Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Around the Horn ... to the end of the world!

We've done it! We've sailed right around Cape Horn - not just round the end of South America, but right around Horn Island. We had great views, but it was FREEZING cold ... we would run up onto deck (unfortunately we went around anti-clockwise, so had no view from our balcony), take photos in 5C temperature with 6metre swells and winds of 60 knots (100km per hour), then flee back to our cabin, where we'd gather, laughing and shivering, with friends, before another foray ... it was great ... but possibly we'll remember the hot chocolate as much as the view!
From there we sailed northwards to Ushuaia, the most southerly town in Argentina, which calls itself 'Fin del Mundo', the End of the World. Yesterday we travelled by bus across Tierra de Fuego to Lake Ensanada, surrounded by grey rocks and dense beech forest, then to a station where we boarded a little train. This train, originally used by the prisoners who were Ushuaia's first white inhabitants, runs on a 60cm track, even narrower than a cane train. The one-and-a-half hour trip through the National Park was wonderful, the skies were blue, the day was a warm 11C - it was truly memorable.
Back in the city of Ushuaia we walked through the tourist-oriented streets to a museum in the old prison, meeting an Aussie on his way to Antarctica in a little Russian ship berthed beside us - the 48 passenger vessel looked so small compared to our 3,000 passenger vessel ... but they were able to leave on time, where the wind was so strong against our 14-storey "wind wall" that our departure was delayed for five hours. The only bonus of that was that when we left, about 11pm, we went out on deck just below the bridge ... and what should we see as we slowly turned, but four seals catching the fish we were disturbing, highlighted in the lights from the bridge. We were alone on deck, absolutely enthralled ... a VERY special moment!