to bed a … Continue reading Bells and Whistles
January 27, 2015 Riding it out at sea. Dear Friends, “Sitka is a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit there” is the old aphorism. If you live there you get the advantage of all the beautiful … Continue reading Germany in Chile
January 24, 2015 Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile Alexander Selkirk started it all. A Scot sailing on a British privateer, he didn’t like the way the ship was being run. He thought it was dangerous and would founder (turns out he … Continue reading Ultimate Survivor
January 23, 2015 On Board the Prinsendam, My kids say that our family doesn’t take vacations, we go on field trips. I may have slowed down a bit but days ashore are busy. On a cruise ship we have don’t … Continue reading Sea Day!
January 22, 2015 Sailing out of Valparaiso, Chile, Valparaiso is the port for Santiago, Chile’s capital. The ship offered several tours to the capital and the wine country. In our two port days we never got beyond gritty Valpo and … Continue reading Up and Down in Valparaiso
January 21, 2015 Dear Friends, Oscar, our cab driver, is worried. He doesn’t speak much English and we don’t speak much Spanish, that is one of the things that made the day interesting, trying to retrieve a long lost tongue … Continue reading The Route of the Stars
January 18, 2015 Arica, Chile Before he designed the framework for the Statue of Liberty, before his famous tower and before his infamous design for the locks on the French attempt to dig a Panama Canal (for which he was … Continue reading Eiffel in Peru (or is it Chile).
January 16, 2015 Nazca, Peru It’s a mystery and no one has a clue. For me it starts and ends with a Candelabrum. When you sail into and out of the port of General St. Martin you can see the … Continue reading A Mystery Without a Clue, the Nazca Lines.
January 15, 2014 Mira Flores, Peru. Dear Friends, Different people pace a cruise in different ways. Some people just get off the ship for a little while to shop at the market near the wharf or take the shuttle Holland … Continue reading Making Love, Not War in a City Park.
The text for this post is in the post before. To find it click here. To learn about Mira Flores, a district in Lima, click here. First some pictures from the San Francisco Monastery near Plaza Major Next some general … Continue reading San Francisco Monastery and other Lima Pleasures
January 15, 2015 Lima, Peru Lima is a city of Circles and Squares, connected by streets. The oldest squares were laid out by Pizzaro, the central one being the Plaza Mayor, formally the Plaza de Armas. This is a UNESCO … Continue reading Carmina Burana goes to the Bullfights (Lima, Peru)
January 12, 2015 Salaverry, Peru Tourism doesn’t wear well on me. I mean that literally. In Sitka I am used to seeing people off of Holland America ships wearing day glow dots with the line’s logo and a big number, … Continue reading Cities that Melt Away in the Rain
January 10, 2015 Montecristi, Ecuador. Montecristi was founded as an inland and upland town close to Manta that was more protected than Manta from English sea dog pirates and privateers. Today most tourists come to Montecristi to see how Panama … Continue reading Politics and Panama Hats, (Montecristi, Ecuador)
January 10, 2015 Manta, Ecuador Manta, Ecuador is a Tuna and Gringo town. Its main business is tuna fishing but it is also interested in attracting American retirees. We saw ads for retirement services, American clinics and of course shopping … Continue reading Tuna and Tourists (Manta, Ecuador)
On the way out of the Panama Canal Prinsendam passes the huge container port of Balboa with the skyline of Panama City beyond. Panama City is a shock. It has a skyline that looks like Dubai or Doha. One skyscraper … Continue reading Dubai on the Isthmus
Here are the pictures from the second half of the Panama Canal crossing. To read the text for this please click here. In these pictures you can see some of the erosion measures to prevent the continental divide from filling … Continue reading Panama Canal 2
January 8, 2015 Panama Canal We got up at 5:15 for our transit. We approached the first set of locks just as the sun was rising. On the port side of the ship the huge new gates for the new … Continue reading Water Bridge between the Oceans
January 7, 2015 San Blas Islands, Panama, I have to revise my first impression of some of the people who have been on multiple cruises. On San Blas we ran into the “been on 80 cruises” couple who were wandering … Continue reading Unplanned Stop in the San Blas Islands