Netherland Comics

Location - Yucatan Channel - 22 11 N,085 58 W

I always worry about whether my stamps or sheets in a swap reached the other person or not. I'm mortified that I'd post a swapped stamp here only to get a comment from the concerned person that the stamp s/he swapped for never reached them.

So it is with a clear conscience that I can show you these cartoon stamps of the Netherlands as sent by Cees of the chicken blog (link on the right of the blog). She had exchanged these and the smurf maxicard (shown earlier) for a few chicken stamps of Thailand. These stamps are much like the comic stamps of Netherland I had shown earlier from Wim but I'm not really sure of the background.

The easiest one to understand is the bottom stamp in which the goalie realises that he's going to catch the shoe while the football is going past him in the goal. :)

Thanks for the swap Cees & I'll definitely drop by your blog when I get online the next time.

Malaysia - Planes

Location - Yucatan Channel - 23 38 N, 088 13 W

I wanted to show you this sheet for no other reason then the fact that this sheet is lying scanned on my comp for such a very long time. I hated to put this up without atleast some info to write about these planes, but even after a long port stay in the US, access to internet couldn't happen & I doubt I'll get it for some time now.

The planes in this beautiful sheet from Malaysia are the Airspeed consul & the Douglas DC3. Apart from the fact that these are American planes, I don't really know much about them. They do look like the planes from which air drops used to take place
during the World War & the one on the right looks a bit like the Dakota that is still in the Indian Air Force.

Ibrahim was kind enough to swap this sheet with me along with the one of the bird that I had put up a few days back. Thanks again Ibrahim!

USA - The star wars

Location - The Gulf of Mexico - 26 33 N, 094 26 W

The last few days were a bit crazy with me stuck up in Corpus Christi. Now that I am out in the gulf of Mexico, there seems to be a storm brewing on the south east of Cuba & I'm not sure that it was such a good idea getting out of Corpus.

I have of course gone to USA many times before, but this was the first time I went to a US Post office. If there is one stamp sheet of the US that deserves to be put up on the blog it is this sheet of the Star wars. It is one of the most splendid sheets
that I seen & certainly one of the better ones with me.

I actually got this sheet before I reached US by a swap with a couple of people in the postcrossing circuit & it gives me great pleasure every time I look at it. There are a total of 15 stamps in the sheet & many of them are worth a separate post in
themselves. Maybe once the seas around here settle down, then I can tell you more about them.

PS: Kalpana & Cees - Thanks for the Comments. Kalpana - will send you a Paquebot from next port.

Portugal motorcycles - II

Location: Texas Anchorage - 28 10 N,095 48 W

In addition to the miniature that Jose had sent me, on the cover were these two more bikes. Portugal released a set if these bikes (if I remember, there were eight of them) and of these, only four of them were on the miniature sheet. Jose was kind
enough to include two more on the cover.

Not only are these bikes newer looking then the bikes that we saw yesterday, but I like the setting of the two bikes facing each other. Also if you look at the postmark, it looks like a motorcycle tyre!

Weather by accident or a deliberate act, it looks splendid. :)

Portugal - Motorcycles

Location : Gulf of Mexico : 24 50 N, 090 47 W

Now that I am reaching texas in a day or so, I wish I had saved the stamp of Davy Crockett for today to show you. But Today, America is so much more then a bunch of people standing and shooting at other people. Okay so America is still a bunch of
people who shoot at other people, but now they do it in style.

And that brings us to the Motorcycles. I'm not going to show you Harley-davidsons, but the classic bikes series taken out by Portugal. Jose was kind enough to swap these with me for stamps on bridges. (Jose collects bridges - if you find any, do post
here).

These are classic looking bikes & sadly I'm not auto expert so I wouldn't know much about these bikes. But the one on the bottom right actually looks like the kind of bike that we drive in India these days. :)

Of these four, I personally like the bottom left. It looks old enough to look like its not handed down by your elder brother & it has a mean & low look to it like a dog growling at your testicles.

Lets have your favourites with reasons please.

Panama Canal

Location : The Caribbean - 18 30 N, 082 01 W

I left the canal yesterday & am on the way to Texas right now. I don't suppose that I'll be passing through the canal for some time in the future. The Last time I did it was in 1999 & the next time might be as far ahead. Thought that I'd put up a nice
stamp of Panama as a parting post.

This time I could manage to get only two new stamps. One of it was the one above. It was a very pleasant surprise to recv the above stamp sheet. I have put in a lot of pictures of the Panama Canal in my regular blog over the last month, & this stamp
sort of completes the circle. The locks shown above are the Gatun Locks. You can make them out by the white light house on the left of the locks.

The stamp shows a picture with one ship in the lock & two more approaching the locks from the north. In the background you can see the Atlantic Ocean (or the Caribbean if you want to be more specific).

A great finale of stamps from Panama in my opinion. :)

Edgar P Jacobs

Location : Panama Pacific Anchorage : 08 51 N, 079 31 W

Today instead of a stamp, I wanted to show you the postcard that Wim had sent across along with those stamps of the comics. I have heard of Edward P Jacobs, but I really don't know the comic in question. Wim assures me that the comic is well known at
least in Europe.

It does look like a lot of fun. :)

Thanks Wim.

Netherland Comics

Location: Gulf of Panama - 05 32 N, 080 05 W

Now that we have left behind the coastlines of all countries, lets have a look at favourite - comics. These are stamps sent to me by Wim of postcrossing, who also sent me a superb comic postcard on which these were posted. I will show you that card some
day as well.

These stamps seem to be from a series of comics that I have never read. Probably they have not been translated in English. the first stamp is about a violin teacher, the second is about a lady who seems to be rather alarmed at the age of her dentist, & in the third stamp the father seems to have cut open a trunk to make a dog house.

Maybe one of you out there in Europe might shed some knowledge on the origin of the stamps.

Japanese Indian Stamps

Peru Coast: 07 22 S, 080 50 W

As Chile has been left far behind & Panama is far ahead, let me show you some more stamps that you all have sent across. Yukkio from Japan was thoughtful enough to send me these stamps. The first of the stamps is a very classic painting from North
India. And the second stamp is of course of the Taj Mahal.

I'm not sure if Japan released a series on different countries, but it was very nice of Yukkiko to send me these two together. Thanks again.

Chile - Villarica pucon

Location : Peru Coast : 12 52 S, 078 58 W

Lets take a last look at the stamps from Chile. This is also from the "Chile- All ways surprising" series & features the Villarica Pucon Volcano. If you look at my regular blog you'll see my explaination for these volcanos.

Chile - The moon Vallay

Location - Peru Coast - 18 24 S, 077 02 W

Leaving chile, the north coast looks pretty much like the stamp up here. The cliffs along the coast are spectacularly barren. Reminds me of the Ladhak Valley in North India.

This stamp is also of the series of the " Chile - All ways surprising" series

Chile - Pais turistico

Location : Chile Coast - 22 55 S, 075 25 W

Since I'm still in Chilean waters, let me show you another from the Pais Turistico series. These are nice stamps and the pencil finish probably makes them better then what a picture might have represented them as.

"Pais Turistico" probably means "Screw the tourists", or something else to do with the tourists, and each of the five stamps deals with a separate region of Chile. The great thing about Chile is that it extends in a great thin line pretty much
throughout the southern hemisphere. This allows for all sorts of landscapes in the country. You have The deserts in the north & snow in the south.

We have already looked at two of the regions of Chile in the last few posts. This stamp is from the "X Region". I really will have to open up google to tell you more about that. But it does seem like a nice place to rest for a while.

Status of Velu

Location : Chile Coast - 22 55 S, 075 25 W

I got a comment from msyanwu on the post "Chile - Easter Island".

Thanks for the comment & its great that you would like to swap with me. Sadly I managed to get very few stamps this call to Chile, so I won't be able to swap these particular stamps with you as I have only one set.

Also I have two limitations at Present. I am not connected to the internet & I won't be able to get back to home till Jan 08. So I will resume all swaps from Jan.

In the meanwhile, if you put up your addresses in the comments (Its not as if anyone else reads this blog. :) ), I can get it and will definitely send across a letter or a card from every port that I go to.

The ports that I go to in the next few months : Panama, USA, Netherland Antilles , Africa West Coast.

msyanwu : I sail for about 7 months in a year. The rest of the time, I take pictures of postoffices!

PS: Eric, Gulfman & Lenka - Came to know that your mails have arrived. Thks. Looking forward to seeing them.

Paquebot mail works!

Location : Chile Coast - 27 26 S / 073 43 W

I had sent a few envelopes of Paquebot mail from Panama on the 24th of Sep, & Gulfman from Taiwan reports as a comment on the penguins post that he recd it yesterday. This is great. This does mean that the rest of the covers are on their way as well, &
it'll be fun if my own cover reaches my home. :)

PS: I also sent a couple of these letters from Chile. Let me know if anyone of you get them.

Penguins

Location - Valparaiso, Chile

Since I'm still in chile & I have new stamps to show off, let me today show you all a set of stamps on Penguins. These stamps, like the last set are also taken from the same two sets & feature the same subjects. The Penguins are quite commonly seen in
the southern parts of Chile & come us to as far north as Valparaiso, but in smaller numbers. Valparaiso is about 35 Degrees south Latitute and in the northern hemisphere it would be like finding Penguins in Gibralter.

But the reason that they are able to survive as far north as Valparaiso is because of the cold Peru current, that fows northward up the west-coast of Southcurrent. In Chile, they don't like calling it "Peru Current", & infact call it the "Humble
current" or the "Humbolt Current".

Sadly I didn't see any penguins, but a pair of sea lions have been hanging around the ship for the last couple of days.

Chile - Easter Island

Location - Chile

Well as I am in Chile, I wanted to show you a couple of stamps that I got my hands on yesterday. These are stamps from different series, but as both are on the same subject, I'm clubbing them together. These are the men of the Easter Island. Again lack
of Google makes my blog a bit shallow, but if memory serves me right, there is a bit of a mystery as to what & why caused people to make these on a remote Island in the middle of no where. Though I did see a cartoon where it was explained that these
guys resonated on an inaudible frequency & did some fourth dimensional thing. :)

Stamps wise- these are both good stamps. The upper one is a set of five nice pencil sketch of different parts of chile, issues for some tourist promotion.

The lower colored stamp is more of a trade promotion. A couple of years back, the chilian trade federation started a campaign called "All Ways Chile". This series was issued as pert of that campaign to increase trade & other cultural exchanges.

Wild duck

Location - Chile

Since I featured a bird in my regular blog, let me show you something very much similar out here. This is a wild duck from Malaysia & the miniature sheet, is beautiful but a bit small. But since it contains only one stamp, I guess that makes it the
right size.

Thanks to Ibrahim for the swap.

Aladdin

Chile Coast - 29 00 S, 073 05 W

Today lets visit the middle east & another unfortunate intervention of the USA in their internal affairs. The Story of Aladdin has been around for a long time, since the tales of the 1000 nights. It is the story of a street kid, who gets his hands on a
magical lamp with a genie and uses it to defeat the evil magician to get his princesses. It is a classic tale of victory of good over evil & Walt Disney took it & made it into something rather unfortunate.

I don't think the movie was awful. I am not very finicky about movies, but the movie first came out when Hollywood was not very comfortable with depicting stories of another world. If you look at the movies, you'll think that the movie was based on a
couple of Americans stuck in Basra.

I like this story basically because its not about some lady fainting and waiting for a prince to come along and kiss her. Its a story about a common man, who along with a little luck & weird coincidences can go anywhere he wants.

Thats the reason why this story isn't going to get old any time soon.

Tintin

Location - Chile coast - 24 02 S, 074 59 W

I forgot that the blue chap in yesterdays post is called the "Smurf" for some reason, I just couldn't rememeber that name.

Let us look today at a person who never faces that problem & always remembers his facts. Tintin is an amazing chap who has been all over the places- from The mountains of Tibet to the amazon jungles to the dark side of the moon.

I grew up on Tintin & Astrix. The amazing part of Tintin was that the chap himself is so subtle in front of the supporting cast such as Capt Haddock, Professor Calculus & the thompson twins, that at the end of a story, you hardly remember what it is
that tintin did in it. What sticks out is Capt Haddock shouting "Bristling Blue Barnacles" every time his rum bottle is broken. In this stamp released by France in 2007, we again find this mild mannered fellow stitting quitely in a boat. I'm not sure
if they brought out a series on the entire cast, but we can be sure that Capt Haddock won't be pictured sitting so quitely.

Apart from minor achivements such as finding water on the moon to busting international crime sindicates, Tintins crowning glory is to find himself with friends that love him & a dog that adores him.

Thanks to Pazzolina of Post Crossing for sending me this.

Belgian Cartoons

Location : Chile coast - 20 34 S, 076 14 W

It really is very gratifying to receive nice comments from you people. Prompted by Meike's comments to having seen Marsupilami's in Belgium, I dug around in my collection of green people from Belgium. The only thing I cam up with was these blue chaps.

To be honest I am not sure what these are called, but I must say that I have seen a lot of them around. I especially remember the women on these people, who if you ignore the fact that they are blue, are rather comely & with a great head of blond hair.

Presented above is a maxicard that the Belgian Philatelic dept took out way back in 1984. The Stamp on the bottom left is a replica of the card, & if you can make out on the picture, the postmark is of a mushroom in which these little people stay &
party.

Cees the chicken lady (Link on the right) was kind enough to send this across to me for a couple of chickens from Thailand.

So thanks Cees & thanks Meike. :)

The Centenenary bridge

Location : Peru Coast - 16 13 S, 077 46 W

I think we did look at the Bridge of the Americas a few days back. That was the only bridge connecting the two continents for a long time. And the last time I had crossed the Panama Canal in 1999, the bridge was still the only connection. So this time
when I happened to come across this huge bridge in the way, it was a surprise to say the least.

This bridge is called the Centenary bridge as it was made to commemorate 100 years of the Panama Republic in 2003.

It is a nice bridge, but anyone who has seen the previous picture of the Bridge of the Americas will agree with me that this bridge simply lacks any character. They could have come up with something more beautiful.

The BA chart still shows the bridge under construction, but the traffic on it & the pilot assures me that the bridge has been in operation for some time now.