March 2

We were able to sleep in again and had a lovely breakfast. Then, we went to a presentation on Tierra del Fuego. 

In 1984, a dispute broke out concerning the border of the Beagle Channel and where the border was that separated Chile from Argentina. The dispute was eventually solved. Both countries now have land in Antarctica but the land can only be used for scientific proposes. Many scientific stations are set up on Antarctica manned by many countries of the world. 

How did indigenous people come to Patagonia?  One theory is the people from Africa crossed the Behring strait and then they went down thru North America into South America. 

When Magellan arrived in Patagonia, he thought the inhabitants were giants. They weren’t. They were maybe 6 feet tall, but since Europeans were much shorter, Magellan perceived them as giants. 

Magellan coined the name Patagonia. One theory – the people had big feet… And presumably that is the word Patagonia in Spanish. Another theory is, he was reading a book in which the name of one of the characters was Patagonia.  

In the 1800’s, Captain Fitz Roy visited the area on the H.M.S. Beagle. The second time he arrived, he came with Darwin. Darwin was not happy with the indigenous people and felt they were inferior. I was very surprised to learn that about Darwin. We always were taught what a great man he was as well as a naturalist. Seemed odd he didn’t like the indigenous people. 

The first photo of indigenous people was taken by Father de Augustini who lived between 1883-1960. He became friends with them. 

The Manekenk were a small group in the southern areas. Most in the group did not wear clothes. They covered their bodies with fat and they also drank the fat. The fat is what kept them warm so they didn’t need clothing. Also, if it rained, or if they needed to jump in the water to get a fish, their clothing would be soaked so they opted out of wearing anything. 

They transported fire in their canoes and each individual family rode in the canoe. The man was in front harpooning for food. The woman rowed in the back and in the middle of the canoe, the children were keeping the fire alive. 

During the Gold Rush, the indigenous people  died because of diseases brought by the Europeans. The Europeans had started missions, and now the indigenous people were no longer out in the open in nature, but now were confined in small places and susceptible to illness.  

Also, sadly, many indigenous people were killed by land owners,  just because they were there. Some indigenous people were put in human zoos, and that was only 100 years ago. 

The talk was very interesting and very eye-opening. 

After the talk, we visited the bridge and learned how the captain and crew navigate the ship. Two people are always at the helm day and night. 

We saw the flags that the crew would use to communicate with other ships, however, nowadays,  the communication is done mostly electronically. 

After lunch, we boarded the zodiacs to go to Pia Glacier, and we were able to see where the glacier flows from the Darwin mountains into the sea. We hiked up along flat stones and just kept going up and up. By the time we got to the top, I was really frightened since it was very high and there was a sheer drop on both sides. I don’t like heights and seeing some of the people standing so close to the age made me crazy. But the view was magnificent and I guess all in all it was worth the hike. We saw and heard the glacier calf many times. 

After we returned to the ship, we went up to deck 5 to stake out chairs for our group to see Glacier Alley. Jon told us what side to sit on for the best view and the glaciers that we passed were majestic and beautiful. 

Global warming is contributing to the rapid melting if the glaciers which adds significantly to the rise of the sea level. We are very lucky to be viewing them because they might not be around in years to come. 

The wait staff passed appetizers out while we sailed thru the alley and I drank a delicious dark beer. 

Then it was dinner time but I didn’t feel very hungry since we had so many appetizers. 

Early to bed because we have to get up at 5am to get into the zodiacs to tour Cape Horn. 

Glacier Alley