Tomorrow we will disembark at Talcahuano so today was, as so many last days are, a matter of packing, settling bills etc because it will be an early morning start. Mixed feelings of sadness and excitement were the mood of the day as we enjoyed our last day at sea, where we so love to be, and anticipated our coming journey on dry land in South America.
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| Ports of arrival, ends of journeys have a certain sense of sadness |
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| These lovely people were lining up before the sun was up, bless them. |
We were awake before dawn to breakfast and line up to disembark. Before that however I watched a troupe of musicians and dancers line up on the wharf before the sun rose. They, plus a few of the local indigenous people, were there to welcome us. Quite delightful to our bleary eyes.
We were in the port of Talcahuano, Chile’s largest fishing port. Once ashore we were bussed to Concepción where we boarded a plane for Santiago.
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| A wonderful voyage |
This had been a fascinating voyage along a coastline that must have been design by Slartibartfast. Que? some will understand but to explain if you are not a Hitch Hikers' fan, Slartibartfast was a Magrathean and a designer of planets. His favourite job was creating coastlines, the most notable of which are the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth. He must surely have also designed Chile's coastline because it is truly magnificent and intricate and I think must rival the fjords of Norway.
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| Slartibartfast from the 1981 TV series |
We had travelled from Ushuaia around Cape Horn and through Drakes Passage, along the Beagle Channel and the Magellan Strait, passing the Cordillera Darwin to explore magnificent glaciers. A pretty amazing voyage of 2227.7 NM (4125.7Km) in 14 days. We eventually landed in Santiago and from there headed into the high desert of Atacama, a dream of many years - callooh callay!
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