Around The Horn Review-Part 5

[Smooth Sailing]

Day 10 - Stanley - Falkland Islands - We arrived in the harbor at 9:00AM - this was our only tender port - again the Infinity was next to us - so 3,000 passengers at the Falklands which has a total population of just a bit over 2,000 inhabitants. This was our most changable weather day - cloudy, sunny, rain showers, sleet, sunny again - but always windy and cold. We had booked the Sparrow Cove Penguin Tour - this tour is only available through the ship. We left the ship on one of our ships tenders that took us on a 20 minute ride to the pier at Sparrow cove - we had only 45 passengers on this tour since the landowner can accomodate no more - we got onto 4 wheel drive jeeps - 9 jeeps - 5 passengers per jeep. The jeeps took us on about a 1/2 hour trip up over the muddy grass hills and down to the penguin colony. Again this was a fairly small colony of several hundred penguins - adults and babies - the advantage here was you could walk among the penguins - they would walk right up to you and pose for pictures - also a few King Penguins here - Katie prefered this tour over Otway Sound. The owners had a small hut were we were served hot chocolate, cookies, and cake. You will get your shoes a bit muddy here - and some penguin dodo - this is also where we had a windy, sleet shower - there were also some albatross and geese around - and some sheep. Spent about an hour then back to the tender and into town.

This town is really small - still much more than Puerto Charcabuco - a few resturants and bars - a few shops - most everyone ends up at the Globe Tavern - an old style English Pub - We had a few beers (as usual) and some

of their famous Fish and Chips - back to the ship since we only had until 3:30PM - Had dinner at the Seven Seas - again good - not spectacular.

Day 11 - At Sea - The scenic cruising is now over - no land in sight - your typical day at sea. Oh yes - one significant difference - blue sky and sunshine - you could even feel a bit of warm creeping around the ship - passengers were on deck - all the pool chairs were taken - a few hearty souls even took off their shirts - It really was still a bit too cool for this, but (you know) some guys have to show us all how tough they are - even if they are old and flabby.

Day 12 - Puerto Madryn - We arrived at port at 7:00AM - blue sky - sunshine - warm. We did not want to do a tour today - most every tour required a long, dusty drive from town. Puerto Madryn is in a dry, almost desert like climate - we wanted to spend the day walking around town - we have not been able to do this at most of our other ports. This nice medium sized town is located right on the beach - we walked down the Long pier and into town - walked along the beach road for a mile or so - then turned into town - we actuaaly had walked past the main part of town - so went in a block or two and headed back in the opposite direction - lots of quaint little houses - fairly modern - nice flower gardens - many residents out with their hose to water the grass and plants. We went down at bit past the stores and shops - several resturants and bars - headed back toward the beach. On the beach side were several open air - patio type - resturants/bars - stopped for a beer at each - the beach was filled with people swimming and sunbathing - also some vollyball - the temperature was in the low 90's by early afternoon. We went back up a block into town and found a great place for lunch - the inside of this resturant was like you were inside the hull of an old sailling ship - great food - Yes, you know by now, we had the steaks - they were huge, tender, oh so good - but still a step below the one's at Vina del Mar. We saw other patrons that ordered the ribs - they received this stack of ribs about a foot high - they sure looked good and remember, this is only lunch. We returned to the ship at 3:30PM since we sailed away at 4PM. No dinner tonight - we were stuffed - Katie ordered room sevice for a pizza and roast beef sandwich around 9PM and then we crashed.

[Toots]

Thanks so much for taking time to do the review. We're looking forward to going 2/26 and we'll report back, too.

[relevart]

Many thanks for your wonderful reviews.

 

Were you able to use dollars everywhere or did you need local money?

 

Did you need british pounds in the Falklands?

 

Thank you in advance!

[cruiseyguy]

You can use US $$ everywhere (just learn the conversion rates for each country). Change for dollar bills is given in dollars; small change is given in local currency.

[jasl]

Nice postings, thank you for taking the time. It brings back great memories, we did Sparrow Cove last year, you received a bonus, the hot chocolate and goodies. Safe travels home.