Southern Seas; Southern Skies
February - March 2010

When we traveled to Antarctica in 2008, our guide waxed eloquent about his hope to visit Tristan da Cunha, the most remote human habitation on the planet. Jim never forgot his comments. When Elderhostel advertised a cruise across the South Atlantic that included a stop at Tristan, he was sold. Mary Ellena was captivated by the chance to revisit Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands. We signed up immediately. It was fabulous!

I have sketched our cruise route across the South Atlantic. We started in Ushuaia at the tip of South America, spent a couple of days visiting the Falkland Islands, sailed to South Georgia, then to Tristan, and ended up in Cape Town, South Africa. The source for the underlying map is the CIA.

See the narrative below for details on our trip. I've tried to make the narrative a complete summary, but I've used many links to other web sites to provide additional details and sometimes pictures. You can either stick with the basic narrative or explore the various links. I've reviewed the links in the winter of 2019, and at that time they were all valid, but the WWW is in constant flux and that can change. If you encounter broken links, please send us some email.

Much of the trip was cruising the open ocean. Click to see some of things that kept us occupied while at sea.

We flew to Miami a day early to ensure being in time for our flight to Argentina. We spent the time at Vizcaya - a marvelous house museum of the early 20th century.

That evening we met our group at the airport for the flight to Buenos Aires.

This huge sculpture of a flower, Floralis Generica, charmed us when we visited Buenos Aires in 2008. It was within walking distance of our hotel so we wandered down to see it lighted at night.

Lovely! At one time the petals closed at night, but I prefer it this way.

Many locals strolled by and others across the boulevard played soccer. Down the street young people gathered outside the art museum.

After a night in Buenos Aires we flew to Ushuaia to meet the Corinthian II, in the background behind Jim. In 2019 we met it again, now as the Hebridean Sky, for a cruise in the Baltic.

It was the only ship in the harbor this late in the austral summer, and we were soon to leave. When we visited Ushuaia in December, 2008, the pier was crowded with passenger and cargo ships.

That evening we boarded the ship that would be our home for the next three weeks and bade goodbye to Ushuaia. I still want to return and spend more time on this island with its rugged beauty.