South America and Antarctica

It was 28C when Flavio picked us up to take us to the airport. I was a little apprehensive about our pick up time that would only get us to the airport 2 hours before departure. Then Flavio wanted to take Lawrie for a coffee so we only had an hour and a half before departure. There was a huge queue at the checkin counter but Flavio worked his magic and got us into the priority line. It was moving very slowly but we did get checked in just before the deadline.  We had arranged for a driver to pick us up and take us to our hotel on Copacabana Beach. The ride took just over half an hour. The city of over 6 million is divided by numerous craggy mountains. The houses appear to be cut high up into the sides of the mountains.  Our hotel is located right across from Copacabana Beach. After we got settled, we decided to walk along the beach. We headed east towards the fort and Ipanema Beach. We went into the fort and toured the original fortification with its armoury. We spent a lot of...

Partly cloudy, high 36C 74% humidity   Today was all about the Argentinian side of the falls. The challenge was in getting there. We had to check out at Brazilian immigration, drive a kilometre and then go through Argentinian immigration. Then Flavio had to check in with the tourism office and pay the tourist tax for us. It took an hour and three quarters to get to the park. Part of that was also due to the 40 kph speed limit in the park.  No private vehicles are allowed beyond the visitor centre so we boarded a narrow gauge train with open air cars to get to the falls. We were crammed in 4 to a bench with benches facing each other. It was not a particularly comfortable ride in the heat and humidity. We went right to the end of the line to walk out to the Devil’s Throat. From Brazil, we viewed the Devil’s Throat from the bottom, today we saw it from the top after a kilometre walk on raised walkways over the river.   What we first noticed as we approached were the hundreds...

Our guide Flavio told us yesterday that we were going to be joined by a lady travelling on her own. When we went down to breakfast, I set my water thermos on the table and went to the buffet. I came back with my orange juice and Lawrie had put his food and on the table and gone to get a coffee. While I went back to get my food, I could hear Lawrie talking to someone. A lady was accusing him of taking her table. She had put her orange juice there. He invited her to join us, but she just scowled and walked away. Guess who joined us on the tour? She scowled a lot but at times was very pleasant.  Today we visited the falls from the Brazilian side. The Iguazu falls National Park is on both the Argentinian side (67720 hectares) and on the Brazilian side (185262 hectares). We arrived at around 8:30 am to walk through the rainforest along the river. The views of the falls on the Argentinian side just kept getting better and better. There are 275 waterfalls covering a length of 2700 metres....

The disembarkation from the ship was the most efficient we have seen. We were the purple 1 group, with an estimated time slot of 8:00 to 8:15. We were waiting in a lounge on deck 2 midship in order to be close to the gangway. At 7:50 we were called. We took the stairs to deck 1, dinged off the ship and were on the shuttle to the terminal within 5 minutes. We found our luggage fairly easily and had negotiated and paid for our taxi to the airport and arrived there within twenty minutes. The luggage restrictions were 15 kg per checked bag and we knew we were going to be over that and were prepared to pay the extra fee. One bag was 17.5 kg and the other was 19.5 kg, but they tagged them and did not charge us.  We had to take a shuttle out to the tarmac to get on our bus. Because of the heat, the AC was on full blast and it was like an icebox. Before we took off, there was water dripping from the ceiling on seats 4D, 5D and 6D. Lawrie was in 6D. When the plane took off, you could hear i...

 Sunrise 6:10 19C and cloudy, high forecast 26C We have spent time in Buenos Aires twice before. We were there several days in 2008 when Lawrie had work in Cordoba and Oliveria. When we did the cruise in 2016, we walked 17 km, covering the main highlights. We decided this time that we would save our feet and take the hop on hop off bus that came right to the cruise terminal.  Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina with a population of 3.1 million. Its location on the Rio del Plata creates a very long city. The ship was docked in with the cargo ships, which necessitated a shuttle to the terminal. We were strongly discouraged from walking in this area as petty theft and muggings are common. We hadn’t felt at all unsafe when we walked from the terminal into the city 9 years earlier, but we did heed the advice.  Shortly after the bus started the tour, the rain also started. I had checked the weather and had our rain gear in our back pack. We were sitting up top and no one e...

Sunrise 6:15 Sunny, high 26C We visited Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, on our last cruise. The population of Uruguay is 3.4 million, with over half living in Montevideo. Most stores are closed on Sunday, giving the city a tired and run down look. The store fronts are shuttered with metal doors when closed. The doors are covered in graffiti or look dirty. Sunday is the day that the flea markets open and block after block were closed to traffic.  We opted to take the hop on hop off bus to get an overview of the city. We drove through the old town with its many beautiful neoclassical and historical buildings. We hopped off at Independence Square, the site of the mausoleum and statue to Artigas, the Uruguayan hero who led the emancipation from Spain.  Our next stop was the historical Mercado Agricola. The market today houses more shops and restaurants than it does produce and meat. Many restaurants here and at the Port Market use huge wood fires to cook huge steaks.  Bac...

Punta del Este sits on a peninsula in Uruguay where the Rio de la Plata meets the Atlantic Ocean. The other side of the river is Argentina, but at its widest the Rio de la Plata is 220 km wide. It has a very long delta. Punta del Este was our last tender port. We had to anchor quite a way out as there are many sand bars in the mouth of the delta. The ship was required to use local tenders along with the ship tenders. When it was our turn to disembark for our excursion, we were sent to a local tender. The boat held 147 passengers maximum and the crew were determined to get that many passengers on board. It might hold 147 Uruguayians, but very difficult to get that many Americans on. Where they wanted to have 5 people on a bench, often only 4 were able to cram in. It took a long time to board everyone and get everyone seated. We were on the top open deck under a canopy. I soon noticed that there were no life jackets in sight and with the swells and the rocking of the boat, I was very gla...

 Sunrise 6:15 am 6:05 am - Emergency alarm sounded. On the third beep I was out of bed and getting dressed, counting the beeps and waiting for the seventh beep, the long one that means get to your muster station. The beeps stopped at six. My heart stopped racing. It was a first aid call to the dishwasher area, deck 3, zone 3.  6:10 am - The captain’s update came on the speaker to apologize for the early wake-up. There had been a small electrical fire that was quickly dealt with.  6:15 - With the adrenaline flowing through my body, there was no chance I would fall back asleep. I started working on my blog from the last 2 days.  7:30 - Up to the Lido Market for breakfast.  9:00 - To the Ocean Bar on deck 3 to join the 5K walk, On Deck For A Cause, a Holland America fundraising initiative. That distance equates to 11 laps around the deck. There were at least 120 doing the walk.  10:00 - We left the walk with 2 1/2 laps to go in order to watch the Behind the Sc...

 Sunrise 6:11 am Jan. 23 Wednesday was spent at sea, travelling from the Falklands to Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The highlights were a pedicure in the spa and a talk from the captain. He had a slide presentation with photos of the bridge and engine rooms. He also explained his background and a bit about his personal life. His mother celebrated her 80th birthday onboard with him. As usual, his presentation was full of humour. Our docking in Puerto Madryn was delayed Thursday morning by half an hour as the winds were strong and it took longer to safely arrive at the pier. Puerto Madryn was founded in 1865 by Welsh settlers. There are a few monuments to those settlers along the malecon. The official city flag has the blue and white stripes of the Argentinian flag with the Welsh dragon instead of the Argentinian golden sun. Our excursion was a trip on a RIB, a rigid inflatable boat into the Golfo Nuevo in search of dolphins and sea lions. Puerto Madryn has tide fluctuations of 4 metres,...

Sunrise 5:38 Sunny High 11 We spent 36 hours full steam ahead to get from Elephant Island to the Falkland Islands. There was considerable rocking of the ship overnight but by the time we arrived in Stanley, the seas were calm. We anchored in Port William Bay and took a 10 minute tender ride into Stanley. We travelled 25 minutes south west of the town over paved and gravel roads to Bluff Cove. This farm raises sheep and belted Galloway and has a thriving tourist business with its tours to see the penguins around the lagoon. Two smaller gentoo penguin rookeries were accessible to us. They were home to around 200 chicks that had hatched in November. They were still balls of fluff but were almost adult sized. We watched as one mother came back to the rookery calling for her chick. Two chicks that were hungry ran up to her to try to get fed. She kept trying to shoo them away to get to her own chick but they were very determined.  There were flags marking where we could wander but the pe...

 Sunrise 3:42 0C, breezy and sunny skies At 6:30 am we were heading slowing toward the Chilean Base in Maxwell Bay on King George Island. The plan was for an air ambulance to arrive by 8 am with paramedics on board. A Chilean zodiac would bring the paramedics to the ship to evaluate the patient and transport them to the plane for their flight to Chile.  We could see a lit runway, but did not see the plane land. It would have been an interesting landing as the runway was anything but level. If you zoom in on the photo you can see the runway lights in the top right.  There are 9 research stations on King George Island - Poland, Chile, Uruguay, Russia, China, South Korea, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and the USA. Assisting ships with a medical issue is not expected of them as it disrupts their research activities. However, the Chileans were willing to provide the zodiac and personnel to facilitate the evacuation. It is the first time Holland America has had to do such a medical e...

 Sunrise 3:47 0C winds 20 knots overcast snow in the air We cruised at a good speed overnight. We turned south into the Antarctic Sound towards Hope Bay around 7 am. The sound is known for the Adélie penguin and tabular icebergs. We had to slow our speed down to 12 knots in order to maneuver around the icebergs, growlers and brash ice.  The weather gods have been with us for the most part. If it is overcast, they send us whales and penguins to entertain us. As we headed into Hope Bay we were surrounded by rafts of penguins porpoising through the water. There were so many of them that it sounding like it was raining when they hit the water.  Then we saw the whales. It must have been a pod of whales as they were all around the ship. You could hear them blowing and see them arching again and again until they flipped their tails and did a deep dive.  The whales create bubble circles when they are feeding. Once they have moved on, the penguins move in and go into a frenzy...

Sunrise 3:45 am 1C, overcast and slight breeze If yesterday was wow, today was WOW! The weather has continued to be quite overcast, so we don’t always get the best views of the landscape. We see lots of icebergs and shoreline, that is glaciers falling into the ocean, but we don’t see the tops of the mountains often.  Our first stop of the day was Culvervile Island and its Gentoo penguin rookery. They estimate that there are 7000 penguins nesting on the rocky promontories. It was interesting to see the red lichen and green moss growing on the island.  Even from a distance we could hear the noise from the penguins calling to each other. Some people said they could smell the guana. We watched penguins trudging their way up the glacier while others were diving into the ocean and speeding like a bullet through the water. The weather cleared enough that we were able to take in the beauty of the island.  We then sailed into Dallman Bay where we encountered a mammoth tabular (tab...

 Sunrise 3:41 am When I opened the curtains at 6 am I was disappointed to see nothing but fog. However, 15 minutes later I caught the first glimpse of Antarctica all snow and ice covered. Each minute the scenery just kept getting better. We sailed past bergie bits (small remnants of icebergs), growlers (larger remnants of icebergs) and huge icebergs so close that it felt like we could reach out and touch them. At Palmer Station, (64.77836° S, 64.07685° W) 8 of the 35 crew came on board. Their first stop was at the buffet where they were overwhelmed by the variety and the fresh fruits. They gave two presentations in the theatre about the research that is being done at their station from studies on phytoplankton to whales. They stayed on board as we sailed as far as we could into the Lemaire Channel. As we were approaching the Lemaire Channel, the clouds were like a tablecloth covering the 3000 foot high shear cliffs. After we took the Palmer station crew back to their station with s...