Exciting Day in Punta Arenas, Chile

We woke up early this morning and had to leave the ship on our excursion to Magdalena Island to see the penguins at 7:50 a.m.   That hurt after having only 4 hours of sleep, but was it ever worth it.  There were thousands of penguins running around this island.  They are currently nesting so you could get just a few feet away from them.  They didn’t seem to mind us being there and walked right past us to catch fish and play in the water.   The trip consisted of a short bus ride from the terminal dock and then a 1-1/2 hour ferry ride to the island.  This is the only ship excursion that we booked but you can’t come here without seeing these cute little guys and the logistics prevented us from doing it on our on. 

 

Upon returning to the port to catch our tender back to the ship, we were notified that gale force winds were preventing the tenders from picking us up.  OK….so what now?  But they eventually started running again, but only putting 36 people in each tender.  With about 1500 ashore, that would take a while.   When our time came, we boarded our tender and it was tossed and turned in the waves.  After several attempts, we finally got secured to the side of the ship and the Holland America workers came onboard the tender to help all of us off….one at a time.  It was pretty crazy….or as Madilyn (our 6 year old great niece) would say, it sorta freaked me out a little.   After being transferred safely to the ship, we could not say enough good things about the nice young men that assisted us. 

Then if things couldn’t get worse (for the captain) our anchor got hung up on something and they couldn’t get it up.  We were supposed to all be on the ship by 5 pm and at 9 pm tonight, we were just informed that the anchor had been released and we would be heading to our next destination, Ushuaia, Argentina!

So, its 9:15 p.m., still daylight, and the ship is finally moving!  

 

Roll Tide from South America!

The weather has begun getting cold and its been rainy.    We passed the time with lots of shipboard activities (wii bowling, exploring the ship, attending various seminars and last but not least, staying up last night to watch Alabama vs. Auburn.)  The game was on ESPN and fortunately the ship carried this channel.  It didn’t come on until 9:45 p.m. though.   When we went back to our cabin after dinner, our room steward had left us an elephant towel art on our bed.  We felt like that was an omen.  The game was certainly a nail biter.   We watched the first half of the game in the Mix Bar and took our elephant made out of towels and put him on the bar in front of us.  But unfortunately an obnoxious Auburn fan (no, they are not all obnoxious….just this one and I’m sure if he had not been absolutely sloshed he wouldn’t have been obnoxious either), sat next to us and attacked our elephant.    Seriously, he sat down and slurred that he absolutely HATED Alabama, grabbed the elephant and squeezed it, destroying his cute trunk and ears.  We made repairs to the elephant and moved it out of his reach.  Then, he again reached for it.  We realized this just wasn’t going to end well, so we opted to take our elephant back to our cabin and finish watching the game there.   You can’t make that kind of stuff up!  The game ended at 1:50 a.m. , and we managed to stay awake for the entire game.   Roll Tide!  We’ll still be on the ship next Saturday when the SEC championship game is played.   Hoping it will be on ESPN so we can watch it as well. 

Cruising the Chilean Fjords

Two relaxing days at sea!  We are traveling through the Chilean fjords. 

We are seeing lots of dolphins swimming past the ship as we slowly make our way through this narrow passage.    The second day around 8 a.m., the captain brought us directly in front of Brujo glacier. 

We have been to Glacier Bay in Alaska, but it was nothing compared to this monster.   The area around the glacier was covered with huge icebergs.  We slowly cruised right through them.  Absolutely spectacular!

 

Thanksgiving in South America

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the U.S.A.!  We were awakened this morning by a tap on the door and a nice young man delivering a tray with coffee!   This doesn’t happen at home.  After breakfast, we again boarded the tender around 10 a.m. and found ourselves at Puerto Chacabuco, Chile.   There is absolutely nothing in Chacabuco (we were told that in advance), so we took a bus to nearby Aysen and connected with another bus that took us to the capital of this region, Coyhaique. 

The drive between Aysen and Coyhaique was breathtaking.   Green fields with patches of purple and yellow flowers, horses, and streams, with a breathtaking view of  the snow-capped Andes mountains in the background.   Coyhaique was a pretty little town (with a city square that offered free wifi). 

We met a very nice couple from Australia (Corolla and Jim) that have been sailing the world for the past 5 years.  Although we didn’t have much time there we saw the town, had lunch, and hopped on another bus to return to the port.  We were only docked there from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.   We reboarded the ship at 4 p.m., stopped by the bar for a beer, then headed to our cabin.  

 

I should have known better, but I couldn’t help but order what the chef described as a “traditional American Thanksgiving dinner” tonight.    Let’s just say it wasn’t my sister-in-law’s spectacular cornbread dressing that I’m used to! 

 

 

Puerto Montt, Chile

We dropped anchor off the shore of Puerto Montt early this morning.   Richard went down one floor to the Exploration café and brought back two espressos to get us going!  After breakfast we made our way to the tender for our quick trip ashore.  The port had wifi so we stopped for a few minutes to check our email before walking 5 minutes to the bus station to catch the local bus to Puerto Varas.  We paid the driver $800 pesos each (about $2.80 US) for the 20 minute ride to this scenic little town overlooking Lake Llanquihue, the Osorno Volcano, and the surrounding mountains. 

After a quick lunch, we again boarded the bus and returned to Puerto Montt and made our way to the Artesenal Angelmo shopping area which consisted of a fish market and small stalls with mostly women vendors selling their homemade knitted items. One lady was knitting with bright blue yarn and had apparently just begun her project. However, when we stopped back by about an hour later, she showed us the sweater that was almost complete. Beautiful workmanship! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to own one of her ponchos!

 

We made our way back to the port and boarded our tender back to the ship. We had an early dinner and walked several laps around the promenade deck before dark….which isn’t until after 9 pm.  

 

Holland America’s clientele is mostly much older than we are….or at least older than we feel! The continual attempts at upselling and their overt attempts at increasing their bottom line are becoming quite annoying. Many of the activities on the agenda are for this sole purpose, not to enhance your ship experience.

November 25th At Sea

We spent today at sea, traveling to Puerto Montt, Chile.  The seas had calmed down somewhat and we had a relaxing day onboard.  We did make it to the gym and spent time on the treadmill, although running on a moving ship proved to be a little challenging.  Tonight was formal night and it was quite comical to watch little old men in tuxedos shuffling their feet as they dealt with the sway of the boat.   Can’t wait to see the real penguins! 

Cruisin!

We boarded the Zaandam after taking a walking tour of Valparaiso.  The tour was a “tour for tips”.   A pretty cool concept, as the guide gets rewarded for a job well done, and likewise not rewarded for poor performance.   (Our guide was great!)  We quickly unpacked for our two-week stay.  We booked a verandah suite, which I was expecting to be the equivalent of Princesses’ balcony cabin; and was pleasantly surprised to find it closer to a mini-suite….(I got my bathtub)!   Shortly after setting sail, we became aware that the seas were going to be very interesting!   The captain had warned us before ever leaving the dock that the wind would be 50 mph.    At bed time, they were at 58 mph!  We both took a Dramamine and slept great.   I’m not sure if it was the ship swaying or the fact that we haven’t cruised in several years and just haven’t gotten our sea legs yet.  We’ll see!

Valparaiso, Chile

We checked out of our hotel (Meridiano Petit Sur) and took a taxi to the bus station, where we got on a TurBus ($5 each!) to Valparaiso, Chile.  It was about an 1-1/2 hour trip but was non-stop and very comfortable.  Once there, we grabbed a taxi, which took us to our new hotel for one night (Hotel Latitude 33 Sur).  We dropped our luggage off and headed out to explore this eclectic city!  Richard commented that the entire city was a canvas!   The city was built on a hillside next to the Pacific Ocean, and there were murals everywhere! 

This is an artist's Mecca!   This is a place I would definitely recommend seeing....skip Santiago and  come here!

 

 

 

November 22nd, Santiago Chile

After leaving Hunstville at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, arriving in Santiago at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, spending most of Saturday at two wineries....we are about to leave Santiago for Valpraiso tomorrow morning.  Well, there is a little more to it than that.  

The timetable is accurate, but its been a non-stop adventure so far.  Although we were lucky enough to have an empty seat between us on the 9-1/2 hour fight to Santiago, we neither got much, if any sleep.  But after arriving at our hotel, we dropped our luggage off and kept going.  We enjoyed a great lunch of various seafood at a small Chilean cafe and walked around until check in time.   Then, after a quick shower and a power nap (30 minutes), off we go again to the subway to Plaza del Armas and the central market.  We made a stop by the Santiago cathedral, which although under construction, was pretty impressive.  We made a stop and picked up a bottle of wine and an empanada and enjoyed both on the outside patio at our hotel.  At 8:30 p.m., we were done!   We woke up at 8:15 a.m. today and realized we must have been much more tired than we realized. 

Having seen about as much of Santiago as we wanted to, we chose to spend today at the neaby vineyards and wineries.  We had prearranged a tour of Concha y Toro, which many of you know that we are very familiar with....and had the hotel contact the Santa Rita winery and arrange to get us on the noon tour.   We headed out and after about 45 minutes on the subway, we got off at the most southern stop and hailed a taxi for the rest of the trip to the wineries. 

They saved the best part of the tour for last, as we were treated to a great wine tasting.  Very informative....best I remember!



To the Ends of the Earth!

Here we go again!  I've told this man many times that I'd follow him to the end of the earth!  Tomorrow, I guess it will come true as we head south....stay tuned! 

September 3-14, 2014 Out West

After spending months of planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, and Banff, Alberta, Canada, we finally took off for a big adventure with four good friends.  The good news is, after spending 12 days together, we're all still speaking!  Good times, good memories, good friends. 

On September 3rd, we flew to Helena, Montana....rented a 12-passenger van, and set off for West Yellowstone.  Yellowstone National Park was pretty amazing.  The geysers, canyons, and of course Old Faithful were pretty spectacular.  With buffalo and elk roaming the streets, we were constantly entertained. 

One of the highlights of Glacier National Park was the red bus tour on the Going to the Sun Road, which closed the day after we were there due to the large amount of snowfall.   The snow continued as we entered Canada.  Hiking, eating, drinking, and certainly being merry were a few of our favorite things!