South America-And Around Cape Horn
Ola, Senores y Senoras,
For those of you that weren’t aware, Susan and I are out whittling away the kid’s inheritance and having a grand ole’ time. Back in December we got a flash from Travelzoo.com promoting a cruise to South America.....actually they were giving it away and the price only got better as time went on. I think this cruising might be the alternative to a convalescent home in the years ahead.
At $57/day/pp, it could be the economic answer for the years ahead. Just keep moving from cruise ship to cruise ship all the time, just chasing those sunsets.
Actually, when you do take a close look at this cruise, there are an awful lot of people on this cruise who look as tho they are just sitting around waiting to die. I was bit leery about the whole cruise ship travel but people who cruise seem to love it. "Crusing" should not be confused with "Traveling", six hours in a different port each or every other day does not make you a visitor to the city or a traveler in the country. But as I have learned as the trip goes on, there is really very little choice if you want to see South America. Because of the lack of roads and ground transportation, your only other options other than the occasional train is to fly or to cruise.
Our trip began on the 26th of March, when the Browns, Gaughrans, Orrs and Marquis flew from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, Argentina on a relatively comfortable 14 hour flight. Since we were pretty much flying from North to South and across only 4 time zones, the jet lag was negligible and we hit the ground running after a brief stop in Santiago and arriving at our Hotel in Buenos Aires just before noon. A first look at our hotel left a few in the group questioning by ability to pick and choose a refuge for our next couple of days.
But as we settled in, my status as "tour guide" seemed to rise. Our hostess was a delight, and the rooms began to grow on everyone. Definitely, not the Ritz or the International, it was none the less charming and located in a wonderful section of the City called Hollywood/Palermo, which was highly touted on the Internet, but did take a bit getting used to. A very Bohemian section of the city, with great bars and restaurants.
At cocktails that evening, in our private courtyard, we hosted our first International Party. As people would stroll back to their rooms there was an automatic invite to join us and tell us what we needed to see and do. The consensus seemed to be that (1) we needed to see a Tango Show and take a city tour in order to orient ourselves to Buenos Aires inasmuch as we only had the two days before getting on the ship.
As we headed out to dinner it became apparent what problems lie ahead for a group of 8 travelers, with no one wanting to step forward, make a decision, and take all the shit for making the wrong one. This is a tough and demanding group and you have to be on top of your game if you want to lead.
Next morning it was up and out the front door to our semi-private tour of the city. It was most informative, and I always feel more comfortable having a visual in my head as to how the city is laid out. The city was designed by the same architect who laid out the city of Paris, complete with wide tree lined avenues and masses of people, stores and sidewalk cafes. Less expensive than Paris, and lacking some of the fame and charm, it nonetheless was a great city to be in and a wonderful city to begin our trip in.
We left the tour and visited Eva Peron’s tomb, followed by a lunch near the park and were seated across from some decked out Argentinean dames with enough botox in their body to keep a small boat afloat. Dinning at times is cheap an at other times extremely expensive. It usually costs 20% more to be seated outside rather than inside. The food is the same, but the flavor and people watching, and ambiance is well worth the upcharge.
Surprisingly, there is very little English spoken down here. Even the waiters and the cop on the street don’t speak the King’s English. Spanish seems to be of little value as the language spoken is more Italian than Spanish.
But a little Spanish, some wild hand gestures and by speaking very slowly and loudl, you seem to be able to get your point across and your questions answered. Don and Bob decided to hoof it back to the B&B while Bob Guaghran and I escorted the women folk back via some shopping in the park, a visit to few museums, and then a ten minute cab ride.
Prior to dinner that night, the owner and his wife provided us with our very own, private tango show. While the tangos we’ve seen have not totally inspired me to go back and see the stage play "Forever Tango"(ala Bill & Judy Hinch), I think having seen the country of origin for the tango and their love for the dance, it does give me a new appreciation for the dance.......not quite enough to take lessons, loose 50 lbs and squeeze into a pair of pointy black shoes tho.
Sunday, March 26th came and it was time to move the group to the cruise ship and the next part of our "travels". We managed to get thru immigration and customs and onto the ship well ahead of the crowds. Prior to settling into our "Staterooms" and unpacking, we opted to begin our "grazing" aboard the ship.
The group rallied about the "Garden Cafe" to begin our eating frenzy. As with any buffet, you begin very selectively and end up with a plate that borders on the obscene and tastes even worse. This was to be our first and last dining experience compliments of the Garden Cafe. The cafe seems to attract those intent on getting their money’s worth at the expense of the buffet and the cruise line.. A walk thru the cafe, with the occasional side glance to the plates all about you.... filled to excess, is a wonderful deterrent to ever eating again. In fairness this deterrent lasts until the next meal, when you must force yourself into discipline mode once again. As the trip goes on, we seem to do best in the large dining rooms both mid-ship and aft where "they" control your portions and you tend to eat a bit less. But then again I can’t recall the last time I had apple cobbler and ice cream for dessert at a noon time meal.
As I mentioned the cruise began in Buenos Aires which is on the east coast of Argentina on an inland waterway which is touted as the dirtiest river in South America. We traveled east to the Atlantic and to the port city of Montevideo, Uruguay. Most of us seemed to be on the same page as we ignored the structured tours promoted by the cruise ship. Walking tours began at $75/pp and spiraled up to $275.99 which offered the "cruiser" with the "Ultimate Montevideo Experience"
It quickly becomes quite apparent that this cheap cruise could get financially out of control if you were to take all the optional tours offered to you. The real problem aside from the cost for all of these off ship tours is that most take you on hours long bus rides far away from the port itself. People report driving for hours on gravel roads only to be marginally entertained by what the destination held. We opted for a free bus ride, compliments of a local leather goods concern, which at least got us to the center of town and a starting point for our walking tour.
How fortunate we are to have been greeted by a "market" in our honor at the center of town from which to purchase all those trinkets we really don’t need or want. Couldn’t quite locate the museums in town thanks to the poor quality of the maps provided by the cruise ships. The cruise line very much discourages exploring on your own and as such are reluctant to provide you with any information what so ever. Its not so much of a concern for the passengers, but more of a concern for their bottom line and there efforts to promote their own agendas and cruise options.
We were all fortunate to have seen a CNBC special on cruising, featuring our NCL cruise line. The point to be made was how close these cruise ships operate to the break-even point and how very important these side excursions are to their profitability. It doesn’t just stop with the continued selling of these optional trips, but the constant announcements of the "art auctions", "gold and emerald sales", the bingo games and slot machine tournaments.
It seems to be just one "giveaway" after another. The sales and promotions that are constantly being recommended, make you think that you are inside a QVC studio rather than on a cruise ship.
For those in the group that have been on many cruises, the change in orientation have been very apparent. From the meals at dinner ( I had the thinnest piece of prime rib I have ever been served......I didn’t think you could slice beef that thin) to the cost of liquor on board and the cruise line’s over riding fear that you might smuggle alcohol onto the ship and not partake of their overpriced cocktails and wine.
We all did quite well by "smuggling" our alcohol on board in plastic containers. CVS pharmacy sells most major brands in plastic containers that don’t look like the typical bottles and apparently don’t scan like a bottle of booze would. Bob Marquis gets the award for most creative as he brought his scotch on board in a plastic bag similar to the ones hanging off the side of hospital beds....................not very appealing but it passed the screeners with flying colors.
I figure at the very least, we have set the cruise ship back several hundreds of dollars in liquor sales and lost revenue. Not very nice of us, considering what dire straights the cruise lines are in. At the various ports we’ve been able to bring back our tonic and other mixes back on board after the day’s tour. Others in the group have been known to transport their adult beverage of choice back on board the ship in "water" bottles. It becomes a game, and I think our group is winning.
Personally, I am offended and find it embarrassing for the cruise line to be hawking "fresh squeezed" orange juice at breakfast for $5/glass or popcorn in the bar for a $1/bag. If things are that tight, just up the price of the cruise a few bucks and give me the orange juice and pop-corn.......but again that’s just me.
Back to the "itinerary..............................We all got safely back on board, contrary to what the cruise line had told us and even better several hundred dollars to the good.
Our next day, 3/31/09 was spent at sea which allowed us to catch up on our reading and eating. If you are a joiner, game player, crafter or an onboard shopper, these days at sea are designed with you in mind. As the weather begins to cool , seats around the pool become more accessible. Its these days at sea where a balcony seems to be more important and far less confining than an inside cabin would be. The balcony would become even more important as we entered the Chilean Fjords and the wonderful sights that awaited us.
The further south we head, the larger the swells and the colder the weather. One can only begin to imagine what this trip must have been like for Magellan and those who followed him.........making this journey without a dessert buffet or a pasta bar. One of the interesting aspects of this trip is that with few exceptions we are visiting places that I’ve never even heard of, much less expected to visit.
Puerto Madryn, just down the coast several hundred miles is a good example. If you were traveling on your own, you’d blow thru Puerto Madryn without ever looking back and with few regrets. The stop was hardly worth the effort, aside from the fact that there were no other seaport towns within hundreds of miles. Again, this trip south is best taken aboard a cruise ship and would be almost impossible to make the trip on your own.
The sidetrips offered by the ship began to take on a familiar similarity. Aside from being terribly expensive ($139.99 to $208.99/pp), they all involved extensive overland travel and lasted between 5-8 hours most of which was spent on a bus. We were able to do Port Madryn for about a buck fifty which included a visit to the local museum. On the way to the museum, we found a lovely little indoor mall, featuring tango dancers and air-conditioning.
After enjoying both, the men stepped outside and had a chat with a couple of guys, one from England the other from Buenos Aires who were camping their way across Argentina enroute to a ski resort to work the season. Most of their travel had been by train (slow and unpredictable) or by bus (even more slow and more unpredictable). They had been camping about the country with some stays in cheap hotels as their funds dictated.
After a brief stop at the bottle shop to replenish our tonic supplies (malaria is a big problem in this part of the world) we settled ourselves back onto the Norwegian Sun and asked ourselves why we had stopped in Puerto Madryn.
After another day at sea, several hundred more miles to the south, and an additional twelve thousand calories, we found ourselves in Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. If you remember back to the late 80’s the Argentineans and the British fought a brief war over the Islands that cost many lives and resolved nothing. And now having visited the Islands, it begs the question.....Why?
A small grouping of Islands, with several times more sheep than people, a flat wind-blown terrain at almost the bottom of the earth can hardly be worth fighting for. The wide expanse of a harbor is strewn with the hulls of ships that were just to old or too tired to carry on and they have been left to dissolve in the south Atlantic.
Being that the Island remains British, we did (after the second try) manage to find a pub that featured fish and chips and some very decent beer. The pub was perched on a hillside in view of the que of people heading back to the ship. As the weather continues to cool, the warmth of the pub was most welcome. Our day time dress has gone to long pants, jackets and scarves as we’ve packed up all of our shorts until we round the horn and head north into warmer waters.
But for now, there is much colder weather and high seas yet to come as we work our way south and around Cape Horn. This is the part of the trip that is probably most anticipated, viewing and rounding Cape Horn.
When Bob and Debbie last took this trip, they rounded the Cape in the dead of night which dampened the drama just a bit. Our trip to the Horn from the Falklands was punctuated with 12-15 foot waves all the while our Captain promising calmer seas to the south. We arrived at the infamous Cape Horn in the late afternoon and made two passes at the Cape so if you had a stateroom with a balcony you didn’t even need to get out of bed to view the Cape.
The captain proved himself quite the meteorologist as his predictions of calm waters came true. I was somewhat disappointed with the flat seas, as I had envisioned myself in 50 foot swells, and howling winds as we rounded Cape Horn. It turned out, that as we were rounding the cape, I was standing with a rum and tonic (don’t forget the malaria threat) on the balcony in very calm waters waiting for the dinner bell. Not quite as dramatic as the stories that I have read, but the experience did generate a sense of awe at having experienced something that not everyone has had the opportunity to do.
After our second pass across the cape we headed northwest and up into the Beagle Channel and our first look at the inland passageway and the fjords on our way to Ushuaia. We were looking forward to a train trip on the "Train at the End of the World". After a change of plans, (the train was sold out and just as well) we booked an independent tour at the end of the pier and teamed up with a few of our "new" best friends and set out for a trip thru the Ushuaia National Park.
As promised the trip was several hours over a "shingle" road to various high/low points..... with the driver tearing off his side mirror after dueling with an oncomming bus. The trip back to town ended at the docks with a few of us venturing to town for a trip thru the prison and the museum. Our hike back to the ship took us past several restaurants featuring "whole butterflied lambs" roasting vertically on open fires in full view................they looked great and smelled even better. Time did not permit a taste, as the boat was about to depart. They are very fussy about everyone getting back to the ship on time.
We had a 2pm departure from Ushuaia which none of us could understand until we re-entered the Beagle Channel for our very first look at the magnificent glaciers that dropped into the fjords. They were truly the most spectacular and dramatic sightings we had seen thus far, but unfortunately because of the gloomy skies our photos won’t do the scenery justice. For about an hour we were all struck by the colors and magnitude of what we were seeing. Being in the Fjords was breath-taking, but when coupled with the glaciers dropping into these fjords, it was even more so.
The calm seas provided by the Beagle Channel made for a good nite’s sleep and made us more than ready for our arrival in Punta Arenas, Chile. Oh, Oh another currency change and now we have to divide by 517 which I was never any good at.
We decided to pass on Tour #0221 "Torres Del Paine National Park" at $1099.99/pp and ventured into to town on our own to another "market in the plaza" in honor of cruise ship day in Punta Arenas. The girls had a field day purchasing alpaca sweaters and hats from the "locals" while the guys camped out in the center of the plaza listening to Chilean Music accompanied by the barking of the town’s stray dogs. Not only could the dogs sing they had become experts at negotiating the crosswalks of the town, waiting patiently, their turn, to cross on the "green" light. They certainly did not live that long crossing on "red" lights. We wondered into a historical house/museum which included a room dedicated to Louis Shakelton, as this was the house that he had sought help from so as to return to the arctic for his shipmates. Another museum or two in this lovely town and it was time to head back on board and another cocktail party and another meal and yet another show in the Stardust Lounge.
A 7pm departure put us into the Straits of Magellan on the Pacific side followed by two days at sea meandering our way thru the Chilean Fjords and the Patagonic Channels and ending in the Canal Moraleda. This was particularly nice part of the trip as we were in calm waters and always in sight of land.
Our next ports of call was Puerto Chacabuco, Chile, a tiny speck of a city at the end of one of the fjords. We tendered in and were waved onto a bus to "nowhere" as we weren’t quite sure of our destination or the driver’s motive. We determined the price to be $1 so we decided to stay aboard. We passed thru Chacabuco in about 2 minutes noting nothing of interest and continuing on thru the valley to the City of Puerto Aisen, which had been the port city until an earthquake land- locked the port forcing it to move to Chacabuco. A few moments strolling the town enabled us to cross both Aisen and Chacabuco off of our "bucket list".
The only reason I can imagine for stopping at these ports is that there is nothing else remotely close. The surroundings are magnificent but the towns offer little in the way of shopping, ambiance, or any other good reason to stay and spend some time.
As we begin to near the end of our journey, we have one more port to visit and that being Puerto Montt, named after a much beloved President from years ago.
A view from the ship, revealed a town much larger than we had previously visited. We decided to depart the boat after the mad rush in hopes of getting a bargain on some tour or another. We had in mind a tour to the lake district and the National Park. Upon our arrival on the docks we were immediately attacked by tour guides willing to take us to the ends of the earth. After turning our backs on a couple of $250/ for all of us offers we found a more hungry operator willing to do it for $200. After agreeing, we were shown to a clean bus for 8, equipped with a driver and a cute, English speaking Chilean student.
As with all the tours, the sights are all some distance from the ports which involves again, a rather lengthy bus ride. Our guide was a real sweetheart, trying to stay one step ahead of our Chilean speaking driver who really wanted to be "the guide" but did not’t speak any English. The trip became a bit annoying sitting in the front seat with the driver speaking Chilean in one ear and the real guide speaking English into my other ear.
Our journey took us outside the City of Puerto Montt via a four lane divided highway to the lovely town of Puerto Varas. This highway is said to be an extension of our Camino Real which eventually reaches to the Canadian border. Don’t feel ready to test the validity of the claim, but it does make for a nice story.
Puerto Varas is one of the more scenic towns that we have visited off the ship. This lakeside town, with its German Heritage, is quite scenic with its views of Lake Esmeralda and the snow capped Osorno Volcano with its ski resort near the top. Two more volcanoes ring this valley and until only recently were barren of snow. We were told that up until two weeks ago not only was there no visible snow but the rivers ran dry. This was the first sunny day in two weeks and was much appreciated as we made our way towards Lake Esmeralda and Petrohue Falls. Both stops were spectacular, and reminded us of trips to the Sierras and the Rockies.
After the Falls, we began to make our way home. As time was beginning to become an issue we debated the merits of stopping for lunch. Our newly acquired habit of eating every two hours got the best of the group and we elected to stop at what proved to be disaster in the making. Not only did we forget to ask "quanta costa tiene usted" (sp how much is it) but we accepted what we thought to be a complimentary seafood platter (not!!!! $35.00) and then fought off the infamous "catalina meat bees" for the entire meal. The meals were either too saucy or way to large.
Sitting in the Salmon Capital of South America, why would I order the Meat dish with three humongous cuts of meat that I couldn’t identify?...................live and learn! By not asking How Much? we then obligated ourselves to a $60/cpl lunch that by local standards should have cost us nor more than $10.
While lunch did take a bit of the edge off of our excursion, it proved to be a lovely day, with spectacular countryside and a wonderful student/guide leading the way. We did miss the market................to bad so sad...............just down from the entrance to the port as we were running out time and had to get back for our 6pm sailing and our last full day at sea.
As I try to wrap up this South American diatribe, the day is Saturday, April 11th and it is our final full day at sea before we arrive in Valparaiso, Chile.
I had booked a tour/transfer on Craig’s List to transport the eight of us from the Port to Santiago. As we have a late flight, we have scheduled a tour of Valpariaso, the coast and the wine district before being delivered to the airport for our 8pm flight.
A quick four hour flight over the Andes and a short stopover in Lima followed by an 8 hour flight to LAX gets us home on Monday the 13th. I apologize for the not so timely e-mail but given the cost of e-mailing on board ($.75/minute) and the lack of time in port forces me to be a bit after the fact. Susan brought her computer and so I was able to spend some time recounting the trip as we went along and then e-mailing under more cost efficient systems when I got home.
On the whole the trip was quite lovely and at times lived up to some of the visuals I had preconceived. Quite simply there is virtually no other reasonable way to make this journey other than by ship. Not being totally sold on the "cruising" method of traveling, I fully realize there is no other way to have seen this part of the world. And I also realize how disappointing some of these cities would have been after traveling on gravel roads for hours only to arrive in towns like Madryn or Chacabuco.
Visiting some of the towns that we did, in this part of the world provided a sense of adventure not usually associated with cruising. I feel fortunate to have seen these remote locales and I can guarantee you with certainty that they are not going to change in the immediate future. Hopefully, should any of you sign on, you’ll be met with the 50’ swells and the 75 mph winds that would truly make the rounding of Cape Horn a sterling adventure rather than just another day in the buffet line.
Love to all of you and thanks for reading this, provided you got this far .......gb
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