Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We should have booked a city tour here. There is only one cruise ship terminal and several ships in and they are having a turnover day which means that the terminal is a madhouse. We took the H Stern free shuttle to their main headquarters since that seemed to be the only transportation possibility. It was actually a nice ride of about 25 minutes through the city to the Ipanema beach area. We did their short tour through their workshops and then looked at some jewelry which was beautiful, but either beyond my means or the rings and things I could afford I just really didn’t need. We then walked to the beach and watched the ‘beautiful bodies’ strutting by and the men playing volleyball. The few juice bars nearby were all completely full so we decided to wander in the other direction and soon tired of just looking at the shops so we headed back on the shuttle. It was nice that they took a different route back to the ship so we were able to see all of Ipanema beach as well as Copacabana beach and hotels.

We had a local show in place of the regular shows in the evening. It was done as a small version of Carnival and put on by one of the Samba schools. The costumes were great and quite skimpy. I’m sure this will be the favorite show of the men onboard. I’ve decided if I go and buy a sparkly thong, bra and some feathers I’ll suddenly have a figure just like theirs! Ok, I’m just wishing… it wouldn’t have happened even when I was young.

I should back up here and say that as we arrived into the port we were out on the deck and could see Sugarloaf and Corcovado with Christ the Redeemer on top. It was about sunrise and it was quite misty, but at least I have seen them and have a few (rather poor) pictures. We are supposed to pass by those same areas again this afternoon when we leave port so maybe I can get some better shots then.

There is a huge U.S. aircraft carrier, Number 70, the Carl Vinson, anchored here in the bay and we have been watching the sailors being shuttled back and forth to the ship. It’s quite interesting to see it this close.

We have been following the CNN coverage of the earthquake in Chile. 8.8 is a huge earthquake and it makes it seem so much more real since we were just there a little while ago. Our guide there talked some about their earthquake risk and the fact that they are constantly having tremors. Although what we are seeing shows the devastation, I actually am impressed with what didn’t happen. Most of the new buildings in Santiago and other cities have been built to stringent earthquake standards and seem to have come through this remarkably well. It is so sad to see the old historic buildings that have had so much damage - the historic architecture is what I love.

Safe in Rio

We arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this morning. We went out on deck to take pictures as we came into the port - that was when several passengers mentioned that there had just been a huge earthquake in Santiago. We have been watching the coverage on CNN. I’ll write more later.

Monte Video, Uruguay

Monte Video, Uruguay


We crossed the river from Buenos Aires during the night and arrived in the port at Monte Video about 30 minutes late - about 8:30 in the morning. It was a beautiful sunny but cool morning - probably a little less than 60 degrees with a little wind and predicted to be about 75 - couldn’t be better.

This was our second Ensemble Experience private shore excursion for our group. We all met in the Half Moon room at 8:45 and about 5 minutes later they announced that the ship had been cleared by the local authorities. So we weren’t late at all to meet with our tour guides, Maria and driver, Jorge. Maria was a fantastic guide, she is a school teacher during the school year and also a lawyer. And as most of our guides have been, her English was perfect. We did a bus tour of the city with a number of photo stops and it was interesting to see the preparations for the inauguration of their new government next week. She did say that much extra security will be in place since “Hillary” is attending. We traveled through the downtown and government areas of this city of over a million people and then through several suburbs which enabled us to see the wealthy areas, middle class and low class areas. In the lower class areas she referred to them as shanty towns, but all the houses were brick or concrete block so they were far better than sum of the slums or shanty towns we have seen on our travels.

Then we went into the countryside to a winery where we had a short tour. This is actually a harvest and production time for them so it was very busy and smelled very ‘winey’. Then we went into the dining room and for a very large Uruguayan barbeque lunch and the opportunity to sample many of their wines. There were two local musicians playing guitars and singing and a number of the people in the group had great fun dancing. A considerable amount of wine was consumed! J Everyone was disappointed when we had to board the bus and return to the ship.

I was totally pooped… I did manage to go up to the Lido for a bowl of soup and then I didn’t move the rest of the evening except to look out the window a couple times during sail away.

Today is a sea day as we are heading north to our many stops in Brazil. I can report that we are holding a steady last place in Trivia and enjoying every minute of it. It is amazing how many times we have the right answer but decide to use a different one.

Buenos Aires

The night prior to Buenos Aires we had our second Ensemble Cocktail party and everyone attended - this time I chose the Explorers Lounge for the party so we weren’t so crowded; it was perfect. I asked almost everyone for a quick description of the Antarctic and I got two consistent responses: “indescribable” and “awesome.” That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Everyone agreed that they could have spent several more days in the area before heading out.

We arrived in port to gray and rainy skies, but the rain soon stopped and we headed into the city. We were planning to taxi directly to the Recolleto area to do some photography in the cemetery where Eva Perone is buried but the line for the taxies was quite long so we ended up taking the H Stern shuttle bus to their jewelry shop in the Marriott Plaza Hotel and then taxiing over from there. This cemetery is fascinating as it is made up of beautiful above ground mausoleums - each corner you turn seems to be better than the last.

Eva’s mausoleum is actually one of the least impressive, but it is always marked with many fresh flowers and, of course, with many people crowding around to see it. After about an hour of wandering around, the rain started again and we put on our little plastic ponchos… almost everyone else left so we had the whole place almost to ourselves. Now I admit that blue skies would have made prettier pictures, but I took bunches anyway and I didn’t have to wait for anyone to get out of my picture! The cemetery dates from about 1830, but the earliest date we could find was about 1840. Some of the mausoleums are well cared for and others are falling into ruin. Most have windows in the doors so you can look inside. These are family plots and probably hold many coffins both above and below the ground. They have a tiny stairway going to the underground area inside each structure. Many also have stained glass windows or cupolas made of glass. One of the pictures here shows the interior of one mausoleum where the door was open.

The rain continued sometimes a little bit and sometimes harder so we decided to have lunch in a nearby Irish Pub to see if it might stop. When we came out it was raining even harder so we found a taxi and headed back to the ship.

This was an overnight port so when we awoke the next morning to beautiful blue skies we headed back out. This time we just wanted to wander around the city a bit so we again rode the H Stern shuttle and spent about 3 hours looking in the shops on Calle Florida; the main shopping area. Jim bought a new belt but I can tell you from the size and number of the shopping bags being carried back onto the ship, we were in the minority in not buying much. Even though we had been here in December, I still feel that I have just barely scratched the surface of this fascinating city. There was a folkloric show late in the afternoon in the showroom and then in the evening we headed to Monte Video.

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

We made it! This is a commonly missed stop on these cruises as the weather is often too bad to anchor or even to get there. Both Amsterdam and Veendam missed it recently so we are feeling very lucky. This was my last chance for penguins so we had booked an excursion. I had wanted either one that went to King penguins or Rockhopper penguins but both were full so we were on one to Bluff Cove for Gentoo penguins. Now the excursion involved the tender, a small bus and then 4x4 Land Rovers and warned that is was not for those with back or neck problems, but I couldn’t miss my last opportunity for penguins up close and personal so I did it. It was a rough ride, but I survived it and am not a whole lot worse for it today! There were several thousand Gentoo penguins on a nice stretch of beach on a private farm AND 5 King Penguins!!! So I got my King penguin pictures after all. They are bigger than the Gentoo and have the distinct yellow around their upper chest - really beautiful - and then to make it even better one had a new chick hatched just the day before. They were a long way off but with my zoom I shot a ton of pictures. I hope you can see the adult feeding the chick between her feet.

I thought the Falklands were very interesting. They are very flat; the highest hills are only about 2,000 feet. There are no trees except in the town where people have planted them. It has a very different kind of beauty similar to how I picture areas on Scotland. Port Stanley looks very British or Irish and of course, the people speak a very British English. When we got back on the ship we found that we had been there at an interesting time for another reason. Apparently the President of Argentina had signed a new proclamation that morning claiming all the area including the Falklands and stating that any ships sailing in that area must have some sort of a special Argentinean permit. We don’t have this permit so we shall see what happens when we arrive there in a couple days.

Later in the evening we had dinner in the Pinnacle with the Ice Pilot, Captain Pat Toomey and had a great meal as well as getting to hear some more of his stories. He was a great addition to this cruise as he took the time to do pre and post Antarctic lectures. He has been at sea for his whole adult life and his wife often accompanies him.

Now we have two sea days before Buenos Aires. I’m sitting in the showroom writing this as they are giving Tango lessons. There are at least 40 couples (probably more) taking the lesson. The instructor is a really cute young man who is a member of the Pampas Devils who will be dancing on the ship for a couple nights. It’s times like this I wish my bones were in better shape as I used to love to Tango even though I needed someone that was a really good dancer to lead.

Antarctica Day 3 and next

Antarctica Day 3

Today was expedition cruising at its best - the Captain has been reminding us, our itinerary is totally based on weather and ice conditions. This morning we were supposed to enter the Antarctica Sound (Iceberg Alley) and see Paulette Island. Our approach to the Sound was blocked by pack ice that had not been reported. It was a huge area of sea ice and some icebergs that the winds had blown up from the southwest. After looking around for a while the Captain decided to head straight for Elephant Island. There was an expedition ship on the north side of the ice and we were on the south… There were 12 miles of ice between the two ships and both were looking for a channel to get through - neither found one. We finally doubled back to where we had started in the very early morning hours and then headed northeast. We had lost so much time that now there was no time to go to Elephant Island and we are headed straight for Port Stanley in the Falklands (plan D). We passed a number of huge icebergs but less and less of the small ones as we went north; by bedtime, there were none to be seen. For the many times that I’ve said I find the sea endless fascinating, I have to admit I miss the icebergs!  Especially the ones with penguins on them.

At Sea Heading to the Falklands

We left Antarctica at about 1:00 this morning and woke up to gray, foggy skies but again we have smooth passage in the Drake.

This morning was the Penguin Races; I had my penguin all dressed up in my sparkly necklace… we didn’t win the race but she was the best dressed penguin! Jim played in the Texas Hold’em tournament and was the 3rd out - good thing we aren’t gamblers.

We had lunch at the table with our Ice Pilot, Captain Pat Toomey. We had eaten lunch at his table a few days ago and he is really interesting… we are taking him to the Pinnacle tomorrow night as he will disembark in Buenos Aires. He gave a talk this afternoon describing what we actually did and the routes we ended up taking. He had done one just after Ushuaia detailing Plan A, the best possible itinerary and the one we would do if everything was perfect.

All in all it was a quiet day after the excitement of the Antarctic and it was nice not to be wearing the extra clothes and going in and out on the freezing decks for pictures. It’s still freezing out there, but I don’t have to go out.
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Antarctica Day 2

The day stayed very cold but there were patches of sun that would peak through the clouds giving us some very interesting lighting for photography. We went by many icebergs of all sizes; bergy bits, growlers to huge tabular icebergs and ones with the wonderful shapes and caves. We saw whales, seals, penguins and many types of birds.

We made it into Paradise Bay and saw the Chilean Base and the Argentinean Almirante Brown Base where we landed before. There was an expedition ship doing landings at Almirante Brown and you can see the people up on the hill. This is the hill that Jim and most of the others in our group climbed and then slid down on their bottoms - great fun for adults that don’t do that kind of stuff much these days. It looks considerably different with much of the snow melted but we could easily see penguins everywhere from the ship.

We cruised for a couple more hours and then reached Cuverville Island at about 12:30 pm. Here the snow and ice had also melted back considerably in the couple months and we could see literally thousands of penguins on the land and in the water around the ship. The Captain was able to get the ship very close here and actually spun the ship around so both sides and the aft could have a nice view. Very soon after we left Cuverville Island the fog descended and you couldn’t see anything… time for lunch and a nap while the ship headed toward Deception Island. I had thought we would be able to go into the caldera of the island, but Prinsendam is too big.

At about 4:00pm the Captain came on the speakers and announced that since the heat and hot water had been out all morning he was giving everyone a free bar for 1 hour prior to dinner; a very nice gesture since the ship did get quite chilly! Jim and I went to Explorers Lounge and had our free cocktail (his usual Jack and I had an Irish Coffee) then headed to the Lido for dinner. At about 7:30 we arrived at Deception Island - the tour guide announced it on the speakers and said “it’s out there, we can see it on radar“… but all we could see was fog. Suddenly the fog lifted enough that we could see the entrance called Neptune’s Bellows - mother nature seems to like Prinsendam. We made a circle around the island and the fog stayed up enough for us to see the whole thing, but not to the top of the hills. Shortly after that we headed to bed.

Antarctica - day 1

Wow, blue skies - you couldn’t ask for a better day. We were slightly delayed in reaching our first scenic cruising location, the approach to Palmer Station, but when we arrived a little after noon it was bright and sunny. About a dozen people from the American base came out to the ship in zodiacs to give presentations and have a meal and nice hot showers. Holland America has an agreement with them and it works well for both parties. It was fun seeing the zodiacs approach the ship and really helped put what we were seeing into size perspective. After seeing the zodiacs up close it really showed how special the Polar Cirkel boats we had on MS Fram were - ours were semi-rigid sided and had actual seats and a rail down the center to hold on to and a rail at the front of the boat that really helped when you were getting in and out. Most people were along the side rails on Deck 4 or on one of the exposed front decks… I’m a wimp, I parked myself on the back deck outside the lido. It was much warmer as I was pretty much out of the wind and much of the time I was in the sun. I really didn’t care that I saw where we have been rather than where we were going. The guy in the hot tub was on the deck below and if I weren’t such a camera nut, I’d have probably been there too… great way to see the Antarctic! After the sun went down at about 9:30 it got really cold really quick so we gave up and went back to the cabin… and missed the golden light. Watching out the window the light was so beautiful on two icebergs that Jim ran upstairs to get it, but pretty much missed it.

This morning we are sitting in the very back of the lido watching out the aft windows and running out to the back deck when there are shots… it’s gray and cold. The sun does break through every once in a while and make some marvelous shots. We are in Deception Bay and just passed Almirante Brown Base where we landed before. There was an Expedition ship anchored there and we could see the people up on the hill that Jim climbed and slid down on the snow.

We’ve seen a number of penguins in the water along with several kinds of seals and a number of different birds. The picture at the bottom shows penguins (tiny black dots) on the land taken with my 400 zoom so I am really glad we had the chance to see them up close on Fram!!!

Ushuaia

When we arrived in Ushuaia the skies were sort of mixed, clouds and rain. We waited about a half hour and then walked into town (taking the umbrella). We hadn’t had time to see any of the town when we were there in December so we wandered around a bit and looked in the souvenir shops. Then we stopped in an Irish Pub and had an Irish coffee… tasted really good. We shopped in a couple leather shops and I bought a new belt and a really cute fur jacket that’s also really warm!

The Valentine’s Day ball was held last night after we left Ushuaia even though it was only the 13th. The Captain decided to hold it when the seas would be relatively calm instead of chancing the Drake passage which we would be in tonight. They decorated the Showroom at Sea (yes, it used to be the Queen’s Lounge) with red and pink and white balloons and streamers… it looked really cute.

This morning (Sunday) Jim got up at about 6:00 to see Cape Horn. We were just rounding the Horn as he headed out to get some pictures. I was a bit too lazy to get out of the nice warm bed and I settled for seeing it out the window and on TV from the Bridge Camera. Smooth seas and almost cloudless skies! The picture doesn't look like blue skies, but it really was that way... this cloud just happened to be in the picture. It was beautiful and almost unheard of weather. The Captain was able to completely circle Isla Horne before we turned south to continue on into the Drake Passage on our way to Antarctica. Right now we are having Drake Lake… a far different experience from our southbound passage two months ago! Keep your fingers crossed for us for good weather! I would love to have some blue skies while we are doing the scenic cruising in Antarctica since we had gray skies most of the time on the last trip.

I’ve forgotten to mention that on many of the evenings the waiters are dressed in theme costumes. Last night for the Valentine formal night they had on red vests with red bow ties and today for he Chinese New Year they are in Chinese costumes. The ship decorates for each occasion…some more than others.

Punta Arenas, Chile

Friday we were docked in Punta Arenas. We had booked and early excursion to Magdalena Island to see the penguins - we had to be in the showroom at 7:30 for it. We had a short bus ride to the ferry and then a 90 minute ferry ride out to the island. I’ve never seen a ferry boat quite like this one. It had a vehicle ramp on one side and a long skinny cabin along the other - about the width of a train car. During the ride we went in and out of rain, but had no rain while we were on the island.

Penguins, penguins, penguins… thousands of them. These were Megellan penguins, a variety we hadn’t seen before. They are in the end stage of the molt so some were already in their new feathers and able to go into the water and others were still molting with patches of feathers on their bodies. You could still pick out the young ones even though they are now the same size as the adults, but the feathers they are shedding have a brownish color to them. Instead of making rock nests like the penguins in the Antarctic, these dig burrows into the ground.

Our hour on the island went by much too quickly, but I managed to shoot about 350 pictures. I almost forgot, there is a large lighthouse at the top of the island and many of the people walked up to it. It was lovely… but I spent my time down near the shoreline with my little penguin friends.

Holland America did not give out the Antarctic jackets as they have in the past and a number of the passengers are quite upset as they had planned on them. I had also thought we would be getting them, but realized that we hadn’t been asked for our size request so I purchased a heavy hooded sweater in Ecuador - it’s proved to have been a good purchase!

This morning (Saturday) we passed several big glaciers on our way to Ushuaia. They were spectacular… and would have been even more so if we had had a little bit nicer sky. The subdued light is good to bring out the details of the glacier… but I don’t think you can beat photos with blue skies. We will dock in Ushuaia in a couple hours - it’s trivia time. More later.
Pictires soon - trouble connecting

Fjords of Chile

We have been sailing down through the fjords for the last two days.  It is very beautiful, but the skies are gray, misty and sometimes rainy.  My photos are pretty 'gray' so I won't post any yet.  I'm hoping I can photoshop them a bit when we get home to pop the colors out of the gray.

Tomorrow we will be in Puenta Arenas... penguins.  Internet may become spotty so I'll post as I can until we are back out of the Antarctic..

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

Tuesday- We are in Puerto Chacabuco, Chile. We are now in the Chilean Fjords. It is very beautiful even if it is gray, misty and raining. We came into the inside passage area during the night so when we woke up this morning about 7:00 we could see the islands all around the ship. We were moving along very slowly and by 9:00 had arrived at our anchorage off Puerto Chacabuco. Frank (the onboard tour guide) had told us that there is nothing to do in this port unless you were on a tour… over 400 people did go on tours so they restricted the tenders until about 10:30 to get all the tours off before they opened them to passengers going in on their own. Since it is cold and raining, we decided not to go ashore and have enjoyed a very quiet day on the ship. It is very beautiful outside and when the sun breaks through the clouds for a few minutes it is spectacular. Now if mother nature will be nice to us and give us blue skies… we have three days of scenic cruising ahead before our next port.


The Captain just made his announcements prior to leaving port - he said there was a big storm in the Pacific and that it would be very rough tonight as we will go back out there and then south before we re-enter the fjords about 7:00 in the morning.

Random Thoughts:

The plumber finally fixed the water pressure problem in our cabin on Sunday and now we actually have enough water coming out of the shower head to take a real shower!! Our cabin has a full sized tub, but I haven’t been able to fill it to take a bath. I tried one night and after an hour I had 3 inches of water in the tub so I gave up on the idea of a nice soak and just had a quick bath.

Although all of the crew is happy and smiling and friendly as they have always been on Holland America, I’m not sure how they actually keep it up - they have to be exhausted especially with the illness problem we had where the crew had to work many extra duties. The cutbacks are noticeable; the stewards seem to have to tend too many cabins and the waiters wait too many tables - service is just much slower than it was a few years ago. I guess if people insist on these low prices, something must go and it is beginning to show. If you have never cruised before you wouldn’t notice anything, but if you have been on HAL for 10 (or so) years as we and many many passengers on this cruise have, we all notice it. One passenger summed it up perfectly, it seems that the crew/staff are reactive instead of proactive.

After saying all that, it really is a great cruise and the ship is just the size I like. She is easy to get around and there is never a line to wait for anything. I’d have no problem being one of the little old ladies that lives onboard the ship. I haven’t heard of any actually doing that on this ship as there have been on several of our other cruises. Maybe they need a mascot ‘little old lady’…. hmmm I might apply!

Puerto Montt

Sunday night was Superbowl night on the ship - they had it in the cabins and also on the three screens in the Showroom at sea and in the Explorations Café. I watched the first half, but since we had a tour in the morning I went to bed at about 10:15 - Jim watched it all. Since we were pulling for New Orleans I’m sorry I didn’t see all of it. They had the showroom decorated for both teams and a ‘Tailgate Zone’ set up with munchies.

Monday we anchored at Puerto Montt. We had what might have been the best ship tour we have ever taken. We first went to a small town and had an hour to wander around and shop for handicrafts. It was lovely and very Bavarian-feeling - much German influence there. We walked a few blocks to a church up on a hill, took a few pictures and then headed down to the craft market near the bus.

After that we headed to a ranch called a fundo which is smaller than an estancia. It was a working horse ranch and we were treated to some folkloric dances by some children and then the cowboys (called huachos) did a rodeo type show. It was very well done, but we had to watch in from inside the dining room as it had started raining. This area gets about 10 feet of rain each year so they were well prepared for this. There were musicians playing traditional local instruments and singing. One of the dancers was a little boy, much younger than the rest of them… he totally stole the show! We were served wine and appetizers and then a full lunch with more wine and then dessert and a cordial… it could have been nap time on the way back to the ship, but we were only about 15 minutes from the port so there really wasn’t time.

It was dinner time not long after returning on the tender, but we weren’t hungry… we decided to have dessert and coffee. Then we went to the Crows Nest to listen to Buddy on the piano for about an hour. They off to bed… I think we only read about 15 minutes and we were ready for sleep.

Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile

Saturday we visited one of the very remote inhabited islands well off the coast of Chile. Isla Robinson Crusoe was formerly known as Mas a Tierra or Aguas Buenas. It is the largest island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago. They are designated as World Biosphere Reserves. The weather was ‘iffy’ gray and misty so we delayed tendering over until about 10:30. It seemed that most other people did the same as we had quite a wait for a tender and it was full when we finally did get on one.

The island has several hundred people living on it - it’s beautiful… just tall tree-covered mountains rising out of the sea. We hiked up to some caves that we could see from the ship. There were 6 or 8 of them and they appeared very similar to the Japanese caves we visited at Rabaul, Papua New Guinea last year and were probably used in defense of the island during WWII. There were also some very old canons displayed in places and signs that were depicting the historic actions in the 1700’s. Sadly they were all in Spanish so I really don’t know what we were looking at. I’ll have to Google more about it when we get home.

We also walked along the coast for quite a distance. You can see that they are developing for tourists as there were a number of restaurants and bars, but almost all were closed. We did find a nice café that had the huge spiney lobsters - many people were eating them, but we just had a beer and sat at an outside table for a while. While we were sitting there a rainstorm came through, but it only lasted about 10 minutes. I was amazed when we came back to the ship that we had been gone for three and a half hours - a good hike for a gimpy person like me - but I was tired when we got back and slept like the dead last night.

The weather is getting noticeably colder as we head south; we should start into the fjord area of Chile soon.

I’d love to report that our trivia team is far in the lead, but the truth is we are somewhere near the bottom and strongly maintaining that. But we love it and have a great group - we have 5 original players and two additional ones so if we are all there, one of us has to drop out that day as the teams are limited to 6. It’s actually nice to have the extra person as many days someone is missing.

The ‘bug’ that hit us is on the downslide - not nearly as many people are sick and they are starting to relax some of the really heavy sanitary measures that were in place - the gentlemen dance hosts are again available for dancing. They are still serving all the foods in the buffet and the constant sanitizing is still going on throughout the ship. We escaped the bug and I am happy to report that our colds are gone. I never really got sick, just the cold, but it sure knocked my energy level down to say nothing of the million tissues I used.

Valparaiso, Chile

Yesterday was Valparaiso, Chile. This was our first Ensemble exclusive shore excursion and it was a very nice one. We started with a bus tour of the city which is much like San Francisco. It is built on the many hills that come all the way to the sea. There are many very steep and winding roads along with Victorian era houses and buildings. It looks like a place I’d want to explore a bit more. We then stopped at the Museum Fonk which is about Easter Island. Since that was one of my favorite stops on our World Cruise I really found it interesting. It’s a bit too bad that two tour buses from our ship arrived about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The museum is quite small and it got very overcrowded but we had just about completed the tour with our museum guide, so we looked at what we especially wanted to see and then boarded the bus and headed for the Casablanca wine valley. We rode through the mountains for about 45 minutes - it looks much like the Rockies near Denver with some palm trees added among the pines. The William Cole winery was really beautiful and although it is a small family ‘high end’ winery it has developed a nice visitor program. We did a short visit to the vines where Carmen (our winery guide) told us about growing grapes and then we visited the cellars for a quick tour and then on to the tasting room. They served three different types of wine for tasting one white and two reds and then we were offered a huge selection of appetizer-type foods - really a full lunch. Afterwards we headed back to the ship - most people napping from the wines.

In the afternoon we had a good folkloric show onboard the ship with a group of local dancers. They presented dances from the four regions of Chile.

As we sailed away from Valparaiso, the swells increased just as the Captain told us they would and the ship has been doing a bit of rock and roll all night and today (Friday) a sea day. We are headed to Isle Robinson Crusoe if the weather and seas hold up. The Captain did tell us that the Amsterdam was here 14 days ago on the World Cruise and had horrible winds and waves and after sailing all the way out to the island bumping all the way along had to miss the stop and then bump its way back to the mainland coast of Chile. I love hearing the Captain talk about the ‘bumps’ as he says boomps, like bump with a long U. We are having a number of whale sightings and some seals and sea lions.

At Sea

Another day at sea. Well… Jim and I are getting really lazy; this is the second day in a row that we have slept until 8:30. That’s really unheard of for us. We did just have a couple time changes so maybe that explains part of it. Another might be that these are the quietest cabins we have had; you don’t hear anything at all from the neighboring cabins and the doors are all set off the main hall so you don’t get any hallway noise either.


This morning book club was delayed until 10:30 to accommodate the “On Deck for the Cure”. I made book club, but have to confess I didn’t get moving in time for the walk. They will have another one later in the cruise and I’ll try to make that one. Our Trivia team is holding firm to last place this time. It’s funny we seem to be able to win on some of the port days where they give little prizes, but we can’t win on the sea days for the cumulative scoring.

I’m not sure I mentioned some of the little gifts HAL has given during the cruise… I know I mentioned the journal and key holders, but they just gave us some (quite nice) hats and scarves all embroidered with the 2010 South America Grand Voyage logo. There have been a couple others too, but I can’t think what they are right now.

The temperatures are getting noticeably cooler as we are going further south. Today is gray and cloudy with a temp of about 70, but with the wind and no sun to offset it, it feels quite cool out. When I went to “Orca (Killer Whale) racing” at 2:00, everyone was wearing sweaters or sweatshirts. Orca racing was a cute take-off of the traditional horse race.

Arica and Iquique, Chile

We had two port days in a row. Yesterday we were in Arica, Chile which is only about 25 miles below the border with Peru. It is also very much a desert port, surrounded by the brown sandy looking hills. There was a tall hill overlooking the port with a statue of Christ similar to the one in Rio. Jim and I wandered through the town, but since it was a Sunday morning everything was closed up except the cathedral. The church was very interesting in that is it constructed of iron. There was a service going on so we were not able to explore it, but looking in through the doors it looked very beautiful. Then we hired a taxi for an hour to take us to the top of the big hill. On the way there, we passed the ‘resort’ part of town that had nice sandy beaches and resort hotels along with the discos. The view from the top of the hill showed how big Arica is - about 200,000 people. It seems to go forever; I had no idea it was that large - our guide showed us the green valley coming out of the hills which was the reason the city is located where it is… water is a necessity and it never rains here.

We headed back to the ship as Jim said he really thought he was catching the cold I had… by last night he had it. Talking to others on the ship, it seems that the cold has been going around for a couple weeks. But, at least we haven’t gotten the Norwalk virus which has also hit the ship - apparently brought on by some new passengers in Callao (Lima). (I’m knocking on wood as I type this). Yesterday the ship went on ‘protective measures’. Sanitizers are everywhere and anything that people commonly touch have been either put away or are being constantly cleaned. In the buffet all food is served by the staff and the common items like salt and pepper have been removed from the tables. The Captain and staff are everywhere explaining and it seems that about 90% of the people are accepting it and just going on with things… the other 10% are bitching loudly about everything.

This morning we docked in Iquique, Chile just as we were waking up. After my coffee and sweet roll I headed into town on the shuttle. What a grate town! The entire center of the town [city?] is a UNESCO Heritage site and is full of Victorian era wooden buildings. The central plaza has a wonderful clock tower and many of the buildings are being restored and painted bright colors. There were several little market areas with local handcrafts. It was one of the most unique port towns I"ve ever visited.  Everyone commented on how clean it was... even well away from the main square.

We've had a few internet problems over the last couple days, but it seems to be better.  I have a number of pictures to add to this post... I'll see how it goes.  :-)