Sunday, Feb
19, 2017
Amelia
Glacier and at Sea
This is a
photo taken off of our TV. The Amelia
Glacier is between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas. Actually LOTS of glaciers
along this route.
Monday, Feb
20, 2017
Punta
Arenas, Chile
Our last
stop in Chile. We visited an estanza on Riesco Island. The owner is a collector of all things related to farming in the area. Not only are the outside items brightly colored, there is also an inside museum of so many collectibles - fascinating. We were treated to a delicious lunch and a gaucho hearded sheep into the yard and gave us a sheep shearing demonstration.
And we met some guanaco - a kind of llama - indigenous to this region.
And we met some guanaco - a kind of llama - indigenous to this region.
Tuesday, Feb
21, 2017
USHUAIA,
Argentina
Early
arrival at the dock in Ushuaia. I’m sort of getting used to waking up well
before dawn! So many more mountains and glaciers to ooh and ahh over! Today, we travel to the southern-most termination of the Pan
American highway (beginning in Alaska). Ushuaia lies on the Beagle Channel,
named after the sailing ship carrying Charles Darwin. On the other side of the
Channel is Tierra del Fuega (Land of Fire) named after the fires generated by
the native Indians.
Wed, Feb 22,
2017
ROUNDING THE
HORN!!!
Today is the
day this cruise is all about! We rounded Cape Horn this morning and it was
exhilarating to realize that we were as far South in this world that we will
ever be 56 degrees South Latitude! The outside temp was a balmy 42 degrees F and
the wind was blowing 75 mph with gusts to 100 "they" say! A very blustery day indeed! The
Lighthouse at the End of the World is occupied by a family of 5. There term
there is one year. We wondered what the Lighthouse Keeper did to deserve this
exile!
Once again
we went up to the Sanctuary on Deck 17 where, once again, we were the only
passengers so the service was beyond excellent. Anthony, our deck steward,
brought us the BEST hot chocolate ever, laced with Bailey’s Irish Cream. Hearty
souls that we are, as we rounded the Island we realized that the apparent wind
would soon be to our disadvantage and we could see the rest from the warmth of
our cabin!
Chuck took pictures of me at the most
historical moments, we left a bit of Mom and my sailing friend, Marge, in the
Southern Ocean. Mom would have loved the cruise and it was a fitting
remembrance of the 5th anniversary of her death. Marge would have
LOVED sailing around the horn aboard ANY vessel! I think this may be the one
destination that eluded her.
After the
circumnavigation of Horn Island we set our course Northeasterly towards the
Falkland Islands. The overnight crossing was amazingly gentle. After several
rocky passages in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic gave us a break.
Arrived at
Stanley, East Falkland Island (there are about 600 of them, but East Falkland
is the most populated and center of life in these islands. The population was
doubled when our ship (of 3,000) unloaded! 2,100 live on the West island. We
took a 2 hour tour of the island with our final stop at the Historic Dockside
Museum. Very interesting artifacts telling the history of the island.
Some of our favorites were the Symphonium
and the portable dental
office. The drill was operated, not by electricity but by foot treadle! OUCH!!
After that
tour, we took a shuttle out to the beach to see Penguins. Unfortunately, the
path out to view the Magellenic Penguins was too treacherous for me to feel
comfortable traversing so we only saw them from a distance before returning to
town and back to the ship. Those are penguins behind me in this photo (this beach is also a mine field - literally - unexploded ordinance left over from the war with Argentina so many years ago. The penguins are light enough not to set them off, but the beach is closed to humans until they finish clearing the field.
The other
penguin tours offered involved very bumpy travel over extremely rough terrain.
Too bad, I really wanted to see the Rockhopper Penguins as well as the Gentoos.
This may have been my only opportunity on this trip, but we are only a week
into this voyage and my back is still getting used to the constant motion of
the ship. No time to take chances with it!
Sailed at
1800, this time NorthWesterly towards Port Madryn, Argentina. After a day at
sea tomorrow, (sleeping in and an afternoon of Mah Jongg) we will arrive at
dawn on Saturday.
Friday, Feb
24, 2017
At Sea (day
5 of 16)
A typical
day at sea: 10 am Enrichment lecture (today on Machu Pichu) followed by a
presentation on Puorto Madryn, our next Port of Call.
Nice to have
the weather warming up. We have been very luck with easy seas in the Atlantic.
Tomorrow we will probably pack up our winter clothes and start wearing shorts
and capris again!
Sat, Feb 25,
2017
Puerto
Madryn, Argentina
Evidently, an invitation was extended to the people of Wales to come to Argentina. Many did and made it their new home. There is a lot of European influence in this part of the world as the Germans as well as the Welsh immigrated here in the 19th century. The architecture shows this influence.
Excursion to another estancia where we witnessed another sheep shearing demo - each one we see is slightly different from the last. This one involved audience participation in catching and landing the sheep. Fun! (to watch) This photo is a baby guanaco-check out those beautiful eyes!
Evidently, an invitation was extended to the people of Wales to come to Argentina. Many did and made it their new home. There is a lot of European influence in this part of the world as the Germans as well as the Welsh immigrated here in the 19th century. The architecture shows this influence.
Excursion to another estancia where we witnessed another sheep shearing demo - each one we see is slightly different from the last. This one involved audience participation in catching and landing the sheep. Fun! (to watch) This photo is a baby guanaco-check out those beautiful eyes!
Sun, Feb 26,
2017
At Sea
Typical day:
slept late, Port Lecture on Montevideo, Uraguay, our next port of call, lunch
then Mah Jongg afternoon.
Mon, Feb 27,
2017
Montevideo,
Uraguay
Today we
visited one of our favorite Estancias. They were excellent hosts and took us on
a hayride to see their very large ranch. In our parade of haywagons were an
antique Ford and a horse-drawn carriage. We were treated to typical regional
dances and delicious beef and chicken cooked on the grill.
Tues, Feb
28, 2017
Today is
officially “Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Carnival, last day to party before Lent
begins” One wouldn’t know it in BA. Except for the previous weekend being
designated Carnival weekend and nearly everything was closed, people were out
of town for the holiday. We were lucky because the normally heavy traffic was
non-existent so we could explore the various parts of the city easily. The
highlight of this day was the luncheon and tango show we attended. This photo was taken in front of and inside the restaurant.
Wed, March1,
2017
Buenos
Aires, Argentina
This is the
day that the first leg of our trip ends and many guests are leaving us
including some of my Mah Jongg buddies. (But tomorrow we’ll have new ones).
There are no organized excursions for those of us remaining onboard which is
nice. Taking a day off!
Thursday,
March 2, 2017
Buenos
Aires, Argentina
San Telmo neighborhood store-whimsical
Vertical Garden
Giant stainless steel flower - motorized - opens and closes slowly!
Friday,
March 3, 2017
At Sea
Saturday,
March 4, 2017
At Sea
Sunday, March
5
Rio de
Janiero, Brazil
Beautiful
Dawn (yes, I was awake for dawn!) as we approached Rio we recognized Sugarloaf
Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches.
Very excited for our day ahead visiting these world famous places.
And so the
best laid plans…
Our meeting
time was 8am (another reason for being awake at dawn). As per our usual
excursion day routine, I went to the Princess Theater meeting place while Chuck
went down to Deck 4 to be among the first ashore to make certain the bus was
prepared for MY arrival. What nobody counted on was the Brazilian officials
being difficult at the clearing in part of our day.
While we
waited I read enough of my book to run my battery down, discussed politics a
bit with a like-minded woman, and wandered down to deck 4 to get my charging
brick from the bag Chuck was carrying. I thought he might be bored standing at
the gangway for all this time (only 2 hours at this point). Well, he wasn’t! He
was having a ball swapping sea stories with some of the officers (those that
were not in meetings with Brazilian customs and Immigration). Another hour of
reading, chatting and being updated every 10 minutes by the very cheerful
Gerardo, one of the Shore Excursion crew when we finally got the news that we
were welcome in Brazil!
Since we
were delayed 3 hours on our all day excursion, the schedule got twisted, but to
our advantage. Our first stop was lunch at a typical Brazilian restaurant where
the servers rounded the tables with skewers of meat off of which they sliced
directly onto our plates. SO GOOD!!!
Then we went
to Christ the Redeemer statue which involved boarding a train to take us up the
mountain then up further via elevator and escalators until we finally reached
the level of the statue’s foundation. This statue is 125 feet tall! There were
hundreds of tourist all vying for the best spot to get the “money shot”. In anticipation,
the tourism people had placed a few dozen mats with pillows around the platform
where photographers stretched out to snap away in between dozens more
photographers stepping over their prone bodies in an attempt to get THEIR shot
clear of those damned selfie-sticks wielded by the rest of the population from
old to young the latter of which are more interested in “pose cute” than the
tourist attraction they are selfie-posing in front of. 
So, after
about 20 minutes of enjoying the view (spectacular, by the way) and snapping a
few photos of our own, we reversed course and headed down the mountain and on
to our next destination.
Did I
mention that the temp in Rio that day was 98 with 75% humidity?
I don’t do
well in those conditions but held up pretty well until we headed up Sugarloaf
mountain for sunset. Remember that we had been up since dawn and our delayed
departure had us still out on excursion well past our expected return time. So
now the heat and humidity took their toll. But I knew it would be cool and
breezy at the top, which it was and the sunset was spectacular even though the
sky was cloudy. We could see Christ the Redeemer lit up across the city which
was pretty well lit up, too.
Back at the
ship, I crashed and burned, every muscle in my body burning, every pore clensed
with sweat – and couldn’t get cold water in the shower!
Zzzzzz
Monday,
March 6, 2017
Rio, day 2
I slept till
1, had brunch then went for my first swim of the trip – felt SO good. None of
the pools are really lap-worthy, but I did manage to get in about 20 short laps
before the pool got crowded. So I did what I could remember of my AquaBelle
exercises and stretches and was surprised to realize that an hour had passed!
We set sail
around 3:30 – next stop, Salvador, Brazil
Tuesday,
March 7, 2017
At Sea
Slept till
8:30 then went to a port lecture on Salvadore. We haven’t booked any excursions
there (there were only 2 offered). Looks like we can walk to the market and old
town. Cobblestone streets may wear me out!
