Happy New Year

Still New Years Eve here though - due to the time delay I think it is about midnight with you all so Happy New Year!

I read the wrong page in the book about today - it wasn't where the settlers first landed it was where the people who were already living in north Chile landed when they tried to claim southern Chile for Chile......and now its all one big long country. Fuerte Bulnes it was called - Fort Bulnes after the president who sent John Williams south in 1843 to declare the Magellane area Chilean. We solved our small confusion about the two flags we keep see flying around. One is the Chilean flag which we knew. The other is the flag of the Magellan, it shows the mountains, the southern cross and the blue sky. The fort isn't the real one - its a reconstruction but very cleverly made out of wood and mud bricks. Apparently the first one was made by axe but this one definately had chainsaw marks on it.
Then we went to a very peaceful fishing bay.

Cheerfully we finished with Puerto Hambre - Port Hunger where all the people died of starvation. Apparently Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa set out with 23 ships from Spain at the request of King Felipe II. He arrived at this place with only 3 of his boats - the rest having perished on the Strait of Magellan somewhere. The people survived for a bit living off the few shellfish they could find. Pedro left them all behind and went back to Spain but he was put in prison by the Portugese. Thomas Cavendish arrived from England a while later and rescued / found one or two survivors but all the rest perished.

To make sure we didn't starve we went back to the supermarket and had New Years Eve supper of dodgy plastic cheese, salami and a donut. We are fairly sure this is the only country we've ever been to that even seems to put sugar in its cheese, these folks have seriously sweet teeth!

Anyway, you'll notice if you look to the right you can now scroll through a small selection of our piccies. Martyn had a geeky afternoon while I had a nap. We're now trying to stay awake to see the fireworks, which will be interesting as we worked out last night that we think the sun is still up here at midnight!