NCL Sun 11/19/16 Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina, 14 days, "around the horn"

[skierjj]

The next day was the highlight of our trip. I debated about purchasing this expensive excursion. I bought it for myself to celebrate my birthday. I figured I'd only be here once so go ahead and bite the bullet. I'm so glad I did! What a fantastic day.

This excursion is the Torres Del Paine national park out of punta Arenas. It is offered by NCL and it is an 11 hour excursion! It involves a small plane flight and a long bus ride to get into park.

The day flew by and was very magical with out of this world landscapes, unexpected wildlife sightings, beautiful waterfalls, crazy colors, great Chilean lunch, wild flowers.

Mike has the better photos of the whole trip on his Cannon sureshot 50. But I have to figure out how to add those to this review. All of these pics are off my iPhone 6.

There will be many pictures.

The park is located in Patagonia above port Natalie and south of puerto Chacabucco.

We collected our passports the night before. We woke up very early. We boarded the bus that took us to the airport. We went through security. This airport services people going to Antarctica and people going on extensive expeditions or expensive fishing trips, etc.

We boarded a small cramped plane circa about early 1960s. They built the seats pretty small then. But it was an adventure just getting squeezed in there. (Mike and I are not small people[emoji15]). The pilot and copilot were very nice. They spoke in Spanish and English.

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

The first creature we saw was an eagle not familiar with the species, different than in North America. Next we saw a flightless bird called a Rhea. I did not get pics of either of these. (Mike did though, I'll have to post those later). Later we came upon many groups of guanacos. All over the hillsides. One male would watch over his harem of females and young males. Fascinating.

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Next we sight flamingos! Flamingos in the mountains? They arrive white and eat the brine shrimp and their color changes to pink. Again I do not have good shots of these beautiful birds, beautiful especially in flight!

 

https://vimeo.com/198963472

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

We arrive at the entrance to park. Time for a potty break. Quanacos hanging around.

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Oh I forgot to tell you about a coffee break souvenir stand place that we stopped at about 25 minutes on our bus ride after we landed at port Natalie. It was an outpost house in a sheep ranch. They serve the most wonderful berry pie and excellent coffee! I should have shopped for all things Patagonia here but was too busy enjoying my pie!

It was about here that our guide said that we needed to start praying for the clouds to lift off the spires. We did.

There is a lake that they study here that has a creature from our very distant past millions of years ago. This small invertebrate gives us a clue into how our earth is doing.

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

It was starting to warm up.

Now we get to almost the really pretty part:

 

 

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Gotta call it a night! Next up the prettiest part of Torres Del Paine national park.

 

 

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[albertamom]

Gotta call it a night! Next up the prettiest part of Torres Del Paine national park.

 

 

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Oh my goodness! It just gets better and better! Catching up on your review every morning is the best part of my day!

 

I want to go!!! :D

[Clarea]

Enjoying the gorgeous photos!

[skierjj]

Here are the pictures of our little hike to the waterfalls: (the hike was about 1/4 of a mile). The pretty flower is called Darwin's slipper.

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

A video of the waterfalls:

 

https://vimeo.com/199095364

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170112/9c7d6d6b183https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/

 

 

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Edited January 12, 2017 by skierjj

[skierjj]

I'll try waterfall video one more time:

 

https://vimeo.com/199096778

 

 

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[skierjj]

Now for the most beautiful spot in the universe that day:

 

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[skierjj]

More:

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

This was our spot for lunch. We arrived a little late but our guide had reserved the upstairs dining room. Great views from there but it was a little hot and stuffy. Still a great lunch featuring lamb (best lamb of the trip), salad, vegetables, bread and desert. Also soft drink and red and white wine. We enjoyed lunch. Nice place to use facilities too.

Couldn't wait to get back outside to the picture perfect day!

 

 

It was time to go home

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

End of our very expensive excursion. Was it worth it? H*%* yes! Happy Birthday to me! Ha ha[emoji322][emoji898][emoji16][emoji106][emoji512]

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Ok I've really screwed up on the timeline. I missed cruising the straits of Magellan, which was Thanksgiving day. So just imagine that that long Torres Del Paine excursion happened AFTER Thanksgiving day. Thanks.

 

Ok Thanksgiving day...I was missing my family and extended family on this day. We told our grown kids: DS35 and DD34, both married to go to their in laws for Thanksgiving. Anyway I sent messages via FB to everyone.

We were cruising the straits that morning:

 

 

So I was in room when I get a text on I concierge that Mike hit a Royal Flush! He paid off our room charges!

During the week, I mentioned to Mike that that was a pretty blue topaz on view as you walk to casino past the shops and jewelry shops.

I was on the 2nd round of a slot tournament and lost. Mike gave me a cute penguin bag, and inside the bag was the giant blue topaz!

Let's see so I went over to play deuces wild video poker. ( I play quite a lot of video poker), I played for about 15 minutes and I hit a Royal Flush on the machine next to one he hit his royal on!

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

More celebration:

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

The staff at the casino said that no royals were hit in the casino since they were in Alaska! Whew what a fun day! I put my money in the safe!!!

I had reservations that night in the main dining room for Thanksgiving dinner.

 

 

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[skierjj]

We were rounding the southernmost area of the South American continent in the straits. Mike ordered our first ever bottle of Dom Perignon champagne

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Southernmost tip of continent:

 

 

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[skierjj]

Other shots in straits of Magellan:

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Another highlight for us was waking up early the next day, (after Torres Del Paine day), and going through "Glacier Alley". We got all bundled up on our sweet balcony, (we made sure that we booked the port side just for this day), we made coffee, got our jackets on, had blankets, binoculars ready. Then our Cannon didn't work. What? I grabbed it and put in some sort of freeze mode. Mike figured it out though just in time.

Forgive me about so many pics. It was just like a glacier slideshow was going on in front of us!

 

https://vimeo.com/199105041

 

 

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[skierjj]

Glacier Alley:

 

 

 

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[skierjj]

Glacier Alley:

 

 

 

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