La Portada de Antofagasta

From Chile, a beautiful card with interesting stamps.

The card shows a rock formation, the Gateway of Antofagasta and the cliffs nearby.  The arch and the cliffs are made up of layers of sedimentary rock, yellow sandstone and fossil shells, all laid down over millions of years.  The sea has eroded these layers, resulting in the formations that can be seen today, now declared a national monument.

The stamps showing helicopters are part of a set of six stamps commemorating the International Polar Year, issued in 2008 as far as I can tell. 

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Viña del Mar

Viña del Mar is one of the foremost tourist areas in Chile.  Its name means vineyard by the sea, though the vineyards seem to have been overtaken by other forms of growth.  It is also known as the "garden city".

The building on the rocks by the sea is Castillo Wolf, Wolf Castle, and above to the left is the Presidential Palace for the President of Chile to use when he wants a seaside break.  When I first looked, I misunderstood and thought the President would be in Wolf Castle, right on the edge of the sea.  Personally, I would prefer that position but it did seem a little odd.

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Map of Panama and Columbia

I wasn't expecting to say be able to say any more about this card than that it's a reproduction of a map from 1671, drawn by Guiljemus Blaeuw, called "Terra Firma et Novum Regnum Granatense et Popayan".  And that although it was sent to me from Chile, it had been bought in Colombia.

In trying to find out more about Guiljemus Blaeuw and Panama, I discovered that in the late 1690s Scotland had attempted to set up a colony in Panama.  I have never heard anything about this before, but I'm not well versed in Scottish history.  It was called the Darien Scheme after the densely forested area of Panama.  It was the disastrous failure of the proposed colony that led to the Act of Union between Scotland and England.