Catch Up Time!

So much has been happening, I've fallen way behind, so I'm going to try to catch up with a few things before I start on Antarctica!

We had our first big world-cruisers event in Valparaiso, Chile when we were overnight there on Jan. 26th. As usual, Crystal pulled out all the stops for us. They drove us out to a beautiful vineyard about an hour outside the city. Once there, our buses were escorted down by Chilean cowboys to the main buildings of the vineyards. After Pisco Sours to "quench the thirst," we were treated to appetizers, entertainment, and of course, fine Chilean wines! Next came a delicious dinner and barbecued lamb, steak and chicken (and need I say -- more wine!) Another show then we all went outside by a big reflecting pool for an amazing Cirque de Soleil show -- truly jaw-dropping! Needless to say, we all slept in the next morning, but it was definitely worth it!

Valparaiso was the end of our first segment. A lot of people left and many more came on for the Antarctic leg. This section is pretty full. After Valparaiso, we headed down the coast of Chile. Chile is such a long narrow country, extending all the way down to the tip of So. America. There isn't tons to see here, and we did it before (in 2003) so we won't be doing too much touring in this leg. Off the ship for a bit of walking around and shopping in this section.

On Wed. Jan. 31st we were due into Punta Arenas. We anchored, but they were predicting 80-100 mph winds in the afternoon. The captain was afraid that if he let us go ashore, we wouldn't be able to get back! We had to wait for some people who had gone on an overland tour to Patagonia for 3 days and were due back that afternoon. They got them back to the ship and off we went. The worst part was that this was the port where the shore excursion tours to Antarctica were leaving from! There were about 150 people scheduled to do a flyover of the Antarctic continent and another 30 who were actually scheduled to land there. The fly over was cancelled, but they were able to get the landing group a trip to Antarctica from our next stop, which was in Ushuaia. The number of people they allow into Antarctica is strictly controlled. Crystal had to pull a lot of strings to manage that -- especially since the original arrangements had been made through Punta Arenas, CHILE - and now it was going to be Ushuaia, ARGENTINA! Antarctica is actually managed/governed by a joint group of about 7 nations which work together to protect the continent and the environment. The 30 people who did make the landing said it was an unbelievable experience. A Norwegian ship with about 250 passengers had gone aground a few days before and had cracked its hull. While they were there, other boats were coming in with booms to protect in case of an oil spill. It was really quite an adventure and experience. Maybe another year! (Of corse, they also got chased by an angry seal, so I'm not too certain how much fun that would be!)

I'll write about Antarctica and what we;ve been doing in my next entry