Final days of the Cruise Update #5

Montevideo Uruguay was out last official port, and a very sad realization that this cruise was coming to an end. We reached Uruguay early in the morning and it was so beautiful and sunny, we didn't know much about Montevideo and so we decided to do the Hop-on Hop-off bus which would give us a tour of all the important sites. However, we had about half an hour before the tour was supposed to start so we decided to walk around the old town and over to a beach. We walked all the way to the other side and as we sat facing the water, rain started to sprinkle, this was a good clue that we should head back to the port for our bus, however before we had even walked two blocks it became a full blown torrential downpour and the streets started flooding with the rain. we didn't want to miss our tour and so we would run between buildings with awnings but after a few blocks we were all so wet that it didn't even matter and we just walked down the main street as everyone stared at us. when we got to the bus we had to ring out our clothing to try and dry it. the bus also had surprisingly really good wifi and this was the first wifi we had seen since Ushuaia 10 days earlier.

After taking the bus for almost the entire loop we got off at a beach as it had dried up and was back to being hot and sunny, and got some McNuggets and then sat on the beach. Roeland and Emma helped me find a Suarez jersey for my friend Charlie from UBC and afterwards I went and explored the city a bit on my own. Because Carnival was the next week, every street I turned down there were practice parades and drums and live music. It was beautiful. Miguel and Gilad made it back to the ship at the very very last minute almost 20 minutes after the deadline and they had to run almost 5 km to get back, but we all made it! That night we watched the sail away and hung out on deck as long as possible before having dinner the five of us (Roeland, Gilad, Emma and Miguel). Saying goodbye to all of our friends on board and packing up our bags was ridiculously hard.

Summary of days at sea:

So much of this cruise was spent at sea, and there were so many activities that we had the opportunity to take part in. Most afternoons were spent in the cafe listening to live music and cuddled up under blankets, with Roeland and Emma journaling and me writing for this blog.

My favorite memories: all four of us signed up to be part of a "Family Feud" game show where Emma, Gilad, and I were all picked. Emma and I were on seperate teams both as the "brothers" of the family meaning we went head to head against each other. Our questionwas "what is most commonly in a mans wallet, I hit the buzzar first however I decided my first answer condom did not seem apporpriate for the audiance of the crusie and so I went with credit cards, well cards turned out to be the second most popular answer giving Emma the chance to steal and of course, the most popular answer was condoms.....

Miguel and I post dancing with the officers

On one of the last nights on board they held a "Dancing with the Officers" based off dancing with the stars were 8 passengers were paired up with 8 officeres and then preformed in the theater in front of hundreds of guests. It was really funny, I eneded up paired with a guy named Jak who was awesome but while we were dancing to the very first song he spun me around very intensly and right as the music turned off I lost my balance and face planted on stage as everyone else froze. Just a bit embarassing.



We also went to the wildlife lectures, painting classes, watching movies on the stern of the boat, random auctions and free champagne events. We spent most nights in the Constelation Bar, or at Silent disco in the Martini Bars, and became friends with many of the preformers, hanging out with David a Singer on board from England for a lot of the trip and inviting him to diner with us a few times.

Update #4 Falkland Islands and Puerto Madryn

After visiting Antarctica our next stop was the Falkland Islands and then Puerto Madryn, Argentina. We had a day at sea before reaching the Falklands as well a day at sea between there and Puerto Madryn. This gave us time to research both ports as well relax a bit from the craziness of Antarctica.

Emma and I went to the lecture on the Falkland Islands which was very informative, teaching us things like
1.there are penguins everywhere!
2. they are British (no matter what an Argentine will tell you), and they use Falkland notes (which are almost identical to British notes except have a penguin where the queen should be), as well except British notes and US dollars.
3. there is no ATM on the island however almost everywhere only accepts cash.... They told us to go to the grocery store which accepts card and to get cash back and they have only one wifi line on the whole island which is down when cruise ships are in town.
4. there is one restaurant a British Pub, whose menu includes fish and chips or chips and fish.
5. their total populaton is less then that of the cruise ship (counting passengers and crew).

We landed in port on Valentine's Day and the four of us took the 11km "walk" to the penguin beaches and old defense cannon and the walk back because we didn't want to pay 10 pounds to take the shuttle bus each way. However, it was beautiful and so much fun. Everyone even speaks with little British accents and the houses look and feel as if you are in the country side of England, Emma felt at home. The Penguins were so adorable although we couldn't get too close to them. The island also has old telephone booths which I used to call home to Seattle for 5 minutes, and we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Port Stanly and soaking in the sun before being tendered back to the cruise.

On the walk to the Penguins we found a beach covered in abandoned ship wrecks which we of course took the opportunity to climb all over them which had incredible views although some of the wooden boards were so rotten that they fell through to the water when we stepped on them, but we all survived! One of the shuttle buses even stopped as a photo opp of us climbing all over the wrecks.

The Falkland Islands still have lots of land mines left over from the war with Argentina, and so it is HIGHLY advisable to stay on the trails and not tread anywhere that isnt marked clear because they are still working on extractng all the left over mines. This means we didnt get as close to the penguins as we had hoped but we still go to see what is potentailly the cutest animal known to man in the wild just chilling on their beaches. 

Puerto Madryn was incredible. The best day of the entire cruise (minus actually being in Antarctica). Puerto Madryn Argentina is famous for its wildlife park and our plan was to get to the shore, and rent a car so that we could drive our selfs out there because the tours they were offering on board were rediculously expensive. However, when we got to shore we started looking for a place to rent a car and after being told no by 4 different agencies and walking almost 3 kilometers we had to change our plan because we were running out of time. The problem was some were out of cars, some required us to return it the next day, some were out to lunch and wouldn't be back for a few hours, some wouldn't rent to a non-argentine license. But while Emma had been traveling in Central America the earlier year she met two guys who lived in Puerto Madryn and we happened to run into them in the street! They gave us the idea of renting bikes and hitting the beach. Which is great except I don't know how to ride a bike. I told them maybe we could find a tricycle, because I have tried to learn many times and I just can't quite do it, but tricycles I can! Well that wasn't happening I even asked in Spanish if the rental places could give me training wheels. They also had paddle boards for rent, so we thought about renting two bikes and two paddle boards for the afternoon and trading off throughout the day.

However, Roeland, Gilad and Emma wouldn't give up that they didn't want to leave me out (I told them I would just sit on a beach with a beer and wait for them) and they were insistent that I could learn. So after persuading the opener of the rental place to let us "borrow" the bike for 10 minutes so that I could try and learn to ride a bike, beacause I told him I wasn't going to rent it for an hour if I couldn't ride it. We took it to the sidewalk and somehow with minor tears and lots of frekaing out, I DID IT. We went back and forth on the side walk with Roeland or Emma holding onto me and me trying to peddle but I couldn't do it on my own, so after our 10 minutes were up, I gave up and told that there would be no way that I could do it on my own without someone holding on to me which would be no fun for any of them to ride with, we turned around to head back to the beach and on the way there, they let go of me and I just did it! I rode back and forth all by my self and I was so excited I started screaming and crying with excitement, I learned to ride a bike! So we rented 4 and went our for over an hour of riding up to the top point of Puerto Madyrn, there we had another problem, I couldn't quite get down the hill. After almost 20 different Argentinean people proceeded to get out of their cars while driving and attempt to help Emma coax me down the hill I finally made it back to flat ground to finish our bike rides. While we were riding around the city a dog followed us for almost the whole time and hung out with us at the top of the "mountain" too.

From there we had a great lunch on the beach and laid our in the sun with the dancers and singers form the ship, as well playing in the waves. We didn't have any beach towels with us so Emma and I went in search of someone who might be selling sarongs or scarfs that we could use as sargons and as towels. Someone no one was selling anything like a towel. However we did find someone selling complete linen sets, comforters, sheets and pillow cases and so we bought it which actually worked amazingly well and we got it for 200 pesos which is like 7 dollars.

It was the perfect day with my misfit family. That night we had an amazing dinner too.

Buenos Aires y Noches Buenos

Flying into Buenos Aires at night is an experience EVERYONE needs to have in there life, the entire city is lit up and from every window in the plane the city seems to stretch on forever the lights never end. The greater Buenos Aires area is massive. I was not supposed to arrive until the Friday before the cruise so I didn't have a hostel but booked one while I was in the airport. When I woke up Tuesday morning and ate breakfast Stephan ran past me. He was late for a flight and was in the same hostel. A few minutes later Roeland showed up. Out of all the hostels in Buenos Aires we somehow ended up in the same one, and he had been there for a week. He met Emma a girl from England and had told her about our cruise, she met Gilad from Isreal and the two of them booked themselves on to our cruise. I didn't meet Emma or Gilad though until the day of the cruise because Emma and Reoland left that morning for a road drip around Argentina and I spent the week in government offices. 

Some quick research online taught me that there was a clinic in Buenos Aires near where I was staying that offered the Yellow Fever Vaccine for free to Argentinians. I head there first thing so that I could get my certificate and go to the Brazilian Consulate that afternoon. Well what I thought would be a walk in clinic and a fast visit turned into 3 hours of waiting in the streets because the line wrapped around the three blocks. About 2 hours into me waiting (still unsure if this was actually the correct building or line) a man came down the line taking everyone's identity cards, I gave him my passport assuming he worked for the government ..... Didn't see him or my passport again until after I entered the building about an hour later and they lined up five people at a time and gave everyone the same shot. This clinic ONLY gives yellow fever vaccines. I had no idea, and they never charged me so I saved almost $200. However this took so long to deal with that the consulate was closing in 2 hours by the time I got there and after waiting in line with my certificate they told me I had all the wrong information and to come back the next day. They refused to give me a transit visa and said it would be better if I applied for a tourist visa which requires a lot more paperwork and a different application.  That night I went to dinner with one of the girls who was sharing a room with me in the hostel, She invited me to join group of 9 of them. It was my first true Argentinean meal with lots and lots of red wine and steak. I love Argentina. That night we also went to a few bars and clubs exploring the Buenos Aires scene and I got a matching tattoo with Lucy (friends with Roeland and Stephan from Patagonia before I met them). 

This is my smiley, which being a solo traveler it's nice to always have a smile looking back at you, even when you feel all alone in a new city I always have a little friend with me. 

Wednesday was spent all day in the consulate and the Internet cafe a 20 minute walk and back and forth. Bringing more and more paperwork yet each time they seemed to find something else wrong with it they also only spoke Portuguese or Spanish with me. That afternoon I met up with one of the guys from dinner the night before as he had a flight that night we went to the port to sit in the sun and enjoy the afternoon people watching. 

On Thursday I spent the morning in my favorite place, the Brazilian consulate, and then met up with Vale, my friend from Puerto Varas who now lives in Buenos Aires for school. We had the most amazing day, shopping for clothing (I accidentally left almost all of my warm clothing i.e. Shorts and tanks tops in Puerto Varas, as well now needed at least one dress for the cruise evening wear) that night I decided to go to a tango show and one of the guys I had gone to dinner with the night before agreed to go with me, we had the most amazing time and the dancers even lets us get on stage afterwards and showed us some moves. That night we also snuck onto the roof of our hostel and watched the stars and Argentinean night life.

Friday I switched hostels, and met up with Roeland and Emma the following day. While on my own I explored more of Buenos Aires and even saw the craziest Rainbow.

 

The three of us went shopping as both of them needed clothing for the cruise, as well we decided to have one last Argentinian steak dinner to celebrate our Cruise-Eve. Dinner was amazing we ordered everything, creamy spinach, potatoes in like 4 different forms, steak, sausages, bread and more. On our way to dinner though we got caught in the most massive rain storm that I have ever seen and we ran through the stores of Buenos Aires without our shoes and Roeland without a shirt to try and keep it dry, we ended up visiting our old hostel and using the hair dryers to try and look presentable for dinner but we were so soaked from the rain that the next morning my shirt and shorts were still wet even after sitting all night on the heater. However while we ran in the rain we ran past this mural which says "Lluvia Suerte" meaning lucky rain which I though was a very very good sign.




SUNDAY WAS CRUISE DAY!

Post Cruise Buenos Aires:

Due to having to rearrange my flights I ended up with two days in Buenos Aires post cruise which I had not anticipated. The first was spent full of goodbyes, first to Roeland at the terminal, then I had to wait about 3 hours for Emma and Gilad to disembark the ship. The three of us attempted to walk to our hostel from the terminal however we quickly realized that it was too hot, our stuff was too heavy, and we were very out of shape post buffet life. We took a taxi dropping Emma off at the airline office and Gilad and I made a plan to meet her at the Starbucks around the corner (reliable wifi) once we had figured out our hostel. Of course we would stay at America Del Sur in Buenos Aires (the best hostel I stayed at in all of South America, for real if anyone reading this needs somewhere to stay). It's big and has tons of rooms, however when we arrived they all laughed and welcomed us back and even remembered that we'd come from Antarctica but we didn't have a reservation..... Turns out they do get full. But they let us stay and use the wifi to try and find another hostel because we both only needed one night. Gilad was headed south and then to Chile the next morning and I was flying out the next night. Just as we were giving up they had a cancellation of a PRIVATE ROOM , no bunk beds! It worked out excellently, we gathered all our dirty laundry dropped it off at the cleaners and found our way back to the Starbucks where Emma was waiting. We waited until she had to go the airport, my next goodbye.

We then went to explore the San Telmo Sunday market and had a final dinner together before I had to say goodbye to him the next morning. We also met up with Miguel from the Cruise had the most amazing and authentic night of my life. We met up at the |Obelisk, hung out at his apartment for a bit before he showed us his favorite summer spot it was past the river by a couple blocks that we found the real local BA. The entire street was live music and food trucks and bikes selling wine and beer and hundreds of people tango dancing in the streets and sidewalks. It was beautiful we sat and watched for over and hour and danced for even longer. 

I spent my last day exploring La Boca and enjoying my last warm South American moments before I left this amazing continent. 

El Calafate y Los Galciars

The only reason to go to the tiny little town of El Calafate is to go to Los Glaciars National Park which hosts the largest glaciers in South America, most famously Perito Moreno. Flying to El Calafate was the most fun flight ever, I ended up sharing a bus with like 10 Isralis as I met a few of them in my Hostel and we all had the same flight to El Calafate and I had met some of the other girls while I was hiking in Ushuaia as well. We blasted music and had a mini dance party the whole way to the airport. I somehow ended up getting the entire exit row on the plane to my self so that was nice, and when we landed we all decided to share a few taxis to our hostels. All the Isrealis ended up coming and staying in the same hostel that I was in so that was fun. Argentinan taxi drivers are absolutely crazy though. The airport in el Calafate is tiny and very far from the town it self, and the guys in my cab had to actually ask our driver to slow down multiple times because they were afraid that we were going to die. 

While I was in Ushuaia I spent a day with Beth another American and she told me about a company that lets you go glacier trecking on top of Perito Moreno. My first day in El Calafate I spent getting to know the town (which has two main streets and only exists as a place to stay if you are going to Los Glaciers national park). I found the company that lets you glacier treck and booked my tour for the next day. I also met a French Woman in my hostel and we went to dinner in the town, we spent all night talking about art and museums and music. I even found some Argentina Poutine.

Glacier trecking is the most amazing thing ever. I met a Chilean and an Argentinan on my tour and we had the best time together all day exploring the national park and then on the glacier itself, however they split the tour into a guide who only speaks Spanish and a tour that is done in English for everyone else. Obviously for safety reasons and the fact that glacier trekking can be very dangerous I should have chosen the English group but Coni and Clara were in the Spanish so I went that way. Luckily I actually understood everything and was fine in the Spanish group. It was freezing. I wore my nikes which immediately absorbed water and then froze, it was even snowing on us on the glacier. You have to wear gloves because if you fall the ice will slice open your hands and because even with gloves my hands almost went numb, but the views are so worth it. When you look down in between the crevices on the Galciars and see how far deep they go it is mind blowing, and how small you are in comparison to the Glaciars, the fact that these were created thousands of years ago as well is almost impossible to wrap your head around. We made dinner the three of us that night and spent all night laughing and joking about chile vs Argentina, obviously I was on the Chilean side of the arguments. 

Perito Moreno

The three of us with our guide and Whiskey

Coni, Clara and I

Hiking around the park itself before trekking on the Glacier

Perito Moreno is also one of the only glaciers in the world that every year it is the same size/growing larger because every year it gains more ice and snow in winter then it looses into the water during the rest of the year. 

Post hike

On my first day in el Calafate I had visited the hospital to find out about getting a yellow fever vaccine which I needed to get to get a Brazilian visa which I now needed to go to the airport because I had to change my flights when I booked the cruise and they were no longer continuous. The hospital told me I needed to come back on Monday. I was flying out on Monday to Buenos Aires so I moved my flight to later and spent all day sitting in the El Calafate hospital, where after wasting 4 hours I did not get the vaccine because they then told me I would have to come in on a Friday. Classic. However even all my wasted time in El Calafate was worth it to see the glaciers they were absolutely amazing. 

While waiting in the El Calafate airport (which only has two gates) I ran into Juan and Mariana from Ushuaia and we were on the same flight from El Calafate back to Buenos Aires!!