South America from the Photos

While we are on the ship we had no reasonably priced access to the internet so we laid off for awhile. Now that we have it again I have caught up on the photos. It is time to tell a little about the stories behind these photos. Starting with the beginning of the cruise on January 10, our first stop was Puerto Montt.

Puerto Montt: This coastal town is about two thirds of the way down from the northern border of Chile. The town is very run down, housing poor workers from the salmon farming industry. Apparently the minimum wage in Chile is about $175US per month. Divers who don wet suits and work the farms from underwater are much higher paid, making as much as $1000 per month. Higher paid employees and wealthier people live in the nearby resort town of Puerto Varas. On the south shore of huge Lake Llanquihue, this town looks much more like a resprt town you would find in other places. Hotels and cute resaurants are side by side with adventure sports outlets. Our bus trip showed us both towns on our way out to the country on our "volcano photo safari" - a cruise shore excursion code name for a LONG bus ride with occasional stops to climb out, shoot a photo, then climb back in and ride longer. The photos start out with the run down housing of Puerto Montt then move on to the volcanoes. We drove about half way up the volcano, so a few of the photos show the view looking down. The dancing children are a family of kids that dress in native costumes (not what anyone wheres on a daily basis) to dance for the tourists to earn tips. Finally, the photos show Puerto Varas and a street market selling local woolens and wood products.

Chilean Fiords: I must admit these were a disappointment after touring the fiords of New Zealand and Norway (even Alaska for that matter). They are barren hills as opposed to dramatic mountains arising from the sea. They provided scenary on a day in which we were at sea, so they were better than watching waves.

Punta Arenas: Located in Patagonia, famous for cold winters, short summers and lots of wind we had an exceptional day. This town is not much to look at, so most tourists visit the nearby National Parque, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Due to the time in port we were not able to see the park so we went for a walk through town. The photos were taken on that walk from the port to the main plaza, then about eight or nine more blocks to the cemetary. This was the first of the cemetaries we visited on this trip- apparently they are popular spots for tourists. The Chileans and the Argentines revere their dead and the cemetaries are quite beautiful.

Cape Horn: We passed Cape Horn at 6:00 AM just as the sun was coming up. The photos could not show how cold we were, but you get the wind and cold by looking at what we were wearing (everything we had in our suitcases). Although we had expected cold on this trip, the deck of the ship as we passed Cape Horn was the only time we were really cold. Although all you see when you pass the Cape is a big rock sitting in the water, the history of this most famous rock got everyone out of bed to see it.

Ushaia, Argentina: Apparently this town at the bottom of the world gets only thirty sunny days per year and we were lucky enough to be there to see one of them. The locals were in good spirits as we took another long bus trip around town and into the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. The photos show the drive through town and the national park.

Buenos Aires: Our city bus tour took us directly to the cemetary, so there were lots of photos of the city of the dead. In town we visited the main cathedral where we were able to see the changing of the guard which I was able to photograph. They can't refuse a photo so they are easy targets. The rest of the photos are street scenes taken while walking around or from the bus windows.

Montevideo, Uruguay: These are all photos taken on our bus trip around town.

Rio de Janiero, Brazil: It rained cats and dogs our first two days here, but today was cloudy and dry. We walked down to the beach and took all these photos from the bench at the beach. The final few were from the view of our (not) very luxurious hotel.

I hope you enjoy these photos. Deanne