scubacruiserx2

Which ship are you on ?

Here's some flying penguins on a video clip .Very hard to capture a still shot . We are watching the Oosterdam , currently at Cape Horn and the Star very near and headed for Paradise Bay tomorrow . 20 hours of sunlight ! https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9195157

Thank you . It was a beautiful day ! A couple of video clips from our favorite glacier , Perito Moreno near El Calafate . Calving from underneath the glacier - big , blue ice . Calving from above sounded like a cannon . Watch for small rainbow after the splash .

Please read about new President's policies https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/21/argentina-president-javier-milei-economic-policies-protests Thanks to MicCanberra's post on another thread

Birds of a feather fishing together Chin strap penguins fishing Gentoo moving fast The tail of a whale

Thank you very much . I must say that we looked at your profile and noted that you have children about our grandsons age . We did do a Baltic cruise with him a couple of years back that you might enjoy at this link . We presume that you missed Saint Petersburg but we were able to visit there with him . https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/2287122-eclipsing-northern-europe-by-cruise-basic-black-and-baltic-blues/ Antarctica , Patagonia and South America was our favorite cruise to see God's creation . It would be a perfect vacation if your family could go during the Christmas and New Years Eve cruise and there are several cruise lines that go . We've been on HAL , NCL , Celebrity and Princess and like them all . Happy New Year and happy cruising . Please stay tuned as Antartica , The Falkland Islands and a land stay at Patagonia is next , so the best is yet to come .

A couple of parting shots Cape Horn The Base near Cape Horn Collage of South America and Patagonia stay . But no Antarctica . We are watching both the Star and the Oosterdam . The Oosterdam has been and tha Star is going and the passed each other last night . The Star is about half wat across the Drake Passage and should be there late afternoon or early evening .

As much as I dislike saying this they prefer Dollars and a number of people remember the Falkland Island War . They prefer to say Isla Malvinas to Falklands . Thus they prefer Dollars to Pounds Sterling . They see the US as more like them as we seperated from the the UK . But many confuse Yanks with English as we share a common language . Our son is currently on holiday in Peru with his wife who is from there . They live in the US with our 3rd grandson and they are all fluent in English and Spanish . But she still prefers her family and culture to our son's family and culture . We speak some Spanish but hire local guides who are bilingual to help and show us what we would like to see . We used to do the same in Russia and spoke some Russian , but if asked we might say that we were from Canada . But we 've found the Russians to be more open to us than some of the people in Argentina in our experence .

The Argentina Peso has always been a slippery slope . The last time that we traveled there our bank would not allow us to exchange A Pesos . We normally have currency of the places that we travel to by having our bank deliver the foreign currency delivered to our house before we leave . Russian Rubles , Krones , Pounds Sterling - no problems . But the A Peso is the only currency that they would not exchange . Many of the ATMs there would only allow $ 50 per transaction plus a fee . And many of the ATM's were empty , usually on a week end . We did exchange Dollars for Pesos last trip at the EZE airport bank . We needed a passport and fresh Dollars . But even the cab driver didn't want the pesos . He said that they were fake and wanted dollars . We only had the petty cash available - so we gave him the Dollars - but no tip . We found out later that it was a common scam to get Dollars instead of A Pesos . Our past and future guide will pick us up at the airport this time and will help us exchange money . She said that they have a new President and that the currency has changed a lot . When we checked 2 weeks ago it was 350 A Pesos to a Dollar . I just checked XE Currency and it's now 810 A Peso to the Dollar !

Thank you for sharing your cruise , photos and observations with us . Our last trip to Antarctica and the Falklands was on the Zuiderdam during Christmas and NYE . You can see our photo review here . We are scheduled to go there again on January , this time on the NCL Star From BA to BA and have started a thread there already Lastly , but more to the topic of tracking apps. , have you tried Cruisemapper ? It tracks and shows the itineraries of many ships and has enabled us to track the Star going to Antarctica now and the Oosterdam leaving . You passed each other last night . Enjoy Ushuaia , the Star was just there for 2 days and an overnight . If you haven't booked a tour there we would recommend the 4 hour harbor tour there . Thanks again and enjoy your cruise . 😊🙂

This may help . Will you be using private or ships tours ? I was researching tipping last night in planning for cash vs credit card transactions. Tipping in restaurants and tour guides is generally 10% but guides should be higher if private. In general, most websites I saw said that you should tip in local currency unless the tip is US$50 or more when paying in US$ is also good. Hotel tipping is the equivalent of US$1 or so per bag and housekeeping the equivalent of US$3-5 . No tipping taxis unless they help with luggage. Wait staff 10-15%, preferably in cash because if you add it to credit card payment sometimes the servers don’t get the tip. Note that sometimes the service is built into the bill when you get it; you have to check. But if you see Cubiertos, that is a charge that goes to the restaurant not the server for basically serving you. Here is a link to an interesting article on dining out in Argentina. https://wander-argentina.com/faq-dining-out/ Dining Out in Argentina: Customs,

Well duh , DW just reminded me that we leave in 1 week . Yikes , we should start packing after my Doctor visit mañana .

Wow , thank you very much . It was our most expensive tour , but we loved it , and we hope that NCL will continue to offer that trip ! We hope to do a tour there after our cruise on a long day trip from El Calafate . We don't do live photos as I use a camera and we get immersed in what we're doing . So we will do our review here after we get back . Even though we don't do live reviews we may chat as we go . We hope to be leaving 2 weeks from today . 🙂😊

Thanks Mic and Rosie . It was a chamber of commerce day after sleet the day before . One of our favorite video clips from the Glacier Alley

And thank you for writing in and your kind words .

A view from the island toward the city The backside of the island We thought that these were Calafate berries , but I don't think they are A springy moss Don't forget to eat some Centolla Crab here . It's like King Crab with spikes , yikes ! Crab photo from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithodes_santolla

Landing at Bridges Island The other group was ahead of us at the peak of the island being stalked by an irate bird as they got too close to the nest . The others as we neared the summit Looking back at our boats as the other group approached the boats

The NCL Star is still currently docked at Ushuaia . https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9195157 They head out to Antarctica as soon as they leave , but only for 2 days instead of the 4 days on our last cruise there . Our sister boat headed out to our last stop before we did - Bridges Island . The Behemoth Catameran could't get as close as us to the islands . The Skipper and Gilligan had a flag which was raffled - we lost . We hoped that our 4 hour tour would would be just that and not a ship wreck . The Bridges FamilyG.P. Despard was one of the missionaries that settled at the Falklands with his family, including his adopted son Thomas Bridges. Thomas would also become a missionary and together with his wife Mary Ann, he landed at Ushuaia in 1871.

Bird Island , Ushuaia Lunch time in the Kelp A mother and her chick

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse

Snooty neighbors Don't forget to bring some water Mom and kiddo Dad can use some dental work

The port The airport in the distance I belive that this is our sister boat . They get quite close .

The Star is scheduled to arrive in Ushuaia at 10 AM and leave at 1700 so we won't be able to do this trip again . We would recommend it if you can make it on your cruise . We will share photos of a previous trip here next time . THE TRIP We depart from the local seaport toward Alicia Island, where we will find a colony of South American sea lions. Then we sail to Bird Island to watch king shags and imperial shags living close to their nests, and from spring through fall we can even find their breeds. Again, we head east towards another small island that, depending on the season, we can view South American fur seals. Very close to this island is Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, an authentic symbol of Ushuaia, built in 1919. From there we have a view of the island where rock shags live. On our way back to Ushuaia, we disembark at Bridges Island to walk along a path for the interpretation of wildlife, while listening to the history of the native inhabitants, the Yamanas. On this island, we can find the largest Yamana's "concheros" (shelly deposits) of the region. As this is the largest island, we reach the highest panoramic point from which we can enjoy amazing views of the Beagle Channel with the town of Ushuaia in the distance. During the trip, we offer coffee with liquor, different types of tea, a delicious hot chocolate with biscuits and cookies and, of course, the typical Argentine beverage, the mate. Tour duration: 4 hours. Daily departure times: 9:30 am & 3:00 pm.