Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

Posted on February 12, 2023 by patmathews

February 11, 2023

I did not opt for the Tango lesson – I was too interested in doing my laps on the open deck and watching the mountains and changing weather conditions – simply spectacular. I am sure there will be more lesson opportunities when we are in Argentina, but this area won’t be repeated. And who was out taking pictures – our chef, Farid.

We are in Patagonia – the jumping off point for the Aysen fjords. We will spend time in the next few days cruising the fjords and I am sure more beauty awaits us.

The ship arrived in port at noon –it was a tender port, ship anchored off shore.We chose a really nice tour today, Full Day Patagonia in Depth.

Our guides were Martha and Sebastian and they were just terrific, very nice and also knowledgeable. Martha told us that the town of Chacabuco has a population of 2500 but it quadruples in the tourist season.

We went to the Aiken del Sur Private Park and hiked the river trail for over 2 hours in the evergreen rain forest. Our guides divided the group in half which made it easier to hear all of the commentary during our hike. Our guide for that part was Sebastian. The rain forest covers 250 acres and they get 3000 liters of rain per year, a real contrast to the northern deserts we visited earlier. And, today was no different from other days here, it was rainy, but the trees provided cover for us and it only felt drizzly.

During the hike, Sebastian told us about the great burnings of the Patagonian forests and the eruption of the Mount Hudson volcano in 1991. You can see the regrowth of trees that feed on the decomposing material of dead tree trunks. He described the trees, other vegetation and birds that are common here. We spotted only one along the way. I couldn’t possibly name all of the things we saw but enjoyed every minute of the hike.

We hiked to the beautiful waterfall.

After the hike, we walked to the pavilion that is part of the park near the lake. A typical Chilean lamb barbecue was prepared for us. Of course, I didn’t eat the lamb but the interesting way they barbecue was something to see. There was music, dancing, lots of wine and pisco sours. We returned to the ship at 7:30 PM and we were in the next to last tender to return. A really wonderful day.

And who did we sit across from – on the left of the picture, an ACC coach, ICF member, Julie Wong from Sonoma, California. She is also on the Around the World trip so I am sure we will connect again. The world is indeed very small.

No appetite for dinner, to say the least. Too bad, Farid and his chefs were making Singaporean noodles in the terrace cafe. A scoop of ice cream was all I wanted

Look at this dog made from cabbage! The culinary department amazes me every day.

Posted in Excursions, February, Food, South America, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Puerto Montt. Chile

Posted on February 10, 2023 by patmathews

February 10, 2023

Yesterday was a sea day, and I had a lovely spa morning. I had a full body hot stone massage, an eye treatment, a facial, foot and ankle massage and scalp massage. All I can say is “ahhhhh” wonderful. There will be more of those during the cruise for sure.

My sunflowers are on their last legs. Time to look for a new flower market.

Last night was the Captain’s cocktail celebration, there is one of these at the beginning of each segment of the world cruise. Drinks are free and we get introduced to the senior staff on board. So happy to see that the new captain (our original one will be back in 2 months) is a man we have sailed with twice before when he was staff captain. Now he has been promoted to full captain.

We were invited to dinner with the general manager, Claudio Melli from Italy and Cella, the Oceania Club Ambassador. Two other passengers were at our table as well. What a nice evening! The Chilean wines, both white and red, were flowing all evening.

Then the show – it was a singer who does impressions of all of the current women singers. Her name is Tricia Kelly and I look forward to her next show. Very fun. She sometimes makes up her own lyrics and they are hysterical.

Leah, one of the casino dealers, had a birthday today so we celebrated as the others surprised her with a cake and we sang to her.

The fog was very heavy overnight, whenever I woke up, I heard the fog horn. So we were about 2 hours late arriving to Puerto Montt. We had a tour that was supposed to leave at 8:30 and it was 10:30 when we got off the ship. It was a tender port, so the lifeboats take us to shore.

Here’s the view on our sail in.

We met our tour guide, Andrea, and set off for our first destination, the lakeside town of Puerto Varas. She told us that Puerto Montt is a city of 250,000 and is known for raising Atlantic Salmon. In fact, it is second only to Norway. The industry created 50,000 jobs and almost everyone in the city has some connection to the salmon industry. The salmon spend 6 months in the lake and then 1 year in the ocean before they are harvested and sold.

We arrived in Puerto Varas and had about 45 minutes to wander through the town, visit the craft market and spend time by the beautiful lake. This part of Chile is green and lush and is actually called the lake district. Many lakes, towns and sites are named in native language. This lake is Llanquihue. It is the 3rd largest lake in Chile. It covers 338 square miles and is 1000 feet deep. This woman on a unicycle was juggling in the middle of the street, for tips of course! Brave or dumb? Your call.

While walking through the town, we spotted an authentic Chile dog… (a little Chilean humor here!)

All throughout Chile, including here, we heard about earthquakes. The last big one was in 1960, but small earthquakes happen almost every day.

After our visit to the town, unfortunately there was a traffic issue due to an accident which the guide had been informed had been cleared – but then another one happened so we were basically at a standstill for an hour and a half. She said accidents are quite rare.

We did see this funky museum!

Andrea was very knowledgeable and filled the time with lots of information and stories. One that surprised me is that the length of Chile is the width of the United States!

We could see the Osorno volcano and the Calbuco volcano as we resumed our trip to the Vincente Perez Rosales National Park. The Osorno last erupted in 1835. It is 8700 feet high and resembles Mt. Fuji in Japan. Chile has 2000 volcanoes, 100 are considered active. This one has not erupted since 1835.

The Calbuco is 6610 feet high and last erupted in 2015. There are ski centers on the volcanoes and you can still see snow although it is summer here.

The scenery was really beautiful and we got much closer to the volcanoes. The Petrohue Falls are surrounded by huge volcanic rocks. We had time to walk around the park trails and take pictures.

By now it was late in the afternoon. Due to the delay, we didn’t have anything to eat since breakfast. We really enjoyed the bag of local potato chips!

Before we left the park, Norm spotted a local man wearing an Eagles shirt – and Norm had on his Eagles hat. The man shouted “selfie” and he took one, so then I captured them both as well.

We had dinner outside on the deck and Farid was preparing chicken fajitas. The sail out was so pretty! And at 8:30, the sun was still high in the sky.

Tonight the show is an Argentinian Tango Show starring the Pampas Devils. And, we don’t arrive in port tomorrow until noon, so I see they will be giving tango lessons in the morning. We’ll see!

Posted in Excursions, February, World Cruise #4 | 1 Comment

San Antonio, Chile

Posted on February 8, 2023 by patmathews

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.

Posted in Excursions, February, South America, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Coquimbo, Chile

Posted on February 7, 2023 by patmathews

February 7, 2023

We had a sea day yesterday and Chef Farid did a cooking demonstration. First he introduced his team of senior chefs and his pastry chef, Sheila. There are 67 chefs on board and 15 of them are the pastry chefs. Of course the kitchen is a 24 hour a day operation. The pastry chefs are hard at work at 2 AM making the breakfast croissants and other assorted baked goods.

The demo was veal medallions, mushrooms ragout, sautéed apple flambé. Farid stressed that the recipe is adaptable to use any fruit and any meat or fish too. Sheila worked side by side and she made alfajores (classic Argentinian sandwich cookies) which are delicious, I had one after dinner the night before without knowing what it was.

There is no tasting of the food since Covid, but they make the dishes in the dining room and the terrace café so you can order them if you wish.

We had a nice cocktail hour with a Georgetown colleague, Bill, who is on the trip with his husband Bob and some of their friends, Kendall and Joseph, followed by dinner with them. Nice evening. And Jeri Sager did her second show of Broadway songs. She’s great.

Today’s tour was called Petroglyphs and Vineyards in the Limari Valley. Here are some photos of the city of Coquimbo and a couple of boats in the harbor.

Our tour guide was Jorge. We traveled through the city and south on the Pan-American highway, at first along the coast and then through more of the desert but then into the valley. The highway is the longest in the world, it goes from Alaska to the bottom of South America. Jorge, of course, gave us lots of information about the area. On the map, Easter Island is just west of Coquimbo and we are nearing the center of the long country of Chile. In the desert, they boast of the clearest sky in the world and there are massive telescopes in northern Chile. Mining is a main industry, mostly for copper and iron.

There are 24 kinds of cactus and we sure saw a lot of them on our trip. Cactus grows only 1 inch a year so most of these plants have been here for decades.

The desert area gets only an average of 5 rainy days per year, last year they had 2, and it can sometimes go years without any rain at all.

Our destination was the Enchantment Valley where we walked for about an hour and observed the petroglyphs which date back thousands of years. No one really knows what the holes in the rocks mean, but in some cases, they appear in a formation like the constellations. Some think they were formed by grinding something like herbs. Here are some of the petroglyphs and the rocks.

And here are some of us and friends Ellen and Charlie.

After the visit, we drove to the Tololo Winery, which was just started in 2018. Here we had a tour of their operation as well as a wine tasting. They described using some of the byproducts of producing wine to make bread! Who knew. We didn’t get to taste that though. Other byproducts are used to feed livestock. The wines were just OK, we didn’t buy any. They also produce the liquor Pisco which is popular for Pisco sours and the mango aperitifs we had in restaurants. It is very strong… we didn’t buy that either!

Jorge let everyone rest on the way back to the ship – this was another long drive out of the city. The ship is leaving early (3 instead of 4 PM) on our way to San Antonio port where we will do a tour to Santiago and the passengers who just did this one segment of the world cruise will leave and 200 new passengers will join for at least the next segment. It is a good day to be away from the ship!

We spotted these birds on the top of the tugboat as we were leaving the port.

Tonight, since so many will be packing, they are showing the movie “Elvis” in the lounge. I have already seen it but for me it is all about the popcorn. We only get it when they do a movie, so sometimes I buy some in port and keep it in my room.

Posted in Excursions, February, World Cruise #4 | 1 Comment

Iquique, Chile

Posted on February 6, 2023 by patmathews

February 5, 2023

Today we had a full day tour and our guide and assistant were Anahi and Lorena. We were headed out to the driest desert on earth, the Atacama desert. Like Arica, this city was once part of Peru. It had a large Chilean population and was conquered by Chile in the War of the Pacific. Today it is one of only two free ports of Chile.

The city name is pronounced I ki ki. It means “a place to sleep”. The population is 164,000. Anahi told us that most families have several cars here, because it is a tax free city, used cars are very cheap. But people are not allowed to travel to another city after 5 PM.

The desert is vast, with no animals of any kind living there. There is no rain, and the water for the city is piped down from the Andes. They are also using some desalination of sea water but Anahi says it tastes terrible so they mostly buy bottled water.

Our main destination was to the ghost town of Humberstone. During the nitrate years – mining for saltpeter, this was a thriving community with several thousand inhabitants. It closed in 1960 when a German invented synthetic nitrate so there was no need for it to be mined. The Chilean government has made it into a fascinating museum and it is a UNESCO world heritage site.

We spent about an hour walking all through the huge complex. The buildings are all still intact and it is sort of eerie to see the place abandoned in the middle of the desert. We visited the homes of the workers, the home of the doctor, the theater, the school and the working areas of the complex. Anahi provided commentary because a lot of the information was in Spanish.

Yes, I kissed a (fake) llama. Cute, though.

The workers were paid with these tokens, a different one for each area, and they could only use them in the place they were issued, decreasing their value.

After our visit, we headed to the Village of La Tirana and then on to the oasis in the desert – Pica, which means flower. On the way back to the ship we visited Matilla.

This is what passes as the forest – the Tamarugal forest. Pretty much scrubby trees.

We visited the hot springs. Since it was Sunday, many families were enjoying swimming there.

From the tour description, we expected a box lunch. No, we went to a restaurant in Pica! And, lunch is the big meal here, so again, we started with the aperitif of mango or guava sour, and a choice of the chicken or beef. Mine was just the potatoes and vegetables. We were served wine, and had a mango pudding with an oreo like cookie in it.

In the main square of Pica. I guess the people can’t read that only 2 people should be sitting on that bench!

The church in Pica.

The church in Mantilla. With the church dog and the depiction of the last supper.

These small houses are found everywhere along the highway. They are often religious shrines (85% of the population in Chile is Catholic). Or sometimes, they mark where a person died in an accident.

Our chef prepared a South American dinner on the Terrace Cafe deck and this is what is left of the chocolate covered strawberries that our butler brought to our room.

Posted in Excursions, February, Food, South America, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Arica, Chile

Posted on February 6, 2023 by patmathews

February 4, 2023

Before I write about Arica, I will note the wine tasting experience on our sea day, February 3. The tasting was the “Stars of the Southern Hemisphere”. The head sommelier conducted it and gave us lots of information about the wines, the areas they came from and the food pairings.

Here are the wines:

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand (paired with tomato terrine)
Craggy Ranch Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir from Marlborough, New Zealand (paired with seared tuna)
Ken Forreste the Gypsy Grenache-Syrah from Stellenbosch, South Africa (paired with duck l’orange)
Achaval Ferrer Malbec from Mendosa, Argentina (paired with rack of lamb with garlic)
And Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz (paired with beef terriaki)

Of course I could only eat the first two so I had some cheese and breadsticks and Norm got my meat ones. We enjoyed all of the wines – I would say the Cloudy Bay and the Shiraz were favorites.

In Arica, we did a private tour with Erin and Mui and Sonia and Boris. Our guide was Ronnie. There was a 3 day carnival going on in Arica, the third largest in the world. It was the second of three days so we walked to the church before embarking on the rest of the tour. The festivities just ended at 7:30 AM!! so they were cleaning up the trash but nothing much else was going on yet.

Sailing in.

St Mark’s Church and the City Hall were both designed by the architect Eiffel (of Eiffel tower fame) who designed in iron and steel.

Ronnie gave us lots of information about Chile. It was no surprise to learn that it is the longest and thinnest country in the world. Arica lies between the desert and the sea and is the major port for Bolivia which is landlocked.

A part of world history that I apparently missed was about the War of the Pacific during which Chile seized this city from Peru in 1880 being recognized as Chilean by Peru in 1929. The war was over nitrates which were mined here.

We learned about the geoglyphs which date back thousands of years. Here are some you can see on the huge sandy mountains.

This is a part of Chile that is largely desert. We traveled the desert and into the two valleys, Azapa and Lluta. These valleys provide citrus and lemons for export.

A big attraction here is the mummy museum – and it was very interesting. Arica was inhabited by different native groups dating back 10,000 years. These people were the first known culture to mummify their dead, predating the Egyptians by 2000 years. Their mummies have been discovered as recently as 2004 and buried as shallow as less then 1 meter beneath the city’s surface. The minerals in the soil coupled with the careful ways the native people prepared the bodies has allowed them to be excavated and displayed in the museum.

We visited a small church with a very interesting cemetery. The grave markers range from the more quaint to the large building near the back which holds many coffins.

We went to a restaurant where we were served way too much food for lunch – it is their main meal here. We enjoyed it all. The meal started with an aperitif (I got the mango sour) and ended with delicious desserts. We left quite stuffed and I had a only a small scoop of ice cream later for dinner, Norm had a cheese plate.

When we returned to town, the carnival was in full swing. Here is a shot of two women from the front and from the back. The costumes of all were quite something – I wasn’t able to get too many pictures.

Our next port is Iquique, Chile.

Posted in Excursions, February, Food, South America, World Cruise #4 | 2 Comments

Callao, Peru (Technical stop)

Posted on February 2, 2023 by patmathews

February 2, 2023

As I mentioned previously, all of our stops in Peru were cancelled due to the political unrest here. Many people were scheduled to go to Machu Picchu and of course were very disappointed. We had some tours planned too, but do understand the need for safety. So today, the ship stopped just to take on fuel and get supplies. No one was allowed to get off, but there was a small market set up on the pier and I guess the authorities decided that people could get off just to go to that market. I was in the nail salon so didn’t go. We have been to Peru before so I didn’t really need any souvenirs anyway.

It was very foggy all night, you couldn’t see anything outside and the fog horn was blasting every couple of minutes. I slept through most of it but woke up in the middle of the night and looked outside. Eerie to not be able to see anything – the fog was that thick. We were supposed to arrive here at 9 AM but it was after 11 when we arrived, I guess because of the fog.

It was clearing when we sailed in. Here is a shot of what you could see on the way into port. You can see the fog still at the base of the hill.

Lunch on the outdoor terrace was a Mexican theme and it was delicious.

Tonight after the show, there will be a Groundhog Day party in Horizons and our cruise director, Ray, promises that there will be groundhog cupcakes. I assume that means the decoration and not the cupcake itself! No groundhogs here. 😃

We have a sea day tomorrow and then we will arrive at our first port in Chile on Saturday.

Posted in February, South America, World Cruise #4 | 1 Comment

At Sea

Posted on February 1, 2023 by patmathews

February 1, 2023

This will be a short but delicious post. The chefs prepared an amazing brunch today for the Around the World guests. These pictures do not even do it justice! Unlimited champagne, mimosas and bloody marys and every type of food you can think of. The food decorations were as outstanding as the food. It was sunny in the Grand Dining Room so some of the pictures are not as good as the real thing looked!

Posted in At Sea, February, Food, World Cruise #4 | 7 Comments

Guayaquil, Ecuador, Day 2, Norm

Posted on February 1, 2023 by patmathews

January 31, 2023

Norm went on the first shuttle to town. It takes about 40 minutes from the port to the town and the buses fill up fast!

He did do the 440 steps up and 440 back down to and from
Santa Ana Hill and the chapel at the top. The steps are all numbered and are a popular tourist attraction. His foot held up OK but I was not too happy that he did that many steps.

The lighthouse is at the highest point of the hill. It was inaugurated in 2002. It is the main symbol of the tourist campaign “Guayaquil is my destination.”

This statue is a sculpture of Juan Pueblo who is a popular character here in Guayaquil. His image dates back to 1918 when he first appeared in the newspaper. He represents Guayaquil’s common man, humble and hard working, trying to find a way to get ahead.
The sculpture was inaugurated on November 1, 2013.

Norm also went to Seminario Park. It is also known as Iguana Park. He saw many different sized iguanas there. They are happy and well fed and don’t bother people at all. I guess the cat and the iguana don’t bother each other either.

Here are some other pictures of the Rotonda, the Municipal Palace, the Cathedral, City Hall and the Park.

And here is our sunset. After we enjoyed freshly made Indian Dosa on deck, I enjoyed the show and we now have three sea days in a row due to the cancellation of Peru stops because of the conflicts there. One day we will be docked in Peru for supplies but no one can get on or off the ship so it is, for us, the same as a sea day on board.

Posted in January, South America, World Cruise #4 | 3 Comments

Guayaquil, Ecuador, day 2, Pat

Posted on February 1, 2023 by patmathews

January 31, 2023

Last night we were in port overnight and there was a really fun deck party. Our entertainment team can sure sing and dance and I had a great time. Even had a dance with Jared from the Vagabonds! The picture of Ilya and Keenan didn’t come out too well but they were great.

Norm and I went different directions today. I opted for the Flavors of Guayaquil tour and Norm took the shuttle bus into the town and explored on his own. I will post his pictures and commentary separately from the ipad because his new format iphone pictures weren’t jpg and wouldn’t load on the laptop! We fixed that for the future but this was the easiest way right now.

My guide was Javier – he was interesting and I learned more about Ecuador. Jose (yesterday’s guide) told us that Ecuador is “the belly button” of the world located near the equator. The weather is about the same all year. Javier shared more about the country.

Public colleges cost $50/semester and private colleges are about $4000/semester. Voting is mandatory here and if you don’t vote you lose your rights as a citizen for a year. This means everything like having and accessing bank accounts, your medical benefits and much more – anything that is provided by the government is denied for a year.

Javier pays $95 per month for the public health care plan. He pays 21% tax on his earnings. He loves soccer and says the tickets generally only cost $5. Gas is between $2.40 and $3/gallon. He says it used to be cheaper.

He pointed out a part of the city with upscale housing and many clubs. Though most have not been to Miami, it is known as “Guayami!”

Our first stop on the tour was a public market, and you know how I love markets! Here are some pictures. The market wasn’t huge but it was very clean and had all kinds of fish, poultry, vegetables, fruit, meat, snacks and household items. It also had an area where people could sit and eat. Here are some pictures. I bought 6 sunflowers, 2.5 pounds of cherries (almost the size of plums) and 3 mangoes for $10. The size of the avocados amazed everyone. They definitely have lots of cheese, bananas, plantains and there is no shortage of eggs here!

This little boy came up to me and gave me a big hug. I took his picture and showed him – he had a big smile. Another little guy was walking all around and dropping his candy around him. So cute.

After the market, we went to the Cacao museum. The signs and information were all in Spanish but Javier translated some in each room. It was a nice history of cacao and enhanced what we learned at the plantation yesterday. We each got a piece of chocolate as we left. We then went to the chocolate factory where we saw the processing of the chocolate and the finished products. There was also cacao wine for sale and it was white so I assume it was from the same outer covering that was used for the juice we had yesterday.

Not sure what this mural is on the side of a building nearby but thought it was cool.

Our last adventure was at the River Garden Hotel, just across the street, where we had a cooking lesson and then had the food for lunch. I, of course, did not have the pork, but everything else was delicious. They use a lot of peanut butter in sauces, etc. Here are the dishes we had. First was a polenta and cheese wrap, followed by the pork, the avocado and the mashed potato cake with a salsa made from sliced tomatoes, etc, instead of chopped. For dessert was a plantain pudding with 2 toppings – grated cheese and blue cheese whipped cream. For me, an unusual combination but very tasty.