South America Travels

We then headed south through the Chilean fjords and channels in extreme SW Patagonia.  This was my favorite part of the trip – two days through some incredible glacier carved landscapes without seeing any town, road, or manmade structure (aside from one other cruise ship and a single fishing boat).

We then stopped at Punta Arenas, which is at the tip of the mainland South American continent.  This area of had a climate so inhospitable and locals so fierce that it wasn't successfully colonized until the 1840s when a young Republic of Chile established Fuerte Bulnes and laid claim over the Straits of Magellan.

Fuerte Buines:

After that, the boat headed even further south to Tierra del Fuego and the most southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia, Argentina. The next day we crossed the southernmost point in the Americas – the infamous Cape Horn – where the Atlantic and Pacific meet.  The construction of the Panama Canal in 1908 largely eliminated the need to transverse this treacherous passage, which up to that point had claimed over 1000 ships.

Just as the ship rounded Cape Horn into the Atlantic, the winds and seas instantly kicked up as we headed towards the Falkland Islands (aka “Las Malvinas” depending on who you are talking to) and the boat was seriously rocking and rolling.  Fortunately, the weather calmed down to let us go ashore at the capital Port Stanley (pop 2000). Toured the battlefields in the hills west of town in the morning and checked out the wreckage of downed Argentine helicopters. Spent the afternoon visiting the various pubs around town, most of which were virtual shrines to British nationalism. The place is more British than Britain, where ole Maggie Thatcher is treated as some sort of demigod and there are more Land Rovers per capita than any place on Earth.

"Brezhnev took Afghanistan. 
Begin took Beirut. 
Galtieri took the Union Jack. 
And Maggie, over lunch one day, 
Took a cruiser with all hands. 
Apparently, to make him give it back

Oh Maggie, what have when done!"

Penguins in a minefield!    This beach was mined by the Argentinos but the penguins are too small to set off the mines.

Weather turned foul later in the day and tendering back to the ship anchored a mile off shore in 41 knot winds with waves crashing overtop the tender and water dripping down on us from every opening.

We then headed north to Montevideo, Uruguay.  Funky, clean, and modern city with legal weed.   The next day we landed in Buenos Aires and finally got off the boat.  Checked out the various sections of town, including the Recoleta Cemetery, which is a virtual city within a city with streets lined with elaborate and ornate mausoleums housing two centuries of presidents, generals, and others of the city’s elite, including Evita.

Montevideo:

Recoleta:

After a day in Buenos Aires, we went north of town about an hour to the Estancia del Dos Hermanos for two days of horse riding across the pampas.  Not much of a horse person, but we got the well behaved steeds to open up and we were cantering much of the time with bursts of full on galloping. My parents are a little too old for horseback riding but accompanied us on one of the trips in a horse drawn buggy. The estancia itself was quiet and peaceful and my family were the only overnight guests, so we have the place pretty much to ourselves and got to spend time with the owners and their folks. Learned that texting and riding is an important skill for modern gauchos and some of our guides were experts

After that, my parents went back to Buenos Aires and my brother and I headed west toward the Andes.  After a flight to Mendoza and a bus ride, we made our way up to the mountain town of Uspallata at the base of the Andes.   The town was where they filmed “Seven Years in Tibet” because its stark high desert landscape apparently looks a lot like Tibet (and the Chinese would never allow a film about the Dalai Lama to be filmed on location).  From there, we took the local bus up to Aconcagua Provincial Park, up in the Andes near the Argentina-Chile border. At 22,837 feet, Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas. We then hiked down an abandoned railroad line to Puenta de Inca, which is a natural bridge formed by mineral deposits and was used as a therapeutic spa until the 1970s when a landslide closed it.

Uspallata:

Aconcagua:

Puenta de Inca:

Local art up in Puenta de Inca near the Argentina-Chile border.. Apparently, they don't like fracking or mega mines and want you to smile.

The road down from the Argentina-Chile border was steep:

Once we got back to Santiago, we met up with Zoner Javs.   Dude is a true gentleman and a gracious and generous host who showed us around some neighborhoods and treated us to dinner, beers, and thoughtful conversations on life in modern Chile.   Thank you again!   

This is La Moneda in Santiago:

 On Sept 11, 1973, the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, made his last stand here against a right wing coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet and the Nixon Administration, that led to the "disappearance" of thousands of academics, activists, writers, and other opponents of Pinochet's regime. Thankfully, Pinochet is gone and Chile is a democracy once again (albeit with gross economic inequality not unique to Chile).

Spent the last day in South America checking out the sights in Santiago. Took a cable car up a hill overlooking the city, but the smog was so thick you could barely make out the nearby mighty Andes. Also watched a ceremonial changing of the guards at the presidential palace with a special appearance by the king and queen of Norway who was there to return some stuff taken by Thor Heyerdahl on one of his expeditions to Easter Island: 

>>>>what elevation were you at?

About 10,000 feet, so the top of the mountain is another 12,000+ feet up from there.   The sheer cliff face you can see on the mountainside is about 5,700 feet in size - one of the biggest in the world.