Today we are in Peru and have just returned from a sightseeing tour of Lima. Just a shame Machu Pichu is so far away but that entailed a few flights and rather a lot of £££!

We are docked in Callao which is an extremely poor and rundown port town. It was about a half hour drive to Lima and a very warm day.

We stopped at the Plaza Mayor Square to see the Cathedral and Government Palace. The cathedral contains some very ornate religious art. The original building was erected in 1555 and reconstructed after the 1746 earthquake. We then had a short walk to the 16c Santo Domingo convent which contains the remains of three Peruvian saints, San Martin de Porres, Santo Domingo and San Marcos.

We continued on to the Parque del Amor in Miraflores. Very similar to Park Guell in Barcelona. As usual the unpredictable South American weather prevented us from what should have been lovely views over the Pacific Ocean. More fog!

Before returning to the ship we went to the Casa Garcia Alvarado, a house going back to Peru’s old colonial days, where we were greeted by Ana Maria Alvarado with pisco sours and canapés.

Arrived on a beautiful, hot sunny day in Arica. It is the most northerly city in Chile and just 11 miles from the boundary with Peru. It is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Atacama desert with the Andes just a short drive away.

The trips here didn’t look very inspiring so we just walked around the town. Quite a pleasant little place with friendly and polite people. Much quieter than Coquimbo.

In Coquimbo today. Really not a lot to say about Coquimbo! It’s located on the Pan-American Highway and has about 400,000 inhabitants. Most of which seemed to be at the Port today!

Managed a walk into the town and a wine tasting. This resulted in us walking back to the ship with three bottles of Patagonian Carmenere red wine. I managed to do some of my coursework while Terry was watching the seals and pelicans. In the evening we joined our friends for champagne in the lounge to celebrate their anniversary. The day didn’t start well when we lost power and had to be assisted into the Port by tugs! Fortunately by the end of the day we were on our way again. Fingers crossed the problem has now been resolved.

Had a really interesting visit to Santiago yesterday. It was an hour and a half drive from the port of San Antonio and is situated between the coastal mountains and the Andes. We walked around downtown Santiago to see La Moneda Palace, the seat of the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, which was previously their mint. Then on to the Plaza de-Armas and the cathedral. We had a very enjoyable lunch with plenty of Pisco sour and Chilean wine while being entertained by a band and local dancers.

We then went to the San Cristobal Hill for spectacular view of Santiago and the Andes. We could see the Grand Torre Santiago which is a 64 storey building and the tallest in South America.

It was extremely hot and after a visit to Los Dominicos Handicraft Market we were ready for our drive back to the ship.

After 60+ knots of wind and rough seas we reached Puerto Montt which is in Chile’s Lake District.

Had a trip today which took us to the azure blue rapids at Petrohue Falls. From there we drove up to a viewing spot on the Osorno Volcano. As we were negotiating the 42 hairpin bends we gradually disappeared into the cloud so sadly no views at all! Once we came down we were back to the beautiful countryside and Lake Llanquihue where we went to a hotel for lunch with a tasty Pisco Sour, the local drink. Then on to Puerto Varas for a wander around the town. By now the cloud had lifted and we finally had some good views of the volcano and also of the Calibuco volcano which last erupted in 2015.

We’ve had two days cruising through the Chilean Fjords. On the first Day we stopped at the Amalia Glacier which is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park. Although the day started cold it was quite sunny and soon warmed up enough to watch the stunning views from our balcony.

We had reached the second glacier Pio XI by 7.30 the following morning. This glacier is roughly the same size as Santiago and growing all the time unlike most others. Unfortunately it is wet, cold and foggy this morning so viewing not as good as yesterday. Very slow sailing away from here due to the ice floes but we will be back in the open seas of the South Pacific later this afternoon.

We are in Punta Arenas in the Patagonian region of Chile today. After sailing through the beautiful Magellan Straights with snow capped mountains it seems very flat here. We did a sightseeing tour with very few sights! We had to use a tender to get to the pier and it’s 11c and raining. Didn’t help that the first stop was a cemetery (with a statue of a man who had performed miracles, apparently) and the second an outdoor museum with relics from the pioneer days of European settlers. Actually quite interesting. Then it was the Maggiorino Borgatello Museum which was founded by Salesian missionaries. Last stop was to see a monument of Ferdinand Magellan in the main square.

We are about half way through our voyage now and have reached Cape Horn.

Cape Horn is a rocky headland on Hornos Island, in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It’s surrounded by wild seas off the southern tip of South America where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet. The albatross-shaped Cape Horn Monument commemorates the lives of thousands of seafarers who perished attempting to sail around the cape. A secluded lighthouse and the tiny Stella-Maris Chapel are nearby.

We were up at 6.15 to ensure we didn’t miss seeing the lighthouse. The sea state wasn’t too bad when we arrived and after a while of cruising by it was decided to send a rib (landing craft) with a safety officer and ship’s photographer over to the headland to take photos of the ship. However, some of the seaweed there managed to clog the engine and it lost power so another rib was sent out to help. Unfortunately the same thing happened to that one so one of the lifeboat’s went to their assistance. By this time the wind had increased and the sea was so rough it took over four hours to get them back to the ship. The pilots were brilliant but it must have been quite a task.