Cruise - Take 1

Day 1 Boarding and leaving Buenos Aires.   We were given good advice and waited until after the morning rush before boarding the ship at around 1.30pm.  This was a painless and reasonably quick process so we were settled in, unpacked and ready to explore by mid-afternoon.  The following photos will give you an idea of how luxurious the ship is.

We left Buenos Aires around 5.00pm

Day 2 and 3 were entirely at sea so Meg had a great time listening to presentations, browsing the shops, going to the evening shows and taking all that is on offer on this amazing ship.  What was I doing you ask?  I was in bed with a chest infection and the only consolation was that I was not missing any of the highlights and I was well enough by Wednesday to go to Port Stanley.

We did have to come to terms with the fact that we should have booked our shore excursions online before we left.  The best ones were booked out and the ultimate best excursion from Port Stanley which was a 2 ½ hour drive to a beach where you could ‘walk among the penguins’ wasn’t even on offer and those that went had booked last November.   Meeting and talking with seasoned travellers has been a learning curve and I am sure our next cruise will be much better researched and organised.

We were also told that due to the extreme weather around Cape Horn and the Drake Passage (110km per hour winds and 9 metre waves) we would not be able to have safe passage to Antarctica.  The new itinerary would see us go directly to Falkland Islands, then cruise the Schollart Channel and Paradise Bay then on to Ushuaia on Sunday - they would add the extra port of Punta Del Este in Uraguay to compensate.

Day 4 Wednesday 19 February – Falkland Islands

Port Stanley is very historical and very English.  It had a lovely ambiance and you felt it would be easy to live and make a life there.  The locals we spoke to said it was a very easy lifestyle, no unemployment, low taxes and good wages.  The only downside appeared to be that it was expensive to go anywhere from the islands.   

We hitched a ride to Gypsy Cove but were not allowed to get off the pathways and go down to the beach where the penguins were.  Much of this part of the island still has the potential for unexploded land mines left over from the Falkland War.  We did see a group of young penguins (shedding their fluff) not far from the pathway and they were just as curious about us as we were about them.

Port Stanley only seems to go up from the port!!

Had fish and chips from the very English Pub!!

As our ship was not scheduled and there was another cruise ship in port we had to be tendered from the ship to the pier.  One of the davits used to secure the tender vessels was damaged by a local bunker barge and it took nearly all night to repair before we could get under way.  Once again we awoke to find a new itinerary in place.  So the upside is that we get to go to Antarctica again and the downside is that they have cut out the port of Puerto Madryn which is one of the two excursions we were able to book and included penguins, elephant seals and sea lions.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a city like most other big cities in the world. On the first day we took the on/off yellow bus and did the guided tour around the city.  Some parts are very old and poor and some very modern and just like any major city.  Many of the streets are extremely narrow and was a wonder to me how the buses navigated them.

There is the old  -                                             and the new  -

Architecture influenced by other cultures - French, Russian and Italian

We got off the bus to visit some markets and had the best coffee ever inside a building that was an art gallery and book store.

I really got hooked on this ladies' jewellery and bought some items for myself and some for presents.





There was the tango in the street and musicians that demanded money for taking their photo.

 

They love decorating their trees with Macrame

After getting back on the bus and getting off at the starting point we discovered another small market and spent some time with 'Charlie' (Carlos)

Beautiful gentle man, very at one with his talent which is making jewellery using gemstones.  The stall behind him was run by (I think) his wife/partner and Meg bought me my birthday present from her.  We wanted to go back on  Saturday to buy some gifts to bring home but there was no-one there.

   



Just before returning to our hotel we stopped at the inevitable 'Irish Pub' -

Friday night we were taken to dinner and a Tango Show.  We were taken by bus down narrow streets and into a dark and dingy 'night club' type establishment.  However it was interesting, food was good and the entertainment was a real cabaret show.  I did not get any really good photos but this was the best of a bad lot.

Everything stops in Buenos Aires on the weekend except the people trying to rob you.  The tactic is to spray something on your back as you pass by then tell you a 'sparrow' has pooped on you.  They then offer to help clean you up and rob you while doing this.  We were warned as we left the hotel to go for a walk but we wanted to go back to the market we were at yesterday just a few blocks away.
Another couple jointed us and sure enough they were sprayed as we walked along with this green poopy looking stuff.  We high tailed it back to the hotel and stayed there until the afternoon Evita tour.

We did the 'Evita' tour and visited Eva's grave and museum!  This cemetery is in the heart if the wealthy district and is full of family mausoleums - some very very old and others quite new and modern.

Dubai - Take 1

The flight to Dubai was 11 hours and have to say Emirates is a wonderful airline to fly with.  Seat room is ample and the food was restaurant quality.  We got to the hotel at around 2.30pm and I decided to have a 'nanna nap' - we both thought we would go out for dinner later.  I stirred after about an hour and found Meg fast asleep, turned over then we both woke up at about 8.00pm.   Meg stated that she was going to have a shower and go to bed which sounded a great idea.  So we set the alarm and slept on until 3.30am when we had to get up and get back to the airport.

The flight to Buenos Aires was a gruelling 19 hours including a stopover of 2 hours in Rio de Janiero.  We were settled in to our hotel by 10.30pm which in real time was from waking up at 3.30am in Dubai to in the hotel in Buenos Aires was 26 hours.