We fly from Bilbao to Madrid where we stay in an airport hotel for a night. Then we fly from Madrid to Santiago in Chile, and then are going on to Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile, where we will meet up with the Antarctic Heritage group that we are heading to South Georgia Island with - aboard the Magellan Explorer. This is super exciting. We signed up for this trip 3yrs ago, it was postponed for a year during the pandemic, but now it is here.
It is to honour Shackleton's journey from South Georgia 100 years on. A special trip with 22 young people - called Inspiring Explorers - aged between 17 and 30 from NZ, and 66 not-so-young people, mainly but not all from NZ - some with connections to the Shackleton journey, revealed later. Also guides and crew.
We had 12 hours at Santiago Airport before flying to Punta Arenas. Bill reminds me of the last time we were in Santiago Airport, in March 2020, also for a long day there.
We were about to go on a trip up the Amazon for 10 days, out of Lima, Peru. At 11pm the night before we were leaving, we got a phone call from our travel agent (who was the daughter of good friends). She said "The borders in Peru are closing in 24 hours because of Covid. You need to get out." While we had been reading about it, we didn't expect that. So Bill spent the next two hours trying to book flights out of Lima - to Buenos Aires, and to Santiago. We headed to Lima airport at 4 a.m. and got on a flight to Santiago.
Then we got told Chile was closing its borders too, the next day. So we queued to get on standby for a flight from there to Auckland at midnight that night. The queue was in the place below, exactly in the pic, but with about 200 more people. You got a ticket and had to wait to be called to a booth. We got a ticket and the wait looked to be about 3 hours away given the way the queue was moving. We were maybe 75th in line. There was an air of anxiousness. I spotted an English woman and found out she was on her own and scared. I also noticed her ticket was number 40. After getting to know one another I asked cheekily if we could come in on her ticket. She generously replied 'Yes'. That cut our queueing time by one and a half hours at least. It also may have assisted us in getting on the plane at all! This was a flight direct to NZ.
At the booth, they put us on the waiting list for the flight - number 70 on the waiting list! But they said, a lot of people were not getting to the airport and there was a chance we might get on the flight. They told us to come back at 10 pm that night. So we spent the day at the airport, went to the queue at 10pm, and phew, we got on the flight. (I don’t know whether we would have got on the flight with ticket 75.) We were both super relieved to be flying home and not to be stuck in Chile with a closed border. (This was about 10 days before NZ closed its borders, so there were no problems getting in there.)
Our seats from Santiago to Punta Arenas were not together. I sat next to Carmen, who was from Punta Arenas and had lived 10 years in the States. We talked about lots of things. She has a grandchild in Santiago so she was stopping off before flying back to Punta Arenas. We swapped numbers. She said if there was anything we needed to text her. She was like a sister. We chatted for most of the flight. She is a petrol station owner in Central Punta Arenas. Her English was excellent.
We arrive in Punta Arenas. We ubered to our hotel. It is midnight when we get there.
[From Wikipedia:] "The name Punta Arenas whose literal translation would be "Point Sands", is actually derived from the Spanish term Punta Arenosa, a literal translation of the English name "Sandy Point". The city has also been known as Magallanes. Today that term is normally used to describe the administrative region which includes the city.
Punta Arenas has been nicknamed "the city of the red roofs" for the red-painted metal roofs that characterized the city for many years. Since 1986, Punta Arenas has been the first significantly populated city in the world to be affected directly by the thinning ozone layer. Its residents are considered to be exposed to potentially damaging levels of ultraviolet radiation."
This is the view from our bedroom window. We stayed at Hotel Cabo De Hornos.
And from the gym.
Bill goes and gets a haircut.
I notice there is a lady having her hair dyed blue next door to Bill. I take the photo. Bill’s hairdresser thought I was taking his picture. He was happy I was. I wonder if my sister Jojo might have her hair dyed blue. She wears blue every day. She has blue fingernails and toenails. This is all because her daughter Catherine is the National Party candidate for the TukiTuki electorate. I sent my sister the photo. She replied she definitely was not going to be dying her hair! How committed is she I thought?
The election is on Saturday 14th Oct. Bill and I have cast a special vote online. ( I am not telling you who we voted for, sorry sister). That does not mean I didn't vote National, or that I voted National. The reason why I am not telling is my Dad was the National MP from 1969-72 for Whanganui. I was 12 at the time. The thing I remember most about that time was it seemed most important to him to know what political party people were from. If they openly said they supported National he behaved very friendly towards them. While that was understandable I guess my thoughts were, can't you be just as friendly to whoever and all views?
I guess that is why the most important thing to me now is to be empowered by all types. I am empowered by you and you empower me. Being open and willing when you are not empowered to be empowered by anyone I talk to is everything. I can thank Dad for planting that seed. All the best Catherine and her team. Dad would be super proud of her. They got on so well. (He died 10 years ago) Not sure he would be proud of blue hair!
The new look Bill. Luckily I have some gel to keep the top knot going.
We go and have lunch in a restaurant. It is not that great. We order too much and take some pizza back to our room. We might eat it tomorrow. We both catch up on admin.
The South Georgia tour group have started arriving. We meet Lesley from Waiheke and have a drink. We didn't know her before the trip. I think she is remarkable. A full-time worker, lives on her own and bravely travels on her own.
We have dinner with Jean and Rob, Mel and Pete, and another Bill, Bill Bishop.
We learn our flight to the Falkland Islands, where we are boarding the Magellan Explorer, has been postponed because of high winds. We will have an extra two and days in Punta Arenas.
Everyone recalibrates. Some want to go away for the two days. Bill wants to watch the Ryder Cup and is pleased he can. Pete and Mel, Jean and Rob discuss going to the lighthouse tomorrow. They say they have one spare seat in a van they will hire. I am a bit torn. In the end, I choose to stay and watch the Ryder Cup with Bill. One reason. other than loving watching golf, it is too cold here to walk and I don't want to catch a cold, nor have I got great walking shoes. Not keen to sprain an ankle either. I want to stay healthy for the trip. The other Bill is keen to watch the Ryder Cup too.
Here are the two Bills. Bill Bishop used to be Blossom Lady’s vet and we know him from that time (the 1990's) though not well. Bill's Dad and Mum knew Bill well and spent some time together. This next photo of the two Bills together. (This photo is for Bill's Mum Judy).
We then watched the Ryder Cup. Day 2 ended with Team Europe leading 10.5 points to Team U.S. 5.5 points. It is at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome. It was great to watch the Europeans take the lead.
Then we go to get coffee at the History Coffee Casino Dreams. We hang out here for a few hours. It starts snowing.
We walk back to our hotel. It has stopped snowing. It is 1 degree.
I go with Shauna, Sue and Charmian to the Nao Victoria Museum. This has replicas of important boats of Magellan’s history, such as the Nao Victoria, James Caird and the Goleta Ancud. It is 7.5 km north of Punta Arenas, and looks out at the Magellan Strait. It was opened in 2021.
Charmian kindly paid since I had no pesos and the museum and taxi would not accept credit cards. They did point out the taxi was the price of a coffee. Maybe the museum entry cost was more. No one was in the office when we arrived so we started looking at the boats. The lady in the office seemed super grumpy. I thought maybe the museum was not a money maker. I owe each of them a coffee at least. All these independent woman travellers were highly organised. This is Shauna and me. Shauna is DP at Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate. We have their school in the Rotoroa Island Education Programme (my work).
The first replica boat we looked at was the Nao Victoria. It was the protagonist of the first global circumnavigation between 1519 and 1522. The ship came from Ondarroa (Biscay) and was the only one of the five involved in the expedition to complete it.
Sue on the deck.
And inside.
Then Darwin's boat - the Beagle.
Here are the four of us on the Beagle - Sue and Charmian at the back, Shauna and I in the front. Sue and Charmian are cousins. They are also related to Roddie Carr who was on the Quest Expedition with Shackleton when he died. More about that later. Charmian from Brisbane. Sue from Christchurch. Shauna from Auckland.
Then we looked at the replica of the James Caird. (It was named the James Caird by Ernest Shackleton because James Caird had donated a lot of money towards the famous Endurance/Shackleton expedition.) The James Caird was the boat Shackleton and 4 others travelled 700 miles across the Antarctic and South Atlantic oceans to get from Elephant Island in the Antarctic to King Haakon Bay on South Georgia. After they got there they climbed over the mountains to come down a waterfall and arrived at Stromness Bay Whaling Station. All the other 23 sailors from the Endurance sheltering at Elephant Island were rescued after being 16 months in Antarctic conditions.. The most incredible story.
Story in 30 secs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvP3OzNP14s
Story in 26 mins https://youtu.be/sgh_77TtX5I?si=ECgje_sN6eUbPxnY
(The James Caird voyage begins at 18min 20sec.)
Unbelievable how they lived in this for 17 days in huge southern seas. That is longer than the time we will spend on the Magellan Explorer.
Charmian, Sue and Shauna.
Guess who?
Me and Shauna.
Sue and Charmian.
When we were on the boat, the girls had a pisco sour with Rachel who was on the trip. Rachel is from Winchester in England, and is the granddaughter of Charles Roderick Carr. He liked to be called Roddy. He was on the Quest Expedition. More about her later. At the back Charmian and Shauna, in front Sue and Rachel.
At Punta Arenas we have dinner at the hotel and pack for the boat. We can leave a bag with our warm weather Europe gear at the hotel, which is great.
