Not only does the sun go down late at night, it gets up very early as well. I was up around 6 am and took a walk down to the little beach behind the hotel, the sky was relatively clear and there was no wind to speak of but it was still pretty chilly. Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast before catching the shuttle bus into town to have a look around. I booked a boat cruise of the Beagle Channel for the afternoon and then spent the morning wandering around town, it is amazing how many gift/souvenir shops you can fit into the one street. At one stage I was passing the bank, just before it opened and there was a queue formed outside, I almost joined it. :)
Then it was time for a pleasant lunch in a little cafe, although their idea of a cappuccino didn't quite match what I was expecting. I walked back down the docks to catch the boat cruise with about 50 other people and it turned out that I was the only one requiring an English translation of all the safety instructions. The poor guide looked a little bored after going through everything in Spanish, then Portuguese and finally English. The weather was perfect with blue sky and not much wind. We cruised quite close to bird colony on a little rock island and then a seal colony before landing on an island to have a walk around to look at the plants and trees. Back on the boat we headed deeper into the channel to look at a lighthouse and another seal colony before heading back to port as the wind picked up a bit.
Then it was back to the hotel by taxi where I somehow twisted my sore knee. It was quite sore at the time making me limp around the hotel. I transferred and backed up photos and then it was time for a briefing from the company that runs the ship, there were probably 50 or so people there (20 were from my photographic tour). Some people gave the poor lady a hard time over what seemed like very minor things (i.e. how the bags were going to be transferred and what time th e sun goes down) but she kept her cool and handlied it well, although I did hear hear her later on the phone to her office and she was sounding a little less cool. Then we had a quick meet and great with the other people in our smaller photography group before having some dinner at the hotel restaurant. The crumbed calamari entree could almost have been a main course and was very nice.
Putting on my elastic knee guard and taking some anti-inflammatories helped settle down my knee a bit. We talked a bit more photography stuff and heard the horror tale of the two photographers leading the group. They had landed in Buenos Aires and as they were getting ready to board their flight to Ushuaia, the LAN (Chilean Airline) pilots went on strike. They had to scramble, try and get their luggage back, rebook another flight, organise different accommodation, etc. - very stressful. Thankfully all my travel so far has been relatively trouble free (says he touching wood) with the longest dela y being about 30 mins. I'm hoping this continues until I get home. :) Then it was off to bed for the last time on dry land for 2 weeks.
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