1-20 Montes Vineyard and the long drive home

We have a semi-fitful night at the Parador. It’s a little warm (no a/c) and sound carries here in the valley so I wake up a few times listening to people having a party somewhere out there in the vineyards.  Ed wakes up a few times too because of the heat, but we both finally end up sleeping soundly for a few hours.  The sun is high in the sky as we finally wake up for good. The alarm is set for 7:30 – and what do you know – but that darn Satellite alarm clock has somehow picked up a signal from an East Coast satellite and shows as being 5:05am.  We’re thinking it’s really weird it’s so light at 5am – and then we figure it out.  That stupid clock!  Honestly!  But thank heavens we wake up! we have to be at Montes Vineyard by 9:30 for our hike and we would have been so sad to miss it!

We shower and pack up our junk, then head into the little sitting area for breakfast.  It’s a spread – with local strawberries from San Pedro – right down the road – and an awesome pound cake (yeah, diet, diet, diet…..), ham, cheese, plus real brewed coffee and eggs!  Scrambled!  But they’re not scrambled like we know – they are almost soft boiled, then crushed up in a frying pan – served in this teeny little cup with a teeny little spoon.  Oh my gosh – so good! Plus Chilean English Muffins – so I guess they’d be Chilean Muffins.  Even better.  A great way to start our day and prepare us for our big hike in the vineyards.

We check out and hit the road – the tire is holding it’s air – yay! – and we head off through the valley and all the orchards and vines to Montes in the middle of the Colchagua valley.  We tell the guard at the huge wrought iron gates we are here for the “trek” and he shows us where to go. We park at the Visitor’s Center, this fabulous stone and wooden structure with “cement” ponds surrounding a wooden walkway to the mammoth wooden front door.

We wait in the lobby for a while and finally someone comes to greet us.  There is another couple there waiting as well.  The guide tells us that there is a little problem and their normal guide couldn’t make it today – so we can go now to a short nature walk in the hills – or wait 45 minutes and do the hike to the top of the mountain – which is what we all signed up to do.  We’re flexible – we’ve got time (we’re flying out at 10 pm, so 45 minutes isn’t going to affect us one way or another), but the other couple has to be out of their hotel at 12 noon and they don’t have time to wait. They are getting pretty hot under the collar about it – and don’t want to wait – but don’t want to do the “short” walk either.  

Finally we all decide to just go and do whatever so we don’t have to wait around.  Our guide, who I will call Felipe, because I can’t remember his name, escorts us out the door, and then into a little open air truck.  We start cruising thr0ugh the vineyard while he gives us a little background on the grapes.  This vineyard only grows red grapes – the white grapes are at another property nearer to the coast.  They are planting new areas with Malbec, the grape Argentina has made their top seller, and have a variety of cabernet sauvignon and carmenere as well.  There are rose bushes planted at the end of some of the vine rows – and we learn that this used to be done to detect disease, because the pestilence would attack the roses first, but now it is done only for decorative and tradition purposes. 

As Felipe is telling us thing, we are climbing higher and higher in the vineyard. There are times when I think the truck isn’t going to make it up the hills – or we’ll fall out of the back.  It’s arduous and we finally stop at a crossroads in the vineyards and pile out of the truck bed.  We start up the trail – and it becomes quite apparent that Felipe is taking us on the “hard” trek up the mountain. And he’s booking it up that trail too!  No rest for the weary here – you want the top of the hill, you’re getting the top of the hill buddy!  So, up we go. It was hard, and tiring, but so worth the climb. The views were fantastic – the vineyards stretching out below us, the hills rising gently in the foreground with the Andes and their snow peaked caps towering over everything in the background.  Fabulous!

View Full Album

On the way down, we run into a tarantula.  Lovely!  It’s big too – and hairy – and well – you all know my track record with spiders – so I am not a happy camper.  Ed keeps saying  look, look, and I'm saying get out of my way, I’m running!  Ack!  We escape that little drama and head back down the trail to our little truck waiting to take us back for the winery tour and tasting.

As it turns out, our hiking partners don’t have time (nor the desire) for the tasting, so after we get the nickel tour of the steel and oak barrels and the testing room, they head back to their hotel to check out. That leaves Felipe and us all by ourselves for the wine and cheese.  Works for us!  We spent a delightful hour talking about wine, about life in the valley – he’s lived here all his life, in his parent’s house, his wife works for another vineyard right up the road – and tons of other topics, including (of course) world and US politics.  The wine is excellent – and we can get it here at Total Wine, btw, Montes Cab. – and I’m even learning to like reds after all this!

View Full Album

Finally we bid adieu (or I should say Ciao!) to Felipe and the Montes vineyard and turn our little car toward Santiago. It’s 1pm and we’ve got tons of time, but we’d rather be in Santiago and close to the airport with time to kill than on the roads trying to figure out where we are going.

As it turns out, that was quite the prophesy.  The drive to Santiago was uneventful until we got into the city. It starts out on gorgeous country roads and ends up on big highways – complete with bizarre trucks hauling everything you can imagine – as you can see here with the onions just stacked on a flat bed!

  

But, remember the cruddy maps, the instructions from the rental car guy telling us there are tons of signs for the airport, and finally Google Maps letting us down for the very first time.  It is totally confusing in Santiago with the roads – Google gives you completely wrong directions, which, when followed, screwed us up in a bad way.  After getting lost on the highways for about 45 minutes, we finally think we are going in the right direction, but again – who’s to know? There are no signs, the map stinks, and we’re getting a little frustrated. ‘

We finally pull off onto the “local” road and search for some business or gas station where we can ask directions.  After a couple of misses, we finally find a gas station where we can fill up and get info.  But, alas, there is no electricity, what luck!, so no gas, but I get out to ask directions.  Habla Ingles?  No, never Ingles is what the attendant tells me – with a big smile.  So, I go into “gotta figure it out” mode.  My “donde esta el aeroporto internacional?” brings a map – written on a wooden board there at the pumps.  I quickly get my paper and the sweet little gas station guy draws a map and even pantomimes driving a car around an exit ramp to the road we need.  He’s fantastic – and off we go.

In actuality – we’re only about 10 Km from the stupid airport, but you’d never know it! There is one measly little sign at the exit and then we still have to guess, because the signs all but disappear until we turn off onto the actual airport road.  Phew! What a mess.

Well, at least we’re here. Now to find the rental car agency. They don’t have a booth or return section on property, so we are supposed to pull into regular parking next to the ramp for departures and our guy will be there to meet us and pick up the car. Well, we cruise around the lot a couple of times and see no one. We ask – and everyone directs us to the rental car return area – but we know for certain that isn’t right. We park and walk over to the long term lot – and still – no car rental guy. Finally, we break down and call – and well – we’re too early! They had us down for an 8pm return and it’s only 5pm – so no one is there to meet us!  Sheesh! So, we take the keys and parking ticket to the Budget counter and they keep it for us until the car guys show up.

The sum of all this mess is that we did waste a couple of hours and now only have 5 hours before our flight leaves for home!

We spend the next 5 hours eating at a restaurant in the airport (great wraps and chips!), sneaking beer of our plastic bag stash and pouring it over ice cubes, sitting in the waiting hall and drinking the rest of our soda, wine and beer before going through security, then having a last drink and spending our last Pesos at the “Last Pisco Sour”. 

Finally, they call our flight. We go through the extra security – hand searching our bags, no liquids whatsoever allowed in carryon – and crawl into our seats ready to take off for our overnight flight home.  All in all, a fantastic trip – one we’d do all over again if we could!

1-19 On our own in Chile

Today begins the last part of our adventure – driving through the wine country to Santa Cruz in the Colchagua region of Chile.  We’re up and out early so we don’t have to worry so much about traffic and can take as much time as we want to get down to Santa Cruz.  It’s another beautiful day, and we drive out into the sunshine.

On our way down south, we’ve decided to take a detour to Isla Negra – a small little town on the coast where Pablo Neruda, the famous poet,  lived.  We make it there with plenty of time to spare – and quite easily considering the only map we have of Chile isn’t very detailed.   It’s too early to go to the museum, so we stop at a restaurant on the main road to have some coffee.  They sit us down at a table outside and we ask for Cortados – the waiter thinks for a moment, then says yes and disappears inside.  After about 15 minutes I go back inside to see what’s going on!  How long can it take to make coffee?  It finally arrives, and it is more like cafe con leche than Cortado, but hey, we’ll take it. As we are paying the bill, it dawns on us that the restaurant isn’t even open yet!  They were just polite and served us anyway – so that’s why the service took so long.

Off we go to Pablo Neruda’s house. We luck out and get an English tour within 10 minutes of arriving.  The house is fantastic.  It is said to be his favorite house and we can see why!  Sitting on a promontory overlooking the ocean, it began as one room with large picture windows facing the ocean.  Neruda expanded it using his own designs to include living areas, a bedroom and his office/study area.  Neruda was a collector – and this house shows it.  The stuff in there!  In the huge 2 story open living room with loft , there are maybe 10 full size figureheads from old ships.  The room is so big, that even sitting at odd angles and hanging from walls, they don’t crowd it, but actually make it seem like there are always people there. The dining room (which was the original room of the house) has a large round table with more figureheads on the walls and tons of glass vases, blues vases facing the ocean, orange/tan color vases facing the land, and many other collectibles.  Also in the pantry here are the numerous sets of dishes and glassware that he collected. 

Next up is the bedroom, on the second floor overlooking the ocean. You can feel the strength and fury of the waves hitting the rocks and the beach to the south of the house.  A huge plate glass window faces the water and the bed is positioned to take advantage of the view.  It is said that it is here that Neruda wanted to be in his final moments, but unfortunately he became so ill that his wife took him into the city to a hospital in his final days and hours.

The last area of the house if Neruda’s study – which was the last wing of the house he added. It mimics the shape of two train cars – with curved ceiling and “trailer” like length and width.  His desk looks out onto the water, and you can imagine how this could enhance his literary prowess.  The centerpiece of these rooms is an incredible stone and marble impressionist fireplace.  I can’t even describe this piece of artwork (and there were no pictures allowed, so I can’t even show you) – but it was stunning, breathtaking, an amazing structure with all sorts of different stones pieced together into a totally harmonious masterpiece.  Just incredible!

After exploring the study, with Neruda’s immense collection of pipes, Hindu carvings, ships in bottles and seashells, we were released into the fresh morning air to explore the grounds and the final resting place of Neruda and his 3rd (and final – as the guide kept telling us!) wife, Mathilde.  Here, of course, we are allowed photos – so we snapped a few to try to capture the view, the wonder, the fury of the ocean and the general feeling of the place.

View Full Album

Back to the car we go – only to find a little parking “ticket” on the windshield.  400 pesos per 1/2 hour – so 800 pesos later and we’re on our way to Santa Cruz.  We head in the direction of San Antonio where we hope to have lunch.  After some confusing signage, we find ourselves in San Antonio – a really busy, bustling port city.  There is mall and a casino – and around the mall – there are more taxi cabs than we have ever seen in our lives!  We have no idea what they are doing – but it’s crazy – the traffic if stop and go and so clogged, that we ditch the idea of lunch here – and move on toward Santa Cruz.

We drive for miles and miles through San Antonio – and it’s all port! Every time we look to the west, all we see is the port.  Wow – probably great seafood around here – but we’re not in the mood to try to stop and figure it out. So we head on down south and then East into to wine region and the Colchagua valley. 

We made one wrong turn when we lost the Santa Cruz sign, but righted ourselves after about 5 minutes.  We end up arriving in Santa Cruz right around 2 – which is when our room should be ready. We come into town from the opposite direction of where we think we should be – so we miss the turn off for the hotel and hit the 2 speed bumps in front of the university hard.  A quick U-turn gets us back to the right road and down through the vineyards to the Parador de la Vina.

What a find!  This adobe house out in the middle of the vineyards – literally – with 6 rooms and tons of little sitting areas, windows and doors – plus a pool right at the edge of the vineyard.  Wow!  We check in – all in Spanish btw – no one here speaks English much at all.  We are in room #5 with 2 beds pushed together to make one – a great bathroom and walk in closet area with mini bar (and complimentary coke, coke light, water and wine!!!) – plus windows looking right out onto the vineyard.  We dump our bags, get a little organized and head out to explore the town of Santa Cruz and get some lunch.

View Full Album

As we are leaving we ask about a Peruvian restaurant we saw very close to the hotel.  The gal at reception calls them, and makes reservations for 8pm.  Yay!  And we’re still not speaking English!

Off we go to explore, as we are on the main road looking for the Peruvian restaurant, we forget about those darn speed bumps and hit them full speed again.  Ouch!  Finally, we get into town and park on the main street.  We ascertain that we don’t have to pay for parking until we leave (again, no English) and we go off in search of a bank and food.

We find the bank, but get a little hung up on the food. It’s a little late for lunch and there doesn’t appear to be much open. We end up on the same street as the car – and lo and behold – we have a flat!  Ed had suspected this when we hit the last speed bump – but was hoping he was wrong.  Nope.  Bummer!  This is going to be fun.

Well, we’re starving so we end up at a nice little restaurant where they put us upstairs at a nice table, but all we want are snacks, so we go back downstairs and really weird everyone out by sitting at the bar and asking for beer, wine and “snacks”.  It’s not going very well – no empanadas (come on!  That’s just so disappointing), but we end up with Papas Fritas (yes, french fries – oh are we going to diet when we get home!) which are extremely good and do the trick. But it’s totally apparent that you don’t eat at the bar here in Chile. You drink. Several men come up and order drinks and then leave, but no food.  Well, those crazy Americans, what can you do?

The waiter is really friendly though, so as we sit there, I decide to ask him about a service station for the tire.  It took a while – a couple of missteps with service station and gas – but we ended up getting there – and it turns out the station is only a few blocks away.  We pay our little parking guy (they are all so official looking with their orange vests and little tickets – although the Isla Negra guy had an electronic ticket machine – not so here in Santa Cruz), and head off to the gas station on our little flat tire (praying the whole way it’s just a slow leak and not a total blow out).  The gas station attendant (it’s all full service here – no self serve anywhere) figures out our horrible pronunciation of “aire” when we point to the tire – and fills up both front tires.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

We’re pretty beat by this point, and it’s getting really hot, so we head back to the Parador to do a little work and relax.  We have internet access there – so we do a few things – then head out to the pool.  What a fantastic 2nd to last day!  Cooling off in the pool next to the vineyards (and we mean cool – it’s not heated and it’s COLD in that water!), then drying off and relaxing under the huge draping limbs of the monstrous tree off the veranda. We spend the next 4 hours, reading, napping, blogging and playing with our new best friend who follows us all over the yard – including to the pool for a drink!

View Full Album

After a quick shower, we head up the narrow lane lined with vines to La Casita Barreales, the Peruvian restaurant up the road.  We are, of course, the first people in the restaurant – even at 8pm!  We’re escorted to a cute table inside a small dining area divided by adobe walls, and adorned with Peruvian looking artwork. Everything is in Spanish – no English – so of course we order drinks first (that’s easy!) and they come with corn nuts – fresh corn nuts.  Oh – yeah – we’ll just stay here and drink and eat those little delights!

Eventually we have to make our way through the menu ordering Pulpo con Moztardo (octopus in mustard sauce) to share, and for dinner, I had Fondo de Alcachofo y Camarones (cheese gratin of artichokes with shrimp) and Ed had some sort of fish (that we can’t remember now!!).  Unfortunately,   there was apparently something wrong with the Fondo, because our waiter came back and was trying to tell us something about the artichokes and that maybe they didn’t have it or something?  Not entirely sure, but he brought the menu back and pointed at the artichokes with crab – and so after a few minutes of bad Spanish translations, I finally said “Si, Bueno”.  Whatever!  It’s food, I’ll eat it.

Well, whatever happened, and whatever was said, we’ll never know, because I got artichokes with shrimp and some sort of awesome cheesy seafood sauce.  To die for – I was a happy camper.  Ed’s meal was really great too – at least we remember he liked it – even if we can’t remember what it was! We asked the waiter to take our picture, and he made this big production of focusing and moving the camera around to get the best shot. And then, well, you can see for yourself…….think he needs to stick to his day/night job of waiting tables!

So, our last night in Chile has come to an end. We can’t believe it’s over so quickly as we head back to our cute little room in the cute little adobe house in the middle of the vineyard.

1-18 Reunion with Ada and Renato

Monday morning dawns a bit overcast and cool, but we don’t really care. We’re more interested in reuniting with Ada and Renato then sitting on the beach. We meet in the hotel lobby at 9:30 – with hugs & kisses all around – then head off to our little
Suzuki to tour the coast around Vina.

Ed, the #2 driver (yes, Sigis, you are still the #1 driver in todo mundo!!!!), takes over with Renato as our guide and we head off North to explore the coastline of Chile.  We work our way through Vina, and thankfully the traffic is light -  and we make it out of town in no time.

We head North with our ultimate goal being Zapillar – an old money town of gorgeous homes along the coast.  First, however, we cruise through Vina – down the main avenue – Libertad – past the shops, the restaurants, and the mall, as well as the high rise condominiums at the end of the town limits.

Next up is Renaca, where Ada and Renato have their apartment.  A bit down the coast, it is a lovely enclave with restaurants and shopping right on the main shore drive, and a fabulous funicular ride up to get to their apartment facing the beach.  Their cousins are there visiting, and we’re so early, they are still sleeping, so we can’t visit, but we still went up to the public areas, the pools, the exercise rooms, the cafe, and wandered around completely in awe of the view and the atmosphere!

View Full Album

Next up, we drive through Con Con, another resort area north of Vina. A very pretty community all built into the side of the massive hills facing the water.

Then we head off through the forest to Horcone – an old hippie enclave that is the cutest little fishing village. One road – straight down to the water – where you park and “pay” guys to to watch your car.  There is a little Catholic church here where the statue of the Virgin Mary purportedly cried (and as you can  imagine, caused quite the stir!).  Now the church is only open if you go and knock and ask to come in.  We’re happy bypassing it to wander down to the water where all the fishermen are hanging around selling the fresh fish and shellfish they have caught.  At night, when the boats come in around 5 pm, the tide is so low that they have horses pull the boats ashore.  How cool!

View Full Album

Obviously, we’ll miss that spectacle, but simply walking around the cute little village is quite enough for us!  As we continue on our northward journey, we come into Maicenello, a wonderful family beach with thatched roof houses you can rent.  We stop at a little area with vendors – fresh fish like you’ve never seen! – and walk out onto this ricketedy walkway to a huge rock over looking the water. Renato (probably wisely) doesn’t join us! But Ada and Ed and I bravely forge our way out to the rock for the incredible views.

Onward we drive – to the northernmost point of our tour – Zapallar.  On the way, it is truly amazing how the scenery changes from beach front to rolling hills and valleys to forests and then to urban/commercial zones.  In three hours we have seen virtually every type of habitat and flora and fauna, changing constantly and incredibly right before our eyes.

Zapallar is a beautiful enclave filled with amazing homes (almost mansions) and towering trees all perched on the hillsides sloping down to the water.  We stop at a little restaurant right on the bay and have Cortado – the  Chilean version of Cappuccino.  How gorgeous is this – sitting by the water, in hand hewn wooden chairs drinking Cortado under umbrellas to keep us cool in the shade with our friends.  Can’t beat this!

View Full Album

Our tour guide, Renato,  tells us it’s time to go – no more rest!  So back down South we head for lunch.  We have a choice of two restaurants – one that can be very busy. and another, Punta del Este with excellent food, but not as good atmosphere. As it turns out, we’re too late for the atmosphere restaurant ( a 45 minute wait), so we settle in at Punta del Este and have fabulous snacks of empanadas (shrimp with cheese, and marisco), chorillos con parmesan (mussels with parmesan for Ed – looked like a soup with 3 dozen large mussels swimming around), ostienses con ajillo for me (scallops – with the red muscle still attached – and garlic butter) and mixed mariscos with papa fritas for Ada and Renato.  Fabulous meal – and so inexpensive!  We’re all quite satiated by the time we’re done – and they give us an apertif on the house – menta (chilled mint apertif) and manzanillo for the guys (an apple type liquer) – excellent!  We’re happy and relaxed on our way home to Vina.

We get to seista until 7, when Ada and Renato come to pick us up for drinks with Ricardo and Alfredo – whom we met on the Constellation Baltic trip as well. They have an apartment here in Vina and stay here the entire summer season. The apartment is adorable – with a lovely little balcony overlooking the tree lined street.  We’re greeted with many hugs and kisses and are shown out to the balcony where we catch up over Pisco Sours and fabulous snacks.  Ada had told Ricardo and Alfredo no food – we weren’t there for dinner, just drinks, so their version of no food was little canapés of shrimp, smoked salmon and anchovies, followed by some sort of artichoke puree in a teeny tartlet crust, then a mushroom quiche.  No food! 

We stayed on the balcony eating, drinking and talking well into the evening. We finally took our leave, promising to stay in touch and hopefully see everyone again soon.  Renato squired us back to our hotel and we said goodbye for one final time.  Talk about a totally delightful day and night! 

Pictures #5

1-14 Chacabuco – Puerto Ayslen and Coyhaquie

View Full Album

1-15 Puerto Montt – the lake district and volcanoes

View Full Album

1-17 Valpo and Vina del Mar

View Full Album

Pictures #4

More pix!!!

1-10 Ushuaia – The end of the world

View Full Album

 

1-10 Cruising the Beagle Channel – Glaciers galore!

View Full Album

 

1-12 Cruising the Chilean Fjords

1-17 Vina del Mar and Valpo

Our first day ashore!  Debarkation was, well, quite frankly a nightmare. They were running at least 1/2 hour behind due to the fact that we were docked so far from the port terminal it took 10 minutes on a bus to get there.  There were only 3 buses to start with – a fourth was added later – so you do the math. We actually snuck out with another luggage tag color just to get off the ship and get our car on time!

Once out of the terminal (where we had to lay our bags on the floor for the dogs to check them), we found out luggage easily (out in the parking lot, mind you!) and then found our rental car. The Rental guys were great – very helpful and friendly and we were on our way in no time at all.  No maps (they had run out – horrors!  Cathy without a map!), but it was easy to find Vina and our hotel. the rental guys gave us great instructions - and truly – it was only one turn.

We parked the car for free (yea!  free parking!  unheard of!) and checked into the hotel.  That took forever! It was sort of funny, but not really.  It’s too early for rooms yet, so we store our bags and go off to explore Vina.  Being election day, NOTHING is open – and we mean nothing.  An occasional panateria or mini-market – but beyond that – it’s deadsville. In Chile, if you are registered to vote, you must vote or incur a large fine.  And you must vote where you originally registered.  So, like our friends here, if you registered in Santiago, but live in Vina, you must go back to Santiago to vote.  The government has a rule that all businesses must be closed until at least 2:00pm in order for their employees to have time to vote. Thus…..the deadsville comment!

However, Vina is quite a pretty town – even with everything closed.  A great promenade all along the water –where the Pacific Ocean just pounds the shore – and tons of little streets and cafes and shops (of course all closed).  There is also an awesome park – Parque Vargara – where we walked all through the forest and then explored the huge amphitheatre.  There is a festival here in February that is supposed to be incredible.  As we are leaving the park, who should be coming but Bob and Kim and 2 other Cruise Critic folks.    Wow! who would have thought that! We say hi, talk a bit and let them get on their way. They are staying in Santiago, but have booked this tour of Vina on the way to their hotel.

We wandered around a bit – and found a neat looking restaurant – Cap Ducal – right on the water.  Thought that might be good for dinner. so put that in the back  of our minds.  Got back to the hotel – tried to check in – oh my gosh – talk about nightmare.  It just takes so long for them to do anything. The paper work is astonishing!  It’s a a hotel – it’s checking inn- we’re not closing on a house for heavens sakes!  Oy!

Finally, got our room – and went up to check it out. At the very end of the hotel – great breeze  - although noisy right on the main road. But for now – it’s fine – all the amenities, plus a mini-bar! we are so good. Got our bags, then headed off to Valpo for a walking tour. We took the metro – beautiful, new, incredibly accessible. Took us right back down to the port where the ship was docked in no time and we headed up into the hills of Valpo.

Except for the fact that it was deserted (remember, election day), it was a great walk.  The houses are all very colorful and perched right on the hilly lanes and alley that make up Valpo.  Tons of little alleyways and funiculars and stairways.  We took one funicular (100 pesos – about 20 US cents) and then walked all the way down to the main avenue by the port. Very fun for a Sunday afternoon.

We took the subte back to the hotel and had a message from Ada and Renato, who had already arrived in town. We called and scheduled our meeting for Monday – along with drinks with Alfredo and Ricardo.  We’re  very much looking forward to seeing everyone again!  Ada has also recommended Cap Ducal for dinner – so since we found it too – we figure we can’t lose.  We shower and prepare for our evening out.

We leave the hotel around fairly early – knowing we are a bit early for South American standards, but figuring we’ll be fine for dinner.  It’s really quite chilly out now – the day had been gorgeous – sunny and cool, but now in the evening – it’s a tad on the cool side.  We walk quickly to the restaurant – trying to warm up as we go.  We arrive about 7:00 to find that it doesn’t open until 8:00.  The man at reception says we should make a reservation, and we do for 8:00pm.  We have quite a bit of time to kill and try to go to the Sheraton  for a drink, but it’s too far and by the time we would have gotten there we would have had to turn around. So we hang out on the promenade and watch the water pounding into the rocks.

As we are hanging around the streets and the promenade – there are tons of cars zipping around town honking their horns and flying Chilean flags and Pinera balloons and banners.  Obviously they have called the election – and the Pinera supporters are out in force  - everywhere – all night (until about midnight) cars are driving up and down the avenues, honking their horns and showing their support for their winning candidate.

Also as we are hanging about, watching the water, a helicopter comes by and starts buzzing the beach right by the restaurant. Apparently it’s too rough to swim and they want people out of the water. Pretty interesting way to accomplish it, but hey, it’s a great photo opp!  (when we get the photos organized, you’ll see how wild it looks!).

After about 1/2 an hour, we see people going into the restaurant and being seated at probably one of the best tables in the place – looking directly out on the ocean in both directions – toward Vina and Renaca and also the castle.  The menu looks awesome – tons of seafood – words we don’t even have clue about – but we can figure out Congria (eel) and corvina (sea bass) and sopa de cebolla (onion soup), so we are fine. 

We order drinks, but no, it’s election night, so they aren’t serving alcohol until 10 pm. Well, ok, so agua naturale sin gas.  Whatever. we make our choices and close our menus and sit.  And sit.  And sit. There are a group of 10 French sitting next to us and then 4 other Spanish speaking folks come in.  Then another 4 Germans. And still we sit. No one speaks English except for the reception guy. So after about 45 minutes, I go out to him and ask if there is a problem?  No one has taken our order. He says he will check. So we sit some more.  Meanwhile, our friends from the cruise, Linda, Chris and Charlie come walking in!   Talk about a small world!

A few minutes later, our reception guy comes over to all of us who have now been sitting here for about an hour waiting patiently without so much as a bread basket, and he tells us they are running very late and will start with orders at 9:00pm.  Oh, no way!  We’ve had no lunch (remember election day), I am so hungry I’m going to cry – and there is no way I’m waiting until 9 (yeah, like I trust this guy!) to begin to order.   We get up to leave and ask how much we owe for the water we drank (because of course, we couldn’t order anything else), to their credit, they gave it to us free, and we left the place as quickly as we could.

We just headed back to the hotel – which quite frankly turned out to be an excellent choice.  I had an artichoke stuffed with tuna and caviar (incredible awesome!), Ed had mussels that he loved. For entrees, Ed had fried congria – which was incredible – and I had steak stuffed with sundried tomatoes and goat cheese.  Oh – I was in heaven. Both came with baby corns, peppers and hearts of palm.  You know what?  Excellent meal in a hotel – and are you ready?  Only $40 US  including 2 beers and wines.

We head off to bed very happy, full and satisfied!

Pictures #3

Stanley – the Falkland Islands:

View Full Album

 

Cruising Cape Horn:

View Full Album

Pictures #2

More daily pictures:

Buenos Aires – day 3 – bike tour & Tango:

View Full Album

 

Montevideo, Uruguay – Wine tour:

View Full Album

 

Puerto Madryn, Argentine – Penguins at Punto Tomba:

View Full Album

Pictures!!!

Here are some albums from each of our different ports.  A few at a time so we can load them while on the ship….trying to use up the last minutes of our internet package….

 

Iguazu – day 2 Brazil:

View Full Album

 

Buenos Aires – day 1, New Year’s Eve:

View Full Album

 

Buenos Aires – day 2, breakfast tray, walking around Recoleta and downtown:

View Full Album

1-15 Puerto Montt, Chile

Last port! Boo Hoo!  Today we have a tour with some of our new friends, and we all meet at the Java Cafe at 8:00 to try to grab a tender. They are a little more strict today with the tender lines and we can’t get down to level 3 until they are ready – but we all manage to get on the first tender (it was a little tense there for a while!) and head off to find GV Tours for our all day tour of the Puerto Montt area.

Veronica and Gail Stein (yes, Stein) are waiting for us right where they said, outside the port gates. After a little confusion about who was riding with whom, we all trooped down the street to our waiting van with Annie, Veronica and Gail’s daughter.  There are 12 of us stuffed into a fairly rickettedy van (complete with cracked windshield and jump seats that reclined when they really probably weren’t supposed to) and after the police inspect the van, ask for the papers and to see the tire iron, we’re off to see the sights. 

Annie is an absolute delight, giving us the history, the politics and the environmental background on Puerto Montt and Chile.  This is the lake district of Chile and we’re going to the largest lake in country, Lake Llanquihue.  Lake Llanquihue is surrounded by quaint little towns – a few German villages (from when the Germans settled in the area in the 1800s) - and incredible volcanoes (some of which are still active).  As we drive up the Pan American highway, the skies, which were overcast with quite chilly temperatures, begin to clear and the temps start to rise.

We arrive in Frutillar after about 40 minutes and get out to explore the little German enclave. We have coffee and an absolute awesome square of mint chocolate at a little German cafe (where we all successfully resisted the sinfully delicious looking kuchen displayed on the counter) and use the facilities. Then we all wander down to the lake to gaze across the water and take in all the great Germanic type architecture. It’s a cute little town – and a nice little pit stop on our tour.

Back in the van, which loading it with all of us is an adventure in itself, we head out to Puerto Varas, a larger German style village on the lake.  Here, we wander around for 1/2 an hour, trying to avoid the hordes of cruise tour people that are here from their tours.  It’s a beautiful day, and we can see the volcano pretty clearly now (which Annie said is quite unusual).  We look through some arts and crafts stalls, and watch a guy paint tiles with just his fingers (and they are gorgeous) then head back to the van for the drive to lunch.

Along the way, we take pictures out the windows of the Volcanoes like crazy.  Annie takes us to a spot where we can get out and take pictures – and where there is a little zip line we can try. What a blast!  I so want to do a real zip line – now even more.  It was great just flying down this little clothesline type zip line.  Too fun.  There were also llamas here, grazing all over the fields and cottages you could rent overnight.  It was a pretty fun little place.

Next stop is the restaurant for lunch, Don Salmon.  It’s an adorable open air kind of place, overlooking the lake and the Calbuco Volcano. The lunch is fine, a choice of lamb or Salmon, plus salad and dessert.  Ed and I both got the lamb, which saw was being grilled outside on a wood fired grilled as we arrived.  Everything was very tasty, including the wine and the beer!  And it was great sitting inside, with the sun shining through the huge plate glass windows looking out at the volcano.

Our next and final stop are the Petrohue waterfalls.  It’s about a 500 metre walk through the forest to get to these spectacular falls – and worth the effort.  The water is the bluest of blues (from the copper sediments in the water) and the way the water rushes over the lava rocks is incredible – made more picturesque by the fact that they are framed by the Osorno and Calbuco Volcanoes.  Not quite as grand as Iguazu, but nonetheless spectacular with their intrinsic beauty and force of rushing white water.

It’s time to return back to the ship. An hour long ride gives us all time to gaze at the scenery and nap a bit before diving into the hustle and bustle of downtown Puerto Montt.  We get the the dock about 4:45 – and all decide not to shop at the market.  Probably a wise decision since the line for the tenders is horrific.  Ed and I wander a bit looking for beer and wine.  Annie has reminded us that Sunday is National Election day, and nothing (emphasis on the “nothing”) will be open that day. It is illegal to be open during voting. So – we’re taking precautionary measures and stock up on an extra 6 pack and litre of wine for our hotel room. 

After our successful shopping excursion, we hit the tender line, where after 1/2 hour, we board our final tender back to the ship.  Only 1 sea day remains – can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly!  We’re looking forward to Chile, Vina del Mar and the vineyard tour, but we’re sad to leave our little NCL Sun home for the last 14 days.

1-14 Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

In the middle of nowhere, in Southern Chile, sits Puerto Chacabuco.  A little port town that consists of some houses, a hotel/restaurant and a Salmon processing plant. We arrive in the harbor – which is gorgeous – ringed by mountains and lush green trees/foliage with the snow-capped Andes peaks towering over us from a distance.  We’re right on schedule at 7am, and we stand in line for the tender process.  We snare the first tender after the tours go, so we’re in pretty good shape for our adventures.

It’s overcast and cold – and looks like it will stay that way all day, but we’re prepared with layers and umbrellas. Our Cruise Critic friends have all booked tours though Patricio, who is bringing cabs to take everyone up into the mountains. We missed that thread on the boards, and didn’t join them, so we decided to do the same tour on our own with public buses.  You know us….

So, off we go to the end of the port facility and wait for el Autobus. There really isn’t anything here at the port, just grimy freighters and dock workers and trucks delivery freight.  So we stand outside for a while, waiting, I asked one of the police officers about el autobus, and he said aqui.  So we waited.  It took about 5 minutes, but sure enough, here comes a little mini-bus with the sign for Aysen (our first stop before heading to Coyhaique up in the Andes).  We pay our 1000 pesos ($2 US for both of us) and hop on the bus.  It takes off and we stop and start our way up to Aysen – the original port city of the region. 

It’s a local bus, so of course it stops everywhere for everyone, but it only takes about 20 minutes to make it to the bus terminal for Coyhaique.  We go inside and buy a return trip to Coyhaique – and get our seats assigned for the trip up.  Only 5,000 pesos, which is $10 US for 2.  What a deal!  We had read that the trip takes an hour and you need to get your return bus assigned as soon as you get to Coyhaique – so armed with that info – we take off.

The timing couldn’t have been better. We got our tickets and the bus left within 5 minutes of us getting there. And we got two of the last seats on the bus too!  The drive up into the Andes to this cute little town was beautiful.  The mountain ranges are just awesome – so huge and tall with craggy cliffs and snow capped peaks – all towering over lush green pastures with cows, sheep and horses.  We followed a rushing river almost all the way up into the town – and there were an abundance of waterfalls all along the route.

This road – the camino Austral – was Pinochet’s major project. Until he focused on transportation, trying to build a united Chile, the road was nothing more than a gravelly trail.  It may still be that way south of Puerto Chacabuco. But the section we were on, while in some parts still made up of cobblestones and pavers – and still pretty bumpy – was still pretty well maintained and smooth asphalt. And that was probably a good thing as our bus driver drove like a maniac.  He took those curves like a race car driver and delighted in passing slower moving vehicles, particularly the cruise tour buses.  We’re very glad we are at the absolute back of the bus!

We arrive, unscathed, in Coyhaique after about an hour and immediately claim our seats on the 10:55 return bus.  The terminal is little more than a fenced in alley behind some buildings – so as we leave – we take pictures of the area around it so we can find our way back.  It’s easy to navigate this town though – the beautiful little central square is only a block or so from the bus terminal.  We wander down a street filled with shops and cafes – and run into some of our buddies on their tour. We stop for coffee (nescafe – they pour the boiling hot water, you sprinkle the nescafe from a carafe on the table!) and chat for a while.  The cafe is adorable, all wood, with llama fur covering the seats and backs of the chairs.  The grill is already heating up for the afternoon parilla – and it’s a nice little break to sit here with coffee and chat.

Afterward, we head off to the square to take pictures. The skies have cleared, it’s a beautiful sunny day, and temp has warmed up dramatically.  The square is beautiful, and spend a few minutes exploring the statues and taking pictures of the Andes peaks behind the buildings of town.  Later we wandered around and found a supermarket for provisions.  We also picked up some cheese, smoked sausage (salami) and nuts for the ride back. We figured we’d picnic on the bus for our lunch.

If you are into nature, this is obviously the place to stay. It seems to be the jumping off point for treks in the Andes, national parks, and to go south for ferry and ship rides through the Fjords.  It’s the biggest town around, and it even has an airport.  Perched right in the valley beneath the Andes, it is a picturesque little ramshackle “Alpine” type of town.  Very fun for our little diversion!

The time passes too quickly and we head back to the alley (yes we found it!) to board our bus.  At exactly 10:55, we leave, picking up a few people here and there along the way.  We try to take pictures out the window on our way down – and we got some decent ones – but nothing that can really capture the majesty of it all. So we stop after a while and just enjoy the scenery, while we eat our lunch.

Back in Aysen, a minibus for Chacabuco arrives within minutes (again – great timing!).  We hop on – and for some reason it is 1200 pesos – it’s a nicer bus – so we figure that is why it’s more expensive, but we’re not quite sure.  and it’s not just us – he’s charging everyone that, so, we just go with it.  We take off after a few minutes and head into the town of Ayslen.  We drive for 10 or 15 blocks, then turn right, then right again. Wait a minute, we’re heading back to the bus station. What’s up with that?  We pick up a few more people and hit the bus station again.  Ok, so there’s more people there – maybe they radioed him – but we didn’t here it.  once again – we head off through the town – even though I know we need to go over the bridge in front of us to get to Chacabuco. And once again we make the big loop back to the bus station. By now, we’re in hysterics – it’s like Ground Hog day on the bus – we’re just going to keep circling around and around never going anywhere!   We’d be getting upset if it weren’t for all the locals on the bus sitting there very calmly like this was a normal occurrence.  Finally, after the 2nd circuit we head over the bridge to Chacabuco. Guess they just want to fill up the bus before making the 15 minute drive!  Too funny!

We make it back to the ship with plenty of time – it was a really short port call – would have liked to have more time here – and board our tender to the ship.  Back aboard we spend the afternoon sitting on the aft deck, watching Chacabuco and the Andes fade into the distance as we head to our last port of Puerto Montt.

1-12 and 1-13 cruising the Strait of Magellan and misc. cruise notes

The next two days are scenic cruising through the straits and the Fjords. It’s all so beautiful – craggy mountain ranges gliding by in the mist (it’s rainy and foggy), snow capped alps peeking through the clouds, all day long, more and more incredible sights.  Everywhere we go – the Observation lounge, the atrium, the cafe, we sit near the windows and just stare all day long.  Oh, and all day long we have blessedly calm waters too. When quizzed, the crew will reluctantly tell you that last cruise around the horn was the worst they’ve ever experienced. Rough for hours at a time, everyone was sick. So, we’re very happy for the calmness.

The rough seas did take over in the middle of the night on the 13th.  Around 2 am, Ed woke up and said it was as rough as he’d every felt it. Remember, we’re on the lowest passenger level (just above the water line) and dead mid-ship – so if it’s rough in our cabin – we must have been going for a ride. I of course slept right through it!  I had, as a precaution, taken a Dramamine before I went to sleep. So that may have helped.

The morning of the 13th wasn’t bad, until noon when we came out of the Channels and got into the Pacific. Another Dramamine, and I’m good to go, but we are a rockin’ and the barf bags are strategically placed all around the ship.

So…..miscellaneous ship notes.  As we said before, this is a “starter” or “basic” cruise.  It’s good, it’s fun, but some of the things they do!  Talk about on a shoe string.  I mean, to be honest, it’s actually kind of interesting to see how they make things work without the infrastructure. As an example – they had a Carnivale night in the Atrium the other night.  They had a large screen suspended over the atrium and were showing Carnivale scenes on it. The whole set up was make shift though – the screen was suspended by rope that was attached to the banisters on deck 7.  The projector was hooked up in one of the glass elevators that they had blocked off and locked so they could run electrical cords into it and set up the projector.  It all worked great – but it’s just so funny.

Then there are all the signs around the ship. They are just color copies off a laser printer with different slogans and things.  On the doors to the promenade deck they say “go outside and do whatever” or they say “deck closed due to high winds”.  The signs to the gangway or tenders have big strips of velcro on them with arrows attached to the velcro pointing in whatever direction they need (our signs for the Treasury Road Show are way better than these!!!  At least you can’t see the velcro on ours!). 

The posters they use to advertise events have times and dates taped to them – so they can change for each cruise.  The posters are normally strategically placed on easels in the atrium – or at the entrance to the venue the day of the event.  They have also gotten into the habit of making these little 2 x 2 squares of colored paper with advertisements on them – for the wine tasting or the martini tasting – and leaving stacks of them on the bars in the Atrium.  Too funny!  But I guess you have to hand it to creative staff who make things happen on a budget!

1-10 Ushuaia – The end of the world

Docked right on time here in Ushuaia – and we hopped off the ship bright and early to go pick up our car.  Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world – perched right at the end of Patagonia and surrounded by the Martial Mountains.  It is here that Route 3 ends – the literal end of the road – and here that you can turn around and take the road all the way to Alaska some 17,000Km away. 

The city isn’t as remote as you’d think since it’s a big tourist destination with cruises sailing to Antarctica as well as tons of hiking and naturalists options.  There is also a ski area right outside of town that is accessible all year round.

We wandered our way up the main road to the car rental agency. Got a little concerned when the sign on the door didn’t have Sunday hours – but at 8:00am sharp, a truck pulled up and 2 guys got out and opened the office.  They gave us a 4wd Jeep (we ordered a compact car, but that was all they had) – and gave us this little book with an even littler map!  - and sent us on our way. 

We were off to the Tierra Del Fuego National Park to hike and take in the scenery. It’s only 11km outside of town, and we were early enough that we missed most of the bus tours going there.  And good thing!  The roads through the park are narrow and twisty and all gravel or mud. We did end up getting stuck behind one bus and having one almost hit us head on….but otherwise….we did ok with timing!  LOL

The park is just incredibly gorgeous with jungle and rain forests surrounding the roads and then stunning views of the Beagle Channel and the Lapataia Bay – where the road ends.  We took a turn off to Zaratiegui Bay and were rewarded with incredible views across the water to the mountains  on Redonda Island and across the bay in the natural reserve.  There were a couple of trails here – but also hundreds of bus people from the ship – so we took our pix and headed out in search of the Pampa Alta Trail we planned to hike.

We found the beginning of the trail in the campsite 1km up the road. But it was really wet and muddy – and we also saw on the map where we could reach the trail from Route 3 – so we decided to go find it off the road and hope for dryer conditions.  As we were searching for the trail, we looked at the map and decided to first head to the end of the road which was only about 8 miles away.

This is where the road gets windy and a little scary!  As you progress through the forest, the road switches back a couple of times with hairpin curves, plus it gets pretty narrow. Then you break out into the open at sea level and cross one of the most rickety bridges you have ever seen!  There are railroad ties stretched down the length of the bridge and it looks so unsafe we weren’t even sure we could make it in the Jeep!  Much less a full size bus. No way they are coming across here.  Ha! Right!

So we traverse the bridge over the Lapataia river and head through still narrower and windier roads – with even more spectacular scenery to be sure.  There is another bridge even ricketier than the first and we gingerly pick our way across it.  As we round a corner – what do we see in front of us?   A full size bus!  OMG – there are tons of them down here to see the end of the road.  Not that we ever like to get on buses – but we are so very glad we’re not on one now and having come across those bridges!

The end of the road was worth the journey though – looking back over the National park and the Martial Mountains (the southernmost part of the Andes), the scenery was sublime. Sparkling lake, green forested hills in the forefront with towering snow capped alps in distance.  Very much like Alaska but bigger, bolder, different!  We soaked up the scenery then briskly walked back to the car (with a quick pit stop in the restrooms/porta-potty on steroids) in order to beat the buses out of the parking lot.

Back on the road, we carefully guided ourselves back across the rickety bridges and up and around the hairpin curves (this is where the bus almost smashed us head on – and where a tour van almost backed into us at full speed!  We were following the van at a very decent distance when he saw one of his buddies going the other way.  He just stopped in the middle of the road and started backing up to talk to his buddy and never looked behind him. Ed laid on the horn and the guy finally stopped – 2 inches from our bumper.  Thank heavens we were in a jeep, but it still would not have been pretty if the van hadn’t stopped!).

After that little adrenaline rush, we stopped back at the trailhead on Route 3.  This 2.7 mile trail was supposed to have great views of Beagle Channel and Pipo Valley River and we were looking forward to the exercise.  Unfortunately, the mud did us in.  Since we don’t have exclusive hiking boots – but use our sneakers for everything – our sneakers just would not survive the muddy bog that the trail had become.  Plus it was so slippery and muddy, it was taking us forever to just get a little ways up the trail. At this pace, we’d miss the ship. So, we decided to bag the trail and head back into town to wander around.

The ride back was uneventful (fortunately), except that the car had this rubber smell coming from the rear end.  We were hoping to get back to town before it exploded or locked up or something. We did make it – all over the town as a matter of fact.  we wanted to try to find the ski lift to take us up the mountain and have lunch in a restaurant overlooking the channel and the town, but the only map we had only showed the direction in which the ski lift was – and we didn’t want to eat up valuable time searching for it. So we headed toward the Prison Museum

On the way, we found a grocery store to stock up one essentials, then found the museum without any problems.  It’s supposed to be a great museum at the end of the town, with all the cells still intact and you can look out at the view the prisoners had, etc. But the entry fee was about $12 each – and we just didn’t feel like spending that kind of money to go walk through a prison!  We figured we’d rather spend it eating and drinking – which is what we did!

We headed back to the main area of town, parked the car, then wandered the shopping district. There are tons of craft places, jewelry stores and chocolate stores – supposedly very good sweets and chocolates here.  We perused a few menus and settled on Tanta Sara, had more of a bar/pub kind of  atmosphere than the other cafeteria looking spots we had seen.  Their slogan is – Enjoy – it’s the end of the World!  How can you resist that?

As soon as we sat down – the skies opened up – so our timing was impeccable – once again. We ordered an appetizer of “picadas” – which ended up being marinated olives and eggplant, ham, salami and cheeses.  It was very good – and the beer and wine were excellent as well!  The beer – Beagle beer – is local and Ed – and Pietro – enjoyed it very much! Oh, and the bill?  It turned out to be exactly what it would have cost to go into the museum – 100 pesos (about 24 bucks).  So, in our minds at least, we made the right decision.

After our meal, we collected the car and deposited it back with the rental agency and headed back down to the ship. This afternoon we’re cruising the Beagle Channel and glacier gazing!  More later.

1-9 Cruising Cape Horn

We left Stanley and cruised for a day and a half until we got to the southern-most tip of the continent.  The weather was cold and blustery – but sunny – and the seas were not rough at all (which made me extremely happy!!!).  The day passed by quickly, as we watched the landscape flash past us – craggy mountain ranges in the distance.

We rounded Cape Horn –literally went around it (it’s an island, btw, not really the very end of the land mass continent) and saw the Albatross monument and the Chilean Naval station.  Had our picture taken by the ship’s photographer and by some new found friends who were giving us a narrative as we sailed (they had been this way before on a cruise that came down and ended in Rio on December 22– they don’t like to fly!). 

Watched as some dolphins played in the water around the ship, then headed inside to warm up and change for dinner. 

1-11 Punta Arenas Chile

Up bright and early because this is a tender port. But the weather looks awful – rain, cold, wind, overcast. We have a tour scheduled, but it’s not pre-paid and we are thinking of ditching it.  However – there is one piece of extraordinarily great news:  WE ARE CLEAN!  YAY!  The ship has been released from the Noro-precautions.  We can actually pour our own coffee!  Make our own salads!  Get our own sandwiches and desserts!  Oh yay, oh yay!  The staff is overjoyed as well – one of the girls said this had been going on for 90 days – and you could just tell the toll it has taken on all of them. Doing double duty and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. We’re so excited (silly as that sounds – it’s been a real pain with the poor staff having to get you all your food, drinks and condiments! So now, we’re back to being on our own, yay!)

After that bit of cheery news, the weather isn’t going to dampen our spirits. But we do decide to bag the excursion. It’s a boat ride to a penguin preserve that is smaller than Punta Tombo. It’s the same Magellanic penguins, and the boat ride is supposed to be really, really bumpy.  It’s raining, it’s cold, we’ve seen the penguins, so we told another couple who was on the tour to let everyone know we probably weren’t coming and not to wait for us.

We ended up hanging out aboard, waiting for the rain to stop, then wandering around the town of Punta Arenas. There are lots of little museums, a nice park/square area with craft vendors and shopping and banks and internet connection shops.  There is also a cemetery that everyone seemed to enjoy, but that we never made it to. We were content being slugs and just walking around in the sprinkling rain, catching up on our internet access and shopping at the craft stalls (finally bought some penguin earrings and little penguin statuette – the only things we’ve purchased this whole trip). 

We started getting hungry so looked around at some restaurants and settled on a traditional Chilean restaurant called Sotitos.  The sign says it’s a bar, but it’s far from what we would consider a bar.  It’s an upscale traditional restaurant with incredible food and service.  All local seafood and regional specialties.  They had a ton of entrees and appetizers with king crab – and we looked at those, but ended up ordering chicken stuffed with seafood and Conger Eel.  Yep, Conger Eel!  Ed went all out on this one.

The food was incredible. The chicken was stuffed with huge hunks of crab and celery and spinach, with a great cream sauce. The Conger eel was not anything like we expected – it was huge and grilled to perfection, slightly sweet and very light.  It was excellent.  Two beers, two wines, and an excellent afternoon with fabulous food.

The rain had stopped once we left the restaurant, we headed back to the port, stopped by the grocery store for more supplies, and then hit the tender boat just in time. Last ones on before the tender left, which means first ones off at the ship.  Good timing!

Back aboard, we hang out wasting time until we sail. This is a hugely long port stop because they have a tour that goes to Antarctica – so we’re here until 7:30. But the last tender doesn’t even come back until 7:40 – so somebody is running late. We finally leave around 8:00 after having issues getting the last tender loaded.  We had dinner reservations in the Pacific Heights restaurant – which is excellent.  Different, “light” food, no extra cost. They have a grilled chicken  salad as an appetizer that is like a main meal. We sit at a two-top right on the picture window watching Punta Arenas slip into the sunset as we sail away.

1-10 Beagle Channel Glacier Gazing

Back on board – we warm up and then get ready for the glacier viewing. Leaving Ushuaia is picturesque with the skies clearing a bit and big fluffy clouds clinging to the tops of the alps.  We wander around, check email, hit the gym, and generally waste time until the appointed Glacier time. (It was all spelled out in our Daily program, the times and the glaciers, and we’re even going to have announcements!  No! Go on!)

So, at 5:15 we bundle up again and head outside. It’s not so cold now, and we’re able to stay out there in our coats and our flip flops – as long as you stay back from the wind, you’re ok.  Just cruising the Beagle Channels was gorgeous, but the Glaciers are amazing. They are named for countries – Italy, France, and there’s even one for Romansch!  (We thought of the Rageth family with that one!!) They are all gorgeous and incredible  and distinct in their own ways.  One cascades down the Alps, meeting the water at its end.  One is very vertical and stops just short of the water.  And the Romansch was the best – it was melting right before our eyes and ended in a waterfall that poured down the rocks into the channel. 

We stayed out on deck for over an hour snapping picture after picture, enjoying the breathtaking scenery. 

Finally it was over – well the glacier gazing at least – the beauty of the channel cruising continued, but we needed to get ready for dinner, so we bid the scenery adieu for a bit, and headed inside.

1-8 Stanley, Falkland Islands

Our first tender port – and really not too terribly bad.  Line up for tickets (got there pretty early but line was still pretty long), managed to get on #3 boat, then queued up with everyone at the atrium level where staff did a good job of keeping everyone at bay and waiting for their correct tender.

We were tendered out in the bay, with a 20 minute tender ride ashore.  From our vantage point on the ship – wow!  Talk about a desolate place to be.  nothing but barren fields, rocks and mountains with a teeny, little town nestled in a harbor.  The houses had cute (from this distance) colored tin roofs – but there weren’t a lot of them (houses, that is!).  Only 2,500 people live here in the Southern most outpost of the British empire.  And only about 1800 of them in Stanley – the biggest town on the islands. 

We are ashore by about 10am – dropped into a cold and blustery wind with threatening, overcast skies.  Our original plan was to walk to Gypsy cove, about 4 miles away, to see the penguins and other wildlife. But between the weather (that wind was bitter!) and the health factor (now Ed has my cold….I feel SO BAD! And it’s his awful day today), we decide to just wander down the path a bit to the cemetery then explore the town.

Good move as it turns out (we found out later you couldn’t even get near the penguins because of the land mines still on the beach – so you needed binoculars to see anything – and heck, we’d already seen 800,000 Magellanic penguins up close – so who needed to see a few more at a distance?).  The cemetery was an interesting diversion with graves from the 1800’s and early 1900’s.  It’s a hard life here – no one lived much past 50 years of age in those days.  The newer graves at the end of the cemetery showed that the life span has been improving here – obviously with medical advances, but you’re still a long way away from anything here – so it’s still got to be a hard way to live.

We wandered back into town, and explored a couple of streets and walked up to the top of the big hill for a birds eye view of the town.  Back down at sea level, we stopped at Michele’s cafe – a little teeny house that served diner type food and awesome coffee, which was exactly what we needed to warm ourselves up after our brisk little walk.

The town is starting to fill up with cruise passengers now – up until we stopped for coffee – it was all but deserted.  No one on the streets, no one around, can’t even imagine this place in the winter when no ships come in and it’s just the locals.  (Remember, this is their summer, and it’s still cold as all and dreary!) We headed down to the main drag – Ross road – and started off toward the museum for a lesson in Falklands history (i.e., the 1982 conflict with Argentina).

We passed the whalebone arch, constructed of 2 jawbones from blue whales, the Government House, a very pretty little white house with a beautiful garden, and the 1982 Liberation Memorial, built to give tribute to the British forces who died during the conflict.  It’s about a 30 minute stroll to the little museum at the end of the town.  We wandered in, and if we weren’t so honest, could have gotten away without paying the $12 US entry fee (you just walk in, there is a counter that says Gift Shop, but no ticket window or anything – but you are supposed to pay at the counter.  If there are a lot of people milling about, you could just walk right in.)  The museum was pretty small, but with some interesting displays of how Falklanders live, now and in the early days of the settlement. 

The most interesting part, though, was the “War room”. This room had all sorts of memorabilia from the 1982 war when Argentina attacked the Falklands to try to capture it back under Argentinean rule.  What they were thinking, who knows?  Some of the propaganda was almost comical. There were letters and postcards that Argentineans were supposed to send to the Falklands people telling them how lucky they were to be saved from the British by Argentina.  How the Falklanders were always Argentinean and always would be.   And Argentina was so happy to have them back.

It was really bizarre – of course, the whole occupation lasted really only as long as it took Britain to get the troops to the Falklands.  Once there, the war itself didn’t last too long, with, of course, Britain being successful in driving the Argentineans out of the islands.  In between though, it must have been ugly.  In the newspaper we bought (the Penguin News!!!!) there was an article about court cases that are still going on today that deal with invasions and war crimes during the 1982 invasion.  That room alone was worth the price of admission for us. 

After the museum, we hit the grocery store to stock up for the sail around the Horn. Then hit a little pub, the Victory Bar, where we had a traditional English pub lunch – fish and chips, with beer and wine.  That place was adorable – reminded us so much of the bar Northern Exposure – we kept waiting for Harlan and Shelly to come walking out of the back!  After lunch, we hooked up with the local internet in the tourist center, but, as the signs said, it was very slow. Even slower than on the ship!  The only bonus was the ability to use Skype to make a couple business phone calls. Then it was just too brutally slow to handle, so we just left and joined the line to grab a tender back to the ship.

All in all, it was a great day.  It’s amazing we’re here – the Falklands!  And Stanley is a cute little, ramshackle town rising up the hill from the harbor.  The barren landscape around it is contrasted with gorgeous flowers and shrubs in town (amazing how these plants can survive in this hard climate – we know it can get warm – but mostly it’s cold and bitter so these plants must be really hardy).  The whole place reminds us very much of Alaska – maybe Kodiak or Sitka (without all the green) – especially that little pub!

Back aboard, we get some coffee, and head up top on deck, where the weather had changed into a gorgeous sunny day with a nice cool breeze.  We stayed up on deck as we sailed away and watched The Falkland Islands fade into the distance.  Tomorrow – sailing around the Horn!

1-6 Puerto Madryn – PENGUINS!

Today – another tour with our cruise critic pals. This time we are with Melanie and Jeffrey, Marianne and Norm (who have been organizing all the cruise critic events, lists, etc., thank you!!!!), Theresa and Colin and another couple (who sadly, we can’t remember their names!).

We were out and off the ship post haste, found our tour driver, loaded up and were the first ones out of the port headed to Punta Tombo – an ecological preserve for nesting Magellanic Penguins.  It is a 2 1/2 hour ride to Punt Tombo, with 1/2 hour over “bumpy” roads.  We’re not too thrilled about that – but to see 800,000 (yes, almost 1 million!) pengiuns?  We’ll handle it!

As it turned out, it was an easy ride. Sebastian, our tour guide was totally informative and interesting. He gave us tons of information about Patagonia, the penguins, their mating behaviors (they are fairly monogamous, always coming back tot he same nest and the same mate), the baby chicks, feeding patterns – you name it – he told us. We covered the paved road in no time at all – and hit the “bumpy” road which was all gravel and more noisy than bumpy.  (Although there was one time when it was more “sliding” than bumpy when we passed another vehicle and got caught in the middle of the road where there was lots of loose gravel…we all breathed a big sigh of relief over that one.) There were other groups at the park when we arrived, but not so many since we were still the first group from the ship to arrive.  So, we had a great time walking through 2 KM of paths and trails looking at all the penguins – without a bizillion people crowding around.

This place was just mind boggling.  Everywhere you looked, there were these little penguins. Waddling here, waddling there, in their little burrows, with their chicks, chicks by themselves, chicks with other chicks, chicks crying to be fed by their mommas (and watching one momma feed them).  It was absolutely amazing to see these little guys everywhere – as far as the eye could see.  When we get to post the pictures (when we get bandwidth!!!) you’ll see landscape photos with these little black specks everywhere – those are penguins! You won’t believe it. 

The ground rules are:  We’re not allowed to touch the penguins; when they want to cross the path, we have to let them go in front of us; and if we get too close and they start shaking their heads, we have to move away because that means that they are scared, and they may bite – but more important they may be too scared to continue doing whatever they are doing (like going for food or to their nest), and we don’t want to confuse them. Otherwise, just stay on the path and take pix!

The emerald blue skies are dappled with clouds, there’s a cold, stiff breeze blowing, and we are walking among thousands of penguins.  How cool is this?  There were more photo opps than you could possibly ever take advantage.  We took as many pix as we could, and then just stopped and watched.  They were swimming at the beach, sunning themselves by their nests, picking the fuzz off each of the chicks to let their adult feathers show through, or waddling around looking for their mates.  It was magical and so worth the long drive!

We headed back along the path, taking in all the penguinicity around us – and congregated at the road side bar near the entrance of the park.  The owners of the ranch who gave the property to the government for the preserve were allowed to keep the road side bar/restaurant as compensation – so they’ve made out.  We had lunch there – which consisted of 3 lamb empanadas and 2 beers for under $10.  it was a great “semi-local” way to end our Punta Tomba experience.

Back in the van, we headed toward Puerta Madryn, with a stop in the valley around Trelew (the main town in this area) to visit Gaiman – an original Welsh village. The Welsh settled here (for what reason, we don’t know – or don’t remember Sebastian telling us!) and they have a Welsh church, school and tons of little Welsh tea houses nestled in this little picturesque valley by the Chubut river.  We stretched our legs a bit in Gaiman and used the facilities at one of the cute little tea houses, then headed back along the highway to Puerto Madryn. 

What a fun day!  And it’s only the first of the penguin visiting we’ll be doing on this trip.  Can’t wait for more penguinicity!

1-4 Montevideo, Uruguay

First port – Montevideo!  We teamed up with some cruise critic pals (great group on this ship – lots of folks our age with common interests – we’ve had a great time meeting everyone at the meet and greets) who found a fabulous winery tour for us.  Alan and Barb found the tour, and we signed up for it with Kim and Bob, and Melanie and Jeffery. 

Everyone met at the appointed time and we huffed it off the ship. Had to walk out of the port to find the van, because they weren’t allowed inside, but it was an easy walk and they were right there waiting for us when we arrived. We all piled into the van, and CiCi our guide and sommelier with the vineyard introduced herself and gave us a guided tour of the city.

We drove through the commercial district of town, saw the principal government buildings, the shopping district, and the richer areas of the city out by the water.  We even drove past the president’s house, which is just a normal house!  One police car was sitting at the corner of the block and that was it.  CiCi said that they have a couple of guards there, but nothing more than that because it’s just not the kind of place where they’d want to kill or bomb the president.  Incredible!

We wound our way through the neighborhoods then finally out into the countryside to the Varela Zarranz vineyards.  It took us about an hour or more to reach the beautiful little lane lined with Olive trees that led to the vineyards.  The trees were planted over 100 years ago by the original founder of Varela Zarranz – and they have thrived in the climate and environment, as have the grape vines (but the vines are a tad bit younger than the olive trees).

The vineyard makes two different sets of wines: fine wine and mass distribution.  The fine wines are marketed under Varela Zarranz, and the mass market wines under the name VUDU (which originally stood for Viticultores Unidos Del Uruguay – the original union of winemakers, that disbanded, but the winery got the rights to keep the name).  They make hundreds of thousands of liters of mass market wine, and only a small amount of fine wine.

It’s a small, compact little winery operation with great steel vats for the mass wine, and old (1900’s era) oak barrels for the fine wine and champagne.  We walked past rows of vines, were shown through the separating and fermenting process/machinery and into the bottling side of the operation. We had an excellent explanation of how they make/ferment/cork their champagne, then back to the cellar area for lunch and wine tasting.

The cellar was a gorgeous little basement area completely constructed of old field stone with wood beamed ceilings. There were seating areas at the front of the room, then a table set for eight with a fabulous array of antipasti set out and waiting for us.  We dove into the salami and ham and olives, accompanied by great bread – rolls, pita and crunchy flat bread – and whet our whistle for the main event:  the wine tasting.

We had 3 different bottles – The first, a white is their most popular, a blend called Petit Grain Muscat.  I was worried it would be too sweet, but it wasn’t at all. Almost like a soft Sauvignon Blanc, it was incredibly good. The next 2 were red wines (only Kim and I liked whites, so we went with the group on the rest of the tastings!) – the first a Cabernet Franc – Tannat blend. Tannat is the main local grape in Uruguay – it is a very strong grape, but when blended with the other grapes, it smooths out the flavors.  This wine was actually very good, and Ed and I both enjoyed it. The last wine was the full Tannat bottle – which was a little too strong for my taste – although Ed did enjoy it. 

All this was accompanied by a traditional Uruguayan pie (almost like a dense quiche type pie) – one made of leek, one of chicken.  It was delicious – with slices of chicken piled upon one another and a delicate crust. The perfect food to wash down with wine.

We all had a fantastic time – enjoying each others company and the food and wine.  As we ate, the skies opened up and a huge storm blew in with thunder and lightening.  But we couldn’t have cared since we were happy and dry and satisfying our taste buds with the delicious offerings from Varela Zarranz.

Sadly, it was too soon time to go. We each bought wine to take back with us (at $5 US a bottle – you can not beat it!), and we got an apron as well, then we all tippsily boarded our van in the pouring rain.  After about 20 minutes of driving, CiCi got a call from the vineyard that someone had forgotten something.  Oh no!  It was our camera!  We couldn’t believe we had done that!  We were so embarrassed!  So, the van duly turned around and made the trek back to pick it up. Thank heavens they noticed it, even if it did mean red faces for us!

In the end, all worked out well, because by the time we made it back to the ship, the rain had stopped. The 20 minute delay might have actually helped us!  We all trundled back aboard, and headed to our cabins to drop our purchases before going up on deck to watch the sailaway. The skies had cleared, and the temperature was lovely as we sailed out of the Montevideo harbor and onto the open seas headed for Puerto Madryn, Argentina.