No Idle hands here

I’m missing it as much as you are, so this is what I have to show for the last 2.5 months.

On the way to Argentina, I pulled out a skein of Noro yarn and knit a hat.

I finished it on the first leg of the journey, the flight to Atlanta. I did wear it on the trip, along with another me-made hat. It’s not often I get to rotate winter hats.

If these socks look familiar, there is a reason why. I made a pair for my daughter in law. I had a whole skein left, so on the trip I knit myself a pair.

The main reason why I haven’t been sewing or crafting much is because I’m in limbo with my sewing room. Yes I ordered two Koala tables and one Horn cutting table. There is no sign of them showing up anytime soon, which is very frustrating. I paid all the money up front, and yet, these companies get to take their sweet time in delivering. And you wonder why people buy furniture from China – it arrives quickly! So I’m busy going through everything and throwing a lot of things away.

I got rid of the 8″ wooden folding table, boy is that thing heavy! I’ve moved this dresser into a different corner and I may end up getting rid of the ironing board and just getting a large Wooly wonder Ironing mat. Then maybe I’d get a small table size board for when I sew garments and need the space for collars and sleeves. We shall see.

Turns out that over the years I have bought way too much serger thread. I’d always buy 4 of a color. Then, I’d basically only use white, black, tan or grey. Not getting rid of these yet….

It’s been two months since I’ve been to the Valley MQG, so I’ve built up a stock of pillowcases during my Tuesday sewing.

Girls only.

Boys only.

Could go either way. Fourteen all together. Seven were kits I was given and the other seven is me using up my stash. Yay! And yes, I’m one of those who believes that boys and girls are very very different. Viva La Difference!

I must sing the praises of my friend Lisa and her wonderful company Goatboy Soaps.

Lisa started the company years ago when her young son (who is now married) had all kind of allergies. She raises the goats herself, every spring she has a live-cam out there to capture the births. I don’t know about the actual birth, but watching those little goats prance and jump around is so much fun. Not to mention that as I’ve gotten older my skin has become much more sensitive. I used to be able to use whatever soap was available at the market. No more, but with these soaps I am not having anymore rashes or breakouts. So I’m sold forever.

Because the post on the Printing museum was getting too long, I’m sharing these images here. These are the wonderful advertisements that would decorated the citrus boxes coming from California. They are sold at the museum, I don’t think they are printed there. But boy, do I love this style of art.

This hangs in my kitchen. I bought it a few years ago at a craft fair. They did a wonderful job of framing the label.

Here is my own Meyer Lemon tree. Full of fruit this year, and I haven’t gotten around to making marmalade. I really should!

Enough with the world travels, time to explore closer to home. I visited the International Printing Museum down in Carson. The LA area is full of these gems. I’d already visited a book binding company, now to learn about the history of printing.

Like all museums, most of the artifacts are in storage. Since these presses are so heavy, I don’t think they rotate what is on the floor much.

I love how part of machinery is making it beautiful. Today beautiful is austere and plain. So it was great to see presses where not only to they work well, they are gorgeous.

This wonderful piece is the Columbia Hand Press, very very heavy. The decorations are a selling point, the iron eagle is part of the mechanism, opening the platen (the heavy iron plate that does the printing) back to an open position. Serpents, caduceus, were all just decorative elements to sell the press.

Another hand press, each one operates slightly differently. As time went by, the mechanism was refined, the platen could be re-inked, paper grabbed through. Newspaper printing became a thing, since it was now a rolling production, not a one time imprint.

A replica of Gutenbergs’ Press. His original model was made in 1440. Yes, the Chinese were printing long before the Europeans were. But somehow, once an idea gets west, it really takes off. Of course Gutenberg also created moveable type. Which was very different from the Chinese who carved each page out in it’s entirety. This long tail hammer like object is what is moving the screw, lifting and dropping the pattern. Fondly called the devils tail.

Sara showed us how it’s done. The huge screw is from some other old machinery, I forget what. Inside the Devil’s tail is a smaller version of this screw.

Before the press, all writing was done by hand, the best pens around were quills, ink needed to be refilled often.

Early ink pounces, the kind Gutenberg used. Also the kind Benjamin Franklin used when he apprenticed with his brother in the print shop. In order to keep the leather supple, he would need to soak the leather in cow urine. That’s ok, in the textile industry urine was used as a mordant… No wonder he turned to other inventions just to get out of the print shop.

Some of that movable type. An alloy of lead, tin and antimony is used. It melts at 500 degrees, which is a very low temperature. It hardens instantly, so making the type is fast and easy. Any mistakes, just throw the alloy back into the furnace.

We then had the pleasure of trying our hand at different types of pressed. This metal piece is called a slug, it allowed printers to use a linotype machine to create slugs – a whole line of print. The machine my name was made on was salvaged after the LA Times moved to newer digitized printing methods.

Here are a few things I printed. The center piece, celebrating Apollo 9, uses my slug. I used movable type to print my name – not a very good inking job and then I had fun with other printing methods.

There are drawers with both letters and images.

I’m pretty sure this is from the old restaurant the Egg and I that was in the building that now houses the Craft Museum on Wilshire.

All over the place they have examples of reproduction prints that they can do here.

They have all kinds of cabinets for the type. I wish I had opened this, of course it’s probably empty. I think it’s like this because the printer has a large box in front of him with two cases – like these drawers. One tray in front, with the lowercase letters, and the capitol letters above that, as in upper case. So I’m thinking that this cabinet makes it easy to pull out a drawer and voila, they are already angled.

Don’t you love it when a volunteer really looks the part? Almost like a young Samuel Clemens before he became Mark Twain. Back when he was a printing apprentice. Btw, this is the Linotype machine I mentioned, this is where he made the slugs with our names.

Although this museum is all about printing on paper, be it books, flyers, newspapers ect. Someone brought in a wood carve block that is used for printing batik fabrics. I guess if you love printing it will spill into other areas as well.

We had a free afternoon. Before our trip I was able to make arrangements with Gabe to have a private tour of Jewish Buenos Aires. In the late 19th century when my great grandparents left the Ukraine and Poland to come to America. Many Jews came to Argentina. For the same reason – antisemitism and pogroms. Gee amazing how history repeats itself.

Gabriel and Joel inside one of the Jewish synagogues. One side of Gabriels’ family came in the 19th c. Many of those Jews became Jewish Gauchos, farming the land northwest of Buenos Aires. The towns like Moiseville remain today with a synagogue building on the main street. There are probably no Jews left there. The descendants didn’t want to be farmers, they moved to the city and became merchants, lawyers and Drs.

The exterior of the Synagogue. There are many in town. The Jewish population is 300,000. This one is in the Ounce district which is still very much a Jewish neighborhood. Although, like everywhere else, the Jews move on to other neighborhoods or the suburbs.

A beautiful ornate synagogue. In the back there is a women’s balcony. These days this congregation is egalitarian. So the balcony doesn’t get much use.

I think there are 15 Torah scrolls here. Some are probably quite old. Some probably were brought by Holocaust survivors after WWII. The community here is very vibrant, there is a Rabbinic school. Most of the graduates go elsewhere, since Argentina can only support so many Rabbis.

Sorry this is such a fuzzy image, I was trying to be discrete. There were plenty of Orthodox Jews on the street. It is nice that unlike Europe, they can freely wear their religious garb. Although, it’s not like Buenos Aires hasn’t felt the affects of antisemitic terror.

There is a thriving textile business, similar to downtown Los Angeles. This one is still owned by Jews, notice the mezuzah up on the upper right corner. The sign requests – please don’t enter with food or drink. I saw other stores that are no longer owned by Jews and the new owners quickly removed the mezuzah, leaving a blank spot instead.

In 1992 a car bomb crashed into the Israeli embassy and destroyed the building killing about 25 people who were in the building. Today the location is a memorial and a pocket park. Kudos to Buenos Aires for doing this.

The section of the wall that was attached to the neighboring building remains. A stark reminder of a destroyed building. Btw, some of the companies that donated money for this effort are German companies that during WWII supported the Nazis. There is redemption, any by supporting this project they have shown that they have moved beyond the Nazis.

Two years later, in 1994, a car laden with explosives was parked in front of AMIA, the large Jewish community center. Sort of like the Jewish Federation here, except this building also housed a nursery school and other social programs. At 9:53 the car exploded killing 87 people, of all ages, not all Jewish. This mural is in memory of them. You can also see how today, there is a strong wall with barbed wire and an armed guard in front.

The names of the 87 are inscribed on the wall. I took this picture from the side. Despite the mural, they discourage photography. There is a real concern that this will be used for another attack. Which they should be, while we were there a Rabbi was viciously attacked in his home. Two Arabs entered Argentina with fake Israeli passports, hoping to commit an act of terror again. Luckily they were caught.

Opposite the Palace of Justice, aka the justice department is a small memorial to the 87 murdered at the AMIA. Today this is forgotten by almost everyone. What isn’t forgotten is that justice wasn’t served. We know that the Iranians were behind this attack, Israel knows. But Argentina prefers to ignore all that. At least they are making efforts to prevent future attacks on the Jewish population. Btw, it’s not only the Jews who have serious problems with the justice system. I guess it’s just the Jews who made a point of creating a monument that decries the injustice.

Governments, what can you do. On the other hand, a huge shout out to the Catholic Cathedral! The only one in the world that has a memorial to Jews. In 1997  Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, inaugurated this memorial. This memorial is for the Jews killed in the holocaust as well as the victims of both bombing in the 90s. The Cardinal is buried in this section of the Cathedral as well.

Above the plaque there these remnants of mostly Jewish prayer books that survived the Holocaust. Interesting to note that the one on top is Megilat Esther. Since we just celebrated Purim. There are pages from a Haggadah as well as from the Talmud.

This is the only Cathedral in the world that has such a memorial.

For all the problems, Argentina has been very good to it’s Jews. I don’t judge a country by it’s governments, its the people themselves. It was a pleasure to get a glimpse into a thriving community here. Oh the one thing we didn’t go see? The second kosher McDonalds. It is in a mall in the Ounce district, no need to stop for that. The first kosher McDonalds is in Jerusalem of course. Even New York doesn’t have one. So Viva Buenos Aires.

I know, California is having one of those very wet rainy winters that happen about every 20 years. But all this water can’t compare to what we saw in South America. Patagonia is pretty dry, but because of the Andes, there is water.

That is because of the glaciers in Torres Del Paine. We have a deep turquoise river because of the silt that is ground up by the glaciers.

On this river is the big waterfall. It was big until we got to Iguazu Falls and saw really big.

And then we went to the northern border of Argentina, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. Iguana falls are on the border between Brazil and Argentina. Both countries have agreed to a national parks, only one hotel on each side as well as not using the water for hydro-eclectic power. Lucky for them, they have other rivers and waterfalls for that.

There are hundreds of falls that span almost 1.5 miles. Photos are fun, videos are better.

They simply can’t really capture the magnitude of nature. We were very lucky, because of heavy rains, the falls were full. A week earlier and they weren’t flowing like this. These falls are fed only by rain water. So they can be fickle.

The scope and the power.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvKNMm0nB5v/

Hope over to Instagram to see the movie, I am so impressed with the clarity of the camera. This will give you a taste.

We saw the falls from all angles.

I took this picture before going out on the catwalk. The spray was so powerful that I kept my camera under wraps. No need to destroy a new camera.

On a different catwalk, the views were great, the spray wasn’t as powerful here.

Looking down on the boats in the river. Just a few hours later and we were on one of those boats.

Once again, I took one or two pictures while on the boat, then I put the camera away in the dry bag. We got drenched. We bought the video that was made by the crew. But here is the one you should watch.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvRrXWUnDVg/

Richard used his phone in a special dry bag and this is so worth watching, because this is a little taste of what we experienced. The hoots, hollers and yells of joy are heard here. But it really was much more than that. Some experiences are just so compelling. This was one of them.

Back into Argentina, I have so many stamps on my passport, going in and out three times.

El Calafate is an adorable town. Has a very Alpine feel. Which isn’t surprising, the Andes are mountains too and many people from the Alps moved here.

Gnome alley. There is a whole store dedicated to these creatures, as well as all the decorations in the alley. Must be Alpine influence. You might notice that the guy on the barrel is drinking mate, I’ll talk a little more about that national drink soon.

Unlike the other glaciers, we had crowds with us here. The park service did a great job about 12 years ago building incredible cat walks that really allowed us to see this massive glacier from many angles.

We saw the tail end of the this calving. Those three big chunks and all the ice around them weren’t there when we arrived. We sort of saw and certainly heard this ice fall. So I got a picture as soon as I could.

This is the northern side of the glacier, as you can see, it goes way back.

And here is the Western edge. This glacier is very very active. There is a clump of glacier on the land side. Every couple of years the ice will fill in between these two and block off one of the lakes. As the pressure of the water builds, the water will break through, first creating an arch, but very quickly simply breaking the ice block down. Water will alway equalize, no matter what the obstacle. With that rush of water, people down river can expect some flooding.

The streaks of brown are silt that gets ground up as the glacier moves and is then pushed up into the glacier. It comes from below, not above.

Here is a close up of an arch in the ice, it will collapse quickly, so I’m glad I caught this image.

Another close up of that incredible blue ice. I have been able to really crop my photos in order to get these close ups. I am still determined to get a stronger lens one of these days. At least I know how happy I am with what I already got.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHvw3sHLWW/

One of these days I’ll figure out how to really embed an instagram post. Go take a look, it’s a movie of the whole glacier with Joel at the end.

And now, Mate. We learned a lot about Mate. It is an herb, that is brewed sort of like tea. People in Argentina, Patagonia and southern Brazil will drink it out in public like this. Notice one girl has a thermos, the water is at 90 degrees Celsius, not quite boiling. Then the mate leaves are put in a gourd cup, some are highly decorated, others not. A special metal straw with a strainer on the end is used to drink the beverage. This is a common sight, people sitting around drinking Mate. Oh, one more thing they all share the same cup and straw.

All of our bus drivers had a mate kit, as did our Group leader and other guides. We were offered the opportunity to try mate, with the communal straw. First person in our group to do so was getting over a cold. Needless to say I declined. Our dinner hosts in Argentina were a funny couple, he loves his Mate. He offered us some, no thanks. His wife and her son hate the stuff. So as universal as it is – not everyone likes it.

Marcela brought a special brand to our Chilean guide. She also had to buy a special brand, found only in the north – to send to her son-in-law in Spain.

I guess for the Chinese, the tradition isn’t Mate, it’s a bottle of wine!

Throughout the trip we were able to get pictures of the two of us against gorgeous backdrops

We start in real summer in La Boca in Buenos Aires.

Here I am, with a beautiful old Singer sewing machine. We had A delightful dinner with a local couple in Buenos Aires. This machine belonged to Frankie’s grandmother. He says it only needs a belt to work. That and a good cleaning, he is probably right.

Summer in Ushuaia, yup it’s getting cold. They said that it is unusual to have snow on the mountains in summer.

With the backdrops of the glaciers.

With the Torres Del Paine mountains in the background.

The glacier in Torres Del Paine.

I wore my light jacket, umm, I was a little cold. Btw, this jacket didn’t come home. I had put it in my goodwill pile, at the last minute I brought it along, I’m glad I had it, but not on this day.

We went horseback riding. The horses are so docile that there is no work involved.

A picture together, but once we started walking my horse wanted nothing to do with Joel’s horse.

He wanted to follow Randy’s horse.

I love the gaucho that was leading the horses, he really looked the part. Even had a knife in his back sash.

Looks like a postcard.

Enjoying a wildflower on the roadside.

At the Perito Moreno glacier, more on that later.

Final stop, Iguazu falls.

With Marlene who took all of the other pictures of the two of us. I think we got the guide to take the picture.

Off the ship and driving through Chilean Patagonia. Very dry and very windy, although we were told that it’s not windy at all. So I guess everything is relative.

We arrived in Porto Natales in the late afternoon. Look at this sculpture, I wonder how much it moves in the wind. So we didn’t have wind but what we did have is rain.

Soaring figures from the front.

Cold American tourist with an object no one ever sees here – an umbrella. The local kids going into the water. No wind, summer – they go in the water.

The town was ok, nothing special, most buildings were none descriptor and painted in bright colors. This was the only decorated building I saw. It is Victorian, I’m guessing there is a plaque saying it is old. Notice the tin roof, easier to repair in the winds. Also, there is some Victorian trim – some of it clearly blew off and was never replaced.

Local cat, in a hostel. There are all kinds of hostels, since this is the last town or really the only town before the national park. I wonder if this cat ever sets foot outside, or is just content watching the world fly by in the wind.

From here on out, it’s the same huge Torres Del Paine mountains. We were so fortunate to see them from many different angles. Some people never really see them because of weather. Did I mention how lucky we were with the weather? We were lucky!

A glacier on the mountain, along with many clouds. These mountain tops are never completely free of clouds.

We got the whole explanation about the different colors. The light grey is granite, which was forced up into the crust of the earth. The darker rock was sediment that formed on top. And then through a million years, erosion, glaciers and yes wind, carved these magnificent peaks. I bet that during those million years there was even some global warming involved, long before humans existed.

Those needles in the background remind me of the minarets at Mammoth in California. Probably created at the same time.

I took so many pictures and really, I’m only sharing a few. Look, the clouds moved!

Paine refers to the deep turquoise color, which is created by the runoff from the glacier melt.

The glacier is way off, 16 miles away at the end of the glacial lake. Chunks are being calved and float around for a few days as icebergs. Well, maybe because they are quite large, they last more than just a few days.

This is a lovely summer morning in Patagonia, with a better view of the glacier. As much as I loved this whole trip, this isn’t summer.

There is the iceberg, being all glacier blue.

I get it, enough with these mountains. On to a new post.

We were so fortunate with our weather. The worst was Cape Horn, but that is Cape Horn weather – another group saw it on a calm quiet day, which does happen, but is rare. I think Magellan saw it calm which is why he called the Pacific Ocean – Pacific – because it was so calm.

Anyway, we were warned that if the normal winds were blowing, then we wouldn’t stop at Magdalena Island near Puenta Arenas. Once again, luck was with us.

We had already seen penguins swimming around the boat, but to see them on land is different. These are the Magellanic Penguins, not to big, but like all penguins – so cute!

It isn’t a huge colony, like in Antarctica, but a very healthy thriving one. With a light house of course. Don’t want ships crashing here.

One standing outside his burrow. Or maybe it’s a she, I don’t know.

How’s this for lovebirds?? We were told that penguins aren’t monogamous. Each year they will return to their burrow, if both return, they will mate again. If the female doesn’t come back, a new female will inspect the home and if she finds it satisfactory, she will move in. If the male hasn’t maintained the burrow, then the female will look elsewhere.

It takes three years for the juveniles to mature. When they do, they molt, all those soft feathers come off and then there is that sleek look.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu-QJQlHWGS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I’m sorry this only embeds as a link! I need to learn more about wordpress, I was trying to embed the video of the marching penguin, and it is only a like. so please, take a look it is fun to see.

March of the penguins! Their knees are inside their bellies, which is why they waddle. They are really formed for spending most of their life in the water.

This is where they are headed, well, next to the obnoxious gulls.

There were plenty of gulls and some other bird. They co-exist as well as steal eggs. The cycle of life.

I keep, mentioning how much I love my Sony A7III. I wasn’t that close to the penguin, this is after a big crop of the image. And yet, the detail! You can see how the feathers are, trapping oil and air, which makes them buoyant as well as keeps them warm. The eyes are suited for being under water, so they rarely open them on land, the light is too bright.

Ok, so he sort of winked at me.

Oh, you’re taking my picture? Let me pose and puff out my chest!

All by myself….

Yeah, me too. I love the texture of the feathers, also, the shape of the wing. Can’t fly but sure can swim very well.

Along with penguins we saw a lot of orange breasted tourists…

Here we are, waiting for the zodiac to go back on board for the last time. One of the most important items I brought on this trip was waterproof pants. I had a pair of water resistant ones. At the last minute I went to REI and bought waterproof ones. Smart move, although they weren’t cheap, it would have been more expensive to buy them on board. Many people had to do that. The zodiacs were wet, without waterproof pants I would have frozen otherwise. Even with all that gear – I was soaked and freezing on Cape Horn, but everywhere else, all the gear kept me nice and warm, not and easy thing for me.

I promised other birds, sure this is just a gull, flying over Ushuaia.

Grey goose, the southern counterpart to the Canada Goose.

Look at me!! From much later in the trip, back in the tropics. Some kind of Jay. We had a few birders in the group, but I can’t remember the name. To be honest, I don’t care to, sometimes just seeing the birds was enough without knowing all the details.

Profile view.

It is an incredible experience to explore the southern end of the world. Ushuaia has 80,000 people, there is a tiny town on the Chilean side just a little south called Puerto Williams. We didn’t stop there.

Leaving Ushuaia behind, we doubled back during the night, so I may have seen Puerto Williams, or maybe I just saw this view again.

So the four days we spent in the Beagle Channel, it was just us and another Ship from the same company. I’m sure there was some Chilean Naval activity, but really no other humans around. Each day we would stop and see one or two glaciers, just a few among many.

We didn’t get off in zodiacs to see this one, it was rather incredible how close we got onboard our ship. I have the names written down, but really, it doesn’t matter what these are called.

Glaciers are amazing, on the right side of the photo you can see a tributary glacier coming into this large one.

As we left this glacier, the water is strewn with ice from the caving.

Another one, this one doesn’t calve much anymore it is in retreat. I’m going to say something that will probably lose me some readers. I’m sick and tired of the religion of Global warming. Some of the glaciers are retreating and others are growing. But everywhere, at every stop we were preached at about global warming.

With its’ own reflection.

I’m not saying the earth isn’t warming, actually I’ve been reading that it might be cooling. Are we humans responsible? I don’t think so. Nature is always changing. At every stop we were told about ancient history, where glaciers grew, then receded and left this amazing landscape of fjords. So why is it that now any kind of change is forbidden? That it must spell catastrophe? Maybe the world is always changing?

This is a growing glacier, sure it calves a lot, that is what glaciers do, but the fact that there is pure clean water pouring out of bottom of the glacier – means this one is growing rapidly.

When the Doomsayers who claim that the world will end in 12 years start living like they truly believe it – then maybe I’ll pay attention. The way I see it, this is simply a way to control the little people and make our lives miserable. Meanwhile, if it’s because of the sun that we are either warming or cooling, there is nothing we as humans can do and I intend to simply enjoy life.

The zodiacs got pretty close, we floated among the ice.

As for being green, another ploy, a way to virtue signal. I live my life in a very simple manner, I don’t advertise how amazing I am. Instead of tooting my own horn, I simply live a good life. As a Jew, we are commanded to be stewards of the earth. There is a difference between being responsible and making nature and global warming a religion. I am eternally grateful that I am able to take a trip like this and I’m not going to pretend that I can ‘buy’ indulgences in the form of global warming credits. Some members on our tour seemed to feel that they have bought absolution that way.

Another glacier, another waterfall.

Rant is over, now it’s on to simply more pictures of our amazing world. I know that very few people will actually be blessed to see these wonders.

How cute is the guy holding this block of ice? It is crystal clear because the pressure of the glacier forces every drop of air out of the ice, which is also why there is so much blue in a glacier, no air to interfere with the blue light bouncing back at us.

I really love my camera. Often I didn’t have time to really set up shots and doing everything manually. It was either on aperture or speed setting. But boy did the camera perform well. I have many pictures where I cropped the image in editing, and the crop is as sharp as the whole image. Case in point, I was able to capture this window in the ice.

Reflections are an amazing thing. Especially when the camera is so good.

I do have more glacier pictures, but I’m going to wait for another post, and share something other than ice in the next one.

I’m going through more than 500 pictures now, so this will take time. Once we left Ushuaia we boarded the Stella Australis.

This is what the ship looks like on the water. Only this company, which owns two ships is allowed to do expedition tours within the Beagle channel. This may have been the sister ship, we were at the same glacier at the same time.

Our first stop was Cape Horn. Later we were told that we were very lucky. Our captain was an experienced captain who fills in from time to time. Our regular Captain never would have stopped at Cape Horn with the awful conditions there. But he did. It was cold, raining and very very windy. This tiny rock at the end of the world has a monument, a lighthouse and a chapel. The next three pictures are those I took from within the chapel looking out. Honestly, if Joel didn’t hold onto me I probably would have blown over.

I have no idea who this is, fellow traveler on our boat. Look at his hair. The wind may have been 60 knots, it was ferocious.

Look at that flag! I bet they have to replace it every few days. I am actually glad that we were able to experience Cape Horn like this. Yes they do have calm days, but this blustering wind it what the Cape is known for.

We all made it back safely and visited the bridge. I love maps and navigating. What is so fascinating is that they still use basic tools to navigate. They even have a Sexton, which in a pinch they will use.

This is how we’d go on excursions. Many layers of clothes, seeing how cold the winter on the Beagle Channel is. Then put on the life vest. We met two lovely Israeli couples. Here we are with Sari. They went on to Easter Island. Of course, Israelis get to every corner of the world.

How cute is Joel?

Twice a day, we’d be loaded onto these zodiac and taken ashore.

visiting one of the many glaciers

Our whole group on two zodiacs.

Hiking past one of the few structures this far south in Patagonia. Wualia Bay. Darwin was here.

And the view from above. It is summer time down here. Which is why it’s so green. I can’t imagine winter here. It is so cold. This tip of South America is the furthest south, except from Antarctica which is just a block of ice. So the winds howl across the globe with nothing to stop them. And it is cold!! Beautiful and cold.

Next up, glaciers.