Patagonia

You might think that dining on a cruise ship is a delightful and relaxing experience, and usually it is, but sometimes you just can’t eat three bites without jumping up to take a picture.

We left Ushuaia and headed to Cape Horn (generally considered the southernmost point of land on the continent) where we encountered relatively calm seas but very low visibility. We could see the island but not well. In any case the scenery along the way made up for it as it cleared up immediately after leaving the cape and we were thankful for the clam seas in the area where over 700 ships and their crew have met their end.

The glaciers were spectacular and every one was interesting in its own way.

Some of the higher mountains refused to let us see them but we knew they were there. Maybe another day…

The ship’s tender — with some lucky officers aboard! — went out to get some pieces of glacier ice which, upon close inspection, I found to be fascinating. Early in the day I noticed something dark in the chunk of ice but when we returned from our outing in town it was gone; the ice having melted to the point where it was revealed and someone had taken it away. How very much I would have liked to have seen what had been entombed there for eons.

Then, as if the day had not been full enough already, we arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile (not to be confused with Puntaarenas, Costa Rica, as the home office of Viking did and sent the ship totally unhelpful maps of that city). Just had to throw that in. But truly, Viking is an amazing organization! You’ll remember the puzzle table. Every night at 5:00 all of the lights in the atrium are dimmed by an automatic timer to make for more ambiance and that makes it very hard to work on the puzzle. Two days ago 5:00 came and went and the lights stayed on! Between the cruise director and the head electrician, without the help or approval of Los Angeles which they thought they would need, they put the “puzzle lights” on the emergency circuit and they will never be dimmed again.

Speaking of the puzzle, we took a break from the 3000 piece type and did a small one of our Sonoran desert which I had brought and it actually gave me a pang of homesickness which I hadn’t expected.

No sooner had we docked and been cleared by the authorities than we disembarked and spent a couple of hours in the city. It was Sunday so it was very quiet, especially in the historic cemetery.