Bottom of the World

Here are a few pictures that should have been in Blog 3.  The first is of sheep shearing at Olga Teresa, then Betty before she dried out for dinner after glacier watching, and then a shot of Betty's favorite dessert.

I think I have solved my internet issues.  It seems that the signal in our stateroom is considerably weaker than on other places on the ship.  Perhaps it's because we live with some other peons down on Deck 7.

After an all day sail we reached Cape Horn early Sunday evening.  Normally the weather is terrible and the seas next to impossible.  For some strange reason the seas were calm and we got a good view of the rock.  Actually there is nothing at Cape Horn other than a big rock as well as one lonely lighthouse keeper, with his wife and two children.

 

After Cape HORN we sailed overnight to Ushuaia (most southernly city in the world) where  we took a catamaran for a sail down the Beagle Channel.

There we saw sea lions, penguins, the occasional tail of a humpback whale, and lots of birds including the infamous albatross.  The tour was scheduled for 4 hours but took 6.  We didn't get back until 3:00.  We were starving and the last restaurant closed at 2:00.  We were greatly surprised when we were told that the buffet had remained open for stragglers such as us.

Despite it having a land mass equivalent to the State of Connecticut the Falklands have only a population of 3800.  The majority live in Port Stanley with only 400 living in camp (the countryside).  The land is barren with no trees but there are mountains (where most of the 1982 battles occurred) in the far distance.  Most of the tourists come to see penguins, but as it would have taken us hours on a bus, we decided to pass.  Thus, the only sights available

to us were shipwrecks and monuments.

The houses in Stanley all have metal roofs.  Shingles cannot withstand the high winds.  Because the ocean temperature never reaches higher than 8 degrees, the wind is very cold.

The people of the Falklands revere Margaret Thatcher and I think one would have to be very cautious in suggesting she were other than a near god.

 

I mentioned my homicide detective buddy in an earlier blog.  He is very competitive and takes part in every silly game that happens on seadays.  He currently is doing well in collecting points for some sort of prize.  He weakness however, is in putting.  Today, I stood in for him in the putting contest and was able to add to his point count.