We've been gone the last two weeks on a cruise to South America. It was a last-minute trip - a chance to escape winter snows and go some place warmer. The trouble with this logic was that we didn't realize that the tip of South America is only 600 miles from Antarctica - brrrrr!
We flew into Santiago, Chile - about halfway down the Pacific side of South America (breathtaking views of the Andes Mountains from the airplane). We had to pay a $128 (x2) entry fee at the customs window (ouch). It's good for the life of the passport, but who knows when (or if) we'll be back. It took us about an hour more to reach the ship, driving through a very scenic wine region (Chile is know for their grapes and vineyards).
As we drove through the port town of Valparaiso, we noticed that the houses built into the side of the hill looked like they were stacked one on top of the other. The hills were so steep that they had cable cars running up the sides to carry people from bottom to top. There were flea and farmer's markets going on in the center of town, but we opted to just get on the ship.
The first three days of the cruise were spent at sea. There aren't a lot of towns along the Chilean coast, especially ones that are accessible by a ship of our size; but there were lots of activities to do on board. I took Zumba and country line dancing classes while Bruce went to the gym. It was a great way to work off some of the many, many calories that accompanied every meal we ate. They held lectures every day showing pictures and giving tips about the port towns we were going to visit - always helpful, especially when you don't speak the language (mostly Spanish, and some Portuguese).
My favorite thing to do at sea was
Movies Under the Stars. The ship had a giant movie screen right above one of the outdoor swimming pools. They showed movies about 3-4 times each day. In the afternoons, you could lay out on the deck chairs in shorts or a swim suit and drink a beer while watching the latest flicks. In the evenings, they gave you heavy warm blankets to cover up with (seriously, they warmed them up in the dryers before handing them out).
Our first port town was Punta Arena, Chile. It was a tender port, meaning they didn't have a dock large enough for our ship, so we were shuttled back and forth using one of the ship's life boats. We spent the morning exploring the town on our own. We saw one of the local tour buses outside a museum, so we decided to go in. They had fabulous collections of local artifacts - animals, insects, marine life, flora, fauna, etc. You name it; they had it. We went next door to the Catholic Church - very beautiful altars, statues, and stained glass. Their Christmas creche was still up - it was almost 20 ft long.
In the afternoon, we went on an Andes forest trek. We took a ski lift to the top of the city and then hiked down - great views. It was somewhat muddy, but not too bad, except for the inexperienced hikers (it was a very "elderly" cruise).
Their native hardwood is the lenga tree - really neat looking. They use the wood to make furniture.
After leaving Punta Arenas, we traveled south through the Magellan Straits before entering the Beagle Channel. We all got up early to see the glaciers, noted for their very blue ice. The guide told us that the glaciers are receding very badly, however, and will probably be totally gone in a few years - global warming, I guess.
Our next port town was Ushuaia (still in Chile). We headed up to a trekking lodge in the Andes Mountains. They gave us rubber boots, because the first part of our trek was through a peat bog in the valley between the mountains. Very "squishy" walking across the heather and moss (reminded me of Ireland).
Then we headed up the mountain to a waterfall. This trek was rated as strenuous (to me, the most strenuous part was trying to hike in rubber boots), but some passengers were complaining that they didn't realize the hike would be so rigorous (wonder what they thought "strenuous" meant???). We climbed for about an hour, and then took a cookie break to enjoy the views. The day was absolutely gorgeous - very sunny and warm. Everyone had worn tons of clothes, because the day before had been so cold, but we all ended up hiking in shirt sleeves. The sun is much more intense in South America, because they don't have a lot of pollution.
Probably the biggest disappointment of the trip was not getting to stop at the Falkland islands. The official report was there were too many sick people on board (about 20 people caught the norovirus), but there were rumors circulating that the Argentinean passengers were planning some kind of protest march. The captain was also nervous about a storm brewing in the Drake Passage. Who knows; but since I got up early, I at least got to catch a glimpse of the islands before we sailed back out to sea.
Our next port was Buenos Aires, Argentina. The water surrounding the city's coastline is extremely brown (muddier than the worst part of the Mississippi). Luckily, the town itself was very clean. We saw the pink government building where Eva Peron (former First Lady of Argentina and subject of the musical
Evita) gave her speeches from the balcony. We also toured the Recoleta Cemetery, which contains elaborate marble mausoleums of many Argentinean government officials, including Eva Peron. The vaults in this cemetery were packed even tighter than the ones in New Orleans.
We stopped at the La Boca neighborhood, famous for its colorful houses and the pedestrian street,
Caminito, where tango dancers perform. Our ship offered tango and other Latin dance classes every day. We tried it once (yes, I got Bruce to actually go), but between the rolling of the ship at sea and the enthusiasm of the passengers with two left feet, we decided to stick with the outdoor movies for shipboard entertainment.
Our next port was Monevideo, Uruguay. It's pronounced Mon-teh-vee-day-oh, not Monty Video like the
Blockbuster video store. It was probably my favorite port as far as sightseeing. They have an older section of town right next to the harbor. We frequently watch HGTV's
House Hunters International, and I could see buying and renovating one of their neat old buildings with the Spanish-style architecture and 7 ft tall heavy wooden double doors. But Bruce said that would be crazy, since there were no Home Depots in the area. We stumbled on an antique flea market being held in the square around this fountain. We looked at a couple of items, but their prices were somewhat high and we didn't know enough Spanish to bargain.
Our last stop was Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until almost midnight, so we took a cable car to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain (you can see the cable car station in the lower left corner of the photo). The views of the city were amazing as you would expect. The mountain is actually on a peninsula with Guanabara Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. What was even more fascinating was watching the rock climbers trying to scale the face of this 1300 ft mountain.
We finished our short visit to Rio with a bus tour that included a drive past the Copacabana. In New York City, the Copacabana is a famous nightclub (the place where they filmed the
I Love Lucy show back in the 50's); but in Brazil, it is a 2-1/2 mile long beach. Since it's currently summer in South America and a Saturday on top of that, the beach was packed. We had one final Brazilian buffet for lunch (the buffet was simpler than trying to order off the menu in Portuguese) before starting the 9-1/2 hour flight back to Atlanta.
We've been gone the last two weeks on a cruise to South America. It was a last-minute trip - a chance to escape winter snows and go some place warmer. The trouble with this logic was that we didn't realize that the tip of South America is only 600 miles from Antarctica - brrrrr!
We flew into Santiago, Chile - about halfway down the Pacific side of South America (breathtaking views of the Andes Mountains from the airplane). We had to pay a $128 (x2) entry fee at the customs window (ouch). It's good for the life of the passport, but who knows when (or if) we'll be back. It took us about an hour more to reach the ship, driving through a very scenic wine region (Chile is know for their grapes and vineyards).
As we drove through the port town of Valparaiso, we noticed that the houses built into the side of the hill looked like they were stacked one on top of the other. The hills were so steep that they had cable cars running up the sides to carry people from bottom to top. There were flea and farmer's markets going on in the center of town, but we opted to just get on the ship.
The first three days of the cruise were spent at sea. There aren't a lot of towns along the Chilean coast, especially ones that are accessible by a ship of our size; but there were lots of activities to do on board. I took Zumba and country line dancing classes while Bruce went to the gym. It was a great way to work off some of the many, many calories that accompanied every meal we ate. They held lectures every day showing pictures and giving tips about the port towns we were going to visit - always helpful, especially when you don't speak the language (mostly Spanish, and some Portuguese).
My favorite thing to do at sea was Movies Under the Stars. The ship had a giant movie screen right above one of the outdoor swimming pools. They showed movies about 3-4 times each day. In the afternoons, you could lay out on the deck chairs in shorts or a swim suit and drink a beer while watching the latest flicks. In the evenings, they gave you heavy warm blankets to cover up with (seriously, they warmed them up in the dryers before handing them out).
Our first port town was Punta Arena, Chile. It was a tender port, meaning they didn't have a dock large enough for our ship, so we were shuttled back and forth using one of the ship's life boats. We spent the morning exploring the town on our own. We saw one of the local tour buses outside a museum, so we decided to go in. They had fabulous collections of local artifacts - animals, insects, marine life, flora, fauna, etc. You name it; they had it. We went next door to the Catholic Church - very beautiful altars, statues, and stained glass. Their Christmas creche was still up - it was almost 20 ft long.
In the afternoon, we went on an Andes forest trek. We took a ski lift to the top of the city and then hiked down - great views. It was somewhat muddy, but not too bad, except for the inexperienced hikers (it was a very "elderly" cruise).
Their native hardwood is the lenga tree - really neat looking. They use the wood to make furniture.
After leaving Punta Arenas, we traveled south through the Magellan Straits before entering the Beagle Channel. We all got up early to see the glaciers, noted for their very blue ice. The guide told us that the glaciers are receding very badly, however, and will probably be totally gone in a few years - global warming, I guess.
Our next port town was Ushuaia (still in Chile). We headed up to a trekking lodge in the Andes Mountains. They gave us rubber boots, because the first part of our trek was through a peat bog in the valley between the mountains. Very "squishy" walking across the heather and moss (reminded me of Ireland).
Then we headed up the mountain to a waterfall. This trek was rated as strenuous (to me, the most strenuous part was trying to hike in rubber boots), but some passengers were complaining that they didn't realize the hike would be so rigorous (wonder what they thought "strenuous" meant???). We climbed for about an hour, and then took a cookie break to enjoy the views. The day was absolutely gorgeous - very sunny and warm. Everyone had worn tons of clothes, because the day before had been so cold, but we all ended up hiking in shirt sleeves. The sun is much more intense in South America, because they don't have a lot of pollution.
Probably the biggest disappointment of the trip was not getting to stop at the Falkland islands. The official report was there were too many sick people on board (about 20 people caught the norovirus), but there were rumors circulating that the Argentinean passengers were planning some kind of protest march. The captain was also nervous about a storm brewing in the Drake Passage. Who knows; but since I got up early, I at least got to catch a glimpse of the islands before we sailed back out to sea.
Our next port was Buenos Aires, Argentina. The water surrounding the city's coastline is extremely brown (muddier than the worst part of the Mississippi). Luckily, the town itself was very clean. We saw the pink government building where Eva Peron (former First Lady of Argentina and subject of the musical Evita) gave her speeches from the balcony. We also toured the Recoleta Cemetery, which contains elaborate marble mausoleums of many Argentinean government officials, including Eva Peron. The vaults in this cemetery were packed even tighter than the ones in New Orleans.
We stopped at the La Boca neighborhood, famous for its colorful houses and the pedestrian street, Caminito, where tango dancers perform. Our ship offered tango and other Latin dance classes every day. We tried it once (yes, I got Bruce to actually go), but between the rolling of the ship at sea and the enthusiasm of the passengers with two left feet, we decided to stick with the outdoor movies for shipboard entertainment.
Our next port was Monevideo, Uruguay. It's pronounced Mon-teh-vee-day-oh, not Monty Video like the Blockbuster video store. It was probably my favorite port as far as sightseeing. They have an older section of town right next to the harbor. We frequently watch HGTV's House Hunters International, and I could see buying and renovating one of their neat old buildings with the Spanish-style architecture and 7 ft tall heavy wooden double doors. But Bruce said that would be crazy, since there were no Home Depots in the area. We stumbled on an antique flea market being held in the square around this fountain. We looked at a couple of items, but their prices were somewhat high and we didn't know enough Spanish to bargain.
Our last stop was Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until almost midnight, so we took a cable car to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain (you can see the cable car station in the lower left corner of the photo). The views of the city were amazing as you would expect. The mountain is actually on a peninsula with Guanabara Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. What was even more fascinating was watching the rock climbers trying to scale the face of this 1300 ft mountain.
We finished our short visit to Rio with a bus tour that included a drive past the Copacabana. In New York City, the Copacabana is a famous nightclub (the place where they filmed the I Love Lucy show back in the 50's); but in Brazil, it is a 2-1/2 mile long beach. Since it's currently summer in South America and a Saturday on top of that, the beach was packed. We had one final Brazilian buffet for lunch (the buffet was simpler than trying to order off the menu in Portuguese) before starting the 9-1/2 hour flight back to Atlanta.
