To South America for King Penguins

We took the Southern Most Wonders cruise with Oceania from Dec 1, 2014 to Dec 16. It went through a number of ports in Argentina and Chile plus a couple in the Falklands and Uruguay. It's our first time to see much of South America. What excited me the most was to see the king penguins in the Falklands! We also took in the Iguazu falls before the cruise. Hope to have something interesting to share with family and friends through this blog, besides just a diary for myself to remember.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina; Friday, November 28, 2014

Traveling on Thanksgiving Day was indeed a joy, traffic wise!

We left the house around 11am and got to Lin's house around noon time - Lin kindly offered to let us park our car there and drive us to the airport! The traffic on the pike was light especially in our direction. But on the west bound side, it was quite heavy. I guess it's because of the snow the previous day which prevented people from going wherever they wanted to go. Traffic on Rt 9 was not so good, so Bob had to take the smaller roads to get to Lin's.

We got to the airport around 12:30. Boy, I had never seen the airport so not crowded! Very nice! Going through checkin and security was a breeze. Then we had lunch at the Legal Test Kitchen. Our Delta flight took off on time and got us to Atlanta smoothly.

In Atlanta, we had time to rest in the lounge for a while before boarding our flight to Buenos Aires. Again the flight took off on time. We enjoyed the service and the seats, and were able to sleep for no less than hours at home. Delta is so much better than United. The flight attendants made us feel that we're welcome, and they're not there just doing their job.

We got to BA before 8am local time. Bob had arranged the limo pickup who would first bring us to the Sofitel to drop off some of our luggage, then to the other airport where we would board the LAN flight to Iguazu Falls. There was a station/service where our pickup service was registered. Bob got instructions to go there and they called our driver who arrived promptly. Our driver's name is Karina, a very pleasant lady! She is from Argentina but she lived in the US for 10 years. Her husband is an American who owns the limo service. The service is quite pricy, but Karina provided very good service so it was worth it. She took us into the other airport and showed us what is where. She wanted to stay with us in the long line but of course we asked her to go back.

Our good experience seemed to end right at that airport, unfortunately. 

The line for checkin was long. Bob and I had been spoiled because we either had United premier status or we had business class seats so checking in had been easy for us. But not here, with the LAN airline which we had no other choice to get to Iguazu Falls. Since we had plenty of time, we patiently stood in the long zigzag line and checked in our 1 piece of luggage. After the checkin, we had 4 pieces of carry-ons: 2 camera bags, 1 backpack, and 1 tripod bag. Since we had more than 1 hour to kill, Karina advised us to have lunch before going through the security as there were more choices outside the security. We listened to her advice, had a light snack and rested in the food court area till about 1 hour before boarding time.

The worst part happened at security - they would not let me bring the tripod on board and insisted that I check it in. They did not speak English and refused to reason with me. The tripod was a small one. The bag was about 2 feet long, 4 inches wide, like a tube. I had no other choice but to go downstairs and checked it in. I spoke with the lady at the checkin and told her that I had carried the same tripod on many airlines and never had any issues. She said "I know. This airport is just this way ....". I WILL complain!! I emailed Karina and she told me where I can file a complaint. After I checked it in, I was mentally prepared that the tripod will be broken when I see it.

Our LAN flight 4030 was supposed to take off at 1:20pm. We waited at the gate, waited and waited. 1:20pm came and gone. There was no announcement about any delay, but the delay was obvious. I went to the desk to ask and was told there was some issue with the paper work and we would board "in 10 minutes". I am not sure how many "10 minutes" came and gone. But we finally boarded after 2:30. We had to take a bus to the plane. After we finally all got on the plane, suddenly there was an announcement, in Portugese and in clear English, that we must all deboard because they needed to change a tire and they could not change the tire with all the passengers on board. The plane was quiet and nobody moved for a minute or two. Then people started standing up and walking out. We were in the last row (how lovely!). After about half the plane deboarded, another announcement was made, a brief one, saying it was OK for us to stay on the plane. This is UNBELIEVABLE!! There was no explanation or anything. Not sure if people were used to this sort of thing or what, but nobody seemed to say anything, except we and another couple from Germany. We had been chatting while waiting to board and they happened to sit next to us in the last row. We complained amongst ourselves and joked about this whole bad experience.

The plane finally took off around 3:30. Hopefully it did change its broken tire. And thankfully we safely landed in Iguazu Falls shortly after 5pm. When the plane touched down, many people applauded by clapping their hands.  For me, I just wanted to tell them I would NEVER EVER fly LAN if I could help it! And I will tell everyone I know to avoid this airline at all cost! Extremely unprofessional!

Iguazu Falls airport was a small one, with only 2 conveyer belts for luggage. Ours was not a big plane with that many people, but we waited for a LONG time for our luggage. Everyone was annoyed. We were told that they only had 1 or 2 trucks and they first unloaded the cargo. Another UNBELIEVABLE!!

We finally got out of the airport! I prayed the Iguazu Falls would be worth this horrible flight! I had contacted a private tour guide for our Iguazu Falls visit and he would pick us up at the airport. I was hoping he was able to check online to know the flight was delayed. He was there waiting for us as we came out. He had a sling on his right arm - it turned out he broke his arm 3 weeks ago while riding a motor bike (maybe that was the reason I had a hard time communicating with him via email in the last few weeks). He had a taxi waiting for us. A short ride later we got to the Sheraton hotel inside the Iguazu Falls park on the Argentina side.

Sheraton is the only hotel inside the park and it enjoys an unbeatable location. We reserved a room facing the falls and got a room on the third (top) floor. When we stepped into our room, we were so very impressed with the view - the falls with their smoky spray was right in front of us! Just beautiful! We walked out to the patio and saw a bunch of monkeys playing around. Quite interesting. The ground of Sheraton, with its manicured lawn and landscaping, swimming pool, etc. was very pleasant. I regret that I did not pack our swimming suits with us :-(

We quickly washed off the surface dust from the past 24+ hours travel and went out to the roof to catch a few shots under the quickly setting sun. Then we had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel - an Italian restaurant that was not bad! Came back to the room, tried to get on the internet without success and finally gave up. Washed and got into bed around 11pm, which would be 9pm at home. We would be getting up at 6:30am tomorrow to meet Francis at 8am.

Iguazu Falls Day 2, Argentina; Saturday, November 29, 2014

We got up 15 minutes past the alarm. Had breakfast which started at 6:30. The buffet breakfast (included in the hotel fee) was quite adequate. Then we met Francis at 8am. Today Francis' wife was the driver. She did not speak English so we could not really communicate with her. They already have a 4-year-old daughter, Sofia, and they're expecting their 2nd daughter in January.

Our plan today was to see the Brazilian side of the falls in the morning - Francis said it was best to see the falls from that side in the morning. Then we would have lunch and see the Argentinian side of the falls in the afternoon. And that's what we did.

Bob and I have seen quite some water falls, including the Niagara Falls near home, and the Victoria Falls in Africa. We did not know if we would be impressed by the Iguazu Falls, until today. The Iguazu Falls are absolutely magnificent and stunningly beautiful! It was of much wider and bigger scale than the Vic Falls which in turn was a lot bigger than the Niagara. I am not able to describe in words what the falls are like. And the photos I took do not do the falls justice, but hopefully give some indication of the falls.

The most famous and magnificent spot was called the Devil's Throat. There was a trail on the Argentinian side that used to lead to that spot. But the big flood in June washed away that trail. From the Brazilian side, we walked onto a bridge/viewpoint where we got drippy wet by the violent water spray from the fall, but got a decent glimpse of the "Throat". I do not have the names of all the spots - Francis might have mentioned some but I cannot remember them. There were so many spots that had big falls, one after another. After we saw quite a number of falls, Francis told me we had barely saw 50%!

At the end of the Brazilian side trail we were on, there was the "tower" where we rode on an elevator where we could get a kind of birds eye view of the falls of that spot. Then we went to the restaurant behind it and had lunch. Francis said it had very good Brazilian food. I was doubtful but he was right! It was buffet style. In addition to the table that has the more usual barbecued meat and other dishes, there was a table with the more traditional Brazilian food, with various flavors of black bean dishes. They were DELICIOUS! So flavorful! I really enjoyed it!

After lunch, we stopped at the gift shop and looked around a little bit, before getting into the car to head back to Argentina. I am very impressed with how the park has been managed. It was very crowded today, for some reason that Francis did not understand. It would have been even better if there were less people and we did not have to wait inline for certain lookout spots.

On the way back to the Falls on the Argentinian side, I asked Francis to drive us to the town first. I was hoping to shop around a little bit, but all the stores were closed for siesta and would not reopen until 5pm. Same as in Spain ....

We started on the lower trail to the fall on the Argentinian side after dropping off some stuff in our hotel room. It was very interesting to see the same falls from both sides. By 5pm, we started towards the higher trail and Bob bailed out. It was very hot and humid. I went with Francis to the end of the trail and saw some absolutely gorgeous rainbows on top of the magnificent falls! Francis said it was the best time and he was right. Francis used to work in the national park before he became a guide. He really knew the park on both sides very well. Without him we would not have been able to see all we saw and experience today!

In addition to the scenery, the Falls had wild life abundant! Today we saw many coatis which I had never seen before. They were not that good looking. But with their babies, they were quite cute. They were not afraid of people and would come very close to sniff your bags if your bags were on the ground, looking for food, I guess. Their upstanding tails would often brush against your legs, which freaked me out at the beginning. We also saw an armadillo, a toucan, etc. Now I think we might want to do a trip to the Amazon ....

Francis and I came back to the hotel shortly after 6. We paid him and bid goodbye. Tomorrow he will send a driver to pick us up for the airport.

We had dinner again in the hotel's restaurant. Today they had a buffet. The main dishes of the buffet left much to be desired, but the salad bar and dessert table drew us to it.

Tomorrow morning I will try to take some early morning photos of the falls from the lower trail as Francis advised. Then I will go on the boat ride which will go to the base of the falls. We saw the boat ride today and I really wanted to experience it! Bob won't go so I will go by myself. The boat ride is at 9:45am and I need to be ready around 9. The taxi will pick us up at 1:30 for our 3:20 flight. Let's hope this time the LAN flight will do better than last time!!

Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sunday, November 30, 2014

Got up before 6:30am and had most of the packing done. After breakfast, we walked the lower trail and took a few pictures in the morning light (vs yesterday in the afternoon light). The falls continued to impress us! The pictures just did not do justice to the real scene! It was nice to walk on the trails without a lot of people. When we returned to the hotel around 9, there were more people on the trail. 

 The weather today was very hot and humid. It would have been wonderful to get wet in the boat ride, but I decided to chicken out - I was scared of riding in the boat to the base of the water falls .... I regretted that I canceled it, but still canceled it ....

Since we decided to cancel my boat ride tour, I wanted to have a look in town. The hotel told us we could get a taxi that would take us to the town and wait for us. For 4 hours, it would cost $460 pesos (less than $60 USD). Our driver's name was Jose and it turned out he was the driver Francis got for us to drive us to the airport today.

We went to "downtown" Iguazu. A very disappointing trip because the town really had nothing worth getting. Very dumpy :-( It was Sunday, a lot of stores were closed. The ones that were open were mostly for tourists and seemed to be selling more or less the same things. We did not even spend an hour there.

We checked out of the hotel at noon (that was extending the checkout time by 2 hours) then had lunch in the hotel. The same restaurant where we had dinner twice, but the lunch was very disappointing. We each had a hamburger and it's got to be one of the worst burgers - inside was still cold and very tasteless. Ugh :-(

The taxi picked us up at 1:30 and we got to the airport before 2. The Iguazu airport was quite small - one runway, two gates. Fortunately it was not crowded when we got there. When we checked in, the agent said we could get on an earlier flight at 2:55 (instead of 3:20). We gladly obliged :-) Waiting in the non AC'd airport was not pleasant, as it was quite hot. Many of the passengers turned out to be for the Oceania cruise as well and were on the tour offered by Oceania. They did not stay in Sheraton. I really think Sheraton is THE place to stay if you want to see the falls. Or maybe one of the good hotels on the Brazilian side. I think the view of the falls is somewhat better on the Brazilian side.

Oh, when we checked in, the agent told me that I needed to checkin the tripod. They carefully wrapped my tripod bag in a plastic bag. I was OK with that - rule is rule even though it's unreasonable and incomprehensible, as far as they are nice and upfront about it. 

We got good seats this time, row 3 and just the 2 of us. The flight took off on schedule and arrived in Buenos Aires smoothly. Thank god! Bob had arranged pickup service from Fred and emailed him when our flight was changed. After we picked up our luggage and stepped out of the airport, Fred was there holding an iPad with "FISKE" on it. Cool.

Fred owns the company Silver Star Transfer and Tours premium service in Buenos Aires. Karina is his wife. Fred is originally from NYC. Today he came to pick us up. He was a very pleasant guy and very helpful! On the way to our hotel, he showed us many landmark places. We really liked him and his wife and will give them great rating on Tripadvisor!

There was such a big difference in climate and temperature between Iguazu and Buenos Aires! It was only in the 60's in BA and apparently it had just rained. Quite chilly, especially since we're wearing shorts and short sleeves.

We got to the hotel around 6pm - Sofitel Buenos Aires Arroyo. Now we're back in civilization! The front desk staff and the porter were very welcoming and efficient. We got a room on the 17th floor and the 2 pieces of luggage we stored here were already in our room! Talking about good service! The room was small, but quite nice. And it has a TV that has all the stations, unlike in Iguazu Sheraton where there was only 1 station, Spanish speaking only ....:-)

Internet is freely available. Check! Tonight we will go to a Tango show and dinner. I arranged this through a guide I found on the internet, Pablo. Again, I took a chance on him and the tango show was what I read about on the net, one of the better ones, Rojo tango. Quite pricy, so I sure hope it won't disappoint us! I wish I had known Fred also provides private tour service! I can't really cancel Pablo now.

We would not be picked up for the Tango show until 8:30pm, so Bob and I decided to take a walk outside. As we stepped outside of our room, we discovered we actually had a kitchenette and this room was actually part of a suite! There was a big frig, a microwave, coffee machine, a stove, etc. in the kitchen. There was another room across from us but it was locked. Interesting!

The hotel is in a very good district of Buenos Aires, Retiro. You can tell from the streets and buildings. Old, well maintained fancy buildings. Smells expensive :-) A few steps from the hotel was the Israeli embassy which was bombed years ago (by a suicide bomber). They made a monument of it and planted 21 trees to memorize the 21 victims. We walked by there. Saw a lady walking 2 very cute hairy dogs and we stopped to admire them. It turned out the lady was an American from Kentucky but has lived here for years. She told us the bombing happened while her daughter was small and practices singing across from the embassy. She lived nearby and could still remember that day ....

We got a few items from the nearby convenience store. After we came back to the hotel, Bob notices a sign that says Marina is having a hospitality desk tomorrow and will arrange the transport. Hooray! :-) How come nobody told us about this before?....

The driver picked us up at 8:30 and brought us to the Rojo tango show place. I am not sure exactly where it was, it was about 15 minutes drive. Dinner was so-so, but the show was indeed very very good! I honestly did not know tango was like this. It was very sexual, even erotic, and yet not dirty or vulgar, and very beautiful. The foot work was so fancy! Both the women and men dancers were quite professional and the costume was beautiful. There was also singing by a couple of singers, a male and a female. I liked the man's singing more than the woman's. There was also music by the small band that had piano, accordion, violin, base, and something else. Not the type of music I would go out for, but we enjoyed it. The show finished around mid-night and we got back to the hotel around 12:30am. Unfortunately photos or videos were not allowed at the show so I could only keep the memory in my head :-(

Buenos Aires Day 2, Argentina; Monday, December 1, 2014

It was the day to board the ship but we had at least half of the day to wonder around. we were up around 8 and I got everything packed before we went down to have breakfast, which was included.

The dining room was nice, on the formal side. You could order one hot entree and there was a decent buffet. The eggs benedict I ordered was different from what I'm used to, but tasted fine. Bob ordered a Spanish omelet looked like a egg and potato pancake :-).

The Oceania hospitality desk turned out to handle only guests who booked pre-cruise excursion with Oceania. That's fine. The port was very close to the hotel - we could see the ship from the window of our room. A short taxi ride would get us there.

Checkout was at 12pm and they could not extend it today. We could store our luggage with them after checkout. The front desk was very friendly.

We decided to take a walk to the cemetery which was supposed to be one of the top 10 must-sees. We also wanted to see if we could get lunch at the "secret" restaurant in the flower/wine shop across the street from the hotel, which Fred told us about. Unfortunately that restaurant did not serve lunch. So we walked towards the cemetery and looked at the few shops along the way. We walked down the Avenue Alvear, which Fred said was like the Rodeo Drive. I only saw a few shops though - maybe they're hidden in the alley ways. Got a couple of shawls that were made by the shop owner.

Close to the cemetery, there was a street park, with a few huge trees. The roots of these trees were pretty amazing - they were above ground, jumbled, quite unique. I tried to take some pictures and the weather was cloudy so the pics did not come out well (I only brought my Sony point-and-shoot for the walk). Another interesting sight was people walking dogs - one person walked many dogs. Not sure if they were dog walkers or owners of many dogs. I took video of many dogs under one of the huge trees, chasing each other, barking, and the owner/walker (a girl) sitting on the bench calmly.

The cemetery was impressive, with all the fancy tombs. My main purpose was to see the tomb of Evita. There were flowers placed by visitors/tourists on her tomb. It appeared to be a family tomb. Evita was just one of the members there.

Walking in the cemetery was a pleasant experience especially when there were not too many people. We did not spend too much time there since the names did not mean too much to us, except Evita. We also needed to get back to the hotel before noon. Since we're not able to have lunch at that secret restaurant, we decided we might just well checkout at noon and head to the ship. That's what we did.

We've heard a lot of horror stories about taxi here that they would swap your good money with fake then tell you your money is no good. The Argentina economy apparently has not been good and you would not be able to get US $ anywhere (so Bob brought travelers checks and was not able to get US $ in cash). To get a taxi to the port, we needed to ask the hotel to order a taxi and could not just go on the street to hail one. It took a while for our taxi to come. We finally got to the ship terminal around 12:35. Checking in was a breeze. Same as we remembered, the Oceania staff was welcoming and friendly, making it a pleasant boarding experience. We got into our room around 1. Our luggage arrived within an hour. We went to Waves Grill and enjoyed the nice hamburgers we always liked. 

After getting everything unpacked, we did the laundry. We also made a reservation at the Red Ginger for dinner, our favorite restaurant here. 

The port is close to the biggest slum here, not safe to walk to town on your own even though it's not far. One would need to get a taxi outside the ship terminal. We're too lazy to get out again. I feel like it's a waste of time to stay on the ship while we could have seen more of BA .... We'll do that tomorrow with our private guide Pablo.

We had a wonderful dinner at Red Ginger - I want to eat there as much as we can! After stuffing ourselves, we walked on deck 14 for 20 rounds. Then we watched the movie Evita that the ship was showing. Enjoyed it, especially the music.

We went to bed just before midnight.

Tour of Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tuesday, December 2, 2014

We met our private tour guide Pablo at 9am outside the cruise terminal, as scheduled, and started our full-day tour of Buenos Aires. After getting a little flavor of BA the day before, my definite must-sees included the Soho area and the "colored streets". But Pablo said we should first see a few of the important landmarks, otherwise it would have been like to Egypt without seeing the pyramid. I guess he was right :-)

We first visited the Plaza de Mayo. Pablo explained the history and stories about the various buildings there. The Cathedral looked like a court house from the outside. But inside it was a pretty awesome church. The Argentinians are mainly Cathalic, There's a very strong Italian influence here (including food). The other key ethnic groups are Jewish and Islamic, interesting. Pablo knows the history of Argentina quite well and he is definitely a "Peronese" (said himself). We chatted about Eva Peron and a lot of other stuff. Learned quite a lot about Argentian history - Argentina certainly seemed like it has had a very turbulent past ....

We walked, took taxies here and there, saw the outside of the opera house and a lot of other historical buildings. Then we saw the area where the walls were painted. It was not a place the tourists go. Pablo took us there to enjoy the unique arts on the walls. Then we went to the "colored streets" - the "Boca" area. I really really enjoyed that area! I would have loved to spend more time there and get some small stuff, but we did not seem to have the time. I would love to go back there again, but Bob said that's not an area he would go without a guide .... Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to take any real photos. The place was so colorful and interesting, but also quite crowded and sort of messy. There were tango dancers there, in front of almost every restaurant. I took video of one couple (Pablo said the young lady danced well) and left $10 pesos in the hat.

After La Boca, Pablo took us to a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was called the "hard worker". Not sure exactly where it was. The food was quite good, very tasty! Pablo did the ordering. We had fried calamaris, grilled sausage (yum!!), hand made ravioli, and steak. All very good! They had a special dip for the bread which I loved! It's olive oil mixed with garlic and other local herbs. So good! I noticed that they took the bread out of a big wooden bin and served them in a basket on the table. That was fine, until at the end of the dinner I noticed they actually dumped the bread that guests did not eat back into the bin!! OMG .... I would not eat the bread again if I every went back there.

After lunch we continued our tour to the old town, saw more landmark buildings and listened to Pablo's stories about them. He also took us to a bookstore, which was like our Barns and Nobles where you could sit down and read a book before buying it - there was a cafe inside the bookstore. It was interesting that he thought this was a unique place to show us.

Our final spot was Soho which was in the opposite direction of the colored streets and old town. When we got there, it was already 5pm and our 8-hour tour was over. Pablo said we should feel free to stay and wonder around in that small area. It was safe. And he told us how to pick a taxi to bring us back to the cruise terminal. We thanked and paid Pablo, bid goodbye, then walked the few Soho streets on our own. Did not find anything that would grab me, but we were somewhat in a rush and I was a little concerned if we could get back to the ship smoothly so I did not really want to wonder around too much.

We got a taxi with a nice driver and got back to the terminal shortly after 6. We tried to ask our butler to get us into Red Ginger, but it was fully booked. He got us a 7pm slot to the Polo restaurant so that's where we had our dinner. Did not stuff ourselves as bad as yesterday. The ship sailed sharply at 8pm, while we were having dinner. We walked our 20 laps on deck 14 after dinner. Then Bob went to "work". I browsed at the shops for a bit. Watched the evening show for a few minutes and came back to the room to write my diary and look at the pictures I took. None of the pictures can be counted as photography per se, but they are memories.

Punta del Este, Uruguay; Wednesday, December 3, 2014

There was an one-hour time change last night and we had to advance the clock by one hour. We did not get to bed till after 1am (new time) and got up at 7 this morning, hoping to get on the first tender on shore. We were the first ones in line to get the tender tickets. But after sitting there for 10 minutes, the captain made the announcement that, because of the rough sea condition, we could not safely tender ashore :-( There went our hope for seeing some of the interesting scenes of Punta del Estes, the only port in Uruguay on this trip. I had arranged an expensive 4-hour private tour and put down the deposit. Now all of it will go down into the water because their rule was no refund unless they're notified the day before, which now I know is very unreasonable because the captain would NEVER announce the cancellation the day before. I learned my lesson and will never use this agency - Excellence Tourismo.

As we sailed away, the gloomy sky started to brighten up. Ugh! But it remained very windy. We took a walk on the jogging track on deck 15. The wind was so strong that I felt I would be blown over.

We went to a lecture in the morning. It was about the battle of the river plate and the end of the "Graf Spee", the big German warship. Very good. I learned something that I did not know before. Then in the afternoon I went to a talk with the title "Social Life in the White House, behind the scenes at a state dinner". It was given by Colonel Stephen Bauer who was a military social aide at the white house. Quite interesting. I bought his book after the talk. Bob went to "work" and had his fun.

It was a very lazy and restful day for me. I took many naps, and did some reading about Argentina. I should have read the book before we left for the cruise, but somehow I just could not get myself into a reading mood. So it was good that I was able to do it now. After seeing Buenos Aires, the book seemed more real and more interesting to me. Next time if we ever come here again, I would hire a reliable taxi for the day, and visit the various spots on our own. Definitely want to go to the Boca area again!

We had dinner in the main dining room and it was fine. After dinner we walked another 2 miles on the jogging deck. The ocean was quite calm, and the weather was much warmer, much less windy so it was pleasant to walk. I did another load of laundry after dinner. Then went to listen to the guitar show for a little bit. Bob went to work again. I'm going to call it an early night. Oh, I started reading the book by Bauer and really enjoyed it!

No photos today.

Maldonado, Uruguay; Thursday, December 4, 2014

Well, this was supposed to be the first sea day, but now it's sea day #2. We got up after 8am - first time since we got on this trip that we slept past 8, and we did need the sleep.

It was a gorgeous day today - sunny, warm, with a pleasant warm breeze. Many people were sun bathing on the decks. We went to the 10am lecture about the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands 1914, which was very good. Then we went to the Latin line dancing class. Boy there were so many people there, many were Asian/Chinese women. We were late in getting there (because of the lecture) and really could not find a spot on the dance floor. So we tried to learn a little on the side. I liked the instructor (who's the social hostess, Claudia) very much! She's a nice dancer! I wish the ship would organize more of such dancing activities! I need to remember to make a comment. Had the same feeling on the last cruise on this ship.

Before lunch, we walked 3 miles (Bob did 2) on the top jogging deck, to earn our meals :-) Had lunch at around 1pm. Again, it was very crowded in the cafeteria and at the Waves. We finally found seats sharing table with a couple from Atlanta, Betsy and Jim. Nice people. Had a great chat. They had cruised this route previously (not with this ship). Jim said there's less than 50% chance we could anchor and get on Port Stanley. I was very very upset to hear this news! I'd like to go to the captain to beg him please make every attempt to get us onto Port Stanley!! I would not have booked this trip if it's not for the king penguins there! .... I am worried now ....

2pm we attended Col Bauer's lecture about social life in the White House. Enjoyed it again. Can't wait to read more stores in his book! 

I attended my Red Ginger cooking class at 4pm. Learned a few dishes including the tom yum soup, the pad thai, the spring roll, the duck and water mellon salad, etc. We each got a taste of the famous sea bass and the teacher told us how it's made. Most importantly, we got all the recipes. But somehow I feel the same dishes from the restaurant were better than what we're taught to make .... We then had dinner at Red Ginger tonight. I had the sea bass which was out of this world good. Bob had the duck salad which was definitely better than we made in class.

We walked another mile after dinner, then played some pingpong. Tomorrow we will dock at 8am at Puerto Madryn. We joined a small private group tour and will need to meet everyone as early as we can make it on shore. After being at sea for 2 days, we're ready to see some place and walk.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina; Friday, December 5, 2014

We got up at 6am to make sure we would be on shore to meet our tour group by 8am. The ship actually docked at Puerto Madryn way before we got up, probably 2 or 3 am.  We were the first two (among our 10-people group) off the ship. Our tour guide was already waiting for us. His name was Martin, speaking fluent English. When all 10 of us were there, we walked the 1km walkway from the ship to the pier to get on our van.

Punta Tombo was a national park about 108 miles south of where our ship docked, which was right in the town of Madryn. It took us less than 2 hours to get to the park. Martin told us quite a bit about the area and about the penguins as well as other wild life in this Patagonia area. This was the time when the penguins came to Punta Tombo area to hatch their young, so we would get to see the mothers and chicks. It was not the time when there would be most of the penguins - there would be millions of them. We as tourists LOVE penguins. Martin got to see them day in and day out. He said penguins were just like chickens to him.

I did not know what to expect. Even though we brought both the 70-200mm and 24-70mm lenses, after Martin told me we would be so close to the penguins that we could kick them, I decided to leave the 70-200mm lens on the van (since it was so heavy), which was a mistake. We were only allowed to walk on the walkway, and I really needed to have the longer zoom lens to get good shots of the penguins. I could only make do with the 24-70 :-(

This penguin colony was really beautiful, especially the area right by the ocean. With the blue sky and white clouds, the sand beach with many penguins, the waves, the red rocks, it was just so beautiful! The penguins sure picked a good spot to call home. These magellan penguins liked warm weather, but today was probably quite hot for them as well - it was in the high 80s or low 90s! Even the penguins chose to stay in the shades whenever they could. There were so many holes on the ground, which were dug by the penguins (male) to be their nests. There were these short shrubs all over the place. Under every shrub, there was a nest and at least half of them were occupied by either a mother and her chick(s), or a mother, or a couple. Very hard to take clear photos.

The penguins are the cutest when they walk/waddle - cute beyond description! But if you get a close look at their faces, the Magellan penguins really were not good looking at all:-( In addition to penguins, there were other wild life there. There was something like the ostrich but smaller. There was also something that belonged to the Llamas family but had a different name. And then there were sheep, very very wooly sheep. I loved them but did not get the chance to take a photo, unfortunately. We only stayed about 2 hours at Punta Tombo, because other group members wanted to see another town, so we really did not have enough time to take photos as I would have liked. Lesson learned/confirmed: if planning to take photos, must do private tour without a group!

We left Punta Tombo shortly after 1pm. On the way back, Martin took us to the small Welsh town called Gaiman. We stopped for about 15 minutes and everyone got out to take a picture of the church. There was really nothing else. It was so hot, about 94 degrees! Ugh! I felt drained of any energy.

We got back to the pier around 4. Bob and I walked back to the ship, dropped off the camera bags, then went out again to take a stroll of the Madryn downtown. Really not much to see or buy so we came back before 6. Took a shower and got ready for dinner - we got am ad-hoc reservation at the Italian restaurant for a shared table at 6:30.

We met a couple from California at dinner. Had a nice chat and pleasant dinner. I did not have the sandwich they gave out for lunch so I was hungry. Stuffed myself again. Took a walk after dinner.

Sea Day; Saturday, December 6, 2014

It's another sea day, as we sailed towards Port Stanley. We got up before 8:30, had breakfast, and attended the lecture at 9:30. It's about the battles for the Falklands in 1982, by the same speaker Terry Bishop who is an excellent speaker. I was never that much into history, but his lectures fascinate me. And I now understand the war about the Falklands. I am definitely on the British side!! And now I'm more eager to set foot in Port Stanley! If by any chance we don't get to go on shore tomorrow, I definitely want to come back!

After the lecture, we went to the 15th floor hoping to take the Latin dance class. But again, it was way too crowded and we got there a bit late. So we came back to the room. Then I attended a talk offered by the Canyon Ranch Spa about eye brows. This talk prompted me to make an appointment with the nice young lady Stephanie (who gave the brow talk) for a consultation at 5pm.

Today's lunch buffet was an Asian buffet. I stuffed myself with dumplings and roasted baby pig skin. After lunch, we wanted to take a walk on the deck, but it was quite windy so we gave up. The ocean was much more turbulent than yesterday, with swells 6-8 feet high (we were told). It made me worry about tomorrow ....

We went to the lecture about social life in the white house again at 2pm. Really enjoyed it. This Colonel Bauer (who was just a couple of months older than Bob) was a very good speaker and knew how to tell stories people like to hear.

The lecture ended at 3. I went back to the room and read Bauer's book till 5 and went to the Spa to learn my eye brow and makeup lesson. She waxed my brows and I liked it. She did some simple makeup for me (as I asked) and I bought the stuff she used. Bob later took a picture of me - I think I looked somewhat better. It's pretty sad to look in the mirror nowadays any way :-)

Dinner tonight was at Jacques, French. Enjoyed it, especially the appetizer frog legs. On this cruise we always tried to have dinner early, at 6:30 if we could, so we would have time after dinner to walk the deck, play pingpong, etc. That's what we did tonight. The sunset was nice, and the moon rise was even better. I rushed back to get my camera. But when I came back, the sun was gone and the moon had risen. Oh well, next time!

Even though it was a nice sunny day today, it was definitely cooler than yesterday. Tonight it was even cold - could not walk without a jacket. I continued to worry if we could get on shore tomorrow ....

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands; Sunday, December 7, 2014

It seemed like our prayers were answered - it was a gorgeous sunny day today, the water was calm and we got on shore in the first tender! Nyree's vehicles were already there waiting for us. Bob and I had booked a private vehicle for just the 2 of us. Nyree assigned us to a lady driver, "Dan" (Danielle) and we took off towards Volunteer Point within minutes.

Our driver/guide Dan was a very nice lady. She was 4th (or 5th) generation Falklander, born and raised here. The Range Rover jeep she drove was hers. Volunteer Point was about 2 hours drive away. Half of the drive was on gravel road, the 2nd half was on no-road. The speed limit on the gravel road was 40km/hour. On the no-road, we had to go much much slower. If you saw the condition of the no-road, you would understand why. It was bumpier than Africa and similar to the no-road in Hawaii, to the green sand beach, but much much longer. It would be impossible to go without a 4-wheel vehicle. There was one place the slope was at least 45 degrees steep! Dan was a very good driver and very familiar with the roads. She and her partner own a farm. We actually drove through their farm and saw some of their sheep!

The population of Falkland was about 3000. 2000 live in Port Stanley, the only town on the islands. There were 80 (or 800?) farms on the islands. People mostly raise sheep, some horses, a few cows, etc. The soil quality of the islands was not good, plus the cold and windy weather, so there was hardly any agriculture. Some people plant their own gardens, in a hot house, to grow vegetables such as potato, carrots, etc. Most of their food source was through import. They generate their own electricity, fetch their own water from the well. They raised the sheep and sell the wool which was their main income, I think. 

On the drive to Volunteer Point, we got a great view of the islands. It really was quite desolate looking, but had a rough kind of beauty. The sky seemed so big here. And it was a gorgeous day today, with blue sky and white clouds. We were so very lucky! Even though the ride was bumpy, we enjoyed it very much! The road/no-road went across multiple private farms. The farms had fences between them so the sheep won't be mixed up. At various places, our driver had to stop, get out, open the gate of the fence, then drove through. The following vehicle would close it after it went through.

Volunteer Point was actually private land. The owner is a lady - she bought the land from an old man in his 90s who did not have any children or anyone to inherit the land. There was an entry fee to the Point (which was covered by the fee Nyree charged us). There was a warden at the Point (hired by the owner lady) during the summer months. One can lodge at the warden's house, the only place to stay if you wanted to stay overnight at the point. I inquired about this because maybe someday we will be back here to photograph the penguins (again). They would charge $50 GBP per person, room and board. We saw the warden's house, one with a pretty red roof.

In about 2 hours, we got the Volunteer Point. Dan told us, the rules were: we were not to get within 4 meters of the penguins; we were not to chase them; and we were not to step into the area marked with white stones. As soon as we drove near the ocean, the king penguins came into sight! I was ecstatic!! This is another dream come true for me!

For the next 2+ hours, we walked, followed the king penguins, and took photos. I just could not get enough of these absolutely magnificent and yet funny looking animals! There were so many of them, just like I saw on pictures! And I totally ignored the other smaller penguins, the Magellans and Gentoos (sorry!). But I did notice the sheep, and the geese, and other big birds that flew around. It was like paradise, where all these animals coexist and seemed to get along. I took so many photos, but there was no "wow" ones :-( Mainly because I was not able to capture the sparkle in their eyes .... Maybe it's telling me I needed to come back here again!

Around 1pm, the time we needed head back, the wind started to pick up. But it was still very sunny. I wore my jacket the entire day and it was fine. Bob wore his down sweater inside the jacket and he was not hot. The sun however was very strong. Dan said you can get easily burned.

Another 2 hours drive, we're back at the pier. After bidding good-bye to Dan, we visited a couple of gift shops by the pier and then took the tender back to the ship. It was before 5pm. Took a shower which seemed to wash off the fatigue a little bit, mostly the sand and dust. Had dinner in the cafeteria (buffet). Started looking through my photos.

The cruise director made an announcement during dinner. There will be strong winds and big waves tonight and tomorrow morning, so we needed to be warned. On the open deck, the crew were tying down everything that could be blown away. Tomorrow is another sea day, then we will be in Ushuaia.

Sea Day; Monday, December 8, 2014

The sea was rough last night and this morning. We could feel it without looking outside. But when you looked outside, you could really see the waves. The ocean was angry for some reason, I guess. The cruise director got on the broadcast system and told us that we were really lucky yesterday, because Port Stanley/Falklands were having this weather today! If this happened yesterday, we would not have been able to get ashore and there would be no king penguins! That would have ruined the entire trip for me, Phew!! I don't really mind the little rockiness on the ship, and it was not bad enough to make Bob sick. But I felt very tired today especially my legs, maybe because of the bending and squatting I did yesterday.

It was a lazy day for us. We listened to 2 lectures. The one in the morning by Terry Bishop (who was such a good speaker!) was about Ernest Shackleton which was very educational for me. Heard his name a lot when I looked into the trip to Antarctica but never read about him. This lecture was a GREAT summary of him, and it was told in a very interesting way! When we get to Antarctica, it would mean a lot more to me. The one in the afternoon was by Col. Bauer and it was about the social life in the White House under Carter. He told quite a few interesting stories. From what I heard, now I really do not like Carter any more. He was a hypocrite! And a cheap bastard! Ungraceful! Yuk!

Did the laundry in the afternoon before I took my second cooking class, Mastering Fish. I do not like fish and want to learn how to cook it so I might like it better. Learned a few tips and I will try them out. 

We had reservation for Toscana the Italian restaurant, but since today there was the Pan Asian buffet, we rescheduled our Toscana dinner. I stuffed myself at the Pan Asian buffet, a little bit of almost everything. This was a piggy day - all food and no exercise. Hoped to take a walk after dinner, but the decks were all wet. It rained starting around 5, drizzling.

I think we started into the Beagle Channel around 4 in the afternoon. We could see hilly land on both sides of the ship The wind had diminished but the weather was still quite chilly. I saw the land when we started our cooking class. I thought I would be sure to take some photos of the Beagle Channel, but by the time we were done with the cooking class, the sun was gone and replaced with gloomy sky and drizzling rain. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will be in part of a group tour not organized through the ship. We will go to the Tierra del Fuego national park. Somehow I can't get too excited about it, but since it is supposed to be a very beautiful and well known park, better to see it.

Ah, need some geographical corrections here: we have not entered the Beagle Channel yet! The land we saw while we were in the cooking class was when we entered the "Le Maire Strait". As we sailed towards Ushuaia, on the starboard side was Peninsula Mitre, on the port side was Isla de los Estados. Now at around 9:30pm local time, standing on our cabin's balcony, we see the peninsula, quite close! The top of the mountains were covered in white clouds. There is also snow at various places on the top. Rain is gone. Sun is out but on its way down. It is still quite bright. Sunset is probably not until after 10pm!

Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina; Tuesday, December 9, 2014

I learned a little bit of geography on this trip :-)

Tierra Del Fuego is the name of the island where the city Ushuaia is on. Half of this island belongs to Argentina, the other (west part) belongs to Chile. The national park of Tierra del Fuego is a small part of the island. At the bottom (south) of the island was the Beagle Channel. The city of Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel. We sailed into the Beagle Channel last night/this morning. 

I had us joining a private tour of the national park today. We got up at 6 again. Our 16-people tour group was meeting at 8:15. We were all quite punctual. Sally Broff was the organizer. The guide of our tour was an Argentinian lady named Jessica who was warm and enthusiastic, but her English was not very good so I was able to understand about half of what she said.

It was a pretty cold day today and rained before we got up. When we left for the tour, it was quite cloudy and sprinkled some while we were visiting the park. Wearing a down sweater plus a wind breaker was barely enough. Many people wore down coats. It was late spring here. In 20 some days, it'll be summer. Jessica said the weather was very unpredictable here, and she was right. The weather changed from cloudy, to sprinkle, to sunny, to windy, all in one day.

From the photos I saw online, I did not have high expectations of the park, so I was not too disappointed. It was a bit national park, with mountains, woods, lakes, etc. We were taken to see a beaver dam, and a couple of lakes. What I found most impressive were the snow capped mountains shrouded in clouds. Hope some of the photos I took would come out alright.

Our tour ended around noon. Bob and I walked back to the ship, dropped off the cameras, and had lunch. Then we walked out again to town center which was less than half mile away from the ship. There really was nothing worth buying in this town. The T-shirts or sweat shirts worth a look were so unreasonably expensive, a clear rip-off. I came back empty handed, believe it or not :-)

Some how I had the wrong conception that Ushuaia was an interesting town so I was quite disappointed. But looking from afar, it is quite pretty, nestled at the foot of the beautiful snow-capped mountains, by the ocean, with colorful houses. If and when we go to Antarctica, chances are we will have to come back here. I wonder if there are decent hotels here ....

We spent less than 1 hour looking around the town and came back to the ship around 3. We were both very tired as we did not get enough sleep last night, so we took a nice long nap. Then we got the announcement that because of the strong wind which kept pushing our ship towards the dock, the ship was not able to set sail. So we were delayed until further notice.

5:30 we went to the lecture on "Fitzroy, Darwin and The Beagle - the Voyages of Real Discovery". Again a very educational lecture interestingly given by Terry Bishop. 

We were lucky to get a 6:30 dinner reservation at the Red Ginger again! At a shared table, we met 3 other couples and had a good time chatting. One couple was from Texas, the other from Westwood, MA, and the third from Chicago. All were seasoned travelers in different ways. They seemed to have one thing in common though - they did not have much Asian food before. The Chicago couple sitting next to me never had Asian food before. I convinced the husband to order the famous chilean sea bass and was very glad that he actually really enjoyed it! As for me, I stuffed myself silly again!

The ship finally sailed around 9pm. We got on the top deck after dinner to watch the ship sailing away, hoping to take some photos. The wind was still very strong, and it was quite chilly. The sun did not set until around 10pm, so it was still all bright after 9pm when we were walking on the deck. Unfortunately we would not be able to see the scenery of the Beagle Channel and the glacier because it would be dark. We are supposed to sail by the glacier around 11:15pm, around now. I just stepped out onto the balcony. I saw the mountains really close to us, with lots of snow on the top, but I'm not sure if that's the glacier. And it's too dark to take photos :-(

The captain announced that we expect to arrive at Punta Arenas tomorrow around 1pm, instead of 9am as originally scheduled. I emailed our tour guide to change our meeting time and hope she will respond soon. There will be 6 of us, to the Otway Sound penguin colony. There will not be king penguins, only the small ones. But I'll take that!

Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile; Wednesday, December 10, 2014

It is Bob's birthday today! He is turning 71. We spent his 70th birthday on the Celebrity ship last year in the Caribbeans, with Steven and Amber. Hard to believe another year has gone by!

Apparently the sea was quite rough last night but I was not bothered. We got up around 8:30 this morning Looking out on the balcony, it was pretty gloomy. The deck was all wet, not sure if it rained or was the wind and spray. It was very windy. We could see the whites in the ocean, the waves were big.

A lazy morning. After breakfast, we went to a talk by the magician which was very entertaining! Then we came back to the room and got online - very slow, probably everyone was trying to get online. 

The ship anchored before 1pm. We had a quick lunch and went down to the theater room to get the tender tickets. We were down there around 12:35, but for the independents (people who were not going with the ship's excursions), there were already 60 people before us. Of course the ship gave priority to the people who were on the ship organized excursions. Then if the tender had room, they would call the independents by their tender ticket color. We had orange colored tender tickets and did not get on the tender until close to 1:30. I was worried that our tour guide and the other 4 people were waiting, but there was nothing we could do but wait for our turn. Finally we got on shore and found our tour guides who were waiting there. It turned out we were the first 2. After 10 minutes or so, shortly after 2, two other finally came and told us the other two canceled. So there were only the 4 of us (plus the 2 tour guides and the driver). To me, the less people the better. We got in the van.

The weather was pretty bad today, cold, heavily overcast, and sprinkled now and then. But there were patches of blue sky. Unfortunately we never got any decent sun while we were at the Otway Sound penguin colony.

The drive was about 1 hour and mostly on the bumpy gravel road. Our main guide was a young man who spent a lot of years in the US, so his English was good. But he was not an experienced guide. He had an assistant named Bianca, a young girl who was probably leading a tour for the first time. 

The Otway Sound penguin colony only had Magellanic penguins, the same kind as we saw in Punta Tombo. Since it was a penguin colony, I expected 100s of penguins, definitely more than Punta Tombo. Boy we were up for a big disappointment. After entering the penguin colony gate, we followed a very long path, which was graveled at the beginning. Later on the path was built with wooden slats. And the path was fenced on both sides. Along the entire path, we saw no penguins. So I thought the colony must be by the ocean. Finally we got close to the ocean. At the end of the path, there was a simple wooden shed/shack which had one square window that you could look out into the ocean and at the penguins. There were about 30 penguins there, that was it! Admittedly they were cute! A few waddled towards us, but of course they could not get close because there was the fence. I took some photos. Very disappointed. I wanted to take the path that led to further spots, but the guide said no because there were no penguins there (later it turned out that he had to go to his 2nd job of being a waiter and he was late). The scenery at the colony was actually rather interesting. The guide showed me the unique vegetation that covered the ground. It made a pudgy carpet over the entire ground close to the ocean. If you touch it, it was bouncy. You could lift the "carpet" up and see its roots which supposed to be some sort of medicine used by the natives in the old days.

Another hour of bumpy ride, we were back in town which was within walking distance of the pier. The van dropped us off and that was the end of the tour. Grossly not worth the $ we paid. Could have hired a taxi to do the same thing for a lot less, but who knew!

In town, we walked through a few gift shops and handicraft shops. We liked this town better than Ushuaia. Punta Arenas is another base to hop over to Antarctica, so we probably would be back here another time some day.

We came back onto the ship shortly after 7. Today the ship won't sail until mid-night. 2 more sea days are ahead of us, while the ship sails through the Chilean fjords. 

We did not do anything too special on Bob's birthday unfortunately. Will make it up later perhaps.

Sea Day; Thursday, December 11, 2014

When we got up around 8:30, the sea was rather rough and the sky was gray and gloomy. The deck of our balcony was wet. Obviously this was not a day to take any photographs, even though we were sailing through the Strait of Magellan and flanked by mountains on both sides of the ship.

After having breakfast, we went to the 6th floor to go through the mandatory security drill at 10:15 which only lasted a few minutes. We then went to the lecture by Terry Bishop for the 2nd part of the Fitzroy and Darwin story which was really fascinating! If Terry were my history teacher, I probably would have been a much better student in history and made my parents happy. Just so that I don't forget, this is Terry's web site www.troubadourstales.com. I will try to get his lecture DVD/CD if it becomes available. He recommended the book "This Thing of Darkness" by Harry Thompson which I will get.

Around lunch time, as the captain warned us, we entered the open sea (the Pacific) and it became even more rocky! Walking in the dining hall holding a plate for lunch was rather interesting, and a challenge. I did not mind this at all and found it kind of comfortable if I'm sitting on the couch or lying in bed. Fortunately Bob is also not affected by it either. He ate a light lunch, with pasta and bread which would be easier on his stomach since he might get seasick.

We listened to the 2pm lecture by Col. Bauer about the white house social life anecdotes. Then I went to a talk on happy feet offered by the spa, while Bob went to "work".

The ocean has been really rough and the ship has been rocking more than I felt before. The waves were supposed to reach 15 feet high, the wind at more than 40 knots. I can see the white caps on the water and rolling waves. 

Took a nap late afternoon then went to dinner. Tonight we went to the grand dining room and shared table with another 2 couples. One couple was the one we had dinner with in Red Ginger last time who're from Chicago. The other couple was from Auston. Had a very pleasant evening chatting with them. Nice people. While we were at dinner, we noticed there was a helicopter outside the window. Then we heard the cruise director over the loudspeaker that a crew member was sick and they had to evacuate him, and asked us to not go to the outside decks. The helicopter would be using the 16th deck on top. It was done smoothly and quickly. Then the ship continued on its way. The wind had died down quite a bit by dinner time and the ship was no longer rocking.

After dinner we went to the show which featured a lady singer from NYC. She had a good voice but it was not the style of singing we liked so we came out. We then went to the Horizon lounge on the 15th deck to see Terry Bishop's singing at 10:45. Boy, this Terry Bishop sure is an extremely talented guy! He was a folk song singer and an actor (learned from his web site) besides being a lecturer, and he was good at all these! He had a very nice voice and he was quite humorous. We enjoyed the night of his music, singing, and jokes.

Sea Day; Friday, December 12, 2014

We were sailing through the Chilean fjords both yesterday and today, but the weather yesterday was too bad for us to go outside to see much. This morning when we got up around 8:30 and looked outside, we sure were in the fjords and could see the mountains looming by our ship. The weather was still very cloudy, the deck was wet, so we're not sure what's ahead of us.

Went to Terry Bishop's lecture about Cape Horn at 10am - another very interesting lecture. Now I am very interested in a cruise that would actually sail around the Cape Horn (unlike this one that cut through the Beagle Channel and the Straits of Magellan). When we take the Antarctica trip, most likely we will sail by Cape Horn to go through the Drake Passage. After the lecture, we went to Terry's wife Julie and got his music CD and a few of the patches for putting on garments/bags.

The weather had significantly improved and no more high waves and strong winds, so many people went on the upper decks to walk and take pictures, including us. Wind was still strong but not prohibitively so. There were mostly gray and dark clouds in the sky, but once in a while the sun would poke through for some brief moments with patches of blue sky. The scenery was nice. I took a few photos with my small camera. Shortly before noon, we sailed into the open ocean when the winds picked up and it got more rocky walking on the top decks. We would not re-enter the more sheltered fjords till around 10pm.

So in the recent 5 months, we've seen the fjords up north and down south. Aside from the few big famous fjords in Norway, I think the fjords here seem more interesting, more scenic.

After a light lunch, we went to the lecture by Colonel Bauer. This one was mostly a trivia on all the presidents. No surprise I did not know any of those and hopefully could remember a few now. It was uncanny (or even creepy) to hear about the coincidental similarities between president Lincoln and president Kennedy ....

Not much to do after the lecture. Did the laundry and spent some time online doing my research about the Antarctica trip for the Emperor penguins. The ocean was relatively calm. When I looked out of the window, I could see land/mountains far away from time to time when we sailed by remote islands.

Dinner was at the Polo Grill tonight. It was fine. None of the evening activities interested us, so I came back to the room and Bob went to work.

Tomorrow we will anchor at Laguna San Rafael which is a big body of water. There is no pier. The ship offers a catamaran tour which we're taking and that's the only chance to get off the ship and get close to the glacier. Our excursion starts at 9:45am. We're looking forward to it.

Patagonia, Chile; Saturday, December 13, 2014

The ship had already anchored by the time we got up around 7. Looking out of the window, we saw land/low mountains similar to when we were in the fjords. When we went up to have breakfast, we sat at the table on the port side. The scenery was different, the mountains were somewhat higher. After breakfast, we went up to the top decks. The scenery was nice, especially the high mountains with snow covered peaks in the further distance.

I signed up for the 7:50am excursion but they rescheduled us to 9:45. Not sure why. Some said it's because they added one more excursion to be around 6am and they bumped all of us who signed up for the 7:50 one to 9:45. And the first excursion took longer than expected, so we did not get on the catamaran until around 11. Everyone was quite frustrated. But, the beautiful scenery made up for it - this is definitely the second best excursion we've had on this voyage! 

The catamaran was quite nice, much much nicer than the one at the Norway fjords. Clean and comfortable seating, with Oceania staff on board to provide coffee, water, snacks, etc. Between rides, Oceania cleaning crew would clean up the catamaran. The glacier was about an hour away. The few of us who wanted to take photos were allowed to get out on the small deck in the back. Really beautiful scenery! Especially the ice chunks as we got closer to the glacier. The blue color on some of the ice chunks were just amazing! And the glacier was very impressive! Compared to the other glacier we saw in Norway, that glacier was really more disappointing. This one was a real glacier!

We came back to the ship around 2pm. It took the catamaran a few tries before it could hook up to our ship for us to disembark. For the first time in days, I felt hungry. And I was chilled to the bones (because I was standing outside almost the entire excursion). We had lunch at the Waves cafe. By the time we're done, it was 3pm. 

We were very lucky today to have beautiful weather! The morning clouds burned through and we have big sun, blue sky and white billowy clouds! When we came back on the ship, the upper decks were full of people sun bathing - had not seen this for days!

We were quite tired so both took a nap till around 5. Then the cruise director announced on the speaker that there was a passenger who was ill and needed to be evacuated, but helicopter was out of range so we must cancel the next 2 excursions and sail towards the next port (Chucabuco) at full speed. We watched the catamaran (the one after ours) came back to the ship, and the ship sailed at around 6pm.

Oh, we learned from one of the staff members that the last helicopter evacuation for the crew was because the crew member had a heart attack. He was not recovering well at the hospital in Punta Arenas. The staff member who told us about this said it was her first time witnessing such helicopter evacuation and she was very impressed how smoothly it worked! The patient was lifted in a "basket" onto the helicopter as there was no room for the helicopter to land on the ship.

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile; Sunday, December 14, 2014

Chacabuco was a small port, nestled in the Patagonia Andes of southern Chile. It was somewhat primitive, unspoiled. Aside from the natural beauty of the mountains, forests, lush fields and snow capped peaks, there was no specific earth shaking scenery spots. But everywhere you look, there was unspoiled beauty. We drove by the small town Aysen which used to be the port of this area but later changed to Chacabuco in recent years. The larger town was Coyhaique and we drove through it. There was only one traffic light in the town, so it was easy to see how big the town is. Since today was Sunday, all stores were closed. We stopped at various spots to get out the van and walk for a few minutes, take some pictures. Our last stop was a "secret" place where we would have our lunch. It was a family farm, with sheep, alpaca, and other farm animals. They roasted 2 lambs in open fire for us and performed Chilean and Argentinian folk dancing, very nice! It was a lovely lunch and the roast lamb was absolutely delicious!

Learned from Aldo that the boundaries of Patagonia depend on whom you ask. The Argentinians consider everywhere south of Buenos Aires Patagonia, whereas the Chileans consider Patagonia south of Port Montt (where we will be tomorrow). The Argentinian side of the Patagonia where we went to was very different from the Chilean side, especially towards the west. Here the landscape is very lush, and everywhere is green. On the other side however, it was barren. 

Also learned that Laguna San Rafael can be reached from Chacabuco. Aldo used to work on the catamaran that sails to San Rafael (the one we took yesterday). It would take 5 hours to get there. He said there were not too many ship offer the excursion. We were really very lucky.

We were lucky indeed! The weather today was beautiful and very warm, in the 80s! Almost too warm. The van did not have AC so we kept the windows partially open. The roads here were mostly gravel so it got dusty easily. We got back to the pier around 3:30. There were 3 tents there selling various local crafts but they were not that special and very pricey, so we walked through without getting anything. After getting back on the ship, I took a shower which made me feel instantly better.

We got into Red Ginger for dinner tonight and shared table with 3 other couples. One Chinese couple from Toronto, so was another couple. And the third couple was from Denver, who were birders and hire birder guides at every port. Very interesting. Learned from the other couple from Toronto (the husband was a retired professor) that ostriches are the dumbest animal their brain is smaller than their eye ball .... :-)

Did not finish dinner till around 9:30. Tomorrow will be our last port on this trip, Puerto Montt. We have a private guide for the 4 of us. Hope it's good.

Puerto Montt, Lake District, Chile; Monday, December 15, 2014

We got up at 6:30 to a very gloomy and wet day. I had rained for sure and it did not look like we would see the sun any time soon. The weather forecast predicted showers, and this place was known for its rain which was why it was so lush and everything grows well.

I had arranged a private tour with the 2 of us and Kathy and Paul - very glad that we had a small group. We went down early and got our tender tickets. We were on shore just before 9am. Our guide, Nelson, a 18-year-old young man, was already there waiting for us. Nelson spoke good English - he got in University of Oregon and will be going there in August next year. A good kid.

It continued to be a very cloudy day, but thankfully it was not raining. The unfortunate thing was that we were not able to get any good photos of the volcano and its snow capped peak, which looked like Mt. Fuji in the pictures. 

Our first stop was the city center of Puerto Montt, which was right by the ocean. Aside from taking a picture of our ship and seeing quite a number of homeless dogs, nothing else was too interesting. We then went to a high point to get a view of the city which really was not that pretty. Then we went to the neighboring town Puerto Varas which was sort of a German town. There was a big lake there and stopped at a couple of spots. Nelson said this was the most popular holiday spot because there were so many activities. Then we drove on. We chose to see the volcano so we headed there. But the clouds were so heavy the mountain was shrouded entirely in the clouds. We stopped at the place where we could have gone up but only got to enjoy the llamas there. We got so close to them that one of them spitted on Paul. Fortunately it was not wet spit, only dry chewed-up grass. I was too busy trying to take photos and did not see it happen. Paul was a good sport. He took it with good humor and dusted everything off. The llamas were moving from one place to another, and I only got shots of their backends :-(

There were cows and sheep on the green pasture as we drove along the road. We then visited a couple of more lakes, and a nice water fall place. It was not the kind of water fall that came down a mountain, but more like big rapids. Quite pretty. On one of the lakes, we took a boat ride which would have given us beautiful shots of the snow capped volcano peak. But we did not have good luck today with the weather as the clouds continued to be quite heavy. It could have been worse though - it could be raining. But we even saw small patches of blue sky now and then, just not enough to lift up the clouds on the volcano.

Our last stop before coming back to the ship was the markets, the fish market and the craft market. It turned out the market was very close to the pier. We walked through it and I got a few souvenirs. We got back on the ship before 4.

This was our last stop and excursion of this cruise, before we get off at Valparaiso the day after tomorrow. Time to start packing!

Sea Day; Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Last sea day, before we reach Valparaiso and disembark on Wednesday. While we were on the ship the past 2 weeks, we pretty much forgot the day of the week and now it's time to come back to reality.

I started packing last night and got 80% done. Went to bed around midnight as usual but did not get up until almost 9 this morning. Finally got a night's sleep that's about 8 hours. After breakfast, we went to Terry Bishop's lecture about Chile's Fight to Independence, about Bernado O'Higgins, Rebel to Supermo. Again an educational and entertaining lecture, as always. Did not do much after that except did another 15% packing so now we're almost done. Luggage needed to be put out at 10:30pm tonight. I took a nap in the afternoon while Bob went to "work". While watching the TV program about the ports/towns we visited this cruise, I realized we missed a few spots that I had wished to see, such as the cemetery in Punta Arenas. My own fault for relying too much on the guides and forgot to bring my to-visit list.

Now that we're at the end of our cruise, let me rate and summarize the excursions we took:

1. No question, hands down #1 is Volunteer Point in the Falklands off Port Stanley. The main purpose of this cruise was fulfilled! If we skipped every other port but made this one, I would have been happy. I would have loved to spend more time with the Kings, but I knew we would not have been able to so I was not disappointed. Just need to go back there again, or to South Georgia. Arranging the transport and guide with Nyree was smooth. Our guide Dan was a nice lady. But she really did not have any guide experience per se. Aside from being a local and knew terrain, she really had no idea about what we would be interested in. I would have loved to know/see more of the sheep and other animals. If I had asked maybe she would be able to take us, not sure.

2. Laguna San Rafael. It was the ship's excursion, pricey but worth it! Aside from the glacier itself, the floating icebergs and the surrounding scenery were breathtakingly beautiful!

3. Punta Tombo penguins off Port Madryn. This was our first penguin tour and it did not disappoint us! So many Magellanic penguins, so cute! I joined the excursion Sandy Erb organized. Guide was fine. I would have skipped that little town we took a side trip to visit but some others wanted to see it.

4. Puerto Chacabudo. Again this was a private excursion I learned from cruise critic and contacted Anne at enPatagonia Tours. Good excursion even though there 34 in the group. Good English speaking tour guide (Aldo). Got a flavor of the place, had a delicious lunch.

5. Puerto Montt. Experience for arranging this private tour was very good. I would highly recommend Denis Purtov - responsive and reliable. The young guide was a nice kid but aside from knowing where is where, he really did not have too much to offer about the histories of all the places, or the plants, etc.

6. Penguins at Otway Sound off Punta Arenas. We got the guide through another passenger on the ship. Not only it was disappointing to see only a few penguins, the guide was rushing us because he had another job to go to. I wanted to see more of the Otway sound and he did not want me to walk the long trail saying there were no penguins there. His assistant was more inexperienced. The van dropped us off in the town center after dropping him off at his other job, and we were given no information about the sites to see in town. That's how I missed the cemetery. I want to contact the agency to complain and will definitely write on trip advisor.

7. Tierra del Fuego off Ushuaia. Sally Broff from the ship organized this tour with Edgar whom I contacted. It was getting closer to the cruise date and I was frustrated with all the investigation so I went with this option to tour this national park. It was very disappointing. Don't think it was the fault of the guide. Probably more fault of my own for not picking a better tour. Aside from some nice views of the lake and the faraway snow capped mountains, it was very boring. There was the ship's excursion by a plane to see the famous del Paine national park, which I would have bit the bullet of the high cost and took it, if I had known better.

So, to grade myself for organizing our own excursions, I gave a B.

Terry Bishop gave another fantastic performance - A traveling Troubadour, tales and tunes of a troubadour in transit. He has such a nice voice and is such a talented entertainer. Loved it!

We had our luggage all tagged and placed outside of our cabin before 9pm. We will be off the ship tomorrow before 8.

Bye Marina, until next time!

Valparaiso, Chile; Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Got up at 6:30 when the ship had long since docked at Valparaiso. We got off the ship at 8, and found our guide/driver Thomas around 8:15, when he said he would be there. We took off as soon as we got into his car.

Bob did all the arrangements. He got very good reviews of Thomas from Tripadvisor, contacted him, and booked the tour. Thomas would pick us up from the pier at Valparaiso, take us to see the highlights of the city, then take us to a winery, then to Santiago, tour a few places, then to the airport in Santiago where we would board our flight at 9:50pm.

Thomas was a nice young man who actually was French. He followed his girl friend here 8 years ago. He spoke Spanish like a native (at least to me). He drove his car (which was rather small) because there were only 2 of us. This turned out to be the only dissatisfaction. We had quite a few luggage so the car's trunk was not big enough. We ended up having to carry the camera bags with us when we toured. Thomas was very nice and he carried the heavy camera bag, we appreciated it.

We first toured the old town of Valparaiso. It was spread out on the hill. Thomas knew the place well and drove us up and down the winding streets. He also took us to ride the 100+ year old funicular so we got to see the different sections the town. I took a few photos to remember the place. After the old town, he took us to see the place outside of the Valparaiso city - I can't remember the name but it meant place with good view. It was by the ocean side, and there was a big casino there. He and I got off the car for me to take a photo of the castle that was built by the Germans. I was not able to get a really good photo of it, but I enjoyed the scene, with the ocean waves splashing on the big rocks, water sprayed high above the rocks. It was by that casino.

Then we drove towards Santiago and visited a famous winery on the way. We took a brief tour to learn about the grapes and wines they made. Then Bob did the wine tasting. Afterwards we had lunch there, which was quite good. I finally got to taste the Chilean "empanada" - baked bread stuffed with minced beef and unions, etc. Quite tasty! Thomas had lunch with us, of course.

After lunch, we headed towards Santiago. It was HOT. Somehow his car's AC was not working right (and he apologized for it). Sitting in the back, baked in the sun shining in from the window, I was very hot. In Santiago, he showed us the important city square where the cathedral and other important buildings were, and we walked around there to see the few important spots. After the city tour, he took us to see the old residence (now a museum) of Pablo Neruda. Bob and I took the self-guided tour. The last stop we did in Santiago was in the area which (to me) resembled Soho in NYC (and somewhat Buenos Aires). There was a place that had nice souvenir shops. I had about 35 minutes to shop around - I could have spent a whole day there .... We took off for the airport at 7pm, and bid good-bye to Thomas there. He did a great job giving us a very good tour of the 2 cities in such a short time. I would highly recommend him.

Our flight was at 9:50. The airport was quite crowded and the Delta checkin line was LONG. Fortunately because we had business class seats, we could go through the Sky Priority line and the priority security line, which made things quite a bit less frustrating.

Flight was punctual and we were homeward bound.

Home; Thursday, December 18, 2014

Flight was smooth. Went through Customs at Atlanta. Everything seemed good, except that one of the 4 pieces of our checkin luggage was missing, which contained a lot of stuff including half of the souvenirs I got. The luggage people told us to file missing luggage claim when we got to Boston. There was nothing else we could do ....

Smooth flight to Boston and touched down before 11. Went to Delta's luggage service and spoke with a very very impatient and unpleasant lady (her name plate says "Christine"). She would not listen to anything I wanted to say, just told us to go wait at the carousel to see if it would come. I tried to tell her that we did not get it in Atlanta and did NOT do the re-checkin. She would not listen. Of course the luggage was not there - we waited till all luggage was delivered. Then I spoke with another lady who was very pleasant and friendly. She checked again on the computer and said it was not there and they did not know what might have happened. She wrote down the luggage tag number, gave us a printed brochure, and told us to go home and wait.

Took a taxi to Lin's, picked up and loaded our car, back home shortly before 1. Djuna is not home yet, still at school. We don't get to see her till next Monday! The house without her is very empty .... We miss her!

Called Delta and spoke with a nice lady. But they still did not know where our luggage was. Her pleasant attitude did help. Let's hope we would have better news tomorrow ....

Update as of Friday night, 12/19 - we got our missing luggage!! Yeah!! It turned out somehow that piece of luggage did not get on the plane as the other 3. They finally located it and got it to us the next night. We count our blessings! Phew!