Month: January 2018

January 31, 2018 Paul Groves

Shortly after leaving Punta Arenas we re-joined the Beagle Channel and traveled most of the morning thru the section known as “Glacier Alley”. There were 5 glaciers that we could see from the ship and a few others that were on side channels that we couldn’t see. Sadly as Paul mentioned in the previous blog,…

January 30, 2018 Paul Groves

Punta Arenas is the southernmost city on the mainland. We will visit Ushuaia, Argentina, in a couple of days, which is located closer to the Antarctic, but it is located on an island. You must take a ferry across the Straits of Magellan in order to connect with the mainland. We are excited about today’s…

January 29, 2018 Paul Groves

Today are up early as we cruise by two glaciers, the Amalia and Brujo Glaciers (shown below) that looked very similar. In the Prinsendam, the captain was able to pull up very close to the glacier so we could see the beautiful deep blue color of the packed ice. Each of the glaciers we have…

January 26, 2018 Paul Groves

The next two days will be spent traveling to our next port. At this point, there are many small islands and scenic views that are called the Chilean Fjords. As we traveled through this area, we were expecting to see snow and ice, but instead we saw lush green hills with snow-topped mountains in the…

January 25, 2018 Paul Groves

Castro is located in a large bay that is protected from the swells we have been experiencing in the ocean. The city does not have a pier for a large ship like ours, so we anchored in the bay and took “tenders” to the shore. The water was very calm, so the tender rides were…

January 23, 2018 Paul Groves

It is hard to believe that it’s been almost 3 weeks since we started our journey. We still have 8 days before we get to Antarctica. Days 19 and 21 are sea days with the typical lectures, cooking demonstrations and art classes. We have a guest chef from Chile onboard, Chef Manuel Matamala. Ron learned…

January 20, 2018 Paul Groves

Today’s excursion was a visit to the Matetic Vineyard. This vineyard is unique because it uses no artificial fertilizers or pesticides in making the wines. They planted their grapes in such a manner as to maximize the natural layout of the land. They take advantage of the daily fog and low clouds to provide water…

January 20, 2018 Paul Groves

Today we visited the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. It is located atop a mountain where there are usually 300 days of clear weather per year and the air is super clean. It is owned and operated by a consortium of US and South American colleges/universities. We toured the facilities and treated us by opening and…

January 20, 2018 Paul Groves

We were both thankful for a couple of Sea Days after the long overland trip. It was great to sleep in my accustomed bed, not worry about drinking the water, and being able to sleep in a little! Ron went to the cooking demonstrations with our new guest chef from Peru. Ron picked up some…

January 20, 2018 Paul Groves

Next Morning we traveled by Bus back to the ship from Lima to General San Martin port. Before we left Lima, I wanted to mention that a very special person was due to arrive in Lima in two days: The Pope! Luckily, we were gone by the time he showed up. I believe that the…