January 2017 – Couple of Boots

January 16th, 2017

Day 293: La Carretera Austral – Day 4

We left our riverside oasis around 8AM that morning and drove toward Lake General Carrera. At 870KM² it is the biggest lake in Chile and the second biggest lake in South America. It straddles the border between Chile and Argentina (where it is called “Lake Buenos Aires” instead). We arrived in the lakefront town of Río Tranquillo in the late afternoon and refueled at the local COPEC. We were ahead of schedule and a little tired of just sitting in the car all day, so we decided to take a walk around town and investigate the long line of excursion desks sitting by the beach – if there are *this many* tour operators, there must be something interesting to do around here!

Sunrise in our beautiful riverside campsite

General Carrera Lake (AKA – Lake Buenos Aires on the Argentinean side)

Turns out that one of Río Tranquillo’s biggest attractions is the Capillas de Mármol (Marble Chapels) – a collection of colorful caves and formations in the lake, formed by the weathering of the water and wind against the side of the rock. We booked a 1.5hr boat ride for USD$15pp to see them – seemed a little hokey, but a good way to kill a little time and get out of the car. For some STUPID reason, it didn’t occur to us that we would be in danger of getting wet (even though the tour operator gave us each a pair of “windproof” suits) so we left our waterproof pants and bags in the car. That would prove to be a HORRIBLE mistake.

However, the initial ride out to the Capillas de Mármol was pleasant and dry as we were travelling with the current. After about 20min, we finally reached the caves – they were actually pretty cool! The original rocks were a composite of limestone and marble, but the elements had broken down most of the limestone over the centuries, leaving beautiful formations of marble and calcium carbonate behind, making for some awesome photo-ops!

We reach the town of Río Tranquillo so early in the morning, that we decide to check out the row of excursion agencies lining the lakefront

All dressed up in our wind-proof pants & jacket for the boat ride on Lake General Carrera

Igor is impressed when the boat actually drives *into* the marble caves

The surface of the caves has a gorgeous, bubbly texture

The swirls of color inside the Capillas de Mármol are simply stunning

So far, our visit to the Capillas de Mármol has been a pleasant surprise!

We were on an excited high as the boat turned around to go back to Río Tranquillo – this time, against the wind. Our tour guide (who did not speak English) said something to the effect of, “The return ride can be rough – hold on to the side of the boat if it gets too choppy. Also, you might get splashed,” or at least, that’s how Lindsay translated it to Igor. We giggled with delight at the first few bounces, and even tried to record the huge swells on the GoPro, but then shit got real. Anyone ever go to SeaWorld theme parks when they were a kid and remember the “Splash Zone” during the whale shows? Well, it was like that. Over, and over, and OVER again. We were completely drenched and freaking out about our camera which Igor tried to protect by hiding it inside both his down jacket and the tour’s windbreaker.

When we finally arrived on shore after a good 45min of constant bouncing and splashing, we crawled out of the boat like pitiful sewer rats. We dropped off our borrowed gear at the company’s yert and looked ourselves over: everything we were wearing (hats, jackets, pants, underwear, socks) was soaked. We got into the back seat of the Subaru and changed into a dry set of clothes. Even though the camera had a few drops on it, it turned on OK when we tested it so we breathed a sigh of relief that at least one item had remained safe.

We are all smiles until the boat starts heading back toward Rio Tranquillo – the rough waves completely drench us (and our camera!!!)

We change into a dry set of clothes and lay everything wet on the dash to dry as we drive away

Since we had a lot more time to stretch out our itinerary, we had been discussing which route to take. Our initial plan had been to veer off into Argentina the next day, crossing the Andes at the Paso Roballos crossing, however that would mean missing the final 250KM of the Carretera Austral. Since we had tons of time, we decided to change our plans and drive all the way to the end. But before we could do that, we needed to get in touch with Igor’s mother, as she had been tracking our progress via the GPS Spot daily (sometimes it seemed she was tracking us hourly – she had an eerily up-to-the-second knowledge of where we were at all times…). If we suddenly started driving in an unexpected direction, we would get panicked emails asked if we had been kidnapped. J We were feeling cold and hungry and decided to get a hot meal at a restaurant in town that had Wifi, so we could send an email with our new route info.

So, January and February are the HIGH SEASON in Chile (it’s their “July & August” – height of the summer). Today was a MONDAY (not a weekend and not a holiday). Despite this, only TWO restaurants in town were open for lunch at 1PM – everything else (including the minimart) was closed. REALLY GUYS? Whatever, fine – we check out both places. Even though both of them had a “Wifi” symbol on their windows and had a strong signal coming from their location (which we could see on Igor’s phone), both turned us down when we asked for the code as we tried to order lunch. You know what? We’ve had it with this town. We would rather eat our cold apples and chips on the road then patron either of you overcrowded cafes.

Getting the hell outta Río Tranquillo. However, our anger at Río Tranquillo starts to lift as we drive round the edge of the lake. No doubt, Lake General Carrera is incredibly beautiful (especially from afar!)

Look at that water! It’s so blue, we have to remind ourselves we are not in the tropics, and those dark patches are shadows of clouds, not coral reefs

Teal blue water from the glacial run-off in Lake General Carrera

Lake General Carrera – seriously, we just can’t get enough of it!

Finally crossing the bridge and leaving the lake as it narrows into a river

About an hour down the road we made a detour to a charming little village on the other side of the lake called Puerto Guadal, hoping to find an open café with Wifi. We didn’t see anything, so we pulled into the town grocery store and asked the kid behind the counter, “Is there anywhere in town that has Wifi?” He looked at us like we were stupid and slowly said, “Sí.” Lindsay tried to clarify, “Is there anywhere were *we* can use the Wifi?” Again, “Sí.” The kid smiled and told us to give him our phone – he signed us into his store’s Wifi, free of charge! Now there’s the Chile we know and love! While Igor typed a note to his mommy, Lindsay ran around the store picking up enough groceries for the next three days – now that we weren’t crossing the border, we didn’t have to worry about our fresh fruit and veggies getting confiscated.

Stopping for more groceries in Puerto Guadal

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get back to her chicks!

Everything seemed to be going our way at last! We continued down the road for a few more hours. Near sunset, the landscape started to get really dramatic, so we pulled over and took out the camera to take a picture…only the camera wouldn’t turn on. We’ve been using this camera pretty heavily during the last year and this isn’t the first time it went on the fritz – usually taking the battery out and putting it back in again does the trick. Lindsay opened the camera to bounce it, but made a terrible discovery: Water. Inside the camera. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. Somehow, some water must have slowly seeped in since our boat ride that morning! Even worse, we’ve already turned it on and taken pictures several times that afternoon, so the hardware has probably fried!

We pulled into the next town of Cochrane and bought a bag of rice, desperately hoping a night in the rice bag would suck out any remaining water. With our fingers crossed and hoping for the best, we continued our way south, pulling over when we found another secluded campsite off the side of the road.

More dramatic scenery as we continue our journey south – too bad we have to take these pics on the cell phone L

We find another secluded campsite off the road and enjoy a healthy dinner of tomatoes & beans with an avocado sandwich

January 15th, 2017

Day 292: La Carretera Austral – Day 3

After a peaceful night’s sleep parked in our fiord-facing mirador, we woke up to a lovely surprise: since the fiord was connected to the ocean, there were sea lions and dolphins swimming right in front of our campsite! They were a little too far away for us to get a good picture, but we enjoyed watching them play around as we ate our breakfast.

We took off around 8:30AM and made our way to Coyhaique by noon. Coyhaique was a HUGE city, with a university, Costco-sized grocery stores and a strong 3G data signal. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of traffic and not many parking spots, so after we picked up a few essentials we got back on the road and ate lunch on a quiet shoulder outside of town. We continued our drive south for a few more hours before calling it an early day at 4:30PM.

Driving around the fiord in the early morning light

“From this place you can see the River Cisnes coursing through the valley, it is 160KM from its source at the mouth of the Puyuhuapi Canal to the south of Port Cisnes. With a basin of 5,196km² of surface area, this part of the river increases considerably, creating sections of backwater and fast moving rapids. The surrounding vegetation is mainly made up of species of evergreen forest.”

Lindsay runs out into the wildflowers to take a picture of some wind turbines – harvest that natural energy, Chile!

Another glorious day in Patagonia

Pulling over to the side of the road for lunch

“Native Huemul: The Huemul Deer is native and exclusive to the Southern Andes, and is in danger of extinction. It is distributed from central Chile to the Magallanes region, today the largest populations are found in this region and in Aysén. In Aysén and the Castle Peak National Reserve you have the possibility to observe this beautiful specie in the Southern route in its natural habitat, which is a privilege and pride of this region and we invite you to support the conservation by taking care and driving slowly through this habitat.”

Looking for the elusive Huemul Deer as we drive through their supposed habitat – we saw nuthin’

Summertime in Patagonia – the land is covered in wildflowers

“The Devil’s Slope Viewpoint: From here you can see a majestic panoramic view of the imposing Castle Peak which is 2,75m in height and covered in snow and dense forest. Below, you can see the winding curves of the Ibanez River, which is over 88KM in length, flowing into the General Carrera Lake. Reflecting nature, the winding and steep curvy pass of the Devil’s Slope arises, opened by the first settlers who travelled in this virgin and inhospitable Southern route.”

The twisty road of the Devil’s Slope

The jagged profile of Castle Peak

Cruising down the Carretera Austral

“Dead Forest” – Igor has to stop and takes pictures of the dead trees

Normally we like to keep driving until dinnertime, but Lindsay slammed on the brakes when Igor found the PERFECT campsite in the late afternoon. It was big (you could easily fit 5 cars), private (hidden behind a row of thick trees and bushes), and had water access (a very clean river). It was still warm and sunny when we pulled over, so we decided to take care of business. It had now been 3 days since our last shower and our bodies and clothes were starting to smell pretty ripe (TMI?). While the sunshine helped us to strip down, the water was way too cold for us to get in all the way. I’ll let you imagine how we managed to get clean. Suffice to say, we felt very refreshed by the end of the ordeal.

Our favorite campsite of the trip! A secluded spot next to the river, hidden from the road behind some dense trees

We call it a day really early, giving us plenty of time to wash our clothes and even take a “Polish shower” in the frigid stream. Hey! It may be primitive, but it keeps us from being stinky!

Taking pictures of our little oasis, and chilling a bottle of bubbly in the river

When it starts to rain at night, we hang our damp laundry over our heads as we tuck into bed

January 14th, 2017

Day 291: La Carretera Austral – Day 2

FLATTYBOUCH, n. A gypsy term: one who goes from place to place living in a van during the summer months. Also called a flatty.

We learned a cool word during a rousing game of “Liars Club” when we were on the Seabourn Quest, which perfectly illustrated our descent from ultra-luxury cruisers to homeless bums. I know y’all are feeling sorry for us sleeping out of an SUV, but I gotta tell you, it’s a lot more comfortable than it sounds! We slept in ’til about 7:30AM when the sun was fully out and it was too bright to keep our eyes closed. We took our time having breakfast and reorganizing our supplies. However, when 9:30AM rolled around and there still wasn’t any sign of a park ranger to collect camping fees, we figured Chile was just giving us one for free. LOVE this country!

Breakfast time at the Cascadas Escondidas Campground

Lots of bikers were packing up to leave as we explored the campground. There are two short hikes to some waterfalls, but we have to pass as Igor is a gimp

We pass two more pretty campgrounds on our way to the next town – good to know this highway is so camper-friendly!

The waters of Lake Blanco were a perfect mirror in the morning

We pass by the trailhead for an all-day hike near Michinmahuida Volcano. Since it doesn’t look doable in flips flops, we’ll have to save it for next time

So, our original plan for this road trip was to stop in 4 different parks and do day hikes over the next two weeks. Unfortunately, when Igor had to wear his hard boots during our travel day from Buenos Aires to Puerto Montt, it ruined all the healing progress his foot had made during our month on the cruise ship. Since we had a diving trip coming up in a few weeks, it was essential that he recover, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to wear fins and wouldn’t be allowed to dive in strong currents.

As a result, all hikes were out of the question for the next two weeks – this trip is now literally all about the ROAD throughout Patagonia. On the bright side, it meant that we had a lot more flexibility in our schedule and more time to finish longer stretches of the route. Today we passed through Chaitén – a coastal town that was completely destroyed when the nearby volcano of the same name erupted in 2008. Although the Chilean government insisted that all residents permanently evacuate, 25 people came back a year later and started rebuilding. Now the town is well on the way to recovery, with a gas station, hospital, grocery store, and plenty of cute hostels and restaurants.

After visiting town for a few hours, we continued down the road at a leisurely pace, stopping to take pictures whenever we liked. Even though there was a lot of construction going on, there was more than enough eye-candy to fill up our camera memory card.

Igor is enchanted by the spooky, dead trees leftover from the Chaitén eruption back in 2008

We roll into the town of Chaitén just before lunchtime and pick up a few extra groceries in the shadow of the ominous volcano

We are ahead of schedule, so we treat ourselves to a sit-down lunch in a yert. Feelin’ pretty hippie!

We get a far-off glimpse of the Amarillo Glacier as we pass by Pumalín Park

Driving around the Amarillo section of Pumalín Park

Stopping to admire more glacier-capped mountains during our drive

Driving over the Yelcho Bridge

Lago Yelcho sparkles in the Patagonian sunshine

Beautiful scenery during our Carretera Austral road trip

Pastoral cow pastures and baby-blue glacier-fed rivers in Patagonia

Seriously…well this gorgeous scenery ever end?

We’re driving an average of 10 hours per day, so we get a little goofy after a while

We started looking for camping spots around 7PM. The first campground we pulled into was already full. The second paid campground we found was just outside of the Queulat National Park, but we passed as the facilities look like an absolute dump. (The owner left a broken toilet and a broken down bus in the middle of the campsites. We’re not paying USD$10 when we can just pull off the side of the road for free!) Apparently there were better options inside the park, but the entrance was locked after 6PM so we had to continue driving for another hour or so.

As we drove around a scenic fiord, we noticed several empty miradors (viewpoints). Sure, there was zero privacy, but the views were excellent. We decided to give it a try – hopefully police wouldn’t patrol the highway at night (we haven’t seen any cops or park rangers outside town limits so far) and knock on our windows while we were sleeping. A handful of trucks and cars passed us while we made ourselves some dinner (a few tooted their horn to say, “Hello”), but all traffic died around 9:30PM, giving us peace and quiet as we went to sleep.

Screw campgrounds – we stop at a mirador around 9PM and decide to park for the night

Canned beans and avocado wraps: dinner, dinner, dinner!

Flattybouchin’ in Chile.

January 13th, 2017

Day 290: La Carretera Austral – Day 1

Even though we felt like sleeping in, we had a lot of errands to run before leaving Puerto Montt this afternoon, so we rolled out of bed and hit up the buffet breakfast before running across the street to the mall.

Can I just say for the record how AWESOME Chile is? Anything you need, Chile will have it. We had a long list of supplies to pick up before we drove off into the remote reaches of Patagonia and Puerto Montt was the perfect place to stock up. The Ripley Mall had all the camping gear we could have wanted (although admittedly, it’s more expensive than in the USA), plus toiletries and groceries. The one thing we couldn’t find in the mall was a DC/AC power converter for the car so we could keep our laptops charged on the road. We asked a few electronics stores for recommendations and within 30min we were directed to PC Factory which had even our most random necessity. CHILE RULES.

We checked out of the hotel just before noon, picked up the rental car and a spare gas canister and officially started our road trip at 1PM.

We were so exhausted when we arrived at the Vincente Costanera Hotel last night, we didn’t have a chance to notice how cute it is! We enjoy a waterfront view as we stuff ourselves on the buffet breakfast. We almost wish we were staying longer

Last minute shopping in Puerto Montt gets us everything we need – even a power converter for the car!

We pick up our 4×4 Subaru around noon, pick up an empty gas canister (all guidebooks recommend carrying extra gas in Patagonia as not all towns have gas stations), and we are off!

So, we had never heard of the Carretera Austral before this trip. We had actually planned to take a road trip down Route 40 in Argentina. “Ruta Cuarenta” is touted online as one of the most EPIC road trips in the world – the highway runs the whole length of Argentina starting from the border with Brazil at Iguazu Falls in the north, down along the Andes Mountains, ending in Patagonia in the south. The whole road takes a good month to drive, so we were only planning to drive the last 1,500KM of the road from Bariloche to El Calafate.

During the Seabourn cruise, we met Luciano Bernacchi, an Argentinean member of the Expedition Team who was from El Calafate – we decided to ask his option on our route to see it there were any attractions we were missing. He surprised us by recommending we actually *skip* the majority of Route 40 and drive down the Chilean side of the Andes Mountains instead on the Carretera Austral – a 1,250KM scenic road (mostly gravel) that rivals Australia’s Great Ocean Road, South Africa’s Garden Route, and California’s Highway 1 it terms of breathtaking scenery. Well, hell – if even the *Argentinean* is telling us not to bother with his mother country, then we’re staying in Chile as long as we can!

Cruising down the winding road of Route 7 – the Carretera Austral

During our first day of the drive, we actually spent more time on ferry boats than we did on the road. Given that the terrain in southern Chile is so mountainous, there are several places where the government just couldn’t continue the road (unless they dynamite through the mountains like China does), so the only way to continue was by boat. Unfortunately for us, none of these ferries have their timetables or prices listed online, so we gave ourselves an extra day in our itinerary, just in case we missed the last ferry. Turns out, we were incredibly lucky, hitting each ferry within an hour of its departure time!

Just in time for the 2PM ferry at Caleta La Arena

Ferry #1 is a pleasant, 30min ride across the Reloncavi Estuary

We drive another beautiful stretch of highway before we get to the town of Hornopirén

Once again, luck is on our side and we are just in time for the last ferry of the day at 4:30PM

It’s a lovely, sunny day – perfect for a boat ride through the Chilean fiords

The forests covering the shore are so dense, there was no way for the Chileans to keep building the road – hence all the ferries

Ferry #2 is a LONG one: 3 hours! After a while, our eyes get numb to all the gorgeous scenery

The sun sparkles on the surface of the water as we sail through the fiords during the Golden Hour

Near the end of the ferry, we pass a few houses nestled into the hillside and some fish farms in the sea water (this area of Chile is known for salmon production – Chile is now the second largest producer of salmon in the world). We look closely and see a sea lion sitting on one of the bright orange buoys near the fish nets

After we get off the ferry, we only have a 10KM drive down a gravel road to our third and final ferry of the day

Sitting in our car on ferry #3 – today we spent more time sailing than driving!

We finally reached land at about a quarter to 9 – time to find a place to camp! During our last trip to Chile in 2015, we had planned to tent-camp in the desert around San Pedro de Atacama, but found it was too cold and windy to sleep outside, and ended up sleeping inside our SUV for a week. Ghetto? Yes. Comfortable? Surprisingly, yes! We decided not to even bother getting a tent this time, and just picked up some cheap 0⁰C sleeping bags and bunker down in our Subaru.

As we were driving away from the ferry, we constantly had our eyes peeled for a shoulder off the side of the road where we could park for the night. We found 1 or 2 decent spots that didn’t have “No Camping” signs next to them, and we were just about to turn around when we rolled up to an actual campground! Hey, we get to be legit! The campground was pretty small – only about a dozen sites – but it had a clean bathroom and a sink for washing dishes. Lindsay asked one of the campers where the owner was and how to pay for the site, but it turned out the ranger was already gone for the night. She suggested we go ahead and camp and perhaps someone would be along in the morning to collect fees.

Hey – if no one was going to demand payment in return for a campsite, we were not going to lose any sleep over it! We grabbed the *last private site,* whipped up some dinner and toasted our first night on the road with some Chilean bubbles (it’s no Nicolas Feuillatte, bit it’s not bad!).

Another stroke of luck! We roll into a campground and grab the LAST campsite just as it starts to get dark.

Lindsay whips up some tuna & avocado wraps for dinner, which we wash down with a bottle of Chilean bubbles

January 12th, 2017

Day 289: Travelling from Buenos Aires back to Puerto Montt

So, Seabourn had to call the Argentinean police to drag us out of our stateroom when we refused to disembark in Buenos Aires. We tried to claim squatter’s rights, but Lindsay didn’t know how to translate that into Spanish.

Nah! Just kidding! (But no, seriously, we’ve been looking all over the ship to see if there was a place to hide…just until they reached Antarctica again…) We were out of our room before the 8AM cut-off, gorging ourselves on our FINAL cruise buffet – we had no intention of paying for any food today, so we ate all the pancakes, eggs, yogurt, fresh fruit and donuts we could shove in our mouths to last us until the airport lounge. We dragged our feet until 10AM when we really didn’t have a good reason to stay on the ship anymore…goodbye, Quest. We will miss you.

Lindsay tries to hide under the covers so she doesn’t have to leave her cocoon of luxury, but she doubts the tip or stack of orange chocolates we leave for our cabin steward will prevent her from telling the captain about two stowaways

On our own again in Argentina. Party-time is over: we skip the USD$60 taxi and catch a USD$10pp bus to the airport.

We had a LONG travel day ahead of us today: a late, 6PM flight to Santiago getting us in around 9PM for a 2hour layover (during which we have to pass through Chilean immigration & customs) before our 11PM flight to Puerto Montt, which would land around 1AM the next day. Even though we have the afternoon free, we decide to head straight to the airport as we have nowhere to store our bags before our flight. Besides, we will be passing through Buenos Aires again in a few weeks, so we still had time to do our sightseeing of the city.

When we arrived at EZE at noon, we were in for a big disappointment: the ticket agent wouldn’t let us check-in to our flight yet, despite the fact that the airport has zero waiting-room seats, and hundreds of cranky Argentineans standing in a myriad of lines all over the place. Oh, and no wi-fi either. Seriously – this airport sucks.

The attendant claimed our flight actually didn’t leave until 7PM, and the official check-in time would start at 3PM. At first we were a tad worried the bus took us to the wrong airport as the flight time didn’t match our reservation, but she confirmed the flight number and said the airline changed the departure time. Even so, we had lounge passes inside the terminal and we want to get inside! PLEASE DON’T MAKE US WAIT OUTSIDE. After a little pleading and puppy-dog eyes she agreed to let us check-in at 1:30PM instead, giving us only 1½ hours to sit and stare into space.

In the meantime, we double-checked our flight reservation email and the Google flight status – both still said our flight would leave at 6PM. Hmmm. And even though a *second* ticket agent assured us that our flight was supposed to leave at 7PM, we were suspicious, as our ticket clearly had a 5:15PM boarding time printed. Sure enough, our flight time had NOT changed – good thing we TRIPLE checked, otherwise we would have missed yet another international flight!

Waiting in the ticketing hall at EZE for 90 long, boring minutes before we are allowed to check-in for our *6PM* flight

Once we get through security and immigration, we rush to the executive lounge and camp out for a good 3 hours and gorge ourselves on free food, wine, and (best of all) INTERNET! We have been disconnected for over three weeks and we had a backlog of blog entries to upload and emails to catch up on. The time flew by and we barely got through half of our to-do list before our first flight of the day. We got another hour to work once we reached the lounge in the Santiago airport as well.

Food, wine and Wi-fi – Argentina is starting to redeem itself

Boozed up and ready to fly! Once we cross the Andes we are back in CHILE!

We finally got to Puerto Montt in the middle of the night. We found a shared shuttle van and booked seats for a cheap USD$15. It seemed like a great idea at first – our flight was the only one coming in at this hour, how many fellow passengers would we have? Unfortunately for us, the van filled up completely, and the first couple to get dropped off had booked some shady AirB&B lodge outside of the city. Neither they nor the driver knew exactly where it was, so we were driving aimlessly through a dark, sketchy residential area, looking for a house that was NOT marked as a hotel. We finally stop at the ONE house that still had lights on in the middle of the night (hey! Maybe that could have been a clue!), but there was some confusion about the couple’s reservation. They took all their bags out of the shuttle, only to put them back in – we started to drive away when the manager came running after us saying he had their reservation after all! WOULD YOU GUYS GET OUT OF THE FUCKING CAR ALREADY? It’s 2AM, there is *clearly* no other hotel on this block – that’s it!

Sorry for the F-bomb, guys, we get a bit cranky when we’re tired. We finally fell into bed around 2:30AM – any lingering feelings of comfort from the pampering we got on our cruise were looooong gone. Back to the real world, bitches.

January 11th, 2017

Day 288: Antarctic Cruise Day 24 – Montevideo

Our final day of our glorious, 24-day cruise around South America and Antarctica is finally at an end with our last port of call: Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguay is a small country, wedged in between Argentina and Brazil (originally founded in the late 1700’s to be a “buffer state” between the Spanish and Portuguese colonies to prevent land disputes between the two monarchies). While it may not be a big country, Uruguay has some interesting characteristics: second South American country to legalize gay marriage, the ONLY South American country to legalize pot, and one of the most economically stable countries (the only country that didn’t suffer from the 2008 Great Recession).

We had an excursion to some of the wineries outside of town booked for the afternoon, so we got off the ship early in the morning so we could walk around the capital and explore the city streets, plazas, and public beaches before meeting up with our tour bus.

Early morning walk through central Montevideo – the colonial-era European buildings contrast with the modern Latino streetart

Vegetable stands selling lots of greens…

…while coffee shops sell a different type of “green” (FYI – marijuana is legal in Uruguay)

Walking through the Old Port Marketplace, where the parillas are just getting fired up for the lunchtime rush

Independence Plaza – where a statue and mausoleum of José Artigas sits in front of the first “skyscraper” in South America (all of 22-stories high!)

Walking along the water to revisit Ramírez Beach, which we drove past the day before. The surf is too shallow for a decent swim, so Lindsay just dips her feet in the cold water

There is a skate park near the beach where several figure skaters are rehearsing their routines

It should come as little surprise that, like Chile and Argentina, Uruguay produces wine. It should come as a littler surprise that Lindsay wanted to go wine tasting while she was in Uruguay. Igor insisted we had great booze on the boat (for free!) so he was confused why Lindsay was dragging him on wine excursions but indulged her anyway. While the wine country is a mere 30min outside of town and would have been an easy daytrip to do on our own, neither of us wanted to be the designated driver, so we booked an excursion with the ship. “A Study in Contrasts,” was the theme of the 4½hr tour that took us to two very different wineries.

The first winery was a very small, family owned and operated bodega called Beretta Vineyards. Founded just over 100 years ago in 1913 by the great grandfather of the current CEO & winemaker. Their production is incredibly small – well under 100,000 cases. The wines were on the rustic side (nothing really to our taste), but the hacienda was pretty (although non-air conditioned), and the winemaker was extremely attentive, playing both guide and hostess as she poured our wines and served us cold cuts and cheese. In fact, we got the sense that she doesn’t get many visitors at the winery – she seemed to talk forever, going on and on about how to taste wine properly (in Spanish, which our tour guide then had to translate), when all we wanted was a drink already!

Our first winery is Beretta – a small, family-owned bodega

The CEO, Leticia Villalba, is the winemaker and our tour guide for the afternoon

The pretty hacienda is over 120 years old

While the winery purchases most of the grapes for their everyday line of wines, they have an “experimental vineyard” where they are testing new grapes with different terroirs, to find the perfect combination for their premium wines

Lindsay gets photobombed in the vineyard by Becky, a fellow cruiser

Tasting the range of wines from Beretta Vineyards – only available to order via the winery’s wine club

Lindsay tries to act professional as we swig wine in front of our new friends, Becky and Paris

Our second winery was Juanico Vineyards – one of the biggest and most “corporate” winery in Uruguay (although at 3million cases it’s still seems like a quiant Mom & Pop shop compared to Lindsay’s former employer, Concha y Toro @ 33.2million). Nontheless, its perfectly manicured grounds were beautiful and its romantically-dusty basement cellar was both spooky and charming. The best part, however, was the tasting. These wines were GOOD. Juanico produces a large variety of styles and price ranges, but we got a good cross section with our 5-wine selection: two whites, two reds and a late-harvest dessert wine. Lindsay was a big fan of the Chardonnay/Viognier blend (a crisp and aromatic white – a tad heavy on the alcohol content, but it still tasted very well-balanced), while Igor loved the Tannat (Uruguay’s signature grape – a bold red with a lot of dark fruits flavors, and a nice spiciness from the oak aging). If we were going directly home, we would have bought a couple bottles.

Descending into the cellar of Juanico Vineyards

Both French oak and American oak barrels sit quietly in rows in the winery cellar

The cellar is dark, cool and dry – perfect conditions for aging wines

Juanico wines are age-worthy – the winery cellar is full of dusty bottles of fine wines

Our tour guide leads us into the large, well-lit hospitality celler for a wine tasting

Once again raising a glass and breaking bread with our new friends, with some *really delicious* Uruguayan vinos

Unfortunately for us, the Don Pascual line is only available to purchase in Florida, but the entry-level Pueblo del Sol is sold in New York

Sigh…all great things must come to an end. We returned to the ship and reluctantly started to pack our bags (hiding our unopened bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte in our backpack) before our last supper. The evening was full of farewells (surprisingly, we made quite a few acquaintances on this trip) as we bumped into people doing laundry and visiting the bar for one last nightcap. This has been the cruise of a lifetime – while I’d love to say, “we’ll be back,” it’s unlikely that we are going to have the vacation time (or money!) to swing something this extravagant ever again. Sigh…we peaked too early.

We rush back to the ship to try and catch the last 15min of the matinee show – a local tango troupe! We’ve been dying to see some Argentine Tango, but sadly we only caught the final set of their performance.

We are fully carnivores again for our last Seabourn dinner: beef carpaccio and rare beef tenderloin. Moo.

Lindsay chugs a final glass of champagne as she makes use of the onboard laundromat. As we are about to start bumming it around South America, we probably won’t get a chance to wash our clothes again for a long time.

January 7th – 10th, 2017

Days 284 – 287: Antarctic Cruise Days 20 – 23: At Sea

The captain cut our time in Antarctica/South Georgia short by one day, as the weather forcast showed two big storms brewing in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. His plan was to book it as quickly as possible through one and try to catch a break of good weather inbetween the storms. “It’s going to be rough,” he warned over the PA. Sure enough, our first full day at sea was a doozy! We had to camp out in the common area at the back of the ship as our stateroom was bouncing up and down like crazy. When we returned to our room at the end of the night, we were a bit alarmed to see monster waves crashing over our balcony! Glad we didn’t pay extra for that balcony, as it would be a death trap to try and use it…

OK, these waves must be over 30ft high, since they are BREAKING OVER OUR 5^TH FLOOR BALCONY!

During our final four days at sea, we had a challenge to keep ourselves entertained. We got a lot of writing done, and finished a rough itinerary for our Patagonia road trip. Other than that, there wasn’t any “work” for us to do (nor Facebook to idle away the time!), so we attended more educational lectures (up to three per day), binge-watched Downton Abby, and ate lots of food out of boredom.

Going to Afternoon Tea (’cause, that’s what you do when you are at sea and need to fill the time) and listening to the ship’s cast of singers belt out showtunes

Once the storm dies down, we get some lovely sunny weather – perfect for hanging out on deck and watching the albatross circle the ship

Igor gazes into the distance as the albatross flies away

Indonesia-themed lunch! The kitchen staff are amused are how excited we are to get a fried egg on our Nasi Goerang

Lindsay breaks open a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from our minibar to “help her” research our upcoming road trip in Argentina

During our last full day at sea there is a formal farewell and applause for the ship’s staff. Well done, guys…now go make my dinner.

So, here’s a helpful hint for anyone considering a cruise with Seabourn: caviar is available ON DEMAND. Apparently everyone on board knew this rule, but we were lazy and didn’t read the info material given to us the first day, so we didn’t find out until the last week of the cruise. Good thing, too, otherwise they might have run out of caviar!

Igor takes full advantage of the unlimited caviar policy and gets his fill of delicate, delicious black sturgeon caviar every night for the rest of the trip.

Second food related tip for Seabourn: they will cook ANYTHING you request given 24hr notice. When we ask the restaurant manager, Damir, if we could make request, he gets out his notebook and welcomes us to order away.

“Can we have some cookie dough ice cream, please?” The manager’s face falls – he was hoping for a challenge.

“That’s it? You don’t want Crepes Suzette? Chocolate Soufflé? Cherries Flambé? How about a Baked Alaska?” Our ears perk up at the last one.

“Baked Alaska? Really?! OK, yes – we would like that!”

Damir also talked us into some insanely decadent caviar appetizers and warm chocolate ganache cake on top of that. If that had been our last meal, we could have died happy.

Baked Alaska, made JUST FOR US. Thank you, Damir!

Our final day at sea ended with a sunny patio-party as we sailed into port at Montevideo, Uruguay, one day ahead of schedule. While it was nice to get off the boat, we were starting to get depressed – our fabulous cruise was ending! The endless champagne, the delicious food, the comfortable beds – our luxurious hotel would float away without us in less than 48 hours, and we would be back to being bums in South America! The only logical response to this horrible state of affairs, was to indulge in as much debauchery as we could while it lasted!

Afternoon patio party with desserts from around the world – Wanna wash down some Anna Pavlova from Australia with a frosty can of Fosters?

Norwegian pudding (with a Viking hotel director!) and caramelized crème brulee from France

The party starts to come to an end as we see land ahead and a pilot boat arrives to guide us into port – we’ve reached Uruguay!

We decide to save our sight-seeing for tomorrow, but we do get off the ship as we have a few errands to run, so we catch an amazing sunset as our taxi drives past the beach

Watching some of our new friends dance the night away on our last carefree evening on the Quest

Lindsay and Igor joining in the party

While Lindsay & Igor turned a few heads with their ballroom dance moves, no one could match this guy for enthusiasm!

January 6th, 2017

Day 283: Antarctica Cruise Day 19 – Salisbury Plain

Our final stop in South Georgia was Salisbury Plain – a large, flat beach at the base of the Grace and Lucas Galciers. The flat ground and easy access to freshwater from the glacial melt made it the perfect location for nesting King Penguins. Here was where we finally saw illustration of the dense concentration of wildlife on South Georgia: the beach was home to over 250,000 moulting and nesting King Penguins – you could not step one foot in front of the other without bumping into a bird! And that’s not all – the beach was also populated with several hundred fur seals who established their mating “harems” within a few meters of each other.

Unfortunately, the weather did not hold out for our last day in South Georgia – it was windy and lightly snowing, which was just enough to make the swells a little too big for the zodiacs to land on the beach. We could only observe this bountiful display of nature from afar. Too bad we had to end our adventure on a low note, but that’s the Antarctica for you: nothing is ever guaranteed.

Cold weather and swelly conditions at the beach on Salisbury Plain make it too rough for the captain to allow us to land onshore, so our visit is limited to a zodiac tour

The plain is LITERALLY covered with penguins. With over 50,000 nesting pairs, Salisbury is the *second* largest King Penguin rookery on the island. Apparently St. Andrews Bay, further south on the island, has a whooping 300,000 pairs! As impressive as that may sound, King Penguins aren’t even the most abundant penguin on South Georgia – the real “king” of the island is the Macaroni Penguin. With the island boasting over 5 MILLION nesting pairs, it’s pretty shocking that we didn’t even see one.

Fur Seals coexist peacefully with the King Penguins. The dominant males each establish a territory on the beach and will claim the right to mate with any females who camp out on their property, thus making himself a harem. Younger males will have to go further inland where they will probably wait disappointed, as few of the females will bother to leave the beachfront locations.

All the other penguin chicks we have seen until now were really cute. But King Penguin chicks just look awkward – talk about an ugly duckling! Their puffy brown feathers look like an comfortable winter coat even when it’s dry, but the poor things look exceptionally gross when they get too close to the surf.

King Penguin chicks take about a year to mature, so many of last year’s babies are finally finishing their “awkward teenager” phase and are moulting into their adult feathers.

The Expedition Team spotted a Leopard Seal lurking near the beach earlier in the morning, so the penguins are probably wary of predators. We see groups of them congregating on the beach before taking the plunge together – safety in numbers!

January 5th, 2017

Day 282: Antarctica Cruise Day 18 – Grytviken

Our second day in South Georgia proved to be the best, which was a stroke of luck for us as we had booked a kayak tour for this morning, and it ended up being the only day that wasn’t cancelled due to weather. However, we were initially disappointed when we found out our tour location was at Grytviken – the island’s first whaling station, now little more than a collection of rotting buildings, rusted tanks, and a tiny museum. This was more of a “place of historical interest,” not a wildlife hotspot, so we were concerned that the kayaking would hold little interest for us.

Turns out, we needn’t have worried – South Georgia is so jam-packed with wildlife that it’s hard to walk anywhere without tripping over a seal or penguin. Since we would be exploring the “town” of Grytviken by foot later in the day, our kayak tour took us along the coast in the opposite direction. As we paddled through dense kelp forests, we were surrounded by curious fur seals who would porpoise alongside us, and occasionally come up and sniff our paddles. (They weren’t quite as bold as the fur seals we kayaked with in South Africa, though.) While Igor took dozens of great shots of the seal colonies sleeping on the wild, uninhabited beaches, and great big bulls posing on rocks, we unfortunately discovered halfway through the tour that the good camera didn’t have a memory card in it! (Blame Lindsay – she forgot to replace it the night before.) At least we still had the GoPro!

After three days confined to the ship, we are so excited to set foot on land in Grytviken, South Georgia

While it might be more of a historical site, the island is just teeming with wildlife – a curious seal swims around our zodiac as we try to launch our kayaks, and a tiny black seal pup sleeps next to the rusted hull of a grounded whaler

Kayaking in South Georgia, surrounded by playful fur seals

Igor entices a brave fur seal to come visit us by gently tapping his paddle on the surface – the little guy couldn’t resist a sniff!

After our kayaking tour, we sat around the ship anxiously for about an hour until the next group got clearance to visit the shore. We made sure our camera was properly set-up with an empty memory card this time, and we headed back to Grytviken. While there were a lot of historical sights to explore (which we eventually did), we were entranced by the sheer number of animals loitering all over the beach – Igor quickly made up for all the lost shots from the morning kayak trip.

South Georgia has a population of about 3 million fur seals – so even though this beach isn’t a “hotspot”, the moment we step out of the zodiac, we are surrounded by fur seals

“You takin’ a picture of me? OK, make sure you get my good side.” This guy was really hamming it up for the camera! He is so cute – don’t you just want to put a beachball on his nose? J

The Antarctic Fur Seal is very different from the seals we’ve seen down in the Peninsula. Unlike the fatty Elephant, Weddell and Crabeater Seals, who keep warm from their thick layer of blubber, Fur Seals depend on their thick, two-layer fur coat to insulate them from the chilly Antarctic waters. They are also more mobile, as they can walk on all four flippers like a sea lion, whereas the “blubber seals” can only slither along, slug-like on their stomachs

Fur seals are more mobile, more active, and more aggressive than the all the other “blubber seals” we’ve seen so far, so it’s even more important to maintain the IAATO 5m distance to make sure we don’t get bit! The Expedition Team warns us not to run if a seal approaches us, as they will chase us like dogs. Instead, we are supposed to stand our ground and clap our hands, and the seals will back off. Both Lindsay and Igor had juvenile fur seals charge us – we each channeled our inner Cesar Milan and shouted, “NO! BAD SEAL!” Totally worked. #sealwhisperer

As we watch the napping seals, we notice other seals will boldly walk up and bully them out of their beds, claiming the comfiest patches of grass for themselves. The fur seals always need to be aware of their surroundings – this guy is literally sleeping with one eye open.

Prepare to have your cold heart melted by the most *adorable* seal puppies imaginable! Our timing was impeccable, as fur seals start giving birth in December, so the beaches of South Georgia were full of tiny, mewing black puppies. Unlike the blubber seals (who feed their young using their reserves of fat), the fur seal moms have to keep feeding themselves to produce enough milk to nurse their babies. As a result, the pups are left by themselves most of the day, so we were able to get really close to these precious little guys

While most of the pups were pretty shy, these guys seemed to gather enough courage between the two them to crawl up to Lindsay and Igor. The first pup gets right up to the GoPro and looks like he is about to bite it, when his friend decides to climb over him in order to sniff Igor’s knee! Igor finally had to stand up to avoid touching the little guy (although the temptation to pet him was almost overwhelming)

King Penguins! This colorful guy is the penguin we have been dying to see. While they look similar to the Emperor Penguins that exclusively breed on the Antarctic continent during the winter, the Kings nest in the more hospitable South Georgia Island thoughout the summer. We spot about a dozen King Penguins around Grytviken today, but none of them are breeding – these guys are just molting

These molting King Penguins look so uncomfortable – poor guys

This fur seal is jealous of the penguins stealing his spotlight! #photobomb

A handful of young Elephant Seals haul out into the grass to nap amongst the fur seals

While we could have spent all day with the animals, the main draw in Grytviken was, of course, the history. Our tour of the town started at the eastern edge of the beach, in front of the Whalers Cemetery – a small fenced-in plot of land with a couple dozen headstones. Most were low-ranking sailors, but they share their eternal resting ground with one of Antarctica’s biggest celebrities: British explorer Ernest Shackleton. Although Shackleton survived the 800 mile, 16-day crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean to South Georgia in nothing but a lifeboat during his rescue mission back in 1916, he died 6 years later on the same island from a heart attack (an anti-climactic ending for the intrepid adventurer). Today – January 5^th – was the 95^th anniversary of Shackleton’s death day. No doubt the history buffs (including our ship’s captain) were geeking out over the fortuitous timing.

Shackleton’s Grave (left), where explorer Ernest Shackleton was laid to rest exactly 95 years ago today. While his body was en route back to England, his widow decided that he should remain in Antarctica, where he spent so much of his life exploring. The pretty, white picket fence surrounding the graves were installed later to prevent molting elephant seals from scratching themselves on the headstones.

The Whalers Church in Grytviken – erected in 1913 with the best of intentions, this pretty building was soon the most under-utilized place in town. The station manager of Grytviken finally sent the minister back to Norway and used the church for more popular purposes – like storing potatoes and playing movies

We walked to the western end of Grytviken to meet up with the museum’s walking tour of the whaling station. Grytviken was the first whaling station in South Georgia, set up by an Argentinean-backed Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen in 1904. When Larsen first scouted out the location two years before, he told tales of literally hundreds of whales swimming in the protected Cumberland Bay, where Grytviken is located. Today, the curator of the museum told us that no one has seen a whale in the bay for decades. It was pretty depressing to hear the numbers of whales slaughtered in such a short period of time. By the time Grytviken finally closed shop in 1965, a total of 175,250 whales (Blue, Fin, Humpback, Sei and Sperm) had been “processed” – their blubber, meat and bones boiled down to extract oil used for just about everything from cosmetics and candles to fertilizer and tanning products. Igor felt like he was walking through an animal Holocaust – of all the species that were hunted to near extinction, only the Humpback has rebounded enough to be removed from the Endangered Species List.

The whaling industry in South Georia came to an end in 1965, when synthetic alternative to whale oil made the hunting unprofitable. As the first and last whaling station in operation, Grytviken is now home to the South Georgia Museum as well as a large scientific research center (not open to tourists)

We explore the open-air museum, where nature is slowly breaking down the rusted remains of the processing plant and blubber boilers. Of the six original whaling stations, Grytviken is the only one open to visitors, as the rest are deemed unsafe due to asbestos in the buildings (the government of South Georgia went to the expense of removing the asbestos from Grytviken order to maintain the historic site)

The derelict mains of the “Petrel” – a circa 1920s whale-catcher. It was small but fast, which allowed the hunters to effectively hunt down their prey. When they succeeded in killing a whale, instead of returning to the station, they would fill the lungs with air, stick a flag on the carcass and leave it floating in the water to pick up later. The Petrel had the ability to drag up to 14 dead whales at a time.

Part of the motivation for the unchecked exploitation of the whales, was that the whalers wanted to make as much money as they could as quickly as possible, so they wouldn’t have to ever come back to South Georgia. The island is 800miles from the nearest continent – talk about remote! During the summers, the population of Grytviken would swell to about 500 men, who would work 12 hours a day, live in cramped dormitories (if they were lucky, they got the one with an indoor shower), and had NO BOOZE (Larsen wanted everyone to be sharp and ready to work, so he banned alcohol on the station). In the winter, a maintainance staff of about 90 remained – mostly to brush snow off the roofs of the buildings so they didn’t collapse under the weight. Given these conditions, Movie Night was probably the most exciting entertainment around. The men would watch the same 15 films over and over again (especially if there was a pretty girl in one of them…)

Whaling artifacts from the Grytviken Museum. The oil was sold in different grades for different purposes (higher quality for cosmetics and food, lesser quality for fertilizers and industrial use). By the 1960s, the majority of the Norwegian whaling companies agreed that hunting whales in South Georgia was no longer profitable and started to close shop. The Japanese leased the facilities at Grytviken for the final season to hunt whales for meat instead of oil, but (thankfully!) also failed to make enough money to continue the venture.

And just because I don’t want to finish this blog post on a depressing note, check out this random King Penguin who was just chillin’ on the ground next to our return zodiac!

I’m lazy and I don’t feel like getting up.

January 2nd – 4th, 2017

Days 279 – 281: Antarctica Cruise Days 15 – 17: Journey to South Georgia

While our original itinerary gave us 6 days in Antarctica, everything was weather dependent down here. Our captain could see that our stretch of good luck was running out and we would likely run into storms both in South Georgia and during or return voyage across the South Atlantic Ocean. As a result, he pulled the plug on our last day, intending to book it to South Georgia as quickly as possible – hopefully the extra time would give us more opportunity to take advantage of small breaks in the weather.

The next two days at sea were pretty uneventful – we had lots of time to catch up on pictures and the blog, as well as attend our fill of educational lectures (Lindsay fell asleep during every single one – not because of the content, but because of the dark room and the constant rocking of the ship). We also had to undergo a second Bio-Security check the day before we arrived at South Georgia – since this sub-Antarctic island was under the jurisdiction of the British crown, we had government officials watching us carefully to make sure we followed IAATO guidelines to the letter. Other than that, there wasn’t much to do each day expect look forward to our next decadent meal.

Getting up at 4AM to catch our last glimpse of Antarctica as we sail past Elephant Island and Clarence Island

A small group of passengers huddle in the Observatory Bar as we sail by Elephant Island to listen to the historical significant of this windswept and desolate rocky island. In 1915, British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 had to abandon their ship “Endurance” after it was crushed by ice floes. They survived for 5 months on pack ice, waiting for the water to thaw enough for them to escape using their three lifeboats. Shackleton got as far as Elephant Island, and left 22 members of the crew behind while he and five others took the last lifeboat and somehow managed to navigate 800 miles of open sea using nothing but a sexton to find help on South Georgia. Meanwhile, the party on Elephant Island survived another 135 days (in the winter!) with nothing but two overturned lifeboats for shelter. Miraculously, everyone from the expedition was rescued.

The historically unimportant – but very pretty! – Cornwallis Island

Weather conditions are not nice outside – apparently it was snowing, but the wind was blowing so hard we couldn’t tell

A special 6-course Chef’s Menu is the highlight of our day!

Three courses and counting! Cheers!

Avocado Tartar (AKA guacamole), Beef Consume (dumpling soup), and a delicious piece of chocolate ganache (which, let’s be honest, looks like a piece of poo) – while everything tasted really good, sometimes this ship is insufferably pretentious)

We hear that one of the guest performers missed the ship back in Ushuaia (no idea who it was supposed to be), so our entertainment got a little dull after a while (too many movie-nights and lounge singers) – we decided to break up the monotony a bit with some board games and a night cap in front of the snow-covered window at the piano bar

Although South Georgia is 800 miles away from the continent and sits above 60⁰S latitude, it is considered a “sub-Antarctic island” because it is located below the Antarctic Convergence, and as such, is surrounded by the same icy waters as the Peninsula. Many of the same animals we saw around the continent – penguins, seals, and whales – migrate back and forth to South Georgia to feed and/or breed. While the water remains just as cold, the warmer air temperature allows for a greater variety of plant life and flowing freshwater on land – factors that help make South Georgia one of the most prolific locations for wildlife in the world, rivalling even the Galapagos Island for density of animal population.

After two days at sea, we finally arrived at the southern tip of South Georgia in the late morning, a good three hours behind schedule due to the previous night’s snowstorm. It was cloudy and windy, and the waters were pretty rough, so the captain decided to limit the day’s activities to scenic cruising of the relatively protected Drygalski Fjord. The weather started to clear up enough for one group of guests to get approval for a zodiac tour around the shore, but as we had the last time slot of the day, we didn’t hold out much hope of getting off the boat. Keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow!

As we approach the island of South Georgia, we can barely make out the tops of the mountains through the foggy clouds

About half of the landmass of South Georgia is covered by glaciers and snow – that sounds like a lot, but it’s a tropical paradise compared to Antarctica, where 97% of the continent is hidden!

Scenic cruising in the Drygalski Fjord – a protected channel of water at the southern tip of the crescent-shaped island

An Antarctic Tern flits above the deck of the ship, hunting for fish and krill in the icy waters below

The clouds lift just enough to brighten up the snow-covered hillsides

South Georgia is notorious for bad weather, and only gets an average of 1,000 hours of sunshine per year

We watch jealously as the first (and only!) group bounces through the icy water on a zodiac tour. While the conditions aren’t that bad once you are on the zodiac, the swells next to the ship made loading and off-loading too dangerous for the captain to let the tours proceed. After all, there are a lot of frail, elderly guests on this ship – last thing they need is for someone to break a hip…

The water immediately surrounding the island is pale blue, compared to the darker water in the Atlantic Ocean, thanks to the icemelt coming down from the glaciers. Since freshwater is lighter than saltwater, the glacial water “floats” on top of the seawater