We planned this longest cruise we had last year while we were in Turkey in late 2023. Antarctica was especially attractive to us. We left the end of the cruise open after Buenos Aires. The initial plan was to see if we could travel on our own to Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. We will decide where to go and how much time we will spend in each country.
Geçen yıl Türkiye‘deyken yaptığımız bu en uzun gemi yolculuğunu 2023‘ün sonlarında planlamıştık. Antarktika bizim için özellikle çekiciydi. Buenos Aires‘ten sonra yolculuğun sonunu açık bıraktık. İlk plan, Paraguay, Arjantin ve Brezilya‘ya kendi başımıza seyahat edip edemeyeceğimizi görmekti. Nereye gideceğimize ve her ülkede ne kadar zaman geçireceğimize karar vereceğiz.
20240103 – Montevideo, Uruguay
In 1984, a general strike, first after the 1973 coup, spread through the country in support of the political prisoners. The regime could not stop the strike. In 1983, a massive demonstration against fascism took place, with more than half a million people marching in Montevideo. The US-supported army denounced it as a Marxist plot.
Halk savunma yeraltı örgütleriyle savaşıyordu. Ancak ABD, halkla savaşmak için Uruguay hükümetine daha fazla teknoloji, uzman ve istihbarat gönderdi. Bir yeraltı savunma örgütü olan Tupamaros, hükümete yardım eden önde gelen yabancı isimleri kaçırdı. Adını tarihi bir halk kahramanı olan Tupac Amaru'dan alan Tupamaros, Ulusal Kurtuluş Hareketi olarak kuruldu ve emperyalizme karşı ülkelerinin bağımsızlığı için savaştı. İngiliz büyükelçisini ve Uruguay polisi için verdiği derslerde evsizleri sokaklardan kaçıran ve onlara işkence eden ABD'li işkence uzmanı Dan Mitrione'yi kaçırdılar.
20231231 – Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands)
The main island where we landed is about 300 miles (480km) west of mainland Patagonia in Argentina. There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, and 776 smaller islands around them. The population is around 4,000, who primarily identify as English, but as we learned, there are people with many different nationalities, including Asians, who live on the islands. After the Falkland War, a referendum held in 2013 showed people wanted to continue being a "British Territory" rather than Argentina.
20231226-28 – Antarctica
Antarctica makes you feel like you are on another planet. Everything is surreal.
We encountered many whales and penguins hitching a ride on icebergs. After waiting for days on end, I finally photographed a breaching whale. Icebergs float around us in complete silence. It is the frozen continent, for sure.
Antarktika'da kendinizi bambaşka bir gezegende gibi hissediyorsunuz. Her şey gerçek üstü.
Pek çok balina ve buz dağlarının üzerinde ücretsiz yolculuk yapan penguenlere rastladık. Günlerce güverteden güverteye gergin halde beklemenin sonucu sonunda müthiş bir şans eseri sudan fırlayan bir balinanın fotoğrafını yakalamayı başarabildim. Buz dağları etrafımızdan korkunç bir sessizlikle akıp gidiyorlar. Evet, adı üzerinde, Antarktika tam bir donmuş kıta.
20231224 – Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Drake Passage, Antarctica
As we approached Antarctica, the icebergs started to appear right and left. It was a mesmerizing scene. As they silently floated right and left, everyone watched in awe. Some were as big as three to four times the size of our ship. Some had penguins that used the icebergs as a free ride. Because the icebergs supply the waters with nutrients, we noticed the whales could be observed near them more.
20231218 – Coquimbo, Chile. 20231219 – Santiago (San Antonio), Chile. 20231223 – Punta Arenas, Chile.
We walked past buildings in Santiago built under the same French/Spanish influence. The highlight was seeing the presidential offices where Allende resisted the US-backed fascists that later destroyed the country trying to perform a free-market capitalism with no opposition. The experiment fell flat on its face. The country was left with disaster capitalism, and people had to pay for all the damage the “Chicago School experts” left behind.
20231214 – Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru: The Visit
The entire region is an archeological site. Ruins of the Incas are found everywhere. There is a dispute between the archeologists who want to preserve the land and prevent further construction of buildings, farms, etc., and others who want the land to be functional. The farming land increased by 1 million hectares in Peru, encroaching on historic lands.
20231214 – Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru: History
What distinguishes the native culture from the Western understanding of societies is the more egalitarian societies the natives had built. As Pekka Hamalainen says in the book "Native Continent," the power did not come from the leaders, but it came through them. The leaders were the voice of the society, organizers, and enforcers of already-decided resolutions through customs and tradition. Incas and other natives respected life, other beings, each other, and even other ethnicities and tribes. Life was something to be shared by all beings.
20231213 – Cusco, Peru, Korikancha, Basilica and Saqsaywaman
The most interesting oil painting we saw was by Marcos Apaka. He had painted a version of the Last Supper. He is a Quechuan artist commissioned to paint the Last Supper with Jesus in the middle and his disciples around the table. However, they did not tell him what the party was eating. So he put a guinea pig as the meal, and instead of wine, he put Chicha Morale, corn, etc., all local food. Judas is the only one holding silver under the table. He is the only one looking at the viewer. He is the only dark-skinned while all the others are white, and he painted Francisco Pizarro’s face for Judas!
20231213 – Cusco, Peru
In 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador, came from the north, where Ecuador is now. He used the Incan trails, which took him 45 days to get to Cusco. Like the European saying, Peruvians say, “All roads lead to Cusco.” Cusco was the capital of the Inka empire. The Spanish found plenty of gold and silver here. This gold only meant the representation of the sun for the Incas. Silver was the representation of the moon. The Incas had started an internal war in 1525, which weakened them against the Spanish onslaught.
20231210 – Manta, Ecuador
At the town square, we saw the statue and pictures of a general, Al Faro, who seems like a controversial figure of the past. In his monument, he is labeled as the father of liberalism in Ecuador. We were told that he moved away from religion to secularism, provided many liberties to women, boosted education, and gave importance to independence. Due to his distance from religion, he was not accepted widely by the ruling elites and the religious establishment. But a couple of guides said people nowadays started appreciating him again, understanding what he tried to do in the 1920s.
20231207 – Puntarenas, Costa Rica
We are in the “Transitional Forests” because we are in the middle of two climate zones in Costa Rica. The humid forests are in the south, and the dry forests are in the north. There are also two seasons here: The rainy and dry seasons.
20231201 From Los Angeles to Buenos Aires on Sapphire Princess Cruise
We started planning for this trip back in September. After going through the excursions and picking the ones that we could do, finally flew to Los Angeles to take the Princess Cruise to Latin America and Antarctica.
The trip requires you to bring two sets of clothes for summer and winter. While the spring is starting in the Southern hemisphere, and many places we plan to visit will be hot, the region around Antarctica is expected to be cold.
