MickeyandKimWorldAdventures

La Serena Chile Authored by Laurie Hardcastle Seil Our port is listed as La Serena, but the dock is actually in the city of Coquimbo, which is around 15 km (9 mi) away from La Serena, however, Coquimbo is part of La Serena and La Serena is in Coquimbo, region that is, how’s that for confusing?  Coquimbo is also a cargo port for the area, specializing in the export of copper from nearby mines, as well as Chilean wines.  I’ll give you just a bit about Coquimbo which became important as a port around 1840 thanks to the gold and copper industry, however it wasn’t recognized as a town until 1879. You may be surprised to hear that somewhere in town is a statue of Sir Francis Drake, erected because he purportedly stopped at this future city site during his journey around the world. The Beagle stopped in here with Charles Darwin as well, he noted that there was nothing remarkable about the town except for the quiet. There is actually a British quarter in the city from when there was a...

Valparaiso, Chile Authored by Laurie Hardcastle Seil If nothing else Valparaiso has one of the most colorful collages that I’ve put together lately which seems appropriate for a city that’s known as the “Jewel of the Pacific”. The glory days for this port are in the past but it is still a UNESCO World Heritage Site, earning that designation because of its history, the late 19th century architecture found here, and its cultural diversity. It was a place that many English, German, French, Italian and Yugoslavian immigrants made home during its heyday, as well, of course, as the Spanish who had been here for centuries.  Here along Chile’s central coast, you’ll find the usual modes of transportation, including Uber. The locals call their city “Valpo”, and it’s also been called “Little San Francisco” for the dozens of hills that surround its bay, with colorful houses dotting the hillsides. Plan so do some climbing today unless you take a funicular here or there. The original inhabitants...

  Chilean Fjords Authored by Laurie Hardcastle Seil Just a little teaser for what we might be seeing as we traverse the Chilean Fjords, making our way north along the west coast of South America. There are about 1,500 km (930 mi) of fjords and fjord-like channels from Cape Horn on the south to Reloncavi Estuary in the north. To give you some distance comparisons the length of the fjords is comparable to sailing from London to Gibraltar, Sydney to Cairns, or New York to Miami. These least visited of Chile’s landforms were carved from glaciers that flowed toward the sea and then receded. It’s an area that’s mostly untouched and still contains volcanoes and waterfalls along with the glaciers that still flow into the sea. Depending on exactly where we sail,  we may see some of these large ice sheets, my fingers are crossed that we do. Along with the beauty of the land we should be able to see a great variety of wildlife. The possibilities include more penguins, lots of loungin...

So, we have been cruising in the Pacific Ocean for the past two days and will arrive at Valparaiso tomorrow, which  looks to be a very interesting city and we are looking forward to some terra firma again.  As reported earlier, we have missed French Guina, Falkland Islands, and Puerto Madryn due to inclement weather that did not allow safe tendering from the ship to shore.  Unbeknown to us, it appears that our trip insurance covers this at $250 per person per port, so it seems we will be getting $1500 as reimbursement...how cool is that?   It is a very special day for our grandson, Andy.  He turns 5 today - we will be facetiming to wish him a happy birthday and see if he enjoyed the gifts,  we got him before we left on this journey.  A few updates on weather and some of the sunrises and sunsets we have been experiencing on this cruise...           ...

Punta Arenas, Chile It’s said that Punta Arenas is “where the forest meets the steppe”, although the original name of the town was actually Sandy Point, just what the name’s translation means. We’re at our second capital in as many days, this one is Chile’s Magellanic and Antarctic Region XII administrative center. The settlement was established in 1848 to create a stronger Chilean presence along the Magellan Strait, especially during this time when ships would stop in for supplies as they sailed to and from the California gold fields. It began as a military garrison and a penal settlement, however in 1877 the prisoners staged a violent mutiny which destroyed a large part of the town. The result of this was that fewer prisoners were sent in subsequent years to keep Punta Arenas from being known as a dangerous place. In the late 19th century,  it became one of the largest sheep farming areas in the world when wooly ones were introduced from the Falkland Islands. The downtown area st...

 Ushuaia, Argentina Authored by Laurie Hardcastle Seil And what are you going to do during your two days at the “City at the End of the World”, Ushuaia? I looked this one up a long time ago to find out the pronunciation is “oo-shway-ah”, at least that’s the way I’ve been saying it, the “oo” is like the “ou” in “you”. The name comes from the native Yaghan language and means “deep bay”, which works for this city’s beautiful location on the Beagle Channel that has forests, mountains, and sea all within sight. We’ll be in the southernmost city in the world and the capital of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and Southern Atlantic Islands Province, what a mouthful! If you weren’t aware already the words Tierra del Fuego mean “Land of Fire’, so named because of all the smoke the first European explorers saw rising from the land, not realizing it came from the native’s fires. The Martial Mountains rise behind Ushuaia, unique in that unlike the rest of the Andes, these run east/we...

Cape Horn, Argentina Authored by Laurie Hardcastle Seil I honestly never thought I’d literally travel to the ends of the earth but here we are at Cape Horn, the southernmost spot on the Chilean Tierra del Fuego archipelago and the northern boundary of the Drake Passage. This rocky headland on Hornos island is one of the windiest places we’ll visit as well so hold on to your hats. I’m hoping to see some incredible scenery in this spot where the waters have hazardous waves and strong currents much of the time. Cape Horn was first rounded in 1616 by Dutchmen Willem Schouten and Jakob Le Maire who were trying to find an alternative to the monopoly route that the Dutch East India Company had through the Strait of Magellan. They called this spot Kaap Hoorn after the Dutch city of Hoorn, opening up what became the quickest and main trade route from East Asia to Europe. During the California gold rush in the 1840’s many ships plied these waters on trips between the coasts of the United State...