Wrapping up the S.A. Adventure.....

Heartfelt apologies for not updating my blog earlier. I was just reminded by Michelle that some would think I am still "out there" so thanks, Michelle, for the nudge to close out this segment and plan the next. We did arrive home safe and mostly sound 2 weeks ago and immediately I was busy with everything gearing up and the fun of house-sitting with my two favourite canines, Lady and Tripp, while their humans are in Portugal and Spain. I would be totally remiss if I weren't to share the experience of our last few days in Buenos Aires, particularly our last day. Most of our last couple of days we spent doing last minute shopping, mailing (I mailed home 5kg of stuff I didn't want to weigh down my suitcase(s)and it actually arrived in a week) and ensuring that my final purchase in Buenos Aires was another piece of leather in the form of a great carry-on bag. This was much needed as original carry-on bag had to be checked!! It was our last night and day, however, that presented the most challenge. Having spent the afternoon before our travel day packing, organizing and otherwise 'puttering' our respective ways around the apartment we had discussed where to have our last night's dinner and all agreed that we should go to our little family-run restaurant downstairs from our apartment. We had been out for many great meals in Buenos Aires and might have chosen to try a new restaurant but thought that we would like to go to this spot where we had cultivated a rapport with the owner and our server and an incredible taste for their dulce de leche ice cream and flan. We all got to that packing point one reaches where nothing else can be done until morning and giggled once again through our very rickety, very old elevator ride to the street at about 8:30 p.m. This meant that the restaurant was still virtually empty, with the exception of a few folks on the upper level. Downstairs, we sat in our usual table mostly alone except for our server and the chef. At some point, Denise and I, who were facing the door and windows, noticed a young couple enter the restaurant and not far from us, sit at a low-slung couch and coffee table. The owner usually sat there drinking wine with his friends and it struck me as a peculiar spot to sit down for a meal and went back to our conversation. The couple left rather quickly apparently but no one noticed their departure. Not until much later when we went to pay our bill and Maggie, reaching for her bag, discovered it to be gone!! We looked everywhere around the table and it took some seconds for it to sink in that this couple must have lifted it and made their hasty exit. We had been uber-conscious everywhere we went of being vigilant about how we carried our bags, what we carried and so on. We had read the books, we'd heeded the warnings of locals and we had done it all right. But here we were in a place that felt like 'home' to us by this time and learned that the guard can't be let down, among other things. Actually that was just one of many lessons in this exercise. We had emptied our safe before going downstairs for dinner and had organized our handbags so we were ready to travel. That meant, for Maggie, that every credit card, government-issue cards (including passport), substantial cash $ in several currencies and various "other" cards (Aeroplan, etc) were all in this bag. Under every other circumstance she had kept this bag around her neck/shoulder as we knew this was best but being in the comfort of our own 'local' she slung it over her chairback. Actually, Denise had done the same but given her seat it was not as opportune for the thief to choose that one as we would have all seen him. Maggie had done everything as we are supposed to so she had copies of every credit card and her ID in her suitcase. Owing to this, she was able to get on my Skype and get them cancelled within about 15 mins and be on to the 24 hour emergency # at the Canadian Embassy who assured her she could get travel documents in time for our flight the next evening. What could have been a horrific nightmare ended up being only a pain in the butt because she had all of her vital information with her in a safe place. Everybody repeat after me I WILL KEEP A PHOTOCOPY OF ALL CREDIT CARDS AND IDENTIFICATION IN A SAFE PLACE WHEN I TRAVEL. Maggie actually dealt with it better than the rest of us and we spent an interesting next day with she and I making an early, rainy visit to the local constabulary to file an incident report as this was necessary to get new travel documents. They told us this happens all the time and what was a trauma for us was absolutely a daily occurrence for them. The English speaking attorney who helped Maggie with translation and walked us to a place to get passport pictures said it happened ALL the time. The afternoon was spent with the nice folks at the Canadian Consulate and, as promised, travel documents were in hand by 4:00, just in time to head to the airport. We had an absolutely fabulous trip! Chile is a country full of spectacular natural beauty, Uruguay was a place to return to and Argentina will definitely find me going back. I can see now how easy it is to travel to South America, how wonderfully friendly (for the most part :-) the locals are and will be looking forward to seeing the northern part of the continent as soon as it can be planned. I also want to be able to speak better Spanish when I go back there or anywhere (would even help in Arizona :-). Thank you for sharing all of this with me. The entire adventure was a blessing for me and I hope you have enjoyed it. BE VIGILANT wherever you are. Lots of love, Sally xoxo

Tango

In the words of the Bellamy Brothers "it's just a vertical expression of horizontal desire". It would seem that those who are not Portenos (natives of Buenos Aires) want us to believe that tango started as a men only event initiated on the ranches with the gauchos. Here in Buenos Aires it goes that the tango and modern Buenos Aires were born in the same place: the conventillos (tenement houses) of the port neighbourhood of La Boca in the late 19th century and eventually swept from the brothels and cabarets to the rest of the city. By the 1920s the dance had become respectable enough to fill the salons of the upper class in Argentina and abroad. Carlos Gardel made tango music popular in its own right in the 1930s and it is his legacy that we experienced last night La Esquinas Carlos Gardel. It was a dinner and show and none of us had very high expectations for dinner but we were excited to see the show. It far exceeded our expectations. Dinner was outstanding and we are still shaking our heads over how they managed to have a very good selection for 3 courses for dinner with about 500 people in the theatre. The dinner was as good as any we have had and we've had some great ones! We enjoyed every aspect of the show! The music and its two-four beat beg the body to MOVE and I believe that anyone who can sit quietly through a tango show must not possess a rhythmic gene. Today we will head back up to the Recoleta Artisanal Market in case there is something we have forgotten.....lol.....and head to Tortoni, another tango cafe for a late lunch and some more tango music before having a night at home for the Oscars. We are dismayed to think we have only a few days left for this amazing visit and plan to make the most of it. Trivia for you -- Tango so horrified Kaiser Wilhelm and Pope Pius X that they banned the dance...hmmmmm, maybe not so surprising ......xoxo

take 2

I just wanted to add a couple of still pictures if I can........

Iguazu Falls-good things can come from earthquakes

We have just returned from an overnight trip to Iguazu National Park which is a 12 hour drive and 1 1/2 hour flight (our mode) and I need to report that it is absolutely spectacular. Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls have their own beauty but this is a collection of approximately 275 separate waterfalls - in the rainy season there are as many as 350 - that plunge, with a deafening roar, more than 200 feet at a bend in the Iguazu River where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. They stretch along 2.7 km of cliff-face. Dense, lush jungle surrounds the falls. Apparently, a pine tree here, with the tropical sun and omnipresent moisture, can grow at a rate that produces a towering tree in two decades instead of the seven it would take, say, at home. By the falls and along the roadside, rainbows and butterflies are everywhere set off against walls of red earth. The falls and the lands around them are protected by the National Parks of each country. Iguazu means "big water" and was the name given to it by the indigenous Guarani people but 'big' doesn't come close to describing this wall of water. Taller than Niagara, wider than Victoria, it truly is one of the most awe-inspiring sights I have ever seen. Everywhere, there are falls ranging from picturesque cascades to immense cataracts and this is what makes it so incredibly special. The flora and fauna that surround them are amazing and know no fear of humans so authorities are adamant that none be fed, of course, but they also are intrigued with humans, it seems. We would have small mammals following us along the catwalks, butterflies landing on our arms and even faces and birds flying to land right beside us, including some most beautiful specimens. What an experience! The four of us walked about a 5km, fairly flat route as soon as we arrived in order to see the "Devil's Throat", one of the most dramatic of the falls and did a train ride through the jungle to get to the trail. It was 35 degrees and of course, very humid so we were all tired but Denise and I decided that we must do the boat ride that goes under the falls as we had read in every guide book and first-hand that it was not to be missed. We bought our ticket at a central point in the park and I have no idea what we were thinking but when we asked the ticket seller "ok, what now?" we must have thought a car and driver would be arriving to take us to the dock.....who knows? His answer was "well, just follow the trail down to the lower circuit and follow the signs to the boat, it will take about an hour". To capture the image, you have to remember that I mentioned the 200 foot drop of the falls and that we were at the top needing to get to the bottom to get the boat. Well, we succeeded in doing that and had an absolutely amazing time in the boat. We actually have it all on a video the guys made for tourists to buy and it is quite something to see ourselves. THEN, we had to get back to the top in order to get back to the hotel!!!! Well, I am writing this so you know we survived and Denise is thinking it might have been tougher than surviving the Chilean earthquake last weekend. lol... Our first clue that it was going to be a tough go should have been the fact that the rest of the people in the boat were under 35!! It was glorious and we are proud of ourselves! We both agree that it's not something we need to do again tomorrow, however. We got up this morning and walked the rest of the upper circuit that we'd missed yesterday but that was only a leisurely couple of kms return albeit with higher temperature than yesterday. I am going to try to upload a short video and a picture and if I've picked the right video I think you will be able to see how close they let people get to the falls and also how low the railings are that separate people from water. Not anything like what we would see at home but it makes for a very dramatic experience. We will just have another movie night tonight in Buenos Aires and re-adjust. lol.............love to all, Sally xoxo

Buenos Aires Birthday..........

Thank you to everyone who has sent birthday greetings! I haven't been very good about keeping up my blog since we arrived in Buenos Aires as the routine has changed and I just don't seem to have found the 'sweet spot' for sitting down to it the way I had on the ship. The earthquake excitement had me somewhat discombobulated, as well. I shall try to make amends and will work on pictures tomorrow. Denise, Emily, Maggie and I did the hop on/hop off tour yesterday so with that and the other tour we took, we have seen each neighbourhood or 'barrio' of Buenos Aires and I reiterate, it is a most amazing city. Each neighbourhood has such a distinctively different flavour from the next so that whether riding or walking you seem to actually feel yourself transitioning to the next. In some cases it is obvious, such as in San Telmo, home of the tango (which originated with the gauchos, only men danced it) or in La Boca, where there will be tango dancers on the street inviting people to come to their milonga to tango or watch a show. In others, it is less dramatic such as the old European architectural influences of Recoleta (where we are) meeting the stunning embassy circles of Palermo. We had a funny experience today. If you recall, when I was last in Buenos Aires, I told the story of leather shopping in La Boca and how excited Maggie and I were to be coming back after watching Margaret's fun while purse shopping. Well, we have had a few days to do a lot of comparison shopping (more price comparison as the serious shopping hadn't begun yet)so when we went to La Boca this morning to show Denise and Emily all the leather wares you can imagine how disappointed we were to take a look and discover that not only were these bags over-priced but they weren't nearly the quality of some of the stores we'd already checked out. It was a fabulous area to experience and the girls treated me to an AMAZING birthday lunch at a restaurant called Patagonia Sur, one of the top 10 in Argentina but other than that, we decided La Boca was vastly over-rated and went downtown to Florida St. to do our shopping. Florida St. is a pedestrian only street full of leather/silver/clothing/restaurants and lots of people. It is very lively, to say the least. It is full of all of the typical North American chain stores but the Argentinian stores are the place to be. Because of the weakness of the peso against our $ all of the Argentinian products are fabulous value. Leather and silver are where it's at. So.....always one to help out any host country, we have begun the quest. Denise bought me the most amazing handbag today for my birthday. I hope to be carrying it around for my birthday trip for my 83rd! Maggie gave me a beautiful turtle pin that she had bought for me while we were in Chile. Emily gave me a lovely box of what we all thought was truffles but before anyone could take a bite she pointed out that they are candles. Very cute! They will all be lovely birthday mementos along with the incredible birthday memories. Best part of all is that this birthday marks 6 years cancer-free.........YAYYYYYYYY! We are all so tired from all of the walking (the heat has turned on again after several balmy days) and still full from lunch so we are sitting down to giggle through "It's Complicated" again and will pass on dinner...........hope everyone is well and safe.....love, Sally xoxo

In Argentina, not Chile today

I won't be posting much today except to let you all know that Maggie and I arrived in Buenos Aires on Wed. and it is a most amazing city and no quakes here. I expected Denise to arrive to join us today but unfortunately she is still in Santiago where she was to spend a day and a half and the earthquake struck! Last night at 4 a.m. she was wakened by the quake and evacuated from the hotel (Radisson Plaza where we had stayed overnight on Tuesday. We are trying to get her here but airport is closed, likely until Thursday, they tell her, so we are trying to find wheeled transport. Unfortunately,Santiago is 780 miles from Buenos Aires. Anyhow, she is safe although shaken and I am terribly worried but hope she is united with us soon. She and I, on our travels, are always planning for "grand adventures". I could have done with her not having this one without me. Sorry, don't mean to say I am missing her excitement but I am missing her and hope she is here soon. Although we have seen lots here, I'm just not in th mood to report on anything else at the moment. On the good news side, Maggie's cousin Emily arrived safely from Florida this morning and it is good to have her with us. Hopefully better news tomorrow..........lots of love, Sally

The Lake District, Chile

I have definitely fallen in love with Chile. From its incredible natural beauty to the open friendliness of its people it exceeds every thought I ever had of the country. I know I have gone on at length about the beauty of cruising in the Chilean archipelago but today I saw more of the countryside and it just keeps on getting lovelier. Pastoral scenes of rolling farmland, much of it dedicated to dairy cattle but also a lot of cash crops, put me in mind of the County. However, no sooner had I sat back to enjoy this scenery than we were climbing into the mountains to see the 2 volcanoes that are nearby, Osorno and Calbuco. As the morning was very overcast were were driving through cloud cover as we ascended and didn’t actually get to see the volcanoes until we were back on the ship in the late afternoon when the sun broke through. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful trip and our stop at Petrohue, the gateway to Rosales National Park which abuts Argentina, was beautiful with plenty of well-maintained trails and the time to do some exploring of the falls and rapids. Many of us chose to do some white water rafting but yours truly was more inclined towards enjoying the roar and the photo opportunities . This port, Puerto Montt, is the terminus for the continental portion of the Pan American highway that I mentioned earlier in the week. It stretches 16,000 miles from Alaska to the southern tip of Chiloe Island (right beside Puerto Montt). From here it crosses the Andes into Argentina ending finally in Ushuaia, Argentina which is where we travelled to the end of it last week. I was thinking today that even if one drove it in its entirety, through this Chilean portion, one would never be able to capture completely the beauty of this country. So much of the southern part of the country is taken up with the archipelago and the only way to experience it is by boat. I am blessed, blessed, blessed. Tomorrow is at sea, last day before our arrival in Valparaiso on Tuesday. From there we will go to spend the night in Santiago before heading to Buenos Aires on Wednesday. I will check in from Buenos Aires as we begin the Argentinean adventures……..and will be hoping the rains there have ended!! Love to all, Sally xoxo

Chilean Fjords - take 2

I am absolutely thrilled to have had this chance to cruise the Chilean fjords again for a couple of days. As I mentioned on the previous leg, there is something primal and Tolkienesque about the landscape and this time I would add “lunar-like” to the reference. The islands are the remains of a massive coral reef that once thrived in the tropical waters off the Chilean coast. Yes, tropical. The Chilean coast was a calm tropical sea about 300 million years ago and there are thousands of these small islets remaining. Over a period of eons the wind and rain that pummel the islands relentlessly dissolves the rock and there is a vast network of subterranean tunnels, chambers and sinkholes beneath the islands’ limestone surfaces. Traces of ancient people have been found in the islands but little is known of the now-extinct Alakaluff nomads. To us, in this time, it feels as though it has never been inhabited and the atmosphere attracts my explorer mentality in a very meaningful way. The fjords are fed by glacial ice from the sprawling ice fields in the central highland valley. We see powerful “shows” (of ice in the water) as we pass by and these evidence the fact that the ice is melting at an alarmingly rapid rate. Just a little more than a century ago, when Darwin saw these narrow Chilean passages, he reported far more glacial ice. Warming cycles are natural, but it does appear to scientists that human activity has accelerated the process. This morning we went to a talk from the Captain, Exec Officer and Restaurant Manager and questions were asked about the Antarctic cruises that this ship takes at times. The captain’s description of 7 days cruising the Antarctic Archipelago, even without a port of call, makes me want to put that on my ‘bucket list’. Such a long list it’s become! Tomorrow we will be in Puerto Montt (our last port before we dock in Valparaiso again next Tuesday) where I plan to visit Petrohue Falls, Osorno Volcano and more of the Chilean countryside. The fjords will be left behind but I feel superbly blessed to have had this experience of being with one of the planet’s most inaccessible, pristine and stunning places. Its beauty is certainly one of the highlights of this trip. We are entering the open Pacific shortly so I think it’s time for my daily trek on the promenade deck for some exercise and to see if there may be some more photo ops, just may be. Love to all, Sally xoxo

Penguins of Patagonia

If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be prancing with the penguins in Patagonia today I would have laughed myself silly. Instead, I spent the morning laughing myself silly while prancing with the penguins. I do believe these guys were created just to make us laugh. It is impossible to post enough pictures for you to get the idea of how up close and personal this encounter was but I will try to narrow down a good one. Magdalena Island is 1 ½ hours across the Strait of Magellan from Punta Arenas and is a penguin preserve. They arrive near end of August or early September, the males arriving first to burrow the nest and put up the Christmas decorations and two weeks later their mates show up to make sure it’s been done right. After the honeymoon they take turns sitting on their 1 or 2 eggs, usually 8 hours each while the other fishes. The babies usually arrive in December which is why they recommend Jan/Feb as best viewing times to see the new young. They leave again in March when the days begin to shorten and the babies have all molted their baby fluff. The babies are considered mature at age 4 and the males then begin the same patterns. If a male dies the female will find a new one when she returns to the island as the males “own” the burrows. If a female dies it often takes some time before the male mates again. Their lifespan is 15-20 years unless they have an 'accident'. These are Magellanic penguins that I saw today, also called donkey or jackass penguins because of their voices which do sound remarkably like braying donkeys and when they all get talking to one another it is quite the chorus! They inhabit the entire island until the ferry brings the tourists in and they are incredibly excited and curious about seeing people. There are roped off paths for people to walk and it is strongly suggested that one stays on them but the penguins, of course, do their thing so they will walk right up to people making for great photo ops and great temptation to touch them but they have quite a bite so it’s not recommended.. There were 170,000 pairs and their offspring living happily with terns that were almost as big as they were and cormorants. There are no sea lions on their island so no natural enemies and I suspect they will just take care of overpopulation themselves when the time comes. In the meantime, it is a spectacle that I am blessed to have experienced…..seems to be the theme of this great adventure………love, Sally xoxo

Tierra del Fuego and Beagle Channel

Many people ask us why we chose to do the return trip on this cruise, back to Valparaiso, when most chose to do 12 days one way only. Usually, we have answered “because when we booked we didn’t know there was a 12 day cruise” and although that is true we are quickly discovering why we were meant to do this in both directions. It is so vastly different from the first leg. I have already told you about the very rough seas we experienced for 3 days; 3 days that the Captain informs us is the roughest he has seen in years. It has been followed by the 2 most beautiful days imaginable so we are hoping it stays with us. Again, the Captain informs us that our rounding of Cape Horn last night was the calmest of his career and so much so that he allowed the pilot to take us up a channel that even the Captain had never ventured on before because of how narrow it was. There is a peace beyond understanding as we glide along the Avenue of Glaciers tonight heading north to meet the Strait of Magellan with the sun shining brilliantly off the ice (too much of which is in the water just since last week). Today in Ushuaia, when we went to Tierra del Fuego National Park the locals were beside themselves with excitement as they said today was the kind they might see once a summer if they are lucky. The forecast was for 19 and sunny when their usual average is about 10 in the summer and lots of rain. The park itself was awesomely beautiful, truly. Enough to make you want to 'go native' as you will see from this picture. Don't we clean up good for formal night?? Unfortunately, it would be a lonely spot as we would be the only natives here. None survived the arrival of the missionaries. We went to the end of the PanAmerican Highway that starts in Alaska. That was quite a kick. It is something like 15,000 km long and I was startled to hear that we are actually 3500 km from Buenos Aires now. Mother Nature put on another great show with the bluest of blues and whitest of whites and even a few bikinis ventured out on deck this afternoon. It was quite funny, though, to see them juxtaposed with the woman beside them in the wool hat and scarf. For myself, it was perfect t-shirt and capris weather for the daily walk on the promenade deck. Tomorrow we will be in Punta Arenas and I am very excited about walking with the penguins on Magdalena Island. More on that tomorrow………keep well and do not forget to take the time to smell the flowers, coffee, fresh air, each other and perform those random acts of kindness………lots of love, Sally xoxo

Falkland Islands Med-evac

I had to write to let you all know about the med-evac that I referred to yesterday. It turned out that we did have to make a stop at the Falklands although it was very tricky and we were all thankful that we were not trying to tender to port, especially after watching this evacuation procedure from my verandah. It all took place right below us. Of course, everyone was curious as to whom and what the medical emergency was all about. We had heard about the elderly lady travelling by herself on the first leg of the cruise and had been keeping an eye out in hopes of meeting her. Well, on Sunday, Valentine’s Day, when seas became outrageously rough, they were giving tango lessons in the Showroom Theatre (yes, one does have to wonder about that). Yep, you guessed it. 92 year old lady from Australia was having her first tango lesson and took a fall which it looks like resulted in a broken hip. She was travelling alone and I suppose the only bright spot in all of it is that she will have ended up at an English speaking hospital in the Falklands. God bless her! I am going to attempt to post a picture of the evacuation although it does nothing to display the roughness of the seas. The pilot boat had to make 3 attempts to get close enough to the tender that was lowered to make the exchange. Seas are somewhat smoother today, thankfully, but we will be rounding Cape Horn at about 7:30 tonight so it’s anybody’s guess as to what we will experience there. Slowing down to a gentle jive….....Sally xoxo

Weathered out of the Falklands again...

We were very disappointed this morning at 8:00 to have the Captain announce that once again we are being weathered out of the Falklands. Unfortunately, this optimist had been up and showered since 6:00, patiently waiting in our gathering spot to be called to her tender. Given that we are running 4 hours delayed due to weather it might have been quite a wait. We may still have to go into Port Stanley to do a med-evac but at the time of his announcement that was uncertain. What is certain is that there is no way these seas will permit a tender operation to take place for our shore excursions even if we’d been running on schedule. We have been experiencing 25-30 foot swells for the last 48 hours which is making for some very interesting walking around the ship and has us wondering if the possible med-evac is related to a fall as it would be surprising if someone hasn’t taken a flier during this turbulence. It feels incredibly like airplane turbulence which, for some reason, surprised me. I have experienced mild sea turbulence in the Caribbean but nothing like this and it doesn’t appear that the seatbelt sign will be going off anytime soon. There have been many moments when I have wished we actually had seat belts and as I sit at a table writing this, that’s my view. Last evening in the lounge/library books were falling off of shelves and chairs with no one in them were spinning mindlessly. Quite a feeling, as you may imagine. Maggie brought Gravol with her and hasn’t needed it but I took my 5th one in 16 days this morning as I am battling a nasty head cold and that seems to magnify the sensation of movement. I expect it has something to do with plugged up head and vertigo. Since today will need to be another day at sea I suppose I should be thankful that I’m not viewing penguins in the rain with currently 37 deg F temp in Port Stanley. I will now have to wait for Punta Arenas again to see more penguins as our next port, Ushuaia, will take us to Tierra del Fuego National Park where I believe we will see some beautiful scenery but none of our little black and white friends. The good news is that we have no more ports that might have limited access (I hope). The crew is currently preparing a new slate of activities for today so I am hoping there will be a couple of good lectures to attend and perhaps a long afternoon nap will be in order. We now make our way to round Cape Horn again and we are told calmer waters will prevail tomorrow. Until Ushuaia, I remain, rockin’ ‘n rollin’ Sally…….xoxo

Buenos Aires!!

Buenos Aires – Thursday Feb 11 Wow! I want EVERYONE I know to experience this incredible tango-crazy city. Much as I am looking forward to our next 12 days cruising and returning to our ports of call for more excursions, I absolutely cannot wait to return to this amazing city for our last two weeks. As you all likely know, it is often referred to as the “Paris of South America” and I don’t think that does it justice. We got a glimpse of the best and the worst today as we went through the most expensive neighbourhoods and also the most base of the poor but in all areas there is a vibrancy that almost defies description. I will, however, attempt to describe it when we return in two weeks and get to live with it for a while. The architecture is magnificent and there are parks and monuments absolutely everywhere. In that respect it is very Paris-like in feel but without the freneticism and I think the people are friendlier . There are lots of museums and galleries to check out and the shopping is amazing. Today, Maggie and I didn’t shop because we knew we would be back in two weeks but Margaret, our new friend from Washington state, was in the market for leather handbags. Well……..let me tell you, it was a joy to behold her surrounded by leather everywhere and choosing 4 beautiful, different coloured bags, all leather lined and exquisitely made for approx. $30/bag U.S. Up until today I thought the Italians had the best leathers but I think the Argentinians and Uruguayans may have them outdone. Keep in mind that the vast majority of the population here is of Italian and Spanish descent and it shows everywhere. I am, quite simply, thrilled to know that we are returning on the 24th to explore in some depth. Friday, Feb 12 – Back in Montevideo today and we explored the old town on foot, just browsing and a small bit of shopping as everything will now pale in comparison to the shopping opportunities in Argentina. However, it is reaffirmed in me that it would be a great country to return to for a winter visit. I am sure that we will try to bring Denise and Emily here via the hovercraft that runs from Buenos Aires when they join us at the end of the month. You can actually leave Buenos Aires and have lunch in Montevideo and be back in BA for dinner via this boat. Should be lots of fun! Now we have two days at sea before our stop in the Falklands and we are hopeful that this time we will be able to get in. I have an award winning penguin excursion booked there and Maggie has a visit to a sheep farm planned. We have enjoyed the heat of the last few days and after tomorrow we will need to bring out the cold weather clothes again. We are really looking forward to seeing those beautiful Chilean fjords again so having to have a few cool days is totally worth it. Talk to you soon, Sally xoxoxo

Montevideo, Punta del Este and the Maldonado Coast, Uruguay

Montevideo, Punta del Este and the Maldanado coastline, Uruguay What a fabulous country this is and with only one day’s visit I know that it is a place that I would like to return to for further exploration. Then again just about everywhere has drawn my same response. Uruguay is the second smallest South American country with Suriname being the smallest. With a population of only 3.1 million and 1.3 million of them in Montevideo you can rightly imagine that much of it is unpopulated. It has a coastline of 400+ km, all of it beautiful beaches. About ¾ of the coastline is on the Rio de la Plata and the remaining ¼ on the Atlantic Ocean but the part that is on the river feels exactly like the Ocean. We couldn’t tell when we moved from one area to another, the river is so vast and sea-like. It is the banking capital of Uruguay and since it is also a tax haven it experiences a somewhat higher standard of living than that of some of its northern neighbours. Our excursion to Punta del Este included many of the amazing summer homes that Argentinians, Chileans and North Americans maintain here . Our guide told us that many Canadians have purchased homes here, too. The end result is that the area prospers but real estate has become far out of reach for the average Uruguayan with houses/condos in Punta del Este starting at $300 U.S. and the majority being north of $500,000. The average income in this country is $500/month so there aren’t very many Uruguayans found in the beach area except for rock stars. At this time of year the weather is a fairly consistent 25 degrees with cooling breezes and moderate rainfall and the countryside displays a green lushness that puts one in mind of Ireland as much as South America. It definitely has allure as a place to do a winter (in our hemisphere) rental as there are lots of very reasonable rentals and it would be a great place to make a base to tour the other northern South American countries. Something to think about for another year. We will be back here on Friday after doing our stop in Buenos Aires tomorrow so we are just going to wander on our own that day and take in some more of the flavour of the people, who are very friendly, and check out the leather and crafts markets as compared to Buenos Aires. I still think the best bargains are to be had in Argentina. The picture I am posting is of an incredible mermaid sculpture grouping just sitting on an outcropping of rock between two sand beaches on the Maldonado coast heading to Punta del Este. Love to all, Sally xoxo

3 days at sea

I miss talking to you so thought I would provide a bit of a picture of what life is like after 3 days at sea. Many folks are going a bit stir-crazy but personally, I find it enjoyable and relaxing. I am thinking that a couple of years ago that wouldn't have been the case so I believe retirement has a lot to do with it. The weather has turned most agreeable for hikes on the promenade deck and my walking has picked up considerably because of it. It seems that doing 5K a day with the sun shining and the wind at your back (okay, well at least half way :-) is so much easier than on the treadmill. We have befriended a woman travelling solo who loves to walk and we've been inspiring one another to greater distances. She is a lawyer from Washington State specializing in elder law so it makes for some very interesting promenade discussions. After the morning walk and stretch with Dr Oz it is usually time to take in some sun (not much more than 20 mins required in direct sunlight owing to that depleted ozone I keep mentioning) and on to whatever the 11:00 lecture entails. Today we had cocktails with the Captain at noon. It was an invitation issued to all of us who are continuing back to Santiago after Buenos Aires for the turnaround. All but 33 of us are disembarking in Buenos Aires. We will do a half-day tour in Buenos Aires to get the lay of the land for our arrival back to BA on the 24th but will leave our serious touring in Buenos Aires for when we have our two week stay at the end of our trip. Tomorrow we dock in Montevideo, Uruguay and have a trip to Punta del Este planned. This is the Riviera of Uruguay where the Argentinians all come for the beaches in the summer so it should be a good view of summer life. Kind of like being in the County in July, I think :-). The following day we hit Buenos Aires and the next Montevideo again as we begin this turnaround cruise. So, after a very quiet 3 days at sea, it will be 3 somewhat bustling days and I am up for that as it will then be a few days before we get back to our penguin viewing. Tonight we had the 3rd of our 'formal' evenings for dinner. They really do pull out all the stops in terms of the menu in the main dining room on those nights. Neither of us felt like getting gussied up on the first formal night so we ate in the casual restaurant but after we went to the second one and experienced the menu we'll likely attend the 3 on the return trip. For example, tonight's dinner included filet and lobster, escargots, pear soup. I have the order reversed :-) but you get the idea and can see why I am happy that I am so excited about my daily walking. It is an absolutely necessary pastime. I have returned to a somewhat more normalized eating pattern with fruit, yogurt and some protein for breakfast and a really healthy lunch because when we first got on the ship it was wayyyy too easy to get into 3 course breakfasts and lunches and nowhere to go with it. The fitness room is quite good but crowded on sea days so I find it easier to simply walk more and do lots of stretching. A balance now seems to have been found with the incredible desserts having become a treat every few days instead of something to have with every glass of water :-) On our next leg I plan to take in more of the Digital Workshops as everyone is raving about them and the instructor is apparently very good. Perhaps I will learn how to post my pictures better. You will be the first to know. Take care and I will talk to you tomorrow from Montevideo..............xoxo

Falkland Islands - no stop

No Falklands on this leg. Hopefully, we will be able to get in there on our return next week. With 25 foot swells, the Captain felt that it was too dangerous a tender operation. The Port Stanley harbour is open to the east and that is where our wind is coming from today. It is a half hour tender so no one on board doubted the wisdom of his decision although we are very disappointed as our excursion was to be to a sheep farm and we were looking forward to that. Next week’s is to a penguin rookery so we will hope for better weather. Instead, we have slowed down our speed somewhat, which makes for a tad less rolling walks, and will arrive in Montevideo, Uruguay on the 10th, after 3 days at sea and a big climb in temperature. Montevideo should see us back up into the high 20s which will be a welcome change as today’s adventures would have been our coldest and wettest yet here in the Falklands. Also, we packed far more hot weather clothing than cold so we’ve been tiring of not having much change - yes, we do have laundry on board  . Bathing suits can return in a couple of days!! We have had a couple of surprisingly wonderful art lectures on board. One on art history from Botticelli to Warhol, one on Salvador Dali and this afternoon on Erte. The days at sea are filled with this kind of thing – cooking demos, music concerts, digital workshops, movies, etc. so the time can go as quickly or slowly as you would like to have it. I think that today, other than the Erte lecture and a classical piano concert, I may just read as I’ve not been having time to do much of that. Tonight we will enjoy another great dinner in the Pinnacle Grill (the fanciest of the restaurants on board) to help a new friend celebrate her onboard birthday. So……my friends, unless we have some unscheduled excitement I will be in touch on Wednesday from Montevideo…Be healthy and happy……xoxoxo

Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina and around Cape Horn

We made our way around Cape Horn this morning with unusually calm seas and high winds but not the hurricane force that is often experienced on this leg of our trip. It was very exciting to be standing in the bow, being blown sideways trying to capture a picture of the Island of Horn which, to you all, will appear to be "another of Sally's rock pictures". The simple but often complicated passage from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans carries with it the stored memories of Magellan and Drake but I would have to think that after they first viewed it they didn't get to go below for a breakfast of warm oatmeal with stewed figs and bananas. Nope....that would be me but it diminishes the excitement of the rounding of the Cape in no way. Yesterday, I got my first penguin viewing and it was simply fantastic. They are the most magical wee birds and I do not know why we humans are so enamoured of them but certainly the dance they provide for their viewers has a lot to do with it. We saw Gentoo and Magellan penguins on an island in the Beagle Channel. The Gentoos are the larger of the two, more of a miniature King or Emperor (only found in Antarctica :-( with orange feet and bill while the Magellans are small, cute and a bit more marked in their black and white colouring. How is that for a naturalist's description? :-) We have lots more of them to come so you may tire of pictures but I certainly won't tire of seeing them. I took a couple of videos and will try to put one of them on if they aren't too large. After rounding Cape Horn we are now cruising at full speed in Drake Passage making our way to the Falklands for tomorrow morning. Lots of swells on this passage so it will be great for sleeping tonight! Love to all, Sally xoxo p.s. looks like I am having some technical difficulties with uploading pictures tonight....will try to do better tomorrow........

Punta Arenas, Chile

Greetings from Punta Arenas, Chile, the southernmost city in the world. Well, Ushuaia, Argentina (where we will be tomorrow) lays claim to that, as well but since Ushuaia is on Tierra del Fuego, the Chileans figure it makes them the ‘continental’ champions. No matter how you figure it, we are very far south. It is strange to know we are in the middle of their summer and the temperature rarely gets above 15. All four seasons can be represented on a daily basis and we are told that our tour this morning was one of the best days of this entire summer. I only had to wear a turtleneck and a light jacket while the sun was out but bought a hat and pulled out the gloves when it went behind a cloud. We got back to the ship and sat outside to have something to eat as it was sunny and feeling warm. Within minutes it darkened, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees (at least that’s what it felt like) and the rain and hail started up. Ten minutes later we had brilliant sunshine. And so on and so on…….it will be like this until we get further north in Argentina which will be a few more days. As we head up to Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires we will be back up into the 30s. Each day has been extremely different from the one before which is making for some very interesting times. Punta Arenas is visually not a very impressive city. With a population of 100,000 it is only in the burgeoning stages of tourism and as I mentioned yesterday it has mainly focused on lumber and oil to support its economy. Not unlike our far north, the wages here are 35% higher than the Chilean national average and many people try to come here for the last 5 years of their working lives as the national pension is based on that last five years. With the climate here being what it is - winters like our Arctic winters and summers like our southern Ontario winters  - it seems like a sort of penance to do before one retires. Retirement age here is 60 for women and 65 for men. We did the highlights of the city in about 4 hours, mostly involving many statues of Magellan and a museum highlighting how much the Catholic missionaries did for the development of the area. Not a lot of discussion about the demise of the native Indians due to the same influence. Interesting how that goes. Not a lot of difference in the hemispheres, is there? I will be looking forward to the more nature oriented view of the area on our return sail. Bye for now from the bottom of the Earth………love, Sally xoxo

Strait of Magellan

Cruising the Strait of Magellan and what an outstanding cruise it is. If you would expect the bottom of the world to be similar to Alaska and northern Siberia, you would not be surprised. The landscape is similar, yet alien. As you navigate the passages at the tip of South America, the magnificence of the scenery unfolds at every turn in the channels before you. Absolutely unspoiled mountain ranges and spectacular glaciers are all around. All of it is very peculiar and most primitive. When Magellan reached South America in 1520, he named Patagonia (patagones: “big feet”) for the local tradition of wearing bulky protective shoes (and what were YOU thinking?) and that will be precisely what we need for our shore excursion tomorrow. Mid morning we attended a lecture on tomorrow’s port of call, Punta Arenas, the city that faces Tierra del Fuego across the Strait of Magellan. Today its economy is focused on providing services to the oil, coal and fishing industries, as well as sheep ranching but for most tourists it is merely the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park, 400 km north. I plan to take the tour to the park on our return leg and tomorrow will do a more localized tour of the area. We have choices of so many nature/adventure/history based excursions that it is sometimes difficult to choose but I will certainly be looking forward to the Torres del Paine trip as it is some of the wildest scenery in the world. I am getting ahead of myself, however, as that will be a couple of weeks away. For now, the day is filled yet again with the beauty surrounding us and as the day wears down I will experience this from the Greenhouse spa. Life is great and I am truly blessed and most thankful for it every day. Stay well and happy….. Loads o’ love, Sally xoxo

Darwin Channel

Good Day! I am feeling as though I’ve been dropped into a Tolkien novel. We are cruising the Darwin Channel and the scenery is breathtakingly ethereal. I don’t think my pictures can begin to do this justice but I will upload one anyhow in hopes of sharing some of the feeling. Even though I know I am on a ship with hundreds of other people, when you sit off by yourself (there are lots of comfy chairs all around on the ship and one can always find a spot alone or in a group to sit and watch the ‘scape go by) and see this it is wonderfully mesmerizing. One can only begin to imagine what it must have been like for Darwin and his crew as he sailed these waters discovering the rich wilderness that abounds. It has made me very excited to see what is to come as we continue south. I will keep in touch but right now I am enjoying the peace of this part of the sailing and will get back to it. Be safe and happy, Sally xo

Puerto Montt

Our entry into shipboard life has been smooth as silk and for this we are very thankful. We boarded the ship late due to very heavy seas that delayed the ship's arrival for 3 hours and in addition they had an outbreak of some G.I. illness (likely norovirus) on the last cruise so had to go through their incredibly thorough sanitization protocol before they would let us board. They keep this hyper-vigilant protocol up for 72 hours so until then the crew has to do everything and I mean everything on board. Passengers can't touch much of anything in the dining rooms, to the extent that they sugar your tea, salt your food or whatever you need. Fortunately, I don't do either :-) but you get the idea. If no one has become ill within 72 hours of when we embarked they will open things up. There are and Purell dispensers literally every 5 feet and outside every restaurant and public room. As you will all know, this has me very happy :-) It has not prevented us from enjoying shipboard life. It really is quite funny, at nearly every meal we have met more Canadians, usually from Toronto, some Americans and there are also quite a few Germans on board and then a mix of other nationalites. The crew are helpful and friendly. Today we had our first shore excursion in Puerto Montt as yesterday we were at sea. The weather has started to cool already with temperature today about 15 and overcast but we are in the Lake District and it will likely be like this and cooler as we continue south and begin cruising the Chilean fjords tomorrow on your way to heading around the Cape. We have two days at sea with spa treatments scheduled for both of those :-) and then hit Punta Arenas, last stop before Cape Horn and first stop with penguins! Can't wait.........Today's excursion was very interesting. We headed to a Chilean farm (don't tell anyone or they won't let us into Argentina!) where we had the traditional dancing, horse shows, music and roasted cow lunch. We met some really nice folks and enjoyed it immensely. Stay well, all and will talk to you after Punta Arenas........Sally xoxo

Sunset over Vina del Mar

Mother Nature provided a great sendoff tonight with a breathtaking show of colour as the sun set. We went for dinner again to where we had the most memorable dinner a few nights ago, here in the hotel and as always found ourselves alone in the restaurant until 9:00 ;) when some of the busy weekend crowd began to arrive. We are getting used to it and it certainly does make for some great service and conversations with the servers (usually 4 or 5 of them, it seems). Anyhow, I was able to capture this as we headed back to our room although 'capture' is not appropriate as it doesn't do it justice at all but I wanted to share it. I managed two hours of walking around town today going to the markets where the locals shop and finding prices wayyyy better than what we'd been lookng at in the tourist haunts. That makes sense, I know, but most of the time we get sent to the tourist spots and the concierge was great about mapping out a walk for me that circumnavigated the shopping core. It was great and the best walking I've done all week as I need to be working up to the multiple rounds on the promenade deck that I hope to do daily. We board the ship tomorrow and are looking forward to seeing more of Chile and getting closer to our introduction to the penguins and various other new wildlife. All these dogs are beautiful but not something we don't have at home ;) We have had a beautifully relaxed few days here in Vina del Mar so we are rested up for serious exploring on some of the upcoming shore excursions. Will report in as we go. Take care........xoxo

Another beautiful day in Vina del Mar

Hi, Everyone, We had a bit more activity after our lazy day yesterday so thought I would post some updates on our activities and also the link to some pictures that I uploaded to my Picasa website so as not to overload the blog and if pictures don't interest you then you can take a pass. I will likely keep doing this as it is easier to upload to Picasa/Google. http://picasaweb.google.com/sallyfulton47/ChileSantiagoAndVinaDelMarValparaiso# After a somewhat quiet day yesterday, healing after my sun exposure (right back to normal glow today ;)today we did our tour and it was very interesting. We toured Vina del Mar and then over to Valparaiso (can't distinguish the line between, somewhat like TO) and what a difference. Vina is where the Santiaguinos come to spend the summer and many own apartments here on the ocean. Valparaiso is the very old port city and carried that character. I would suggest Valpo more bohemian and Vina more bourgeoisie. We rode the 100 year old funicular up to the Navy Academy and it stayed on track the whole way. There was a bit of a craft market at the top where I was able to buy a small watercolor of the site. What an interesting city, built on the very steep hills coming down from the Coastal Mountains to the sea. In the earthquake of 1906 most of the city was absorbed by the Pacific and when you see the cityscape today with the amazing multi-colored houses on the hills one can only wonder how vulnerable they would be to another 'tierra moto'. Near the hotel Vina boasts a "flower clock". Given that we see so many of them at home, we weren't overly impressed but today discovered why it is always mentioned by everyone when praising their city. It was installed in commemoration of the World Cup being held here in 1962. Given that all of South America is football crazy and Chile is definitely no exception, this explained it. On our Andes tour we met a Brazilian couple who remembered that year only too well as Brazil won. We were dazzled by their recall but then remembered how many Canadians would be able to remember the details of Stanley Cups or World Championships in hockey. Tonight we went to a great seafood restaurant for dinner. We asked the concierge for a place that he would go to that was informal but good seafood and he chose perfectly for us. We made a reservation for 8:00, by ourselves, as usual and when we left at 10:00, having taken our time and enjoying it hugely, the restaurant was filling up with locals and many of them with school age kids, just sitting down to dinner at 9:30 or 10:00 and that really means 10:30 or 11 before actually eating dinner. We were just beginning to feel very adult having dinner at 8:30 or 9!!!! My salmon might have been the best ever and Maggie would say the same of her sole. There is just something about fish caught and eaten the same day. I have posted a picture here of our hotel with the pubic beach in the foreground and one of the navy ships offshore (about 10 of them are in the Bay doing manoeuvres). It is really funny to see this crowded beach with loads of coloured beach umbrellas on a very hot day with all of these people just standing on the edge of the surf. The Humboldt Current brings very cold antarctic waters to the beach and only the very hardiest will venture into the surf beyond their thighs. The kids may try to do a little body-surfing but not for long. It looks like a beachfront on shark watch but apparently these waters are too cold even for them. Temp was in high 20s today so it does seem strange to see. We will likely use tomorrow morning for some errands as we want to check out a pharmacia (just for the fun of it ;) and maybe the art museum before we head to the ship on Saturday. You all stay well and we will talk to you soon. xoxoxo

Vina del Mar

It is never-ending. Just when we thought the weather couldn't possibly get any better we arrive in Vina del Mar. 30 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and with a constant cool breeze blowing off the Pacific so that at no time does it feel overly hot. Dangerously deceptive, however, as with the aforementioned ozone being so thin we have to be hyper-vigilant about not staying out in the open sunshine for any long periods of time. At least not until we have a little more of a 'base' on us. Well, we had yet another adventurous day today. We had a beautiful drive through the Casablanca Valley (largest vineyard area in Chile)and the Coastal Mountains and arrived just in time for a beautiful lunch on the patio overlooking the Pacific. It was clearly the afternoon to sit by the pool so off we went. There are 3 pools. One is indoors (not today, of course) one is a beautiful outdoor pool overlooking the ocean and with a large patio for sunbathing. Beside it are some stairs leading down to a salt water pool that is fed by a tidal pool. Our server told us that yesterday there had been some enormous waves late in the afternoon that had washed over the pools and sent people screaming off. Now, I mean these waves had to be 4-5 metre waves in order to do that and we're thinking, yeah, right. Sure enough, around 3:30 after we had moved out of the sun and were sitting at a shaded table, these waves start to roll in. They came crashing in over the rails of the patio, into the pools and washing everything away that was on the ground. My Teva flip-flops were in that category although they aren't alone as many, many were washed away with them. It really would be quite funny if it weren't for the fact that they were favourites. I did get a great video of one of these waves hitting us but the file is too big to put on the blog. When I get a chance I will put it on my Picasa web page. We have just returned from the best dinner yet in Chile. We thought we were heading to the most informal restaurant in the hotel to have perhaps a hamburguesa or empanadas and instead found ourselves looking at a very fine menu presented by a very fine chef. Maggie had calamari and a risotto with osso bucco and I had the best caprese salad ever and fettuccine with crab in a saffron sauce. Absolutely fabulous flavour but the presentation even surpassed that. All in all, most remarkable, given that we were absolutely not expecting this. Almost made up for the loss of my Tevas. I got wayyyy too much sun today in spite of my knowledge of the depleted ozone and railing on about it with you yesterday. Just plain dumb but there you have it and little miss brown person has suggested that it might be safer for me to sightsee or shop tomorrow. Although I am covered in arnica and various other healing unguents I am not sure it will all be 100% by tomorrow so I am willing to sacrifice myself to a day of shopping/touring. Mercado Centrale will be on our list of stops here as apparently it also is filled with wonderful seafood restaurants where the fishermen take their catch directly to the restaurants. We are definitely slowing down our pace and moving to the very relaxed rhythm that pervades this country. Everyone is very efficient, everything is on time but it all seems to be done without any need for rush or urgency in order to attain it. I have yet to meet a Type A. I must look up the stats on heart disease here. :-) Everyone be well. Talk to you soon. Love, Sally xoxo

Andes and winery tour

This was another beautiful day in Santiago and our last for a month as we will be back for a day on Feb 23rd before we fly to Buenos Aires. We have found it to be a city of friendly, beautiful people and it is evident everywhere just how clean, well kept and maintained for the enjoyment of its citizens it is. Parks are everywhere with play areas for children and benches line all of the streets for people to just sit and watch the people go by. I would have to say that the only negative we have experienced is the air quality which is probably comparable to a reasonably bad day in Toronto in the summer. Today when we went up 3000M into the Andes and then I rode the chair lift for another half hour up so I'm not sure where that got me but the air was pristine and the breezes carried what seemed to be a truly puified air. At least that was while I was on the chair lift. The climb from the chair UP to where the restaurant and main buildings were was a killer for me. It's not that it was all that far but the lack of oxygen and the fact that there had been no time to acclimatize to it was really quite tricky. It involved many stops and a slow pace in order to make it back to meet Maggie and our bus but I was somewhat gratified to see that people much younger than myself were having to go at the same pace and style. It was, however, worth the trip for sure. The Andes, at least this part of the range, was very volcanic in appearance as I think this picture will show. There are 2000 volcanoes in Chile, 50 of which are active and 3 of them are in the vicinity that we were today. Earthquakes are quite active here, as well although the last major one (which severely damaged Santiago) was in 1976. The one that completely destroyed Valparaiso and Vina del Mar where we go tomorrow was in 1906. Apparently tremors are felt here all the time but as yet, we don't think we have experienced anything. Tomorrow is another day:-). The tour of Santa Carolina winery was fine but with all of the winery tours in all of the places in the world that we've done, the best in my view, is right in Prince Edward County! The buildings were cool, though, dating back to 1875 and had been lovingly restored. My internet connection here seems to be spotty and this blog was published with the last half missing so I am sorry if anyone was confused. I was :-) Now, we have just returned from another wonderful dinner at Tierra Noble, a very classic Chilean restaurant where we decided to have beef as a change from the fish. A steak and wonderful spinach salad that they called "Popeye" and pronounced papaya, for obvious reasons, brought yet again another smile of satisfaction at the end of a great day. Tomorrow morning we have a car picking us up for the two hour drive to Vina del Mar which in itself is reputed to be a beautifully scenic journey. Will check in from there. Hugs to all..........sf.........xoxoxoxo

Dwindling ozone layer is apparent..........

The guide books mentioned that sunscreen is a good idea here as the ozone layer is much thinner than in the northern hemisphere. One can feel it as walking around the marketplaces and streets a pink tint begins to appear on the skin. I don't think sunscreen is a big seller here and that people, mostly dark-skinned, of course, manage their "sun" time. We have been using sunscreen on our face but by the end of yesterday and today a healthy-looking glow is beginning to develop. Not a bad thing, considering that we both were sporting the pasty winter-whites. Happily, this one is not a lesson that's been hard learned. Our dinner at Mestizo (not Mephisto as I mentioned yesterday) last night was nothing short of spectacular. Chilean sea bass for Maggie and grouper for me (apparently, also another Chilean specialty) were simply perfection. A beautiful location beside a park and as we sat on the terrace the black-necked swans wended their way around in the lily and wild grassed ponds right beside us. I didn't take my camera and have now decided that it is best not to leave it behind at all as one never knows when the greatest photo op will appear. This was one........... We went today to Pueblitos Los Dominicos, a "village" on the site of an old Dominican monastery that houses over 200 artisans and crafts people and throughout has wonderful displays of cockatoos and other live birds. It was a delightful way to spend a Sunday in a city where many other activities are closed. A lot of walking and a lot of sun so we have come back to our hotel to rest before dinner and hopefully have an early night before our 8:00 departure for the Andes in the morning. I will try to find some better shots to include in the Andes blog. xoxo

1st day in Santiago, Chile

What a wonderful day today, wandering around in a city of 6.5 million people (40% of Chile's population) feeling like a medium sized Canadian city. Belleville, perhaps? Okay, so maybe a bit bigger but we are left wondering where 6.5 million are and whether they count the cemeteries. We did one of the hop-on/hop-off tours and only had a few bumps, so to speak. The bus failed to pick us up at our assigned stop, flying right past us and we know it was the right spot as it is where, late this afternoon, it dropped us off. Perhaps we didn't look like "friendlies" but it resulted in us taking a cab to the funicular to go up to San Cristobal. Cab fare 2740 CP. Maggie thought it was 27400 CP and unthinkingly gave the cabbie 30,000 CP and feeling good about rounding it up as tipping isn't necessary here and most people just round up on things like cabs. This means our cab ride might have been 3000 CP at most. Instead, for those of you who don't instantaneously do FX, we paid approx. US$60.00 for our 5 minute cab ride. Life's lessons in a large South American city well learned! When we exited the cab I asked what she'd given him and when she told me we figured it out. The cabbie didn't so much as blink, saying simply "gracias". Indeed!! We did then have a very interesting ride in the funicular, 10 minutes to the top and this beautiful park that offers a 360 view of the city. Somewhat smoggy today as you will see when I get a picture posted but beautiful, warm, and offering the chance to watch families out for Saturday adventures. Adventurous it was when the funicular slipped its cable on the way down. We paused for enough minutes for it to be of concern, listening to the operators speaking very quickly in Spanish. We could actually see the cable slipped off 4 of the wheels behind us and just hoped it held for the ones on the downside. Since you are reading this, you can assume that we arrived safely, albeit, somewhat less relaxed than we started. At that point we found a beautiful store selling lapis lazuli jewelry which I am sure will surprise all of you :-) and after soothing our troubled psyches there with some shopping therapy we were ready to find a much talked about seafood restaurant at Mercado Centrale. It really does seem that Mercado Centrale's are the same all over the world with the most beautiful displays of fruits and veggies and great restaurants. Santiago's is no exception. We had a great lunch of king crab, shrimp and the Chilean specialty salad of tomato and onions. All very good for approx $25.00 for the two of us. We did find our hopon/hopoff bus and enjoyed riding the upper deck while listening to a well-articulated English guide. We were too pooped to do museums today and tomorrow being Sunday much is closed but we will check out some of the artisanal markets. I did try my first pisco sour tonight, the Chilean national drink, I'm told. Pisco is a brandy made from muscadet grapes and the drink is pisco, lemon juice and sugar. Really very lovely and refreshing. Monday we are doing an Andes & winery tour all day where we will go up into the mountains for the morning and in the afternoon tour the Santa Carolina winery. Right now we are heading out to Mephisto, a Latin American restaurant for dinner. We got an 8:00 reservation, the earliest we could get :-). Working our way up to the 10:00 slots in Buenos Aires. Talk to you all soon! xoxo

Testing, testing 1,2,3............let's see if we can make this picture upload work with the current posting.........and it will, of course, be of my favourite subject, Marshall Luca!! Just looked at the preview and I'm thinking it may have worked! Thanks, Greg!! Next stop Santiago, Chile....................sf

Oh, isn't procrastination grand?! While in Arizona no blog training got done as I was having issues getting wifi on my netbook. Now I am 3 sleeps from leaving for Chile and will just have to fly by the seat of my pants, so to speak. Maggie has been packed and organized for a week and I am scrambling, as usual, to the finish line to close my suitcase. Hopefully I will get some practice in the next couple of days in uploading pictures to this site. The text part is very easy but adding pictures is what will make the South American adventure more interesting for all of us..........take care and have a great day..........sf