Last day at Sea

We didn't participate much in ship activities today. No lectures, no watercolor class. It was a day for housekeeping: settling up accounts, packing, tasting dishes we'd seen all week at the buffet but never tried.... We read, listened to music, and got ready to leave the ship behind tomorrow.
The evening show was a wonderful variety of music, dance and acrobatics and dinner was bittersweet, knowing that we will no longer have six choices for our evening meal, nor a waiter, assistant waiter and sommolier to attend to our every whim.
We bade farewell to José, Christian and Conrad, put our suitcases out in the hallway and slept our last night asea.

Puerto Montt

We awoke to the news of the earthquake in Japan and the chance of a tsunami, heading towards Hawaii and possibly towards us. ?? We watched the president of Chile on TV telling everyone to go to work and to school normally, and the captain didn’t seem worried, so we had breakfast and left the ship in one of the first tenders (thanks to Irunu who got us priority tickets). The day seemed rainy and grey as we approached the port, but we were destined to see the sun as we progressed.  We had arranged for a tour with a local agency to take us to Puerto Varas, to the falls of the Petrohue river and then back to Puerto Montt, with a stop for lunch.

Puerto Varas, and Puerto Montt itself, were first colonized by German settlers brought in by the Chilean government to populate the southern regions of the country. They were given land and initial amounts of food, money and seeds. It was up to them to clear the temperate rain forest which covered the land with vegetation and plant the land made fertile by local volcanic activity. The town of Puerto Varas is lovely. The German influence is still quite obvious. Many of the older buildings have been well preserved and there are many sidewalk cafes and shops for the tourist population.

We drove out of town past green fields and beautiful mountain scenes to visit the Petrohue river in a National Park. The vegetation is lush green all around. The riverbed was formed from lava which quickly solidified when it hit the cold water – black and grey waves of solid rock through which the water rushes and falls. The water usually has a transparent emerald green color to it (which we could appreciate in a video), but today it was dark grey like the rock due to a heavy rain early this morning which filled it with volcanic ash. 

The sun very nicely came out for us and cleared the clouds away from the tip of the nearest volcano, so we were quite suitably impressed with tne scenery. 

We drove back to Puerto Varas for a delicious lunch in a local seafood restaurant with gardens full of roses and hydrangeas and lilies. Next to the restaurant was an intriguing design shop that we wanted to explore, but although the sign indicated that they would re-open at 3:00 by 3:20 there was still no sign of activity and we had to leave to be back on board by 4:30. Irunu left a note for the manager, informing him/her of the tremendous sale they had missed by not opening on time. 

We stopped once at a lookout point from which we could view the harbor and the city of Puerto Montt, then back to the ship. We certainly could have spent much more time here. We’ll just have to come back and stay in Puerto Varas someday.

Two Days at Sea

Between Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt we spent two days at sea. On Wednesday we left the Straits of Magellan and entered the Pacific ocean. Never was a body of water so ill named. We ran into swells 6 meters high and winds up to 70 km /hour. At breakfast my chair slid right away from the table at one point and trays of silverware crashed to the floor.  I went on a tour of the galleys in the morning and trays were falling out of their racks as we danced back and forth trying to manage a dignified march through the kitchen. Fortunately I do not suffer from seasickness, so after the galley tour I went on to a watercolor class. Ralph attended a lecture, then we met and had lunch, amid dwindling numbers of people who were up and about.  Things seemed to calm down a bit in the afternoon, but by dinner time we were rocking and rolling again and we were the only two at our table who felt like eating.  We slept well, but others in our group had a very uncomfortable night. 
By the next morning the world was calmer and we were in a protected channel instead of on the open seas. Our revived group met for an elegant brunch at 10:00am, even though navigating the dining room, between tables laden with trays of food and ice sculptures with a china plate in hand was still quite a balancing act. In the afternoon we attended a classical piano concert, snacked on finger sandwiches at the Cova Café, then read and rested before preparing for our last formal dinner – lobster for all. After dinner there was a very nice musical variety show in the theater. Everyone seems to be back to normal, ready for our visit to Puerto Montt tomorrow.

Punta Arenas

We are now in Chile. After a leisurely breakfast we took the tender in to the port. Irunu collared a local woman in the terminal and got the low down on what to see and do. 

On her recommendation we walked the few blocks to the main square, where there is a permanent crafts market, then on to a handicrafts shop, Ramas. Ralph and Jim waited next door at an internet café. Punta Arenas is a sheep ranching area, so many of the crafts were woolen – woven or handknit. There are many older buildings with intricate, European style architecture, legacy of the wealthy families of the 19th century. 

Then we backtracked to the Municipal market near the psort where we had a wonderful seafood lunch. King crab and conger are two of the most popular local catches that we sampled in the restaurant up on the third level. Fresh seafood is much more popular in Chile than in Argentina, at least as far as we can tell from the menus we've seen. The market is amazingly clean and well cared for. On the first level fresh fish, fruits and other foods are sold. Level 2 has several handicraft/gift shops and several small eating establishments. It was a pleasant place to visit, as the weather was not as sunny as we had enjoyed in Ushuaia, raining a bit on and off.

Ushuaia

We debarked early in Ushuaia to get our tickets for the Train at the End of the World. A bus took us to the train station where we squeezed into our “First Class” seats – which entitled us to a glass of wine and airplane-style ham and cheese sandwiches. Argentina built a prison in Ushuaia in the early years of the 20th century as a way to maintain a presence in the inhospitable southern reaches of their territory. The prisoners (the worst repeat offenders) provided the labor to construct the prison and the train was built to carry them out into the mountain side where they cut down enough timber to leave behind what is still called the “tree cemetery”. 
We made a stop to see a small water fall, then another to turn around – detaching the engine from the front of the train and hooking it up to the rear for the return trip.
The bus was waiting to carry us back to town where we went straight to La Estancia for “all-you-can-eat” lamb cooked Patagonian style over an open fire. Delicious, but we probably overdid it a bit.

As it was Monday of Carnival not all the stores in town were open, but most of the tourist shops seemed to be. We walked up and down the main street and bought chocolates, cheeses, marmalades, mustards and other goodies, then headed back to the ship. We were most fortunate with the weather which was sunny all day – without the unpredictable changes which everyone had warned us about.
That night at dinner they offered – lamb – which we couldn’t really face again, so flounder was a much more popular choice.

Rounding the Horn

The days at sea are acquiring a certain rhythm. A lecture at 10:00 – today about explorations of Cape Horn and Antarctica – then some other activity before watercolor class at 1:00.

Later, lunch on deck 10. Today lunch extended as we held a table with a view for the rounding of Cape Horn. We went through a bit of confusion. Rod Jury had said that if the weather was good the captain planned to circle the island counter clockwise, so we held down a table on the port side. But everyone else seemed to be on the starboard side. So we moved over and found a place over there. When we came to Cape Horn we went up on deck anyway to take pictures and see the island. We started into the channel, then the ship made a 360° clockwise turn. We first thought we were turning back because of fog, but the skies cleared as fast as they had closed in. Then we went through the channel as originally planned and made the counter clockwise run around Cape Horn. It was clear enough so that we could appreciate why it is said that Cape Horn looks like a reclining lion.
We ended up back at our original table for the rest of the passage. We snacked on Indian food and sailed around Cape Horn – so easy for us, but almost inconceivable in a small wooden sailing ship. We were fortunate to have sunny, calm weather, but they kept reminding us that over 1,000 ships ( and many times that many lives) have been lost in the attempt to sail around the southern tip of the continent.

Saturday at Sea

We had a relaxing day at sea. The weather was beautiful and the seas were calm.
We started out with another lecture in the Beyond the Podium series, by Rod Jury. Today he spoke about Cape Horn. Then we scurried across to the dining room for the grand brunch buffet. There was such quantity and variety that it was difficult to decide what to eat. But we did our best.
Later I went to another watercolor class and Ralph and Jim and Irunu went to a lecture on whales. We had an informal lunch in the grill area, then rested and read the afternoon away. (Ralph did go up on deck to walk – I read).
Before dinner Ralph and I sat out on the aft deck with some wine and sushi. The sunset was perfect, leaving behind a pink sky to promise good weather tomorrow. Then all of a sudden we were socked in by fog, with no visibility, and the ship was sounding its fog horn. Later, at night, the skies cleared up again to permit star gazing. Which all goes to show that what we have been told is true. They say that in these parts you can experience all four seasons in one day – and the only thing certain about the weather is that it is unpredictable.
A nice dinner, a musical recap of the ´70s for our after dinner show, and to bed. Tomorrow, Cape Horn.

Punta Tombo

Hundreds of people were very efficiently herded through the theater and onto our respective buses for the day’s excursions.
We faced a two and a half hour ride south from Puerto Madryn to Punta Tombo. The scenery is monotonous, dry, dusty.  We saw some sheep and guanacos before arriving at Punta Tombo, but not much else.

The penguins were numerous and quite unphased by all these strange creatures trekking through their habitat. The rookery is on a beautiful section of the coast and the blue Atlantic is a great relief from all the arid inland scenery.We were visiting at the end of the breeding season. All the chicks were quite grown and molting. There was no need for the adults to take turns guarding the nests. We walked through the habitat on boardwalks which often rose above ground to permit the penguins to cross beneath them on their trips between their nests and the water. They also provided popular shady areas for the penguins to rest in during the heat of midday.

The time seemed all too short. After the dreary ride I would have enjoyed a longer spell with the penguins – and it would have been nice to visit when there were fewer people.  But if you come by cruise ship the crowd is a given and the time is short. We had to make the trip back to Puerto Madryn and be on board by 4:45.

We saw the penguins and walked among them  - and who knows if we will ever have that chance again. The long grey ride will soon be forgotten (in fact, I slept through most of the return trip) but our visit to the penguins will remain with us forever. Just wait, we got some great pictures.
We sat up on deck 10 and snacked on pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, salad and sushi (we each made different choices) as the ship pulled out of the harbor and resumed its southern journey. Two days at sea ahead before we reach Ushuaia.

Our First Day at Sea

We spent the day at sea, moving south toward Puerto Madryn.
In the morning we heard talks on the history and geography of Patagonia, on Puerto Madryn and Ushuaia, and then on Patagonian wildlife – Ralph finished up the last one alone as I left for a watercolor class. We learned quite a bit. I admit that geography has never been my strong point, but it surprised me to see that although Patagonia is the most southern population center in the Southern Hemisphere – below all of Africa and also farther south than Australia – Cape Horn is no closer to the South Pole than Canada is to the North Pole. The land masses in the Northern Hemisphere extend much farther north than those in the Southern Hemisphere reach south. The good old Gulf Stream makes the eastern coast of North America, and the coasts of England and Norway much more temperate than the Patagonian area, which has no such warm current. Whatever – since it’s still the end of summer here we should not encounter truly cold temperatures. In fact it should be in the high 70’s – low 80’s when we see the penguins tomorrow.
After lunch we spent a lazy afternoon reading, saw as movie at 7:00 (The Social Network) then ran in to dinner a few minutes late. Tomorrow morning we gather early to board the bus for our trip to Punta Tombo and the penguins.

Punta del Este

We awoke moored in the river bay before Punta del Este. After breakfast we took a tender into the port where we negotiated a three-hour tour of the peninsula.

Our driver, Daniel, turned out to be a keeper. He took us all over Punta del Este, stopping at different paradas for us to explore or take pictures. We saw the lighthouse, the Church of La Candelaria, the neighborhoods with large mansions and velvety lawns and the plethora of sleek new apartment buildings.

 We crossed the roller coaster bridge to La Barra, stopped for empanadas at Rica y Famosa, had gelato in town, browsed some tourist shops, and then he took us back to the dock where we re-boarded the ship at 4:30. Our lasting impression of Punta del Este was that of a beautiful, clean, safe resort. At times it felt like the Baleares, especially with all the new construction on every open plot of rock or land, at others  almost the mirror image of our island –with a bit more temperate climate.  It never snows here. It is on a peninsula and from the “cerro” in the middle you can look down on the calm beaches of the river bayside or the waves of the Atlantic on the Brava side. Their seasons are a mirror of ours, so high season is just ending.  School started on March 1. They go from about 15,000 locals to millions of summer visitors from all over the world. Most of the houses are closed up during the low season, and many are rented out to vacationers.  All in all, a delightful place – to visit or for staying a while. Really, much nicer than I had expected.

We arrived back on board just in time for a nice rest, then the show at 7:00 and dinner at 8:30.


Farewell to Uruguay. 
We´re heading south – towards  the penguins.

Montevideo, Uruguay

I must tell our dear friend Jorge Crosa that he was right on the mark with his recommendations on what to do in Montevideo. We left the ship and crossed the street to follow a walking tour of the Ciudad Vieja:  the Plaza Zabala, the Catedral Metropolitana, the Puerta de la Ciudadela, the Plaza de la Constitución and more . I loved the architecture – the doors especially – and the colorful street life. The weather was wonderful.  After completing the walking tour we negotiated with a taxi driver to give us a city tour of the more modern parts of the city, starting with a drive along the Rambla. It’s lovely to have such clean public beaches available to the city residents. I was intrigued with the urban architecture. Houses, or buildings, of different epochs and very different styles are built wall to wall. An old house may eventually be replaced by a tall building and small dwellings often remain surrounded by larger structures. Every one of the connected buildings on a given block might be from a different decade, or century.  We also enjoyed seeing the school children in their white smocks and blue scarves getting back to classes.

We finished up our visit at the Mercado del Puerto where we browsed the markets and then ate at Don Tiburon. We sat at an outdoor table to enjoy our meal and were surrounded by San Benito type drums and other music. And yes – we tried the Medio y Medio. It was just the thing to accompany the delicious chorrizo.

Then back to the ship. Tonight we have the Captain’s Toast and a formal dinner. Tomorrow Punta del Este.

Remembering Things Past

We took a taxi from the port back to the neighborhood of our tanguera week last September. We arrived at the Abastos shopping center, made a quick visit to the Cote market and then took another short ride to Las Violetas for lunch. We had an enjoyable repast. I had to try the fusilli al fierrito which I had read so much about in my Bodegones book. They were delicious, although not what I expected. Somehow I thought that fierrito meant theywould be spicey - shows how much Italian I know. Seems the fierrito is the knitting needle used to shape them. (fusilli)  
The Tiramisu also gave some pause for thought.

Then back to the ship and a rest before dinner as we left the port of Buenos Aires and headed towards Uruguay. 

Revisiting Old Friends

We spent today revisiting some of our favorite spots in Buenos Aires. First a short walk from our hotel on Calle Florida through the Plaza San Martin, which is at the end of its summer glory. Then a taxi ride to the Ateneo, that glorious book store which took possession of an old theater, to browse and buy. I found a lovely book about the Bodegones de Buenos Aires. We could plan a whole trip around meals at these local gems who feature abundant good food at moderate prices - with lots of local history and culture thrown in. After that I'll come back and buy the Pulperias de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; another whole trip. I also bought a small book on the food of Argentina - from the beginning, local foods through the history of the country.

Then another cab ride to Puerto Madero for a leisurely lunch in Cabaña Las Lilas. Wonderful as always. We sat out on the terrace overlooking the water. They fastened all our handbags and purchases to our chairs with tie wraps. And we settled in for a wonderful meal.
Then back to the hotel to reclaim our luggage, a short hop to the Port, a cut finger (Jim) a couple of scares over misplaced documents and bags, but we finally boarded the Infinity, found our cabins, rested a bit and then headed up for dinner.
We handed our dining card to the waiter and he took us to our table. We waited and waited and Jim and Irunu never appeared. We did our best to communicate with the four Romanians seated at "our" table. They were truly charming and experienced cruisers. Finally, Ralph got up and walked around the dining room to find Jim and Iru eating alone at the table we should have been at. Our guide had taken us to the wrong table. We finished up our meal with our new acquaintances and tomorrow we will try to sit in the right place.
A tango show after dinner. Pleasant, but  not as good as those in town. The median age of the cruise population is rather high, although we did sit near an adorable couple of newly weds from Ecuador - they were lamenting the lack of people their own age on board. According to the cruise director there are 37 countries represented by passengers, so the variety of languages is great - not much Spanish heard.
After the show we headed back to the cabin and oblivion.

Getting Reaquainted...

Buenos Aires is an old friend and with each encounter we enjoy learning something new about her. Today was a lazy day, recovery from our 24 hours of travel.
We walked along Corrientes, found a promising restaurant, Cafe Rigoleto, with outdoor tables and enjoyed a relaxing lunch. Then on to Centro Comercial Pacifico for all those necessities we neglected to pack (sun block for that hole in the ozone layer) and a visit to Mimo (Emma's shoes +).
Ralph had a visit at the end of the afternoon from a fishing friend, president of the Argentinian Fly Fishing Association, who broght him several copies of their magazine. Ralph's article on fishing for pavon in Lake Maracaibo appears in No.71.

Anibel and Marcela came to the hotel and we walked several blocks to the Calle Suipacha for dinner. (The Battle of Suipacha, in 1810, was the first victory for the Argentinians in their war of independence.) The street has very recently been blocked off and reserved for pedestrian traffic. Work is beginning and on our next visit we hope to see that the restaruants have expanded their seating out onto the sidewalk as Suipacha is incoroporated into the pedestrian zone of the Centro. We dined at Almacén Suipacha, in their own words "un restauant bien porteño".  The restaurant is full of antique furniture and artefacts from an old general store (almacen) both on the street level and upstairs, along with large wooden carvings of tango figures. A bandoneon player near the entrance provides background music throughout the evening. The meal, the company and the conversation were thoroughly enjoyable, a lovely way to spend a Saturday night, and celebrate our return to Buenos Aires. Do follow the link on the right to the restaurant's web page. It includes a wonderful collection of photos of Buenos Aires in general.

The walk back to the hotel was welcome excercise after our repast. Farewell, but hasta pronto to Hanibel and Marcela, and so to bed.

Good Morning, Buenos Aires

We're here. We really had two very nice flights on LANChile. It's easy to complain about the long trip - we've been traveling for 24 hours.  But when you consider the distances we've covered you have to be amazed. How long would this trip have taken 50 years ago? 100 years ago? It would have involved over land travel and ocean voyages. It's really amazing to see how far we've come in one day.

Well, time for a shower and a rest. Just wanted to let you all know that we have arrived safely in Buenos Aires.

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Let the Games Begin...

At least we´re getting the worst part of the trip out of the way at the beginning.

We arrived at the airport in Maracaibo to be told that our 11:00am flight to Caracas would be leaving an hour late – or more. The pleasant young man at the counter also said that if we didn’t hear anyone call our flight for a long time that we should come back and ask again. ??  Ralph observed that the airport is a microcosm of Venezuela.  Officially everything was just fine. All the flights were on time on the airport boards – they just weren’t really. As Venezuelans have learned, the official numbers look great, but have little to do with reality. The girls at the tax window asked cheerily if the 11:00 flight was going to leave. ??  A cup of coffee, two newspapers and a Sudoku game later we finally took off, arriving in Caracas about 1:30 instead of at noon. Not bad, considering. We have plenty of time before our next flight.

After reclaiming our bags, travelling from the national to the international terminal, checking in at LAN, paying two different taxes at two different windows, and filling out our immigration forms, we were free to go upstairs and meet with Irvin and Blanca who had driven in from Valencia. We had a nice visit with them until about  5:20, then headed down to the security lines to enter the departing area.  We had an interesting talk with the immigration official. She was lamenting that Carnaval vacations were coming up next week. Ralph asked her which times were worse travelwise and without hesitation she said, the summer vacation period. Her reason was telling - families don´t travel together anymore. The parents go off in one direction while the children go their separate ways to soccer camp or other special tours. Each Venezuelan child traveling without their parents must have a special permission form. She said that in the summer the permission forms stack up at her station.  "It used to be that families took their vacations together. Now they all go in different directions..""

Our flight was a bit late in leaving – closer to 8:00 than its 7:20 posted time, but we finally got off. All went well on the first leg from Caracas to Lima. We arrived in Lima at 11:00pm local time (11:30 our time) and immediately had to go through security again. Shoes off, computer out, etc.

We are now waiting for our 1:15 am flight to Buenos Aires. I watched a movie and enjoyed a constant back massage on the flight from Caracas. On this next one I hope to sleep.  Until tomorrow in Buenos Aires!!

Notes on Penguins

All 17 species of penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere (that's right, no penguins in the Arctic). They are water birds that can't fly. So in order to preserve the species they generally live on islands or remote regions that are free of predators. That way their inability to fly doesn't matter much.

 Magellanic penguins ( spheniscus magellanicus) are found on the Falkland Islands and along the coasts of Argentina and Chile. And that's just where we're going to visit them. The genus spheniscus (Magellanic and Humboldts) are temperate penguins. They have unfeathered fleshy areas on the face and distinct stripes across their chest.

Penguins are said to be among the most sociable of all birds. - We certainly hope so and will report on this aspect.

Penguins communicate by vocalizing and performing physical behaviors called displays. As we don't speak penguin we will just have to guess what they are trying to communicate. It is said that penguin calls are individually identifiable, allowing partners to recognize each other and also their chick. This is important since (as you can see in the background photo) members of a large colony of penguins are nearly indistinguishable on sight. I really can't imagine the poor chick having to find Mom and Dad by their individually identifiable calls in a colony where everyone is dressed the same and everyone is vocalizing, but it must work. The species has survived.

The average lifespan of a penguin is 15 to 20 years, although some live considerably longer. 

The popularity of "ecotourism" is increasing with cruise ships frequenting antarctic waters. Enthusiastic sightseers must be careful not to interfere with normal penguin activity by staying back and keeping noise levels down (MOller-Schwarze, 1984). We will try to keep our noise down.

Follow along with us as we set out to visit the penguins. We will be leaving home on Friday, February 25th, and setting sail from Buenos Aires on Sunday the 27th on the Celebrity Infinity. I'm sure we will know much more about these elegantly attired, non-flying, social sea birds when we reach Valparaiso, Chile two weeks later. I can hardly wait!!