Tuesday, February 27

After sailing at full speed all night, we were still at least an hour late getting to Santarem due to the strong current. I was scheduled on a river boat tour, but when I saw how far I would have to hike in the equatorial noonday sun to get to it, I remembered that I was neither a mad dog nor an Englishman and decided that I didn’t really need to go piranha fishing.

Wednesday, February 28

Today we stopped at a muddy spot along the bank called Boca da Valeria. A number of years ago a cruise ship with time on its propellers anchored here and sent tenders ashore to see what was there. A woman named Valeria lived there with her family and welcomed the passengers to see how she lived in the jungle. So now about 19 families (around 75 people) live there, and about 6 ships a year stop to visit. Lots of other natives come from miles around to let their and their kids’ photos be taken with toucans, iguanas, etc. for a small donation and to sell handcrafts. As you can see here, they swarm out to the ship in their canoes to even try to sell stuff to tourists boarding the tenders to go ashore.

I was most uncertain about getting off the tender at shore (by all reports the dock consists of some bamboo poles and pieces of plywood), and knew that the footing would be rough, so I decided not to go. Those who did said they had a good time, but they went over sweaty and came back rained on. (It’s not called a tropical rain forest for nothing!) Jill and I sat cool and comfortable in the Crow’s Nest watching the weather, the river, and passing boats of an amazing range of sizes.

Sunday, February 25

Sun diamonds sparkle
on brown Amazon waters –
gilding the silt.

Belem is the largest port on the Amazon River. Took a tour that wound up being 6 hours with no lunch. Fortunately I had packed water and a candy bar, so survived. We are almost on top of the equator, so things are pretty hot and sticky. When I got back, I grabbed a couple of cookies from the coffee bar and collapsed on my verandah until I had cooled off enough to shower off the sweat and DEET. (Since the ship cannot purify its own water in the Amazon – too much silt – we are to conserve water until we get back out of it on March 4.)

The best part of the tour for me was a Botanical Garden and Zoo. I couldn’t walk around as much as I would have liked, but there was lots of shade, and I had fun watching several agouti running around loose (unfortunately, never when I had my camera out.) We anchored out in the river and tendered in on local river boats like the one shown here which was interesting. It being Sunday, there wasn’t a whole lot open, but the driving around the city was nice.

Monday, February 26

Sailing full speed up the mouth of the Amazon, but only making 19 knots because the tide is against us. We are headed for Macapa to pick up a pair of river pilots. Weather is warm (hot if you try to move around outside very much) with off and on showers. We’ll be crossing the equator back and forth for the next several days.

Last night in the dining room, all the staff were in costume for Oscars Night. I felt really sorry for the poor guy in the King Kong suit as well as the captains who were in things like tiger and lion suits and Renaissance regalia, but they appeared to be having fun. The awards were shown on our tv system, but as they began at 11"00 p.m. and went on for four hours, I gave them a miss.

Wednesday, February 21

Sea day...great! Lots of lazy time. This evening was both a formal night and Carnaval celebration in the dining room. We brought Harvey back to the table and even dressed him for the occasion with a black tie and my multi-colored mylar wig. He looked great.

We also played mind games on Indri and Fausta by bringing silverware, plates, etc. and a salad bowl with limp lettuce and an enormous carrot that John had swiped from Lido for Harvey. Indri retaliated by calmly serving him salad dressing. Then Fausta made tea for him with all the flourishes!

Thursday, February 22

Albatross, whiter
than whitecaps, soaring, swooping,
diving into blue.

Yeah! Another sea day! Since we are now sailing north, my starboard verandah is perfect for morning sunbathing and afternoon reading. I also spent much of the day watching albatross and petrels pacing the ship and diving for the fish we scare up. What incredible grace.

Friday, February 23

Today was Fortaleza, Brazil. It is the 4th largest city in Brazil at about 2.5 million people, and is a major resort area for the country. This was the first shore day when we had any rain, and even then it was on and off. I took a tour in the morning with the usual sights like a fort, a cathedral, the opera house, beaches, and a modern native market (shown here). Most of the residents live in apartments or condos, and many of these buildings are very interesting architecturally rather than the "concrete and glass gothic" of so many such places in the US.

Saturday, February 24

Yet another lazy day at sea. There were two lectures today in the "Explorer" series about various aspects of the Amazon River and the rainforest. They have done a fine job of having different experts on board to give these lectures at different phases of the journey...geologists, zoologists, historians, etc.

Monday, February 19

Love these sea days! I actually got to lie out in the sun for a (very) few minutes without getting fried. After dinner Jill and John and Lillian and I went to the show in the lounge with a fine singer named Nick who specializes in Neil Diamond stuff. I never liked "Red Red Wine" when it was popular in the upbeat version years ago, but Nick did it as a ballad, and it was really nice. Then there was an hysterically funny magician/comedian named Andy. Both were really nice guys from the UK with whom John and I had spent part of the afternoon chatting. Too bad their time on board will be up in Salvador. I wouldn’t have minded a few more performances from them.

While the evening entertainment doesn’t run to the big flashy shows on some of nthe larger ships, they have had a fine variety of acts come and go the past 46 days. Singers, comedians, musicians, and from every genre from pop to classical. Not all appeal to me, but something for everyone. Also the "permanent" musical groups are quite good. I don’t happen to like the port lecturer’s style, but they have had a series of excellent Exploration Lecturers covering history, geology, zoology and most of the other topics anyone would want to know about our itinerary.

Tuesday, February 20

There are seven cruise ships docked at Bahia de Salvador today for Carnaval night: MSC Armonia, Costa Fortuna, Explorer, Island Sea, Sky Wonder, Prinsendam, and Grand Mistral. Way too many tourists for my taste. However, Jill and I took a taxi to the Mercado Model or artisans’ market. Interesting, crowded, and extremely hot and sticky so we only stayed about an hour and were back at the ship by lunchtime. We don’t sail until about 11:00 p.m. (our first evening sailing) and the other ships lit up are lovely, as you can see.

Wednesday, February 14

At Montevideo today, I took another half-day tour. It’s somewhat similar to Buenos Aires, but a good deal smaller. It has lovely beaches and lots of parks and statuary. When I got back I saw the doctor about the bronchitis, got some expensive pills and cough syrup, ordered a room service lunch and went to sleep.

Thursday and Friday, February 15-16

Weather has been great, warm with smooth seas. Two days at sea mostly lost to bronchitis and sleep. I even skipped the formal night Valentine’s Day dinner, but Jill and Lillian and John brought me long-stemmed red roses that were part of the festivities...very sweet of them.

Saturday and Sunday, February 17-18

Rio de Janeiro...again mostly lost to bronchitis and sleep. Wound up canceling both tours I had booked here in favor of another trip to the doctor who gave me a whole bunch more pills and stuff. But I didn’t miss all of Rio completely.

When we docked Saturday morning there was some sort of Carnival kick-off thing going on in a building right near my cabin...7:30 a.m. this was. In a fenced off area were about 100 people (mostly men judging by their shirtless condition) dancing and partying to incredibly loud and driving samba beat with a sort of wailing "New Age" kind of vocals...except when a piercing soprano launched into that famous aria from "Carmen!" It was so loud that I’m surprised that every pacemaker and bypass owner on the ship didn’t go into cardiac arrhythmia!

Fortunately they shut it all down around 9:45 so I went back to sleep. Many of the tour buses got stuck in bad traffic caused by the first day of Carnaval. One bunch of people were on a bus that took 1.5 hours to go 3 blocks! The saving grace was the view they got of various dance clubs, including one group of men in pink tutus followed by another group in red samba dresses...sort of wish I’d seen that, but I was better off asleep. When I was awake I had a great view of "Cristo Redentor" from my verandah as seen here...telephoto, of course.

This afternoon we sailed at 3:00 p.m. The Captain requested and got permission for the ship to sail around the harbor to view the beaches before heading out. It was all on the starboard side, so I just sat on my little verandah and snapped away with my camera as we sailed right past Sugar Loaf. And frankly, looking at the cable car that goes up there, I’m just as glad I didn’t have to test my acrophobia on that tour! FYI, the cable car is the teeny weeny black dot in mid-air to the left of the crag.

Sunday, February 18

Sorry no posts for several days...am now recovering from bronchial bug. Will update tomorrow.

Monday, February 12

We are at Buenos Aires. I did not go ashore today because I’m just not much good at wandering around by myself using public transportation any more. As others came back from tours, they told of long lines of (around 3000) people jamming the passenger terminal at the dock waiting to board the Golden Princess, so I’m just as glad I didn’t try to go. It has now been 12 days since I set foot on land (back on our first visit to Ushuaia), so I am looking forward to my tour tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 13

A pleasant, no stress tour this morning...mostly riding around on the tour bus looking at things as opposed to getting on and off for museums and shops. The photo here is of Eva Peron’s Memorial. I spent much of the afternoon reading in the shade up on Lido Deck.

I did go down to the Infirmary and weighed myself on their scales this afternoon. The bad news is that I have not lost any weight. The good news is that I haven’t gained any either! I’ve been pretty faithful about not pigging out at breakfast and lunch. Also, the chef has been helping me by being quite cutesy with his dinner menus, so that often there isn’t a whole lot that I want to eat...or at least I wind up asking them to leave off the rich sauces, etc. They also have a nasty habit of dripping raspberry couli over most of the desserts, so that I often just have no-sugar added ice cream. It’s now a standard joke at our table about me not liking "red stuff" on my desserts. That’s okay...between that and the fact that it takes more energy to even stay in bed on a moving ship, my clothes still fit.

I am doing my best to fight off the bronchial bug that has been making its way through the passenger list, but I may be on the losing end of the battle. At least it hasn’t gotten up into my sinuses yet.

My sympathies to all in the US and Canada who are buried in snow and ice. I could easily get used to spending January, February and March in the Southern Hemisphere!

Friday, February 9


Lots of people went ashore at Stanley, and lots of them went to see penguins, but I didn’t. We were not docked, but using tenders, and a nasty wind made the tender boarding process more dangerous than I cared to risk. Those who did go had a great time, and said the people there were really friendly as were the penguins. People were admonished to go no closer to the penguin colony than 5 meters, but if they stood still, the penguins would come right up to them and almost stand on the peoples’ toes to check them out.


I spent much of the day up in the Crow’s Nest watching the weather patterns sweep across the town and countryside about every 3 minutes. Sunshine, wind, rain, sleet, hail, sunshine, rain, clouds sitting on the hills, etc. Even the wave patterns were interesting...long lines of foam parallel to each other and the shore line, but seemingly unconnected to wind or wave patterns. Some of the places in Chile were truly desolate with not a blade or leaf of green on the hills due to the Atacama Desert, but there was plenty of evidence of habitation. Here in the Falklands there was green, but it looked almost more desolate. No trees, only gorse and grasses and rocks and this one little village of around 1000 inhabitants with ever-changing weather.


Saturday, February 10


En route to Buenos Aires. The air is getting warmer and the sea is relatively smooth. They’ve changed our port schedule again, keeping the second day in Manaus, dropping Reciefe, Barbados and Half Moon Cay, but adding back St. Lucia and Grand Turk. This, of course, plays hob with the poor Shore Excursion Office people trying to book alternative tours. My fancy chartered flight tour to Iguazu Falls was cancelled...they just couldn’t obtain an aircraft to charter on the days we are going to be in Buenos Aires. Ah well, the refund on that one tour will probably cover most of my shipboard charges for the whole trip!


Tonight is when Jill and I sprang the plot we’ve been hatching for John. It involved Harvey (the pookah) who was present in the form of a large rabbit made out of bath towels and numerous sets of rabbit ears (made by me with help from Jill to obtain suitable wires for headbands) for the rest of us. Of course we never know how many of the people at our table will turn up for dinner, so we have LOTS of rabbit ears. It was a huge success and really surprised John. Of course half the dining room staff had to come over and get their photo taken with Harvey and ears. Great good fun!



Sunday, February 11



Another smooth day at sea. We should reach Rio de la Plata this afternoon and Buenos Aires tomorrow morning. I am constantly amazed that I am actually on this wonderful trip...never before expected to be gazing out at the South Atlantic Ocean!

Monday, February 5

Well, aside from some 25-30 knot winds early on Sunday, our crossing of Drake’s Passage was quite pleasant. By Sunday afternoon, even the wind had dropped some and we were left with only the gentle swell of deep ocean.

Today has been utterly fantastic! At mid-morning we arrived off Palmer Station and a bunch of the folks from there came out in Zodiacs and gave several really good talks on the US research activities in the Antarctic. Next we sailed into the Lemaire Channel (an area sometimes called "Kodak" Point). Incredibly scenic...alternating sun, fog, and even some snow. When the wind is low you can go outside (at least for brief periods) without a coat, but at times the wind has been up to 40 knots at which point it will freeze your hair off, even with a hat on!

So far just about everybody but me has seen loads of dolphins, whales and even penguins swimming near the ship. It’s almost always on the other side of the ship from where I am at the moment. But there seem to be so many that I’m bound to see some sooner or later.

Tuesday, February 6

Today we sailed the Neumayer Channel, the Gerlache Strait, Paradise Harbor, the Errera Channel and the Bransfield Strait. The weather was mostly low clouds, but clear enough at water level to see tons of penguins (mostly Gentoos), mostly porpoising through the waters around the ship. I got some photos of a bunch of them on a small iceberg then diving off of it. Seals and occasional whales are still staying on the other side of the ship from wherever I happen to be when they are sighted.

One of the interesting things is that the ice pops. Sailing slowly through brash ice or growlers (types of small floating ice bits) everything else is so utterly quiet except for the constant popping and crackling noises of the ice itself. And the growlers really do sort of growl.

The scenery is just unbelievable. White white snow, turquoise blue glacier ice, charcoal gray to black craggy mountains, patches of snow and ice in pastel colors due to algae and microbial blooms, then all the shades of white and blue of the ice in the water, and drifting clouds and fog of every shade of gray.

It is a most awesome experience. Realizing that you are at the bottom of the world, so far from everything familiar. It feels similar to, but even bigger than standing in a grove of redwood trees. Really quite spiritual. I can understand why people and especially researchers who spend a good deal of time down here come back again and again.

Wednesday, February 7

Last night at dinner several humpback whales evidently did everything but a pas de deux outside the dining room windows. I, of course, could not see any of it as 1) I happened to have my back to the windows, and 2) by the time I got turned around, everybody else in the dining room was blocking the view.

This morning we sailed around Deception Island which is a volcano caldera that was often used by whaling ships as a safe harbor and processing area. The smaller expedition tourist ships can go in, but we are too big. Got a good look at a lot of red hematite and green limolite ores, black lava ash, and as a highlight, a huge colony of chinstrap penguins.

The weather here is more changeable than just about any place on earth. In the space of about two hours we had everything from calm and not to cold to fog, rain, sleet, snow and back again in succession. After Deception Island, the Antarctic Sound was too icy to enter so we had to skip Paullet Island and have headed out toward Elephant Island at the north end of the South Shetland Islands. We presently have some rolling sea, but with a following wind, so it’s not too bad.

Elephant Island is where the Shackleford party was stranded for so long. It's very bleak, and I'm totally amazed that they all survived to be rescued.

Thursday, February 8

En route to the Falkland Islands where we should be tomorrow. Pretty decent weather...not too much motion and still a following wind as we cross the Antarctic Circle headed north. Most of us are looking forward to warmer weather again, although all are agreed that to experience the Antarctic was worth just about anything.

First I have sad news for all the members of Haiku SIG. Mimi Barry passed away a day or two ago. More on this when I get home to do the April issue of Pebbles.

We are about halfway across Drake's Passage and while it's bouncy, it's not nearly as exciting as the first try. I am advised that our sattelite link will probably be pretty spotty while we are sailing around Antarctica, so if I don't get any new posts up for a few days, don't worry.

The Captain says that we were past the storm center when we got hit by two large waves in rapid succession which caused the ship to list at 20 to 25 degrees (that was at 12:45 p.m. on February 1st) and caused all the havoc. He also says that we plan to go back to Antarctica and spend our allotted three days there, and that he and the company are negotiating with future ports to squeeze the docking schedule so that we can do that. All of us are hoping for at least somewhat better weather for the crossing. I had an e-mail from Virginia gushing about their fabulous Antarctica experience and saying that they missed the hurricane. I sent back that I could tell her about it from personal experience!

I cannot repeat too often how greatly impressed I am with the Captain and all his crew and staff and how they handled the whole emergency. I feel perfectly safe on this ship as do the vast majority of the other passengers.

Meanwhile, we are still in Ushuaia, having off-loaded the injured yesterday evening, and are awaiting a shipment of crockery and glassware that’s being flown in from Buenos Aires. We’ll probably leave this evening headed south again. The weather today is lovely and Ushuaia is gorgeous with new snow on the mountains behind it. Since we are tendering in today, I decided to just stay aboard and admire the view. I suppose tonight we’ll be back to the (literally) bounding main.

First...I'm okay...the ship is okay...see below for my account of our excitement.

Tuesday, January 30

Still at Punta Arenas for the day, as originally scheduled. It’s a relatively desolate spot with a town of around 100,000. I was feeling lousy today, so I skipped the "usual" bus tour of the town with the usual church, main square and native market. I understand that the 4th item here was the local cemetary...that may sound odd, but I hear it was gorgeous.

As for feeling lousy, it turns out that it’s probably a side-effect of the anti-malarial drug I’ve been taking. So on advice from the ship’s doctor I’m stopping it until we get to Rio.

The ship has been giving us nice gifts every so often. Today’s was a gorgeous light blue parka. A couple of days ago it was a nice pair of binoculars, and before that a top quality tote bag, plus other stuff. Of course we’ve paid for it all in our fares, but it’s still fun to get "free" stuff.

Wednesday, January 31

Morning spent cruising the Beagle Channel looking at a lot of spectacular glaciers. The photo here is of Romanche Glacier. They have two new lecturers on board, a geologist who did the narrationof the glacier viewing, and a man who is a specialist in Antarctic birds who gave a great lecture on penguins today.

Arrived in Ushuaia on time at 1:00 p.m., but couldn’t dock because a container ship was in our spot, so had to wait for it to leave. A number of other ships in port including a Russian expedition ship, the National Geographic Endeavour, the Mare Australis, and The World which I think is the condo/hotel ship that goes where its owners/passengers vote to go.
Took a nice tour on the narrow gauge railroad then by bus to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Went to the very end of the Pan American Highway...the "end of the world" or as far south as one can go by vehicle. Lots of interesting mountains, cirques, open areas that had been logged off by convicts from the Ushuaia prison 1912-1947, areas of trees killed by introduced beavers. Saw a Caracara bird, several Upland Geese, and tons of rabbits...BIG rabbits! Finally got back to the ship a little before 6:00 p.m.

Friday, February 2

Okay, I’ve seen Cape Horn...a tall island through the mist yesterday morning about 6:30 a.m....I was awake to see it because of the 30+ foot swells that started at just about the same time as we got well out of the Beagle Channel. Then we set off across Drake’s Passage for Antarctica. Conditions got rapidly worse...over 70 knots wind and 40+ foot swells (can you say "hurricane"). At one point a really big wave or 3 hit us while I happened to be sitting on the edge of my bed, and I wound up on the floor and stayed there while furniture and glassware and most anything else not nailed down thrashed about the cabin. I wasn’t hurt and did manage to get myself back up off the floor and onto the bed by myself, although it took a good bit of doing.

At that point the Captain changed course to run with the swells to ease their effect some while the injured were helped and damage to the inside of the ship...cabins as well as public rooms...was assessed, and headcounts were taken. Several of the injured need shoreside treatment, so at about 7:40 p.m. last night the Captain turned us back into the teeth of the storm with the eye between us and South America, and set course for Ushuaia again.

I still haven’t been out to see the rest of the ship...early on I decided that the safest place for little ol’ unstable me was right here in Cabin 191 until things calm down. Much of the time we were having swells OVER 45 feet high. I gotta say I’m now really tired of looking UP at whitecaps from my position on Deck 8! God bless my friend, John, who brought me a supply of crackers and a couple of sandwiches during the afternoon. Also thanks to my cabin steward, Gaga, who managed to come in, put things to enough rights that nothing rattles too badly (including corralling all the cans and bottles that fell out of the fridge at one point and rolled around on the floor for a while), and clean up all the broken glass.

I have passed the time sleeping and watching tv. Last night they showed "The Queen" which was very good although I must admit that my attention was not wholly on the movie.

We have now (12:30 p.m. on Friday) gotten back to the Beagle Channel. The swells are down a little and should drop more as we get farther inside, but we still have 80 knot winds. We will be at Ushuaia (probably anchored instead of docked as they may not have space for us) until tomorrow evening. I believe that he intends to try for Antarctica again if the weather allows. Several of us had wished for more time in Ushuaia, as it is an interesting place...looks like they got their wish. Well, the seas are calmer, so I think I’ll try to go get some food and see what’s what.

Later...we’re coming into Ushuaia now. Some 48 people were hurt, most not badly, although there’s at least one badly broken leg, one staff member has a badly sprained or broken ankle, and one staff member has burns from where the coffee machine upstairs in the Lido landed on him. Most of the crockery is gone and they are flying in replacements. Two grand pianos are damaged and one of them is toast. The galley came through okay, but the food storage areas are a mess (according to one of the officers). It’s amazing that it isn’t any worse. The Captain and crew have been fantastic about getting things back to as normal as possible.

Evidently we made the CNN news, so Holland America phoned everyone’s emergency contacts to tell them we are okay. Of course, in my case, that means they called my lawyer who probably didn’t pass the word along, but I’ll send e-mails to various folks and ask them to pass the word around. I heard a rumor that some people are going to disembark here in Ushuaia and skip the rest of the trip, but I’m not one of them. I sort of hope that we skip a return toward Antarctica, but I’m sure the Captain won’t risk that unless conditions are a lot better...also we’d probably only go as far as Elephant Island instead of all the way down to Palmer Station.