South America/Antarctica Photos
I selected some pictures and made a Shutterfly album. If you didn't receive an invitation to view it, let me know (suekate@bellsouth.net) and I'll send you one.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Homeward Bound, 1/31/16
My good intentions were to write this final posting on the plane trip home. Instead I had a glass of wine and fell asleep watching a movie. So this is a week or so after the fact...
We left the ship at 8 am Sunday morning with our passports, Chilean visas and affidavits swearing we were not bringing fresh produce or meats ashore firmly in hand. A quick trip through an old and creepy terminal where we handed over our visas and affidavits and we set off to tour Valapraiso and some of the wine country en route to the airport in Santiago.
The port side areas of Valparaiso have been devastated by various earthquakes and tidal waves over the years so most of that area is new while the people live in the surrounding hills. It's like a seedy, trash and graffiti covered San Francisco with hovels next door to mansions. Zoning appears to be a non-issue here and pretty much every where else in South America.
It was a long day driving to Santiago by way of a lovely, lively beach resort just above Valparaiso and a ranch maybe 30 miles inland. There we were greeted with Pisco Sours and empanadas (Jim's favorite food discovery of the trip) before we watched the cowboys maneuver their horses then had a delicious lunch featuring more of the fabulous grass-fed beef.
The good news: Our luggage had been taken from the ship the night before with assurances that it would be at the Santiago airport when we arrived and, miracle of miracles, it was! The bad news: we were there at 4:45 pm only to learn that the Delta agents wouldn't begin checking us in until 6:45. Oh, well, made the wait shorter for our 9:45 pm flight.
The best news: we touched down at the ATL at 6 am and walked through our front door at 7:30 am.
It was a wonderful trip with so many special memories. I'm going to make a Shutterfly album of pictures in the next few days. I'll put up one more blog post with that info.
Thanks for following me.
My good intentions were to write this final posting on the plane trip home. Instead I had a glass of wine and fell asleep watching a movie. So this is a week or so after the fact...
We left the ship at 8 am Sunday morning with our passports, Chilean visas and affidavits swearing we were not bringing fresh produce or meats ashore firmly in hand. A quick trip through an old and creepy terminal where we handed over our visas and affidavits and we set off to tour Valapraiso and some of the wine country en route to the airport in Santiago.
The port side areas of Valparaiso have been devastated by various earthquakes and tidal waves over the years so most of that area is new while the people live in the surrounding hills. It's like a seedy, trash and graffiti covered San Francisco with hovels next door to mansions. Zoning appears to be a non-issue here and pretty much every where else in South America.
It was a long day driving to Santiago by way of a lovely, lively beach resort just above Valparaiso and a ranch maybe 30 miles inland. There we were greeted with Pisco Sours and empanadas (Jim's favorite food discovery of the trip) before we watched the cowboys maneuver their horses then had a delicious lunch featuring more of the fabulous grass-fed beef.
The good news: Our luggage had been taken from the ship the night before with assurances that it would be at the Santiago airport when we arrived and, miracle of miracles, it was! The bad news: we were there at 4:45 pm only to learn that the Delta agents wouldn't begin checking us in until 6:45. Oh, well, made the wait shorter for our 9:45 pm flight.
The best news: we touched down at the ATL at 6 am and walked through our front door at 7:30 am.
It was a wonderful trip with so many special memories. I'm going to make a Shutterfly album of pictures in the next few days. I'll put up one more blog post with that info.
Thanks for following me.
At sea, the last day, 1/30/16
We left Puerto Montt yesterday about 5 pm and now are steaming along at close to 20 knots to reach Valparaiso by early Sunday morning.
The last day is always a little bittersweet. It's been a wonderful trip, but by day 20 or so people are ready to head home. Well, I did learn of one passenger who's staying aboard to make the same trip, but west to east this time.
We had a couple of talks given by the expedition experts. The last was a Q & A. Lots of questions about the Ozone Hole, easily the most important discovery in Antarctica among other things. The four men agreed that it was a special trip. None had ever seen so many huge tabular icebergs and to have the weather cooperate so we were able to visit every port on the itinerary is almost unheard of.
Now we have documents certifying that we did indeed visit the Antarctic Territory, charts showing our actual route and of course, a photo with the penguin. This is the ship's photographer who drew the short stick and thus spent the morning in the penguin suit posing with the passengers. Silly but a crowd pleaser!
The packing was a struggle. Although I bought just a few (small) things I couldn't get it all in the bags I started with so had to hustle down to the ship's store and buy a collapsible HAL bag for the overflow. I was not the only one...
We left Puerto Montt yesterday about 5 pm and now are steaming along at close to 20 knots to reach Valparaiso by early Sunday morning.
The last day is always a little bittersweet. It's been a wonderful trip, but by day 20 or so people are ready to head home. Well, I did learn of one passenger who's staying aboard to make the same trip, but west to east this time.
We had a couple of talks given by the expedition experts. The last was a Q & A. Lots of questions about the Ozone Hole, easily the most important discovery in Antarctica among other things. The four men agreed that it was a special trip. None had ever seen so many huge tabular icebergs and to have the weather cooperate so we were able to visit every port on the itinerary is almost unheard of.
Now we have documents certifying that we did indeed visit the Antarctic Territory, charts showing our actual route and of course, a photo with the penguin. This is the ship's photographer who drew the short stick and thus spent the morning in the penguin suit posing with the passengers. Silly but a crowd pleaser!
The packing was a struggle. Although I bought just a few (small) things I couldn't get it all in the bags I started with so had to hustle down to the ship's store and buy a collapsible HAL bag for the overflow. I was not the only one...
Puerto Montt, Chile, 1/29/16
Puerto Montt, out last port of call before we debark in Valparaiso Sunday morning.
We discussed, researched and decided on our excursions before Christmas, so sometimes it's hard to remember what we chose and why. And so we found ourselves taking a tender to shore before 8 am (it's all a vast right wing conspiracy to get me up and at 'em every morning) and off on an eight hour tour!
With Gabriel as our trusted guide we set off to explore the Lake District of Chile. For a long, skinny country it certainly has a lot of variety. We first went to Lake Llanquihue and boarded a nice sight-seeing boat for an hour on the lake. The water is this strange milky aqua color, quite beautiful. The lake is in a national park but this being Chile there are some private homes along the shore. Gabriel indicated with a shrug of his shoulders that money changes hands and things happen. It reminded me of an uninhabited Lake Tahoe if Lake Tahoe had a soaring, snow capped volcano (Osorno) on one side! Very dramatic. At first the summit was cloaked with wispy clouds but slowly they parted. Just above the volcano was the moon. The cameras were clicking like mad.
Afterwards we went down the road to another part of the park to visit a waterfall. It sounded like a waterfall as we got closer but it was really the river spilling over a series of rocks. The water was that same gorgeous aqua color. There is river rafting downstream from the falls. We continued to drive around the lake to Puerto Varas, one of the resort towns on its shores where we had lunch at a very nice hotel. Since it's high summer there were oodles of kids swimming in the lake. That water comes from the Andes, it's gotta be brisk! A little time in the little town and then back to the ship.
Since it was a two hours drive TO the lake we figured a two hour nap FROM the lake. Gabriel said we'd spent too much money on the excursion to sleep so proceeded to talk about this and that all the way back! I must admit he was right; better to learn a bit more about the surroundings. We can sleep on the overnight flight home on Sunday.
Back on the ship we had dinner with two couples from northern Italy. One woman spoke English and her husband did, sort of. The other man understood some English but his wife neither understood or spoke it. Conversation was an adventure.
Puerto Montt, out last port of call before we debark in Valparaiso Sunday morning.
We discussed, researched and decided on our excursions before Christmas, so sometimes it's hard to remember what we chose and why. And so we found ourselves taking a tender to shore before 8 am (it's all a vast right wing conspiracy to get me up and at 'em every morning) and off on an eight hour tour!
With Gabriel as our trusted guide we set off to explore the Lake District of Chile. For a long, skinny country it certainly has a lot of variety. We first went to Lake Llanquihue and boarded a nice sight-seeing boat for an hour on the lake. The water is this strange milky aqua color, quite beautiful. The lake is in a national park but this being Chile there are some private homes along the shore. Gabriel indicated with a shrug of his shoulders that money changes hands and things happen. It reminded me of an uninhabited Lake Tahoe if Lake Tahoe had a soaring, snow capped volcano (Osorno) on one side! Very dramatic. At first the summit was cloaked with wispy clouds but slowly they parted. Just above the volcano was the moon. The cameras were clicking like mad.
Afterwards we went down the road to another part of the park to visit a waterfall. It sounded like a waterfall as we got closer but it was really the river spilling over a series of rocks. The water was that same gorgeous aqua color. There is river rafting downstream from the falls. We continued to drive around the lake to Puerto Varas, one of the resort towns on its shores where we had lunch at a very nice hotel. Since it's high summer there were oodles of kids swimming in the lake. That water comes from the Andes, it's gotta be brisk! A little time in the little town and then back to the ship.
Since it was a two hours drive TO the lake we figured a two hour nap FROM the lake. Gabriel said we'd spent too much money on the excursion to sleep so proceeded to talk about this and that all the way back! I must admit he was right; better to learn a bit more about the surroundings. We can sleep on the overnight flight home on Sunday.
Back on the ship we had dinner with two couples from northern Italy. One woman spoke English and her husband did, sort of. The other man understood some English but his wife neither understood or spoke it. Conversation was an adventure.
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