SATURDAY 29TH - GUANAJUATO

 

To escape the crowds celebrating my feast day at San Miguel, we have come to Guanajuato for the weekend. Like San Miguel, Guanajuato has a history and buildings dating back hundreds of years.

 

 

The really distinct thing about Guanajuato is that it is a former mining city which has a network of large tunnels under the city left over from the historic mining days. Those tunnels have now become part of the road system so vehicles are prohibited from the narrow streets of the old town. They use the network of tunnels under the city to get around. At city level, you see no hint of the tunnels beneath.

The city is contained in a large valley so the spectacle is of thousands of very colourful little houses spreading up into the surrounding hills.

We have arranged a walking tour for tomorrow so we will receive much more information about the history of the city.

 

 

FRIDAY 28TH - SAN MIGUEL (ST. MICHAEL)

Well all's well that ends well but we had some anxious moments yesterday. By the time I turned the phone off as we boarded the plane yesterday morning, we had received no response to the phone messages, text messages, and emails I had sent to Therese and Mario telling them that we weren't at the Leon hotel as planned and asking that they pick us up at the airport.

 

When we landed, there was no sign of them and when I turned the phone on, there was no message in response to the various messages left. Again their phones went straight to message bank. We tried ringing numbers for family members we had numbers for but couldn't contact them. We were pondering what to do next when we got an email to say that they had my email and could collect us at the airport. As I said, all's well that ends well.

We are very comfortably settled into Mario's sister's holiday home in San Miguel, a city of wonderful contrasts between the modern and very old. As it happens, today is the feast day of Michael the Archangel which is apparently a cause for great celebration and thousands of people will be flocking into the town to celebrate.

The old town of San Miguel is up to 500 years old and very quaint.

THURSDAY 27TH - DALLAS!

Good morning from Dallas. We are not supposed to be here but our flight from Philadelphia departed two and a half hours late so, needless to say, we missed our connection to Leon.

We spent a very comfortable night at the Holiday Inn Express and have boarding passes for a flight this morning which will get us there at about 2:00pm. Our only discomfort is a complete lack of luggage. Hopefully we will be reunited with it in Leon.

We have left messages for Therese and Mario not to collect us from the Leon hotel at 10:30am this morning as planned. Hopefully they will turn their phones on.

We are told that the Dallas airport is the second largest airport in the world so it was probably worth a bit of an extended look.

This is our first and only set back so far so we have done really well given the variety of travel arrangements we have experienced.

WEDNESDAY 26TH - BETWEEN ADVENTURES

 

We have left wet and dreary Ottawa and are now in wet and dreary Philadelphia en route to Mexico. Only two flights to go.

Fortunately our Qantas Club membership got us access to the American Airlines Lounge so we get to pass the time in comfort.

Happy Birthday for Sunday Andy. You will be on LEI and we don't know what wifi access we will have so you get your birthday wishes early. Have a snorkel for us.

TUESDAY 25TH - OTTAWA

I appreciate that I skipped yesterday but it was a transit day in that we got off the ship at Kangerlussuaq Fjord, went on a post cruise excursion, got dropped off at the Kangerlussuaq Airport and flew to Ottawa where we will remain until 6:00am tomorrow when we fly to Mexico.

Unfortunately it is a miserable drizzly day in Ottawa so, although we have explored some of the nearby city, it is not a great day for walking.

Yesterday was interesting in that we saw two glaciers, the Rossiter glacier and the Reindeer glacier but they were completely different to the extremely productive glaciers we had seen in recent days. Unfortunately our glaciologist Colin wasn't with us so we couldn't get an explanation as to what was going on.

 

 

Far from producing large icebergs, these glaciers finished a long way from the ocean and produced only a modest stream of melt water coming from their bases.

The airport was interesting. It was built as an American Air Force base in 1941 but the Americans ceased using it in the 1980's. It is now the only airport (and large bit of flat ground) in Greenland capable of accommodating large commercial jets so it is a transit point where people flying to Greenland come there and then disperse to smaller airstrips in smaller aircraft. The town of Kangerlussuaq exists for no other purpose other than to service the airport.

Travelling day again tomorrow in that we take three flights to get from here to Leon in Mexico where we link up with Therese and Mario on Thursday morning.

SUNDAY 23RD - SISIMUIT - A DOCK

We got to walk off the ship on to a dock today. How different. Sisimiut is the second largest town in the country, only 75 klms north of the Arctic Circle and the northern most all year ice free port in the country.

 

 

It was also the warmest destination so far. We explored the town with the assistance of a very informative local guide with gloves off and jackets open. It was almost hot with all our layers on.

 

After the city tour, we were treated to a kayak display. Kayaks are no longer used for hunting but kayaking has become a very popular sport with lots of local competitions. The local Sunday pleasure boat traffic continued undistracted.

 

 

No ice to worry about here.

There was an expedition to Ittilleq this afternoon, the final expedition of the cruise but, unlike this morning, the weather conditions were windy and cold so we stayed on the cosy warm ship.

Well that's it. The end of a fabulous experience. We have to have our bags packed for removal at 7:00 in the morning and we leave the ship by 9:00. There will be a post cruise excursion to Reindeer Glacier by 4WD bus before flying back to Ottawa from where we will begin our Mexican adventure.

It's disappointing that I haven't been able to post this progressively but we have been to a truly remote part of the world and have a wonderful record of our experiences.

SATURDAY 22ND - ILULISSAT - A CITY!

We are now approximately 350 klms north of the Arctic Circle at Ilulissat, Greenland's third largest city with a population of 4500. It is adjacent to the Jacobshavn Glacier. The glacier produces approximately 10% of all Greenland's icebergs. Approximately 18 to 20 million tons of ice carve off it every day.

 

 

It is a Unesco World Heritage area and the first place where we have encountered tourists other than the ship's passengers. One advantage of being World heritage listed is that there is a constructed walkway to the best viewing point for the massive icebergs which have calved off the glacier.

Once again the zodiac drivers had to fight their way through ice to get to the landing area but nothing like yesterday.

This afternoon we went for a zodiac cruise as close as we could safely get to the icebergs. Some humpback whales showed up to add a bit of variety to the spectacle. It is difficult to comprehend the size of the icebergs as they have calved off the glacier. Unfortunately it isn't possible to access the glacier but it must be a very substantial size.

As we were going to bed last night it was announced that the northern lights were visible. It's not a very good photo and they were not at their best but I did get to see them.

FRIDAY 21ST - EQIP SERMIA GLACIER DISCO BAY

Today we wound our way a long way up a fjord in Disco Bay to perhaps the most spectacular tidewater glacier we have yet seen. The Eqip Sermia glacier pumps ice from the Greenland ice cap at the rate of four kilometres per year making it one of the faster moving glaciers.

 

That also means that it is in a constant state of calving and we saw and heard many collapses from the glacier face while we were in the vicinity.

 

 

The principal activity this morning was a walk on shore which was very pleasant but the principal adventure of the day was the trip back to the ship in the zodiacs through the rapidly accumulating glacial ice. The zodiacs became mini ice breakers and, although it was very slow going, they were up to the task.

 

It took quite a while to get the ship out of the ice but we did eventually get to some clear water where we were able to have a zodiac cruise. Apart from the usual icebergs, the feature of the cruise was a waterfall coming out of some lakes on the plateau above. It was partially frozen creating some unusual effects.

 

 

We finished the day with a barbeque on the back deck. What a crazy idea with the temperature at or near zero!

 

 

THURSDAY 20TH - UMMANNAQ

A very unusual day in that we spent the day at anchor. We arrived at the town of Ummannaq at about breakfast time and departed late in the afternoon.

Ummannaq is a town of approximately 1500 people and, but for the fact that they have 24 hour darkness and are iced in in winter and their buildings are perched on a rocky hillside, it's a pretty normal sort of town.

It is alleged to be the sunniest town in Greenland and we certainly saw it at its 1 degree sunny best.

We spent the morning having a tour of the town and spending some free time wandering around it. The exciting news was we had a dry landing, the first one we had had since getting on the ship, which meant that we could wear our normal shoes rather than our mud boots which we have had to wear on every other occasion when we got off the ship.

 

 

This afternoon we had the option of a hike over rough terrain or a zodiac tour among the icebergs so we chose the latter.

Yes this is an iceberg, not an island.

WEDNESDAY 19TH - KANGERDLUSSAQ FJORD

Another day at sea. We are being blessed with fantastic sunshine although that doesn't stop the cold creeping in after one has been outside for a while.

 

 

We are now further south on the Greenland side of Baffin Bay than we were when we left from Pond Inlet.

This afternoon we went into Kangerdlussaq Fjord. From the open sea to where we dropped anchor was a distance of 35 nautical miles, travelling along a fjord with 5000 feet mountains on either side. At the top of the mountains of course is the Greenland Ice Cap from which many glaciers emerge.

The tidewater glacier at the head of the fjord was one of the best we have seen and we were able to get as close as we could safely do so in the zodiacs.

 

 

An excellent expedition.

 

TUESDAY 18TH - NUUSSUAQ

Pretty quiet day today. We spent most of the day heading south among the spectacular icebergs but we did get off the ship for a walk this afternoon near the community of Nuussuaq, a traditional hunting and fishing village.

 

 

The last part of the trip into the bay where the village is located was very slow because of the ice.

For the first time, we didn't have any interaction with the community. Presumably they don't welcome visitors but their village looks pretty neat from a distance.

Because it was such a warm sunny day getting to a maximum temperature of two degrees this afternoon, they had the polar plunge. The water temperature was also two degrees. Of the 105 passengers, 15 took the plunge.

MONDAY 17TH - HEADING SOUTH

This morning we landed at and explored the community of Qaanaaq (a palindrome). It is a community of approximately 600 people and is by far the most viable looking community that we have visited with well organized services. It even has streetlights, presumably for the winter when they don't see the sun. We didn't see many people because they obviously spend their time indoors even at this relatively warm time of the year when the temperature is zero degrees.

Here we saw the most spectacular icebergs seen so far. There isn't much sea ice or snow here but the icebergs are impressive.

We spent this afternoon at sea heading south past an endless line of enormous icebergs, most apparently having calved off the glaciers of Greenland.

 

We were entertained by the expedition staff presenting their very informative talks.