One historious day out.

As we headed north out of the city, Ricardo weaving us through the mornings chaotic traffic, Pepe, our guide, gave us a run down of the day. It seemed that the wonderful Hostel Centro Historico had worked wonders in putting a small group of us in touch with Ricardo and Pepe. Both Chilango's (a term traditionally used to whom were born into the madness that is Mexico city).
Our first stop, Lazaro Cardeuas Y Manuel Gonzales Streets. (Three Cultures Square). The Plaza of the Three Cultures, known as the Plaza de las Tres Culturas symbolizes Mexico’s unique cultural heritage. Once the center of some of the most powerful Native American empires. Aztec, Mexico became a flourishing Spanish colony in the 16th century. Most Mexicans are Mestizos, persons with mixed European and Native American ancestry representing a third culture, thus the name of the area represents a mixture of all three cultures. This plaza is located at the ancient Aztec city of Tlatelolco where you can see it's ruins. You can also see the Colonial Cathedral of Santiago which dates back to 1524 (although it was rebuilt in 1609). With a sprawling city like Mexico it

 wasn't surprising to see that now this ancient city was being suffocated by many very ugly 1970s looking apartments and government buildings, only the ancient city was keeping them apart. Thankfully Pepe confirmed that this ancient city, dating back to 1325, was now being preserved and protected so in theary it should always be safe from developement. The structures which represent the Three Cultures are the ancient Aztec city of Tlatelolco, the Colonial Cathedral of Santiago, and the very ugly new addition towering, concrete building of the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Department of Foreign Affairs). An odd sight to see three structures of such contrast. All backing onto each other in the same location. Of course, in addition to these three buildings there were many other high rise blocks. And as the archeologists worked away at this acient site, residents of the nearest tower block used the now shared plaza for an aerobic class. 

The plaza is of an important site in Mexican history and it's where three terrible events took place. It was at Tlatelolco that on August 13, 1521 the Aztecs made their final stand against the Spanish army led by Hernan Cortes. It is said that 40,000 Aztecs died in the desperate struggle and their bodies clogged the local canals for days afterward. The battle is memorialized in the plaza by a plaque which reads in part, "Neither a victory nor a defeat, but the painful moment of birth of the Mexico of today, of a race of Mestizos". With that day came the end of the pre-Columbian era in Mexican history. The second tragedy, and one that more may recall, occurred on 2 October 1968 when Mexican soldiers, equipped with tanks and machine guns, fired into a crowd of 14,000 unarmed students who were staging a protest against spending on the 1968 Summer Olympics being held in Mexico City. A huge monument at the site lists the names and ages of the students who fell that day. The plaza was the site of more death on September 19, 1985 when an early morning earthquake caused a modern building adjacent to the plaza to collapse. For days thereafter tents were erected on the plaza as temporary shelter for some of those left homeless by the quake. The earthquake, which affected Mexico City, left at least 8,000 dead. In the name of history, anthropology and tourism, archeologists have only reveiled a small part of this ancient city, the Aztec city of Tlatelolco. The rest of this ancient city now intombed forever under the very ugly modern buildings that surround this famous plaza.

An hour later and we were back on the road and bantering about sporting history.  Mainly centring around football, clearly Pepe's sport of choice. We hit on Mexico's famous Estadio Azteca, Aztec stadium, the only stadium to host two World Cup Finals with a capacity of 105,000. That's some gathering of football minded types. The 1970 world cup, remembered for the ledgendry Pele years and of course the 1986 world cup with the hand of god Maradonna moment.

In just under a hour of the city we had already seen some great stuff.  On reaching Teotihuacan you could say the first thing you noticed getting out the bus was that the temperature had gone up a notch or 3.  Before exploring the pyramids we had a seemingly harmless 'exit through the gift shop' stop that was acting in reverse. Well this is Mexico. This trip through the gift shop experiance was like no other. Not only were we getting put through this experiance prior to the main tour, it also involved drinking copious amounts of tequila. Ranging from 18% to 42% in volume, it was 10:30am. No panic said the owner, as he added mixers of cactus juice or almond or of course a straight shot with just the salt and lime treatment as a side option. We will leave you to work out the strongest and nicest of the three!? Standard rule applied here, all drinks had to go down in one only after successfully completing the "tequila dance". Remembering that we were all stood in a shop. Well it was one way to get the overseas lot to spend out. We came away with a couple of treasures. Ten minutes more and things could have been a hell of a lot worse as the tequila was making it's move north to the brain. Funnily enough all back on the bus the volume had gone up a tad as we made our merry way onto our next historic site.

This short journey took us though colourful districts, none of which you would want to amble round on your lonesome. Each village seeming to have it's preferred choice of merchandise ranging from very large speaker boxes for cars to refurbished oversized tube style TVs sets. Ever wondered where all the non-digital TVs have ended up? Well here's your answer, small remote villages in Mexico. All this was broken up with what looked like brightly coloured schools and community centres. What was constant was the sprall of housing, very basic housing at that, stretching from the highways to as far as you could see right up into the mountains. Only seeming to stop where the mountains became too steep to build on. If you could term this as building. Housing that was just about standing, mainly being supported by neighbouring shacks. This is how Mexico city is constantly growing. People being typically drawn to the bright lights of a city from the countryside for work and a better way of life. A thought process that looked to be failing miserably. Most people make their way to areas like this from southern mexico. In the past many of these people would have fled to the US for work. Not anymore though. All houses built in these areas are constructed with no planning and no services. Some, if not many will be living in slum like conditions in a lawless community. Pepe mentioned that the only way these settlers had a chance to obtain services was if a group of neighbouring people get together to jointly fund connections. Once you are luckily enough to pitch up at a patch of free land the ownership is granted once you have been on it after only 5 years, although here is where the coruption starts. A country joined at the shoulders with the mighty USA, but what a contrast to the way of life being led. Oh yeah, then there's the highway check points where you see guards with the biggest guns we've ever seen at the side of the road. The gun of choice seeming to be the shotgun!

Teotihuacan, The City of the Gods, is Mexico's first great civilisation city where an estimated 125,000 people resided between AD250 and 600.  Probably was the biggest pre-Hispanic Mexican empire.  It is home to some of the largest ancient pyramids in the world, the huge Piramide del sol, (pyramid of the sun) and the almost as big Piramide de la Luna, (pyramid of the moon), both of which were sat there crying out to be scaled.  So with little or no shade we set off for this archeological complex of awesome pyramids set amid what was once Mesoamerica’s greatest city.  According to legend, it was here the gods gathered to plan the creation of man. Scaling some of these pyramids in the mid day sun and at Mexico's altitude of 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) was some going. These mass structures were all built by hand without any machinery and the detailed scuptures alone on each pyramid were carved out without the use of metal tipped tools. When we hit the top of these bad boys it was quite a rare moment of silence for a group that had been drinking tequila some 3 hours earlier. But at least all this legwork eased us into accepting an great mexican lunch offer. An all you can eat which included some fantastic chilli based sauces, catus relish, which was lovely, chicken in a Mexican chocolate sauce, real gucamole, potato tacos, fresh salad by the bucket load, more chillies, more enchiladas and quesadillas than you could actually eat in any one sitting to name but a few dishes. With all this on-board how we ever made it up the second pyramid of the day, the Piramide de la Luna, (pyramid of the moon) is a wonder. Only the gods may know. At the top we were rewarded with some awsome views. Looking straight down the main avenue of terracing made you imagine how it must have been to live here back in the day.

Our third and final Mexico city maneuver of the day was the Basilica of Guadalupe located on Tepeyac Hill, just North of City. This is the site of one of the most visited churches in the world, in fact the second most visited church in the world, after St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The Basilica of Guadalupe is a shrine in Mexico City that is an important Catholic pilgrimage site. The original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the 16th Century is housed in this basilica. Mexico's greatest pilgrimage is done in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe every December 12, commemorating the day when the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared before Juan Diego. The Basilica of Guadalupe receives millions of pilgrims who travel for days from their place of origin throughout the country.

A brief history of Lady of Guadalupe, bare with us:- Lady of Guadalupe (also called Our Lady of Tepeyac or the Virgin of Guadalupe) is a manifestation of the Virgin Mary who first appeared on Tepeyac Hill outside Mexico city to a native Mexican peasant named Juan Diego way back in 1531. She asked him to speak to the bishop and tell him that she wished for a temple to be built in her honor. The bishop required a sign as proof. Juan Diego returned to the Virgin and she told him to pick some roses and carry them in his cloak. When he went back to the bishop he opened his cloak, the flowers fell out and there was an image of the Virgin on his garment. To this very day Juan Diego's tilma, or cloak, with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is displayed at the Basilica of Guadalupe. Over 12 million visit the Basilica every year. Juan Diego was canonized in 2002, making him the first indigenous American saint. So as you can image it can get pretty packed at certain times with all this pilgrimaging going on.  To ease overcrowding and reduce queues at the sacrid spot a four lane escalater has been installed to move you under the high-mounted original of the 480 year old Juan Diego's tilma (cloak) together with the image of Lady of Guadalupe. Despite the escalator technology there still seemed to be a back up going on. Some were just going continuously back and forth on this small escalator.

It´s a question of choice

Well it´s official, the beer here is cheaper than bottled water.  Tonight I am so dehydrated!

Habla usted ingles ?

Mexico is eight times the size of the UK and has a population of over 111 million.

In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony independence was recognised in 1821.

Nothing really can prepare you for turning up at a country that is as explosive and passionate as Mexico.

Our first taste of Mexico City, through our taxi windows, gave us a snip of what was in store for us for the next 4 weeks.  Flashing police lights seemingly going off at each street corner. Crazy, out of control traffic squeezing it's way through tiny streets that were built well before the motor vehicle ruled. These narrow streets are then penned in by lovely antique balcony fronted buildings that butt right up to the streets edge. Everything that's great about old looking stuff just sat there on show for all to see right almongst a city of utter organised traffic chaos. 

Mexico City (central district) is home to roughly 24 million people. The worlds biggest city, only 2nd to Tokoyo at a staggering 27 million. Mexico argue though that their city population is more constant as most if not all of Mexico city types live and work within the city district, i.e the total numbers in the city never really drop where in Tokoyo many head for the hills at night and at weekends.

If you chose not to go by road around the city you can opt for the metro. Not necessarily the easiler option as Mexico city's metro is the third active metro system in the world. Only NY & Tokoyo again beating the Mexicans to the top spot of people-overload.

Somehow though places like this definately enhance any traveller´s road trip. The drama, the unknown, the cultural differences, the language barriers, the cuisine - oh the cuisine.

So after some very dodgey Spanish dialogue we make it across the city from Benito Juarez airport to Reinga our base for the next few days. Impressed would be an understatement as we stood out front of Hostel Centro Historico. Was this really a hostel or a small boutique hotel? Wonderful and magnificent, after nearly 11 months of travel we find by far the most grandest hostel yet. This place had parquet floors throughout, vaulted high ceilings that would blend effortlessly into any French chateau. Our room, big enough to partake in a quick game of  squash, had huge floor to ceiling French doors that opened out onto a balcony where we spent the night dinning on street vendor tortillas, nachos and salsa with a side of the tastiest jalapenos ever. Oh and a chilled bottle of Corona with a slice of lime, a mere 49p!

Houston we don´t have a problem

Our first experience of Vancouver airport, as we had arrived by boat,was a very simple one. Like the Canadians themselves it was really very pleasent. The entire place was quiet and calm. Most passinger's dream.

The flight down to Mexico involved a transit stop at Houston. A pretty non-eventful flight as like with many other airlines Continential have decided that you need credit card in-hand to access absolutely anything onboard. Media, food, drinks. Oh no that´s a bit of a lie, both water and turbulance were free and readily available throughout. We worried we were going to have a Ryanair momement when approaching the toilet, just in case the door lock had been changed for a chip and pin device. As we pulled right over Vancouver we were treated to one final glimpse of the mountains that were holding on to their winter snow coats.

Lazy Sunday

Having not got to bed before 2am, after sharing a beer or 3 with Eva and Niels who we met in Jasper, it was a slower start to our day. It was Sunday and also Mothers day in Canada! For us a stroll down to the nearby marina. All very British like. Sons passed us by laiden with flowers heading for mothers. We spotted that Granvile Island was feeling the affect of mothers day so we jumped onto a bathtub sized ferry that chugged us over to a packed Granville Island where markets and craft stalls were a plenty. Oh markets can be dangerous, the food!!  With us departing the country within the next 12 hours huge restrain was required. We did though treat ourselves to some venison pate, sourdough bread and a few cheeky cornichons. All washed down with 4 pack of Fullers London Pride found in the bargain bucket of the liquor store! Seemingly Canadian types do not dig the semi-flat fantastic taste that is known as our capital city pride.

Sunday was film night at the hostel. So with a bowl of popcorn on our lap we snuggled down to watch Casino with Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone.  A good film that kept our minds off the 4 am start that was required the following morning.

We've loved our time in Canada. The drop in temperature after 10 hot months came as light relief. The snow and skiing was so much fun. The wildlife and scenic views breathtaking.

Miss:
D. Small towns shadowed by huge snow capped mountains,
F. Skiing, peanut butter & jam on toast, moose!

Won't miss:
D. Brutal bus times, plus tax, accidents!
F. The cold

A true legend

Today marks the death of one of the sport's true legends, Severiano Ballesteros. This feisty, skilful, cheeky and loveable Spaniard who was only 54.  Seve passed away in the early hours of this morning after a protracted battle with cancer.
His death without any doubt came much too soon. His creativity and inventiveness on the golf course may never be surpassed. It's easy to see how Seve's daring and flamboyant style brought a new edge to a somewhat at times sterile game. Watching Seve was anything but boring. This was what made Ballesteros different. He had the flair which transformed the image of golf and brought a whole new audience to the sport.
Very few people are called legends in life but it's easy to brand Seve as one of them. Like or loath golf, today the world is minus a true gentleman. We've not only lost one of the worlds great players but also a great old school icon. At 19-year-old he was the youngest winner of the Claret Jug. His final round of 70 featured an astonishing recovery shot from a car park some 70 yards right of the fairway. A place where most of us have found ourselves, but then not necessarily been skilful or confident enough to pull of such a shot from a very nervous tight little lie alongside of a Ford Mondeo instead of from a luscious deep fairway as one had aimed for. In true style though he absolutely nailed the recovery shot putting it right up on the green where he then stepped up and birdied the hole. Magical. Truly magical.
Are those mark II Escorts in the clip ? Cars, parked on the course. Whatever next.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpcBFvZlyDk 
Seve became the youngest winner of the Masters at the age of 23 in 1980 and made his Ryder Cup debut later that year. Thankful the world of sport gave something back as in December 2009 Seve was awarded the BBC's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sports Personality of the Year event.
He had called his battle against the tumour the "hardest challenge of my life."
Life moves pretty fast. Sometimes we've gotta move quick to be part of it.

A night on the buses part II

Last night was nothing short of brutal. Anyone who has a love for the bus by night really needs to travel the 12 hours from Banff to Vancouver on the Greyhound night service.

At one stage we pulled in somewhere, who knows what the place was called, all I could work at that it was 01:14, but wherever we were the sign beaming brightly,single rooms 79 bucks", seemed a really appealing option.

The mountains at one point were so close to the sides of the bus that surely we must have been travelling through tunnels but it was so dark you just couldn't tell. Either way it one hell of a night on the buses. The rest of the day,  funnily enough, brought little more than local papers and coffee shops.

Bathing in Banff

Our last day in the Rockies, in four days we hit Mexico City. That's pretty nuts given our current view at this moment.

The 365 weather forecast for Banff thermal pools is 39c. So for our last throw of the Rockie dice we dived into this hot steamy pool.  Yep true to form the heat at these restored 1930s heritage baths was pretty intense,  even with an air temperature of single figures.  This naturally heated outdoor spring fed pool was hot, hot, hot. As the Banff gondola whizzed away in the distance we enjoyed views of the, still heavily laden with the the white stuff, Mount Rundle. This kind of afternoon mucho required after a marathon 4 1/2 hour internet cafe sess where it seemed every man and his dog were online and well up for a skype catch-up.

Back at poolside - Thursday seemed to be "school outing day". But you must remember these aren't your average kids. These are Canadian kids, the next generation of the most politest people on earth. Fashions aside, no dramas here, naturally. We come to expect nothing else but.

A Rockie Road trip

The drive north from Banff that takes you up to Lake Louise forms part of a drive that's listed in the worlds "top ten" drives. The main part being the Icefield Parkway which snakes past part frozen turquoise lakes and hundreds of glaciers which at this time of year start thawing and begin to steadily feed a network of alpine rivers and streams.

The Bow Valley Parkway section, that starts at Banff and runs parallel with the main Trans-Canada Highway, has so much wildlife around it that at certain times of the year the park authorities ask drivers not to use it at certain time of the day! There is still soooo much snow around we were just hoping something had decided to make a spring appearance. Well it was the first week of May.

Just off the Bow Valley you reach Johnston Canyon. Normally this time of year the lower and upper water falls would be running like crazy. But alas with the snow still packed in solid all the hype was centred around the parks warning signs "venture past this point at your own risk". Going on recent events we wisely moved on.

As the valley road continued the mighty Castle Mountain appeared to the left of us, towering over the vista scenic point car park. Once the Ford's engine was switched off there was not a sound to be heard,  the hibernating Rockie wildlife fast asleep. Not a sound. We just stood there looking up thinking what it must have been like for the original mapping pioneers who trekked, successfully mapped and then documented these terrains, quite unbelievable. The same could be said for the jaw dropping Crowfoot glacier. The toe of the glacier clearly visible from the safety of the roadside. The silence at these two spots was truly fantastic. Only broken by a jet black crow that joined us in checking out the view. Mountains and crows alike, both eye bulgingly huge.

The Bow Valley section completed it was onto Lake Louise. The true highlight in these parts, flanked by the grand, but ever so bland and too over powering, Fairmount Lake Louise Chateau Hotel. A gross extension, you could say, to the simple single level log cabin that was essentially the extent of the original building back in 1890, intended only as a day lodge for visiting mountaineers. Progress we think this is called. "Lake Louise" was the third name given to these waters in 1884. This name proceeded the "Lake of Little Fishes", the first name given to the lake by the natives who settled in the area. Then in 1882, Tom Wilson, a horse wrangler for the Canadian Pacific Railway, christened the lake "Emerald Lake" due to its brilliant green colouring. "Lake Louise" was in honour of Princess Louise Caroline Alberta. She was the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, but more importantly, married to the Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada at the time.

Like all the other lakes at the mo, the Lake of the Louise was still under the grasp of late seasonal conditions. Either way though this was a spot that would wow you whatever the conditions. Victoria glacier to the centre rear. Mount Fairview banked high on the left and Mount Whyte poised enormously on the right. Making for one hell of backdrop for a coffee stop.

The township of Lake Louise is small but has its own charm. We passed some great looking log cabins on route to the village that would act as a perfect base for a future vacation.  Just up from Lake Louise townsite, within the heritage train station, sat someones labour of love.  A fully restored vintage rail carriage that was now home to a classic Canadian dining experience. It seemed to be just about coming back to life again after a very long winter lay off. Getting ready to romance spring visitors once again. With views over the mountains from the dinning room this seemed pretty easy to achieve.

Not that we are making this a habit or hobby but here we found ourselves stood facing the vast view that is a constantly receding and protracting Athabasta glacier. Along with the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers in New Zealand, Alberta's Athabasta glacier has also been steadily receding.  Between 1870 and today the glacier has lost more than two thirds of its volume and more than half its surface area. It has retreated 1.5 km in 125 years. In saying this it's still as thick as the height of the Eiffel Tower and the melting ice that flows from the front of it has been on a 150 year journey from the icefield to the very edge of the glacier known as "the toe". These are such formidable landscapes. Where everything is quite literally taken over by the power and might of glacier conditions. Vast landscapes that are left in the recede of the glacier take on the appearance of waste land.

Our experience here at the Colombian Icefields couldn't have been more different from the glacier experience we had in New Zealand where most people, including ourselves, got away with wearing shorts for our ice walk. Here if we had the entire contents of our backpacks we would have still been freezing. Never the less we still walked close to the toe of the glacier until the pull of the Ford's heater called us back to the car park.

At one point on our return South there was a desert like heat haze on the road but at the same time it was snowing! A formidable landscape indeed. Road markers, not too dissimilar from golf flags, 2m plus high mark the position of the road so that the army of snow ploughs can keep things moving.

On rounding a turn close to the Bow Valley junction, there they were. No, not bears, a fine pair of moose, just enjoying the low afternoon sun. Luckily we had time with them on our own prior to a somewhat speeding camper joined us in the gazing session that was so magical prior to them arriving. Just as  an audience was building the allusive Canadian moose were gone.

Blumbling Banff

Third day of May brings new snow! Yes, this morning it snowed. We hid from this spring flurry within a lovely cafe on the high street where we sat drinking columbian blacks, wohooo it was strong, munching on brownies watching the world pass by through the picture frame windows. We talked of the future (no Wendy not that sort of future), and thought what more exiting adventures were still to follow. Not just next year but a few years to come. Oh the plans, the dreams. A bit like that day, sat on a beach in Greece when we decided to rent out beloved Alma Vale.  The world is our oyster!

Beautiful Banff

With the calming tones of Dido we finally pulled away from very average Calgary 2 hours late. Yes it was back on that Greyhound but this time only for a mere 2 hours. Last minute stand-in driver Rob, confirmed that we were on-route west but with no real time of arrival known. But what he was sure of was that we would get there at some point today!

Onroute to Banff we picked up a few more easy going Canadians still smiley faced, despite the delay. The pick up was in a great looking village called Canmore, nestled neatly into the base of the Rockies that seemed to run right to the seats of the bus stop. Canmore looked a much better alternative to average Calgary - oh the beauty of hindsight! But I guess it can be good to spend time in average-ville so that when you hit hi-town nothing is then taken for granted. And we won't be taking things for granted in Banff

Under a cloudless cobalt sky we pulled into Banff. A unique mountain community pretty much on par with Jasper, located within Canada's first National Park and world heritage site. At 4,800 ft it is the community with the second highest elevation in Canada. Banff is the capital of the Canadian Rockies and even at this time of year these huge gigantic mountains that surround the village still have loaded channels of snow. This village gets flooded with as many as 50,000 tourists a day in the high summer season! And with landscapes like these its easy to see why.

From the bus station to the main high street we instantly knew we would like this place over very average Calgary. Our crappy hostel glitch was short lived as the Banff hostel was amazing. The HI (Hostel International) seem to have this game cracked

Unsinkable?

Private exhibitions at museums are never cheap to enter are they? Luckily for us though we found some money off vouchers in the Sunday paper for the Titanic exhibition that had rolled into town. We seemed to have been chasing this around for quite a while now, always just getting to a place where it had just finished or just prior to it kicking off. So it was off to the Calgary's most hotchpotch building to check it out.  Over the past 15 years, more than 22 million people have seen this powerful exhibition in major museums worldwide from Chicago to Los Angeles to Paris and London. And now it was in Calgary's turn.

The Titanic, the largest moveable object ever built by man. Her maiden voyage from Southampton in April 1912 sank only four days later, and not discovered until September 1985. She lay lost for 73 years in 2 miles of deep north Atlantic waters where freezing water pressure reaches 6000 pounds per sq inch.

Sixty chefs worked in the Titanic's five kitchens. The store cupboard for the 5 day crossing held: 40,000 eggs, 75,000 pounds of meat, 15,000 pounds of fish, 40 tons of potatoes and 1,500 gallons milk! She carried 6000 tons of coal of which she consumed one piece per every foot travelled. Therefore a 60 pound lump could move the ship through about 60 feet of water or 1.5 seconds of forward travel when at full speed.

Titanic had its own newspaper, the Atlantic Daily Bulletin, prepared aboard the ship. In addition to news articles and advertisements, it contained a daily menu, the latest stock prices, horse-racing results, and society gossip.

A first class ticket cost $4,900 (around $90,000 in today's money) for 5-6 days travel. Although a first class ticket covered most things guests still had to pay extra for the turkish baths, the gym and various other sport activities. Sounds a bit like Centre Parcs, "sorry sir, tennis bats are extra".  A third-class ticket cost $40 (approximately $900 in today's currency). There were only two bath tubs for the more than 700 third-class passengers aboard the ship.

Due to the coal strike on at the time of sailing many other sailings where cancelled and most if not all of these stranded passengers were transferred onto the Titanic.

Prior to the fateful moment many other ships in the area had already reported sighting of massive icebergs in the North Alantic. HSS Masaba, HSS Amerika and HSS Califonia had all slowed or even stopped completely as in some cases there seemed no way past these huge floating blocks of solid ice. Still the Titanic continued at a speed of 21 knots, which was close to full pelt, the call to reduce her speed never came. When the ships telegraphs were found they were in the position of "full speed ahead". Some passengers recalled no jolts or shocks when she hit the fatal berg, just a mere dull thud.

The waters temperatures in the North Atlantic were well below minus. Most of those struggling in the water in their life jackets would have succumbed to hypothermia, while others may have had heart attacks. Even if all 20 lifeboats had been filled to capacity, there would only have been room in them for 1,178 people. Only 700 people survived.  Even after the final rescue boats where launched around 1500 people were still stranded on board, sinking to their graves.

RMS Titanic Inc. is the only company permitted by law to recover objects from the wreck of the Titanic. The company was granted Salvor- In-Possession rights to the wreck site by a US federal court in 1994 and has conducted seven research and recovery expeditions rescuing more than 5,500 artifacts. These expeditions have been conducted at the wreck site, located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coastline. Submersibles are used that take 2 1/2 hours to dive down to the ocean floor. Bacteria and fungus growths are sucking away more than 100 pounds of metal from the wreck every day and by the year 2112 the ship will have rotted almost beyond recognition.