Feb 8 Santos Brazil

Santos is the port city for San Paulo.  We arrived right at sunrise.   

It is about 50 miles to San Paulo.   There is an eight hour bus tour to  San Paulo, but they spend six hours in the bus getting there and driving around, so we decided to pass on going to San Paulo.

We joined another couple for a three hour taxi tour of Santos.  It cost $90 to rent the cab for three hours.  We first went to the coffee museum in the old coffee trading building (photo).  Then we went to the Soccer stadium where Pele played.  We  checked out a couple of cathedrals, and finally looked at their beautiful beaches.

The bird pictured is a vulture, a common sight here.

In the evening we went to an excellent performance by the entire Insignia staff, that included a medley of acts and comments by the Captain.

We enjoyed our stay in Santos in spite of the sizzling temps, high 90’s, perhaps 100 degrees and humid.  The sail to Rio is only 200 miles.  Rock-a-bye baby, not so much.  The sailing was pretty smooth.

Feb 6/7 At Sea

We spent February 6th and 7th sailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santos, Brazil, outside of San Paulo.

On the 6th, we started the day with a 10am lecture by Curt Carnemark on Mysteries in nature, such as bird, butterfly, and Salmon migration and spiritualism in India, Afghanistan, and outside of Timbuktu.

At 11:15am we had another cooking demonstration with French Master Chef Jean-Jacques Dietrich, this time accompanied  by Pastry Chef, Eric Watelle.  They prepared three deserts; Profiteroles with Coffee Sauce, Raspberry Mousse with Chocolate Sauce, and Pear and Chocolate Gratine.

  

At 12:30pm we gave the other passengers back the Bingo money Nancy made earlier on the trip.

At 3pm we had another lecture by Terry Bishop on “A Real Life Hero; Ernest Shackleton –A Man of Endurance”.

On the 7th, it was clear were getting into warmer climates.  At 10am we heard Terry Bishop’s last lecture on “Gold! The South American Treasure Fleets – Columbus of the Armada”

We sat in the trivia contest at 11:15am, and played Bingo at 12:30pm.  Nancy won the first game, I won the second, and Nancy won the third.  We let some of the other passengers win the last two.  So over the last three Bingo days, we played fifteen games, and won five of them (Nancy 4, and me 1); winning $239; with the cards costing us $150.  Nancy is coming out of retirement to go on the professional Bingo Circuit.

I watched some of the passengers play Texas Hold’em, in the afternoon.

This evening we went to the festively decorated main lounge and started watching the Super Bowl game with the other passengers.  After the first quarter and after tasting some typical super bowl fare, chicken wings, chips and dips, and a drink or two, we headed up to watch the rest of the game in our room.  Our bed has such a nice rocking motion that we might just miss the end of the game:)

We are in the tropics now, the weather is getting uncomfortably hot and humid.  The time is three hours ahead of home.

Feb 5 Buenos Aires

The ship docked at the busy port of Buenos Aires.   The cruise ships dock with all the other ships, so we had a great view of a busy port all day (Photos).

We skipped the organized tours again, and decided to walk around the city a little.  We departed the ship at 9am.   From the passenger terminal we took a free shuttle to downtown Buenos Aires. 

We passed on the $9,000 necklace that we saw in a jewelry store and walked Florida Avenue which is a a street closed to vehicles and includes a lot of upscale shops.   We were happy to be on this vehicle free street, as the traffic was incredible on the streets.  After about five blocks we took a cab to San Telmo, a section of BA.  We had been told this was a section of town where we would find handicraft work.   We struck out for a nice walk on a cobblestone street, no cars and local people.   

We found a little coffee shop with Wi-Fi and Nancy had her Latte and I had my Coca Cola Light while we launched our blog and checked email.   Nancy ended up instant messaging with Matthew, Kathy, and Howard, all at the same time, while writing an email message to Holly.

We walked back to the store where we caught the free shuttle to the Port (we are cheap).  Along the way we looked into a couple of churches and Nancy took some interesting pictures of stores and restaurants (photos).  We made it back for lunch at one pm.   

It rained in the afternoon, and we had a quiet day and evening, taking in the evening entertainment, songs from Broadway shows performed by Margaret and Kami, cruise staff.  As we pulled out into the River Plate on our way to Santos we were accompanied by a dramatic thunderstorm, the second one in recent days.

Feb 4 Montevideo

We docked in Montevideo Uruguay about 8am and at 9:30am we went into town on our own.   In each port they have a local person come on board and offer advice and answer questions, and we find it very helpful.  After getting advice, we checked out the anchor and range finder from the German pocket battleship Graf Spee,  that was scuttled in the harbor during WWII.

 

We walked about 20 blocks to a local Artisans' Market, that was away from the main tourist area.   It was very nice, and Nancy bought a small leather handbag for $15.

We then walked back past the Independence Square and Salvo Palace (Photos).

    

Nancy saw this restaurant with Wi-Fi, so we stopped and I had a soda and Nancy had a latte for a total of $5; while we uploaded our blogs and checked email.   Look at how nice Nancy’s latte looked! The serving included fresh orange juice, a tiny cup of whipped cream, sugar and a little cookie.

We kept wandering through the old town, until we got back to the the Port Market.   This is an old building that has a couple of dozen restaurants in it, and more surrounding it.   It is a place where both the locals and tourists come to eat.  Each restaurant cooks their food, virtually all meat, over open fires.  I had a petit sirloin and Nancy had baby beef. Mine was probably 10 ounces and Nancy’s was a pound….   

While walking around we past a McDonalds.  Check out the price at this McDonalds for the big Mac.

No, this is not inflation.  In this case the $ stands for pesos, and there are 19.2 pesos to a US Dollar.

On our way to Buenos Aires….

Feb 2/3 At Sea

The first half of the first day after we left the Falkland Islands the sea was a little rough, but not as bad as in the Pacific.   It calmed down as we went farther north, I think that as we put more of the bulk of South America to our west, it protected us.   By the Feb. 3d the seas were calm.

We went to another excellent lecture by Terry Bishop on The WWI Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914.  After having achieved great success in a battle in the Pacific, German Admiral Graf Spee was confronted with a larger English fleet off the Falklands and his battle force was destroyed and he was killed.

That evening we went to a Liars Club show, where they had presented four words, one at a time.  Each of five people from the ship’s staff gave a definition for the word, and we had to decide which was correct.   With a lot of help from the Activities Director, we got two out of the four  They were words such as arrhenotoky, noseconology, and flummery.    Dorothy and Betty, pictured is Margaret who was on our Mediterranean Cruise.

The next day 2/3, we had another cooking demonstration with French Master Chef Jean-Jacques Dietrich and Senior Executive Chef, Wolfgang Maier.  They prepared Cornish Hen “Grand Mere”, Lime Marinated Salmon with Apples, and Hummus with Pita Bread.

Nancy and I went to Bingo in honor of Dorothy, and Nancy won two out of the five games.

Terry Bishop gave another excellent Lecture on the Battle of the River Plate (near Montevideo and the end of the Graf Spee.  The Germans built a pocket battleship and named it the Graf Spee, after the admiral killed in the Falklands.   It raided merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic.   It was damaged during the battle of the River Plate, and entered the neutral port of Montevideo for repairs.   It was forced to leave without adequate fuel or ammunition, so rather then having his men killed, the captain scuttled the ship outside the Montevideo harbor, where it still rests.

Terry Bishop has a lot of talent as a speaker, humorist, and as it turns out troubadour.  He entertained us that evening with Tales and Tunes from a Troubadour.  He is British and has that wonderful British wit and mellow singing voice.

We enjoyed another a wonderful sunset at sea.

So this morning we are in Montevideo (Google Earth S34 54.161 W56 12.673), and will launch the blog from here.

Feb 1 Falkland Islands

We had a wonderful day on the Falkland Islands.   The Falklands have a population of less then 3,000 people, of which 60 percent live in the only town, Stanley.   We could not see any mountains, but the land seems to be fairly rolling hills.    There are no natural trees, but there are some that have been planted and growing in Stanley.

We went with another couple and rented a car and driver for a hour and fifteen minutes, about $40 a hour, a bargain.   Peter, our amiable driver, drove a short distance from town to the Gypsy Cove, where we saw a delightful colony of Magellanic Penguins.  Nancy also spotted a King Penguin and some dolphins in the water.

The most visited place in town is the Anglican Cathedral and Whale Bone Arch.  The arch in front of the Cathedral is built from the jaws of two blue whales.

 

In 1982 Argentina captured the Falklands, which it considers belongs to them.   Britain responded and 12 weeks later recaptured the islands.  Fewer then 300 British Service Men and a little less the 700 Argentinean Service Men killed on land and sea.  During the 12 week occupation the Argentineans' planted a lot of minefields, which still exist.   So there are significant areas that are marked off as dangerous.   Currently a 42 person mine disposal team on the island that has destroyed 600 mines in the last three weeks.  We went past some mine fields that were marked, but we did not stop to get a picture of the markings.   But when we were in the Penguin Cove we saw the following signs, for areas where there was not a known minefield but for which there were concerns.

 

Our driver Peter lived through the invasion.  We asked him about it.  He did not say a lot, but that they were under curfew and the Argentinean's forced them to drive on the right side of the road, when normally they drive on the left.

We went to the Victory Pub for lunch and had fish and chips in honor of the British history of the islands.    Nancy checked out the telephone booth in town…

Jan 31 At Sea

While at sea today we had another cooking demonstration by French Master Chef Jean-Jacques Dietrich and Executive Chef Wolfgang Maier.  They prepared Mignonette of Beef with Endive “Meuiniere” (Beef Tenderloin) and Salad de Coquille St Jacque (Assorted Greens with Sautéed Scallops).   It is so much fun to watch them work together, as they have slightly different styles, that clash a little, but that they play off of with humor.

Later we had an enrichment lecture by Terry Bishop on the 1982 Falkland Island conflict.   While the islands have been in British control for about 150 years, the Argentineans have claimed ownership.   In 1982 the Argentineans invaded, and the British responded by invading and retaking the islands.  Today, the islands have about 2,500 inhabitants, protected by about 1,000 British troops.

This evening we watched a beautiful sunset and then went to hear Grammy Award winning Sharon Stanley, a vocalist from the Glen Miller Band.

 

Tomorrow we visit Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands.

As we get closer to the Falklands the sea is calming again.  As we head east and north the days are getting shorter already one hour shorter than yesterday.

Jan 30 Ushuaia, Argentina

We had a delightful day in Ushuaia today.   Ushuaia is called the end of the world, as the southern most town in the world.  It is surrounded by mountains (photos).

We were on an organized tour that started with a catamaran  (photo)trip into the harbor where we saw the most photographed light house in South America (photo).

The boat then went by an area with sea lions and Upland geese, flightless ducks that skim across the water furiously beating their wings.

But the colony of cormorants were particularly interesting (where’s Waldo?).

We took a ride on the tiny end of the world train.   The Argentineans' wanted to develop this isolated area, so they placed their maximum security penal colony here around 1914.   It is so isolated that even if you escaped, you would never get off the island, and would die of exposure.   The prisoners built the wooden railed railroad in to the woods to harvest trees for furniture, building material, firewood to heat the prison, and to generate electricity for the town.  The stumps are still visible, the taller stumps were cut during the harsh winter months.  The controversial prison was closed in 1947 by the Perrons.