17-06-2020, 12:36 PM
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Hi, I'm Henry.
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17-06-2020, 01:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 17-06-2020, 01:49 PM by boater sam.)
You will find this a friendly forum.
Sam.
20-06-2020, 06:37 AM
Hola, welcome to the forum Henry. Got a mate in Cuba, he's always moaning about hurricanes and the buses not running, so SA and the Caribbean sounds like 1970's England only with sunshine.
"Mar del Plata is lovely - my wife and I have spent a fair amount of time in South America...." you read Bruce Chatwin Nick? Andy.
20-06-2020, 07:44 AM
(20-06-2020, 06:37 AM)Diabolical Artificer Wrote: "Mar del Plata is lovely - my wife and I have spent a fair amount of time in South America...." you read Bruce Chatwin Nick Funny you should say that! I'm a huge Chatwin fan, even with his faults... The first time we went to Chile, back in 1987, Pinochet was still in power (were were also there during the 1988 plebiscite). We had no particular plan - just a ticket out to SA and a return flight some months later. The ticket was a circular route from Madrid that meant you could get off at any stop in SA and return from one of the other ones, e.g. start in Sao Paulo and return weeks later from Caracas or wherever after travelling by your own means between those points. I had a copy of Chatwin's "In Patagonia" on me. We happened to be in Puerto Montt having been hiking in that region when we were wondering where to go next... We were at the airport (a large shed in those days) and there was a wooden sign on the ceiling with an arrow pointing on it and the single word "Patagonia". I remembered the book in my backpack and we just got on the small plane to Punta Arenas. It was physically and metaphorically a sign. No-one went to Patagonia back then - our Chilean friends were like "Why would you go there?" To cut a very long story short, our time in Patagonia and Torres del Paine in particular was some of the best of our lives. And, yes, we went to Puerto Natales, the Mylodon Cave and Torres del Paine because of Chatwin. No tourism at all (except us). TdP only accessible via a 300km dirt track. Just the two of us. Loads of true adventures. Great times. Astonishingly beautiful. Empty, a handful of other people (only locals) in literally 100s of 1000s of hectares of stunning mountains and lakes. The photo below was taken as we approached TdP using Ektachrome 100 on my trusty Nikon FM and scanned back in 2004 on a Nikon Coolscan. In all our lives of travel, probably the most beautiful and unspoilt place in the world (for us!). 32 years later it's still my screen background. All thanks to Chatwin.
sıʌǝɹq ɐʇıʌ `ɐƃuol sɹɐ
ʞɔıu
21-06-2020, 05:16 AM
Sounds amazing Nick,living in England it's hard to get your head round the scale and remoteness of places like Patagonia, it is indeed a beautiful and awe inspiring place. Haven't read In Patagonia for a few years, hope I haven't lent it out and not got it back. It's one of those books I read and re-read and never get tired of. Stalwarts like Kim, Seven Years In Tibet, Great Expectations and other hardbacks I have and cherish, other books come and go, some are eternal.
The Beeb i think, did a good documentary on Chatwin, he's one of those eccentric intriguing British characters of a certain generation, like TE Lawrence, Francis Bacon, General Gordon etc that led amazing lives. Andy.
22-06-2020, 01:10 AM
Playa de los Ingleses.
The old name of the beach had its origin in the odyssey lived by a group of British sailors in the mid-17th century, members of the Admiral Anson fleet, whose country was fighting in those days with the Spanish Empire in the so-called Seat War . The sailors were wrecked with the "HMS Wager" frigate near Chiloé, but managed to build a small sloop, "Speedwell", with the wreckage of the ship and with it to fold Cabo Hornos. After several incidents, eight of them were abandoned in what is believed to be the northern part of "Cabo Corrientes", that is, Playa de los Ingleses. Two were killed by a party of Aborigines, four ended up as prisoners of the Spanish in Buenos Aires, and the remaining two were presumably taken as captives of the Tehuelches to Patagonia. Vista de Playa de los Ingleses a fines del siglo XIX, vemos el inconcluso Hotel Saint James. |
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