Cape Horn

Hi again from near Antarctica.  After spending three days at the very Southern tip of South America we have passed Cape Horn and are on our way to a peninsula in Antarctica.  When we were in Punta Arenas (sand point) we took a trip to a penguin rookery in the wild.  We hiked in about a mile and saw the Magellan penguins on the beach, pictured below.  We also saw the ones marching from their nests to the beach, they were very close and it was great fun to see them.  We spend a day in Ushuaia, Argentina which is the Southernmost city in the world.  While there we took a narrow gauge train ride through Terra del Fuego national park.  Terra del Fuego (land of fire) is an island owned half by Chili and half by Argentina.  It is a lovely city carved out of snow capped mountains with very colorful buildings.  The next day we got up very early to view the passage around Cape Horn with its many glaciers like the one pictured.  We will now spend three days in Antarctica.  The ship has Antarctic experts on board that give lectures.  All of them with many years of experience.  One is an ice pilot, who plots our course through and around the islands, one is a marine biologist and the other is a geologist.  The latter two have connections to the University of Minnesota, having studied there or worked there.  We are learning a lot about this remote area of the Earth and will appreciate it more after this cruise.  We hope to see more marine life, whales, seals, penguins and many large birds like Petrel.  I'll try to get some good pictures.  Love from the sea,
Gwen

Magellan penguins, it was nice of them to pose for us as they marched to the beach.