Antarctica XII.

1-28-17 STANLEY, FALKLANDS: We docked early this AM at Stanley, the capitol of the Falklands. The entire population of the Falklands, is less than 3000, most of them in and around Stanley. We were off the ship, on buses and delivered to town before 8 AM. Things were incredibly quiet early on a Saturday morning. We walked around a few blocks, almost all there is, hit a few shops when they opened, and then were back on the buses for the trip to Mt. Pleasant Airport.

The airport is part of a military base and handles a couple flights a week. They got us there at about 10 AM for a 2 PM flight on LAN to Punta Arenas. In Chile we got off the plane for immigration and customs and then back on the same plane for the flight to Santiago. We were at the Airport Holiday Inn at 11PM for a late dinner and big, soft bed.


Stanley Cathedral with whale-bone arch. Nice lupin.

Stanley P.O. When's the last time you saw a phone booth?

Stanley. Quiet Saturday morning.

Lupin love the Falklands.

Well, this is a Garden blog.

1-29-17 SANTIAGO, CHILE: After breakfast, the three of us took a bus to downtown Santiago for the sights. Santiago is in the Andes at 1700 feet elevation and has a dry, hot climate. The population is over 5 million.

It’s mid-summer there now and hazy, hot and humid. The bus ride went through poor sections of the city. Every dry, dusty, empty lot is a garbage dump with homeless shanties, graffiti covers everything and there is a general need for repair.

The center city is cleaner and more prosperous looking with less graffiti and a bank on each block. The people are better dressed. It being Sunday morning, there wasn’t much bustle. The central square has some interesting buildings and a cathedral. Steps, sidewalks, streets are all crumbled in spots and the whole city needs infrastructural repair work.

After a couple hot hours in the sun, we taxied back to the hotel to wait for our evening flights to Houston for us and to Kennedy for Val.


Santiago, Chile. Cathedral at Plaza de Armes.

Santiago, Chile. Santa Lucia Hill.

1-30-17 HOUSTON, TEXAS: We landed early, went through U.S. immigration and customs with only a few hitches. We boarded our flight for EWR on time, but got booted off because the pilot’s chair was broken. It took a couple hours to fix it.

1-31-17 SHORT HILLS: We ultimately got home at about 5 PM last night. Today I’ll start the story of the adventure….