cruise – Page 2 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Valparaiso Old and New

Stray Thoughts on Labeling, Valparaiso Port

February 2, 2022December 21, 2021 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

Shortly after breakfast Pam and I were among a gathering of travelers, several friends made in the last ten days among them, waiting in the Regatta lounge for tour assignments. In my previous posting, “Valparaiso Separation, you can see exactly where the Regatta was docked among the orderly chaos of the port as seen from the Ascensor Conception. “Valparaiso Separation” also includes several photographs from my early morning hours on our port side stateroom terrace photographing the approach to Valparaiso and the city itself.

Walking down the gang plank, our bus assignment in hand, number 17, we boarded a shuttle to take us through the port, to customs. See the upper left corner? Here is part of a loading crane, seemingly the underside of a bridge. In “Valparaiso Departure I” you saw it loading rolls of wire.

The structure labeled TCVAL is called the Gottwald, a mobile harbor crane from the TEREX based in Dusseldorf, Germany. TCVAL is an acronym, “Terminal Cerros de Valparaíso” (Hills Terminal of Valparaiso), and stands for the port management company.

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I caught two overviews of the area from our stateroom balcony.

Looking along the port side of the Regatta. Our room was on the same level as the bridge, visible on the right with several Regatta officers enjoying the Valparaiso port view. From here, the shipping containers (“Hamburg SUD”) are loaded onto semi-tractor trailers for points all around South America, they call the southern most land “The Cone.”

We are surrounded by labels, the #17 in our hands, “Regatta” on the ship bow, all with a story to tell.

Unlabeled from this side, two towers covered with multi-colored panels, shades of green and blue with white, the Hotel ibis Valparaiso. I looked it up on Google Maps.

To the right is AIEP Valparaiso, a technical college, founded just three years before, 2013. We are seeing them from behind, the side that faces the harbor, both the hotel and school front a street named Errázuriz.

Take note of the lower floors with the large, crisscrossed supporting struts.

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Back on the shuttle, we pass along those lower floors. Look to the right of the Gandara Chile, SA truck….dinosaur models. The floor above seems to be retail displays of bulk packaged products.

Everywhere stacked shipping containers….

…throngs of busy workers. This fellow works for “Building Services”, a cleaner.

We’ve looked right. To the left a view of the port opens. War ships in the distance. Foreground is a general cargo ship, the crane midship is used for unloading in smaller ports. Currently unloaded, we can tell by how high it is riding. There is a rope ladder on the visible starboard side, a landing boat with an outboard motor along side. One person is visible on the upper deck, wearing a baseball cap.

Named “Danstar” home port Valparaiso, the Chilean flag hangs stern side. A general cargo ship, I looked it up. On the day I started this post, it was sailing the southern pacific heading from Hanga Roa, Easter Island. The label on the bridge, CA 4392, is the radio call sign. The bilge pump is working….wonder how strict the pollution stands are for Valparaiso harbor?

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Back to the left, an unpromising aspect. No labels here. Shortly after the transport unloaded us for customs. I generally do not photograph those workings, no use being pulled aside for questioning by unsympathetic officers. Just a precaution, the entire trip the customs people were friendly and the inspections cursory.

Here is where our slip of paper, #17, is used just in case we forget the number. Here is wonderful guide, Ricardo, holding a loft the #17 flag in from of bus #17. The wonderful city of Valparaiso laid out for us in the morning sun, the sky cloudless.

New buses, nice!!!

Ricardo introduces himself. His name tag “Oceania, Your World, Your Way.” Cannot help getting some humor from that.

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Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Valparaiso Separation

Learn about funiculars

February 1, 2022December 21, 2021 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

To begin with an epilogue to my last post, “Our Fifteen Minutes of Fame on Conception Hill” , our meeting with the El Mercurio reporter never appeared. Inquiries to the newspaper were promptly and courteously replied to, there was nothing. They suggested a search of the online archive and only a January 2014 fashion show, the article featured a photo from the same terrace. After our pleasant time we walked off some calories on Gervasoni Promenade, a showcase of city harbor and hillside views.

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Most city visits on this cruise we traded independence and flexibility for the convenience of the guided tour. Ricardo, our guide, was a knowledgeable, good humored companion to our small group. After we left the promenade for Calle Conception Ricardo was most helpful.

It was here I entered a photographic fugue, losing touch with my surroundings through concentration on capturing the moment.

I walked ahead of Pam, expecting her to follow, and caught the view of the arriving care of the Conception funicular.

Wow, that’s the Regatta at dock. Other elements of this vista are the harbor, of course, then the famous Turri clock tower. Hmmm, almost 1:30 pm.

I was fascinated by the view of a drydock the Regatta passed while docking early that morning. It is the red structure with the letters “Sociber”, it even has a Facebook page!!!

Once at street level the experience of the crowd on the alley opening onto Calle Prat, waiting for the ride up, brought back reality. “Where’s Pam?” I could not go back up because of the crowd, the views from the car fell from my mind.

I was on the street, disoriented and alone.

I fell back on photography to pass the time. Nowhere near the charm of Cerro Conception, typical downtown urban environment.

A man approached the family across Prat, “What is going on?” I wondered when the tour bus arrived. Still no Pam.

Oh, it is an ice cream vendor. Delicious. “Where’s Pam?” Ricardo not around, either. Back on the bus, waiting, a younger member of the tour was an Irish wag who declaimed on the benefits of freedom, even temporary.

Finally, Ricardo arrived followed by a few other tour members and Pam. Whew!! I’ll never live down “deserting” her. She was not able to find the entrance to the Conception funicular. Along with a few others they kept each other company until Ricardo rounded them up. That was a long 20 minutes (reading from the photograph metadata), I was worried. As I mentioned, at the time I was clueless about my whereabouts. Reviewing the numerous photographs, I found the “Servicio Nacional de Aduanas” (National Customs) building across the where Calle Esmeralda joins with Cochrane and pieced it together from there.

About the Conception funicular, that morning while the Regata docked I caught this view of Valparaiso hillside. It is a microcosm of the Andean topography, ravines cut through the heights. This is when I noted the Sociber drydock, it is on the lower left…look down into it — the business is to sell that dry space in the middle of the harbor for ship repair. The space and be flooded, opened to allow entry of a ship, then drained for work on the hull or whatever.

The city pioneers adapted to this terrain. As a entrepreneurial endeavor, in 1882 Mr. Liberio E. Brieba Pacheco founded the Mechanical Elevators Company of Valparaíso. Conception funicular opened the following year to facilitate the urbanization of Alegre and Concepción hills. Conception funicular is closed for repairs currently, from 1883 until recently this, the oldest and first funicular of Valparaiso lifted people from the downtown Plan (plain) to the hilltop for a small fee.

Funicular is derived from latin “funis” for rope. It is an elevator that runs two counter balanced cars on a rails on a steep, less than vertical, slope. As one car rises the other lowers.

Here are some views of the Conception funicular and environs as seen from the upper Regatta deck. First, a 24 mm wide angle view. Look to the center for the rails and one car at the top. Above are the buildings of Cerro Conception (Conception Hill).

The funicular emerges from downtown on the right in the following view. The prominent church is Parroquia Perpetuo Socorro, just above the midpoint. It rises from Cerro Cordillera, above Cerro Conception. A Catholic church founded by the Redemptionist Fathers, the first stone was laid down 1905. Learning from the devastating earthquake of 1906, the engineer Juan Tonkin chose construction of Oregon pine and concrete to stand tall today. What a view (I’ve seen photographs).

A view a bit to the right, many of the colorful exteriors are zinc panels brought from early sailing ships, repurposed as siding.

After the wide angle shot I used the variable “zoom” lens for the rest. Here is a close view of the Conception funicular. The business of building and running these services thrived, over the years up to 29 funiculars and one elevator, served the city portenos (people of the port). In 2018 seven are in operation, nine are under a process of restoration and modernization, including Conception.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Our Fifteen Minutes of Fame on Conception Hill

A modest dose of history with wine and empanada

January 31, 2022December 21, 2021 MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

Posting about our departure from Valparaiso, Chile (see Valparaiso Departure III “The Sunset”) brings us to the time spent wandering this World Heritage Site, added to the UNESCO list in 2003. Within the amphitheater of hills is Cerro Conception (Conception Hill), historically settled by English and German immigrants. The façade of the Hotel Brighton, a building from the 19th century heyday of Valparaiso when it was a stopping point for shipping through the Straits of Magellan, reveals why so many of the buildings are alike: all are constructed from materials dropped off from sailing ships.

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The theme of the Hotel Brighton evokes thoughts of immigrants remembering their origins, emigres claiming a spot of real estate to mold a sense of place for themselves. This goes both ways, Valparaiso, Indiana was formerly Porterville of Porter County. The motive force behind the renaming were the memories of the retired Captain David Porter, the sole survivor of an attack on his ship USS Essex by the British frigates Phoebe and Cherub in the War of 1812, within sight of Valparaiso. Fifty eight (58) United States Marines lost their lives in that sea battle. To point out the obvious, Captain Porter is the namesake of Porter County.

Pam corrects me when I say we “stopped for lunch” at the Hotel Brighton, pointing out we “only” had a glass of red wine and an empanada. Both were tasty, even more so with this marvelous view looking north into the other hills of the city. The yellow umbrella is on the hotel restaurant terrace.

I missed capturing the signature wrought iron gate forming the word “Brighton” among decorative scrolls. Built on the edge of Conception Hill it overlooks the coastal plain almost all of which is man-made.

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During our refreshment, this young lady (see photograph below) introduced herself as a reporter for El Mercurio. Accompanied by a photographer, she interviewed us and we had our photograph taken, I returned the favor with the following photograph saying the story might appear in the next edition. Standing next to her, with a puzzled look, is our waitress who was from the States.

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El Mercurio de Valparaiso is the oldest continuously published Spanish language newspaper in the world. In my research for these photographs I discovered the newpaper officers were a short walk from the landing of the Ascensor Conception.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Valparaiso Departure III “The Sunset”

The Sun’s Progress

January 30, 2022December 21, 2021 MichaelStephenWills12 Comments

Two minutes after capturing the last light on Concon Point, see “Valparaiso Departure II”, turning the camera 180 degrees, to the south, looking along the Chilean coast, to capture birds on the wing headed toward shore at day’s end.

Remembering other times,

waiting for darkness

with a sky map, studying it to make sense of the stars.

How far? How large?

Light from our star, eight minutes old,

grazed the earth’s rim the breath of a moth wing ago.

Connect the dots, stories of heroes, monsters.

Our star, as we know it now

Singular, alone,

Progress, an illusion to be understood

No less mysterious for that

Look back to the sheltering headland of Valparaiso, glowing.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Valparaiso Departure II

View of Aconcagua Mountain at Sunset

January 29, 2022December 19, 2021 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

After the Ocean Princess sailed off toward its destiny in my last posting, “Valparaiso Departure I,” Pam and I left the deck for dinner to return two hours later for the Regatta’s departure in the magic sunset hour.

This first photograph is 22 minutes before sunset as the ship swung into a course along the northern shore of Valparaiso Bay. The city grew along the bay shore, starting from the city center in the southern cup and into the north. We are looking southeast across a lighthouse named “Club de Yates”, identified from the red fiberglass tower, a triangular daymark, toward the north end of Valparaiso.

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Here we see a different city altogether, the fourth largest of Chile and also within the Valparaiso Region and the Greater Valparaiso Area, named Vina Del Mar (Vineyard of the Sea). The view is almost due east and, from here, it is difficult to discern why it is also called “La Ciudad Jardin” (Garden City), it is do densely populated. North Valparaiso ends with a ridge with Vina Del Mar the next valley. Look carefully along the shore to find the Punta Gruesa lighthouse with a red band on a white metal tower daymark. By way of scale the tower is 56 feet high. Follow Punta Gruesa to the right for the ridge separating Vina Del Mar (the taller apartment buildings, from Valparaiso.

The distant mountain is huge, visible from 95 miles away. More about it later.

The previous photographs were using a tripod mounted Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with the Canon 70 – 300 mm f4-5.6 L IS USM lens set to 108 mm focal length, taken 15 seconds apart. I then swapped the EF 24 mm f 1.4 L USM lens for the following photograph of the pilot boat heading to a rendezvous with the Regatta, having dropped off “our” harbor pilot. It will wait beyond the harbor to bring the pilot back home. The photograph is 7 minutes after the previous. Punta Gruesa and the lighthouse and the Vina Del Mar apartment towers are just visible, having lost the sun.

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On the northern tip of Valparaiso Bay Punta Concon, the City of Concon and tall sand dunes also called Concon reflect the sun’s light 10 minutes before sunset. The city is the fastest growing in Chile, 106% between 1992 and 2010 (28,157 to 50,000). The Regatta is now well underway and I returned to the “long” lens here set to the 3oo mm focal length maximum.

On the other side of Punta Concon (Concon Point) the Aconcagua River flows into the Pacific. Although the river has the same name as Aconcagua Mountain, the head waters are in Chile, 12 miles from the slopes of the mountain in Argentina.

A swivel of the camera brings Aconcagua Mountain into view. This former volcano, dead now for 8 – 10 million years is the highest mountain in North and South America. The next highest peak is in the Hindu Kush, 10,000 miles to the northeast. That said, Aconcagua is less challenging than Denali of Alaska and so many people attempt it each year human excrement is a major pollutant there. We are looking here over the Vina Del Mar Valley 95 miles to Aconcagua Mountain in Argentina.

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Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Valparaiso Departure I

Thoughts on Departures

January 28, 2022December 19, 2021 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Late afternoon of our departure from the Chilean port city Valparaiso, Pam and I enjoyed entertainments on the Regatta. This painting of a ship under sail brings to mind the history of Valparaiso, as a place only reachable by ship, clinging to a narrow ledge on the Andes, barely existing for centuries, repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes until the 19th century brought sailing vessels such as this, growth and prosperity. Major earthquakes hit the years 1730, 1822, 1839, 1873, 1906, 1907. After 1907, the city was rebuilt anew in the modern form. The inhabitants must enjoy spot, naming it “Vale of Paradise.”

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While, in the 21st century the city enjoys a refreshment of an influx of artists and visitors such as the Regatta, the danger of the next massive quake is ever present and unpredictable.

As we enjoyed the artwork….

….a pianist entertained us.

As usual, I was carting photography equipment to capture the moments as the afternoon moved towards…

….the scheduled departure among still life painting in the style of the Dutch masters.

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That day I chose the upper decks as the best vantage point. From there, Pam and I viewed the departure of a similar ship to the Regatta, the “Ocean Princess.” It must have been the last voyage of the Princess under that name as, the same year, it was acquired by the Oceania line, refurbished, relaunched as the “Sirena”.

The Chilean navy base and Naval Academy is there. The Ocean Princess navigated around this docked destroyer…..

…with the assistance of the tugboat Alcatraz, a name derived from the Spanish word for pelican as in “La Isla de los Alcatraces” (Island of the Pelicans) where the former Alcatraz prison was built in San Francisco Harbor. Spanish speakers think of birds when viewing the tub boat. Americans think of prisoners (escaping) and San Francisco. Unlike San Francisco Harbor, Valparaiso Bay is a semi-circle open to the ocean, the harbor is on the southern, north facing (away from the ocean) shore, protected by a long (3,000 foot) breakwater along which the Chilean war ships dock. We are viewing the Alcatraz after most of the work for the Ocean Princess departure was done.

The north end of the bay is residential, behind the towers are homes arrayed on the hillside, the only land available.

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Much of the harbor and city business district, in the foreground (below), on the south side is on land reclaimed from the sea.

All around the Regatta was a working port. Here rolls of cable (wire?) are prepared for hoisting onto a cargo ship. Note the hawsers, taught under the strain, between the workmen and the ship hull.

Passengers board the Regatta from the last tours. I expect this is the trip to Santiago. Most of the dockings the Regatta was surrounded by the port, the only way to access the city was on a tour bus as the port activity made walking too dangerous.

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I can only guess the role the Alcatraz is playing here…..

…. probably it is positioned to give the Ocean Princess a nudge if the harbor pilot misjudges the turn around the breakwater and warships. In a harbor, a ship’s crew passes control to a harbor pilot who knows the navigation challenges much better than is possible for them.

Today, as 99.9% of all days, the pilot makes the turn safely. Here is a better view of the warship.

Looking back toward the harbor, the crane is hoisting those rolls, the tug boat “Lauca” framed by the superstructure of (I think) the crane.

The Ocean Princess is will under way, as shown by the long wake. As luck will have it, When the Regatta follows the sun will be much lower, the light better for photography. At the stern of the warship, the masted vessel is a training ship for the Chilean Naval Academy.

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A Far Country XI: Gondwana Part 1

amazing resolution with the Canon 24 mm lens

January 27, 2022December 19, 2021 MichaelStephenWills

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The resolution of the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM makes this lens a favorite of mine for landscape work. Let me show you why.

The valley today’s posting lies behind the tree. It is a broad valley shaped by ancient glaciers.

Here is the Google Earth view, from an elevation of 9,400 feet, with the ship position marked. Northwest is a pushpin titled, “Hanging Valley and Waterfall.”

The waterfall marking the hanging valley is visible in the following photograph. All photographs in this posting are from a Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII, 24 mm lens (see above for complete name), on a Manfrotto travel tripod. ISO 500, f5.6 or f6.3.

With a point of view about 50 feet above the water the valley bottom is hidden behind an 800 foot hill and the water fall is just above the hill. See it? …..I didn’t think so.

There is the island with the tree, to the left. The following image is the same photograph, with the central section enlarged.

The enlargement brings out the play of light, the low clouds, deep in the valley. To provide scale, know those are full sized pines on the hillside, foreground. The waterfall is just about visible. I will enlarge the image one more time.

There it is!! I stepped up contrast, as well.

Here is another version of the original view. That patch of sky had opened up seconds after the first shot and, as a result, the 3,000 door mountain and waterfalls, on right, are better lit. Notice the bare rock face on the mountain slope, marking a landslide.

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A different landslide Scar is featured in two previous blogs,

A Far Country V: Landslides!!

A Far Country VI: View of Tempanos Fjord

The Regatta’s course brought us closer for the two following shots.

The lovely sky is still visible…..

….one minute later the clouds gather and relative darkness returns.

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The Scale of Iceberg Glacier

Why is the glacier face blue?

January 19, 2022December 18, 2021 MichaelStephenWills13 Comments

A glacier is more than ice; not alive, it crawls; not feeling, it groans, cackles, shouts; passive, it is dangerous to approach closely backed as it is by the southern ice field, over a mile high. The ship nudged as close as a half mile from the massed ice, navigating using the bow thrusters to face first port, then starboard and back to port. I was lucky enough to be on the 11th deck, pictured above, when we caught sigh of the fast ship’s launch, manned by ship’s crew.

Iceberg Glacier Scale — Three person ship launch and glacier base at head of Tempanos Fjord

The crew prepared for a run to the rock face, almost 100 feet high, beneath 500 feet of glacier. Enjoy the views! Click any photograph to visit my online gallery. Purchase a photograph from this newly published series or any of my other popular works.

Orientation, Iceberg Glacier, February 17, 2016

Maps of our visit to Iceberg Glacier beginning from Cape Rapier, the Pacific Ocean

January 18, 2022December 18, 2021 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

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Here are a series of maps to aid your understanding of this series of blogs, starting with sunrise off Cape Rapier and ending with my next blog, the approach to Tempanos Fjord and the Iceberg Glacier.