Ecuador home of the Panama hat

Ecuador is the place that most of the worlds Panama hats are made. I guess calling them Ecuador hats never caught on.

Panama hats are made from weaving straw that is specially dried, and depending on how finely weaved they can cost hundreds of dollars. And they can be rolled so small that they can fit into a cigar tube.

I bought 1 for $15, but I like to think its worth more and I got a deal because I went to the source.

That was the extent of the excitement for my day in Ecuador. I didn't stay off the ship long because it was way to hot and humid.

Lima, Peru

I was able to get on a tour in Lima, Peru. Which was a good thing because its about an hour into town from the port.

We took the bus to the Old Town center, which has the Government building, and the Cathedral, which stands on the site of the old Inca, Temple of the Sun.

After that we walked to the Franciscan church. Which is very similar to the many I have seen before, with a central garden and all that. One interesting thing was there were thousands of tiles along the inner wall, all of them were made in Spain and shipped over in galleons, the one church took 3 full trade galleons to bring them all.

After that we went to the site of South America's oldest University. Founded in 1551, the site was originally, a church for Protestants but they were expelled from the country. Then the site was given to as a university.

After that we went to a area of the city called Mitaflorez which was on the beach. And home to many of the rich houses and people of the city. It was a beautiful area to look out onto the beaches and enjoy a lunch. I wasn't able to get any of the countries signature dish, Guinea Pig, but I did have a Inca Cola.

Arcia, Chile

The town of Arica Chile is dominated by a large hill upon which the last stand of many armies were made, the most recent of which was the peruvian army which was eventually defeated in 1880 and now it is the furthest north large population center of Chile, with the border being less then 50 miles away. This town had been also held by Bolivia twice inteh early 1800's

Arica is a town that is known for its surfing recently hosting a world surfing championship. But I didnt head for the beaches today.
Arica is also one of the driest places in the world, in all directions there are no trees or plants of any kind.

In fact all of the houses that are built of wood were built using wood from California and Oregon. Arica which exports large amounts of silver ore, and other minerals used to take ships full of lumber and send them back full of minerals.

I, after steeling myself with a few beers, decided to tackle the small mountain. 139m. Which from the ocean side looks very imposing with over 100 mteres of sheer cliffside, wasnt that bad a climb from the path along the back of it.

The view of the town from the top was impresive, with our ship to once side, and large waves crashing on the beach on another, and the town spread out to the other.

There was also a nice craft market in the main square, in which I bought something I have wanted to get ever since I saw one in a friends cabin in Whistler, a tapistry made up of coloured sheepskin.

Extra pics: Worlds End

Tierra Del Fuego

This post is out of order, It should be after Cape Horn, and before Chile.

Ushria Argentina, is called World's End, and the Gateway to Antarctica, because it is the largest city in this area, and is used as the outfitter for people wanting to travel to Antarctica.

the furthest south golf course in the world

I did my first out of this contract. Which involved a bus tour though the Tierra Del Fuego National Park, and then a Catamaran tour across the Beagle Channel.

The park was beautiful, and had a lot of wildlife, we saw a red fox, which is native to this area, and rabbits, and Canadian beavers, which are not. Th beaver was introduced to the area to make a fur trade, but because the climate is not as cold as Canada the beavers lost its thick fur and became worthless as a pelt.

After the bus tour we boarded a catamaran, and sailed along the channel. We stopped near many sites including a large colony of King Cormorants, and Seals.

Also we saw the lighthouse at the end of the world, as its called.

After that we headed back to shore, and the timing was excellent because about a hour after we got back to port, it started to pour rain for the next hour or two.

Fix it, fix it, fix it, FIx it!

Hello all,

While I rarely post about actual work that I do on the ship.

I finally found and fixed a problem that was affecting a some cabins ITV system, and it hand been bugging me for the last few days.

So after reading trough a bunch of computer code, I got it corrected, and I am happy again.

Hopefully this will stop the calls from guest realtions for a while.

La Serena

The second port of call La Serena, is a small city, with a similar look to Valparaiso except instead of Funiculars to get up the steep hiss, they went with a much cheaper method of small zigzagging paths.

They give a interesting look to the hillside, and were fairly easy to climb.

Another thing I noticed in this town was the endless locals with small tables or stands on the main street, selling almost you could want for your day to day needs, I saw a guy selling old rabbit ear antennas, a person with a cars gauge cluster, and many other strange items, but how you can find anything specific you need is a mystery.

Funiculi Funicula

The start of this cruise, was in Valparaiso Chile, The closest we got to the area the earthquake hit.

But there was no damage to the city we were in.

The City of Valparaiso is a UNESCO world heritage site, partly due to its unique system of Funiculars, trams that ascend the steep hills of the city. The oldest of which dates back to

Although there are many we walked to the most famous one, which form the top overlooks the whole city and bay.

The actual car that climbs the hill is very old and made of wood, and creaks as it rises. It is a short ride, and only costs 300 pesos, which is about 50cents.

When we got to the top he had coffee in a restaurant that is built hanging over a cliff. The balcony where we sat hangs over the edge, which in hindsight wasn't the best place to sit while there are still aftershocks happening every few days.

But nothing happened and we made it back down the hill and to the ship safe and sound.

First Cruise over

Today is the end of the first cruise since I got here.

We arrive in Valparaiso, Chile tomorrow, then we begin our last cruise in South America.

So far this cruise has been good, but uneventful.

I am hoping to get on a few tours this next cruise.

So i better go track down the book

It's the end of the world as we know it.

And I feel fine.

Seriously though. Yesterday we sailed around the Cape Horn of South America, the furthest south point of land in the world, until you reach the continent of Antarctica, 400 miles further south.

We had some good weather for this part of the cruise, relatively calm seas, and even some sunshine, but also clouds and rain.

There is a lone Chilean military base that marks this part of the world. Doesn't seem like it would be a very fun job, being stuck there with nowhere to go.


Today we were in Ushuaia, the town at Worlds End, as they call it. Ushuaia is on the Tierra del Fuego, a series of islands separated from the rest of the Continent by the Strait of Magellan. Ushuaia is used as the jumping off point for travelers going to Antarctica.

Today however I took a tour into the Tierra del Fuego National park, we went by bus into the park stopping at a few spots including the southern most post office in the world.

This land has had the same sort of failed attempts to introduce species to the area that so many countries suffer from. Interestingly though is that this area saw the Canadian Beaver introduced to the area to try and make a fur trade, but because the area doesn't get that cold, they animals didn't produce a pelt worth selling, so now there are lots of beavers and nothing to eat them.

We left the park on a catamaran, and sailed the Beagle Channel that the town of Ushuaia is built on. The area had lots of King Cormorants a type of bird, and seals ho have their babies on the small islands of the bay.

We are now sailing to Chile.

Go south

Hello all,

Well I have been on the ship now for a few days.

Yesterday we were in Puerto Madyrn, a small town in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

Today we are sailing south heading for the furthest south point of South America, the Cape Horn.

Hopefully the weather gets better for tomorrow, because it was nothing but fog in all directions today. Sailing along with the foghorn blaring every little while.

Hopefully tomorrow I can post some glacier pictures for you all.

Here we go Again

Hello all,

Welcome to season 3 of the slippingthelines blog.

I am bak in the southern hemisphere, and ready for more adventures.

Stay tuned.