cruising along

New Year’s Eve party was a blast from the past! The showroom at sea on deck 7 was decorated with black and white balloons, 2 dance floors were polished (one on stage) and ready to be used, and the ship’s band “The HAL Cats” were playing live. Totally cool music very much to our liking from the fifties, sixties and seventies. Twist, rock’n roll, swing. Elvis, The Stones and many more of that era were on the programme. The audience including us LOVED it – the dance floors were packed, and we danced till the official countdown by the captain one minute to twelve. Free champagne was served beforehand by the lovely and hardworking staff (kudos to them!!!!) so that everyone could welcome 2012 with a glass in hand to toast it! After midnight the band played on, and the late night buffet was opened on 2 decks for the hungry (??) dancers to enjoy.
Day 13 (New Year’s Day): Sunday – we arrived at the southernmost town of Punta Arenas (100000 pop) which is wedged between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that are connected by the Strait of Magellan. It was WINDY, and according to our tour guide Marcela, it ALWAYS is. Usually between 50 and 85 km/h but quite often up to 135. That means – “put a stone in your jacket” (Marcela). We had signed up for a land tour to a Magellan Penguin Colony, and so did about 1000 other passengers… The logistics of getting so many people on the 20 or so buses lined up at the dock was daunting – the brass tried to handle this with various coloured stickers, according to language requirements and chosen time slots. All would have gone pretty well had the Chilean customs officers not thrown a wrench into the plan. They searched EVERYONE and their bags too before leaving the ship. ONE machine! No wonder we stood in line for almost one and a half hours, showroom first, then down 2 flights of stairs and around the corner. Somehow it was almost funny. We Canadians weren’t fazed much by this, being used to queuing up politely and then starting a party in the line-up with others around us… We finally made it to a bus, not ours, which was supposed to be the blue stickered number 9. That had left without us. So we went into the pink stickered number 10 which was just as well because of our lovely guide Marcela who entertained us during the hour long bus ride to the penguins with historical, geographical and biological facts of the area. We first drove on a very nice paved Autobahn - like highway towards Punta Arenas but soon turned left onto a “secondary street” (Marcela) that was unpaved , rocky and very dusty. Most roads in Chile are secondary (Marcela!). Our driver Angil (pronounced AnCHil) drove like a madman (he must be used to the conditions), passing other busses (8+9) that were too slow for his taste. Soon we approached Otway Sound (Sena Otway) at the Pacific and the penguin colony. We had exactly one hour to walk to the beach along a cordoned-off boardwalk, take pictures of the lovely birds and make our way back to the coffee shack and 3 women toilets to be shared by a few hundred ladies before departing again… Check out the penguin pics on the blog. More will follow when we have more internet time on land.
Day 14: A day at sea! Sailing through Chilean fjords in cloudy and foggy weather reminded us a lot of our west coast climate and geography (sans tall trees!). We were aiming for the famous Amalia Glacier at the end of the Sarmiento Canal, but the captain came on the loudspeaker to let us know that we might not be able to make it there because of unfavorable wind and current conditions. The final decision was to be made a few hours later. That left us with more blogging, eating, sleeping. Sigi had developed a bad cold with nasty loud and productive sneezing attacks that left him and me exhausted in our cabin. So I “manned” the camera when we did indeed arrive unscathed at the Amalia Glacier in late afternoon. What an impressive sight! The glacier had made its way from the mountain top right into the ocean, gleaming icy blue in the afternoon light being flanked on both sides by 2 smaller glaciers. Everyone was on an outside deck clicking away with a combined camera arsenal of about a million dollars…
Sigi was still feeling miserable, sneezing like an elephant and not allowed to join the public. Therefore I went to dinner alone, and he ordered room service.
Day 15: It was a dark and stormy night – again!! Wind force 9 on the Beaufort Scale and choppy waves interspersed with long rolling swell – rollercoaster once more. I took my “Relief Band” set on ‘5’ to the pulse of my wrist plus a seasickness pill, Sigi sneezed a lot, and so we spent the night… The morning was somewhat better, but not Sigi. For that reason we took breakfast in our cabin. Then Sigi went to the doctor’s office down on deck 4. The lovely nurse checked him – Sigi – over and diagnosed allergies instead of a cold. Gave him “Benadryl” and sent him back to me. He was getting better after just one tablet, so it must have been the correct diagnosis. Sigi was even able to eat some lunch up on the Lido Deck. Phew!!! Now we just have to pinpoint the source of the allergic reaction (maybe too much food in general????? – totally inappropriate judgement of the situation (comment by Sigi)). In any case, we are approaching Puerto Montt, our next stop, sailing again in lovely calm fjord waters with grand vistas. Tonight is another festive dinner that requires us to adhere to the “formal dress code”. Sigi will come with me for dinner, he is just now sleeping off the drowsy making effects of the antihistamine. Later tonight there will be a lady saxophonist performing in the showroom at sea which is supposed to be spectacular. We are looking forward to this.
Our dinner was as usual – A plus with a gold sticker. The lady saxophonist from Germany Claudia Tesolini performed a great variety of music with 3 different sized saxophones for us. Delightful and very professional. She was accompanied by the HAL Cats band, and the team made for a memorable evening of entertainment.