#flathal #flatstanley #straitsofmagellan #chile
When Flat Hal and Flat Stanley first made a list of bodies of water they had sailed on this trip, they did it as a bit of a joke. How often does a cruise ship sail on a lake? A fresh water lake! When we think of cruise ships we think of sailing on oceans and sea water.
Today we sailed the Straits of Magellan. Named for Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who sailed for Spain. (He did not name the straits for himself. The King did that to honor him. Magellan named them for All Saints Day, “Estrecho de Todos los Santos”, commemorating the day his ships entered the straits. They were the first European explorers to safely sail this water.
The Flat Fellas have traveled the length of Chile
Arica, San Antonio, Robinson Crusoe Island, Puerto Montt, Castro, Puerto Chacabuco, through the Chilean Fjords with stops at Brujilo and Amalia Glaciers, and now we are in Punta Arenas!
Along the way they’ve sailed the South Pacific Ocean, and into the Straits of Magellan, seen over a dozen species of birds (best guess), and tried to remember to express their gratitude with “gracias.”
The flag of Chile is similar to that of Texas, which inspired Flat Hal and Flat Stanley to try and learn more. With a lit help from Google’s Gemini AI they discovered: The Chilean flag has roots in indigenous symbolism and the fight for independence from Spain.
The Texas flag was similarly inspired by a fight for independence, with a lone star representing Texas standing alone, but they two flags, in reality have separate origins, and their resemblance does not seem to be intentional.
