TravelBluebird

sunrise was 6:15. Better side of ship is considered port side from San Antonio and Starboard from Buenos Aires

Patch of blue sky! It’s 42 degrees damp and chilly! I’m in a thermal, PJ bottoms and scarf

Good morning! We are sailing up the channel to Port Chacabuco. I wanted to wake up for the sunrise but could only manage 7:15 am. Missed passing by those tall snow covered mountains in the distance, Overcast but beautiful! Don’t y’all worry on the “wrong” side of the ship, we have views too!

Heading to bed shortly,..our first port tomorrow! Want to be well rested. Today was a great day; we feel like we hit our stride and relaxed into the cruise!

The trio was very jazzy, and we enjoyed them! Then I went out to see the promised 9pm port side. It was VERY windy and I needed a coat, scarf and hat and we are not even near Antartica yet! Unfortunately, said 9pm volcano was shrouded in clouds except for the tippy top. A few of us hardy types waited to see if some clouds would move, but they did not. I enjoyed watching many people come out in their short sleeves and dinner clothes, and immediately flee back inside.

The absolutely GORGEOUS view from ship right now:

We have found MUSIC IN THE OCEAN BAR! 😀 They are called “Third Avenue West” after HAL’s address in Seattle, They were listed in events under the name with no description.

We’ve decided NOT to take the little municipal van into town before our excursion tomorrow—too risky to miss our excursion which we are looking forward to! Instead we are going to go ashore in the tender about 1.5 hours before the excursion. We know its a small port and not much to do there, but I’ll do some photography and we’ll hang out in the coffee shop. Here is a description of tomorrow’s excursion: Top 3 Reasons To Book A walk through the Aiken del Sur Private Park Superb views of nearby lakes, rivers, hills and mountains A delicious, typical Patagonian barbecue lunch (lamb). A 15-minute ride takes you along an outstandingly beautiful road. Your destination is Aikén del Sur Private Park. On the banks of the placid, transparent waters of Lake Riesco, the park covers an area of five square miles. Visit the Information Center for an introduction to the whole area. Interpretive stations explain the bio-geographical history of the region; then, outdoors, you'll stroll down three nature trails, complete with rails and bridges, to discover the three different zones -- forest, prairie and swamp. In the indigenous perennial forest, you'll see ferns (some typified for the first time in Chile), mosses and lichens. The River Trail immerses you in the deep nature of Patagonia as you traverse prairies and the humid forest that characterizes this part of the world. The flora here consists of patriarchal myrtle and turf mingled with wild fuchsia and calafate shrubbery. On the Swamp Trail, macal and mallines wetlands round out the wealth of habitat found at Aikén del Sur. A 65-foot-tall waterfall -- the impressive Old Man's Beard cascade -- awaits at the trail's end. Take photos before you return to base via the Waterfall Trail. A delicious, typical Patagonian lunch of barbecued lamb is served before you return to the ship. Notes: Wear comfortable walking shoes, biodegradable sunscreen and insect repellent. Dress warmly in layers with a wind- and waterproof outer layer. Not advisable for guests with mobility limitations. If you have dietary restrictions, please advise the shore excursion manager on board the ship. Your guide will do his/her best to speak English, but please keep in mind that the limited tourism infrastructure here is part of the port's charm, and bear with any language difficulties he/she may encounter. The coach is not air-conditioned. Aikén de Sur's commitment to reduced waste means that plastic bottles cannot be brought into the park. There are water stations within the park; recyclable cups are provided. You are welcome to bring bottled water in your own non-plastic reusable bottle.

I then went outside on Promenade 3 and blew my hair to bigs (again!!) to get a couple photos of the high mountains we are passing (including, I believe, a few more volcanoes) on the port side. It has got very hazy and very difficult to get any contrast or resolution in the photos; these have been photoshopped a bit:

We had just a perfect dinner at Caneletto’s. The restaurant was not busy at all, and so we were lavished with service. For starters we each had the Grilled TIger Shrimp with Salsa verde (perfectly cooked shrimp, well grilled with a delicious sauce). We shared the Burrata with Plum Tomatoes (where do they get these flavorful tomatoes in Chile? They are amazing!). DH got the Ossobuco (brown not tomato sauce; very nice) and I got the Broiled Lobster Tails on spaghetti and warm crab mayonnaise. Loved them; $15 up charge for the lobster. The restaurant overall was a $25 up charge each. For desert, DH had Affogato and I had the Baked Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake. Great flavor and texture to the cheese cake, and mixed berries not that horrid strawberry sauce some places pour all over their cheesecake. We had a chance to tell the chef how much we enjoyed it. The staff said they are never completely full this trip, and to just stop by if we want to eat there!

Here is another photo from the bow, of Chiloe island, the largest island of the Chiloe Archipelago. Fun bonus—we couldn’t see it with our naked eyes, but sitting under the gorse bushes on the cliiffs, is a colony of sea lions! Shot with 300mm lens.

More photos from our time out on the bow! Weather was beautiful—bit windy and partly cloudy! If you zoom in you can see the cable we had to get under!

For those of you into photography, that was shot with a Nikon D500 with a 55-300mm telephoto Nikon DX, telephoto prob about 250mm.

My best photo from our time out on the bow of the ship—just after the bridge being built, the volcano with boats in the foreground. Really wan’t fjords—more of a channel with land visible on both sides. Narration was very nice.

Not yet! No music there yet, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some!

Its a Melon-flavored Mojito with no alcohol!

We are approaching the scenic cruising portion of the day! I think the bow will be open; weather seems pretty mild at the moment. For the last 45 minutes we could see land from our cabin!

It was Dressy Night for dinner last night! Dressy Night for Holland America for this cruise is not very dressy (which I knew thanks to everyone here!). I wore nice black pants with a dressy top and nice necklace, and Russ wore a sports coat, and we fit right in. Many people were even less dressy than I was…a couple of people clearly decided “hey, this is Antarctica!” and made no effort at all. The dinner was outstanding. Probably the best beef tenterloin I’ve had on a ship formal night, of any line. Nice veggie sides. A properly jumbo jumbo shrimp cocktail (and I hate Louis sauce, but our waiter had no problem bringing me cocktail sauce). The flourless chocolate cake is my “Carnival Chocolate Melting Cake” for this cruise, and was very good—said it comes with ice cream and it did not, but I was so full by that time I did not care. The white choclate celebrating HAL’s 150th anniversary was a nice touch. Right after dinner attended the brief Captain’s Welcome—introduction of some of the officers, key staff, and a toast with free champagne. We skipped the female vocalist, and just listened to Adam the piano player. We thought the Rolling Stone lounge was OK but a bit loud…we desperately wanted a quiet corner with a folk singer and guitar or a violinist, etc to just sit and talk, but we don’t seem to have that on this ship. We also had the aforementioned Melon No-Jito at the Crow’s Nest. The sunset was spectacular!

The “Permission to Dance” class was in the Rolling Stone Lounge has been my favorite activity on the ship so far! Jacee was the instructor, and she ran the class like a proper dance class, with warm up and cool down. We learned the Wobble (which, obviously, I know from years on Carnival!) and another dance that is new to me! We are part dance class and part flash mob for the Orange Night Party—evidently we are going to perform the dances we learn at the party—I guess hopefully to get everyone else up and moving with us! So hence the slightly vague “Permission to Dance” event name. After that, I decided to book a tour with an airport transfer for our last day in Argentina. Our flight isn’t until 7:30 pm, so we didn’t know what to do with our luggage, etc, all day and we’ll get to see Argentine Tango, have a meal, and see parts of Buenos Aires we won’t get to see our first day. Technically, the tour says “must have flight after 8:30” but we have our flight at 7:30–the excursions desk said we’ll be fine, and we have priority luggage line at the airport through Delta. I hate thinking about the end of the cruise at all, but better to have it all sorted out!

Heading down to my dance lesson; more after that about the first dressy night last night, our first Port Talk, and lunch today@ The rain has stopped and a bit more blue skies to the clouds at the moment

Before I forget, I was able to upload my first video from the ship! You’ve read the whole story here, but there is some of the captain’s talk in the video (which he said was OK to film).

Such a lovely spot! Very popular on this cruise, as you would imagine! Last night, before listening to the piano player Adam, we sat up there and had two delicious Melon No-Jitos!

Yesterday afternoon and this morning we really enjoyed walking on the 3rd floor Promenade track. Even saw a whale spout today! IMG_3750.mov IMG_3751.mov

Today’s itinerary is as follows (what we have selected to do): This morning was Crow’s Nest Coffee with pastries, then the 10am Port Talk on Port Chacabuco. I briefly shopped (really like the general shop on this ship!). We then did our brisk walks around deck 3, and went straight to MDR lunch after. This afternoon in about an hour I’ll be doing the Line Dancing Class (which, for some strange reason is entitled “Permission to Dance,” so I had to figure out what the heck that was). We are skipping 3pm tea. At 4pm will begin narrated Chilean Fjords cruising. 9pm we pass a spectacular volcano. My husband (who still after 34 years doesn’t understand my tenacity with a camera in a scenic area) has booked Caneletto’s for tonight at 6:30. He has been warned he may be eating solo tonight! There is a guitarist from Nashville for entertainment tonight, and I may wander into the casino. Tomorrow we are getting into port an hour early, so 9am. Although we have an excursion, it is not till 1:45 (Nature in Patagonia). We are going to attempt to go ashore as soon as possible and take the municipal van into Puerto Aysen for an hour or two. We are a little worried that we won’t be able to get the van in time to get back (it runs every 20 minutes, but what if tons of passengers are in line to return? Does anyone have experience taking the van to Puerto Aysen?

…and then it started to rain! So. now I’m sitting sideways on my couch looking outside instead. I was worried about my legs being able to be stretched out on the couch fully, but I fit fine. I’m only 5 foot tall, but there is at least 6” of additional room, so people a little taller than me could also sit as I am sitting.