Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
While Matthew was posting the Hili dialogue, I was in the air, but have just landed at Houston’s International Airport, tired as a dog. (How come people don’t say “tired as a cat” when cats sleep far more than dogs?)
Thanks Ceiling Cat for my Global Entry, which is cheap (I think $100 for 5 years, and gets you completely through the customs line immediately as well as throwing in TSA Pre-Check for free. I recommend it highly.) Now, since my next flight to Chicago is in about 3.5 hours, I’m going to try to get on an earlier flight.
I’m HOME! Here’s a photo of a man wrecked, but I watched “Pride and Prejudice” and “King Richard” before I zonked out (no real sleep though). Both movies were okay (I love Keira Knightley, and Will Smith put on a respectable but not, in my view, an Oscar-worthy performance.)
After hours of waiting in the heat and long airport lines, presenting lots of documents (including my negative PCR covid test), I have passed all barriers and am at the gate in Santiago, headed for Houston and then Chicago.
Interesting note: a Canadian guy who was with the expedition team is on the same flight, and has an hour layover or so between arriving in Houston and flying on to Toronto. His departure gate is two gates from his arrival gate. Nevertheless, the U.S. makes him take a covid test (Canada requires nothing).
If all goes well and the icebergs don’t sink, I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon. As always, it will be bittersweet. We have one pair of ducks on the pond: Dorothy and the obstreperous Putin, her drake, but Honey hasn’t been seen in over a week.
Oh, and nobody in the Chilean equivalent of TSA groped me. They were friendly and polite, unlike the authoritarians in America who gravitate to that job.
I show below the final dinner on the MS Roald Amundsen on Saturday evening. It was the final meal before a hurried breakfast the next day. expected a fancier feed than usual. It was a bit fancy, though I missed my burgers and milkshake in “The People’s Restaurant,” the Fredheim.
I hied myself to the Aune restaurant a bit after six, when it would be less crowded and one could see the sunset. Here’s a panorama, although there’s a smaller dining space (with equally good views) to the left:
And the courses, described (and spelled) as on the menu:
“Potato waffel, lemon cream, semi dried tomato and crispy onion.”
It sounds like a weird mixture, and it was (they didn’t mention the asparagus). A dry “waffel” didn’t meld well with an only slightly cooked onion and the “lemon cream.”
The waiter asked me what I thought of it, and I said, “It wasn’t very good.” So he brought me a half-bowl of another appetizer on tap: also a mixture of strange things.
“Apple, parsnip & potato soup, diced green apple, goat cheese, walnuts.” This dish was okay, even though unusual. I couldn’t detect the walnuts.
The main course, one that’s often offered on “special nights.”
This was pretty decent, but the pastry had gotten soggy and there really wasn’t any need for all those mushrooms around the beef. The beef was cooked properly—medium rare—but didn’t taste very beefy.
Finally, dessert: “Omelette Norvégienne”, which the waiter called “Baked Alaska”. It wasn’t really a baked Alaska for the meringue was cold, though the ice cream was. It was still good and the mango sauce was a definite plus. As usual, desserts in the Aune are the best courses.
And so back to Chicago after a decent breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn.
Soon I’ll be kicked out of my room and will have to cool my heels for several house in the “crew room” downstairs until I head over to the airport (a 10-15 minute walk) to catch an 8:30 flight to Houston.
In the meantime I’m anxiously awaiting an email with the results of my mandatory PCR test for covid, which I took at 9:30 this morning. A negative result is required to board the plane to the US, and the test must be taken no more than 24 hours before the first flight on the way home.
If things go awry—and one can’t be assured that they won’t—I won’t be allowed on the plane. I’m sure I don’t have covid, but not so sure that the testing company (two people with swabs, test tubes, and ice buckets) will get the results to me in time. They said they would, but hey. . . .
Where I am now: writing on my laptop in bed at the Santiago Airport Holiday Inn. It was a nightmare getting here from the ship: TONS of paperwork to disembark and then, in the heat, a packed, un-airconditioned bus with a crazy driver who first got us stuck in a traffic jam and then GOT LOST and had to get out and ask directions. Then he let all the crew off about a 15-minute hike in the heat from the hotel, with many of them had havingbeen on the ship for months and trying to haul tons of luggage. What should have been a 1.5 hour trip maximum took about four, and I’m still recovering after quaffing tons of water. (Once again my thirst was slaked within seconds.)
My lovely view of Terminal 1:
(I’ve recovered after breakfast.)
See how much I can kvetch when I just came back from a fantastic month in Antarctica? It should have chilled me out literally and figuratively, but here I am back in the rat race of documents, schedules, and airports, and the anxiety is already seeping back into my psyche.
A cordon bleu or schnitzel cordon bleu is a dish of meat wrapped around cheese (or with cheese filling), then breaded and pan-fried or deep-fried. Veal or pork cordon bleu is made of veal or pork pounded thin and wrapped around a slice of ham and a slice of cheese, breaded, and then pan fried or baked. For chicken cordon bleu chicken breast is used instead of veal. Ham cordon bleu is ham stuffed with mushrooms and cheese
And what does the name mean?
The French term cordon bleu is translated as “blue ribbon”.[4] According to Larousse Gastronomique cordon bleu “was originally a wide blue ribbon worn by members of the highest order of knighthood, L’Ordre des chevaliers du Saint-Esprit, instituted by Henri III of France in 1578. By extension, the term has since been applied to food preparation to a very high standard and by outstanding cooks. The analogy no doubt arose from the similarity between the sash worn by the knights and the ribbons (generally blue) of a cook’s apron.”
And for a couple more days I’ll ask readers to help me out by going to the Wikipedia page for April 4 and singling out in the comments any notable events, births, or deaths.
*Here’s today’s banner headline (online) from the New York Times. Click to read:
The top news:
As the world reacted in horror to images of dead bodies lying in the streets of Kyiv’s suburbs — some with their hands bound — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on Western leaders to take tougher steps to ensure that the killings blamed on retreating Russian forces were the “last manifestation of such evil on earth.”
The photos of civilians, who Ukrainian officials said had been executed, prompted some European leaders to demand further sanctions against Russia, potentially including a cutoff of Russian gas. But European Union nations remained divided on Monday over such a drastic step, underscoring the bloc’s dependence on Russian energy, even as some Western allies said that Russia had committed war crimes.
Russia denies executing civilians, and these incidents have not been absolutely confirmed, but I doubt that the Ukrainians would fake these executions. That would involve shooting their fellow citizen in the head and then binding their hands! Here’s one example:
In Bucha, bodies lay in yards and roadways days after Russian troops withdrew from the area. A mother described burying her daughter under plastic sheeting and boards after Russian forces shot her. At a mass grave, a pile of excavated dirt lay nearby to pile onto bodies, as shoes and body parts protruded from a thin layer of earth.
And nobody can claim that these civilians were executed because they were acting as soldiers, bearing weapons, firing at Russians, and therefore “available” to be shot. That doesn’t fly because these people had been captured, and even if they were apprehended in combat they should at worst be POWs. Plus some of them are children. This is the sign not of war, but of genocide.
*The EU, dependent on Russian gas, is still reluctant to tighten the sanctions further by cutting off that gas, but it’s very strange that the EU would still do business with a regime that is involved in genocide of Ukrainians.
*I would have thought that Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine would have boosted his popularity, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. An op-ed in the Washington Post frets about the Prez’s low approval rating and why it remains so low (41%!):
Democrats who hoped that the strong monthly job numbers and the war in Ukraine would buoy Biden’s poll numbers have been thoroughly disappointed. After a brief rise in early March, the president’s approval rating sits at a lowly 41 percent in the RealClearPolitics average. The party’s chances of holding the Senate rest on a knife edge at best, and the prospects of a Democratic House next year grow dimmer by the day.
“I’m not quite sure what the disconnect is between the accomplishments,” [Hillary] Clinton told NBC’s Chuck Todd, “… and some of the polling.” But the answer is clear: In a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, the top two issues for Americans were inflation (32 percent) and the economy (27 percent). Bloomberg economists estimate that inflation will cost households an extra $5,200 this year. And as I noted last fall, though the administration may be proud of its achievements, many Democrats and most independents think Biden has accomplished little as president.
And he’ll accomplish even less if the Democrats lose big in the midterms. The author, James Downie, recommends that the Dems adopt the tactics that Amazon workers used in Staten Island to successfully unionize:
Like those Amazon workers, Democrats cannot be afraid to fight. Just because a handful of moderate holdouts have derailed key parts of Biden’s legislative agenda doesn’t mean the struggle is over. While a president has no boss to “antagonize,” Democrats can take on other people’s bosses — both proverbial and literal. Building on the president’s “billionaire minimum income tax” with executive actions to lower drug prices, strengthen overtime, boost worker protections and tackle student debt will provide immediate relief to millions and reinvigorate unmotivated voters.
Well, I’d like to hear what James Carville has to say.
*Former basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has an eponymous Substack site, and it’s a good one, ranging thoughtfully over a range of topics. The man is a polymath: the next thing you know he’ll be making breakfast foods: “Kareem of Wheat.” But seriously, folks, his pieces are well worth a look, and one of the best is his take on Slapgate, called “Will Smith did a bad, bad thing.” (h/t: Richard) An excerpt:
Some have romanticized Smith’s actions as that of a loving husband defending his wife. Comedian Tiffany Haddish, who starred in the movie Girls Trip with Pinkett Smith, praised Smith’s actions: “[F]or me, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives.”
Actually, it was the opposite. Smith’s slap was also a slap to women. If Rock had physically attacked Pinkett Smith, Smith’s intervention would have been welcome. Or if he’d remained in his seat and yelled his post-slap threat, that would have been unnecessary, but understandable. But by hitting Rock, he announced that his wife was incapable of defending herself—against words. From everything I’d seen of Pinkett Smith over the years, she’s a very capable, tough, smart woman who can single-handedly take on a lame joke at the Academy Awards show.
This patronizing, paternal attitude infantilizes women and reduces them to helpless damsels needing a Big Strong Man to defend their honor lest they swoon from the vapors. . . .
One final thought: I can’t believe I’m having to write a defense of a free-speech regime in which people listen respectfully to the other side, even when they find the other side’s views abhorrent, as opposed to a free-speech regime where “freedom” belongs to whoever can yell the loudest. You would have expected—and hoped—that law students, as future lawyers, would understand the value of the former and the problems with the latter.
When these law students become lawyers, and many of them have to go to court or a negotiating table, they will have to listen to the other side—whether they like it or not, and no matter how “offensive,” “triggering,” or “violent” they find the views of the other side to be. Shouting down opposing counsel, then claiming that you’re just engaging in your own form of “free speech” or “zealous advocacy,” will not fly in the world beyond Yale Law School.
*And another op-ed article for your delectation, with the link sent by several readers. From Microsoft News via Newsweek: “Scientific institutions are going woke—and hemorrhaging credibility.” This is not news to many of us immersed in academic science, but people might be startled at the degree to which ideology has infused science. The piece is a bit exaggerated (for example, I don’t think that the fulminating wokeness of science is the reason people are resistant to science like covid advice, but there’s certainly truth it it:
This phenomenon is called institutional capture, which refers to what happens when organizations get caught in a moral puritanical movement and lose sight of their primary missions—as places of knowledge, objective learning, and the free exchange of ideas.
And then these same organizations are befuddled when the public doesn’t trust them on critical issues such as vaccines or climate change.
Part of the issue is that scientific institutions are signaling allegiance with progressive culture war causes. This not only turns off half the population on the other side of these debates (as well as many on the center), but it makes these organizations appear ideological rather than neutral. They appear untrustworthy—or even nuts.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn: Hili muses on how the war puts things in perspective:
Hili: I wonder.
A: What about?
Hili: What were we worried about before the war?
In Polish:
Hili: Zastanawiam się.
Ja: Nad czym?
Hili: Czym martwiliśmy się przed wojną?
And here is Karolina cuddling an unhappy Kulka, with a caption and the explanation:
Caption: “Today there is an Advent retreat in school and Karolina stayed at home, for she would as soon sit in a Polish Mass as in a Turkish sermon.”
In Polish: Dziś w szkole rekolekcje, więc Karolina zostaje w domu, bo siedziałaby na polskiej mszy jak na tureckim kazaniu.
Malgorzata’s explanation: “In the strange hidden theocracy in Poland, all nominally secular schools are obliged to send all Catholic pupils to the church a few times a year for a religious retreat. Non-Catholic pupils stay at home. And the explanation for ‘Turkish sermom’:. It’s a popular description of something totally incomprehensible.
Some takes on Slapgate sent by Divy:
And a cat toy (for staff, actually), sent by Nicole:
Here are the top recent searches on this website. The answer to the second question is “YES!”
I don’t know which of the cakes in the second tweet below is the most amazing, but I have to say that the oyster cake is truly remarkable. I have no idea what that first tweet is about, but I couldn’t embed the second without the first (I’ll have to learn to do that some day):
As I mentioned earlier, for some reason I get a small selection of tweets sent to me daily in my Gmail account. I don’t know how this happened, but there’s some good ones. Here’s one:
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) April 3, 2022
Well, I’ll be! Did you know there were gastropods with two shells?
Translation of the tweet below from Google:
One of the shellfish in Okayama prefecture that must not be forgotten is the snail Tamanomidorigai, which has a bivalve-like shell but is actually a snail. In 1959, Professor Shiro Kawaguchi (at that time) of the Tamano Seaside Experiment Station, Okayama University, surprised the world by reporting raw shellfish for the first time. It has antennae, eyes, and radula, and the fetal shell at the top of the shell is rolled, so it is a clear snail. It grows on Iwazuta in the tide zone. …
Malacological mind blown. A bivalve gastropod! I had no idea. Guys, molluscs are really waaay cooler than most of you think. https://t.co/G3qqV0sWSg
Where we are now: The ship’s real-time map shows us where we should be: at the docks in Valparaiso, the port for Santiago. I was awake when we pulled up alongside the pier at 5:30 or so, and docking was surprisingly smooth:
The passengers will begin leaving the ship at about 8 a.m., and, as crew, we leave last: a bit before noon. Then to the airport hotel to cool our heels. I have a PCR test tomorrow morning and my flight leaves tomorrow evening, arriving in Houston about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning
The harbor at Valparaiso; it seems that half the Chilean Navy is here:
And its fabled hills. I spent four or five days in this town in 2019, waiting for our late ship to arrive.
Rabbit at rest: A panorama of the docks; we’re moored next to a bunch of cargo containers.
Greetings on a Santiago Sunday: it’s, April 3, 2022, National Chocolate Mousse Day, an estimable dessert when made properly, as at Chez Denise in Paris.
If you want to help out with “this day in history”, go to the Wikipedia page for April 3 and give us your favorite notable events, births, and deaths.
Before you read the news below, take today’s New York Times news quiz, with eleven questions. I got eight, and failed the pop-culture and sports questions, as well as the Coors question.
*The NYT “big story”, which was a banner headline last night, says that Russian troops seem to have given up trying to take Kyiv. An especially horrifying report involves evidence (not yet verified by the media) that the Russians executed some civilians directly. Click screenshot to read:
However, it is a banner in the Washington Post (click to read):
The major news from the NYT:
As Russian troops retreated from areas outside Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, they left behind devastation that is only now becoming clear. Civilians have emerged from basement shelters to clamor for bread distributed by the Ukrainian soldiers retaking territory. The husks of destroyed tanks clutter roads. Mines and booby traps have been hidden amid the wreckage. Bodies lay uncollected in streets littered with debris.
The dead include civilians, some of whom Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of executing. Footage posted by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and photographs from The New York Times and Agence France-Presse showed the bodies of men in civilian clothes on the streets of Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv. In one photo, three people were seen lying on a roadside beside a pile of wooden pallets, blood darkening the ground beside them, one with white cloth binding his hands.
It’s not clear if the Russians will renew their assault on Ukraine’s capital or have retreated and regrouped for a fresh attack, but what is clear is that much of the city is in ruins and the assault continues in the eastern part of the country, with missile attacks on Odesa. This picture of people grabbing for loaves of bread in Kyiv, given (uncredited) in the NYT, shows how desperate the situation is:
Despite reports that Zelensky and Putin would meet for peace talks in Istanbul, that appears to be b.s.:
Russia’s chief negotiator in peace talks, Vladimir Medinsky, rejected a Ukrainian counterpart’s suggestion that Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could soon hold direct talks. Mr. Medinsky said the two sides remained far apart on the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, both of which are claimed by Russia. Russia says the status of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, is settled, while Ukraine has proposed a 15-year negotiation process.
And, the “evacuation” of Mariupol by the Red Cross, scheduled for yesterday, once again failed as the relief convoy didn’t reach the city. It’s clear that the Russians don’t want this to happen, but the Red Cross will try again today.
From the Post, discussing Russia’s withdrawal from around Kyiv:
The shift reflects a recognition in Moscow that Russia can no longer accomplish its original goals, analysts say. After making initial gains, its forces have stalled on most of the fronts they advanced on, and they have meanwhile suffered huge losses in terms of equipment and soldiers.
*Remember Oberlin College’s battle with Gibson’s Bakery, with the court ruling that Oberlin, after repeatedly libeling the bakery by accusing it of racism, awarded $50 million in damages? That seems ages ago, and it was (see my posts here), and one of the bakery’s owners has since died, but there’s good news for Oberlin now. According to the Wall Street Journal, an appeals court has upheld the huge fine on the College, which has been having severe financial troubles:
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Ohio Court of Appeals handed down a long-awaited decision Thursday in the case of Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College. The court dismissed all of Oberlin’s appellate claims and confirmed the jury’s finding that the college, a small private liberal arts institution in rural Ohio, was liable for libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with a business relationship. It then upheld the trial jury’s award to Gibson’s Bakery of $11.1 million in compensatory damages, $33.2 million in punitive damages and $6.3 million in attorneys’ fees.
The appellate judges held that while the trial court had properly found that “the student chants and verbal protests about the Gibsons being racists were protected by the First Amendment,” what separated Oberlin and placed it in a financial vise was the active, irresponsible and defamatory actions of several of its senior administrators. Rather than try to resolve the matter early on or use the resulting guilty pleas as a lesson, Oberlin actively sought to punish Gibson’s Bakery for having a different perspective, for standing by the arrest of the three Oberlin students, and for exercising its right of legal redress.
If I know Oberlin, they’ll further bankrupt the school by appealing higher up (if they can under the law). They’ve already had to put $36 million in escrow, and will eat up more in lawyers’ fees if they pursue this case. It’s time for them to cut their losses.
*The Washington Post gives a number of suggestions (with illustrations) about how to sleep on a plane. They don’t show the best way, which is to have an entire row of seats to yourself and lie down on them. Barring that, and when I have an aisle seat (my favorite), my own position is “The Risky Business,” which does get your legs bumped by people walking by and by passing carts.
Kakuni translates to “square simmered” in Japanese. It’s pork belly cooked in a trinity that’s largely synonymous with the country’s cuisine: sugar, sake and soy sauce. The most expensive ingredient is time. But cooking kakuni is wildly simple: After frying your pork lightly for color, you simmer the meat until it’s soft to the touch, rendering most of the fat. This allows the base ensemble to imbue your meal with silky, molten flavor. For all of its simplicity, the dish is wildly consoling. You’re just as likely to find it chalked across the menu board of a bar as in the weeknight rotation of somebody’s home.
. . .Before my first bites of kakuni, my interactions with pork belly were seldom and sporadic: It generally wasn’t my cut of choice. I didn’t eat much bacon as a kid. I hadn’t yet fallen in love with Korean barbecue. Among the Jamaican pork dishes I grew up on, thicker cuts were generally used. And the same was true of the many banh mi I’d wolfed down across Houston, and of the backyard cookouts I’d been privy to in Texas: Great care was taken to avoid the pig’s fattiness. I didn’t know what I was missing.
So I took one bite. And then another. Each chew felt like strumming an entirely new set of chords: velvety and heartening, heightened by its directness. Then it was gone.
A photo and its caption from the article. Be sure to have plenty of rice and cold beer on hand!
Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.
*Finally, the Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes saga has been made into an 8-hour Huli miniseries called “The Dropout”. Reviews are generally positive, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a critics score of 89%. Amanda Seyfried is particularly singled out for her portrayal of Holmes, even getting that voice accurate. Here’s a trailer, though. I can’t watch it as I’m still on the ship:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron are protective:
Szaron: Do you see this crow?
Hili: I do; she probably thinks that it’s her garden.
In Polish:
Szaron: Widzisz tę wronę?
Hili: Widzę, pewnie myśli, że to jej ogród.
Here’s Karolina kuddling Kulka:
A cat meme from Barry, which is true:
A news sign photographed by Dom. How did this happen?
From Anna:
An Scottish search-and-rescue dog named Skye retires and gets a well-deserved award (retweeted by Ricky Gervais; sound on):
Can we get a round of a-paws for the latest #PDSAOrderOfMerit recipient, Skye! 👏🐶
After 11 incredible years of service, #SearchDogSkye has retired from her role as a Mountain Rescue Search Dog in the Lake District. ⛰️
Tweets from Matthew. Yes, the story is well known of Darwin’s orchid and the later discovery of the moth he predicted could pollinate it. Now, though, it’s even more interesting: the linked paper shows (for a fee if you don’t have library access!) that male moths (but not females) can respond to bat sonar by jamming it, stymying the predator. Why not the female moths? I don’t want to pay for the paper when I can get it free in Chicago. A minimum of $10, and it goes higher: highway robbery!
Most people know Darwin discovered an orchid in 1862 with a 30cm long flower that led him to predict the existence of a moth with a proboscis long enough to pollinate it. Said moth was found in 1903.
I’m always amazed by how much stuff these creatures can pack into their cheek pouches.
Facilitating the rapid collection of food and providing for its temporary storage and transport, chipmunk cheek pouches can expand to the size a medium-sized wheely suitcase if necessary. pic.twitter.com/FxxVHLioMy
The best for last: Mother duckling, helped by staff, walks her 10 ducklings, who hatched in the enclosed courtyard of a hospital, though the maternity ward of a hospital to “freedom”. I’ve put the Facebook video below, though I can’t tell whether “freedom” involves what it should: a safe pond or lake (I can’t see the video on the ship).
And so our trip comes to an end: a month of sailing and many glories seen, many penguins photographed, many icebergs floating by.
For over two days we’ve been sailing almost due north toward Valparaiso, and we arrive at about 6 a.m. tomorrow. At about noon I’ll disembark (i.e., “leave”). The next night, assuming I’ll pass my second PCR test for covid in 2.5 days, I’ll fly back home for a several-week respite before the next trip.
There’s really nothing much to tell about the last few days. We’ve had lectures to watch, though none of them have been recorded, meals on tap, recaps of the trip, which just make me nostalgic and the sea all around. A whale was reported off the starboard bow this morning, but when I got up on deck there was a big crowd with binoculars but of course the whale was gone.
All I can proffer as my final post is a map and the one meal I’ve eaten (in the Aune) since my last report. Food first, with the menu descriptions:
The daily bread basket in the Aune. I’m reduced to posting pictures of rolls!
“Chicken liver pate, grilled rustic bread and cornichon.”
This is why I ate in the Aune yesterday: to try this dish: “Reindeer roasted root vegetable and wine sauce.”
The meat was very lean, as you can see, and very tender, but lacked flavor. But at least I got to try reindeer.
As Ishiguro would call this, “The remains of the plate.” It reminded me of an abstract painting.
Chocolate soufflé. As usual, dessert was the best dish of the meal, served piping hot with a poached strawberry:
The Expedition Team kept a running map of our journey (this is the second one; the route was different on my first). We started in Punta Arenas, took the Beagle channel to the South Atlantic, and then headed to the South Shetlands. We wound around the Antarctic Peninsula for a few days, and then headed north, passing Cape Horn. After tooling around the fjords for a couple of more days, we exited to the Pacific. Now it’s full steam ahead for Valparaiso, where the ship will refuel and head north to Alaska and then through the Northwest Passage back to Norway. But that last trip will, I think, be without passengers.
Here’s an enlargement; the Team conveniently numbered the high spots. For me? It’s hard to match the beauty of the Lemaire Channel, and of course any place with penguins is a high spot. I still say that if you can get.yourself down here once in your life, do so. I’ve never seen anything like it. And don’t forget Torres del Paine National Park as a side trip. I did that in 2019, and it’s stunning.
My favorite picture from the trip (click to enlarge the next two):
