Arriving in Montevideo after a day at sea.

Yesterday was a day at sea and not much to report, but we arrive in Montevideo soon and will be going ashore to walk town.

We come back here after we visit Buenos Aires where we will be there for 3 days and also a visit to the Iguazu Falls all very exciting. 

Thought you might be interested in some fact about our ship so included this below.

Regent's innovative, no-compromise-for-quality

approach in luxury cruising even extends to Seven

Seas Mariner’s engineering systems.

Instead of normal propeller shafts, Seven Seas

Mariner utilizes the latest Azipod Mermaid

propulsion system, a wonder of 21st-century

marine technology. This configuration utilizes two

self-contained propulsion pods located on the

underside of the ship, which are able to rotate

360° in any given direction. With a 20ft propeller

attached to each pod, the ship can literally turn on a

dime and navigate quite precisely in tight quarters,

almost entirely eliminating the need for tugs.

This unique electrical system produces a much

quieter operation than conventional propellers

with increased power efficiency and reduced fuel

consumption and environmental pollution. From the

Navigational Bridge, electronic course waypoints

are received from the GPS (Global Positioning

Satellite system), which sends commands to the

automatic pilot, again supplying corrective signals

to either pod. In the stabilizers electronic system,

a vertical gyroscope detects changes in pitch or

roll, along with the bridge gyroscope detecting

changes in heading. The electrical plant and main

switchboard produces 30,000 KW of electricity

from four diesel generators and from here it is

diverted to the electric propulsion system and

partially transformed and distributed all over the

vessel, converting it along the way into 440 volts,

220 volts, and 110 volts in order to feed power to

every appliance on board, including your in-suite

hairdryer.

Each diesel generator provides the same

horsepower as 100 standard automobiles and

combined they burn 115 metric tons of heavy fuel

oil per day to maintain cruising speed. Hundreds of

tons of seawater are pumped into two evaporators

and condensed to create 600 metric tons of fresh

water per day. Some 400 cubic meters are used

as drinking water but most are used for flushing,

boiling and washing.

In a closed loop, water is chilled to 8°C and

circulated throughout the air conditioning system

to create an ambient temperature of 23°C (73°F)

throughout the vessel. Black water and waste water

are treated on board using our state-of-the-art

Membrane Bio Reactor advanced treatment system

to become discharged as white water 12-miles from

shore in the open sea. Such a complex system of

engineering is just part of the experience of when

luxury goes exploring.

Some photos from the last few days

Magnificent Glacier along the Avenue of Glaiers. We saw 3 that day.

Ushuaia a beautiful town the end of the world.

Cooking lamb on the bar b que To die for.

Beautiful Lake in Ushuaia.

The result of the Barby!!!!!!

A small portion of what we saw at Port Stanley Fawkland Islands!

Gloria sending post card to  Mother with friend beside her in Ushuaia.
And making the liqueur coffee(please note the different bottles of Liqueur).

Well we survived the trip back from Fawkland Is. amidst some of the roughest seas we have had to handle, at one stage Captain advised winds at 125 knots. Bloody rough! Today we are in Puerto Madryn just a small town nothing of significance here and we are sailing soon to Montevideo after another sea day tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be kind and sunny. 30 degrees today windy but nice! Cya

Ushuaia - On our way to Falkland Is. and now on the way back - Bugger

Feb 4 - Well as you now know the trip around the Horn was quite ok. There’s a new lighthouse and a family home with 2 kids living there, what a life and one of them a teenager. Would always be cold and windy. Everyone got into the spirit of it plenty of photos etc. Even got a certificate for it.

Feb 5 - Ushuaia - Argentina, the world’s southernmost city with 55,000 pop who import all kinds of parts from all over the world and then assemble them at plants and they may come out as computers, cars, tv’s etc. Then sold.

We drove through the town which is rustic and natural and houses in pastel colors to brighten things up.Drove towards the Pan American Highway towards North side of Island and across the Fuegian Andes, passing forests and Glaciers, which were truly beautiful, plenty of snow about too. Ended up 1500 feet above Escndidi Lake, which was lovely and even better because the sun came out for us. Very picturesque. Stopped on way back for lunch at a restaurant which served us lamb which was cooked in the big gazebo looking room with an open roaring fire. Had about a dozen lambs cooking, very popular place. Served with potatoes and salads, desert and then they made this coffee. Boiled it over an open fire in the huge black teapot and then added some of the coal from the fire, an orange and last of all about 10 different  liqueurs, not just a drop either. Truly nice till you got to the charcoal, was a wonderful experience. Very nice lunch is great setting.

Back into town for a walk about, very chilly but loved the town very quaint and different.

Feb6 - We are at sea today and it is very rough, 50 mph winds and 6 meter seas. Captain says it will probably get worse south of Falkland Islands so holding our breath and hoping it improves. We are having trouble accessing the internet today so not quite sure how we’ll get this posted or when. So far we are handling the conditions okay with the help of wrist bands and Kwells. There is a chance we may not get to land at Port Stanley depends on the seas and winds as we will be anchored and will tender ashore. This Captain is very safety conscious and everyone has faith in his decisions.

Feb7- Well after flogging through very rough seas and winds we arrived at Port Stanley at 6 am. The Captain has tried twice to get the anchor to set, but the bottom is not suitable, so he’s come on the blower to tell us we are on our way back to South America and the next port Puerto Madryn Argentina. Now we’ll flog ourselves back again. Bugger Bugger Bugger, even Prince Willy has not bothered to show his face. What an experience!

We are going around the Horn right now

Yep its as rough as guts force 8 winds 6 meter seas but how exciting!
Well unfortunately we lost internet contact so now we've been round Cape Horn, absolutely amazing experience in such huge seas and winds. We made it! Now we re just arriving in Ushuaia Argentina where the scenery is just post card colour. Will send some pics next time. HAve to get moving its 7.30 am and off on an excursion.

Still in the Fjords and Punto Arenas

Yesterday we had a whole day cruising the Chilean fjords, a never ending array of different channels with towering cliffs and snow covered mountain tops. We saw 2 more Glaciers yesterday, both much different to the one seen previously and each with their own specialty. It’s difficult to explain just how and depending on the day can also change colours etc. 

We also saw a couple of shipwrecks.

We are still not sure what’s happening re our way around the Cape, but we will at least circumnavigate it by sailing down in sheltered waters. We had a medical evacuation yesterday. 

A Chilean navy helicopter dropped in to take a passenger to Hospital and that created quite a bit of interest for several hours. This morning we arrived at Punto Arenas the worlds most Southern City, so now we’ve seen both, the Northern most last July and now the Southern most City. We had lunch with the Cruise Director  and he is quite a comedian, he stated that Punto Arenas is commonly know as the bottom of the world, hence the name Punto Aranus (hope you get the joke as in anus). it is a large City of 120000 people and we took the shuttle into town and explored it. One of the highlights is the cemetery which consists of huge mausoleums ( the photos explain more than I can). 

There are lots of modern buildings, hotel’s and Casino’s and the City is very pretty, tidy and clean! Well tonight and tomorrow are going to be very interesting, we may have to sit tight and we’ll report on our way to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands.We’re off to see Prince William who has arrived just in time.

The Laguna San Rafael Glacier

This morning we anchored at Paso Quesahuen for what could be one of the highlights of our cruise, a journey to the Laguna San Rafael glacier 60 meters tall and the closest glacier in latitude to the equator on earth. We boarded a catamaran that holds 100 passengers and travelled for an hour to this most magnificent sight. The glacier we saw in the Arctic circle paled in significance to this beauty. 

The blues in colour varied immensely and as you can see from the photos from white to pale blue to the deepest blue almost navy. We must have been as close as 50 meters from it and although we didn’t see any growlers (the term when a massive iceberg falls from the glacier) it was amazing! WOW!

We didn’t sail until after 9 as they ran these cat’s all day and not before the Captain told us we would experience some 4 meter waves overnight. He was right we had a rough one! 
Woops he just came on again and told us to expect the same again tonight and depending on it's performance there is an 80 percent chance we won't go around Cape Horn, but through the Beagle Channel. Hold on!!!!!!!1

The Chilean Fjords - Puerto Montt and Puerto Chacabucu

We had our first experience of rough seas on our way to Puerto Montt, it wasn’t so much a big sea, but a large swell which made standing upright quite difficult. Just like drunken sailors all over the place. When we arrived at Puerto Montt it was raining and foggy, a real pity as there are some amazing volcano’s with snow capped tops that we were unable to see. We did an excursion visiting two small towns Puerto Varas and Fruitillar.

 Both these towns are located on a very big lake, Lake Llanquinhue and are extremely picturesque. This part of the Chilean Fjords were initially founded by the Germans and there is a marked German influence in the construction of houses etc, lots of shingles. Very pretty indeed. 

                                                                                      The concert pianist
Fruitillar is the location of an annual Music festival that runs about 10 days and the theartre where it is being held has been constructed out into the lake (another black sand beach)and is clad with different colours of timber. Bad luck about the weather because on a nice day it would be magnificent. Once back to the ship we diverted to quite a large market, lots of craft markets but also a fish and farmers market. Took a few photos that you can see below. Tonight the Cruise Director Ray presented his own show. He is a very good singer and is a ventriloquist, he performed before the Queen with a puppet show and showed us his version. He is a delightful CD, works very hard and has been at sea for 43 years. His first ship was the QE2.

                                                                                         Balls of Llama wool

                                                                                    Gloria stopped this little girl from crying

Jan.30. A 11am arrival in Puerto Chacabuco saw us pass several fjords not unlike the Norwegian fjords we saw in July last year, it is raining and there is a lot of fog so we can’t see the snowcapped mountains. Bugger!. This is the first port we have tendered so far and we don’t have an excursion, we will go into town later if the weather picks up. it is about 12 degrees and very cold. Just had a game of darts and Tony showed the advantage of his misspent youth at the Beach Hotel and won. Woo Hoo. Tonight we have a special dinner and show for those going right around SA. We have booked a table for 8 that includes the first people we met at the Ritz Carlton. Should be a good night, we all get on well with each other.
Well the day got worse, cold, wet and windy so we decided to stay with the warmth of the ship.

Antafagasta -Valparaiso and Santiago

Our first port of call in Chile was Antofagasta a large City of almost a million people, but primarily a mining town. It certainly is not geared for tourism as the bus on our City tour today turned up three quarters of an hour late because it had to take miners to work first. The guide was a disaster,she did not seem to know a lot and was difficult to understand. Consequently it was a write off, because it really is a very attractive town with a nice waterfront, beach and a pretty town square.

 Our tour took us to a railway museum of aged gear, different items used for mining, quite good. Next we went to some ruins called Ruinus de Huanchaca. It was a museum, but unusual in it’s ruins were of several old brick kilns where they refined silver into ingots. It was built in 1888 and finished by 1902.

We saw something very unusual though when we were heading back to the ship; A funeral with the coffin sitting on the back of a fire engine and a fire ute filled with wreaths!

                                                                                 Can you spot the coffin on the back of the fire engine?

Today is a sea day on our way to Valparaiso a very large City and Port. We are taking an excursion driving to Santiago which will take us 8 hours. We are looking forward to it as we had seen some photos Jeremy and Rachel took when they travelled here several years ago. Tonight is party night again, they are putting on a show for Australia Day. There are about 24 Aussies on board, most enjoy a drink or ten so should be good. We have a bit of a swell today, but it isn’t affecting us, this ship handles weather very well.

Valparaiso to Santiago

We docked at Valparaiso a very large port of about 800000 people and set off on an excursion to Santiago the Capital of Chile.

 The population is over 7 mill. it’s a big City, very beautiful with lots of parks and gardens, some very nice buildings both modern and Historical. We didn’t tour anything of great significance, the time allowed prevented this. On the way and back of course we went through many tunnels under the Andes Mountain range, one was over 6 miles long. Today we are at sea on our way South to Puerto Montt.

It is getting increasingly colder as we travel South, but the seas aren’t too bad, currently we have a real pea souper and the ships horn is being sounded constantly. Our new CAptain joined us last night and he seems very good,  he has done this trip many times so we have complete confidence in him.

Gloria reporting from Suite 820

Well after Machu Picchu we decided to rest, so didn’t do anything in Pisco. Town only had few people in it so stayed on the ship. There were some stalls on the pier so went down and had a browse. Some beautiful jackets for 1 year olds with beautiful animals stitched on them and not that expensive. Played golf (5 holes) and I got equal first with another guy, so won 1 whole point. If you collect enough points you can get a t-shirt or cap, so may get something by the end of the trip.

As we’re on segment 2 of the trip we had another Captain’s Welcome, Captain Stan is French and a very nice fellow, unfortunately he is going on leave in about 6 days so we will have another new Captain. This one steered us thru an awful thick fog as we left Pisco but it didn’t hang around long thankfully, Captain kept sounding his horn.

Went to Signatures restaurant, one of the speciality restauant’s, this one is French and has very well presented food. The other one is Prime7, fish and steak. The main dining room is Compass Rose which is a beautiful room, and the menus are always very good there too. We choose to share a table and have met some lovely people mainly Aussies and Americans. The other restaurant is The Verandah, mainly buffet but menu for dinner, its also a very nice restaurant and has dining outside as well which we have done.

Yesterday was Matarani, but the city of Arequipa is about 2 hours away so didn’t get there. Went into the small town of Mollenda, 25 mins away, not a lot to see but it’s close to a beach and there were about 500 people in the water, not that hot and the sand was grey, yuk.

The shows on board have been quite good, went and heard a couple of singers last night and they were very easy to listen to. Most of the shows have singing and dancing but did have a circus trapeze act one night.

Today is a sea day and very calm. Tony’s been to a storytelling on Chile and then we played golf and Tony was a winner today, hooray bring on the t-shirt.

Have another block party tonight, which entails you taking a glass from your suite and going out in the passage way to be greeted by the house keepers who pour you a drink and you meet the neighbours. Quite a good idea. 

Callao (Lima) Machu Picchu and Pisco Peru

We arrived back from Machu Picchu yesterday, completely exhausted but with memories that will last us a lifetime. 3 days of extreme fascination how this wonder of the world transpired.

We flew from Lima after arriving at the port of Callao to Cusco a 1 hour flight over some magnificent scenery of snow topped mountains and farms. Initially we were optimistic as to how we would handle the altitude of 11,200 ft. We had heard some horrendous stories of altitude sickness that had happened to others,fortunately we were not affected,we had tablets (not sure about those), drank copious amounts of water, had little alcohol and drank lots of Coco Tea. Apart from little sleep the first night,we handled it very well with no affects. Cusco is a beautiful City and it’s inhabitants unusual, we stayed at the Hotel Monasterio originally built in 1598 as a seminary for Catholic Priests. It is owned by the Orient Express and remains a National landmark and still retains it’s original characteristics and charm.

 After a huge 2 hour lunch we set off exploring Cusco and its Inca history and architecture. We visited the Main Square and the beautiful Cathedral, but by far the highlight of Cusco has to be Sacsayhuaman (more commonly known as sexy woman) a testimonial to Incan architectural skills. Compiled of massive stones some as big as 125 tons and we were challenged to try and slip a sheet of paper between the cracks of blocks cut and fitted together with incredible precision without any mortar whatsoever. It was absolutely mind boggling, this was the fortress where the greatest battles between the Spanish and the Incas took place and overlooks the red tiled roofs of Cusco.

At night we were treated to a beautiful dinner at the hotel. Our next day was unbelievable and spread over 16 and half hours, beginning with a 6 am start and a 2 hour bus trip to the Sacred Valley where the Inca trail begins, except we joined a deluxe train owned by the Orient Express called the Hiram Bingham named after the man who discovered Machu Picchu in 1911. The trip was very scenic with views of the Andean Mountain range and several small villages. On arrival at the MP station we then spent 30 mins. on a bus driving on a switch back road up the vertical cliff to the archeological site where we spent 3 hours with a very good guide who explained everything about the site and how the Incas built it and lived. To fully explain this would take hours of typing and reading, there are not enough superlatives to tell you what an amazing experience we enjoyed. Afternoon tea at the Sanctuary Lodge very nice.

Another trip down to the mountain to the train where we were served a 4 course dinner on the way back to the Sacred Valley and a 2 hour bus ride back to Cusco in pouring rain arriving at the hotel at 10.30 pm. We were wacked, but what a day!

                                                                Can you spot the rainbow.

Next day we were transported back to the Airport to fly back to Lima. A very short tour of Lima, (nothing to write home about) and then guess, another luncheon at Casa Aliaga, a preserved Colonial Mansion owned by the same family since 1535.

Back to the ship for the beginning of the second segment of our cruise 23 days to Buenos Aries. We had room service and crashed after Skypeing the Melbourne Marsden’s and Gloria speaking to her Mother by phone. We had an excursion today when we arrived at Pisco a very small port, but decided to cancel and just rest after our mammoth journey.PHEW!

Salavery the Port for Trujillo Peru

We arrived at Salavery this morning a tiny port and shanty town for Trujillo the second largest City in Peru.
It has about 1 mill. pop.We did a short tour of Chan Chan Palaces a restored 1300 AD city of over 60000 people spread over 28 Sq. km. Vey well worth while but Trujillo just a sandy rocky mountainous area at the foot of the Andes mountain range.

These are some photos from our visit to the equator and the middle of the world.

Gloria with 1 foot either side of the equator at the Middle of the World and both of us at the real site one on either side.

An example of how water goes straight down the plug on the equator and how the water will swirl in different directions either side of the equator.

Standing an egg upright on the head of a nail.

Welcome home by the crew on our return from Quito! What a hoot!
Well tomorrow is our big journey to Machu Picchu so there will be no post for a few days.
We are looking forward to this trip and are preparing for the additional altitude but having spent 2 days at 9500 ft. another 2000 should not be too bad. Hope everyone is well, thanks for the emails and we'll talk soon.