Steaks of Magellan

Way far down at the southern tip of South America there are two places claiming to be the “southernmost city in the world”. Of the two, Ushuaia, Argentina is further south, but is arguably not a “city”, with its population of only 10,000. The other place - Punta Arenas, Chile -- has 150,000 people, not only legitimately a city, but located on the legendary Straits of Magellan.

Legendary to some people anyway. After Christopher Columbus bumped into America in 1492, he thought he’d reached India, and even referred to the locals as “Indians”. It was one of the great misnomers of all time, but it resulted in a pretty decent baseball team in Cleveland.

Ferdinand Magellan came along a few decades later and finished the job of “circumnavigating” the world and proving it was round. To do this he had to get past those pesky Americas, sailing around this far southern tip through the straits that forever bear his name.

He then crossed the Pacific to Asia, where he and his men got into an ill-fated armed conflict with some cannibalistic locals in the East Indies. Magellan himself became a victory dinner, and about a dozen of his men managed to escape back to the ship and do the triumphant return to Spain.

Punta Arenas, Chile, did pretty well as a provision stop for European ships over the centuries, but this came to an abrupt halt when the Panama Canal opened in 1908. The city has found other ways to thrive, for instance charging cruise ship visitors a fee to visit their penguin preserve.

There was a crew excursion on November 24, each crew person chipping in $30 to go see penguins. Apparently many people are interested in penguins, since a second bus had to be chartered to accommodate everybody. It was a beautiful day, and the surrounding scenery was beautiful. However this particular species was the “Magellanic” penguin (ol’ Ferdinand got so much stuff named after him!) -- a rather short penguin, about the size of a fat bowling pin, a bit disappointing.

3 pins left standing

outskirts of Punta Arenas, Chile

Onward to that other “city” the next day - Ushuaia, Argentina. The ship had great difficulty docking, with the strong winds and choppy harbor waters, and finally tied down about two hours late. The nasty wind and cold was at its worst in this harbor, but viewed from the 12th deck it was one really photogenic town. The Andes Mountains, running the entire 4,400-mile length of South America from Columbia on down, finish up dramatically around here.

Ushuaia, Argentina

Today has been very weird. All day long today we’ve been riding through some of most turbulent waters on the planet, just below the absolute southern tip, an area called Cape Horn. Walking around the ship is pretty dicey for the many elderly folks. It’s actually a good time to catch up on sleep. The rocking effect is a “rockabye baby” thing, good for insomniacs, or for people who don’t want to struggle with walking anywhere. I expect it’ll be rather quiet in the piano bar tonight, and I hope the piano is bolted down.