Nova Scotia Nature Trust's Expedition for the Earth Dispatch
February 3, 2013 – Report from the Straits of Magellan: The Entire Team Has Arrived
By 8:00 Saturday evening our entire team had arrived at our hotel in Punta Arenas, which sits right on the Straits of Magellan, just a few blocks walking from the center of Punta Arenas, Chile.
We had a brief orientation and then walked through the towns main plaza for drinks and dinner in an historic building that is known as the location where Sir Earnest Shakleton worked tirelessly to raise the money to go back to Elephant Island to rescue his crew, who were still stranded after their 18 month epic on he ice in 1914 and 15.
Fascinating history in this town. We hope that the "Endurance" that we will need to complete this adventure in Torres del Paine National Park will be nothing so extreme as Shakleton's men knew, but this morning as we take off to the north through the empty spaces of Patagoinia we are excited about the adventure, natural beauty and challenge that lies before us. We are heading into the unknown and we are finally on our way on a adventure that we have all be dreaming about and working towards for months.
Please keep watching for updates and images from our Expedition for the Earth as our team continues toward Torres del Paine.
In the Plaza there is a statue of Magellen, with natives of Patagonia at his feet. Our team posed here for our fist group photo.
For generations there has bee a tradition that explorers should kiss the feet of the native for good luck before departing for the wilds. Bob Melville is seen here with the well polished bronze toes of the Patagonian native man.
The streets of Punta are windy! The city ties rope along the sidewalks to assist pedestrians to stay upright as they walk in the highest winds (we have had 134 km per hour recorded here since we arrived) It was relatively calm the evening of the 2nd however and our team members may have been exaggerating just a bit in this shot.
Felipe Voullieme, our lead Chilean guide explains some things on the map at our briefing at the hotel. Today we are all excited to be underway.