Friday 1^st March – Day at Sea.

We had a quiet day enjoying the space in our new cabin. Glynnis came to visit and we spent a relaxing afternoon on the balcony drinking wine and putting the world to rights.

It was warm and sunny but there was a refreshing breeze and the sea was calm – a good day…

 

                               Sunset over the Atlantic

Saturday 2^nd March – Santos, Brazil.

Santos is the biggest container port in South America – so it’s not pretty. Went on the highlights tour and drove along the 7 kilometre beach front first and saw the leaning towers -  which are tower blocks built on unstable foundations in what was a mangrove swamp. They are too expensive to repair and are expected to fall down within 40 years.

The next venue on the tour was the football stadium. It only has a 22,000 capacity and is in a poor area of the city but there are no plans to extend as it would mean knocking down houses nearby. (Liverpool, please note!) The club museum was mainly devoted to Pele, although Naymar is popular and (more surprisingly) there is quite a lot of exhibits about Robhinio.

Ian liked the tour and had his photo taken a few times… and Nesta liked it much more than some of the other women from the ship who didn’t understand how big a club Santos was, and only wanted to stay there for five minutes.

After going to the Botanical Gardens, the final stop on the tour was the old coffee exchange (now a coffee museum). It was similar to the Corn Exchange in Bristol and was crying out to be a Wetherspoons! After all the temperature called out for a cold beer, not hot coffee!

After we got back to the ship, Austin came to visit and lots of wine was drunk…

In the evening there was a party on board and after so much alcohol, Nesta did lots of dancing!

 

                                      Ian with Pele

 The coffee exchange - see what we mean about Wetherspoons?

                                      Santos' ground

                               A brown booby - nothing more needs to be said!

                              Santos fish market - with waiting egret!

                               The beach at Santos

Sunday 3^rd March – Ilhabela Island, Brazil.

What a contrast to Santos!

It is a very beautiful island and there are no buildings higher than three stories.

We went ashore in the ship’s tender – although the one we went on (which would now be our lifeboat, since we have moved cabin) still isn’t right. The gear box sounds “shot”. It couldn’t find reverse so had to go round the front of the ship before heading for shore. It also found parking at the pier difficult. When we returned, we decided we would wait for the other tender!

We walked along the beach road trying to find some shade. The nearest beach was full of passengers from the MSC Fantasia which was also at anchor in the bay, so we walked on. Met up with Mark & Jane Scott, guests from the Captain’s Table, and another two Voyager guests and we ended up making a “British enclave” under a tree on the next beach. The water looked inviting so we both had a swim and then after we had dried off strolled back.

In the centre of the town there was a thermometer which showed a temperature of 41 degrees… so we decided we’d go back to the ship and air conditioning!

Unfortunately the cabin’s air conditioning cannot seem to cope with the hot weather (it’s certainly hotter than our cabin on Deck 3) so an engineer was called. We had a shower and a lazy afternoon and planned to go for steak and chips in the Discovery Restaurant tonight, with one of our bottles of Malbec of course!

We then found that disappointments come in threes… First of all, the engineer couldn’t fix the air conditioning straight away (the parts are made in China, you know… what can you do?) and is coming back tomorrow morning.

Secondly, Ian went down to Deck 5 to get internet access (doesn’t work up here on 7!) and found out that rather than 110 minutes of time left, he had nothing! Reception could not give a reason other than “has someone else used your password” or “are you sure you disconnected last time you used it”. As he was sure that the answers to these questions were no and yes, Ian had no option but to buy some more time so that he could put up a new post on the blog.

The final bit of irritation was the fact that Dindo in the Lido Bar informs us that all ten bottles of Malbec have gone. As you know, we do imbibe a bit but there is no way we have drunk 10 bottles in such a short time. Nesta looked back over her scrap book and the most we’ve had is 7 although we’re fairly certain the correct figure is 6… Similar to the internet, though, there doesn’t seem to be any redress open to us so we’ll have to chalk up the fact that 3 or 4 bottles of wine have “evaporated” to experience…

We had our meal (with no alcohol) and went to bed early unhappier than we were two hours before!

                               Our beach... with the ship in the background

                                      Nesta in the Atlantic

                                        Ian in the Atlantic

Monday 4^th March – Paraty, Brazil.

Pronounced Par-a-chi, Paraty is a small town on the coast which still appears to be colonial. We left the ship, but didn’t actually get ashore! Bit of an organisational cock-up. The Brazilian authorities only allowed the use of one of the ship’s tenders and local schooners would provide back up.

We decided to go on the 9am schooner for the half hour trip to shore but as this turned out to be good old lifeboat number 2; we decided to wait for the schooner which we were assured would be another half hour. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we finally got on board at about 11am and the schooner set off, only to return to the ship on two further occasions to pick up more passengers… At 11-35am we decided that it would be too hot anyway to walk round the town, so two and a half hours after initially planning on leaving, we decided to call it a day and stay on the ship!

It turned out to be a wise decision as there was no shade ashore and there were 45 minute queues to get back to the ship. Added to this, the sea was too muddy to swim in and other than some tourist shops there wasn’t much else in the town.

                                        The shore tender

                  The Professor looking forward to a day trip to Paraty!

                                            Paraty!!

Tuesday 5^th March – Rio de Janeiro

We were up early and first saw Sugarloaf Mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer at just after 6am as we sailed into Rio.

We had a brilliant trip in a jeep which took in most of the tourist areas of the city.

There is a lot of construction work going on ahead of the next World Cup and Olympic Games and the traffic is very heavy. We went to the Botanical gardens and then up to Chinese view with panoramic views over Rio with the mountains in the background – stunning.

We even had a stop at Lagos beach which is where hang gliders land. Richard actually did a flight/jump and said “the only really scary bit is when you run and jump off the cliff”!

Also drove along the beaches at Leblon, Ipanema, Copacabana and Arpoadur (the surfer’s beach).

Got back to the ship and had the obligatory siesta after lunch as at 45 degrees it was far too hot to venture out.

In the evening, some passengers went back into Rio for a Samba night whilst the rest of us were looking forward to a Latino Party up on the Veranda deck but at about 8pm a terrific storm blew up – pouring rain, thunder and really spectacular lightening – so the party venue was changed to the Darwin Lounge.

Unfortunately there weren’t too many passengers, but those of us who were there danced the night away…

                           Our first sight of Sugarloaf Mountain

                                  Recognise anyone?

                           Ian spots Christ the Redeemer!

                             Spot the ball, Brazilian style!!

                                             Ipanema Beach

                                   Copacobana Beach

                       One of the Favellas- over 100,000 live in these shanty towns

 

Tuesday 26^th February – Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Had a quiet afternoon on board and met some of the new passengers – they don’t seem too bad!

Sailed for Montevideo at 7pm and although the ship was gently rocking in the River Plate, Nesta had her usual broken night’s sleep…

 

Wednesday 27^th February – Montevideo, Uruguay.

Our booked trip to the Juanico Winery was cancelled by the ship - there were not enough passengers interested on going on it!! (Cannot understand some people…) Means that of the three such trips we had booked back in the UK, we actually managed to go to not a single one!! Is someone trying to tell us something?

We went ashore and walked the recommended route round the “old town” but never found the pretty bit.

The Mercado del Puerto is interesting as it is full of restaurants cooking lots of meat (nice smells).

We took a number of photographs but our memory card jinx struck again! Even though we had only bought it from the ship a couple of days earlier “memory card error” came up on the camera so we were not able to take any more photos. We’ve taken it back to George in the camera shop in the hope that we can at least save the pictures we took.

Fortunately, our second card still works in the camera and, with the help of the lead we have borrowed will hopefully still be able to save our photos on to the laptop.

Back on board before lunch and just pottered around during the afternoon.

Austin, Rich and Lyn did the all-day Estancia tour and told us we had missed a brilliant trip!

                               Nesta re-creating the Battle of the River Plate!

 

Thursday 28^th February – Day at Sea.

We were planning a quiet day but it turned out to be quite exciting! It is the Captain’s normal two welcome parties today, and on top of this we have been invited to dine at the Captain’s Table at 6-30pm. (Nesta thinks this is just a way of the ship stopping us getting free drinks at both sessions!)

Had a phone call from Eddie at 11-30am asking if we wanted to move up to cabin 7204 now (as it’s empty during this cruise) rather than wait until the beginning of the next cruise when we have actually paid for an upgrade.

Panic set in and we asked for some time before we moved! (Well, we had to hide all of the alcohol we have brought on board!) Anyway, by lunchtime we were in and our fridge was full!

We sat on our balcony in the afternoon and drank our complimentary welcome bottle of champagne.

The Captain’s Table was a bit strange in that he had to leave us after the soup course - he had to do another “welcome” party at 7-45pm and Eddie also left at 8pm to take part in the second party.

They never returned to the meal – so the remaining seven of us finished our food and went up to the bar… (Nesta actually saw the captain a bit later on going into the Veranda Restaurant, presumably to get his main course!).

The sea was quite calm overnight so we slept as well as normal. Nesta is quite happy being up here as she hasn’t got as far to go now to make a cup of tea when she can’t sleep!

                             Ian, enjoying the new balcony

Sunday 24^th February – Iguazu trip.

Got off the ship at 11-45am and took the shuttle bus to the terminal. There is another big ship embarking, so there are people everywhere.

Eventually we saw a man holding up an “Ashworth” sign and got into a taxi for what was a five minute trip to the main bus station…We were given our tickets and told that our bus would leave at 2-15pm from somewhere between gates 37 to 55! He also warned us to take care as pick-pockets roam the bus station, so we spent the next two hours sitting with our luggage!

When our bus arrived, we found out that seats numbered 11 and 12 were not downstairs but were actually upstairs… as Ellie will testify the upstairs of one of these busses can “move around a bit” so we were a little unhappy - especially as we had booked downstairs tickets months ago.

Ian phoned “Audley” in Buenos Aires who couldn’t do anything about it but promised to see what they could do for the return trip on Monday night.

The journey was fine and Nesta took a sleeping tablet so did manage to sleep.

 

Monday 25^th February – Iguazu trip.

Arrived at 7-30am and took a taxi to the Sheraton Hotel, which is inside the national park, and checked into our day room.

Set off immediately to catch the train to the “Devil’s Mouth”. The weather was very hot and humid even at 9am.

We then walked the upper and lower circuits and had over four hours exploring the falls. They weren’t as big as we were expecting but they were certainly spectacular!

When we got back to our room there was a bottle of wine in there from “Audley” so we had a shower, a glass or two of wine, followed by our included lunch overlooking the falls and then had a sleep!!

We decided not to get the boat to underneath the falls and when we saw the plight of Tom and Jerry-Lou from the ship when they returned, felt it was a good idea! They were drenched to the skin and faced the prospect of travelling back to the ship in wet clothes… Oh well! Jerry-Lou bought new shorts and a t-shirt but Tom decided to “man” it out and travel damp!

At 4pm we received a phone call from the agent who said she had managed to transfer us onto another bus back to Buenos Aires which had downstairs seats available. We were collected from the hotel at 6pm and taken to the bus station for our 7pm departure.

Journey was good if a bit alcoholic! At 8pm the steward came round and asked if we wanted a whiskey… we were then served a 3 course meal at 9pm and at 10pm he came round again with glasses of champagne! We both slept well!

 

                    There's a lot of water!

                         Don't stand too near the edge!

                                        D'oh!!

Well, we thought we'd spent a long time on coaches - we needed a picture! Still smiling...

Thursday 21^st February – Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

Woke up just before 8am – just in time to watch Voyager “park”.

Got collected from the hotel at 10am and driven round the one-way system to be deposited 100 yds. from where he picked us up! There was shuttle bus to take us along the pier to the ship (we has actually walked this the day before, but there were now armed guards around!) BUT – not so simple”

As we were embarking, we had to wait for the Port Authorities to pick us up and take us a couple of miles down the road to the commercial pier where our luggage was scanned (took all of two minutes) and then we were driven back to the ship.

We arrived in the middle of a crew emergency drill but Nino still managed to shout “I’ll put your wine in to chill for tonight!”

A lot of crew and passengers seemed genuinely pleased to see us again and we were regaled with tales of storms, not being able to land in Port Stanley and “we haven’t seen the sun for 6 days” etc.

Had a little issue with transferring photos onto the computer but George in the camera shop has lent us a lead so hopefully all will be well.

Friday 22^nd February – Day at Sea.

Warm and sunny today. Nesta didn’t sleep too well last night as she had to get used to the ship’s random movements and noises again.

Enjoyed a Mongolian Stir Fry on the Lido deck for lunch and then attended the Captain’s farewell party for the passengers who get off in Buenos Aires. We managed quite a few free fizzy wines and together with our chilled bottle of Malbec slept well… (or at least, Nesta did until 3am when it got a bit windy and rocky). She was awake until 6-30am but then managed to sleep until 11-15am!

 

Now the sun is back - we have a Mongolian stir-fry(?) on board. The rest of the passengers are much older than us!!

Saturday 23^rd February – Day at Sea.

Another day spent at sea as we head to Buenos Aires and the end of our fifth cruise! We’re now more than half way through our travels and time seems to be going faster.

Having said that, though, the Captain seems to have mislaid Buenos Aires as we didn’t turn into the River Plate until evening and for most of the day we were heading straight for Montevideo!

Attended the farewell “Mr Bridge” do and then had an early night in preparation for our next overland trip starting tomorrow to the Iguazu Falls!

Tuesday 19^th February – Puerto Madryn.

 

Bus arrived an hour and a half later than advertised.  Taxi driver seemed to have given up waiting and we had to phone to get someone to come for us.  Hotel Peninsula Valdes is right on the beach and appears to be opposite the pier where Voyager will dock.

Nesta went to tourist information for a town map and was told that NO cruise ships are due until a Princess one on the 24^th – Panic!

After phone calls to Voyages of Discovery and e mails to the Port Agent we ascertained this was not the case and Voyager is due to arrive on the 21^st.  Ian’s’ blood pressure returned to normal!

Had a little explore.  It is a sunny 27C here but still windy.  Glad we packed that one T shirt each just in case!

                        Ian from where the ship will dock - Puerto Madryn in the background

                             It doesn't look like it - but cruise ships do park here!!

Wednesday 20^th February – Puerto Madryn.

 

Slept well, another lovely sunny day here.  Received an e mail from the ship to say after a rather rough day/night they had been unable to land in Port Stanley but are on their way to us here.  I think we made the right choice with our overland – thanks Kay and Audley!

Had a leisurely breakfast and then went to suss out the alcohol at the local supermarket… a litre of Stella Artois for £2-50 and a litre of gin for just over £4. Needless to say we will make some purchases! We also bought a Patagonian Penguin corkscrew and bottle-opener. (Wonder if we’ll find a use for it??)

Before lunch, Nesta went for a paddle whilst Ian sorted out the blog.

                                 No ship yet !!

                           Nesta going for a paddle in the South Atlantic!

Wednesday 13^th February – Day at Sea, cruising the Chilean Fjords.

Back into calmer waters (thankfully) after waves of 4 metres last night meant that the ship pitched, rolled and banged all night!

The ship went through “Englishman’s Passage” and into the Straits of Magellan.

We were cold, wet and miserable but the place and scenery were awesome!!

Bit tired today, but as sea was calm - we both slept well!

                                 Englishman's Passage on the ship's map

                                      Us going through the passage

                                            We're quite close to land!

Thursday 14^th February – Day at Sea, Strait of Magellan.

Set the alarm for 7am this morning so that we could see the Brujo Glacier which come right down to the sea.

It was spectacular, but it is still cold and raining…

 

 

Nesta got the jips about sailing around Cape Horn – so not a very romantic valentine’s day!

Diagnosed with ‘cabin fever’ after 4 days on the ship with prospect of 4 more sea days!

Friday 15^th February – Our Patagonian Adventure! – Punta Arenas, Chile.

Ian phoned Kay at 8-30am to ask if we could get off at Punta Arenas and re-join the ship on 21^stin Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

After she recovered, Kay said she’d see what she could do!

Three hours later she phoned back to tell us it was a goer! So off we got at 2.30 and had a 3 hour taxi transfer to Puerto Natales, Chile. Several of the crew who shall remain nameless wanted to come with us!

Hotel CostAustralis right on the lake side with spectacular views. Good bar and bar snacks which we availed ourselves of including a free drink. Nesta enjoyed her first bath since leaving Portsmouth!!! Still very windy and glad NOT to be sailing.

                                       Nesta in Punta Arenas, Chile

                               Ian and dogs (not Nesta!) in Terra del Fuego

                                 A Rhea (South American bird - again, not Nesta!)

                                        View from hotel at Puerto Natales

 

Saturday 16^th February – Puerto Natales to El Calafate. (Chile to Argentina!)

Collected from hotel at 7.45 and taken to bus station.  Found the bus!  Shared coach journey for 6 hours with the ‘backpacking crowd’.  We could give 30 years to the next oldest people.  It took an hour and a half to clear both the border posts.

Scenery is flat scrubby ‘steps’ and the wind continues to blow.  At least it has stopped raining and the sun is out.

Met on our arrival and taken to Andina tours office.  It turns out our relaxing day at the glacier tomorrow is due to start at 7am and involves NOT an optional stroll but a 2 hour mini trek wearing crampons!!  We have declined, and changed to the more leisurely 9am trip.

 

Had a walk round and found the Laguna Nimez which is a bird watchers paradise (apparently!). Saw lots of birds, but didn't know the names of any!!

Our hotel here is the rustic Patagonia Rebelde hostel.   Basic, but clean and comfortable.

A bit of a walk down an unmade road into town centre where we enjoyed an Argentinian Pizza!  Better than the Peruvian ones.  Had an early night and caught up on more sleep.

                                          World famous - apparently...

                                          Can you spot any birds??

Sunday 17^th February – Perito Moreno glacier, Argentina. (Ship rounding Cape Horn).

Had a tour of El Calafate whilst picking up lots of other people from their hotels for shared coach excursion to the National Park and Glacier.  This lot are much more our age!  Saw lots of Condors flying and one also landed nearby to have its photograph taken!  A clear day, one of the 30 per year when you can see the tops of the mountains says our guide.

We declined a boat trip to the glacier and spent a leisurely 3 hours strolling the ‘balconies’.  Ian counted over 1,000 steps we negotiated up and down the levels. 

The glacier was named after an explorer called Moreno and Perito means expert – a bit of a misnomer when we were informed he didn’t actually get to this glacier!  The face is over 6kms long and up to 65metres high in places – spectacular.  We witnessed several big ice falls, but never when the camera was ready!!!

After returning to El Calafate, which is so named after the Berber bushes, the only wood found in the area by early explorers - we went to a recommended restaurant, which also just happened to be the nearest to our hostel where we enjoyed the shared meat plate.  Delicious Tenderloin and rump steak and local lamb.  We had to wash this down with the local Malbec of course.  An enjoyable evening which made the walk back to the hostel seem much less onerous!

 

 

                                      Condors flying (if you look hard enough!)

                          The Condor has landed! (4 metre wing span, apparently) a big bird!

                                    Nesta with the Moreno Glacier in the background

                                It goes back up the valley for miles

                              The glacier is still growing - but only a few metres a century

                                          Ian - cold but happy!!

                                         The splash - just after a big bit broke off!!

        Lake Argentina with the tops of the mountains that are only visible 30 days a year

                                        Watch out - there's a glacier behind you!!

                                   Gives you an idea how big it is - that's a boat down there!

 

Monday 18^th February – El Calafate to Rio Gallegos.

 

We took some photos of the hotel in the morning and when we got back we had had a phone call from Audley's Agent in Argentina, a Ms Incoming (yes, her real name), informing us that as we are such seasoned South American travellers now we do not need help to change buses at Rio Gallegos!  Taxi driver put us on correct first bus and off we went.  All South American buses do in our experience have a timetable but always run late and this was no exception.  We arrived safely and even had time for a coffee in the bus station cafeteria.  Nesta was tired and was heard saying to the check in desk ‘sorry I don’t speak English’, which luckily the clerk ignored and explained to us in English where and when our next bus left!  In reality we only had to choose from two neighbouring buses and got it right!

Another bizarre journey.  Just as we were getting ready to settle for the night at about 22.30 two trays and a 3 course meal arrived, accompanied by a polystyrene cup of red wine!  It helped Nesta sleep anyway. 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Our hotel in El Calafates (based on a railway station - but there's no railway!!)

                                    The lounge in the hotel

                                           Inside our hotel

Our hotel room - looks like Ian is in jail!!