To be honest, previously I wouldn’t be able to delineate between the Straits of a Magellan and the Beagle Channel. I sort of knew they were not Cape Horn, but that was about it. Any Jeopardy watcher or trivia buff would know that the Beagle was the name of the ship that Charles Darwin tooled around South America to come up with that hair-brained ideas of evolution. and that Magellan was the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean and circumnavigate the globe. Ah but did he really? Technically he never made the circumnavigation since he died in The Philippines from a poison arrow. Not before mutinies, desertions and other early explorers’ shenanigans. However one of his ships finally made it to a Spanish port by heading west and arriving from the east.
Ok I know this is a travel blog not a 500 year ago history tale, I do get carried away.
Back to the Glacier Alley. - After a day or so of cruising through the Straights of Magellan, that archipelago of tons of small islands and scenic fjords on the western coast of southern South America, we entered The Beagle channel. That cuts through the lower portion of the continent, which once discovered made for a less wild and wooly experience of trying to get you ship around Cape Horn. Of course once the Panama Canal came along, 90 per cent of ships went there. Cutting to the chase we ent by 6 glaciers in about an hour and a half? Amazing!!!! The most spectacular had a waterfall flowing from the top..
The hardest part was deciding where on the ship to to view all this majesty! There’s then Crows Nest Cafe top floor forward, or the pointy end as I like to call it irritate my mariner husband. Windows all around give that space a special advantage to we lookouts.
I really like the promenade deck on the third deck because it’s outside, but coveredl (three times around equals a mile.) Naturally there were the prerequisite runners who have to do their daily let’s-make-everyone-else-feel-guilty routine. Don’t they know you’re supposed to gain at least 10 lbs on a cruise?
Going around the Horn was probably my personal favorite. Up and dressed at 6 AM with my winter jacket, scarf and wool hat, ready for whatever the summer day in southern South America ad in store for me. I wanted the outdoor experience, not the windowed room view for babies. There was a smallish deck at the bow and the best way to describe that was WINDY! It’s kind of a fun experience when the wind can push a sturdy person as myself around but as fun as it was, I didn’t last long at that delightful spot. So the promenade beck with its possibility of shelter from the wind was the place for me. Svend who is not as impressed by windy, rolling seas as I am, finally made an appearance, hot a photo op and then went to see if the breakfast was ready.
At one point a woman said, “look, there’s whales.” And although I pretended to see them, I do believe they were sea form. But who cares, whales they were.
So what’s it like at Cape Horn.? Well according to the daily newsletter on the Oosterdam…
“It may be the most notorious ocean passage in the world, and for centuries it evoked dread in the hearts of sailors. But those who survived a trip around Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and Pacific slosh violently into each other, had bragging rights for life. Along this passage, the Tierra del Fuego, or "land of fire," where Chile and Argentina converge at the bottom of the world, got its name from early sailors who saw the fires of the people who lived here burning on shore. For some 8,000 years, until as recently as the end of the 19th century, this was the home of the Yaghan and other indigenous groups.
Magellan and Drake left their mark and names here, as did Darwin, who sailed through here on the HMS Beagle. The great clipper ships of '49er lore later fought their way through fierce waves carrying gold between California and the East Coast in that era before the Panama Canal. Just as Richard Henry Dana, Jr., described in his masterful Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, a journey today around the Cape at the very bottom of the Tierra is shaped by capricious weather, as powerful winds and shallow waters can produce waves that reach as high as 30 meters (100 feet).”
I’m going to be honest, the waves were not 100 feet high. Although it was the most motion we had encountered thus far, it was not at all scary. It was simply wonderful. Not another ship to be seen, one building on the Cape itself, proudly flying the Chilean flag (in case you confuse it with Argentina which is very close) and no others. Magical! The captain spun the boat around 360 degrees, which was amazing. We must have been there for a couple hours until we reluctantly started out on our journey to the Falkland Islands.
Little did we know two months ago when we planned out eight hour all day tour of Buenos Aries it would be on the exact day the city would be celebrating the incredible, first time in forty years World Cup Argentinian win. What could have been a nightmare turned out to be great fun. The enthusiasm was infectious.
The whole World Cup thing really became a fun addition to the trip, Holland- America did not pay to have the games shown onboard so interested people had to find places to watch on shore. Svend and I have never really had a problem with finding eating and/or drinking establishments throughout the world.
