In 1985, the port of San Antonio (where we docked) 90% was destroyed by earthquake. It is the biggest commercial port in Chile.

Santiagio has most of pop of Chile at 7.2 M. It is inland….. news to me. I did not go there but to Valparaíso. It was established in 1541…has unique architecture. The weather is like San Francisco. The expected high will be about 17C with 1M pop.

(Our lecturer said to be very careful of pickpockets… wear no jewelry… keep stuff close to you).

It’s the law to wear seatbelts on buses in Chile but this was 1st time it’s been mentioned.

Valparaiso has 43-45 hills.

The reason the ships stopped coming into Valparaiso is that the owner of the concession of port of Valparaiso is not interested in working with cruise ships…. maybe he charges too much. He also didn’t treat the workers. There were lots of strikes disrupting the port ….because of the way he treated them.

The first part of our trip to Valparaíso, the road is very good but very windy. On the main highway….. excellent 4 lanes, straight and divided.

Interesting story…. the ancient natives that lived on coast (Changos), killed sea lions, gutted them, put sticks inside and sewed the up… allowing them to dry. They then created rafts from these “balloons” …. to fish from.

Between every 4-8 years the farmed pines and eucalyptus are cut down for making paper.

All of South America gained independence from Spain within one decade …1810-20…. did not realize that.

Casablanca Valley…. one of the top 10 white wine producing regions of the world. …. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

Castile du Diablo …. biggest producer of red….. mostly Cab Sauvignon.

Carmanere is their battle horse…produce 90% of world supply. Cholhagua valley (DO)

There used to be 100 ship per day in Valparaiso but went down to 5/day after the opening of Panama Canal.

City is an amphitheatre. Higher your home is the least desirable. 60% of inhabitants do not own cars because there is no where to park. The streets and alleys are so narrow and steep. Every alley or set of stairs has a name…. for mail delivery. It’s like a maze. Some house do not have any visible means to access them.

In many ways this city reminds me of the fevalas of Rio. Very cool!

We first went on funicular built in 1892. Then off to deliciously lunch of 2 wine, salad and main entree of

Hake.

Because of climate change lots of jellyfish in the local seas. .

Vina Del Mar … next door, is where Cristian our guide lives. It’s a “planned” city unlike Valparaiso.

First stop was a street called the 21st of May.

For 400 years it never rained one drop. Valparaiso means scorched earth……..even before Spanish were here.

More people die from tsunamis than earthquakes.

“Dogs rule the streets, cats the roofs so watch where you step. It might be soft and gushy”.

Below is some of the many graffiti/murals in Valparaiso, of which there is a profusion. More pictures to follow.

6.5 feet rain just a few kilos away but here today beautiful day here sunny but a very windy rocky ride on tender.

Northern entrance or exit to Patagonia….land of extremes.

No natives or Spaniards in this area. Chilhue means the land of sea gulls. It is the second largest Island in SA after Terra Del Fuego. There the natives sided with Spaniards and consider themselves Chilhuan first.

A large percentage of people have “SADs” and are bi-polar. They helped to change that by adding multiple colours on their homes.

Large agricultural lands.

Almost no unemployment in this area. Germans settled here. It is spotless, no crime, no garbage no bars on the window. They may have burnt all the trees but they are proud of how clean and crime free it is. 300000 of 1 million are of German heritage.

Only 16% now are Catholic.

120 year life on shingles made from trees similar to redwoods of California called “Alerce”.

Puerto Varas is a lovely clean town beautiful views over the lake at the spectacular volcanos….3. One dormant, one active and one extinct.

Natives like those around the world gave an intolerance of alcohol. Many of inhabitants have a problem with alcohol… not drugs. There is 0% tolerance for drinking and driving.

Milk and biproducts, Potatoes 6-8 varieties & Sugar beets used to feed animals in winter.

Lots of rain but moderate 19-20 C in summer usually but now with El Niño up to 80F. Rarely freezes in winter.

2nd exporter of fish after Norway.

Orsorno volcano… magnificent…. 200 craters… dormant … Puerto

Varas first German settlement on the Llanquihue Lake

Saw llamas (said yammas) and alpacas across from the volcano

Chile is over 4000 kms in length.

In 2015…. Kalbulco blew. Closing the airport for 2 months and affected tourism between Argentina and Chile. It takes 4 buses and 3 boats to go over Andes from Argentina was stopped for 8 months from the ash.

At the Petrohue Falls … beautiful with volcano in background.

Herb tea is part of daily life.

$1800-3000/ month for a teacher

420$/month is minimum wage

$480,000 for regular 3 bed, 2 bath home but some are worth over 1M

There are 2000 volcanos in Andes plus 2000 along coast. In 1960 there was an earthquake of 9.8 on old Richter scale. The resulting tsunami went all way to Australia.

This such a beautiful area that everyone we talked with said they would love to come back here….that there wasn’t enough time here.

I found that this post was just sitting, that it had failed to send. Sorry for the mix-up!

We have been at sea for 2 days… and what a rocky ride! Lots of people… passengers and crew, are sea sick. I’ve never been seasick in my life but I certainly was feeling queasy. Since our arrival back on board in Punta Del Este, our porthole “windows” have been shut as a precaution. Personally I would like to be able to see out. It really has been rough…. difficult to walk without looking totally drunk.

This port area has very little except the docks but the fiords in and around are just gorgeous.

There are 15 “districts”. This is 11th.

Lots of Germans came here for logging. Only one person per sq. kilometre

Lake Riesco…..

The first hatchery is for research not commercial.

16 today but will go to 28 in next couple of days

3000-4000 mm rain/yr….. flooded last couple days. People couldn’t come out of their homes. Inland it drops to 600mm.

A bird called a Chucao is a hopper & a beautiful singer.

Lots of Gunnera growing..called “Nalca” here. They eat the stalk.. like rhubarb. They also make drink like pisco sour with it.

Califate bush…. purple fruit ….yellow flower… if you eat it it is said you will come back.

Arrayan tree…”Luma apiculata” most common… trunk looks arbutus… consumes lots of water so it’s colder to touch.

Wet wet bird….

Quilla looks like bamboo “colihue”… not hollow. Every 15 years blooms… bring many mice.

Final destination on our walk was a spectacular waterfall call the”Old Man’s Beard” but in Spanish.

White flowers… luma plant.

Quienhco… gathering of friends… bbq, drinks. Had a lamb bbq-4 hours cooking….. fire pit in the middle.

I am not having much success downloading pictures. I will try later.

Windiest place in world… 30% time in winter gale force …called the ”furious fifties”

It’s 800 kms between SAmerica and Antarctic….Drake Passage.

Magellan passage (Puna Arenas is … calmer but much narrower than the open waters of Drake passage.

On March 5/19 we watched a very primitive video taken in 1929 by the man who later narrated it. It was called “The Peking Battles Cape Horn”. If you get the opportunity to watch it, I recommend that you do. It is truly amazing and really quite humorous.

To travel from the Atlantic side to the Pacific around the Cape is considered the wrong way because you would be fighting the prevailing winds…. very difficult considering you would have to tack into it…, no motors on board.

The Peking was a 17 stories high sailing ship from Hamburg. It was sent to pick up nitrates from Chile.

90% of the ice fields are in Antartica, 7% Greenland and 2% in the rest of world.

While travelling through more of the Chilean fiords, the Amalia Glacier, at first we couldn’t see because of clouds. But then it finally came into view. Amalia Glacier is about 3 kilometres wide. They lowered one of the boats into the sea to collect a “bergie” and hoisted it up for display in “Horizons”.

Sometime later we sailed by the Asia Glacier. Magnificent!

Through the Chilean Fiords

Amalia Glacier

Asia Glacier

Yours truly at Asia Glacier

“Bergie” bits

Jeanette and Marilyn went kayaking (I didn’t want to go for any unscheduled dips in the ocean seeing as it was a little windy. That was my excuse) so Linda and I just walked around the city. It is really quite a large city but in my opinion, has no redeeming qualities. The only thing that is quite nice is the park in the downtown area that has a fabulous statue of Magellan and some crew. One of the crew has very shiny toes from everyone rubbing it (if you do you will return to Punta Arenas). Also…. we went to the “cemetario”. Wow…. lots of lovely mausoleums!

Welcome to Punta Arenas and the straits of Magellan

Rubbing the toes

Later in the evening us 4 gals and 2 couples from California Margaret and Charlie and Don and Kathrine met for dinner in Tuscan Steak in celebration of my birthday. We had champagne (thank you M&C), saw a great show in the lounge and later when returning to our room, found a card from Oceania, 5 balloons and a towel “dog” with 2 chocolate eyes. Nice!

Me & Charlie… my b’day cake

Don and Katherine