Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

February 15, 2023

Here is our wonderful casino team on Valentine’s Day!

This morning, on our way to Ushuaia, I got some great shots of the snow covered Andes mountains as we sailed in the Beagle Channel. The Channel was named for the British ship, HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy during its maiden voyage surveying Tierra del Fuego. The weather changes frequently, and during my walk around the deck, it was cold and windy, then rainy, then the blue sky would once again reappear.

Our tour today was called “End of the World Train, Tierra Del Fuego National Park.” We arrived in Ushuaia at around 11 AM and our tour didn’t start until 1:15, so we had a nice lunch before setting out. We thought we would be taking a bus to the train and returning by catamaran, but it turned out to be just the opposite for our group. There were 8 ships in this port today, since it is the gateway city to Antarctica, and this is the prime time to visit there. Our guide said 8 ships on the same day has never happened before. And it did put a strain on all of the tours. Four of the ships were expedition ships like the one we sailed on when we went to Antarctica, and 4 were like ours, just doing a sailing without touching land or exploring by zodiac. Our sister ship, Marina, was also in port.

In any case, we boarded a large catamaran and sailed in the Beagle Channel for a LONG time! The guide had a microphone but between the noise of the passenger conversations, the low volume of the microphone and her Spanish accent, we didn’t get to hear too much of her comments. We saw many rocky islands with what resembled penguins but were actually Imperial Cormorants. There were also many sea lions just lying about on the rocky islands. The boat captain spent time circling the islands so we could all get pretty good views of the wildlife. You could go outside, but I was too cold to do so. Again, the weather changes minute by minute and it was rainy a lot of the time. so my pictures aren’t that great but you get the idea.

We also saw the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse. It is still in operation, is remote controlled, automated, uninhabited and not open to the public. It guards the sea entrance to Ushuaia. Electricity is supplied by solar panels. It was put into operation in 1920.

When we got to the place where the buses were to take us to the train, there were other groups there so we had to sail around the area for quite a while. We sat with friends Shari and Rob so we had our own conversations.

When we finally got to the train, we got headsets to listen to the commentary about the history of the train. Basically it was constructed to take prisoners from Ushuaia’s prison out to the open areas of Tierra Del Fuego to work. It was a pretty brutal existance for these prisoners. They also did most of the construction of the town’s public buildings, including building their own prison! Eventually the prison was shut down by Peron because of the cruelty.

Ushuaia is known as “the end of the world” and that is the name of the train journey. We made one stop at a station in the middle of the hour long trip. And it snowed part of the way.

After the train trip, we had a 20 minute bus ride back to the ship. We had a guide named Ana who gave us more information about the area. The temperature and weather conditions are pretty much the same here all year around due to the archipelago located between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Tierra Del Fuego means “land of “fire” due to the volcanic activity here years ago. It is an island and a protected National Park. It is too cold for snakes and other amphibians and mosquitos. The main animal here is the fox, but we didn’t see any of those.

We got back at 8 PM which was the time the ship was supposed to leave (a good reason to take ship sponsored tours), so they pulled out just minutes after we got back. We were very hungry so had a quick dinner, I had a shower and we went to the show which was “Broadway” by our entertainment team singers. It was very good.

Each night, one of the Antarctica expedition team gives a short overview of what to expect the next day. We will be in the Drake Passage on the way to Antarctica and it can be very rocky. By all reports, it seems it won’t be too bad on the way there. The trip to Antarcica will take a day, then we have three days sailing in Admiralty Bay, Paradise Bay and Half Moon Bay in Antarctica and one day back in the Drake passage en route to the Falkland Islands.

February 14, 2023

Today we arrived at our last port in Chile. The days are so much longer here, it is light until after 10 PM. Here is a picture of the sunrise, just beautiful as so many of them are.

Our destination today was to the Magdalena Island and Penguin Reserve. I have been so excited to see these birds so was really looking forward to the excursion. We had a short bus ride to a different pier than the one we were docked at. We heard there would be 6 ships here today. One was the Oceania Marina.

We boarded a large catamaran which, thank goodness, had a lot of inside seating. We all got a penguin backpack with a sandwich and lots of snacks in it. The trip to the island took about 90 minutes and was pretty smooth, although we were advised that weather might be rough. Some whales were spotted but not that close to the boat.

The weather was not bad when we left the port, sunny skies but pretty cool, in the 40s. According to the guides, this is what it is like every day. When we got to the island, the winds were fierce and it rained off and on.

I was not disappointed by the penguin colony. The chicks have left the island and the adults are molting, they were mostly just standing around and walking slowly. Of course, I got MANY pictures and Norm got some good ones too so I will share some of them. These penguins all leave the island in March – they go to north of Peru on the Pacific side and just north of Brazil on the Atlantic side. They return in September. We hiked up to the lighthouse and observed many sea birds along the way. Our guides seemed like very young people but they were well informed. During the trip to the island, they came around to every group with maps and explanations of what we were going to see as well as the rules of the island regarding the penguins. We had to stay on the path and not approach the penguins. None came up to us. When we were in Antarctica, they came right up to us and seemed curious.

We were also fortunate to see an upland goose.

When we had spent an hour on the island, we were ready to board the catamaran for the trip back. Good thing, we were very cold and wet but we enjoyed the trip so much. When we returned to the pier it was hailing, and I guess that is all in a day’s weather here in southern Chile.

We will see many types of penguins in the next few days. These were the Magellanic penguins. So you will see lots more penguin pictures. I love the little fellows.

Tomorrow we have our first port in Argentina, Ushuaia.

February 8, 2023

In my post yesterday, I said we were going to be in port in San Antonio Chile and headed on a tour in Santiago.  I realized this morning that our tour was near San Antonio  and we were not going to Santiago after all. The tour was called “Wine and Poets” and our tour guide was Sebastian (the dog was just paying attention).  Thanks again to Erin Erkun for arranging the tour – It was a great day.

We drove through the town of San Antonio, and as always, our guide gave us some information about the area and the country. Some of it, we have heard before, but I always learn something new.  As I have mentioned, Chile is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountain range which runs pretty much the whole length of the country.  This area does get rain between May and July, but much less than they used to get, so water is always a problem.

We were a small group of 11.  Our first stop was the amazing residence of Pablo Neruda who was one of the original and most prolific poets to write in Spanish in the 20th century.  I have to admit that I didn’t know much about him before this visit. He won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He also occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When the Chilean President outlawed Communism in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda’s arrest.  He escaped and would not return to Chile for more than 3 years.

The house and surrounding sea and land are really a work of art.  The house is in sections designed to be sort of like a series of train cars.  He was a lover of trains.  We were not allowed to take pictures in the house itself.  We had audio guides for the tour in English and that was very helpful to understand his many collections – bottles, shells, ship mastheads and other nautical artifacts.  Too many to list but all very fascinating.

Here are some photos of the rocky beach, the outside of the home and some of the outdoor art.  He was also fond of fish and there are many representations to be seen here.

Here are some photos of us with friends who went on the tour with us.

After our visit, we went for the wine part of the tour.  What a surprise to see two of our talented entertainment team, Robbie and Casey,  there enjoying the wine.

We enjoyed a tour of the winery, Casa Marin, and learned a lot about how it came to be and what it produces.  It would be known as a boutique winery, producing only 140,000 bottles a year.  They do export to 20 countries around the world, and in the US their distributors are in Georgia and Pennsylvania. 

There was a lot of really interesting art around the winery. 

The founder of the winery is a woman (with vision and fortitude for sure), Maria Luz Marin.  Her idea of starting a winery close to the ocean with its cool climate was laughed at by many – she was called a crazy woman, and yet she persisted!  Her vineyard is the closest to the Pacific Ocean in South America and they produce Sauvignon Blanc (which won best Sauvignon Blanc in the world twice), Sauvignon Gris, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Garnacha under three different labels.

They do not do their own bottling since they only do it about 20 days a year.  Who knew there were mobile bottling operations?  It comes to the winery for the day and bottles over 6000 bottles.

And yes, there is a vineyard dog.

After the tour we did a tasting of 5 wines – Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir,  Syrah and a Syrah blend.  Our favorite was surprisingly the Riesling. We bought 6 bottles of wine there.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a church specifically to see the painting on the outside done by Maria’s sister.

We are at sea tomorrow and Puerto Montt on Friday.  Lots more of Chile to see.