Lisa found this great trip that rounds Cape Horn on a "luxury" ship and lets you off on zodiacs to experience the wild natural extremes of the far south. Maybe it was that or that fact that it was open bar, but we had the sense that we'd entered an alien landscape. The highlight was an excursion to the rocky landmass, Cape Horn, southernmost part of South America. It was a very cold and biting wind that blew. Still, we had relatively calm seas, so they let us disembark and view this isolated place. There was a lighthouse, with a few permanent residents from the Chilean Navy (who are probably disgusted that this cruis ship lets people come peer in their living room every morning at 7 am). There was a very cute little church, for when the weather gets threatening. And there was a beautiful metal monument, with negative space forming the shape of a frigate bird. This monument is an homage to the "CapHornieres", those hearty sea captains who made it a priority to round this point, whether they succeeded or not. There was a lovely poem dedicated to these crazed souls. There are supposedly over 800 ships wrecked off this point. It's no longer on Lisa's and my list of Must See sailing destinations, however, being so close to Antarctica, we now have a hankering to make a visit there someday in the future.
This ship not only had a 24 hour open bar, but a variety of informative lectures about Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin, the Beagle Channel, The Patagons (the indians that are responsible for the fuego in "tierra del fuego") local flora, fauna, etc. We especially enjoyed a day trip to Magdellena Island to visit the Magellenic Penguins, who you can see photographed in our photo section.
Anyway, it was good that we were able to fatten ourselves up for a few days on this cruise, as we prepared to embark on a difficult adventure, the real reason why we were all the way down here...to hike the circuit of Torres del Paine, Patagonia. It was an absolutely amazing adventure....read on.
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 |  Map and Photos for Peevees' Big Adventure |  |
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