SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #5

SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #5
5 December 2008
The last couple of days, before entering the Strait of Magellan, our shipboard daily schedule included a number of lectures and slide shows on Magellan, his exploits and his discovery of the Strait of Magellan. Ferdinand Magellan (1480 - 1521) was a Portuguese soldier that left the service of his King after an incident and offered his services to the King of Spain who wanted to find a quicker route to the Spice islands of Indonesia and the cloth that Europe desired. The Spanish crown provided five ships and 270 men to accompany Magellan on his expedition. One speaker described the largest of Magellan ships as about 75 tons or the size of a large tug boat.
Magellan’s crew was changed before he left so that the crews of his ships were made up of Spanish rather than Portuguese sailors. His expedition was the first known successful attempt to circumnavigate the earth and to prove that the earth was really round. He was the first person to lead an expedition sailing westward from Europe to Asia and to cross the Pacific Ocean. He was the first European to reach the archipelago of what is now known as the Philippines. Arab traders had established commerce with the Philippines centuries earlier.
Magellan was fatally wounded in a battle with the islanders of the Philippines. Upon his death, Sebastian Elcano completed the voyage as commander of the King’s fleet. Of the five ships that left Spain, only one returned. Of the original 270 crew members only 18 made it home. Even with such losses, the cloth brought back to Spain from Indonesia made the expedition profitable.
Magellan, like Columbus, was not sailing blindly on a hunch. It was reported that maps and charts from the travels of Marco Polo and other Arab and Asian travelers provided much of the information that was used in their respective quests. Magellan’s expedition searched for weeks along the southern tip of South America, exploring each inlet and bay, until they found the passage that ultimately was named for Magellan. The Strait is the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. It was considered a difficult route to navigate by wind powered ships because of the inhospitable climate and the narrowness of the passage. The 350 mile long passage is two to fifteen miles wide. Chile took possession of the Strait in 1848 after libertador Bernardo O’Higgins feared that England or France might occupy the territory. Until the completion of the Panama Canal, the Strait of Magellan was the main route for shipping between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
Our sailing of the Strait of Magellan was piecemeal because our ship was too large with too deep a draft to sail through safely. We managed to sail through most of the Strait during the day with escapes to the safety of the Pacific Ocean at night. We sailed into the port of Punta Arenas where we were “tendered” into town due to the lack of deep water docking for our ship.
Punta Arenas likes to call itself the “largest” city closest to Antarctica in the world. It is the largest city of its size but Ushuaia and even smaller Puerto Williams are actually closer to the South Pole. With that caveat, Punta Arenas plays an important role in the government of the region and as a focal point for the management of mining and sheep ranching operations. We went ashore and wondered through Punta Arena finding the kind of shops that people who live in such a remote area need. The people on the streets and the limited number of cars we saw didn’t suggest the 130,000 population we were told about. We did find a marvelous tour that took us out to the coast where we could see nesting penguins by the hundreds. The penguins return to the particular cove we visited for about four months each year to give birth to babies and raise them until they are old enough to go to sea. The penguins then spend the best part of eight months living in the sea away from land. Our visit was on a cold and rainy day but the source of a lot of fun and a few sneezes.
The next day our ship spent about four hours creeping through the dozens of glaciers on the south side of the Beagle Channel. We dutifully snapped dozens of pictures as we glided by one after another of the icy slopes heading eastward. The Beagle Channel gained its name from its discovery by an English expedition sent by the English King in mid nineteenth century to explore and map the tip of South America named Tierra del Fuego by earlier explorers. Charles Darwin accompanied the HMS Beagle as the ship’s naturalist. In the process, he wrote voluminous notes on his observations and collected thousands of specimens for further study upon returning to England. Darwin later wrote his notable book, “Origin os the Species” based on his study of his collections and observations.
The Beagle Channel took us to Ushuaia which also likes to call its self the world’s “southernmost city”. Whatever it might be called, Ushuaia is certainly the capital of Tierra del Fuego and a jumping off place for explorers and visitors to Antarctica. The 30,000 square mile land mass at the tip of the continent was named Tierra del Fuego in 1520 by Magellan who observed huge bonfires built by the local Yamana Indians who populated the area. Some believe the Indians set the fires to scare away the unwanted visitors but the fires were probably maintained to keep the locals warm in the extreme climate of the area.
Developing Ushuaia was slow due to its remote location, pirate attacks and extreme weather. A whaling station was established in the area and a prison colony was located at the site. The prisoners gave the town its name Ushuaia which means “the end“. The prisoners were eventually used to build the infrastructure of the town and a railway to transport forest products. The railway continues to run and is a popular tourist attraction called “El Tren del Fin del Mundo” or The End of the World Train.
The Norwegian Sun next took us to the Falkland Islands; an “Overseas Colony of the United Kingdom”. Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands, is a popular stop for cruise ships with 37 different companies including the stop in their itineraries. We were lucky that our ship was the only one visiting Stanley during our stop. The Falkland Islands include two large islands and over 740 smaller ones. Nearly all of the smaller islands are not populated. The Falklands are home to 2,478 with 2115 living in Stanley, not including the military personnel stationed in the islands.
The Falklands were sighted first by English navigator John Davis on board the “Desire”. The first recorded landing was by British Captain John Strong aboard the “Welfare” in 1690. The British administered the islands continually from 1833 until 1982 when Argentina invaded the islands and took control. A few months later the British defeated the Argentine forces and once again restored British control.
Tourism and sheep ranching provide the primary source of income for island inhabitants. We chose to walk around Stanley rather than take another shore excursion to visit with penguins. Our stroll was on a beautiful sun shiny day with the temperature somewhere in the forties accompanied by a 20 knot wind. Our first stop was in a souvenir shop to buy an extra shirt to ward off the chills. We walked a little over a mile through the local homes to a museum that was touted in our literature. The museum displayed artifacts from early settlers, seafaring gear, whaling tools and a small display of memorabilia from the 1982 war with Argentina. The latter display contained an Argentine land mind similar to the thousands that still remain where they were planted to discourage the landing of troops. Fortunately the British avoided landing in the mined areas but, unfortunately, the mines still remain where they were planted in 1982. With the exception of an occasional sheep that trips a mine, no lives have been lost. The mined areas are all well posted.
After our museum visit, we decided to call a cab rather than walk back to town in the chilling wind. One of the museum docents called a cab for us with the report that the cab would be at the curb in five minutes. Forty-five minutes later, the docent noticed us patiently waiting. Instead of making another call she offered to take us back to town in her car. Along the way, Dottie’s conversation revealed that the good Samaritan lady had lived all of her sixty or so years in Stanley with only one brief visit to the mainland for needed surgery. She was pleased with the wonderful weather we were experiencing noting that the previous day the wind was raging at over 50 knots with rain squalls……usual Falkland Islands weather.
A two day sail from the Falkland Islands took us to Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The shore excursion listings included a number of day long trips where passengers could see more penguins, herds of sea lions, beached seals, all kinds of birds and an example of local forestry. The length of each of the trips encouraged us to spend our day ashore exploring Puerto Madryn. The port is the largest serving Patagonia and a sizeable fishing fleet according to our shipboard information. From where are ship was docked, we could see none of these. We guessed that these activities are located in an adjacent bay out of sight of occasional tourists.
We were pleased with our choice for the day. The town appeared to us to be a “real” town serving real people, not just another tourist town. One had to look hard for a place to buy a postcard or t-shirt with the town’s name. The shops we strolled by were there to sell to the locals not the tourists. Our visit to the town’s Plaza revealed little of that which older towns display. The local Catholic Church was smaller than surrounding buildings so that one really had to look for it. We asked a vendor where the church was and he had to look in all four directions before he could spot it. The other sides of the plaza were filled with non descript shops rather than the expected government buildings and such.
The town is a recent addition with the first settlement by a group of 150 Welsh immigrants arriving in 1858. The Welsh moved inland but the city remained. Eventually a railway was constructed that connected Puerto Madryn with surrounding towns leading to the growth and importance of the town.
Today tourists seek Puerto Madryn as Argentina’s top scuba diving destination. Good visibility in the local waters and the presence of several shipwreck make it great if you like that sort of thing. The area is a sought after venue for ecotourists with one of UNESCO’s World Biospheres nearby.
As we write, we are headed for a day at Montevideo, Uruguay before disembarking in Buenos Aires. We’ll be busy most of the day repacking for our departure with just a short shore excursion to see the sights in Montevideo. After more than a month aboard the Norwegian Sun, we’ve tucked our things into every nook and cranny of our stateroom. The real challenge will be to try to find everything we’ve so expertly hidden from view. Wish us luck!
We’re looking forward to getting home and anxious to see each one of you. We send all our love.
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill