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South America Cape Horn on Emerald Princess February 28, 2018


PurpleTraveller
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We had been very lucky with the weather as it was mildly warm and not very windy. We left Volunteer Point at 1.00pm with an extra passenger who had been in a car with six people on the way out and made our way back to Stanley. We passed the farm of the property where Volunteer Point is.

 

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Along the way we stopped to look at the remains of an Argentine Chinook helicopter destroyed during the war.

 

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John pointed out key battle sites such as Two Sisters Mountain and Mount Harriet.

 

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We also made a quick stop at Boot Hill a rather unusual display of boots and shoes on the road to the airport. Apparently people leave a pair of boots or shoes when they leave the Falklands.

 

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When we got to Stanley John took us on a short drive through Stanley to show us the main points of interest. We arrived back at the dock at 3.30pm after a wonderful day.

 

I can not recommend Estancia Excursions highly enough. Nyree was great with her communication and organisation, John was an excellent driver and guide and I had a fabulous time. One of the best shore excursions I have ever been on!

 

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We had been very lucky with the weather as it was mildly warm and not very windy. We left Volunteer Point at 1.00pm with an extra passenger who had been in a car with six people on the way out and made our way back to Stanley. We passed the farm of the property where Volunteer Point is.

 

When we got to Stanley John took us on a short drive through Stanley to show us the main points of interest. We arrived back at the dock at 3.30pm after a wonderful day.

 

I can not recommend Estancia Excursions highly enough. Nyree was great with her communication and organisation, John was an excellent driver and guide and I had a fabulous time. One of the best shore excursions I have ever been on!

 

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Thanks for the great review! Looking forward to this excursion next year. It looks like many of your Falkland photos encountered an error while posting. Any chance you could try them again? Would love to see the ones that are missing. Thanks!

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As the last tender was not going to 5.30pm I had time to walk through Stanley. It was quite strange to see such "British" buildings so far from Britain.

 

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I walked along the road along the waterfront and passed the mizzen mast from the Great Britain which was the largest ship in the world when it was launched in 1843. The ship arrived damaged in Stanley in 1886 and stayed for more than 80 years before it was returned to Bristol in 1970 for restoration.

 

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Further along were the Police Station and Post Office with its British red post box and red phone boxes.

 

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Thanks for the great review! Looking forward to this excursion next year. It looks like many of your Falkland photos encountered an error while posting. Any chance you could try them again? Would love to see the ones that are missing. Thanks!
Thank you for letting me know about the photos. It is so frustrating that the Cruise Critic app has changed its photo posting and I am now having to use Tappatalk. I will try to post them again. Hope you have a great excursion next year.

 

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I am trying to post these photos again as they didn't post properly before.

 

This is the King penguins having a chat.

 

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These are the Gentoo penguins.

 

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These are the penguins on the beach.

 

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Let's try this and see what happens.

 

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The photos seem to have posted okay this time. Please let me know if you can't see them. I have no idea why there was a problem with some but not all photos in a post.

 

These are the guys who walked down to the beach considered the conditions, decided that the water was too cold and then turned around and went back.

 

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I walked past the local paper office - the Penguin News as far as the Falklands War memorial.

 

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On the way back I stopped at the Cathedral - the most southerly cathedral in the world. I wasn't able to go inside as they were preparing for a funeral.

 

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I decided to go back to the ship and waited in the queue for the tender. It only took about 15 minutes and I was on the 4.30pm tender which took 20 minutes to get to the ship.

 

When I got to our cabin and met up with DH we compared notes on our days (he enjoyed his battlefields tour) and we discovered that I had seen just as much as he had of the the battlefields, so I actually got two tours for the price of one.

 

We sailed out of Stanley, past beaches and penguins swimming in the water on a lovely evening. This had been a wonderful day!

 

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Wednesday March 7 - Cape Horn/Sea Day

 

We started the day with the Destination Presentation on Ushuaia in the theatre at 9.30am. At 11.00am in the theatre was a great presentation by Kristen and Ville Jokinen, a remarkable young couple who cycled from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia. Their epic journey took 20 months and they finished their journey at the sign at the end of the road at Lapataia Bay on February 16. They then joined Emerald Princess on February 28 and did their wonderful presentation today, so everything was still very fresh. At 1.00pm in the theatre was the Destination Presentation on Punta Arenas.

 

The best part of the day was Cape Horn. We arrived at 4.30pm after some bumpy seas throughout the day. We approached the eastern side of the island where there is a research station, lighthouse and a memorial to all sailors lost at Cape Horn. We had most types of weather that you can imagine - rain, wind, rough seas, sleet (that made it difficult to take photos and hurt!), sun and even a rainbow.

 

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At first the captain thought that we would be unable to go around the horn due to the strong winds but fortunately the winds died down and we were able to sail completely around the island. We could see the treacherous coastline and even saw a whale swim by.

 

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After sailing northwards we came down the western side of the island then sailed around the southern point of the island. At our closest point we were about a mile from Cape Horn with its little lighthouse.

 

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We came around back to the research station before sailing away. What a great experience!

 

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Due to the strong winds, after we left Cape Horn the captain asked and received permission from the Chilean authorities to sail through the Mar del Sur Channel. The channel is only a quarter of a mile wide and the captain had only ever sailed through it once before. When we got to the end of the channel it was like we had sailed into a new world. It was sunny, with little wind and calm seas.

 

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Thanks so much for the great review and pictures. I was on this cruise also and you captured it perfectly. Including some of the history behind all the things I saw. Appreciate you taking the time to put it all down. Now I have names for a lot of the things I saw.

 

Appreciate it

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Love your Volunteer Point photos, that is my all time favorite excursion. I also followed a group down to the beach, it was like watching a teacher take a group of kindergarden kids on a walk. You could actually see the different personalities each penguin had. My group also got down to the beach, stared at the water for a while, and as soon as a wave carried far enough up the beach to get their feet wet they decided to head back LOL. Absolutely wonderful time watching them.

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Thanks so much for the great review and pictures. I was on this cruise also and you captured it perfectly. Including some of the history behind all the things I saw. Appreciate you taking the time to put it all down. Now I have names for a lot of the things I saw.

 

Appreciate it

 

I thank you also. I was on this cruise too but forgot some of the names of places. It was an amazing cruise that I would do again in a heartbeat.

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I have immensely enjoyed reading your review. Your photos are excellent and absolutely love all the shots of the penguins. Thanks for taking me on this wonderful photo journey.

 

Sandy :)

Thank youI hope you enjoy the remainder. This is a great cruise and I fell in love with the penguins!

 

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Thanks so much for the great review and pictures. I was on this cruise also and you captured it perfectly. Including some of the history behind all the things I saw. Appreciate you taking the time to put it all down. Now I have names for a lot of the things I saw.

 

Appreciate it

Thank you. I must admit that I have a note book to jot information down, take photos of signs and keep all maps and information I collect along the way so that I can remember where and what I've seen, as I would never remember otherwise. I hope you enjoy the rest of the review.

 

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Love your Volunteer Point photos, that is my all time favorite excursion. I also followed a group down to the beach, it was like watching a teacher take a group of kindergarden kids on a walk. You could actually see the different personalities each penguin had. My group also got down to the beach, stared at the water for a while, and as soon as a wave carried far enough up the beach to get their feet wet they decided to head back LOL. Absolutely wonderful time watching them.
Thank you. I loved going to Volunteer Point and seeing the penguins. I was surprised that you could see the different personalities of the penguins. I would happily have spent all day watching them. Definitely the best excursion of the cruise!

 

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Thursday March 8 - Ushuaia

 

Today we had booked a Princess shore excursion - Drive to the End of the World, which would take us to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. It was an early start as we had to meet at 7.10am at the Wheelhouse Bar. We boarded the bus shortly after and left at 7.30am.

 

Ushuaia looked so pretty in the early morning light beneath the snow capped mountains.

 

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It was a short drive to the park and our first stop at Ensenada Bay. We were given 25 minutes to look at the most southerly Post Office in the world and go for a short walk along the waterfront. Even though it was mostly cloudy it was beautiful with glassy water and was very peaceful.

 

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Our next stop was at Roca Lake where we had 15 minutes to take in the views of the lake. Once again it was very still and serene.

 

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Our third stop was at the tourist centre on the Lapataia River. There is a restaurant, souvenir shop, restrooms and also park rangers to answer questions. We had 25 minutes here. While I was inside DH saw a large bird on the centre railing but had flown away by the time I returned. Shortly later I saw it fly back and land on the roof of an outbuilding. It was a Southern Crested Caracara.

 

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The views from the centre were beautiful.

 

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We walked across the road to the bank of the river.

 

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Our last stop was at Lapataia Bay. This is the end of the road - where the Pan American Highway that starts in Alaska, ends. We had 25 minutes here.

 

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We went for a short walk along the boardwalk.

 

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We really enjoyed our visit to Tierra del Fuego National Park. It was beautiful and peaceful.

 

We returned to Ushuaia and were dropped off near the city centre at 11.30am.

 

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We walked through the city centre and spent the remainder of our Argentine money. We then went for a walk along the waterfront and saw the Eva Peron memorial.

 

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We returned to the ship and had a late lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and then enjoying the view from the Sun Deck.

 

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All Aboard was at 3.30pm so that we could leave at 4.00pm and sail to Glacier Alley before dark. At 3.30pm announcements started asking for two people from the same cabin to contact guest services. We looked over the side of the ship to watch the gangway but no one came. After waiting until the last moment they pulled in the gangway and we departed. The following day we heard that two people had been left behind in Ushuaia after they had left the ship to go shopping. I don't know when or if they made it back to the ship at another port. So, make sure you return to the ship on time or you may be left behind!

 

 

 

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We made our way out to the Beagle Channel past the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse.

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We slowly sailed along the channel. The scenery was beautiful.

 

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We were sailing close to the sides of the channel.

 

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