Nesta and Ian’s travel diary – Natural Wonders of South America.

 

Thursday 7^th February – Valparaiso, Chile

Cancelled our vineyard and wine-tasting trip because the ship changed it to the morning and we wanted to see the kids off.

We walked from the cruise terminal to their hotel and then Nesta, Fiona and Ellie walked back to see sea lions basking on an old section of pier.

Taxi driver picked up the kids at 1pm to take them back to Santiago and the flight home.

We waved them off and went for a walk along the prom towards Vina del Mar. It was hot but with a nice breeze. Back on board in time for another life boat drill!

Have discovered that whilst we were away, the ship had an outbreak of a tummy bug which laid a lot of people low and now means that there is no self-service food. Also, a rope got entangled around the ships propellers causing noisy shuddering and necessitating divers having to go down and free them! I don’t know – we go away for a holiday and the whole thing falls apart!

 

                                            The view from the kids hotel in Valparaiso

                                    Fortunately there was no Tsunami alert whilst we were there

 

                                                  Sea Lions basking in the sun at Valparaiso

Friday 8^th February – Day at Sea.

Start of our 5^th cruise and it’s time for the award winning lecture programme to begin again. After hearing their introductions, some of them sound quite good!

Nesta joined the choir at sea again as the new people seem more like Tom from the first cruise. There is about 60 members in total of which 20+ are men (unheard of, apparently).

Managed to get to both sessions of the captain’s welcome party, so we could actually say goodbye to him – he is leaving the ship at the next port, when Captain Alex gets on.

With the amount of (free) wine consumed, we slept well!

 

Saturday 9^th February – Day at sea.

Have a Ms Pinochet (!) aboard selling Lapis Lazuli jewellery.

We have been told that we are not now going to Ushuaia as the thinking is we are more likely to be allowed into Argentina after we have visited the Falklands if we give it a miss. Instead we are going to call in at Laguna San Rafael where the only trip is to be tendered to a catamaran which will then sail to a sea glacier. At £50 a head for 2 hours, we think we’ll give it a miss and look at the glacier from the ship!

Ate in the Discovery Restaurant late but still had to wait for a table – they haven’t quite got this open dining right yet! We need to get Patrick back to sort them out!!

Didn’t finish eating until 10-30pm so it was too late to go to the show!

 

Sunday 10^th February – Puerto Montt, Chile.

Full day excursion today with a guide named Maria. She reminded us of Silvia because she obviously enjoyed her job and made the day very interesting.

Weather not kind to us and even though we went up to the top of an active volcano the clouds were low so we couldn’t see much. (Although the café there did sell a very nice hot chocolate and brandy!)

The falls we went to see were more a series of rapids, but quite interesting and the town of Puerto Varas which we visited was quite sophisticated - which was a surprise in this bleak part of the country. It also had a supermarket where we bought Pisco Mango and tonic water… Result!

 

                                                           Puerto Montt, Chile

 

                                                         The rapids we went to see

Maria’s description of Argentinians was amusing. “Never think you will understand Argentinians. Think of them as a bunch of Italians, speaking Spanish but wanting to be French”!

The ship was weaving in and out of fjords during the night which meant it rolled a bit when it came out to sea.

Didn’t sleep well as a result – will need to drink a bit more alcohol I think!!