On all my travels I never fail to find some connection to dear old Blighty. A Saturday afternoon visit to Talcahuano, a nearby town, proved to be no exception to this as I found myself stood on a boat, floating in the Pacific Ocean, which had been used in the war between Peru and Chile in the 1800s, and had been constructed in none other than.... Birkenhead! I am constantly learning more about my own country while discovering about the lives of others on this planet, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me.

The journey to such a wondrous piece of craftsmanship was not as easy as one originally thought, due to the "trusty" Lonely Planet giving us details of the correct bus route but the wrong direction. We only realised when, being the only two lone soldiers left on the bus, the driver asked us where we were headed, as he had reached the end of the line! Luckily he turned straight back round to do the opposite route after a flip of his sign and let us stay on free of charge, so not money, but yes time, was lost. We did get a free tour of the surrounding villages I guess.

When we finally arrived and were checked over by the officials, we were given directions to the boat. Now I haven't visited a whole load of boats in my life, but I'm pretty sure that the ones I have been lucky to look round have all been tied up to the shore. The Chileans, it seems, want to give you the real sailing experience and therefore, the boat was anchored a good twenty feet from the deck. "How did you get across?", you ask. Not with a dingy. Not with a snorkel and flippers. No, no. We all climbed down a rickety ladder to a makeshift raft, guided to the ship by only two ropes, attached to which were two strapping young sailors hauling us along to our destination. I wonder if that was the "sailing" they had in mind when they signed up to the Chilean navy. Health and Safety in the UK would have had a fit, especially with the young children running around, but I thought it was a novel way to travel and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The ship itself was actually rather morbid. There were plaques marking every single place a sailor fell in the battles, including the formidable Arturo Prat, whose name adorns many a sign and street in this fair country, and until that moment I had no idea as to why. He was a lawyer and navy officer who fought until his dying day on the Huáscar, this ship. There were many items concerning him and his life on board, including a letter written to his wife with the news of his death, and her touching response, thanking the officer for his kind words and commemorating the work that her husband had done for his country.

Below deck we got to see how they lived, where they ate, and even how they loaded the bombs into the cannon in battle. To help illustrate these activities, life-size models were used. I can't help thinking that the artist got his inspiration for the facial hair from a certain Bradley Wiggins...

It was a great day out and you really got a sense of what life would have been like on board. I would recommend a visit to El Huáscar to anyone in the area. At just 1000 pesos it's real value for money, and there's frequent buses marked "Base Naval" that you can get from Calle O'Higgins, (NOT SAN MARTIN!!) Concepción.