Cruising around Cape Horn

Cape Horn:  Happily with calm seas!

Greetings from Argentina.  Thanks to your prayers and kind wishes, we made it around Cape Horn in calm seas.  We just completed our 15 day/14 night cruise from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina on Celebrity Infinity.  This is our second cruise of our trip; the first one was in the Mediterranean in September.

It has been great to stow our gear.  The food on the ship is yummy and plentiful and the evening shows have been fun.  We have been particularly impressed with Sebastian and Suzette, the aerialists who wow us with their strength and coordination.  The dancers and singers have been fun to watch too.  We even got a chance to see Juan Pablo, a pianist and his girlfriend Kachita again.  (They also entertained us on our Med cruise.)  We have also enjoyed the lectures offered by the naturalist, Graham Sunderlin and the physicist turned historian, Rod Jory. 

As with our Mediterranean cruise we have met some lovely people this trip: Patrick from Wells, Peter and Jane from Canterbury, Manijeh and Manfred from Frankfurt, Sole and Keith from Santiago, Barry and Teresa from Sydney and a host of Americans including Cassandra and Adam from Colorado, Carol and Clara from New Jersey, Loni and John and Lynn and Dan from California.

Parque Nacional Vicente Perez Rosales near Puerto Montt

Our stops have included Puerto Montt, in the Chilean Lake district, Puerto Aranas, Chile, Ushuaia, Argentina (the most Southern town in the world) and Puerto Madryn, Argentina.  We had a stop in Puento del Este, Uruguay scheduled but the port closed due to high winds.  So that gave us an extra sea day.  Our last port of call before Buenos Aires was Montevideo, Uruguay.

We have seen penguins, guanacos (similar to llamas), flamingos, condors, albatross, sea lions and lots of stray dogs.  

Although the Chilean fjords were a disappointment, Mark was completely taken with Glacier Alley.  We expected to see fjords like those in New Zealand or Norway but instead the Chilean fjords looked more like islands.  The area is pretty but it lacks the awe of the sheer fjords we expected. On the other hand, Glacier Alley was spectacular.  Mark finally showed his latent photography talent by taking over 70 pictures of the glaciers as we passed by them at dusk and at dawn. 

Glacier Alley in the evening 

Glacier Alley the following morning

The lakes region is lovely and I hope to return there after we visit Peru and Ecuador.  

Osorno Volcano near Puerto Montt

Exploring the bog and visiting the waterfall near Ushuaia

We were very fortunate during our stay in Patagonia.  Even though we visited during the summer, we were wearing jeans, long sleeved shirts and jackets.  The winds can be wicked but we had sunny days with lighter wind.  Puerto Arenas, Ushuaia, and Puerto Madryn are in this most southern region.  We walked all around Puerto Arenas, visiting a local museum and their ornate cemetery. Thanks to Peter and Jane’s generosity we took a lovely hike outside Ushuaia through a bog and up into the hills to see a glacier fed waterfall.


In Puerto Madryn we ventured to Peninsula Valdes to see sea lions basking in the sun and penguins lining the seashore while wild guanacos grazed on the side of the road.  Moreover, we learned a valuable lesson on this trip---check the taxi before taking a tour.  About 5 kms outside of Puerto Madryn, when Hector, our driver, tried to go into 5^th gear, the clutch slipped.  Hector had to crawl under the car to reattach the cable.  Along with our travel partners Cassandra and Adam, the four of us were able to complete the rest of the 100 km trip but we never went back into 5^th gear. 

Sea Lions sunning at Peninsula Valdez

Magellan penguins--we didn't actually see them
this close but if we had, this is how they look.

Of all the port calls, I think my favorite one has been Montevideo.  It reminds me of a movie set.  It is elegant, modern and camp.  While the main streets boast Gucci and trendy shops, a few blocks away, the streets are litter strewn and unkempt.  Montevideo seems to be in a charming time warp.  

The Gaucho Museum in Montevideo

Montevideo fountain

We spent nearly two days in Buenos Aires but I really don’t have much of a sense of the town.  On our first day with Cassandra and Adam, we took a 3-hour walking tour around the Montserrat area with our tour guide Oliver and then walked via Florida Street back to the ship.  Yesterday, our priority was to get a locker at the bus station so we could leave our luggage since we departed the ship at 10:00AM and didn’t board the Iguasu bus until 7PM.  We had scoped out the bus station the day before, and found large lockers that would accommodate our backpacks.  However, yesterday although large lockers were available, the coins necessary to close the lockers were not.  Happily Mark was able to shove each of our backpacks into a smaller but deep locker.  This is why traveling with less is definitely the way to go! 

Buenos Aires street

Once sorted, we spent the day exploring the San Telmo street market, and the Montserrat area Oliver had introduced us to yesterday.  We visited the oldest building in Buenos Aires that had been the home and office of the Spanish viceroy and is now a museum, and the President’s office known as the Pink House. 

Dancing the Tango on Florida Street in Buenos Aires

We will return to Buenos Aires from Quito.  Hopefully we will get to see more of the city then. 

Evita 

We just arrived in Iguazu Falls on the boarder of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.  We just spent 20 hours on what was suppose to be an 18 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Iguazu.  Happily we have learned to sleep almost anywhere.  Traveling—it’s always an adventure!  Until next time.....