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Guest Speaker Report Wednesday 23 March 2011 by Rotarian Ian Johnson (reporter)
Last week our speaker was fellow member PDG David Croft who spoke to us about his recent trip to “Wild Patagonia”. David was introduced by President Elect Trevor. David advised us about his membership of CIGRE which is the International Council on Large High Voltage Systems. Its membership is made up of people who work for electrical utilities, universities, consultants and regulators and an important aim of the organisation is the sharing of knowledge amongst its members. Membership has given David the opportunity to travel extensively. Apart from the organisation’s two-yearly conferences in Paris regular meetings are held in other countries. David and Margaret recently travelled to Buenos Aires in Argentina for one such meeting. Whilst there they travelled to Wild Patagonia, an area at the southern tip of South America. This is a very cold area and one that Margaret would avoid, given the choice. However David booked a cruise into the Chilean Ice Fields.
They travelled to the
southernmost city in Chile to join the cruise. The cruise went for
five days and was on a boat that could accommodate 110 people. On
David’s cruise there were only 27 passengers as it was the start of
the cruise season and there was a downturn in tourism due to the GFC. They visited the Torres Del Paine National Park and saw magnificent mountains (part of the Andes), glaciers and lakes. David was impressed by the large and stark examples of glacial erosion. They travelled through large fiords and took to small boats to more closely inspect the face of huge glaciers. One of these was six kilometers wide and eighty meters high. They travelled through pack ice which was starting to break up. After the cruise David and Margaret travelled back to Buenos Aires for the conference. Whilst there they saw the moving assembly of the Mothers of the Missing who meet each Thursday at lunchtime. They meet to remember relatives who disappeared during earlier times of political oppression. They also went to a tango show and visited a ranch where they saw traditional dancing and enjoyed delicious steaks. They also enjoyed their visit to Colonia where there are many restored buildings and which is World Heritage Listed. David concluded by saying that he found travelling in South America to be safe and relatively cheap.
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