More Rainbows in the Chilean Fjords

Just makes your day to look ourside and see a complete rainbow. It looks as if it is touching the ship. Sailing in the Chilean Fjords!

Parque Nacional Laguana San Rafael- Southern Patagonia ice field

Amelia Glacier - a massive wall of ice of the within the Chilean Fjords.

Chilean Fjords in Patagonia

The scenery in the Chilean Fjords is just magnificant! Untouched by man! and so vast! It was cool to see the soaring mountain peaks. and beautiful bays. Saw boats and kayaks. Little camp sights along the fjords for camping!

Many islands and fjords along the west coast of Chile. You follow several different waterways (Eno Eyre Fjord, Grey’s Passage, Inocentes Canal, Canal Wide and Trinidad Canal) between the islands while cruising north to reach Puerto Montt. The majority of the time you are sheltered by islands from the Pacific Ocean. However, a coupe times you are on the ocean side of the islands and at the mercy of the ocean waves. Again you will pass many glaciers.

Rainbow Alley - the Straits of Magellan & Fjords

The straits and fjords of southern Patagonia can also be know as "Rainbow Alley"! We saw many beautiful rainbows after we left Ushuaia and also in the Chilena Fjords!

Punta Arenas - Southern Most City of Chile

Punta Arenas is the capital of the region of Chile known as Magellan and the Chilean Antarctica. It was founded on December 18th, 1848 with the name of Punta Arenas. The city changed its name to Magallanes in 1927 and went back to its original name in 1938.

Its strategic location on the Strait of Magellan, where international marine trade routes traditionally went through, gave Punta Arenas many moments of prosperity – the first of them during the Gold Rush in California. The importance of its harbor diminished when the Panama Channel was opened in the beginning of the XX century, but prosperity was soon regained when Chile started using Punta Arenas as its international wool trade center.

Catholic Church

Statute of the Shepards, Punta Arenas, Chile

Southern Chile is well known for the fortunes created from the wool industry in the early days of settlement by the west. A cool statute recognizing the importance of the shepard to the settlement of Chile is found on one of the main street leading into downtown Punta Arenas.

Plaza Munoz Gamero, Punta Arenas, Chile

The main square in downtown Punta Arenas - Plaza Munoz Gamero (or Plaza des Armas)! Baroque style mansions, The Cathedral, the Plaza and the monument recognizing Hernando de Magellans. Rub the toe of the native Fuegian - Calfafate - on the statue for luck! Punta Arenas is located on the Strait of Magellan.

Punta Arenas - which way from here?

A funky sign post on Cerro la Cruz gives travelers a little information about which direction to go to other cities. When you are literally at the end of the world - the best way to go is up!
The story is: A Chinese fishing boat fishing illegally in Chilean waters was seized by the authorities and docked in our spot - note the other cruise ships in the harbor. so we had another late arrival in port. Our tour guide was also confused - we went to Seno Otway Bay first - but we didn't have a really good tour of the town. It was Sunday in port and many stores/shops were closed. But it was a beautiful day!

Punta Arenas, Chile

Views from Cerro la Cruz:
"Puerto Arenas (Spanish: "Sandy Point") is the most prominent settlement on the Strait of Magellan. Due to its location and size it is sometimes considered the southernmost city in the world. Punta Arenas is the capital of the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region, Chile. The city was officially renamed Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it returned to Puerto Arenas. Punta Arenas is the third largest city in the Patagonian Region. It has a population of about 154,000 .The temperature in Punta Arenas is greatly moderated by its proximity to the ocean, with average lows near 30 °F and highs of 57 °F. Rainfall is most plentiful between April and May and snow season goes all through Chilean winter (June till September). The city is also known for its strong winds of up to 80 mph. Currency is the Chilean Peso with an exchange rate of approximately 520 Peso to the dollar. You don’t need a passport in a money exchange house unless you are exchanging more than 500 dollars. If you are well served in a restaurant, pub, bar or coffee shop, it is customary to add 10% as a tip for the waiter. It is not customary to tip taxi drivers, but you can round numbers up if you want. The dock is within walking distance to many of the sights.

SIGHTS IN TOWN
Cathedral of Puerto Arenas is located at Plaza Muñoz Gamero, the main square of Punta Arenas. It was the first brick building in Puerto Arenas. It was constructed when the original building, made of wood, was destroyed. It is dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The doors are open all day and photography is allowed.

Palacio Mauricio Braun Is an opulent mansion house turned into a museum that testifies to the wealth and power of pioneer sheep farmers in the late 19th century. One of Mauricio Braun's sons donated the house to the state, against other family members' wishes. Divided into sections, one part is a regional historical display, while the other displays the family's original French nouveau furnishings and details, from intricate wooden inlay floors to Chinese vases. Furnished with fine European antiques, Italian marble floors, and grand ceiling frescos, this mansion gives a good indication of the economic stature of Punto Arenas before the Panama Canal was completed.

Museo Regional Salesiano has outstanding ethnographic artifacts collected by the Salesian order, but its museum takes a disappointingly self-serving view of the Christian intervention, portraying missionaries as peacemakers between Indians and settlers. The best materials are on the mountaineer priest Alberto de Agostini and the various indigenous groups affected.

Museo Naval y Marítimo (naval and maritime museum) has varied exhibits on model ships, naval history and the unprecedented visit of 27 US warships to the city in 1908. It also has a fine account of the Chilean mission that rescued British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's crew from Antarctica. The most imaginative display is a replica ship, complete with bridge, maps, charts and radio room. The museum is contained in 18 rooms.

Museo del Recuerdo has a collection of antique farm and industrial machinery imported from Europe, a typical pioneer house and shearing shed (both reconstructed), and a wooden-wheeled trailer that served as shelter for shepherds. The library also has a display of historical maps and a series of historical and scientific publications.

Club de la Unión is in the basement of the former Sara Braun mansion. As you enter there is this ambiance of a “sailors’ warm” hanging out place, with lots of maps and old black and white photos of Punta Arenas on the walls. The club is a bit of a labyrinth, offering both larger and cozy more discrete areas. The red brick walls and low intensity lights give it a melancholic look. You're likely hear ragtime and jazz on the stereo while you enjoy beers served cold in frosted mugs, tapas-style meat and cheese appetizers, sandwiches, tacos, pizza, fajitas, and capriccio.

Cementerio Municipal: In death as in life, Punta Arenas' first families flaunted their wealth. José Menéndez' extravagant tomb is said to be a scale replica of Rome's Vittorio Emanuele monument. But the headstones are also testament to the countless Anglo, German, Scandinavian and Yugoslav immigrants who supported these wealthy families with labor.

Mirador Cerro la Cruz is a few minutes' walk from the plaza and up a series of steps to the lookout over the city and the water. From a platform beside the white cross that gives the hill lookout its name, you have a panoramic view of the city's colorful corrugated rooftops leading to the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego in the distance. It's a great place to shoot some photos.

Austral Brewery: In 1896, José Fischer, a German brewmaster arrived in Patagonia and settled down there with the idea of making this beverage based on malted barley, for the colonists. By 1916, Fisher's undertaking was already offering 6 varieties of beer and, in 1961, it was a very interesting business for the Chadwick family, who purchased it from the Fishers to merge it with their company, Malterías Unidas. The legendary Patagona beer today is known as Austral, with its green label or can. Its name was changed but not its location, as the brewery still remains in the same site where it was founded 110 years ago. In addition to the brewery, a beer museum was opened in the same venue.

SIGHTS OUTSIDE TOWN
Río de los Ciervos Farm in only 3 miles south from the city, where it is possible to submerge into the colonizing past and their traditions. The ranch is made up of a Main House, a museum, a projection room, conference rooms, a typical pioneer warehouse, a Pulpería, a quincho restaurant, milking areas and horses.

Reserva Forestal Magallanes, also known as Japanese Park, Is a 39,500 acre reserve with a variety of hiking and mountain-biking trails through thick forests of lenga and coigue. Reserva Forestal Magallanes has hikes for everybody. This includes a flat 20-minute walk to a look out point, to a full day adventure walk. A steady uphill hike goes to the top of Mt Fenton, also known as Cerro Mirador. The views are spectacular, if the wind doesn't take you out. It is also possible to ride up on the chairlift to the viewpoint. It is located 5 miles west of Punta Arenas.

Club Andino (Andino Park), one of the few ski center in the world with a view to the ocean. It's also used in the summer and makes for great trekking on the slopes, which are covered with Patagonian trees like coigues, lengas, and nirres. Upon arrival at the club you will have a 10 minute safety orientation and optional you can get on the chair lift that covers a distance for approximately a 15 minute ride, and see a nice view over the area. From the top of the hill, see the Strait of Magellan, and the city of Punta Arenas, in the distance. At the descent point, hike downhill on a path through the woods.

Monumento Natural Los Pingüinos is one of two Magellanic penguin colonies near Punta Arenas. It has about 75,000 breeding pairs and is accessible only by boat to the small island of Isla Magdalena in the Strait of Magellan. Admission to the island is included in the price of the boat trip. It is about a two hour ride each way by boat. It is 18 miles north east of Punta Arenas.

Pingüineras de Seno Otway is an area of 200 acres, which extends more than one mile of coast. You can observe a colony of 11,000 penguins of Magellan’s nesting. It is 42 miles north of Punta Arenas. The road to the sanctuary begins 18 miles north of Punta Arenas, where the main road, Ruta 9, diverges near a checkpoint booth. A gravel road then traverses another fierce and winding 18 miles, but the rough trip (mud will be a problem if there's been recent rain) should reward you with the sight of hundreds of sheep, cows, and birds, including, if you're lucky, rheas and flamingos. The sanctuary is a ½-mile walk from the parking lot. It gets chilly, so bring a windbreaker. If you don't have a car, Comapa, and many other tour companies based in Punta Arenas, offer tours to the Pingüinera. The tours generally leave from Punta Arenas and return about 3½ hours late
r with a price from 20,000 to 35,000 pesos.
Fuerte Bulnes was the first Patagonian settlement in the area. Built in 1843 by the crew of the Ancud, a Chilean vessel was sent to the area to claim & occupy the territory. The modern fort was reconstructed 100 years later in 1943. It was originally designed to house a museum, though the majority of the artifacts have been relocated to museums in Punta Arenas and Santiago. Today, Fuerte Bulnes is an exact replica of the original wooden fort. The reconstructed buildings include the church, chaplain's quarters, jail, powder magazine, post office and stables. In one of the stables is a colonial carriage and plow as well as an old Indian canoe. It is 36 miles south of Punta Arenas.

Port Famine (Puerto Hambre) is on the edge of the coast of Bahia Buena where Captain Sarmiento de Gamboa founded the city of King Philip in March 1584. This attempt at Spanish colonization had a tragic end as its 300 inhabitants died of starvation. Years later, the English pirate Thomas Cavendish reached the place, and finding only the remains of the former colony, renamed the place "Port Famine”. It is one mile from Fuerte Bulnes.

Pali-Aike National Park is located in the Magallanes Region of the Chilean Patagonia. Pali-Aike is a Tehuelche name that means Desolate Place. Created in 1970, it covers an area of 19 sq miles and includes part of the Pali-Aike Volcanic Field. In the 1930s, an excavation of the Pali Aike Cave uncovered the remains of a prehistoric native horse and giant ground sloth called the milodon, after becoming extinct some 11,000 years ago. Human remains, tools, and cave paintings were also found. It is 118 miles northwest of Punta Arenas." as quoted from Lyle!

The burrows of Magellanic Penguins

Several of the penguins were near their burrows - they simply dig holes in the ground - a very short distance from the shore - and raise their young. They spend almost 8 hours a day hunting in the ocean - so not many were in the burrows.

The park is designed with a boardwalk that is roped off so the visitors can take a tour of the grounds.

Penguin Watching! Otway Bay, Chile

Fun watching the penguins! We had missed our port at the Falkland Islands - so we had only seen penguins on the icebergs using binoculars in Antarctica.
Pingüineras de Seno Otway is an area of 200 acres, which extends more than one mile of coast. You can observe a colony of 11,000 penguins of Magellan’s nesting. It is 42 miles north of Punta Arenas. The road to the sanctuary begins 18 miles north of Punta Arenas, where the main road, Ruta 9, diverges near a checkpoint booth. A gravel road then traverses another fierce and winding 18 miles, but the rough trip (mud will be a problem if there's been recent rain) should reward you with the sight of hundreds of sheep, cows, and birds, including, if you're lucky, rheas and flamingos. The sanctuary is a ½-mile walk from the parking lot. It gets chilly, so bring a windbreaker.

March of the Penguins

Literally - the "March of the Penguins" Magellanic Penguins leaving their burrows to make a short march to Otway Bay to swim and hunt for food! These guys were so wonderful!
Penguins only live in the southern hemisphere. Here is a helpful description about several types of penguins (as shared with me by Lyle):
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE PENGUINS
Chinstrap: have a thin black line under their chin. These cute penguins are the sentimental favorite of most tourists. They wear a "helmet strap" and innocent expression. The Chinstrap penguins have a large population and favor the South Shetland Islands.
Gentoo: have a white triangular patch over the eye. You will see this coral-orange beaked penguin on the Antarctica Peninsula, South Georgia Island and in other areas.
Adelie: have a small white ring around their eyes. This white-circled-eye penguin bursts with curiosity, to the delight of visitors. The population is large. Some colonies number 100,000 birds.
Rockhopper: have spiked yellow feathers drooping from each side of the head. They are aptly named because the birds hop from rock to rock when climbing steep slopes to reach their high cliff nests. You'll see them in the Falkland Islands.
Macaroni: have spiked yellow feathers on top of the head. These weird-looking penguins are related to the rockhoppers. Like them, they have grasping feet, allowing them to climb precipitous, rugged slopes to reach their high-cliff nests. South Georgia Island is a popular breeding ground.
Emperor: have a fuzzy edged orange-yellow patch on their cheek. They're the world's largest and most famous penguin. You could possibly see them, but the chances are low because their breeding grounds are distant from standard Antarctica cruise routes.
King: have a solid curvaceous orange-yellow patch behind each cheek. They are closely related to the Emperor penguins, but are smaller and greater in number. Viewing opportunities are good on South Georgia Island, but not on the Falklands and in the Antarctica Peninsula.

SOME PENGUIN FACTS
There are many different species of penguins in Antarctica, including the huge and colorful emperor penguin, the smaller Adelie, the gentoo, the chinstrap penguin, the rockhopper, the king, and the macaroni. Penguins are great swimmers. They can swim very fast, if they're trying, for instance, to escape the jaws of a leopard seal, they can shoot out of the water 7 feet into the air onto a safe ice floe.
Penguins have feathers to keep them warm right? Well partly right, feathers work on land, but in the water where penguins spend quite a bit of their lives, they're not so valuable. What really keeps penguins warm in the sea is a sub-cutaneous (under-the-skin) layer of fat. This fat layer is the best form of internal insulation yet devised by mother nature and it keeps all warm blooded cold water animals operational down to 25.8°F. That is when sea-water freezes, you can't get sea water colder than that without it being solid and then it would difficult for anything to swim in it!
The penguins fat layer that protects them against the cold more than anything while in the sea. On the land however their feathers have a very valuable function in keeping them warm. Penguin feathers aren't like the large flat feathers that flying birds have, they are short with an under-layer of fine woolly down. Penguin feathers are also very good at shedding water when the bird emerges from the sea. They overlap and give a good streamlined effect in the water and excellent wind-shedding abilities when on the land. When it gets very cold, penguins can puff their feathers out to trap more air for even better insulation. When it gets too hot (like as high as freezing point even!) they fluff their feathers out even more so that the trapped warm air can escape and enable the penguin to cool down.
Penguins have two areas where their body is very poorly insulated and where they can lose a lot of heat; these are their flippers and their feet. These regions give penguins at the same time a problem and a solution. A problem because of the heat loss, and a solution because they can be used for cooling down. The muscles that operate feet and flippers are not located in the feet and flippers, but deeper in the warmer regions of the penguins body. The feet and flippers are moved by tendons that pass through them and attach to toes etc. like a sort of remote operation by wire or string. This means that it doesn't matter if the feet and flippers get really cold as they can still be operated normally by regions that are fully functional and at normal body temperature.
Penguins have a heat-exchange blood-flow to these regions. The warm blood entering the feet or flippers flows past cold blood leaving so warming it up in the process and cooling the blood entering at the same time. Blood in these parts is significantly colder than in the rest of the body. By the time the blood re-enters the rest of the body it has been warmed up and so doesn't have so great an effect on the core body temperature. Penguins feet are never allowed to get below freezing point, blood flow is finely adjusted so that they are kept just above. When it gets very cold, the feet are covered by the feathers and fat layer of the body so they are not exposed to cooling winds. So while a man standing barefoot on ice would quickly get frostbitten, penguins can do so all their lives with no damage at all. At low temperatures or when in the sea, the blood flow to feet and flippers is very low anyway so reducing heat loss further. When the penguin needs to lose heat quickly, the blood flow to these extremities is increased and so lots of warm blood enters them which cools quickly so dumping excess heat rapidly and efficiently. When it's really cold, they rock backwards on their heels, holding their toes up. How do they stop themselves from falling over backwards? They support themselves by their stiff tail feathers that have no blood flow and so lose no heat.

Otway Sound, Chile

During our visit to the lovely little fishing village of Punta Arenas, Chile, we drove to Otway Bay to see the Magellanic Penguins. These are "burrowing" penguins. They return to Otway Bay to mate and raise their families. The male and female penguins share the responsibility for raising the young.
Magellanic Penguins travel in large flocks when hunting for food. In the breeding season, these birds gather in large nesting colonies at the coasts of Argentina, southern Chile, and the Falkland Islands, which have a density of 20 nests per 100 square meters. Nests are built under bushes or in burrows. Two eggs are laid. Incubation lasts 39–42 days, a task which the parents share in 10-15 day shifts. The chicks are cared for by both parents for 29 days and are fed every 2–3 days. Normally both are raised through adulthood, though occasionally only one chick is raised.
Magellanic Penguins mate with the same partner year after year. The male reclaims his burrow from the previous year and waits to reconnect with his female partner. The females are able to recognize their mates through their call alone.

Cape Horn info

We did not actually sail around the Cape - but instead sailed the Beagle Channel and the Straights of Magellan. Here is just a little information about the Horn:
"Cape Horn Island is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile. It is the most southerly point of South America, and marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage. For many years it was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. However, the waters around the Cape are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs. The need for ships to round the Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. However, sailing around the Horn is widely regarded as one of the major challenges in yachting. The cape lies within Chilean territorial waters, and the Chilean Navy maintains a station on Hoorn Island, consisting of a residence, utility building, chapel, and lighthouse. A short distance from the main station is a memorial, including a large sculpture featuring the silhouette of an albatross, in honor of the sailors who died while attempting to "round the Horn". However, the Chilean Navy station, including the lighthouse and the memorial, are not located on Cape Horn itself (which is very difficult to access either by land or sea), but on another land point about one mile east-northeast. On the real Cape Horn there is a 13 foot fiberglass light tower with a range of about 13 miles. This is the authentic Cape Horn lighthouse. The climate in the region is generally cool, owing to the southern latitude. There are no weather stations in the group of islands including Cape Horn; however, a study in 1882–1883 found an annual rainfall of 53 inches, with an average annual temperature of 41.4 °F. Winds were reported to average 19 mph, with squalls of over 62 mph occurring in all seasons. The terrain is entirely treeless, although quite lush owing to the frequent precipitation. Cape Horn is the southern limit of the range of the Magellanic Penguin."

Southern Patagonia Ice Field

We viewed the massive glaciers along the Beagle Channel. The largest was named for the country of Italy. These glaciers are part of the Albert De Agostini National Park.

Glaciers along the Beagle Channel

As we sailed away from Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel - we passed several massive glaciers pouring into the channel. This is part of the Southern Patagonia Icefield.
"Leaving Ushuaia you sail through the Darwin Channel named for Darwin’s expeditions in the 1830’s resulting in his first publication and the beginning of his famous conclusions of species development as adaptations to their environment. You then enter the Beagle Channel which was named after the ship which carried Charles Darwin on his voyage of discovery – HMS Beagle. Near the southern tip of Chile the southern Andes Mountains plunge into the icy water and leave a region which is so wild and remote that it seems almost undisturbed. The ice has scoured its way between the mountains, leaving isolated islands and hidden bays. The Beagle Channel is about 145 miles long and about 3 miles wide at its narrowest point. You cruise past the amazing row of six glaciers (Holanda Glacier, Itallia Glacier, Francia Glacier, Alemania Glacier, Romanche Glacier and Espana Glacier), all on the right side of the ship. Italia Glacier is one of the last remaining tidal flow glaciers which flow all the way to the sea. You then enter a small segment of the Strait of Magellan to reach Punta Arenas." Lyle

Beautiful sailaway from Ushuaia

A double rainbow! The Patagonia snow capped Andes Mountains cascading toward the bay! The lovely town of Ushuaia slowly disappearing from sight! A beautiful sunset on the Beagle Channel! This is a very memorable sailing away from Ushuaia!

A double rainbow - a good omen!!

Just as we were preparing to leave Ushuaia - a double rainbow appeared! We were trusting that this was a good omen for the remainder of our trip!

Insignia ready for departure from the End of the World

Oceania Insignia at dock in Ushuaia, Argentina. Captain Fulvio Calandro on the Bridge. Departing the beautiful port of the End of the World!