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???!!!