Jack and Libby in South America

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2009-04-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

Favorite Memories of My Favorite Vacation

2009-03-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Dinner each night was a delightful experience.

Crossing the Ecuator.

A great fruit drink. Worth the wait! Fortaleza.

Fried cheese on a stick. Recife.

Reflections. Salvador.

The Splendor in Brazil.
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Carnival Sambadrome. Rio De Janeiro.

In the clouds.

Ah Rio.

Statue of Christ in the clouds.

On the way home from Samba School.

Pink House. Buenos Aires, Argentina

The dog walker. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

49ers in Montevideo.

Pushing the tour van.

Dirk the naturalist.

Walk to the penguines. Puerto Madryn.

Wow. So many.

Puerto Madryn.

Sunset.

Cape Horn.

The Horn.

Ushuaia.

Ushuaia.

Beaver Pond.

Punta Arena.

Cruising.

Cruising.

Glaciers.

Glaciers.

Chili ranch.

More Favorite Memories

2009-03-23T12:09:00.001-07:00

Puerto Montt, Chile. At the ranch.

In the stallion's barn.

Vina Del Mar.

Arica, Chile.

Arica, Chile.

Peruvian Paso at Tres Canas.

Lima, Peru.

Lima, Peru.

The vault.

Is that a motorcycle? Lima

Pachacamac Ruins, Lima.

Hairless dog of Peru.

Great coffee. Ecuador.

I'll take one. Manta, Ecuador.

What a catch. Manta, Ecuador.

Acapulco Bay.

At the beach.

Hot, Hot, Hot.

Puerto Vallarta.

Long Beach Aquarium.

Long Beach.

Thank you for a great shot. San Francisco.

I miss you.

San Francisco

2009-03-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

San Francisco is the end of the cruise. How depressing. At the beginning, we wondered if cabin fever from being cooped up in a ship for so long would be a problem. It wasn’t. We are ready to turn around and do it all over again, right now, please.

We didn’t do much in SF, just headed for the hotel and checked email. It is nice to have a free and fast internet again. After a long nap it was lunch time so we went next door to the Elephant Bay restaurant which was cheaper than it looked. Libby got the best Pad Thai she ever had.

Now it is back to the real world.

Long Beach where I danced ballet with a sealion

2009-03-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

In Long Beach everybody had to get off the ship for about three hours for customs and immigration – nobody gets back on until everybody is cleared.

The ship was using the foghorn all night long as we were coming in to port. The Splendor docked right behind the Queen Mary. That was some comparison. The QM is quite a bit smaller than the Splendor, but the old style elegance of the interior was said to be better.

The day started cold and foggy. We were not too excited about trying to be tourists in a cold and foggy LA, but there was an aquarium fairly close by. After a late breakfast we walked over to the Queen Mary Hotel – that is what the ship is now – and caught the free shuttle to the aquarium. Long Beach has free shuttle service to many of the major tourist areas – very nice, if not all that frequent.

The aquariun is not all that large, but it is very well laid out and the volunteer staff was amazing in number and quality. We got there just in time for shark feeding. Then we went to the lorikeet cage. Lorikeets are colorful parrotlike birds. Libby bought a little cup of nectar and the lorikeets went crazy to get at it. At one time she had three of them on one arm. The greedy little critters drank up all the nectar right away. Then they weren’t so interested in sitting on you, fickle little devils.

Walking through one of the underground viewing areas, I noticed a sealion looking very closely through the glass at a kid’s shoes. When the kid moved on, the sealion took up looking at another kid’s shoes. When that kid moved on, I stepped up and let it look at my “havaiianas” (that is the correct word for flip-flops). I took the shoe off to see if the sealion wanted to see my foot. Not at all, it wanted the shoe, so I started moving the shoe around. The sealion followed it like it was a magnet. I really started getting into it, moving the shoe around and round, up and down, and in circles. The sealion was on it like it was the only thing in the world. I threw in every ballet move I could remember from Mrs. Hayden’s after-school ballet class that I took way back in 3rd grade. We were covering the entire 8 ft tall and 12 ft wide window, just dancing and having a ball.

After a long time, I was getting tired and I figured I was hogging the window so I stopped. A crowd of about 50 had gathered to watch. They gave us a standing ovation. OK, they were already standing, but they did clap and cheer. That was as much fun as I have ever had playing with an animal. Really really cool. The only picture that got any of it is the blue one with the silhouette of my shoe.

We finished the aquarium and went back to the ship.

Whales in Puerto Vallarta

2009-03-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

We went on a whale photo shoot in PV. The season is from early December to March in Banderas Bay. Our trip was a little late in the season. The boat was a big hardshell inflatable, an Avon, which is like a big Zodiak. We spotted a mother and calf fairly quickly and followed them for a long time – lots of pictures of humped backs. The guide was an Aussie who called it an “oombaa-“ That last is a glottal stop. There is a proper way to show it, but I don’t remember now. The sound is almost like a soft cough. So “oombaa(cough)”

The calf breached and I was the only one that got the picture. Actually it was pure luck. A woman jumped up in front of me, so I had to put the camera out to the side and push the button and hope. As you see, I got the picture with every drop of water in focus. Wow.

The ride was rough, wet, and in the open sun the whole day. I felt like I had lost 7 rounds with a mule by the time it was over. But I got the picture.

Acapulco

2009-03-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

We surprised ourselves when we decided that of all the places we have visited, Acapulco is the one to which we will surely return. The last time we were here was fifteen years ago. We loved it just as much today as before. I would like to spend a month down here – or two. We could fly into Acapulco then drive up the coast and go back to Troncones Beach, visiting other towns along the way.

Acapulco's bay is beautiful. The colors are stunning. It is a lovely place. My eyes were sore from looking at the azure sea and sky. I guess that is why this has been a resort area since before the time of the Aztecs.

English is widely spoken and even though set up for tourists, there is a real Mexican community too. It is just a very nice place to be.

Our plan for the day was to get to Wal-Mart to stock up on cold medicines. We mentioned that plan at dinner and Bob and Jane and Freddy and Gordie decided to go with us. We met at 10 am in the lobby. After getting off the ship we stopped for pesos at the Casa de Cambio and walked to the local city bus. It was a direct ride to the end of the way to Wal-Mart. Our friends stocked up on Amoxicyllin and Cipro. The cost for the Amox was just $1 per box. At home it is at least $15. Why? We just got some Actifed and Dr Mom look-alikes.

The last time we were here, we stayed at the Hyatt across the street from Wall-Mart so we walked over there after we finished our shopping. It was just as I remembered. The place was full of young people arriving for Spring Break. You could feel PARTY in the air...... Oh to be 20 again!!! We walked out around the pool and to the beach. The hotel changed hands two months ago and is now called Five Star
Grand Resort.

Freddy was ready for lunch and set out on a venture to find Red Snapper. Jack and I had just eaten so we split off from the group and set out on our own. We caught the bus back toward the ship. Got off in old town and walked awhile. We found an Internet Cafe with internet for 60 cents an hour. We went in for a while then continued our walk, stopping for a cervesa and soda along the way.

Back at the ship we sat by the pool for an hour or so before dinner. It was a nice relaxed day. It was HOT though and the cool pool water felt good.

I slept through the night with no cold medications. Finally I am getting better. Jack not so much. He is full force into his cold. I was sick for 5 weeks!!!!

General Thoughts

2009-03-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

We crossed the Equator last night. That means we are getting close to home. 1000 miles left to go. Puerto Vallarta is in just three days. Having been so far, Mexico almost seems like home. I have mixed feeling about getting off the ship. Of course I want to see my home and family and I want to go somewhere to get over this cold but otherwise, I could do this for a lot longer time. Jack seems to be ready to get home. You guess he is looking forward to doing our taxes? I wish I could be home for Keller's birthday. At the end of our cruise we will have sailed 16,146 miles.

The trip has been amazing. The only complaints I have are the length of time it took for embarkation in Fort Lauderdale, not enough movies for in room viewing and running out of cold medications. My favorite part of the trip has been visiting the ports, even the museums. My favorite port was Puerto Montt and the Chilean horses. Next I liked the penguins in Puerto Madryn.

Some of the entertainment on board is outstanding. The best we have experienced on any cruise.
* The singers and dancers are superb and very energetic.
* The Elite Band is OUTSTANDING. I love it when they play in the lobby.
* Comedians, jugglers, singers and ventriloquist are the normal average sort. Some really bad and others good.
* The entertainment in the bars and lounges is good too. Goose has been creative by bringing some of the house acts into the showroom for performances. We especially enjoyed a piano concert.
* The naturalist Dirk is fun, approachable and interesting. The ports would never have been as much fun without having first listened to his talks. He loves birds and so do I. He has been a highlight.
* There are drawing lessons, picture taking and Photoshop seminars and crafts classes. They even give you all the materials for the crafts. Lots of people are working on needlepoint/crossstitch. Even the men.
* We went to Spanish and Portuguese classes. They were entry level but we always learned something.
* Jack likes to go to the Writer's Workshop where they share their writing and coach each other.
* Bridge lessons and Duplicate Bridge sessions have been well attended.
* They have been creative in order to keep us entertained. All of this in addition to the usual cruise activities like trivia, art auctions, Bingo (about once a week... not everyday.), games and of course the Casino.
* Mickey Live gives photography and computer lessons. He is a passenger just like me but has volunteered his skills. Carnival would be smart to add an act like his to the fleet. We are learning a lot and enjoying it.
* Unfortunately there hasn't been enough variety to the movies on board. We have been watching the same ones over and over. Goose says these are all he was given. He has finally gotten more but US TV is back and it doesn't much matter any more.
* We went to the library and liked reading the blog and put a piece in the puzzle but there weren't many books and it is small so we don't go often.
* They made the Piano Bar non-smoking but the player in the piano bar has carpal tunnel.
* People say the casino takes and NEVER gives. What else would they expect?
* We see the cruise director, Goose, on the morning show on TV each sea day. He and his staff tell us about all the events scheduled for the day and answer questions for us. Some people don't like him. "They" say he does not speak when you happen to walk past him. We have never interacted with a CD on any previous cruises so I couldn't say. I don't understand wanting a personal relationship with the entertainment manager. The entertainment has been outstanding and the entertainment staff delightful. I would have liked more movies onboard though.

We are three sea days to our next port. I hope to sit on the balcony and finish my book. Sometimes concentrating on the pages is difficult.I like sitting out there and just looking at the sea. You have to look closely but once your eyes adjust you can see all sorts of sea life.
* Birds of all kinds are flying, floating and diving.
* There are whale's spouts and whales breaching.
* The dolphins travel in groups and look like a cluster of white caps at first.
* The sea lions swim along under water and then lift their heads to look around.
* The fish mostly stay under water but some move across the top of the water by propelling themselves with their fins.
* When we see kelp floating, we know other wild life is close by.
* We can sit out there for hours just watching the water go by.

The sun rising and setting has been another treat. I will never forget how brilliant the orange in the sky as the sun set as we were leaving Puerto Madyrn and Arica. Or the way the sun burst out over the horizon arriving in Ecuador.

Our dinner table is delightful and interesting. The same eight of us will have spent 49 days together at the end. Our four couples could have broken up but chose to sit together the entire time.
* Bob and Jane live in Laramie WY where he is a semi retired professor. He has been at The U of W for over 30 years. Jane is a retired nurse.
* Freddy and Gordie live in Fl now. He is a retired teacher too. He taught at U of Maryland and was a contract teacher for the US Army. She has done lots of things..... dental hygienist and running a pre-school for handicapped children being the ones she talks about the most.
* Bill and Sue Ann live in Calif. He is a retired dentist who spent some time as an investment counselor. She seems to have been in real estate and raised her children. She now helps her husband in property speculation. They spent most of their life in New York.
They all like Jack but not me as much. I have been sick and really not up to conversation.

I think the staff on the ship must have been hand picked. They are way above expectations in efficiency, friendliness and willingness to serve. Our wait staff has been the same through out. Bianca and Gil have learned each person's individual tastes. They really anticipate our needs. Our cabin steward from the first leg stopped us in the hall this morning to ask how our trip had been. You see that same attitude in all areas... not just waiters and cabin stewards but even the purser's desk and Infirmary!!

Anyway it will be a sad day when we disembark in San Francisco om March 21.

Ecuador

2009-03-10T18:37:00.001-07:00

The museum was brand new and air conditioned. Lots of pre-Columbian artifacts but no mummies..... skulls and bones though. We only stayed about an hour!! The museum is in the former national bank building. Ecuador has converted to using the US Dollar as their national currency because inflation made theirs worthless. Somebody said they still use their coins though, probably for vending machines and small change. I don't know how they value them.

We drove all around Manta and out from town to a small local house where we were shown how paja toquilla is transformed into Panama Hats. Hats were there for sale but we settled on a picture of the hats instead. Jack did buy a bag of organic local coffee. It is suppose to be “award winning”. The coffee is called “El Aromo.”

The next little town we visited was El Aromo. We saw the church and wandered around the square and found the pharmacy but it was closed for siesta. I am completely out of drugs.

Half the passengers, or more, have a very persistent cough. Sudafed and Robitussin were controlling the symptoms. The ship is out, has been out since before Arica, and will not be restocked until we get to Long Beach. Bleeping ridiculous. Have they never heard of FedEx? I hope we can find something in Mexico in two days. I have been sick for five weeks.

Here we are on the equator in high summer and the temperature got up to 90 today. Moderate humidity, so it is really quite comfortable. This is still due to the influence of the Humboldt Current of cold water from down at Cape Horn. Inland a little, it does get very hot and they grow bananas.

Manta has a huge Tuna industry. A Chinese freezer ship was parked right across from us at the pier. They off loaded fish all day from the ships freezer to trucks. The trucks then proceeded in convoy to the processing plants, accompanied by masked armed guards on every truck The tour guide said the guards are not allowed to shoot first. Before I saw how many fish were transported in one day, I had no idea how many fish we kill daily...... and this is just one port.

Lima

2009-03-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

Lima is another big city. Latest count is 10 million, ranging from super rich to super poor. After a drive through Lima we visited the National Museum of Anthropology and Archeology. Now I enjoyed the museum, but how many pots and mummies can you really look at? The museum was in a lovely setting with lots of green all around. Lima, like Arica, is desert.

We had a little time when we were leaving and sat on a bench in the garden. One of the police came over and started a conversation with us. He was about 25 and saw a time to practice his English. Many in Peru are studying English as a way to get ahead. With only a years study this young man was on his way to fluency. He and everyone we met were warm and friendly.

The hour and ½ drive down the pacific coast was cool. We saw the beaches and several areas of Lima on our way to the Pachacamac Ruins. I told Jack that once you have been to Teotihuacan near Mexico City, all the rest are just ruins. Anyway, I made it all the way up to the top of the pyramid and enjoyed the view. You could see the sea, the desert and Lima from the top. The city is inching its way out more and more as the city grows. The desert is brown and dusty. The ruins, dating back to 700 A.D. consist of adobe buildings and temples. The highlight was seeing the Peruvian hairless dog outside the small snack shop and museum. I skipped the museum and visited with the dog instead. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Finally, we were on our way to the Tres Cañas ranch to see the Peruvian Paso. We were met at the hacienda with a Pisco Sour and some snacks of deep-fried yucca and dip. We wandered around the gardens and stables as we waited for lunch to be ready. The horses were pretty. They had big eyes and a dished face like the Arabian. I made friends with a gray mare and her month old filly. She was the souvenir I wanted to take home but Jack said, “No.”

Lunch started with wine and bread. Then we were offered water, soda, beer and more wine. They had cooked potatoes, beans and tamales in a fire pit (earthen oven). Jack thought his tamale was the best thing on the plate. There was also chicken, pork and beef. Dessert was some sort of jelly custard.

And then the horse show..... I don't know the difference between the Peruvian Paso we saw and the Paso Fino in the states. They looked the same and did the same four beat gait. There were four horses exhibited and the prettiest paso mule I've ever seen. After the show it was back to the ship.

Before going in the ship, we took time to visit with the vendors lined up in the port. Ah... shopping.

Next stop.... can you believe we are going to another museum. @#$%^&*@#$.

Arica Chile

2009-03-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

Arica – we got here after all. The captain ran full speed all night and we arrived at noon, only eight hours late. All of the short tours ran on delay. Our long tour was canceled, so we bought a city tour.

The tour went around the town where we saw a church and the customs house that were designed by Eiffel, the same Eiffel who did the Eiffel tower. The rest of the town is interesting too.

This is the Atacama Desert where it didn't rain but once in 500 years. It is dry. There are no bushes on the hills. The only plants are in the dry river bottoms where there is some underground water. The population gets water from a pipe from a long way away. Water is expensive. Still, they plant a lot of plants and trees – Arizona kinds of things like oleanders, palms, and Palo Verde and even grass. Bougainvilla grows very well here and it is lovely.

Some water used to flow from a spring up the hill aways. They channeled the stream into a “water feature,” ponds and waterfalls and such, about half a block wide running down the whole length of the town. It was probably lovely until the spring dried up. Now it is a public area with meeting spaces and walking paths. It is still pretty nice, considering.

The main crop seems to be olives, which they have been growing here since 1530, only 40 years after Columbus. They also grow tomatoes and other vegetables. At the museum there was an old olive grinder and press. The grinder was a single wheel “arrastre,” a big vertical stone mill wheel turned in a basin by a mule. The olives were ground to a mush and then taken to the press. The beam on the press was about 40 feet long and 2 feet thick – an entire tree. The mush was pressed and the oil comes out. That it the “first cold press,” then they add hot water and go at it again repeatedly, each batch getting poorer in quality. When the hot water quits working, they nowadays use solvent. I am not sure what the “extra virgin” rating means.

There is a big white spot on the hillside. Four tour guides gave four answers as to what it was: Diatomite, nitrate, salt, or lime. Take your pick or provide your own.

We saw the “geoglyphs.” These are placements of stone on the east facing hillsides in the shape of men, llamas, snakes, etc. They think they are over 4,000 years old.

The mummies are over 5,000 years old. That is older than the Egyptian mummies. There were a couple on display in the museum. Other sites here are dated at 15,000 years. That plays havoc with the previous single land bridge crossing theory of populating America.

The people here are more of Peruvian and Bolivian ancestry, so they are shorter and darker than Chileans from further south. Actually this area was Peru and Bolivia until a war in 1880 that was won by Chile. The peace settlement in 1929 established the owner as Chile. Peru and Bolivia still are not happy about it, particularly Bolivia, which lost its access to the sea. Chile maintains 30,000 troops here in Arica just in case the Peruvians or Bolivians want to try to get it back.

The tour guide today would talk about Pinochet. He said it was a mixed bag – economically good, bad on human rights, that would be the 3,000 disappeared. That is over with.

Altogether I really like this town.

Valparaiso – Viña Del Mar

2009-03-05T17:50:00.000-08:00

Think San Francisco. It is pretty similar if you ignore the signs being in Spanish. Viña Del Mar is the new and expensive downtown and Valparaiso is the poorer hill district or The Castro. Libby is not too sure she agrees, but that is how it seemed to me.

We went to Viña first. We knew we were there when the flower clock told us so. It was 9 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday morning and not much was happening. After a driving tour to see the expensive real estate and the condos with their own “funiculars” we went to the Easter Island museum, and then on to Valpo.

Valpo is a navy town. The navy seems to get respect. Pinochet was army, wasn't he? The tour guide didn't say a single word about politics, not one. That is a little spooky. Does speaking out still get you disappeared here? I thought all that was over. Maybe he was just avoiding an unpleasant subject.

I thought Valpo was more interesting than Viña. There is something interesting about unusual old places. Victorian houses, hillsides, ooooold funiculars, fire departments named after ethnic groups (Der Fueurwehr, for example), viewpoints and little cafes. I like it.

We left the ship at 7:00 am and they had already started loading food and drinks. They finished at 8:00 pm then we departed. We must have been running low on groceries..... you guess??

On the way to Arica ... Man Overboard

2009-03-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

We were out on the 6th floor front deck looking for the man overboard when we saw the whales. There were lots of whales. “Thar she blows!” Spouts were popping up three or four a minute over a large area. The sea is not quite dead calm, but there are very few whitecaps, so every white splash was a whale. You could just catch glimpses of fins, backs, and tails. None of them really jumped out of the water, at least while I was watching. From seeing about 40 spouts, I am guessing maybe a hundred whales. I'll have to ask Dirk about that.

The first announcement “Mr. ?????, please contact the pursers desk immediately” was made about 10 a.m. They turned the boat around a few minutes later, maybe 10:30 and announced that someone may have gone overboard. Going full speed back along the gps course, we started a zigzag search course at 2:30. The Chilean Air Force and Navy also conducted searches. We were released to continue on our way at 8:00pm. The person is still missing

The grapevine through the ship says the man was in his sixties and married. He was traveling with his wife. He was last seen at 4:30 last night and reported missing this morning at 9:30am.

We will call on our next port tomorrow as scheduled but 7 hours late. Jack and I are retooling our plans for the day.

Puerto Montt Chile

2009-03-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

Puerto Montt was founded by the Germans in 1853 and is the capital of The Southern Lake District. The population is 155000 people. What a fun port for me. We spent the day at a horse ranch.

After tendering to shore we were met by our guide Orlando. He was excellent and had arranged a marvelous day for us.

First we rode through Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas and Frutillar. We stopped at the Farmacia in Puerta Varas and stocked up on Aspirin, Sudafed and Dr Moms. Jack has the virus now and I'm still not over it!! Then we shopped in the local artisan market. The alpaca items were tempting.... Jack calling them “moth bait” the whole time. I took pictures but made no purchases. The view of Lake Liaguihue was nice …. but we were under fog and clouds all day and never saw the whole of the volcanoes. It was just 60F but the 98% humidity made it feel more like 80.... or maybe I had a fever.... who knows??? The town of roses had a nice aroma.

When we arrived at Fundo Olguita we were treated as guests at the ranch. We toured the stables for the stallions. There were about 20 horses in the stud barn and about twice that many mares in the mare barn. We only saw a few out in the pastures, but with 750 hectares, the mares and colts were somewhere. The horses were all purebred Chilean horses. The were small and stocky. At only about 14 hands they had short legs and muscular bodies. They are bred for the rodeo and working on ranches.

They took us to an open room in the barn where we met the huasos and were shown the riders dress and tack for the horses. Then we were offered wine and empanadas and entertained by children in tradition dress doing traditional dances. The barn dogs were friendly and the retired “trainer bull” roamed free.

Next to the arena for riding skills demonstration and a taste of the Chilean Rodeo. We watched as the riders demonstrated circles and figure eights and walking sideways. Then they brought the bull in and the two riders rode along side of the bull around the ring. Near the end of the circle the bull was rammed up against the rail. This is an event in the rodeo. I never understood the real life purpose of hitting the bull against the padded wall..... Then they ran a barrel race. A little different from what we see in the states in that there were four barrels not just three. During the rodeo we were served MORE wine and two types of appetizers.

Before dinner the children dancers came down to the arena and offered to teach us to do the dances. They were dances that mimic movements in the rodeo called the cueca. We needed to work off some of the wine and food before EATING MORE. Dinner was grilled steak and potatoes with sopapillas and vegetables and, you guessed it, more wine. Dessert was a delicious fruit plate, STRONG coffie and mint or chamomile liquor. If you get a chance to have some chamomile liquor, pass that up. Oh, yeah, there was a pisco sour in there somewhere, too. Even though Pisco is a town in Peru, Pisco sour is the national drink of both Peru and Chile.

As we were leaving the owner called us back for one last toast. He had just received word that his son had qualified for the National Finals Rodeo!!! He was very proud and excited.

Scenic Cruising the Chilean Fjords

2009-02-27T11:37:00.000-08:00

As compensation for missing Punta Arena, they took us to see a couple of glaciers, the Skua and the Pio XI. It is nice they did something.

Here is what happened back in Punta Arenas: The ship was supposed to leave at 3:00pm, but it did not. As we were watching over the rail in very pleasant conditions, an announcement was made that the winds in the channel were too high for safe passage, so they were going to wait for the winds to slow. At 9:00 pm they announced that the stop in Punta Arenas was canceled because we would arrive too late and the weather forecast was very bad.

At 9:20, I stepped out on the balcony and saw an ambulance and some cars at the gangway. Some passengers got into the cars with their luggage and the whole group of ambulance and cars drove back toward town at slow speed with flashing lights. Immediately, we cast off and went down the channel at 14 knots, which is much slower than the regular cruising speed of 21 knots. There is no wind, so why are they going so slowly? I think they could have gotten to Punta Arenas nearly on time if they had kicked it up.

The ship did go to Punta Arenas and arrived about noon in lovely weather. That was “too late” to allow passengers ashore. It was a tender port and we were scheduled to leave at 3:30 pm. It would have taken until 2:00 to get everyone off the ship and another two hours to get everyone back on.. Some ships business was conducted – entry permission, exchange of performers, and the return of a ship's photographer who went cross country from Buenos Aires taking video, perhaps for future commercials. Then we headed down the Strait of Magellan toward our next stop. We were compensated $20.00 each for the lost port call.

Instead of Punta Arenas we cruised the fjords and looked at glaciers and stunning scenery. We had planned another tour to see penguins in Punta Arenas, but we already saw LOTS of penguins at Puerto Madryn. We probably enjoyed the sightseeing more than if we had made our port stop. The weather was perfect at the Skua Glacier but so foggy at the Pius the 11 that no pictures turned out very well.

At supper the ship suddenly began to list quite sharply. I think about 10 degrees, maybe more. Ten degrees is a lot. Things were falling everywhere. We had been hit by a sudden 70 knot wind coming at us sideways down one of the glacial valleys. It was exciting, but it as over very soon.

Later in the middle of the night something woke me up and I decided to step out on the balcony to take a look. Libby yelled at me, “Don't open that door.” Why is she yelling at me I wondered? I was reaching to open the door when I got the answer. A solid sheet of white spray came blasting by the balcony. We are a hundred feet above the waterline and the bow splash is reaching all the way up here? Wow. “They were bigger a while ago,” she says. Double wow. Today they told us the wind was 90 miles an hour wind pushing the waves up. I can't imagine how an old square rigged sailing ship could have survived. Incredible.

That was happening as we came out of the channel into the open ocean. The plan was to sail up to Puerto Montt by going on the outside through the ocean rather than through the fjords. The 90 mph wind changed their minds. We made an abrupt right turn and found a protected narrow channel that goes a fairly long way, but not all the way. There is a peninsula that blocks the route. We will still have to come out into the open ocean to get north to Puerto Montt.

We have been rocking and rolling all night and day. There are a whole bunch of small low pressure systems lined up like a string of little hurricanes. Inside them, the wind and waves are terrible. In between, the weather is OK. The captain is trying to stay in the gaps between the storms. As I am writing this, about 3 pm, we have come out into the open sea and we are in one of the gaps. The waves are not bad, but the wind is 40 knots and visibility is less than a half mile because of fog. The storms are moving faster than we are, however, so it is a race to see if we can get into the fjord leading to Puerto Montt before the next storm catches us.

This is formal night. I will be wearing my Tux to dinner. I wonder if anyone else will be there. Half the passengers are seasick.

Skua Glacier

2009-02-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

Strait of Magellan

2009-02-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

2009-02-24T16:58:00.001-08:00

The town name is pronounced “oo Sh Y ya” and comes from the name used by the Indians here.

Tierra del Fuego is an island. Originally, Tierra del Fuego was used as a prison like Devil's Island. Escape was considered impossible because of the cold and remoteness and the wind. The winds are fierce from the west, so most of the trees are bent to the east. They are called “flag trees.”

The water was like glass this morning, no wind at all and nicely cool. We took a tour by bus through the Lapatia National Park and then got on a catamaran for a ride down the Beagle Channel to see islands covered with sea lions and cormorants. The scenery is spectacular – alpine forest and sharp mountains with treeline about halfway up at 1800 feet elevation. There is no snow, but you can see lots of small glaciers.

They imported some Canadian beavers about 50 years ago. They were going to raise them for fur, but the weather here is not cold enough for the beavers to develop good fur pelts, so they turned them loose. They have no natural enemies here. Now there are 200,000 of them that are doing major damage to the forest. Some of Libby's best pictures were of the beaver ponds.

Sea lions stink. I mean really stink. Every time the catamaran got downwind of a sea lion island, the stench would knock you over. The early inhabitants here, dated to 4,600 years ago, went naked except for a greasy coating of sea lion fat and a cape made of sea lion leather. It made them waterproof for collecting mussels growing in the shallows and it blocked the wind chill effect. However, it made them stink, too. The very last of the Indians, a 100 year old woman, lives in a small town near here.

Our real Cape Horn experience continues. The winds came up in the afternoon. They have delayed our departure by 6 hours so far because of high winds.

Our latitude here is 52° 48' South. It is 9 pm and it is still light enough to read outside.

OOPS. The cruise director just came on the PA system to announce that the winds are too high, over 40 knots, for the ship to go safely through the narrows in the Beagle Channel west of here and the forecast for tomorrow in the Straits of Magellan is worse. We are stuck here until the winds drop.

The port stop for tomorrow at Punta Arenas is canceled. The plan is to tour the glaciers in the Splendor.

I bought a black t-shirt that says “Ushuaia, Fin del Mundo.” It seems appropriate somehow.

Cape Horn

2009-02-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

The weather fooled us this morning. It was fairly bright and clear and not too windy. Then we crossed some invisible magic line and we got the real Cape Horn experience: 9°C, 56 knot wind, 17 foot waves, rain and fog. The wind was howling in the lines and overhead wires and blowing the tops off the waves so that it looked and sounded like a ground blizzard. And this is high summer, their version of August. Just think how it must be in winter. Those old time sailor men must have been something.

About 10% of the passengers suited up in layers and rain gear to watch from the outside decks. The rest watched it on TV, the wimps. Some were even in the indoor swimming pool, but the sloshing caused by the big waves made that quite a wild ride too.

Our room has this nice balcony on the starboard side. The Chilean pilot running the ship went by with Cape Horn on the port side. In order to watch, we had to go out in the cold and wet too. When we came back inside to warm up, the line at the hot chocolate machine was a mile long.

Libby and I tried to get pictures to show the wind, but wind is, unfortunately, invisible. We just have some funny looking poses. One fellow got blown off his feet and took a hard fall. Fortunately, he was not hurt. We saw some cormorants and a couple of albatross and two small orcas.

The ship ran an entire circle around Horn Island and now we are headed north for the Beagle Channel to pick up Argentine pilots at Puerto Williams and then on west to Ushuaia for our next port stop..

Puerto Madryn and the Penguins

2009-02-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Whatever I expected, this wasn't it. I didn't expect Puerto Madryn to be a modern boom town a lot like Gillette Wyoming. I didn't expect Patagonia to be a flat, dusty, treeless, sagebrush desert like parts of Wyoming or Colorado or Arizona. I didn't expect llamas to be like antelope without horns. I didn't expect penguins to be prairie dogs in disguise. But that's how it is. I felt right at home.

We rode in a 50 person bus 2.5 hours to reach the Protected National Area Punta Tomba. We were in the first class section of the bus which is 3 across rather than 4. It was VERY comfortable and we slept most of the way there. Once we arrived we were surrounded by 400000 Magellan penguins. It is the largest penguin rookery of its kind in the world. We walked among the birds for about 2 hours.

The chicks and one parent were home. The other parent out getting fish or down by the ocean. Some of the chicks were still completely covered with down. Others had started to get their feathers. They were beautiful.

Penguins!!

2009-02-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

Entertainment

2009-02-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

The singers and dancers and other entertainment has been great.

Montevideo, Uruguay

2009-02-20T04:39:00.001-08:00

Montevideo, Uruguay

The name, so says the tour guide, came from a notation on a nautical chart back in the 1500s: Monte VI de O(este), the sixth hill from the west. I do not know whether to believe her.

The temperature says 82, but it seems like 102 or more. It feels like Arizona in the middle of August.
We came into the port fairly early. Looming out of the twilight was a big building that looks like the sail shaped hotel in Dubai. The captain did a pretty good job of parallel parking into a very tight spot. The people on deck were holding their breath. He had only about a foot left on each end of his parking place.

After breakfast, we got our tour assignments: we are on bus #5, a 12 passenger Mercedes van. This was a private tour arranged by our Cruise Critic friends Gail and Murry from NY. It was to be an all day tour with a stop at a local place for lunch.

Our first stop was one of the city squares. There was a McDonalds and a Burger King and a money exchange shop. For $2, I got 45 pesos. Effectively a peso is a nickel. Gas costs about $5 a gallon, and the minimum wage is about $2.50 an hour. There were a couple of cops in the square with automatic weapons. They were guarding a bank shipment unloading at the bank on the square. Jack asked them what kind of guns they were. They are an American design made locally. He did not get the name. These people talk really fast, person to person. They seem to talk more clearly and slowly on the cellphones. Jack could understand most of what the guide said into her phone, but when she was talking to the driver, almost nothing.

We drove down to the beach at 10:30 AM on a Thursday. The beach was fairly busy and was very nice. We like this town best of all so far as a place to live in. We went through the high priced condo district to the higher priced house district and then to the mansion district. The driver said the mansions cost up to a million. We saw the presidents house and Rev. Sun Myung Moon's house. Our guide said that she did not like Rev. Moon. We said that we don't either.

Uruguay has one of the best standard of living in all South America. Most of the way, if I had closed my eyes and opened them, I could have been in the States. We stopped at parks and churches and took lots of pictures. One of the longest stops was at the Holocaust Memorial. It was at a beautiful spot on the beach.

The locals drink a tea called Mate. Everyone carries their tea with them from home. It isn't sold in the cafe..... you bring your tea cup filled with mate leaves from home with a thermos of hot water. You keep adding hot water all day. We took pictures of cups and “sipper straws” especially for the tea. I took a picture of the cups. They also had boxes of tea for sale with the cups. Jack had had Mate before so we passed on the tea. You can buy it in a 5 lb. Bag at Bi-Lo.

Finally lunch... Lunch was not included in the price. The guide took us to a Winery. It was a beautiful place surrounded by fields of sheep grazing and vineyards. It was very pricey though and we had only about 60.00 in cash with us. We ordered one appetizer and a steak entrée to share and passed up the bottled water and wine. We were surprised when the check came to see a charge of $9.00 for use of the cutlery and another $5.00 for two waters. The guide said that the charge for using the knives and forks was usual... but we disputed the water and $5.00 was deducted from the bill. I think they confused us with the guy sitting beside us who did have bottled water.

The excitement for the day was when we tried to leave the Winery. We were way out from town and our ship and it was getting close to time to be back on board. All 12 of us climbed back in the van and were ready to go. It wouldn't start........ the battery was dead. The driver messed with it for awhile as we all got a little anxious ..... The guide called for back up...... we got out of the van and waited in a small patch of shade in the 100 degree sun. We entertained ourselves by taking pictures of each other and the group. The driver recruited some winery workers to give him a push start. It worked and we all piled back in the van at about the same time the back up van arrived. We got out of the first van and into the backup van and back to the ship just on time. The ship sailed 3 hours late.

Buenos Aires

2009-02-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is a very nice city. I would trade Atlanta for it with no hesitation at all. (You've got to be kidding.... there is no comparison in the two cities. Atlanta is a favela compared to Buenos Aires!!) There are 3 million in the city and ten million more in the suburbs. It seems to have all the good parts of European cities. They didn't really show us the bad parts. Except for one slum. It was built out of the same tile blocks as the favelas in Brazil. These were built under a highway overpass and were not as extensive as the hilltop ones in Rio. Libby likes Buenos Aires better than Rio. Jack likes Rio better.

BA is on the world's biggest estuary at the outlet of the Rio de la Plata, which is an extensive river system. The water is a mottled mix of river and ocean water. The color of the water is coffee and cream, but it has an interesting pinkish tinge. It is not repulsive, but it does not invite swimming.

The current government is a modern Peronist variety. The president is Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. I think the Peronists and anti-Peronists are a bit like Democrats and Wingnuts with no moderate middle (kind of like how we seem to be going, come to think of it.). Our tour guide was an anti-Peronist, so he thinks the whole Evita thing is vastly overblown: “She would be completely forgotten, except for Lloyd-Webber.” Of course, we heard “Don't cry for me, Argentina” about three times during the day. It was the big finale at the tango show. One picture for the day was taken at the tango show.

We went to a tango show and dinner at La Ventana, Barra de Tango, in downtown. The show started at 8:00 and dinner was at 10:00. The show has a lot of tango, but the parts we liked best were the Bandoneon player (It is not an accordion, it is a bandoneon. They are different.) and the 12 string ukelele that makes “Andean” music. I like Andean music and the ukelele player was very good.

Wine was served with dinner. It was a Malbec. The day tour guide said Malbec is the best of Argentine wine, even though the name means “made bad.” The table next to us didn't drink theirs, so they gave it to me. I got a cork from the waiter and recorked it to take back to the boat. Libby thought somebody in security would not allow it, but I went right through with nobody batting an eye. Now I have to figure out how to get the cork back out. The airport security in Mexico City confiscated my traveling corkscrew last summer.

The tango started in the bars and back rooms in La Boca, the old port district. The port has been moved twice since then. The first old port, La Boca, has been turned into a Disney style tourist attraction. The other abandoned port, Puerto Madero, was turned over to real estate developers who have made a very upscale commercial and residential district out of it.

La Boca is interesting. The buildings are mostly made out of corrugated metal painted garish colors. The windows are covered with louvered shutters. Another of the pictures of the day is the Boca Babe (my name for her. The locals probably use another name). She was sitting on a second floor balcony just watching the world go by.

This place is expensive. Prices seem to be on a par with New York, but the minimum wage is about $15 per day, if I understood it right. Unemployment is severe. The tour guide said there are lots of poor people and they come out at night hunting for ….......anything of value. Maybe that is why there are so many dogs here – big dogs.

To hire a dog walker costs $90 per month per dog. The dog walkers seem to get up a pack of about ten and walk them for 5 hours a day through the extensive park system in town. They look like Cesar Milan on his TV show leading a pack around. Small dogs, like you see in Miami, were rarely seen. All these Porteños (that is what they call residents of Buenos Aires) living in small apartments with big dogs really do need dog walkers. A dog walker with his pack is another picture for the day.

Two days in Buenos Aires was not enough.

Sunday after Rio

2009-02-15T18:37:00.001-08:00

After Rio we were so tired that we spent most of Sunday in our room or out on the balcony. Our cabin steward finally made the bed at 1:30. We got back in it as soon as he left. Jack wrote the blog about Rio and I slept and sat out on the balcony and tried to read. I would read a line or two and then be distracted by the clouds or waves.

Today was a beautiful day at sea. The temperature was around 75 all day with the sun shining and calm seas. I kept thinking I would go to the pool.... but never made it. We talked about going to the port lecture. We really like Dirk, the naturalist who was giving the talk, but forgot what time the talk was to start. I wanted to go to high tea... but slept through it.

I think that being sick may have contributed to my exhaustion after a day in Rio. Half the ship has had congestion with runny noses and coughs. I thought for sure it would turn into pneumonia after spending all day in the rain but I may be getting better. Jack has had not a sniffle.

I missed dinner 4 nights because I was sick. But even with that it is getting hard to choose from the dinner menu. There is some variety to it... but I just wish there was something less “fancy.” It is all good … the Chateaubriand tonight was delicious. I laughed at a lady on one cruise a few years ago who ordered 9 shrimp and a plain baked potato every night. I'm thinking that may be my order tomorrow. I had a ham and swiss on Rye and a Bud Lite for lunch..... refreshing!!

We did make it to dinner. We like our waitress Bianca from Brazil. Her parents came to Rio to see her yesterday. She was very excited to get to spend most of the day with them. She met them at 8:00 am as soon as we cleared. After taking them on a tour of the ship, they all spent the day at the beach. Bianca has worked for Carnival for 8 years. She left home when she was 17 to travel the world. She said this may be her last contract. She is almost 30 and ready to start a business of her own and maybe a family. She is the best server we have ever had on a cruise ship. Our table of 8 will be staying together for the next segment and Bianca will stay with us too.

Tuesday we get to Buenos Aries. That means the end of the first segment of our trip. We will be changing cabins there so tomorrow we pack. I am not looking forward to that. We are really “moved in” after 17 days and have gotten to know our cabin staff. While we are on shore Tuesday, the cabin steward will move our things to our new cabin. Our new cabin is 9211. One of our table mates is in that cabin this cruise.

Rio in the rain

2009-02-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Rio De Janeiro. The best I can do on the Portugese pronunciation is “He owe dezhan eye”.

Back in Recife, they told us that the rainy season in Rio ends just in time for Carnival. Maybe so. Carnival starts next week. It was cloudy and raining today. It wasn't too bad, but the views from the top of Sugarloaf and Corcovado were mostly of clouds. The picture of the day is us on the walkway to Sugarloaf, wearing plastic ponchos and looking sopping wet.

We got up at 5 AM to watch while the ship was coming into the harbor. It was a fairly scenic arrival in the morning twilight with the big rocks sticking up and the lights along the beaches.

That it was a little wet and rainy all day didn't stop the preparations for Carnival. The street pre-parade that we saw was reported on CNN. I saw it while watching TV a few minutes ago. It was a large college party with lots of beer, moving down the street with some in costume.

Rio is a pretty city and interesting. The mountain ridges and bay cuts it up into much smaller zones with lots of greenspace in between. The zones we saw were clean, modern, and well maintained, with parks and lakes and public areas. I am sure that there are other parts we didn't see. They say that the crime problem is “much better now”. They do not say there is little or no crime. The warnings about wearing jewelery and carrying valuables were restated frequently.

The tour went first to Sugarloaf. It takes two cable cars to get to the top. You get a great view of the whole area.

Then we went to the Sambadrome, the judging area for the carnival parade entrants. It seems to work like the Crewes of Mardi Gras in New Orleans: there are groups, called samba schools, that run different parts of it. Joining a samba school is neither cheap nor easy and there are about 1,200 members in each group. If I understood correctly, there are 174 samba schools. There is a theme and a story to each presentation. They are judged and there is a big money prize to the winning samba school.

Next was the modern cathedral. It is a fascinating structure that looks like a big flat topped octagonal pyramid. One person accurately described it as looking like an “upside down ice cream cone”. It is really not that impressive from the outside, but when you go inside, it is an “oh, wow” moment. To continue with the ice cream cone analogy, the pyramid is a huge hollow shell with four sides being louvered to allow ventilation and the other four sides are immense stained glass windows from floor to the horizontal clear glass ceiling. They are maybe 150 feet tall and 30 feet wide each. It is hard for pictures to do it justice.

We walked through the colonial district, looking at old buildings and statues. We saw Carmen Miranda's childhood home, where the family ran a restaurant, living on the third floor, the cooking area in the second floor, and customer tables on the first floor. After that there was a picturesque area with an old house like Neuschanstein castle in miniature and some really old street trolley cars still running on overhead electric wires. Quaint.

Corcovado mountain was next. We drove up to the parking lot, rode a park van up to the elevator level, rode the elevator up to the escalators that didn't work. From there it was 80 stair steps up to the overlook around the base of the huge statue of Christ. More rain and fog cutting the visibility. If you waited a few minutes, you could get a picture as a gap in the cloud came by. While waiting for our group to assemble, we had an abacaixe smoothie for R 4.50. Abacaixe is pineapple and is pronounced “Abba caizhee.” They are using a very white type of pineapple that is not very sweet.

At supper, I ordered abacaixe sherbert from our Brazilian waitress. Apparently I got it right.

Then we headed for Ipanema to see the “Girl From Ipanema” who is now about 100. Ipanema is not just the beach, but is the most expensive residential district in Rio. The tour guide said he would live in the Ipanema-Copacabana-Leblon area if he could afford it. Me too.

This was the area where we stopped to watch the pre-parade party and found several streets blocked off. These parties were breaking out all over town. There were streets officially blocked and others blocked by people and others blocked by traffic confused by the other blockages. Trying to get from A to B was getting really tricky.

It was now getting late. We stopped to buy souveniers and were supposed to continue on to the beach. Some of the group were worried about getting trapped in the parade traffic problems and missing the boat. That would have been a very big and expensive problem. Despite the risk, the other half were absolutely determined to go to the beach and get a caipirinha – just so they could say “been there, done that.” Libby says that the disagreement between the two groups was about to get really ugly. (Jack didn't see this; he was off shopping) Fortunately there were two vans, so the group split. We went with the Go Back bunch. We got on the ship just 15 minutes before final boarding time. The others got back 15 minutes later. If they actually got a drink on the beach, they chugged it.

Other tours did get trapped. One with about 80 passengers from Legendary Journeys – who have about one third of the passengers on the boat – got back 2 hours late. Normally, if you are not back on time, you get left behind. I think they might have held the boat for Legendary, but not for a small private group like ours.

However, a crew tour also got trapped. They also got back 2 hours late. Rumor has it that the captain was on that tour, so we couldn't leave without him.

Salvador

2009-02-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

Salvador. Who says this is Salvador? It looks like Manhattan to me. 3,000,000 people. Oh, the signs are not in English so it must be Salvador, the 3rd largest city in Brazil, the original capital founded in 1549.

It was really strange when the sun came up in the west. That is what seemed to be happening. Atlantic Ocean on the right and Brazil on the left and the sun coming up over Brazil. That was very disorienting. Actually, Salvador in on a peninsula (seems about the same size as the island of Manhattan) hanging down from an east-west piece of the coast. We were docked on the west side of the peninsula with water to the west and land to the east. So that is why it looked like the sun came up in the wast.

We took the “Easy Salvador” tour. Get on the bus and ride around, take pictures out the window. That was all we wanted to do. We saw some churches and a fort and some buildings and favelas.

The favelas, or slums, are not what I expected. They are multi-story buildings made of the same clay tile bricks that most small buildings are made of. They have electricity and running water but NO streets. They hand carry everything (I mean everything – no streets) in narrow lanes with lots and lots of stairsteps. They sort of remind me of the pueblos of the Navajos or Hopi in Arizona.

After the tour I needed to get some Rials (“Hay eyes” you remember the Portugese pronunciation) so I went to the bank. Since I don't speak Portugese and Brazilians don't speak anything but Portugese, not Spanish, not English, it took a while to figure out that the banks don't do currency exchange or deal with credit cards. I tried the ATMs but these wouldn't take either of my cards. After trying 4 banks and a half dozen ATMs, I found an informal change operation that was operated by a local tour guide. I only got 2 Rials for a dollar, but I had to have the Rials for the tours in Rio on our next stop. 2.30 is the official rate, but the informal ones use 2.00 for selling and 2.75 for buying.

While I was looking for Rials, Libby was waiting in line for an hour to use the cheap dockside internet at $4 per hour, as opposed to 75 cents a minute on the ship. In Recife, one internet cafe was 1 Rial per hour.

Brazil was the last country in the west to abolish slavery in 1886. The picture of the day is a city park lake with statues of the Oreishas, the gods of the African religion which is still practiced here. The one to the left in the red dress is Chango, the variable gender god/goddess of fire.

The Brazilian Sun is Unforgiving

2009-02-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Recife is a big city. We didn't see it except from a distance. The skyscrapers lined up along the shoreline make it look, from a distance, like Miami. We didn't want to see another city just like all the others, so we took a tour to Itamarca Island to see manatees and mangroves and do a beach break.

The Brazilian Sun is Unforgiving

Both of us are exhausted and sun burned from our day on Itamaraca Island near Recife Brazil. It took us about an hour on the bus to get there from the ship and we had six hours to enjoy a very short catamaran ride, a quick glance at the mangroves, a long time on the beach, then walk through Fort Orange and the Manatee Center. On our ride home we drove through a smaller city to see some Colonial buildings.

The beach was fun and the water relaxing. At the beach we sat at a beach bar with tables in the sand, each one with its own palapa for shade, and enjoyed drinks of Caipirinha and beer. In Mexico, palapas are thatched with leaves from the fan palm. Here they use a long stemmed beach grass that may be related to sea oats.

At first we thought we would order lunch, but $20.00 a plate was astonishingly overpriced for what it was. I had packed some croissants and cheese from the breakfast bar on the ship so we decided to have those instead. One of the many vendors at the beach was walking around with a gallon can full of burning charcoal hanging from a wire so he would swing like a censure to get the coals red hot, and a Tupperware container of cheese. He would cook big thick slices of a hard white cheese over the charcoal until it was brown and leathery on the outside looking like the second side of a well done pancake. He would then skewer the cheese like a popsicle and hand it to you hot and ready to eat. We both had one of those for about $2.00 each. The cheese, about the consistency and color of very firm tofu, was absolutely delicious, and the slightly salty taste was perfect with the croissant and beer. Jack will definitely be trying to duplicate this at home.

Jack stayed under the protection of the palapa at the bar while I spent a lot of time in the water. It was sooooooo relaxing. The water temperature would change from warm to cold depending on where I was. I had on a hat so my face did not burn from the sun. My shoulders and back were not shaded so they are still sore. I do not know how Jack got so sunburned on his face???? He was in the shade all the time while on the beach but his face is as red as my back. He says is from the reflection off the sand and water.

We traveled to and from the beach island on a catamaran. It took us alongside the mangroves and past local fishermen. The catamaran was loud with people and music so we didn't see many birds or wildlife as I had hoped.

There was a small Dutch fort called Fort Orange there on Itamarca Island across from the beach island so we got off the catamaran we walked over to see it. The small 17th century fortress was originally build by the Dutch - that is why it is called Fort Orange for William of Orange - and later taken by the Portuguese when they ran the Dutch out (the Dutch then went to buy Manhattan from the Indians says the tour guide). We saw the cannons, Dutch maps and archaeological pieces. This was NOT my favorite part of the day........ and it was 40° C (104° F) in the shade while we were out walking through the sand with the sun beating down on us. Brutal. Could have been a “survivors in the desert” movie. I was really worried about some of the older members of the group getting heat stroke. (Older, ah yes, we are back in the younger demographic on this cruise)

Well, we walked from the fort across the island to the IBAMA Center for the Protection of the West Indian Manatee which is Peixe-boi in Portugese, pronounced “pehshee boy”. The research center rescues injured and orphaned manatees and then reintroduces them back into the wild. We saw only three manatee in residence but it was a fun stop with big shade trees. A small pack of tiny monkeys was running all around. The looked sorta like teddy bears and were like big squirrels in size and the way they ran up the trees.

Some of the trees growing there that have a purple fruit that looks like a big ripe olive. I think it is related to the mango because the tree looks just like a mango tree and the fruit has this huge seed in it. The taste of the fruit was pleasant, but much too acid. It felt like the juice was taking the enamel off your teeth. The guide said they are really good when ripe. Maybe the one I ate wasn't ripe? It looked ripe.

The picture for the day is Jack eating the cheese popsicle at the beach. Jack wanted to use a picture of one of the Brazilian girls in their bikinis, but oddly enough, there aren't any of those in the camera.

Sick day at Sea

2009-02-09T16:07:00.001-08:00

Praises to the inventor of Sudafed and Aspirin. Even though they both have expiration dates 5 to 10 years past they work some. I think we got the Sudafed when we were diving and the last time we did that was in 2001. I hope this cold doesn't last long.

I got up for breakfast because I wanted some OJ. I had 3 glasses. We sat with a fisherman from Nova Scotia, a school administrator from Fayetteville, NC and a maintenance engineer for a mining company from Scotland.

After breakfast we packed our laundry and sent it out then sat out on the balcony watching the sea gulls. They were flying all the way around the boat... you could see them on the web cam. They would dive every time they saw these little flying fish scoot across the water. I think the fish were too big for them because I never saw one get caught. The gulls are a little different from the ones in SC. They have a slightly different body shape and instead of eekeek the sort of quack like a duck.

I stayed in all day. Jack brought room service to me for lunch and dinner. He spent some time at the pool and went to the show at night.

Fortaleza

2009-02-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

Fortaleza – think any Mexican industrial town and put an oil refinery and a container port beside it and you have pretty much got Fortaleza. They do have some beaches, but they have rusty looking sand and silty green water – not exactly five star. The highlight of the day was the drink of cashew pod juice we had at the H Stern jewelry store during a shopping stop on the bus tour. The temperature in town was probably in the low 90s with a nice breeze from the east.

Fortaleza is located just 3° 35' below the Equator. The word fortaleza is Portuguese for fortress. The city is one of Brazil's largest cities and is the state capitol of the state of Ceara. There are about 2,400,000 people.

We visited the Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown, the Dragao do Mar Cultural Center, the beach, Central Market, the English Bridge and H Stern jewelry store located in a high end hotel. It was a nice ride around town on a Sunday morning. Almost everything was closed and the traffic was light.

The main cathedral does not have candles because the poor people took them home to use as light, so they quit doing candles. The building was started in 1938 and it wasn't finished in the 1970s. The Pope announced that he was going to visit Fortaleza, so the city put a surcharge on the public water bills to pay for finishing the cathedral before the Pope arrived. I think they put it on the water bill because that is a bill everybody has to pay, like it or not. They can use candles for light and charcoal for cooking, but they do have to have the water.

At the central market I bought a mango slushie. It took a while for me to get it. One of the tour guides was passing orders for the folks on her bus to the guy on the machine and bypassing those of us in line. I told her I was in line, so she had me move in front of her, but then she was shouting her orders over my shoulder. She was going to be sure to take care of her bus passengers and to heck with the rest of us. Working for tips, I think. Fortunately I had a 5 Rial bill that Harriet Christenberry Hecock had given to Libby, so when he put down a mango slushie that the guide had ordered, I handed him the money and grabbed the drink. Now I have the 1 rial coin that I got in change. The mango slushie was very good and much needed at that moment. Thank you, Harriet.

The price for a beer on the English Bridge beach pier was 2.50 rials which is about 1 dollar. The mango slushie at 4 rials was about $1.75. These are real prices because this is not really a tourist town.

In Portugese, they do not pronounce the R like we do; it is more of a strong harsh H sound. The money is the Rial, which is pronounced “Hey Oh” with maybe just a little L sound on the end. We are now going to our next port stop in Recife, which they pronounce as “hesif” with maybe a little bit of an “ay” sound on the end.

The picture we picked for this port is Libby under a Golden Rain tree growing at the entrance to the English Bridge. We had Golden Rain trees growing at the front of our house when we bought it 25 years ago. They didn't look quite like this one. Ours were pencil thin and didn't bloom because they were in full shade. The Australian lady in our tour didn't want a picture of this tree because she has one in her yard at home.

Libby has a cold. She didn't want to go to dinner, so I brought her pizza from the 24 hour pizza server on the Lido Deck. Pizza Rustica it was with cheese and pepperoni.

Equator Crossing Day

2009-02-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

We crossed the equator a few minutes after noon today. I didn't see it. The Captain did a countdown “five – four – three – two – one – now” while I was standing in line for the Szechuan Stir Fry. Libby was on deck as all the passengers pointed their cameras to sea and took pictures of the equator as we crossed.

Afterwards, they had a little ceremony by the pool on the Lido Deck pouring Foster's Beer and bacon grease on the “polliwogs” and then they declared us all “shell backs” and threw the Captain in the swimming pool. It was a good thing he was wearing thick underwear because his soaking wet uniform was almost transparent when he got out of the pool. The four decks around the pool area were all full of people watching King Neptune and his court preform that crossing ceremony. After the crossing the singer from last night's show performed. People were dancing and singing along. And you think us old folks can't “cut a rug”.

I think I am supposed to get a trident tattoo now, having crossed the equator.

The air temperature is 81 and the water is about 80, all very pleasant. The sun is very bright and it will sunburn you very quickly. We spent about an hour in the pool, at the end of the giant slide, then back to our room for a nap. Our cabin was nice and bright. The room steward had left the curtain pulled back and a towel frog on the foot of the bed.

Up from our nap we went for dinner of steak and shrimp and then a comedy show. The performer was a writer for Jay Leno. Then back to our room. We have a tour early tomorrow. I think we dock at 7:00 am in Fortaleza.

At sea

2009-02-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

I sat out on the balcony for awhile this morning. It was about five o'clock and the sun was already up. It was warm and the sea was beautiful, with nine foot waves and whitecaps. I had to sit back against the wall because the wind was so strong. The ship is sailing at 21 knots and we are going into a 15 knot wind.

The ride has been rocky almost the entire trip so far. We have been rocked to sleep each night and have to hold onto the rails when we walk. Surprisingly I haven't been sick and by the number of people in the public rooms no one else has been either. The captain slowed the ship some and the singers and dancers were able to preform.

We are somewhere off the coast of South America on our way to Brazil.

Barbados and around the ship

2009-02-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

I guess we sound like real homebodies but I really did intend to go to the beach on Barbados. Instead, after getting up at noon and having lunch on Lido, we made a quick trip to shore to use the Internet. The Internet Cafe has been replaced by a machine that disperses cards with a login ID and password. You can use those codes in either a laptop or one of the PCs in a kiosk. The cost was $5.00 for 30 minutes compared to .75 a minute on the ship. So we paid our five bucks and spent 30 minutes checking email, banking and looking at facebook. We were soooooo hot by then that instead of walking a mile or so to the beach, we went back to the air conditioning in the ship.

We spent our day in Barbados in the beautiful sunshine in the pool on the ship. The wonderful thing about staying on board was that most people were ashore and we had the ship to ourselves.

This is the last port where we will have the luxury of the ship to ourselves until we get back to the west coast of Mexico. We have made plans for all of the rest of our port stops. We have never been further south than Venezuela and are excited to visit Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chili, Peru and Ecuador. At some of the ports we have to meet our tour as early as 7:00am........ and we've gotten use to sleeping until noon!!!

Our ship mates are interesting. The average age is 65. We are a little bit in the younger set!! All are seasoned travelers and most have never sailed on Carnival before. We were looking forward to spending some time in the Karaoke Lounge..... when we went there last night there were about 10 people there... only 3 singers and they were awful. Quite different from the sailings in the Caribbean on Carnival where the average age was closer to 40. The piano bar player is tops but it is real smoky in there. We stayed just outside and listened for a while. All of the entertainment in the Spectacular Theater have been good. The singers and dancers, a singer and last night a ventriloquist were all fun to watch. In five days there has been only one BINGO session. It had maybe 20 people show up. The passengers are NOT buying drinks and the casino is only about a quarter full. We are a bunch of “old fogies”. …....... nap time....

Dominica

2009-02-03T13:05:00.001-08:00

We arrived at Dominica about noon. The place we docked was in a container dock and not the cruise dock in town. Having been to Dominica many times before, we decided to just walk around the little market the locals had set up. Jack bought some local HOT sauce and I, a carved fish. It was really hot and started to rain as we walked back to the ship. There was a beautiful rainbow.

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

I wish I was a football fan. Everybody looked like they were having so much fun at the Super Bowl Parties around the ship Sunday night.

We started the day at 10:00 am with the Lifeboat Drill. Usually it is before the sail away but with the security breach delaying boarding and sail away yesterday, it was delayed until today. After the drill we had breakfast in the Lido deck and then watched some of Leatherhead on the big screen by the pool. For me it was a boring football movie... very appropriate for Super Bowl Sunday though. I wanted to see it because it was filmed in Greenville and Greer.

We finally met most of our Cruise critic friends at a Meet and Greet in the Lobby Bar around 2:00. It was great talking to them and we were able to confirm our tours with those who had been planning them for us. We stayed there until 4:00.

Tea was good. I had the best scone ever and Jack loved some kind of apple something. He said it was the best desert he had ever had on Carnival.

We almost slept through dinner but made it to our table before our table mates had ordered. Now this was a new table. Yesterday we had the Maitre' d change us to the Black Pearl dinning room from the Gold Pearl. The Gold Pearl is at the very back of the ship and our room at the very front. The Black Pearl is more convenient. We are in the center of the dinning room at a table for 8. A Zoology Professor from the University of Wyoming, a retired dentist and another couple from Calif..(more to find out about them.

The most interesting conversation was about Troncones Beach in Mexico. Jack and I spent a week there this summer. It turns out that everybody at the table had been to Troncones. The professor even described the cover over the pool in detail. Wow what a small world.

We did watch the Steelers win. No other choices...... every bar and lounge was alive with the excitement of the game. The game was on on the big screen by the pool. In the theater, in the Sports Bar. In the Jazz Bar ….... everywhere.... complete with hot dogs and beer.

You may have seen it in the news.

2009-02-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

Our hotel was full of cruisers. On Saturday morning we found ourselves in the middle of about 200 people waiting for various cabs, shuttles and buses to take them to the cruise port to board a ship. We arrived at The Splendor at noon and were in our room at 2:00. Embarkation was a fairly long process but we had fun while waiting in line talking to all the other people. We were among the lucky ones.

Maybe you saw it on the news.

We first noticed that a Coast Guard boat was telling the small boats in the channel to turn around because the port is closed. It is almost time for departure. We thought they were clearing the area so all the cruise boats could leave without running over the small ones.
But out in the parking lot, I could see my suitcase still out there in the parking lot with lots of others and nobody loading baggage. Nobody loading supplies either. In fact there was nobody at all down there on the dock. All the baggage and supplies and trucks just sitting there with nobody around.

Over at the vacant cruise terminal next door we could see about 400 people milling around. We thought they might be the ones denied boarding because they didn't have the Brazil visa. We knew that was going to cause some kind of problem and it did for about 150 who were not allowed to board the ship because they did not have a visa for Brazil. Some may go to the Brazilian Embassy in Miami, get a visa and meet the ship in Barbados. But the people in the other terminal were not the ones needing visas. As we watched, the 400 turned into about a thousand. The next thing we heard was an announcement of a security breach. Boarding had been halted by the Coast Guard and all in Terminal 21 moved to the terminal across the way.... all 1000 of them.

We and many others watched as dogs sniffed the luggage. Five suitcases were picked out and the remote control robot handled each one. We never saw anything found and eventually the Coast Guard reopened the port and allowed other ship to set sail and The Splendor to continue boarding. There were some exasperated people finally start to board the ship at about 8:00. They had spent 5 dreadful hours in an open terminal building with almost no food and limited water.

We were glad we had made it on board to enjoy a pleasant evening. Many of our Cruise Critic friends were not so lucky. They filled us in on all the details at the Meet and Greet on Sunday.

Jack writing the Blog

2009-01-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

Here is Jack at the Comfort Inn. That purple suitcase is really heavy. It is only 40 lbs but the little one I attach to it must be another 40.

Greenville to Ft Lauderdale.

2009-01-30T13:10:00.000-08:00

We took the dogs to Keller's so he could keep them for us. They knew something was up, but it was OK. They would not pose for pictures.

I love it when I am going on a tropical vacation that I have to scrape ice off the car windows to go to the airport. It really gives a sense of rightness to the trip.

Keller took us to the airport, no problem. Got to Atlanta, no problem. Got on the plane to Ft Lauderdale, big problem. There were a bunch of people in the back of the plane with boarding passes for rows that didn't exist. They had to stop boarding and redo all the boarding passes. They handled it pretty well in just over an hour. It looked like they had had that problem before, more than once.

In Ft. Lauderdale, we took the hotel shuttle to the Comfort Inn - Hollywood / Cruiseport South. At $150 a night, it was the cheapest Libby could find. There are 9 cruise boats leaving Ft. Lauderdale and Miami tomorrow. The folks in the hotel are out by the pool getting started on their quota of booze for the week.

It is 83 out now which is a nice change from the 24 this morning at home. We are supposed to go to the Bimini Boatyard Bar to meet up with our group - the Salsa 49ers.

Time differences of the countries we visit to SC

2009-01-28T08:24:00.000-08:00

Barbados + 1 hour
Dominica + 1 hour
Brazil + 3 hours
Argentina + 3 hours
Chile + 2 hour
Uruguay + 3 hours
Peru + Same
Ecuador + Same
Mexico - 1 hour

Packed and ready to go!!

2009-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Whew..... I think we are finally packed. We ended up with a 25 inch suitcase, 20 inch carry-on and computer bag each.

We are going to spend Thursday night at Keller's house and then he will take us to the airport Friday morning for our 10:00am flight to Ft Lauderdale. After an overnight there we will board the ship on Friday.

Moosie and Reba will be with Keller. They are packed too. They have two months worth of food and their dog beds.

Currency Converter

2009-01-25T10:01:00.001-08:00

Flags of the countries we visit.

2009-01-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

Door Sign

2009-01-12T15:11:00.001-08:00

All the people from Cruise Critic will be displaying signs on their door. This is ours. We are in different cabins on each leg: Leg 1 - 6207, Leg 2 - 9211, Leg 3 - 6371.

Maps of our trip.

2009-01-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

To keep me from asking, "Where is that?" Jack made these maps of where we are going.

Weather down there

2009-01-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

http://sirocco.accuweather.com/sat_mosaic_640x480_public/IR/isassam.gif
This link will show you the weather down at the end of South America, sort of.

For the Northern part of South America try:
http://www.accuweather.com/world-satellite.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&site=csam&type=IR&anim=1&large=0

Packing

2009-01-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

Jack likes to put packing off until the last minute. I on the other hand want it done yesterday. We have managed to fill 3 suitcases. We have mine, yours and ours. No telling how many times it will be unpacked and repacked over the next weeks.

The challenge for packing light is the weather. It will be very cold and windy as we go around Cape Horn. So we need coats and gloves and wool socks. It will be very hot in Barbados.... so we need light cottons. Plus our trip is for 52 days total with visits in cities, countryside, beaches and glaciers.

Planning a trip to South America on the Carnival Splendor

2009-01-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Beginings Of Our Cruise Review ~

Read along as Jack & I travel on a Cruise Ship called "Carnival ~ Splendor" all the way around South America.

Our trip begins with flying to Fort Lauderdale on 1/30/09. We are sailing from there on January 31.

We are meeting up with 290 + fellow CruiseCritic.com members. We have chatted with all of these people on this cruise ship chat board for the past year and will board with them on 1/31/09 along with a total of =3000 other cruisers, many of which are staying on for all 3 legs of this cruise just like we are.

Our Port & at Sea days are:
Jan. 31,... Ft Lauderdale
Feb 1, ... at sea
Feb 2, .....at sea
Feb 3, ... Dominica
Feb 4, ... Barbados
Feb 5, ... at sea
Feb 6, .... at sea
Feb 7, ... Crossing the Equator
Feb 8, ... Fortaleza, Brazil
Feb 9, ... at sea
Feb 10. ... Recife Brazil
Feb 11, ... at sea
Feb 12, ... Salvador, Brazil
Feb 13, ....at sea
Feb 14, ....Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 15, ....at sea
Feb 16, ....at sea
Feb 17, ... Buenos Aires, Argentina
Feb 18, ... Buenos Aires
Feb 19, ... Montevideo, Uruguay
Feb 20, ....at sea
Feb 21, ....Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Feb 22, ....at sea
Feb 23, ... Cape Horn Cruising
Feb 24, ... Ushuaia, Argentina
Feb 25, ... Punta Arenas, Chile
Feb 26, ... Strait of Magellan
Feb 27, ... Chilean Fjords
Feb 28, ... Puerto Montt, Chile
Mar 1, .... at sea
Mar 2, .....at sea
Mar 3, .... Santiago, Chile ..(Valparaiso)
Mar 4, .....at sea
Mar 5, .... at sea
Mar 6, .... Arica, Chile
Mar 7, .... at sea
Mar 8, .... Lima (Callao), Peru
Mar 9, .... at sea
Mar 10, ... Quito (Manta), Ecuador
Mar 11, ... Crossing the Equator
Mar 12, ... at sea
Mar 13, ... at sea
Mar 14, ... Acapulco, Mexico
Mar 15, ... at sea
Mar 16, ... Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Mar 17, ... at sea
Mar 18, ... at sea
Mar 19, ... Los Angeles, CA (Long Beach)
Mar 20,.... at sea
Mar 21,.... San Francisco, CA
Mar 22, ... Arrive home in Greenville 11PM

To take a look around our beautiful ship & home for the next 49 days ~

http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/ships/carnival_splendor/default.aspx?shipCode=SL#

Once there, To see where our ship is ~ on any given day ~
Click on the “Ship Webcam” box on the upper right side of the Splendor page . . .

Or Try this ~

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/carnivalindex.html

On L side of page, Click on Carnival / Splendor & Under picture displayed, click on Bridge Cam (Front View) , Aft Cam (Back View), or Location Map (Where the ship is right now)

*Please feel free to come back here often to read up on what exciting things Jack & I are doing on board ship, what we see & learn about all the ports we will visit along the way & who knows if I figure out how ~ You may even see some pictures posted here that one of us has taken.