Journeying with Jan

 We are at Cape Hirn, where the oceans meet.  There is a lighthouse here with five residents: one man, one woman, two teenagers, and one cat.  It is a volunteer position. This family is in their third year. At least one resident must be part of the Chilean army. Good morning from Cape Horn! Myth of the albatross: they are the reincarnation of a sailor lost at sea. You don't harass them or eat them. Very rough here. About 10k ships, 8,000 souls lost here over the ages.  It looks just smooth and placid out there, but the wind is fierce.  I tried to go on the veranda to take a picture, but could not get the door unlocked.  Then I realized that it WAS unlocked-- I just couldn't push it open against the wind! They have found evidence of a 10,000 year old habitation on the Cape.  And all they had were canoes! When the pictures are blue like this, I am taking them off our in room tv, usually from the comfort of my bed! 😊

 It is still dark, but we are passing through or by six glaciers this morning.  Spania is the first and most isolated. Spanish Glacier  Snow on mountain top next to the glacier. Mount Darwin is ahead of us, named in honor of his 25th birthday.  It's too cloudy to see it, however.  This represents the end of the Andies. I missed one of the glaciers while I was in the shower.  We ordered breakfast in our room, so we haven't been out yet, except on the veranda. The next will be Francia.   It begins to peek out. Francia full on. Italia is next up.  It is the only glacier that touches the waterline. 4,000+ feet high. Massive glacier, typical of how this whole area once looked. This is Italia, a massive glacier-- so big you cannot see it all. Closer view. The sun breaks through.

 We took a shore excursion to the Straits of Magellan, a replica of his ship, and a museum showing life in the area when settlers and the Salesian priests arrived.  As we stood there looking south towards the sea, we were aware that here is where oceans meet:  the Atlantic on the left and the Pacific on the right.  I didn't notice any particular signs of the meeting, but it was cool! Also, I guess I always thought the straits of Magellan meant going around the point of the continent, but it's not that at all.  The bottom of South America is broken up into many waterways and islands.  Magellan simply found a good way through those water ways.  I believe the year was 1520.  So until the Panama Canal in the last century, this was the way past the American continents!  700 ships used to pass here per month.  I never really understood the importance of the Panama Canal! These amazing trees populated the town square. The "palace" of Sara Braun...

We are cruising through these channels most of the day.  We can go outside on the deck, but it is about 50 degrees and quite windy = brisk. Just above the dark hill, you can see much higher, snow covered mountains.  I expect there are more behind them.  It's a little hard to get good pictures, because it has been raining all day. Here is the first glacier we saw, Brujo, I believe.  Amazing!  I got up at 5:30 a.m. to go to observation deck for "sunrise " rolls at 6 and then commentary on Brujo Glacier at 6:30.  Well, guess what. I don't know who figured out that schedule, but it dark until about 7:15. In the afternoon we passed 6 or 7 glaciers, but the awesome thing was that we saw a nearly complete circle rainbow in the rain!  Pictures do not do it justice!  It was SO wide and SO full of color -- and it went into the water nearly to the ship!  I could almost reach down and grab that pot of gold. Then we passed one of many shipwrecks.  Al...

 Yesterday we were in Puerto Montt, and we took a shore excursion to Puerto Vargas (we, maybe) and Frutilla.  The former was the City of Roses —they grew everywhere.  The city is on the 2nd largest lake in Chile.  The latter is the City of Strawberries, although I saw not one while we were there. Today we did not choose an excursion.  I’m sure it would be lovely, wherever we would go, judging by the landscape.   We went to guest services and upgraded our internet package.  Fish Farm, likely salmon.  Chile is a major producer of salmon.

 This post will appear later…when I figure out how to copy and paste between apps.

 What a great day!  What a beautiful city Funchal is, built on mountain sides!  We took a tour of the city and then began climbing the mountain to our first stop — the crazy tobagans  they use to slide down the hill.  What a riot! The town of Funchal has lovely tree shaded walkways and streets. From the coast, one sees housing built all the way up the slopes.  Most homes have white walls and red tiled roofs. Here are the tobagan guides. Sometimes these guys pull, sometimes they push and turn, and sometimes they ride on the way down the hill. Then we climbed higher into the mountains, to a place where we sampled some delicious brandy and a cake that tasted of molasses and fennel, a favorite product of the island.  To get there we climbed impossibly steep hills in this bus with very serious drop offs!  Our guide told us that there are no bad bus drivers on Madeira. They are all excellent drivers (and indeed, ours was!). The bad bus drivers, she expl...