Port Stanley

          Saturday, 31 Dec 2011 – Today was our day to go see penguins! Since the Princess ship couldn’t dock on the Falkland Islands, had to board the ship’s tenders to go ashore. Ours loaded about 9:00 A.M. We sat on the upper deck in the open air, which was exciting to Sally; however, Jesse made sure he kept one arm around the railing and the other around Sally the whole time; just to make sure neither of us went overboard. Once ashore, we and one other couple boarded a 4 x 4 Toyota Land Cruiser.

          The Falkland Islands is a UK territory, and thus our driver (Tarra) drove on the left side of the road – when there was a road. For the first hour of driving, it was mostly a gravel road; for the second hour, it was what might be called a cow path – except that we had never seen such a rugged terrain. There were lots of ruts, holes, drop-offs, and several metal planks over small ditches that she had to maneuver the tires over. Jesse rode in the front seat, and the other three passengers rode in the back. At first, the scenery was somewhat mountainous with piles of rocks everywhere, but then it changed to flatter, rather desolate-looking, dry country similar to parts of the U.S. West. The land we traveled is private land, which the landowners charge 17 pounds ($15 US) to travel across; that is one of the main incomes, now that raising sheep is not very profitable these days.

          After 2 hours in the 4 x 4, we reached the penguins. There were 3 varieties of penguins at the site. The first thing we noticed was that the largest penguins stood more or less motionless, side by side, while the younger ones were busy padding around, investigating their surroundings. Some of the smaller ones came right up to us. Since people were told not to touch them, we did not, but it certainly seemed very possible. When we were close to a large group of them, it was noisy and very smelly. (There were sheep roaming around in the same area, and they all seemed to get along fine.) We walked down to the white sandy beach there, and watched penguins pad down to the water, wade out a little ways, and then jump in; then they swam back in, looking like they were riding surfboards. The time went quickly there. We ate box lunches, and then repeated the two hours of driving back to the port town of Stanley (population 3,000). One the other passengers remarked that there were more people aboard the Princess Star than were living in Stanley!

          Since we were so late returning to the ship, we arrived a little late for the formal New Year’s Eve dinner, but luckily, so did everyone else at our table. Roz ordered a bottle of wine to share with the rest of the table and we all enjoyed lobster for dinner. Jesse enjoyed a second serving of lobster and two desserts to start the New Year. After dinner, we danced again to the Buenos Aires Quartet; then returned to our cabin to rest up for the midnight New Year’s Eve celebration.

          HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

At Sea

Friday, 30 Dec 2011 – We started the day with breakfast, a dance class on the Tango, and a Spanish lesson.  The temperature is getting gradually cooler as we head down towards the Falkland Islands.  Earlier this evening, the captain announced that there have been various weather predictions for tomorrow, so we are still waiting for a realistic weather report.  He said the weather can change very abruptly, with all 4 seasons sometimes occurring within one 24-hour period, so we were warned to be prepared!   It’s a little scary to listen to all of the stories about the ship’s tenders sometimes being tossed around in the ocean during the 20-minute ride to the Port Stanley shore.

Before dinner, we attended the Princess Captain’s Circle Cocktail Party, where we were served free drinks.  After dinner, we danced again to the Buenos Aires Quartet.  Tomorrow will be a long day, starting with our excursion to visit the penguins at Port Stanley, and ending with the ship’s New Year’s Eve celebration.  We hope to “party” to midnight and beyond, but that might not be possible for these two old folks.

At Sea

Thursday, 29 Dec 2011 – Today was another very, very relaxing day at Sea.  We ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, ironed a few shirts, attended a 30-minute “Spanish Language at Sea Lesson,” and danced again to the Buenos Aires Quartet; otherwise, we relaxed, napped, and watched TV.

Tomorrow will be another day at sea, but hopefully, we’ll be a little more ambitious.

Buenos Aires

Wednesday, 28 Dec 2011 – Today was the second day in a row of rising fairly early to go on an excursion.  Our bus headed first to the La Boca district, the birth place of the Tango.  We passed colorful houses, a soccer stadium, and Plaza de Mayo surrounded by the presidential residence where Eva Peron addressed the Argentine people.  Our bus had to leave that area in a hurry because of some political event taking place shortly, and police on horses were clearing the streets.  According to news that our tour guide read on the internet, their president had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and the official announcement was to be made the following afternoon. 

We walked through part of the La Recoleta Cemetery.  If you visualize a normal cemetery, you would be very much mistaken.  This one is like a few city blocks of impressive monuments, often with statues.  Although it might cost $1,000,000 to be buried there, if your descendants don’t continue to pay maintenance fees, your coffin will be scooped up and moved elsewhere!  Eva Peron’s burial site is also there.  We didn’t remember ever knowing much about her, but our guide made her life story sound interesting.  Apparently, even yet, Argentineans are divided over whether they hate or love her memory.  She was responsible for women getting to vote, and for the 8-hour working day, among other things.  

Besides walking in the cemetery, we also stopped for a short time to shop and grab a bite to eat – but we forgot to ask for someone to take our photo today.

As we’re sailing south along the east coast of South America, we’re noticing a gradual change of climate.  Recife, Brazil was definitely tropical.  In Rio de Janeiro (also Brazil), it was still very hot.  Yesterday we were in Montevideo (Uruguay), where the temperature, palm trees, and cool ocean breeze reminded us of Los Angeles, though the guide said that it gets very hot further inland.  Today in Buenos Aires, the sun was hot, but it was in the upper 70’s.  December 21 was their first day of summer; the guide said it will be much hotter next month (like July at home).

Now we will have two days of leisure (at sea) before our next excursion, and the weather will be chilly at our next stop.

For some reason, dancing for tonight was not scheduled to begin until 9:15 P.M; so we decided to stay in and enjoy the night watching movies on TV.

Montevideo

           Tuesday, 27 Dec 2011 – We were up bright and early – well, early anyway – and on our tour bus by 8:45 A.M. The bus drove by the Rambia (a beach), along the riverfront of Montevideo as we headed to Punta de Este, known as the South American Riviera. “Este” in this case means “peninsula,” we were told by the guide; and Punta de Este is surrounded on most sides by water. The jet set lives in this area in houses worth more than $1,000,000. (We decided not to invest in any property here at this time!) There is a riverfront and also an oceanfront, and we saw where the brownish water was mixing in with the bluer ocean. Near the end of our tour, we walked in some of the old city. On the edge of that area was a tall building of 20 stories or so, with air conditioners in all of its windows; while taking photos, we felt the drops of condensation blowing down on us as we stood in the windy street below. (Better than birds up there!)

            One exciting thing happened while the bus was traveling from the beach area back into the city. Most people on the bus were snoozing when a very loud BANG caused everyone to wake up fast! We were sitting a little more than halfway back in the bus, and thought that the bus had blown a tire. Instead, there was shattered glass in one of the windows near the front of the bus. Soon, some of the tiny pieces of glass began falling out of the window. When we examined it later, Jesse thought the small hole in the window looked like a gunshot. It’s possible that the bullet was lodged in the overhead storage compartment; however, Jesse decided not to search for it for fear of alarming the other passengers. On the other hand, the hole might have been from a rock thrown by a tire, but no one found a rock, either. (It might have been under a seat.)

       Tonight we decided to forego dancing and the hot tub, in favor of trying to get to bed earlier. Of course, Jesse could keep going for a few more hours because he dozed much of the morning and afternoon on the bus. But tomorrow we visit Buenos Aires, the birth place of the Tango, and we both want to be awake for that!

At Sea

Monday, 26 Dec 2011 – Today was a very, very relaxing day.  We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and danced again to the Buenos Aires Quartet; otherwise, we relaxed, napped, and watched TV.

Tomorrow will be a long day in Montevideo, Uruguay, so we’ll be calling it an early night.

Christmas

Sunday, 25 Dec 2011 – We forgot to wish everyone a Merry Christmas last night.  We hope everyone at home has been having a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

After returning to our cabin from dinner last evening, Sally slept from about 8:00 to 11:00 PM!  Jesse had been working on the Blog and watching movies on TV, and after Sally woke up for a while & tweaked the Blog a little, he sent it out.  And then about 12:30 P.M., it was back to sleep for both of us!  We had considered attending midnight Mass with the priest that boarded the ship at Rio, but we couldn’t manage to do that. 

However, we did attend Mass at 9:00 this morning.  The priest (on the worship aid identified as “Rev. James N. Watzke, Ph.D./Clinical and Consulting Psychologist”) said he was associated with Notre Dame, but has been working as a clinical psychologist in Chicago for the past 40 years.  The content of his homily was interesting (to Sally – it sounded a lot like psychology: the idea of rebirth & innocence), and during the Mass we sang five Christmas carols (with all verses), so it really felt like Christmas!

After Mass, we went for a late breakfast (10:00), where we sat with a couple whom we recognized as often being with our small tour group.  They were surprised to hear that we actually climbed the 220 steps up to Christ the Redeemer yesterday.  Many of the “older” people found the elevator or escalator.  Also, we were shown their iPad (the second time on this cruise that this has happened), and we now see the advantages in becoming more modern!  We enjoyed a light lunch, 3-1/2 hours later, where we conversed with a French-speaking couple from Montreal.  Jesse told them au revoir as they were leaving and they complemented him on his excellent pronunciation.  (Jesse took one semester of French at St. Benedict’s or it would be more accurate to say that French took him!)

Today the TV channel that gives ship data proclaims this as Day #1 of the cruise (not #17 that we have actually been aboard).  Also, the seas were called “rough” most of the day instead of the usual “moderate.”  The wind was strong, and it was raining in a fine mist (all day until about 6:00 P.M.), which is the first time on this trip, so that the temperature was 10 degrees or more cooler than it was yesterday.  We were surprised to see the buffet breakfast area packed with people so late in the morning, but we were told that there was a lot of partying going on at midnight last night; more Latinos are now on board, and apparently they celebrate most on Christmas Eve.

We participated in a ballroom dance lesson on the Merengue at 4:30 P.M.    After dinner (the fourth formal one), we attended the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Party, with free champagne; and danced again to the Buenos Aires Quartet and then to the Grooveline.  We decided to skip our swimming exercise tonight, but finished our evening sitting in the hot tub.  Although today didn’t feel much like Christmas and we missed seeing any of our family, we still had a great time.