Last Day!

We are at sea for our last day. It's amazing how your stuff gets bigger while you are on a trip! I know we are taking home dirty clothes, but dirt can't possible make the luggage explode that much! We did it though. The Pacific is beautiful and smooth today so it's an easy ride. Tonight, the wait staff in the dining room will treat us to song and dance as they parade in with baked Alaska. When we get home, we will post a few more photos on this blog site, to help you share our adventure. It's been amazing and one we will never forget. I hope you all get to Antarctia someday. It is like noplace else on earth. thanks for tagging along with us via this blog. It's more fun to share - thank you for letting us share this experience with you! See you soon!

Andes trip

We took a scenic drive through the Andes today out of Puerto Montt. The tops of the volcanoes were in the clouds, but the lake district was nice anyway. We saw beautiful falls of glacier water (emerald in color) over volcanic stream beds. Tomorrow is the day for packing and thinking about coming back to reality! Sorry we aren't able to post any pictures again. When we get home, I'll put some on this site to give you all a teaser of the extended vacation report you will have to endure!

Chilean Fjords

Due to the unrest in southern Chile, our captain decided we would make port in Chacabuco rather than Punta Arenas. We spent just a little time in the Strait of Magellan. Tuesday was spent cruising through the beautiful fjords of Chile. The landscape of thousands of islands etched by glaciers is amazing. We ended the day with a great view of a glacier with a rainbow making up for the misty weather.

Wednesday, we left the protection of the Chilean fjords and travelled up the coast and farther out to sea. The ocean was rocky and we had a slow day on the ship resting, going to lectures and shows, having “tea,” and basically waiting around for the next meal. The sea was rough enough this morning that our breakfast tray fell over – table and all. Doris is not too bothered by the waves, except trying to walk a straight line! Diana, on the other hand, as spent the day trying not to look out of the window and avoid seasickness. So far, so good.

Thursday was a slow day. We decided to stay onboard the ship rather than tackle a local Chilean bus on our own. It was very relaxing and Doris beat Diana at canasta (again). Friday is another port, so we hope for smooth sailing and nice weather.

Chile

We often reference “the end of the world, “ but this week, Doris and Diana actually went there! Our ship made port at Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most city in the world at 55 degrees latitude south. We took a shore excursion through part of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago surrounded by the South Atlantic Ocean.  One of our stops was at the very end of the Panamerican Highway that stretches from Fairbanks, Alaska to the tip of South America. “Highway” may be a little misleading, as it is a single lane gravel road at this end. The scenery is breathtaking and our weather has been perfect. As we cruised through the Beagle Channel we saw several major glaciers and the snow capped tops of the Andes brilliant against the blue sky. Even the Chilean pilot on board said this was very rare weather.

We spent some time in the Strait of Magellan and the easternmost part of the Pacific Ocean last night and this morning. Our itinerary called for us to visit Punta Arenas, Chile, however due to strikes, the port has been blockaded. There is a dispute between the Chilean government and the people over subsidies to gas. So, our captain is taking us to a tiny village further north called Puerto Chacabuco. That will be the port of call for Wednesday.

Doris in Antarctica

Headed North

We have just had three amazing days in Antarctica! The sun was shining and the sea ice proved no match for our captain. It’s hard to grasp the beauty, wildness, and size of this place. 200 lb seals look like little specks on the ice and the rocky pointed mountains dwarf our ship. Floating icebergs the size of factory buildings only hint at the 80% of the berg that is submerged. Everywhere you look there is nothing but blue sea and sky separated by snow, ice, and rough mountain peaks rising 3000 feet straight up from sea level. We have taken hundreds of photos to show you when we get home! Our ship is now headed north from our current position of 65 degrees south. Tonight and tomorrow we’ll be crossing Drake Passage and by tomorrow (Sunday) night we should be rounding Cape Horn. Monday we will be in the southern most town in the world, Ushuaia, Argentina.

Antarctica - - Land Ho!

We are here! Our first sighting of Elephant Island was at 4:30 AM and we have enjoyed the amazing view ever since. The icebergs are enormous! We sailed up to Esperanza Station, saw many glaciers, mountains, hundreds of penguins, seals, albatross, and several different kinds of ice. Because there is so much ice floating, our ship was unable to go into the Weddell Sea on the southern side of the peninsula. We are now headed back toward the Shetland Islands and the northern shore of the Antarctic Peninsula. It won’t get dark until 10:30 tonight, so we still have lots to see today.  

Our only mishap came about 5:00 AM when Doris slipped down on the slushy deck. We visited the ship’s infirmary for x-rays and  determined that she had pulled a ligament near her left knee. So, we have also had lots of ice in bags today to keep the swelling down. A sore knee, however, doesn’t slow her down very much. It’s been a great day and one we will never forget. We are so privileged to be in this part of our beautiful world.

Dake Passage

After an adventure day yesterday in the Falklands, today was wonderful for sleeping late and listening to lectures on Antarctica and Patagonia. We expected to have bruises from  the Land Rover through the “camp” as the mountains and bog are called. Only a bit sore, no bruises, and soooo worth it! We can’t describe how thrilling it was to be among thousands of penguins yesterday. We hope you saw the photo we put on our blog. Today the internet is down due to snow in the North East where the uplink site is. I hope to post this blog Thursday if the signal is strong enough.  We went up to the top deck of the ship last night to look for the Southern Cross, but it was too cloudy. The farther south we go, the window of darkness gets very short, but we’ll keep looking. We saw our first albatross flying around the ship today.

It’s 9:30 PM here and we are just about to cross the 60^th parallel. They tell us we will then be “expeditioners” rather than “passengers” at that point in the Antarctic waters.  We’ve been in the Drake Passage (the wide channel between Cape Horn and Antarctica) all day and happily the sea is calm (very rare). We have our fingers crossed it will stay that way. It is raining and we also hope that will clear by morning. We have the alarm set for 4:30 AM to get up and be ready to see our first landfall of Antarctica at Elephant Island. You may recall that is where, after 497 days trapped in the ice pack and not touching land, Shakelton and 28 survivors landed. We are beyond excited! The next three days will be sailing the Antarctic peninsula as the iced and weather allow. We should see our first icebergs tomorrow along with lots of wildlife. We are beyond excited!

Falklands

We have had a great day in the Falklands - it was even sunny which is very rare here. We saw our first penguins! Lots of them! The trek to the beach was an event in itself. It took almost three hours over gravel road and then no road in a Land Rover. I have bruises on my side from bouncing around and hitting the door. All worth it though. Tonight we head south toward Antarctia! 

Sea Lions

What a day! We work up to room service (breakfast of our choice with all the trimmings) - we love it! Then it was time to hurry up and wait (LOL). It took forever to disembark for a tour of the Valdes Pennesula, a good distance from Peurto Madryn where we were docked. We just returned from a long day on the bus, but were definately rewarded as we saw many sea lions and elephant sea lions. The were enourmous and playing on the beach. The road trip included seeing sheep and guanacos (a wild llama like mammal) out on the plateau. There are no trees because of the very limited water and high wind. We could easliy imagine that we were in west Texas - minus the mesquite trees!

We are now back in our stateroom unwinding (some of you know how we do that). We will head to dinner in a few minutes. The food has been wonderful so far so our hopes are high for tonight's menu considering we had a box lunch on the bus. The internet is so slow we are sorry but posting pictures is not likely.

Rocking and rolling

We have been at sea all day. It was a nice slow start sleeping late. We took a computer class, listened to lectures on Antarctia, went to a wine tasting event, saw a live show, shopped on board a litte, saw a movie, and did a lot of fine dining! This post will be brief as the ship is really rocking and rolling tonight and I don't want to get seasick. It is still a very slow internet connection so I can't post any photos today. We'll be in port tomorrow so maybe I an then. Our love to all of you!

Montevideo, Uruguay

Today we did a city tour of Montevideo, Uruguay. Because of the early start, we had breakfast delivered to our stateroom. What a life! Our tour guide was quite proud of her country and kept our attention throughout the tour of monuments to gauchos, heroes of the Uruguayan revolution for independence, and those honoring the natives who were completely exterminated from this country during the colonial period.  We especially enjoyed seeing and smelling the huge eucalyptus trees and gigantic aloe Vera plants. The beaches here are snow white sand and palm trees line the streets. For South America, Uruguay is fairly stable with less poverty than some of the others countries (average income of $1400 per month). 1/3 of the country’s population lives in this capital city. We were also surprised to learn that even though it appears to be the sea, we have been sailing on a very wide river this whole time. Sometime tonight we will be in the Atlantic.

After a little shopping in the market, we took it easy and napped – it is after all, vacation! A late afternoon visit to a lounge to hear one of the many musicians (and a mojito) got is in the mood for a sophisticated evening. Dinner tonight was in formal attire with a menu of shrimp cocktail, lobster and filet mignon. Three other guests joined our party – all are still older than Diana, but it certainly livened up the conversation. We were surprised to have the ship’s First Officer join us at our table – he was wearing his format whites and certainly made us feel special. After dinner, we went to the theater for free champagne, introductions of the captain and officers, and a wonderful Broadway review. Tomorrow is a full day at sea. We plan to sleep late, take a computer class and generally relax.

 The satellite internet is very slow, so we are sorry we can't post any photos today.

At sea

Today we had a wonderful slow start in Buenos Aires – sleeping late, nice breakfast and great shopping on a pedestrian only shopping street. Diana bought a beautiful Argentinean leather purse. Doris talked her way into a refund on a non-refundable sim card that didn’t work for international calls. We had an easy transport to the pier and check-in on the Ms Veendam. Our stateroom is comfortable and we are already unpacked. We explored part of the ship, had a fabulous prime rib dinner with octogenarian companions. We were the youngest of the bunch, but 4 more table mates should join us tomorrow, so we’ll see if that record holds.  After waving goodbye to BA from the deck of the ship at dusk, we continued our launch at a performance in the theater. Our initial impression is that the performers will be great and the silly games they played with guests imply that though grey haired, they will be a fun bunch. Tomorrow is an early start so we are heading to bed early (midnight) tonight.

Buenos Aires

We arrived safely in Buenos Aires this morning. Our driver was waiting for us with a sign at the airport - that is definitely the way to start a journey when you are exhausted and no one speaks English! Our hotel is nice and the first thing Diana did was take a short nap since she didn't sleep on the plane. Doris, who had slept a little, took off to explore the neighborhood around the hotel and find a sim card for her phone. We had a lovely lunch of Argentine beef in a salad for lunch and then had a private city tour with an English speaking guide and driver. The traffic here is crazy! Our guide did a nice job and told us more than we could absorb about Argentina's history as we drove all over this beautiful city in perfect weather. Attached to this blog are a quick view of some of the highlights - Eva Peron's tomb, Doris in the fun district near the old warf where we saw/heard lots of music and old buildings, and a snap of modern Buenos Aires - a lovely capitol city. After another brief rest, we headed to an evening tango show and dinner. Oh my! What a treat it was to see this amazing dance and hear the wonderful orchestra – very professional and accompanied by another great meal and impeccable service. We are now heading to bed for a good night’s sleep, exhausted, but after a full day. We feel like we are really here!

Off On Our Great Adventure!

Steven took us to the airport in Fort Smith this morning after much shoving and sqeezing of luggage into the Pilot. By the amount of stuff we are taking, you'd think we were off to the moon! However, our excuses for taking so much stuff are that #1 they allowed 100 lbs per person, #2 we need to look good at all times and under all circumstances, and #3 we are women - so just ignore the first two reasons.

Really, we must be prepared for a tango show in Buenos Aires (90 degrees), hiking boots to walk among the penguins and sheep (40 degrees), viewing of iceburgs from a windy ship rail (30 degrees plus wind), winery tour in Santiago (80 degrees), fancy dinners (thus 4 sequeined outfits), swimsuits for lounging on board, and no telling what else!

We are pumped and ready to go! However.... we are currently being forced into a slow start with a 5 hour layover in the Dallas airport. Not so bad though as we spent part of it eating Mexican food and the rest playing with this new blog. We hope you will join us on the blogspot frequently as we will try to share special events and sights with you as often as we can.

We wish you were all here with us..... but we are also very excited to have these very precious days with just the two of us.