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Cruising to South America on the Zaandam : A pictorial review


scubacruiserx2
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After returning from a 14 day cruise on the HAL Zaandam from Santiago to Buenos Aires. All we can say is WOW ! We will review the ship , the ports and be glad to answer any and all questions. And of course , share pictures :)

 

 

The Canal Beagle confluence

 

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All hands on deck

 

 

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Glacier Alley

 

 

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Penguins

 

 

 

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And the end of the world

 

 

 

 

 

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We were going to do this cruise next year, but when the price went South , so did we. HAL announced a lower price for a 14 day version of this cruise ending in Buenos Aires. A quick price check on flights and we were in - with only 5 weeks to plan. We felt comfortable with a late booking because we had done a similar cruise on the NCL Dream in 2007. We chose to ride the HAL bus from Santiago to the port in Valparaiso. Here's the bus that we took for the 2 hour ride.

 

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Along the way we passed through wine country

 

 

 

 

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Arriving at the queue we joined the embarkation process.

 

 

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It would be a long , frustrating process. The line was slow moving and when our time came we found out why. It seem that local labor was used for the process instead of HAL employees. We had already paid our reciprocity fees to Chile and Argentina - so we had hoped to avoid the dreaded passport confiscation. But the local authorities were having none of that so it's give up your passport or miss the boat. The people behind us in line were from Moscow and I explained to them that with 4 trips to Russia , that we never had to surrender our passport there , or in any other country. We asked but never got a satisfactory reason for this. When doing private tours in other countries we always carry our passport in case of emergency. After another bag X-ray and a dog sniff we boarded the next bus to the cruise ship.

 

 

 

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We have been through many boarding processes in many countries but I care for Valparaiso the least.

 

 

 

We were thrilled to be on the Zaandam , and I took out my better camera for a couple of picture before we sailed.

 

 

Colorful dwellings

 

 

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The port

 

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With a good night of sleep and a day at sea I got up early for coffee and to take a camera for a walk. I had purchased a new camera a month earlier and I wanted to get comfortable with it and the ship.

 

 

Crow's nest

 

 

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Explorations lounge

 

 

 

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Rotterdam dining

 

 

 

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I love this painting in the Library

 

 

 

 

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Karla and Juan were teaching the Tango in the Crow's Nest

 

 

 

 

 

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In the morning we attended a creative photo editing in the Digital Workshop with Evan. We really like this feature with Holland America. Latter in the day we had our Cruise Critic meet and greet in the Crow's Nest . There we got an answer to a question that I have always had , " Where do Australians vacation " ? There were over 100 Aussies on our cruise. There were also many Germans , Japanese , and Russians . Of course mostly Americans and Canadians . Missing were the large number of that we had seen on our previous cruise to South America .

 

 

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This was the today ON LOCATION for Sunday. We were really looking forward to Puerto Montt on Monday as it was a high point of ous previous trip to SA. I hopes of catching a clear photo of Osorno Volcano and a lunch at our favorite restaurant in South America. Next: Trouble on the horizon.

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Really great pics and commentary.

 

Looking forward to more :)

 

Regarding your passport comment, we too turned them in for South America and have had to do so for certain European ports depending on the itinerary. It facilitates the ship's & passengers' clearance and makes it easier for you to get off as planned ;)

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Really great pics and commentary.

 

Looking forward to more :)

 

Regarding your passport comment, we too turned them in for South America and have had to do so for certain European ports depending on the itinerary. It facilitates the ship's & passengers' clearance and makes it easier for you to get off as planned ;)

 

 

 

 

Catching up

More great reports and pictures.

We also had to turn in our passports for South America, Russia and many other European ports.

 

 

When we cruised the Baltic in June of this year on the Celebrity Eclipse , from Southampton , they did take our passports also . But it was only for 2 days ( 1 port ) . In fact , we were instructed to carry them in every port , after getting them back . In Germany and Russia they were stamped and entered into their data base . It was nice knowing that if any of our private tours had problems and if we missed the ship , we could meet it later . We did have Russian Visas attached to our passports and so we were cleared to stay there for at least 6 months , if we chose to .

 

In Chile and Argentina likewise , our visas were attached to our passports . The main difference was that it was 2 days and 1 port in Europe . In SA it was missing for all of the ports , except 1 , 12 days total !

 

 

That's a big difference !

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Wow, wow, wow! one of our own favorite cruises on one of our most favorite ships. Your photos are capturing all the drama of this incredible itinerary. Thanks for the memories.

 

Thank you , mine too . And we hope to go back .

 

 

Thanks for the beautiful photos. Plan to do Buenos Aires to Fort Lauderdale in March 2018. Never too early to dream.

 

You're Welcome , the best is yet to come ! Would you consider a B2B or a stay ? We did stay after the trip and we are considering The 21 day cruise in December 2017 .

Edited by scubacruiserx2
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Our first port after leaving Santiago was Puerto Montt . We had been here before and knew exactly what we wanted to do and see so we booked a private tour to accomplish as much as we could. The port requires a tender so we were down early to get tickets on the first tender and we were off .

 

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We were in port from 8 am to 5 pm and we had a lot of ground to cover. We drove along Lago Llanquihue ( Lake Yan kee way) and made a brief stop at a store. We continued along route 225 with the goal of photographing Osorno Volcano without cloud cover. Along route 225 there were numerous stops for road construction. We made a scenic view stop just ahead of another private group. This was our first view of the volcano (complete with some animals on the tennis court).

 

 

 

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The other group wanted to pose for pictures and so did the animals.

 

 

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After entering Vicente Perez Rosales National Park , we requested a photo stop on the paved road as it looked as though we could do an end run around the clouds.

 

 

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A little further on the paved road ended abruptly and a bus flew past us . It hit the dirt road and went airborne ! I thought that we would see a massive accident in front of us. We caught the bus a little further up the road when we stopped at Lagos Todos Los Santos . Everyone was OK and boarding a boat for a lake crossing at Petrohue.

 

 

 

 

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We saw another view of the Volcano near the hotel and it looked as though the clouds were circling the summit.

 

 

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I loved revisiting South America via your spectacular photos, Scubacruiserx2! Our 21 day Antarctica Holiday Cruise on the Zaandam was probably our best ever.

 

Thanks!

Karen

 

It was my favorite also Karen . El Calafate , and Torres del Paine were SPECTACULAR and we would love to go to see Antarctica also !

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Can you believe the asking price for a visit to the restrooms ?

 

 

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Walking along the volcanic lakeshore we got another view of Osorno

 

 

 

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Our next stop was the Saltos del Petrohue ( Petrohue waterfalls). It is a chute type waterfall from where the Petrohue River crosses a lava field. The lava field was created from the last eruption of Osorno in 1869.

 

 

There is a nice walk through the jungle to reach the falls.

 

 

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Petrohue Falls

 

 

 

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You can hear and see the power in this video clip.

 

 

 

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