Yesterday we spent the day at Puerto Willliams which is a tiny settlement in Chile. While Ushuaia bills itself as the southernmost city in the world, Puerto Williams is really the southernmost town beating it by several miles. This is a Chilean navy town with about 2000 people. Though the setting is spectacular, on the Beagle channel surrounded by mountains and beech forests, there is little to do. We spent an hour looking for a store to buy something but they only open a couple of hours a day, Most of the houses are made of metal and are prefab. We hiked in the forest and visited a small Indian museum. The Yamana Indians inhabited this area and still survive in a small group. What is interesting about them is that they wore no clothes. How they could do this is beyond me; it is freezing here and it is summer! While we were out yesterday, a storm came up out of nowhere with fierce winds and driving rain and we ran for the ship. After dinner we walked over to the - ahem- yacht club to experience and drink the southernmost pisco sour. This "club' is a wreck of an old german ship and we had a great time. What was most interesting was that we started to talk with the other passengers about our recent crossing on the Drake and everyone finally started to admit how absolutely frightenening it was. We were tossed around for 2 days and the crew now admit that it was the worst they'd seen. We had lost our engines for a short time when a 75 foot wave washed over the bridge and as the ship was tossed up, the propellers came out of the water. We listed several times to the side. We saw 2 cruise ships in Ushuaia which had started out south during the storm and had to turn back. They were amazed that we made it. The Prinsendam lost all their dishes and they had many passengers injured from falling down and falling objects. This experience has been more an adventure than a cruise but I am still glad I came. Just do not think I will ever attempt the Drake again.
This morning we have come to Cape Horn, graveyard of thousands of ships. It is a series of tall granite rocks and there is a small landing site. Alas we are in a force 12 gale and landing is impossible so we will sail around it 2x. I absolutely can see why they had to build the Panama Canal. There is such a stark beauty to the area. Albatrosses fly by along with many seabirds, no trees but the rocks have a green covering of lichens and moss. I do not think we have a landing scheduled for a couple of days. I am getting used to walking sieways!