Valparaiso literally means "the valley of Paradise" ... we didn't find it quite as good as that, but we did enjoy its 47 hills, its colourful timber buildings built one above another up the steep slopes, and its "ascencores" - metal caravan-style boxes in which one can travel up and down as in a funicular railway - they were like public-transport Black Marias, except that they were all painted mustard yellow!
After touring the city, and nearby Vina del Mar, a fashionable beach resort, we, like many of our shipmates, headed for a nearby supermarket ... mainly to buy wonderful fresh Chilean fruit, and good Chilean wine. Then we sat on the deck and watched dozens and dozens of little boats buzz around the harbour, on dozens of different endeavours - this is a fun place!
The "Valley of Paradise" could well be another name for the Carnival Splendor - not only are we revelling in luxury, and all the wonderful food we can eat (and then some - most Americans eat at least two 'Starters' before the main meal - some have been seen to order up to 4 desserts!) - but, with more than 3000 passengers, most of them older than we are (!!!), the number has been dimininishing, as some head for "The Valley of Paradise" in the sky - at least 6 have died since we left Florida. We've all got to know the code word which comes over the loudspeakers - it's "Operation Brightstar" ... we think that one more has become a 'bright star' in the heavens! Please be assured that we have no intention of joining their numbers, and are exercising and cutting down our food to gargantuan levels, instead of super-gargantuan.
Last night the ship turned back on its route for two hours, then headed the same way again without explanation ... no-one knows whether someone went overboard or not. Popular theory has it that someone dumped the cruise director (who calls himself 'Goose', but is known by most as "The Goose", as in "total idiot") overboard - it would make a great plot for a mystery novel, as there are so many likely protagonists! We are innocent - so far - life remains fun!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
From glaciers to volcanoes
Magellan certainly knew what he was doing! Following our aborted trip to Punta Arenas we spent a day cruising the Magellan Strait, including visiting two massive glaciers, which look wonderful from the water ... or numerous decks above the water. The Chilean fjords are truly impressive - steep hills and wonderful islands, looking like partially-deflated elephants floating in incredibly deep water. The whole day was one long chorus of "Look at that ...!".
Unfortunately, eventually we had to go out into the open sea - just as a hurricane-force storm hit, with winds of 90 knots (150km an hour) and 9 metre waves! We'd spent an evening playing Parcheesi in our stateroom with friends, and had brought in a chair from the balcony - but the weather was so rough that we couldn't get the balcony door open against the wind until the next afternoon!
The captain went out of his way to find more sheltered channels, and eventually the "Roaring Forties" calmed down. It was great to find our way up the fjord to Puerto Montt, in the Chilean Lakes district, where we enjoyed a wonderful trip yesterday.
Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas were established in the 1850s by German and Swiss settlers - and they look like small slices of Switzerland - towering mountains, heavy forests (beech, not pine) and huge lakes, dotted withe fields of cows and shingled houses. We travelled past Lake Ensanada to the Emerald Lake, where we boarded a catamaran for a cruise which showed us wonderful snow-capped volcanoes, extending right to the shore. The rough weather and rain ceased, the sun came out - it was perfect! Lunch was at a German restaurant overlooking Lake Ensanada, with local monkey puzzle trees, lots of llamas ... and an EMU!!! A number of Americans were quite sure it was an ostrich (WHO has their head in the sand?!!) We visited a graveyard, full of names such as "Gonzales Ortiz Scmidt", which we thought showed how the nationalities have blended, then headed back for the ship - using three of the lifeboats as tenders, as Puerto Montt couldn't accommodate such a large ship - hopefully this will be the ONLY time we'll use the lifeboat!
Unfortunately, eventually we had to go out into the open sea - just as a hurricane-force storm hit, with winds of 90 knots (150km an hour) and 9 metre waves! We'd spent an evening playing Parcheesi in our stateroom with friends, and had brought in a chair from the balcony - but the weather was so rough that we couldn't get the balcony door open against the wind until the next afternoon!
The captain went out of his way to find more sheltered channels, and eventually the "Roaring Forties" calmed down. It was great to find our way up the fjord to Puerto Montt, in the Chilean Lakes district, where we enjoyed a wonderful trip yesterday.
Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas were established in the 1850s by German and Swiss settlers - and they look like small slices of Switzerland - towering mountains, heavy forests (beech, not pine) and huge lakes, dotted withe fields of cows and shingled houses. We travelled past Lake Ensanada to the Emerald Lake, where we boarded a catamaran for a cruise which showed us wonderful snow-capped volcanoes, extending right to the shore. The rough weather and rain ceased, the sun came out - it was perfect! Lunch was at a German restaurant overlooking Lake Ensanada, with local monkey puzzle trees, lots of llamas ... and an EMU!!! A number of Americans were quite sure it was an ostrich (WHO has their head in the sand?!!) We visited a graveyard, full of names such as "Gonzales Ortiz Scmidt", which we thought showed how the nationalities have blended, then headed back for the ship - using three of the lifeboats as tenders, as Puerto Montt couldn't accommodate such a large ship - hopefully this will be the ONLY time we'll use the lifeboat!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Lost at sea??
Well, we were to have visited Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile, yesterday ... but we never landed! Because we left so late the night before we didn't arrive until late afternoon, instead of early morning ... AND the ship is too big to dock at the wharf in Punta Arenas, so we would have had to go ashore by tender (see below) ... AND the wind was so strong that the tender would not have been safe ... AND the authorities said NO. We felt as thought we were lost at sea! Oh well, we had a wonderful journey through the Beagle Channel.
The day began for us in a funny way. We keep the TV in our room on the GPS channel all night, so anytime we wake up we can see where we are. I awoke about four am, and saw that there was a glacier coming up, so I grabbed a wrap and went out on the balcony ... and there it was! I raced inside, woke John and told him to grab something warm (it was 7C outside), grabbed the camera, and disappeared outside again. John blearily grabbed - a bath towel - and joined me!! The channel was narrow, and we were only 30-40 metres from the face of the glacier, towering above us, and then disappearing back into the mist and darkness ... Oh to have had a nightscope camera to have filmed it - and to have filmed John in his bathtowel!!!
We saw other glaciers at a distance during the day, and glorious views of thousands of islands as we sailed through channels to the Magellan Straits and the bay at Punta Arenas, where we left the Chilean pilots, but did not stay. The scenery was so magnificent that we shared our balcony with friends for much of the day, and the whole day felt like a party.
For those, particularly Jim, who've been asking details about the Carnival Splendor, here are some details ... It is 952feet long, and weighs 113,300 tons, holds 3006 passengers and 1150 crew. We cruise at about 20-22 knots (about 40 km hour), powered by 2 main propellers and 6 thruster propellors which move us in and out of docks, instead of using tugs. The main drive unit is powered by a 21 megawatt synchro-propulsion drive, powered by 11,000 volt, 75.6 megawatt generators driven by 6 twelve-cylinder motors.
The less mechanically minded, like me, might also like to know that there are 40,000 lights, 5,000 smoke detectors, 500 automatic fire doors, 19,000 km of electric cable and 360km of water piping. I was talking to a man yesterday whose sole job on board is to change failed light globes!!
The day began for us in a funny way. We keep the TV in our room on the GPS channel all night, so anytime we wake up we can see where we are. I awoke about four am, and saw that there was a glacier coming up, so I grabbed a wrap and went out on the balcony ... and there it was! I raced inside, woke John and told him to grab something warm (it was 7C outside), grabbed the camera, and disappeared outside again. John blearily grabbed - a bath towel - and joined me!! The channel was narrow, and we were only 30-40 metres from the face of the glacier, towering above us, and then disappearing back into the mist and darkness ... Oh to have had a nightscope camera to have filmed it - and to have filmed John in his bathtowel!!!
We saw other glaciers at a distance during the day, and glorious views of thousands of islands as we sailed through channels to the Magellan Straits and the bay at Punta Arenas, where we left the Chilean pilots, but did not stay. The scenery was so magnificent that we shared our balcony with friends for much of the day, and the whole day felt like a party.
For those, particularly Jim, who've been asking details about the Carnival Splendor, here are some details ... It is 952feet long, and weighs 113,300 tons, holds 3006 passengers and 1150 crew. We cruise at about 20-22 knots (about 40 km hour), powered by 2 main propellers and 6 thruster propellors which move us in and out of docks, instead of using tugs. The main drive unit is powered by a 21 megawatt synchro-propulsion drive, powered by 11,000 volt, 75.6 megawatt generators driven by 6 twelve-cylinder motors.
The less mechanically minded, like me, might also like to know that there are 40,000 lights, 5,000 smoke detectors, 500 automatic fire doors, 19,000 km of electric cable and 360km of water piping. I was talking to a man yesterday whose sole job on board is to change failed light globes!!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Around the Horn ... to the end of the world!
We've done it! We've sailed right around Cape Horn - not just round the end of South America, but right around Horn Island. We had great views, but it was FREEZING cold ... we would run up onto deck (unfortunately we went around anti-clockwise, so had no view from our balcony), take photos in 5C temperature with 6metre swells and winds of 60 knots (100km per hour), then flee back to our cabin, where we'd gather, laughing and shivering, with friends, before another foray ... it was great ... but possibly we'll remember the hot chocolate as much as the view!
From there we sailed northwards to Ushuaia, the most southerly town in Argentina, which calls itself 'Fin del Mundo', the End of the World. Yesterday we travelled by bus across Tierra de Fuego to Lake Ensanada, surrounded by grey rocks and dense beech forest, then to a station where we boarded a little train. This train, originally used by the prisoners who were Ushuaia's first white inhabitants, runs on a 60cm track, even narrower than a cane train. The one-and-a-half hour trip through the National Park was wonderful, the skies were blue, the day was a warm 11C - it was truly memorable.
Back in the city of Ushuaia we walked through the tourist-oriented streets to a museum in the old prison, meeting an Aussie on his way to Antarctica in a little Russian ship berthed beside us - the 48 passenger vessel looked so small compared to our 3,000 passenger vessel ... but they were able to leave on time, where the wind was so strong against our 14-storey "wind wall" that our departure was delayed for five hours. The only bonus of that was that when we left, about 11pm, we went out on deck just below the bridge ... and what should we see as we slowly turned, but four seals catching the fish we were disturbing, highlighted in the lights from the bridge. We were alone on deck, absolutely enthralled ... a VERY special moment!
From there we sailed northwards to Ushuaia, the most southerly town in Argentina, which calls itself 'Fin del Mundo', the End of the World. Yesterday we travelled by bus across Tierra de Fuego to Lake Ensanada, surrounded by grey rocks and dense beech forest, then to a station where we boarded a little train. This train, originally used by the prisoners who were Ushuaia's first white inhabitants, runs on a 60cm track, even narrower than a cane train. The one-and-a-half hour trip through the National Park was wonderful, the skies were blue, the day was a warm 11C - it was truly memorable.
Back in the city of Ushuaia we walked through the tourist-oriented streets to a museum in the old prison, meeting an Aussie on his way to Antarctica in a little Russian ship berthed beside us - the 48 passenger vessel looked so small compared to our 3,000 passenger vessel ... but they were able to leave on time, where the wind was so strong against our 14-storey "wind wall" that our departure was delayed for five hours. The only bonus of that was that when we left, about 11pm, we went out on deck just below the bridge ... and what should we see as we slowly turned, but four seals catching the fish we were disturbing, highlighted in the lights from the bridge. We were alone on deck, absolutely enthralled ... a VERY special moment!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Across the Patagonian pampas
We're heading rapidly for the Horn, but stopped yesterday at Puerto Madryn, about halfway between Buenos Aires and the bottom of South America. Puerto Madryn is a town of some 50,000 people, mainly set up as an area to smelt aluminium (notice that WE use the last "i", because we're not under the influence of a ship full of Yanks yet!) from Australia and Brazil.
We drove some 17km south of the town, to Puerto Loma, to watch the sea lions, but John refused to go penguin hunting (for little Magellanic penguins) - the Americans are fanatical about seeing their first sight of a penguin!
Instead we headed 80km across the pampas, to Gaiman, a village set up by Welsh immigrants 130 years ago. It's still very Welsh, and we listened to a Welsh choir while we ate a "Welsh tea". For us, though, the joy was in the pampas - very like Australian saltbush country ... all that was missing was the ant hills! We saw a few "merinos Australiano" (they run 3 to the acre, we're told), a few horses and two hereford steers, but the countryside was otherwise flat and empty. We had a beautiful day, weatherwise, but we can imagine it would be pretty bleak with a cold wind blowing across. The only other animal we saw was roadkill - as we looked, we both said "kangaroo!", but it was a guanaco that was slower than the traffic!
The weather's getting colder, and the swells are getting bigger - about 3 metres today. The ship handles it well, but it IS wobbly! We're OK, but two of our friends have "Gone to bed with Dot" ... the anti-seasickness patch they wear behind one ear. Nothing's going to put us off the superb food - I've just had crab and oyster cakes for lunch, while John had Chicken and tortilla soup and spicy Caribbean fish ... followed by dessert, of course!
We're still getting a little Australian news on CNN, and really appreciate the family and friends who keep us up to date. Love to all of you.
We drove some 17km south of the town, to Puerto Loma, to watch the sea lions, but John refused to go penguin hunting (for little Magellanic penguins) - the Americans are fanatical about seeing their first sight of a penguin!
Instead we headed 80km across the pampas, to Gaiman, a village set up by Welsh immigrants 130 years ago. It's still very Welsh, and we listened to a Welsh choir while we ate a "Welsh tea". For us, though, the joy was in the pampas - very like Australian saltbush country ... all that was missing was the ant hills! We saw a few "merinos Australiano" (they run 3 to the acre, we're told), a few horses and two hereford steers, but the countryside was otherwise flat and empty. We had a beautiful day, weatherwise, but we can imagine it would be pretty bleak with a cold wind blowing across. The only other animal we saw was roadkill - as we looked, we both said "kangaroo!", but it was a guanaco that was slower than the traffic!
The weather's getting colder, and the swells are getting bigger - about 3 metres today. The ship handles it well, but it IS wobbly! We're OK, but two of our friends have "Gone to bed with Dot" ... the anti-seasickness patch they wear behind one ear. Nothing's going to put us off the superb food - I've just had crab and oyster cakes for lunch, while John had Chicken and tortilla soup and spicy Caribbean fish ... followed by dessert, of course!
We're still getting a little Australian news on CNN, and really appreciate the family and friends who keep us up to date. Love to all of you.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Montevideo's marvelous!
We've just come back from touring the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo ... and we've voted it the best place we've visited in South America ... it's clean, uncrowded, picturesque, friendly and small. The city is built on a peninsula, and you can see water from almost every street. It's 34C today, but it's not humid. The River Plate seems much cleaner here than in Buenos Airies (actually, in BA the water looked like the jokes about the Yarra - too thick to swim in and too thin to plow - it' MUCH worse than the Yarra!). The whole place was a delight!
The ship is berthed right next to the memorial to the Graf Spee, the German warship which was sunk (by its own captain) here in 1939. Other memorials around the town are large and bronze, including two wonderful (huge!) collection pieces by a local artist - one of horses pulling a coach out of a bog, the other of oxen pulling a cart out of another bog - both are life size, and wondrously realistic. The area is flat except for one small rise - obviously there were a lot of bogs!
Now we're off to spend the rest of the afternoon in the whirlpool, then sit on our balcony and watch our departure - when we left BA yesterday we set the whole port alive with sound - the Carnival Splendor sounded its horn, then two other cruise ships nearby set theirs going to farewell us, and the whole port area resounded ... it was a wonderful experience as people on the wharf and the passengers and crews of nearby ships all waved us off! (This is the second-largest passenger ship ever to have visited South America)
Cape Horn, here we come ... we head south this afternoon - will stop in Puerto Madryn in 2 days time, then it's off to the Cape.
The ship is berthed right next to the memorial to the Graf Spee, the German warship which was sunk (by its own captain) here in 1939. Other memorials around the town are large and bronze, including two wonderful (huge!) collection pieces by a local artist - one of horses pulling a coach out of a bog, the other of oxen pulling a cart out of another bog - both are life size, and wondrously realistic. The area is flat except for one small rise - obviously there were a lot of bogs!
Now we're off to spend the rest of the afternoon in the whirlpool, then sit on our balcony and watch our departure - when we left BA yesterday we set the whole port alive with sound - the Carnival Splendor sounded its horn, then two other cruise ships nearby set theirs going to farewell us, and the whole port area resounded ... it was a wonderful experience as people on the wharf and the passengers and crews of nearby ships all waved us off! (This is the second-largest passenger ship ever to have visited South America)
Cape Horn, here we come ... we head south this afternoon - will stop in Puerto Madryn in 2 days time, then it's off to the Cape.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
It takes two to tango!
Back on board after our second day in Buenos Aries, and we're footsore ... not from tangoing (can you imagine John and I doing the tango?!), but from walking. Yesterday we walked around the city, watching people, admiring the shops, shopping for leather goods, eating empanadas for lunch, then headed for La Boca, a very colourful area in the poorer suburbs.
In La Camanita we spent 3/4 hour watching a delightful tango performance - two men looking so-o-o Argentinean (one with one eyebrow right across his face, the other super-super-smooth, with slicked down hair, moustache etc) and 2 very world-weary women. Could they dance! Wow! All it cost us for front-row seats was the price of a diet Coke.
After wandering the tourist shops we walked throught the back streets to a bus - past a street market, dozens of dogs, crawling babies ... and that was just on the road! The bus driver had no change so he gave us a free ride back to town - a terrific cheap afternoon.
Many people from the ship paid over $100 to see a tango performance in the city last night, but we hear that it was no better than what we saw - and those of us who stayed on board were treated to a superb Argentinean folkloric performance - the tango, lots of gaucho and caballero dancing, and what we at home think of as Andean music - fantastic, and free!
Today we went on a tour, 'In the steps of Evita' ... and it, too was terrific. We've really e4njoyed our time here - it's a really multi-layered city.
Thanks so much to Jim, David and Stephanie for updates on the situation at home - you're all in our thoughts as we set off for Montevideo, and then southwards.
In La Camanita we spent 3/4 hour watching a delightful tango performance - two men looking so-o-o Argentinean (one with one eyebrow right across his face, the other super-super-smooth, with slicked down hair, moustache etc) and 2 very world-weary women. Could they dance! Wow! All it cost us for front-row seats was the price of a diet Coke.
After wandering the tourist shops we walked throught the back streets to a bus - past a street market, dozens of dogs, crawling babies ... and that was just on the road! The bus driver had no change so he gave us a free ride back to town - a terrific cheap afternoon.
Many people from the ship paid over $100 to see a tango performance in the city last night, but we hear that it was no better than what we saw - and those of us who stayed on board were treated to a superb Argentinean folkloric performance - the tango, lots of gaucho and caballero dancing, and what we at home think of as Andean music - fantastic, and free!
Today we went on a tour, 'In the steps of Evita' ... and it, too was terrific. We've really e4njoyed our time here - it's a really multi-layered city.
Thanks so much to Jim, David and Stephanie for updates on the situation at home - you're all in our thoughts as we set off for Montevideo, and then southwards.
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