One Day at Sea...Pacific Ocean

Sunday, March 16, 2014 One Day at Sea
We enjoyed our day at sea....reading, walking the outside deck....brrrr, and listening to John Maxtone-Graham talk about the ABC's of his travels....very humorous little tales.

                              John Maxtone-Graham...We missed his great pictures today!

It was Sunday and we decided to try out the hot tub in the Spa and then took a nice little nap. During the evening we went to a show entitled " Motor City" with the Crown Princess Singers and Dancers... very talented young group. The music was Motown hits and we enjoyed the live show.

Cruising Amelia Glacier

Saturday, March 15, 2014 Cruising Amelia Glacier, Chile

Last night we finished cruising around the southern tip of South America and were on a northern route toward Amelia Glacier. The trip lead us through fjords and mountains with fantastic views from time to time of the snow capped Andes Mountains. After Larry played some music with his musician cruising friends, we headed to the Skywalker Lounge on the 18th floor of the ship to sit and view the gorgeous vistas that we passed. We ate lunch there, and didn't move for the rest of the afternoon....not wanting to give up our fantastic seats that looked off the starboard side of the ship. We were able to view where the ship was going and look back at where it had been while sitting on an arm that hung out over the side of the ship. IT WAS AWESOME!

We spotted some cute little penguins swimming in the water....making their way to land. We also saw a lot of birds. The captain pointed out some dolphins. We also spotted hundreds of little icebergs that the captain and the Chilean pilot slowly guided the ship through.

We saw the huge blue ice of the Amelia Glacer that expanded up to the top of the cravas all the way down to the water. Larry wandered about the ship taking a bunch of pictures of it...but I stayed inside holding our warm comfortable seats.

                                             This picture just not do this glacier justice!

That evening we had dinner in our room and watched "World War Z" with Brad Pitt. Nice way to end the day!

Punta Arenas, Chile

Friday, March 14, 2014 Punta Arenas, Chile

Larry and I enjoyed breakfast in the Bellagio Dining Room with some folks from California and Australia. We then headed for the Michelangelo's Dining area to get our tender ticket to go ashore. It was a very cold and windy day...in the low 30's...the coldest day of our trip. From the ship we could see the rolling hills of the city which is the gateway to the Chilean Patagonia region. Here there are a maze of fijords, rivers, and mountains in the north. Just south of Punta Arenas is Antarctica...only a days journey by boat. While Ushuaia, Argentina is the southern most town in the world; Punta Arenas, Chile is the southern most city in the world.

We boarded the tender boat quickly and headed to the shore on a very bumpy ride. White caps and swells with 50 mile an hour winds. Our tender driver was not very experienced and it took him about an hour to get us docked and unloaded at the pier. It was good to get off the boat...I said, "Well, we got our money's worth today...it as like a wild roller coaster ride!"

We headed through the marine area and right out the door to the city center, Plaza Munoz Gamero. Here we enjoyed having lunch out in the intermitten misty rain and sunshine. It was warm one minute and cold the next. We had read that there was a hole in the ozone here and that you could get a sun burn very easily. We enjoyed looking at local craft booths in the square as well as watching the local school students who were in uniforms head home for lunch. Hernando Magellan's statue (first man to circle the globe) donned the center of the square. One foot was very shiney bronze...Why? Supposedly...if you rub the foot, you will come back to Punta Arenas again. Many had rubbed his foot because the rest of the statue was a dull tarnished brown.

Around the Plaza Munoz Gamero was a beautiful City Cathedral and Sara Braun Museum. We walked about a mile to see one of the most unique  City Cemeteries in South America. What a surprise to see huge family mosolieums from generations of families who had settled in the area.

With the wind blowing and the cold temperature all day, we had a good little walk back to the port and then took the tender back to the ship. Our warm cabin felt really good. The ship pulled anchor at 6:30 and headed out of the Straits of Magellan for the Amelia Glacier. We had dinner in our cabin and watched the movie, "Phillamena"... a good little true story.

                It was so cold and windy, that we were really glad to get back to the ship!
 

Ushuaia, Argentina

Thursday, March 13, 2014 Ushuaia, Argentina
This morning Larry was up and showered by 6:30! He was rip raring to go to Tierra del Fuego...a place he has been reading and talking about for years. We went up to the Horizon Dining room to have breakfast and had an amazing seat next to the window that faced the town of Ushuaia...OH MY GOSH!! WHAT A VIEW!

                                   It was so early that the little lights were twinkling in the dark!

A little town nestled into tall snow capped mountains. We were told later during the day that the snow had just come the night before so we were so lucky to get to see the mountains freshly snow capped. This was the end of their summer. The highest temperature ever recorded here was 72 degrees F. It was 49 today.

                                                   What a view across the Beagle Channel!

We walked into the neatly kept town from the dock passing the Lord Nelson tall sailing ship from England...Nelson was the admiral we learned about back in Antigua...his name is still getting about!

 

                                            Local officer greeted us through the port area.

                                            View of the mountains just out of the dock area.


We passed several shops and then found a driver who spoke some English. We hired him to take us to the National Park...Tierra del Fuego which means Land of Fire...an archipelago located at the southern most tip of South America with part belonging to Argentina and the other to Chile. The explorer Magellan gave this name to the land back in the 16th century because the natives had numerous fires set about the area to keep themselves warm. The natives wore very little clothing...How did they stand the cold temps? They spread animal fat all over their bodies and huddled close together near the fires. Still sounds awful chilly to me.


Our driver, Edwardo, took us on a little tour of the city showing us the airport, the casino, the main shopping street, the southern most golf course and up to the famous little railway station that took tours up through the park.

                                 Can you imagine playing golf with this gorgeous mountain view?

                                                        Train Station to the Park


We had numerous Kodak moments as we went from a paved road to a dirt road traveling the Pan American Highway to the end of the world through the national park. Gorgeous vistas of Beagle Channel....standing in Argentina and seeing the snow covered mountains in Chile and Redonda Island. STUNNING!

                                 Sitting in Argentina looking at Chile snowcapped mountains.

                                             Single lane bridges in the park....in our taxi.

 

We enjoyed seeing the towering Andes Mountains that had been carved out by glaciers! We watched two Fuegan Red Foxes on different occasions. They were large with enormous thick tails.

We spotted a hawk sitting high up on a dead branch of tree......... and wild horses. 

 

We hiked the Hito Trail taking pictures of the Roca Lake and then went to Arias Port to see views of the Lapataia Bay, the last stop of the 12,000 miles across two continents on the Pan American Highway. For about three hours Edwardo took us to numerous photo spots with fabulous scenery before taking us back to the city. He charged us $50.00 each for the private tour...a bargain. The ship excursion would have cost $129.00 each on a bus with 50 other people. Were we fortunate to find Edwardo? Yes indeed! He even gave us some free Spanish lessons.

We walked around Ushuaia visiting a few shops and seeing the local park that saluted heroes from the past. We also walked through a display of large outdoor photos that told the story of the Falkland Islands War of 1982.

 

Interestingly, we passed a large sign on the dock claiming that the English had illegally taken the islands from Argentina back in the 17th century. Both sides still have very heated feelings about the ownership of the "Falklands" as the English call it and "Malvinas" as the Argentinians call it.

The morning was foggy and misty rain from time to time, but the sun came out about 1:00 and we enjoyed the warmth of it shining on our faces. We boarded the ship at 3:30....a long line indicated that everyone did not want to leave so soon.

                                                      Our ship from the causeway in town.

Larry and I went on the back of the ship to enjoy the ship disembarking in all this fabulous scenery surrounding us. It was SPECTACULAR ...But breezy!

Around 5:00PM we decided to go up to the Skywalker Lounge on the 18th floor on the back of the ship to warm up and continue watching the stupendous views of the mountains as the ship passed. We were very fortunate to stake out two seats facing the starboard side where we had dinner and watched for icebergs. OH MY! Frozen masses of ice. Some were really deep blue. We spotted several small icebergs floating in the Beagle Channel.

We watched for them until it was almost dark. The days are longer here because it did not get dark until 9:00pm. WHAT A TREMENDOUS DAY! We both had big smiles on our faces and lots of good memories about being in the southern most part of South America!

 

The sun is sinking on yet another fantastic day!

One day at Sea...Southern Atlantic Ocean

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 One Day at Sea

Although it was a bumpy day at sea, it was great! Because we chose to have a cabin in the middle of the ship, the rolling of the sea did not effect us as much. The winds reached a brisk 50 miles per hour. The outside decks were closed off to passengers. Guess they didn't want to have some of the passengers blow away.


We had breakfast in a different dining room down on the 5th floor mid-ship....less rock and roll there. Lunch was on the 7th floor in the pub and dinner was in our cozy little cabin. We avoided going to the 15th floor where the rocking and rolling was quite noticeable. The temps were very cold....in the 30's...everyone wore sweaters and jackets about the ship.

We enjoyed a talk about icebergs both in the Artic and Antarctica.

The captain announced at 2:00 in the afternoon that we were not going to making it to Cape Horn....an island that is the most southern point of South America. The ship could not go the faster speed needed with the winds blowing and the swells so high. Oh well...maybe some other time. The captain was disappointed as well...he said he had never been around Cape Horn and had been looking forward to it....so we were not the only ones that were disappointed.

             View from the ship's library window...snow covered mountains in Beagle Bay.



We watched a cute movie called "Return to Belle Island" with Morgan Freeman before hitting the sack. Life is GOOD!

Stanley, Falkland Islands

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Stanley, Falkland Islands
After breakfast in our room, we went to the Michelangelo Dining Room to get tickets to board one of the six morning tender boats. 

                                                            Dining Room Painting
After a half hour tender boat ride across the Stanley Harbor, we docked at the Capital of the Falkland Islands, Stanley....population close to 3000....4000 for all the 200 Falkland Islands. They say that there are more penguins in Stanley than people and I am sure that if everyone from our ship went ashore...the population doubled for the day!

                                                  Enjoying the Tender Boat Ride!

 

During the 16th century, French, Spanish, and Portuguese explored the area with a French sailor charting the islands in 1529. The British came here at the end of the 18th century then abandoned the area until it became the Royal Navy Station for Britain during World War I and II. The main occupations on the islands are farming, fishing, and now oil....after being found during the past few years.

Most notable in their history was the War of Falkland Island in 1982 with Argentina. The result of the war was that the British maintained control over the islands causing Argentina to change their dictatorship type government to a democracy. Recently, there has been more dispute over the islands with Argentina due to the discovery of oil. Falklanders are proud of their British heritage.

Kids in out lying areas attend school by radio. A teacher will visit them for two weeks each year. Interesting that the Falkland children finish high school here, but attend college in Great Britain. 95% of the those students return back to the Falklands to live.

Larry and I walked the whole length of the harbor in about half an hour. We passed numerous spots of interest:

                                                    Edge of the Stanley Harbor


                                     Jubille Villas...typical English Cottages built in 1860

Christ Church Cathedral....a mass of brick and stone with wonderful stain glass windows built in 1892, the most southern cathedral in the world.

The Whale Bone Arch...made from two Jaws Bones of two Blue Whales...largest animal on earth.

                                                               Whale Bone Arch

                                                     Red British Telephone Booths

Liberation Memorial....1982 Falkland War Memorial

World War I Memorial

                                                          Royal Marines Monument

                                                         Government House                                      

                                                                     Church of St. Mary

The Jhelum...a 18th century ship from Liverpool that was damaged while going around Cape Horn was pulled into the Stanley harbor to rest.

                                                                  The Jhelum

There are very few trees on the Falklands. People have tried to plant them but the soil (very peat like) is not able to anchor the trees well enough against the wind. These are the only trees that we saw on the whole island...they were  a shield next to the Government House where a gardener took care of them until they were fully established.

While I looked around a couple of the shops, Larry found a local gentleman who took us on a trip out of town to see....The PENGUINS! YEAH! We boarded his 4 Wheel Drive Mitsubishi...most Falklanders all have 4 wheel drive automobiles because most roads are not paved.

                                                           Our driver and Larry

We headed about 30 minutes out of town. He took a left turn onto a rough gravel road going about 5 minutes and then took another left after opening a fence gate up and over the marshy bog we went. We were thrown up, down, here, there...about another 15 minute jostle until we reached the place called Sand Beach.

There they were....PENGUINS! Some were up amongst the rocks. Some were frolicking on the edge of the waves that were coming in. Some were laying flat and sleeping.

Oh how I wanted to go down on the beach to get a little closer view...but we could not. There was a fence up and signs saying keep out...LAND MINES....Yes, LAND MINES left over from the Falkland War of 1982. The government is slowly dismembering them but it is quite a process. Who would want that job? Anyway we enjoyed watching these unique little critters for awhile before heading back along the rocky coast in the bog field toward town. How awesome was that!

We went into the West Store Cafe for a little lunch and some HOT tea....

Did I mention how brisk it was? The wind was a blowin' and we had several short rain showers that kept us a little damp and cold...but it didn't ruin our day. We felt lucky that the sun did shine off and on and it warmed us up from time to time....The Falklands average about 250 days of rain or snow...with little accumulation.

What breath taking scenery!

 

We boarded the tender boat with very little waiting time, looking out at the whitecaps back to the ship through the channel. Once back on the Crown Princess, decided to warm up in the sauna for a little while.

Dinner was a Barvarian Bierfest Buffet.

What an EXCELLENT day!

                                                                 Goodby Stanley!