Home |Arctic| Antarctic| Panama| South America
What a trip of contrasts and
unexpected natural wonders.
MV
Polar Star explores the coastline of South America in March, heading north
from Ushuaia.
We sailed around Cape Horn in
brilliant sunshine along with yachties and kayakers, landing to view the albatross sculpture - a tribute to sailors lost at sea.
Sailing north we entered the
Chilean fiords, the mountainsides covered in lush beech forests, and glaciers falling to the sea. We took zodiacs in as close as
we dared
to the calving glacier front. Exhilarating! In the following days we went on
excursions
from the ship, some far inland, to see National Parks like the impressive Torres
del
Paine with snow capped sculptured peaks, lakes, foxes, guanacos (llamas) &
condors.
Some excursions took us to small Indian communities and some to big cities like
Lima.
We sailed north to the desert, the mud city of Chan Chan and took a flight to see the unexplained Nazca lines. These were extraordinary and one couldn't help but agree with the theory on contact with aliens by an ancient civilisation.
One day at sea we saw as many as 2000 dolphins and as the ship came close they formed an arc around us, leaping and jumping. The energy was electric & emotional.
The engineering highlight of the trip was indeed the Panama Canal, when we ate dinner on the deck in the equatorial warmth and watched as the ships passed, lifted and lowered into the night and into another ocean.