Sea Day #1 (1-31-19)

Thursday, January 31 - Sea Day

I woke up several times during the night and when I peeked out the window I could see the huge waves illuminated by the ship lights. It felt as if we were hitting the swells head-on and the ship was rocking from front to back as we crested the waves.

Bob and I had breakfast in the buffet by ourselves. I went from there to the Crow's Nest for "coffee with the cruise director" at 9:00 while Bob went up to leave a note on the pickleball court. He had taken on the role of "pickleball organizer" and wanted folks to know that there was no chance of playing with the windy conditions.

Coffee with cruise director, Bruce Scudder

Bob then joined me in the Crow's Nest for a bit but was starting to feel queezy. The ship's movement in the Crow's Nest (Deck 9 at the very front of the ship) was really exaggerated so he returned to the cabin.

I also went back to the cabin after the coffee chat and began backing up some of the many photos I had taken in Santiago. I don't travel with a laptop, but discovered the Ravpower Filehub travel router which will transfer files between my phone or SD card onto an external hard drive. I made daily folders on the hard drive before leaving home and during the cruise I planned to back up my photos daily for piece of mind.

At 10:30 the job still wasn't finished but I left to attend the Cruise Critic meet and greet back up in the Crow's Nest. Bob was still feeling sick so he stayed behind. We had already met some of the folks from the online group at the hotel but this time I was focused on meeting a couple of people who we were sharing tours with.

It was fun to get to know some of the other Cruise Critic members and it was lunch time by the time the meet and greet broke up. I went back to the cabin to check on Bob and he said he felt well enough to join us for lunch...but he didn't eat much.

Bob and I had a lot of fun at trivia on our Panama Canal cruise on the Zaandam and wanted to give it a try on this cruise. The trivia challenge began at 1 pm but unfortunately it was also in the Crow's Nest...the worst place for Bob to be when feeling sea sick.

A father and daughter from Australia joined the four of us (Kent, Laurel, Bob and I) to make a team of six. Cruise Director Bruce announced that he prided himself in choosing difficult questions so when we got eight correct answers I was surprised. (Although to be honest the Australian guy contributed the majority of the answers.)

Bob left quickly after the scores were tallied and stayed in the cabin for the rest of the afternoon. I had warned him to be proactive and take some motion sickness meds BEFORE he got sick but he is stubborn and waited until it was too late. He has only gotten sea sick a handful of times on our many cruises, but each time it has been in the Pacific. Be warned!

Kent, Laurel and I went to the first port talk on Puerto Montt, Castro and Puerto Chacabuco with the EXC Guide, Kevin. The talk was interesting, but I HAD been cautious and taken some meclazine so nearly fell asleep. I knew better than to try and make it through the next lecture on earthquakes and volcanoes and went back to the cabin for a nap.

The port talks were very popular and required getting to the theater very early to get a seat.

EXC Guide Kevin had very useful maps and encouraged everyone to take a photo of the screen
with their phones for reference.

After my rest I felt like I needed to get some fresh air. I walked three laps around the ship (3 1/2 laps = 1 mile). As I walked I watched the horizon rise and fall as the ship went over the swells. When I got back to the cabin a second set of tickets had been delivered for the tour that we had already booked, only the tickets were for an hour later. I went to the shore excursion desk and they were just as confused as I was. At first they insisted that we were going to have to change to the later tour but eventually things got resolved and we were back on the earlier tour.

The lower promenade deck was a popular place. After hot weather when we left San Antonio the day before,
walkers were now wearing coats and hats in the brisk wind.

Bob decided some fresh air would also do him good so he walked a bit while I showered and got ready for our first gala night in the dining room. I had registered to have access to the Holland America "Navigator" app on my phone where we could see our online account, activities taking place on the ship and the menus for both the main dining room and the Lido buffet. Most days I saved a copy of the menus for reference but for some reason I didn't get today's. Although we are adventurous and like to try new foods, I'm not one to keep track of everything we ate or post photos of our food.

The Captain's welcome toast was held at 7:45 in the Mainstage Theater. Champagne, pop, and juice were available as we walked into the theater. Captain Chris Norman did a short little spiel and then we watched the evening entertainment, a comedian named Martin Beaumont. Originally a production show was on the schedule, but it was postponed due to the rough seas.

While we were waiting for the show to begin, I checked our onboard account on my phone and saw we had been charged for another tour. I thought it might be related to the mix-up earlier so went to guest services and found we were being charged for a penguin tour in the Falkland Islands. Hopefully the charge will be removed without any further problems.

No late night for us. It was back to the cabin after the show ended to get ready for our day tomorrow in Puerto Montt. The waves seemed to be a little less but we were still going to be rocked to sleep.

Santiago to San Antonio...Let's Cruise! (1-30-19)

Wednesday, January 30 - Embarkation Day

I woke excited to know that we would be boarding the ship today...but also aware of what friends and family were facing back home. Compared to a wind chill of -68º, Antarctica was going to feel about 100 degrees warmer!

After another delicious breakfast we brought our luggage down to the lobby. Others from our ship were waiting on their pre-planned private shuttles to arrive but we were picked up by a taxi van that the hotel had arranged to take the four of us to the bus station. The fare was 14,000 CLP (~$21 USD).  It was 10 am when we arrived at the Terminal Alameda. Bob and Kent waited with the luggage while Laurel and I bought the tickets. It was a little confusing, but we found one person who spoke English and we managed to purchase our tickets for the 10:20 am bus. To make things easier, I charged all four tickets to our Visa credit card for a total of $25.19 (~$6.30 per person)...much, much less than what a private transfer would have cost.

They directed us to bus number 11 and within a few minutes a man had loaded all of our luggage under the bus and we were sitting in our assigned seats in the front row.

These are "we are on vacation" smiles!

The route from Santiago to San Antonio

The drive took us by vineyards and fields with other kinds of crops. It was interesting how at times the homes on one side of the highway looked like upper middle class dwellings while the opposite side was shanties.

The bus stopped two or three times to let people off along the way and eventually pulled into the bus station in San Antonio around noon. Someone had written online that their bus driver actually dropped them off at the port, but in their case half of the bus was filled with cruisers. Today it was just the four of us. There were three employees outside the station who said we could take a shuttle to the port for $5 per person. Again I had read different accounts that said the shuttle was free or possibly $3 so this took me a little by surprise. Not that it was expensive, it just seemed weird to pay $6 for a 70 mile bus ride and then $5 to go a couple of blocks!

The shuttle dropped us off right at the terminal. It was 12:15 when we walked in and right up to the registration area. We handed over our passports, got our photo taken and then walked a few feet to where they were scanning bags. No sign of the usual pre-embarkation health forms.

When we exited the building we could see the Zaandam just on the other side of a tall mountain of shipping containers. But because this was an industrial port we were loaded into a bus and transported the very short distance to where we boarded. There were only a few empty seats and Bob ended up sitting next to the female tango instructor and I was with her male partner.

I checked my watch and by 12:45 we were unlocking our cabin door! (I will include photos of our cabin in an upcoming blog.)

It was nice to have the cabins ready so we could drop off our carry-on bags before heading up to the buffet. On the way we stopped at the tour desk and had them cancel the tour we had previously charged to our credit card and reschedule us using our onboard credit instead.

Our kids had introduced us to a new app for our iphones before we left...Marco Polo. It is basically a way to send video texts. Since we still had cell service in port, I made a couple of videos to send them. I thought our grandkids would be interested to see the ship docked next to us. It must have been some sort of ferry because cars were driving off the ship onto the dock.

The buffet was crowded and at lunch we shared a table with a lady who had just flown into Santiago that morning. The airlines had lost her husband's luggage...what a nightmare when you are just beginning a 22 day cruise! (We found out later that the luggage was located and loaded onto the ship when we were in Castro.)

Very few activities were listed in the When & Where daily newsletter for the first day...except pickleball at 2:00. (Bob, Kent & Laurel are avid pickleball players.) None of us really expected anyone to show up but we went up to the courts after lunch to find a crowd of nearly 20 people! Bob, Kent and Laurel stayed to play and I took advantage of the situation to do my unpacking...so much easier to do when I was alone in the cabin. It also gave me the chance to grab all of the nice hangers before Bob got them. 😂  Our room steward, Deni, stopped by and I asked him if he could get us some extra hangers for Bob.

Bob came back shortly before the muster drill and afterwards did get most of his unpacking done before dinner. After spending over 3 weeks in a similar cabin on the Zaandam it was easy to know where we wanted everything to go.

A few months ago our travel agent had sent me a diagram of the upper level of the dining room on the Zaandam. (Open seating was on the lower level.) I had looked it over and asked her to try and get us table #23 for the early traditional dining. That is exactly where we were assigned...a table for 4 by a huge window. The ship was late leaving port so we watched the sail away as we ate.

The Welcome Aboard Show wasn't until 10 pm so we went back to the cabin to finish getting settled in before we went to the theater. The show featured all of the ship musicians. The expedition staff who would be giving educational lectures during the cruise were also introduced.

The ship was really rocking when we went to bed. It was interesting to watch the sea from our cabin window down on deck 1. The lights from the ship lit up the waves as we went through the swells. At that low level the waves were quite impressive!

Santiago Markets and Santa Lucia Hill...My Feet Are Killing Me! (1-29-19)

Tuesday, January 29

The room was still warm when we woke up...the AC was definitely not working like it should. I felt guilty for complaining though when I checked the weather back home and saw this:

When we went down to the lobby for breakfast, I stopped and made arrangements with Sebastian at the front desk for a van taxi to take us to the bus station the next day. He was also nice enough to show me on Google maps where we were to meet our tour this morning. Our directions were to go to the "little green police station" near the Mercado Central which was a little vague. I also mentioned that our room wasn't very cool.

Changing of the Guard & a City Tour of Santiago (1-28-19)

Monday, January 28

No alarm was set and our bodies must have needed extra sleep because we didn't wake up until 8:15 am...later than I had planned. I hustled to get a shower and wash my hair and then discovered that my flat iron plug didn't fit into the electrical adapter that we had brought (a cheap one that we were gifted at the travel clinic). My formerly dark red coarse hair has evolved into fine white/blonde superfine hair that is as frizzy as it can be and I never go anywhere without using my flat iron. To make matters worse, my hand mirror I brought had shattered into many pieces inside my makeup bag. I made do with just the hair dryer and pulled a hat on over the frizz. (I managed to borrow an adapter from the hotel so only had to endure the frizzies one day.)

Kent and Laurel had booked a bus tour for the day to the Embalse el Yeso...a reservoir outside of Santiago in the Andes Mountains and they left before we were even out of bed. Bob and I went downstairs and enjoyed the breakfast buffet included with our room. There was much to choose from, but the highlight was the delicious ripe fruits. I added some scrambled eggs and a little yogurt with granola. I also picked up a sopapillo to try which was just OK. A good cup of coffee and I was ready to start the day.

Our plan was to get to La Moneda Palace in time for the changing of the guard at 10 am. This only happens every other day and today would be our only chance to attend. We were running a bit late, but I took time to stop and ask the hotel concierge about where we could purchase tickets for the Hop on Hop Off bus. He actually had some to sell so we just bought two tickets at the hotel. The 4% markup in price seemed worth the convenience over trying to find the Turistik office to buy them later. The cost was just added to our hotel tab.

Waking up to Summer in Santiago (1-27-19)

Sunday, January 27

Good morning from some where over South America.

It wasn't a great night but I managed better than Bob to get a little sleep on the flight. For some reason he didn't realize that the sides of the headrest could be folded out and sort of molded around your head. He also had refused to take a travel pillow so his head bobbed around all night like one of those little dogs that people put on the dash of their cars.

About an hour before landing breakfast was served and then I started getting my stuff gathered up in anticipation of finally getting off the plane. Walking through the first class section of the plane as we exited, I couldn't help but feel a little (OK...a lot) of jealousy. The lie-flat seats with fluffy comforters meant "those folks" were probably starting their day feeling rested and refreshed. I'm such a cheap skate that unless we miraculously get a free upgrade I'll never know for sure.

Leaving the snow...heading SOUTH! (1-26-19)

Saturday, January 26

Well we are now three for three when it comes to having snow to worry about as we begin a cruise! If you have read about our previous two trips you will remember that our Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam began with weather warnings for snow...in October of 2017. Then in April, 2018 we barely made it out of Minnesota for our Panama Canal cruise before the largest snowfall of the season hit.

After spending the night at #2 son's house, we woke up to snow...again. This time we thought it would just be a little light dusting, but we were wrong. It continued throughout the morning.

We enjoyed some time with our three brown-eyed grand kids and a late breakfast of the most delicious egg bake that my son made. For being a kid whose cooking was more on the order of a bologna sandwich, he has turned into quite a chef!

Our plan was to leave our car with the #3 son who has a little more room to park an additional vehicle. We drove the 5 minutes to his house and had a short time to visit with our blue-eyed grand kids before deciding we should get an earlier start to our drive to the Minneapolis airport (MSP). A good call. The roads were very slick and the closer we got to the airport, the more accidents and emergency vehicles we saw. Traffic slowed to a crawl so my son switched routes to a less traveled road and got us there safely. I am beginning to think the only way to avoid snow here is to travel in June, July or August.

Our South America & Antarctica Adventure! (1-25-19)

Friday, January 25 

(After you read through the daily blog posts from this trip, here are some videos that you might want to check out. These were uploaded two years later when I was trying to keep busy during the Covid pandemic!)

Part 1 of our Cruise to South America & Antarctica

Part 2 of our Cruise to South America & Antarctica

Part 3 of our Cruise to South America & Antarctica

OK...back to the original post...

The day that seemed like it would never arrive was finally here! It was time to leave for our cruise to South America and Antarctica.

Heading south, even to Antarctica, seemed like a smart move given the frigid weather we were having in Minnesota. Checking the weather app first thing in the morning showed it was a cool ZERO degrees. But even that was warmer than what was coming in a few days. Time to get outta town!

The Painful Side of Traveling

Three weeks from today and the adventure to South America and Antarctica begins. OR...maybe sooner if the weather decides to throw a wrench in our plans. You can be sure we will be keeping an eye on the forecast and will be on the road to Minneapolis earlier than planned if we hear any mention of the “B” word. (That would be "blizzard" for you southerners!) It is over a 3 hour drive to MSP so we will be spending a night...or two...or three with one of our kids who live in the area before our flight. 

Now that the holidays are over we have begun to count down the final days. The lists are being made and checked, the final Amazon orders are going out, and piles are starting to show up in our guest room staging area. Today we marked off the last of one of the more painful parts of planning for this cruise...our final vaccine!  

When we first booked this cruise, Iguazu Falls seemed like a perfect add-on to our itinerary...just a short flight away from our final port of Buenos Aires. The falls lie on the border between Argentina and Brazil but after a little research I discovered that visiting the Brazilian side required a visa for U.S. citizens. Although the view from this side appears breathtaking, the few hours that we would spend there made it hard to spend the $160 per person to get the visa. I also noted that visitors to this area were encouraged to get yellow fever vaccines whereas the Argentina side was not included in the CDC warning area. 

After much deliberation, we booked a package tour to Iguazu Falls...but only the Argentina side. Fast forward a few months and Brazil announced they would now offer an e-visa. Available online, getting the visa no longer meant having to apply at a Brazilian consulate and...the cost was less than $50! At that point it would have been too expensive to change our plans so we made peace with the fact that we would only see Iguazu Falls from one side. 

Now...fast forward a couple more months. The CDC changed their map and the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls was also in a warning area for yellow fever. ☹️

Current CDC Yellow Fever Warnings

I could think of several good reasons why we shouldn’t get yellow fever vaccines. The chance for serious side effects is greatly increased in people over 60 years old, the shots aren’t cheap, and for gosh sake...we are only going to be spending one day at the falls! But... contracting the disease could be a death sentence and that ultimately led us to make an appointment at a travel clinic. 

The yellow fever vaccine is in short supply, but the clinic was able to substitute a vaccine that is currently not approved for use in the U. S. Hence it is considered “experimental” and required us to sign numerous consent forms. We spent a long time visiting with the travel nurse and she gave us all sorts of helpful information about the countries we plan to visit. Oh...and we each were "given" a travel adapter as our reward for getting poked! (Although when we each paid over $200 for the shot we essentially bought the adapters.)

This framed photo of Iguazu Falls was hanging on the wall of the travel clinic!

We left the clinic with prescriptions for the oral typhoid vaccine (4 pills containing the live virus taken over several days) and also for antibiotics to take with us “just in case.” Locally we were able to get the hepatitis A vaccine...a series of two shots which we finished today. Although not travel related, I’ve also recently gotten my flu shot and a series of 2 shingles vaccines. 

I would like to say the vaccines were the worst part of preparing for this cruise...but that would be a lie. The most difficult part is just beginning. Packing. We will be experiencing winter to summer to winter to summer and finally back to winter...all within about four weeks! Yikes!!! How in the world does one pack for so many seasons???!!!