Category: Chile

Day 271: Antarctic Cruise Day 7 – Punta Arenas

Merry Christmas! It may technically be summer down here, but we still had to bundle up in our jackets and hats for our port of call visit to Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas is the southernmost “city” in Chile (there are still a few more villages, etc. in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago). This was actually our second visit to Punta Arenas as this was the base for our trip to Torres del Paine National Park when we first visited Chile two years ago. As such, most of the tours the cruise ship offered (a daytrip to Magdalena Island to see the Magellanic Penguins, even an 11-hr excursion via plane to see Torres del Paine @ USD$1,209pp) we had already done. Since most shops and museums were closed for Christmas Day, there wasn’t much for us to visit independently – we just took the ship’s free shuttle into town and slowly walked our way back to the pier, exploring the city on foot.

 

We are on our own again in Punta Arenas – luckily the municipal tourist information center in open on Christmas Day, and we are able to pick up a map and get a list of the open museums

 

A statue of Magellan in the main plaza – legend has it that rubbing (or making out) with the foot of the Indian will bring you back to this part of the world again and again. Whatever – we didn’t touch any nasty foot the last time we were here, and – BOOM! – here we are, back again!

 

We walk up the hill to the mirador (viewpoint), and share the view with a kitty in the window

 

Have I mentioned that Chilean street dogs are the BEST?! We came across so many sweethearts today – we named the black one on the left “Christmas” and the German Shepard on the right is now “Hanukkah”

 

Christmas (the dog) escorts us to the Catholic church

 

As we walk across town, we pass by the Sara Braun Cemetery

 

The cemetery is full of a range of gravesites – elaborate tombstones, economic coffin lockers, and grand family mausoleums – and no two are alike! Someone around his making bank as a tombstone designer.

 

The back of the cemetary has several buildings full of “coffin lockers” – we notice one is open, waiting for a new resident

 

Since it is Christmas Day, most places are closed and the streets are empty, so we don’t have much left to do in Punta Arenas, other than walk 7KM across town back to the ship. We have nice weather, and we pick up another doggie friend on the way (we decided to stay with the holiday theme of the day, and named this one “Ramadan”)

 

What a Christmas treat – we get TWO shows tonight! A matinee guitar performance from our salty Latino singer, Nestor Santorio, and after dinner comedy & MAGIC from magician John Lenahan (photo from Google Images)

 

Even though it’s formal night, Igor’s foot STILL isn’t recovered enough for him to wear stiff dress shoes. We are willing to exile ourselves and have room service for dinner, but take a chance and call the hostess to see if they will give Igor a pass in the restaurant (I mean, come on! It’s Christmas!). Even with the ponytail, sneakers, and bikini-topped dress, they still let us in!

 

Christmas Dinner and beef tenderloin is on the menu – Igor finally caves, and breaks his vegetarian streak. And it was really, fucking GOOD. #sorrynotsorry

 

Pulling our Christmas crackers – Happy Holidays, everyone!

Days 269 – 270: Antarctic Cruise Days 5 & 6 – Cruising the Chilean Fiords

While the next two days were “at sea” days – meaning we didn’t stop on land – our route actually had us hugging the coast as we sailed through the fiords of Southern Chile. The scenery was breathing, and since we were close to land, the ship didn’t pitch up and down like it did our first day at sea (so no seasickness – yay!). Our cruise director kept us pretty busy with educational talks by the 20-odd naturalists on the Expedition Team and performances by the guest entertainers and staff, although we also had plenty of time to catch up on the blog and even hit the gym! (After our Africa trip, we know the dangers of endless buffets – we need to fit into our clothes at the end of this cruise!)

 

It’s two days before Christmas, and the ship has been decked out with gingerbread houses, trees and chocolate! Squeeee!!!!

 

Pancakes for breakfast, with REAL maple syrup

 

Igor braves the cool, windy weather on the front deck to join the naturalist team looking for wildlife. He sees lots of seabirds, including a huge albatross

 

After a couple hours of staring at an empty ocean, the naturalists and other guests get a bit bored, and start chatting. As a result, Igor is the only one on deck still scanning the horizon when he thinks he sees a whale spout…sure enough, when he raises his zoom lens he sees a POD of killer whales! “Uh, guys…I think there are some whales over there…” All the scientists immediately whip their heads around and lean over the railing looking for the orcas – even though they radio the captain to STOP THE SHIP, we are unfortunately already past them. Igor was the ONLY one to get a picture of whales that day!

 

Cruising through the Chilean fiords – since our cabin is on the port side of the ship, we always have a view of the shore when we are near land

 

Sitting down for another decadent dinner, Lindsay spots a familiar bottle of wine in the sommelier’s hand! In fact, she has to give mad props to her former colleagues on the Banfi/Excelsior National Accounts Team – both the Italian and Chilean sides of the portfolio are well represented – cheers!

Day 2 on our journey through the Chilean fiords, we start to see snow-capped mountains

 

Lindsay goes up on deck to admire the stunning, Patagonia scenery

 

Igor (in his hippie-pants!) in front of the Bruja Glacier – our first glacier of the trip!

 

Dramatically stormy clouds and spooky mist add atmosphere to the already stunning scenic cruising

 

The Wreck of the Leonora in the Smyth Channel

 

After two days of scenic cruise through the unpopulated lands of the Chilean fiords, we finally see some signs of civilization during the “golden hour”

 

The ships entertainment staff put together an impromptu Christmas Eve show, where each performer belts out their favorite carol while waiting for “Santa” to arrive, and gulping down real glasses of Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne in between numbers

Unfortunately, we *just missed* the sunset by the time we went up to the Observation Bar after the show

Clouds rolling in on Christmas Eve night as we sail toward the tip of South America

 

Early presents! Every night our cabin stewardess, Kasandra, leaves us a wee gift (fancy soap, a booklet on Antarctic wildlife, etc.), but today our haul is extra special! A glass wine stopper and a plate of chocolate treats! FYI – those cookies were in Lindsay belly before the lights went out

Day 268: Antarctic Cruise Day 4 – Chiloé

We considered renting another car during our second port of call – the city of Castro on the island of Chiloé. However, even though the island is pretty small (only 120 miles from top to bottom) and has only one main road making it nearly impossible to get lost, we were starting to realize how stupid we were to rent a car the day before – if we had gotten into an accident, even a fender-bender where someone else was at fault!, we could have easily been delayed by police reports and missed the boat! How heartbreaking would it be to miss our ride to Antarctica, just to save a bucks on an excursion! So, we decided to play it safe, and explore the area on foot, staying a comfortable distance from our ship.

Walking around Castro was a pleasant way to spend the day – the city is particularly famous for its brightly colored buildings. “Palafitos” – the wooden houses on stilts that sit above the water – are the most iconic landmarks. The island also has over 150 wooden churches (originally built in the 1600s by the Spanish shipbuilders who colonized the area), 16 of which are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

An early morning arrival in to the island of Chiloé

 

Our ship anchors off shore of the capital city, Castro

 

Riding the tender into port

 

Chiloé is one of the major fishing hubs along the Chilean coast and the harbor is full of colorful boats

 

Walking through the streets of Castro at 8AM – no one is up yet, so the streets are deserted, except for the vigilant neighborhood dogs

 

Once again, we forgo an organized tour and decide to explore Castro alone, on foot. Once the municipal tour office opens for the day, we pick up a free city map and wander around, snapping pics of the famous wooden church, La Iglesia de San Francisco – one of 16 UNESCO churches on the island

 

Passing plenty of “street art” during our walk around Castro

 

Literally, soaking up the local color of Chiloé

 

Castro is full of color – from the beautiful flowers in blossom to the stunning waterfront houses

The palafitos of Castro – these colorful wooden houses on stilts are the most iconic sights on the islands, and one of the main tourist draws

Admiring more gorgeous palafitos in the Pedro Montt neighborhood in Castro

  

Chilean streets dogs are the BEST! Even though NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO THIS, we have totally been petting the stray dogs in almost every country we have visited. While the dogs in Southeast Asia were cute they were often very skittish. But the dogs in South America? Absolute love-bugs. This guy (we named him Fidel from Castro) put his paws on Lindsay’s lap when she stopped petting him – apparently he wasn’t done with his daily dose of affection

Day 267: Antarctic Cruise Day 3 – Puerto Montt

Today was our first port of call: Puerto Montt, Chile! While technically in the Lake District of Chile, this area is on the border of Chilean Patagonia (we saw many hotels and shops calling themselves “Patagonia-this” and “Patagonia-that,” in order to attract tourists). We had originally booked a trekking tour with the cruise ship for today, but had to cancel it as Igor’s toe still hadn’t recovered enough for him to wear boots. We needed to keep our activities for the day sandal-friendly, so we decided to just explore the area on our own.

We also had a few errands to run: after several days of trying to organize a 4×4 car rental in Argentina for our upcoming road trip down Route 40, Igor got so frustrated with the lack of information, high costs and ridiculous insurance policies of Argentinean companies that he decided it would be easier to rent a car in Chile. Instead of driving down from Buenos Aires in a manual RV, we would now be returning to Puerto Montt and picking up a fully insured automatic 4×4 and driving it over the border into Argentina! (Ugh! We didn’t need to take a driving lesson after all!) The rental agency needed a copy of our driver’s licenses and passports for the border permit, so we decided to walk over and take care of the paperwork in person.

While we were at the rental agency, we decided to see if they had any cars available for the day – turns out the agency across the street not only had plenty of sedans free, they also had one with a manual transmission! Even though we were no longer limited to a manual car for our road trip, we decided to take one for a test drive anyways, just to see how difficult it would be for us – after all, it would be pretty cool to come back from this year-long trip with a new skill. We survived the day driving a stick shift (and even more importantly, so did the rental car!), but it got really stressful at the end of the day when rush hour traffic and fatigue set in – maybe we’ll stick with the automatic after all…

 

The clouds part as we come up to the shores of Puerto Montt

 

Catching a tender to shore

 

Chilean customs are very strict about bringing in foreign foods, so even though we just came from a Chilean port, we are not allowed to bring any snacks or a packed lunch off the boat – looks like we are skipping lunch again!

 

Walking across the downtown area of Puerto Montt

 

Instead of paying for an overpriced tour and sitting in a minibus with several dozen cruisers, we decide to rent a car and explore the area ourselves. We asked if the rental agency had any manual transmission vehicles so we could continue to practice the stick-shift skills we acquired in Bangkok…we decided to treat today as a dress rehearhsal for our Argentinean road trip next month

 

It’s a beautiful day for a Patagonian road trip! We get an almost clear shot of Volcan Osorno as we drive around Lake Llanquihue

 

When we stop for a photo op of Volcan Osorno, we notice a llama farm across the street – that’s what so great about independent travel, if you want to get out and feed the llamas, you can!

 

These llamas are so cute! They totally distract us from the yawning doggie in the background – poor guy…

Our ship was docked at Puerto Montt for a good 10 hours, so we had plenty of time to drive around and explore the area. The tour we were originally supposed to go on included a visit to the Petrohue Rapids – when we looked at the driving time, it turned out the park was only an hour away, so we decided to head over there on our own. We took it easy, exploring all the flat walking trails, so that Igor’s foot could continue to recover. Afterwards, we still had several hours before we needed to be back on the ship, so we decided to take the long way back to Puerto Montt, circumnavigating Lake Llanquihue and passing through the scenic towns of Frutillar and Puerto Varas.

 

When we get to the Petrohue Rapids, we find the park overrun with bright orange Seabourn jackets – we caught up with the USD $184/pp cruise tour! Gotta admit, we’re patting ourselves on the back for finding a much cheaper alternative to the organized tour

 

The Petrohue Rapids in Puerto Montt Chile – the crystal clear, bright blue waters remind us so much of the Hokitika Gorge in the South Island of New Zealand

 

Igor admires the raw beauty of nature

 

“Lover’s Creek” – a calm, quiet little pool of water along the forest path

 

Lindsay is spellbound by the abundant moss growing on the trees in the forest

 

A clear, sunny view of Lake Llanquihue, framed by wildflowers

 

The sunshine can disappear at any time in Patagonia – as we continue our way around the lake, it starts to rain

 

The GPS on Igor’s phone has been on the fritz ever since we arrived in Chile (for some reason it keeps thinking we are in St. Petersburg, RUSSIA?!? Is this Putin’s doing?!?!), so we are trying to navigate ourselves the old fashioned way: looking at road signs and a paper map! We misjudge the distance and end up taking a gravel road detour. Luckily, it’s impossible for us to get truly lost (as long as we keep the lake on our left hand side, we’ll eventually make our way back to the road to Puerto Montt), so we decide to drive slow and enjoy the scenic route

 

Exploring the Lake Llanquihue area via self drive

 

We stop in Frutillar for a short walk along the lake front – on a clear day there is a spectacular view of Volcan Osorno on the other side of the lake, but the rain storm we passed through during our drive has now reached the mountain and blocked the view

 

We have about an hour left before we need to get back on the ship, but we foolishly decide to make a quick stop in the pretty town of Puerto Varas on our way back – there is a beautiful red and white church, Iglesia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, that we want to try and see. We’re only 20min away from Puerto Montt after all, and we see lots of orange-clad cruisers walking around the street, so we know we won’t miss the ship. Unfortunately, rush hour traffic has started to clog the streets by this time, and poor Igor is so tired he is forgetting how to shift gears. After we get lost and stall the engine about half a dozen times, we decide a close-up of the church isn’t worth the trouble

 

Catching our tender back to The Quest

Once we were back on the ship, we hurried over to the theater to catch the matinee show before getting ready for another excellent dinner at the ship’s white-tablecloth restaurant. Bon appetite!

 

A Chilean dance troop comes onboard to demonstrate several versions of Chile’s national dance: the cueca

 

The performers wrap up the show by inviting guests to dance the waltz – even though Igor’s foot is still recovering and he has to wear flip flops, we can’t resist getting on the dance floor!

 

When we return to our room, we discover we have a visitor on our balcony! Luckily she doesn’t seem too badly injured (looks like she might have flown into the side of the ship), and she wobbles away after resting for a few minutes. We’re still at port, so there are no worries about her getting safely back to land, but we learn later that “bird strikes” will become a big ecological concern as we start to head out into open waters – apparently birds can get confused by the ship’s lights on stormy nights and can get stranded at sea if they accidently land on the boat and get carried out into the Drake Passage

 

Whew! It’s getting windy! Igor nearly gets blown over as we walk arcoss deck on our way to dinner

 

Lindsay finally breaks her vegetarian streak as DUCK is on the menu tonight! Igor remains pescatarian…for now..

Days 265 – 266: Antarctic Cruise Days 1 & 2 – Valpariso & Sea Cruising

Today we embarked on the most ridiculously extravagant portion of our-long trip: a 24-day luxury cruise from Chile to Antarctica to Argentina! I mean, we knew a grown-up gap year was a financially stupid idea to begin with, but no amount of YOLO-ing can justify this expenditure. We acknowledge that we are incredibly blessed to be able to afford this, and we can only hope that we are still young enough to replenish our retirement savings. J

Navigating Santiago’s metro system and bus terminal was a breeze, so we arrived in the coastal city of Valpariso a good hour before the ship started boarding. The only down side was we couldn’t really ditch our luggage and explore the city – Lindsay had the lucky chance to visit once before during a business trip, but poor Igor missed out on the artsy, bohemian charm of Valpariso’s San Franciscan hilly streets and graffiti-covered buildings. However, his disappointment was soon forgotten once we were onboard and served glass after glass after glass of complimentary champagne.

 

Catching a bus from the Pajaritos metro station in Santiago to Valpariso

 

We are among the first passengers to check-in and board the ship

 

Let the endless food and booze begin!!! We enjoy the first of MANY buffet lunches on the deck of the Seabourn Quest, with a view of the Valpariso harbor

 

When we enter our suite, we find a complimentary bottle of champagne…not only is it *true* champagne, it is Nicolas Feuillatte – THE SAME CHAMPAGNE WE SERVED AT OUR WEDDING. This is the HOUSE CHAMPAGNE on board the ship.

 

Trying on our bright orange parkas – stylin’!

 

Sailing away from Valpariso and heading south

Our first full day onboard the Quest was an at-sea day, which gave us plenty of time to explore the ship. While we’d both been on cruise ships before, the Quest was the smallest ship we’ve sailed. On our previous trips we’ve always booked interior staterooms (just a bedroom and bathroom – no windows) as those are the least expensive and we don’t plan to spend much time in our room anyways. The Quest, however, wasn’t big enough for interior rooms – all the rooms had either windows or balconies. As if that wasn’t exciting enough for us, turns out the Quest also doesn’t do basic bedrooms – all guest cabins are suites, and when we were booking, there was just enough vacancy that Seabourne offered to upgrade us from a window to a veranda at no extra cost.

The only downside to our lovely, spacious room, was the location. As we knew from our ferry experiences in Thailand, the top and front of a boat are the rockiest locations when passing through choppy waters – if one is prone to seasickness, the bottom and rear of the boat is the steadiest place to be. Since we got a “free” upgrade, our cabin was #502 – right at the very front of the ship. And boy!, once we got into open waters we could *feel* it! On previous cruises, the rocking of the boat as we went to bed was always gentle and soothing – like laying down in a hammock or a train ride – and lulled us right to sleep. During our first night on the Quest, however, the bow of the ship would sometimes pitch up and down so much our bodies would lift off the matress and catch a little air before thunking down! And this is only 30KM off shore! We were more than a little worried what the conditions would be like a week from now, when we sail through the Drake Passage – “the most turblent waters on earth”! Good thing we stocked up on Dramamine in Thailand…

While we couldn’t stomach sitting in our cabin for long periods of the day, the majority of the public areas on the ship are located in the aft (smart move!), so we spent the day attending presentations on the ports of call, the history of Chilean Patagonia, and an introduction to photography, as well as an intro to playing Bridge and a visit to the ship’s Bridge – you’d think days at sea would be very lazy, but we were kept surprisingly busy!

 

We wake up to a foggy, cloudy day for our first all-day at sea

 

Exploring the ship, and attending info seminars on the upcoming ports of call

 

A small tour visiting the bridge

 

Checking out the ship’s autopilot (we’re 30KM off shore, so…nothing really the bump into out here), and the captain’s whale-spotting cheat-sheet

That evening, we had our first formal night – after 6PM, jeans are banned in all public areas of the ship, and men are required to wear a jacket to dinner. It’s so fun to people watch on these nights – some ladies get really decked out with prom-like formal dresses, covered in sequins, and even the men can get rather flamboyant (although nothing will ever top the pimpin’ red suit and top hat we saw a guy sporting on a Carnival Caribbean cruise a few years back!). We, however, were pushing the envelope on what could be considered “formal” – does a dark blue suit count as “black tie”? And will anyone notice that Lindsay is wearing sandals and a bikini top instead of a bra under her backless bargain-store black dress?

 

Our first formal night! Igor sports his new suit and used shoes (unfortunately, they aggravate his injured toe – poor guy!), while Lindsay gets dolled up in her USD $10 Bangkok dress and Indian pashmina – bring on the wine, bubbles and caviar, baby!

Days 262 – 264: Bangkok to Santiago

Getting from southeast Asia to Chile is a BITCH. We could not find a single nonstop flight from Bangkok to Santiago. Our final itinerary was a whopping 4-city marathon: Bangkok to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to NYC, NYC to Lima, and finally Lima to Santiago. We left at 8:30AM local time and arrived at 1:30PM local time the next day – all told, it was 40 hours from first take-off to final landing, crossing 11 time zones! The Premier Pass gained us access to two airport lounges, unfortunately, both were at the very beginning of the journey, so we weren’t that tired yet. Sadly, we were in the wrong terminal in JFK and we weren’t allowed off the plane in Lima, so we were absolutely exhausted when we finally arrived in Santiago.

 

Getting ready for the longest flight of our lives. Lindsay is going to need A LOT of coffee

 

The first of many breakfasts in the Bangkok Executive Lounge

 

Lunch in the Executive Lounge in Hong Kong

 

Igor’s parents come all the way out to the airport just to see us for 15min as we change terminals in JFK – I think they missed him…

 

Descending into Santiago at last!

 

Our “hotel” in Santiago – even though we found it on Booking.com, it felt like an AirBnB apartment rental – but at USD $50/night in the city center, the place was a steal!

Despite the jetlag, we had dinner plans for the evening. After working with Concha y Toro for the past 5 years, Lindsay had quite a few former colleauges in Santiago – so we took full advantage of Chilean hospitality to get our fill of fine wine, delicious seafood, and catch up on a year’s worth of office gossip! While we expected to be jetlagged, we had enough energy to destroy 4 bottles of Italo’s wine stash and didn’t notice how late it was getting until 1AM – since we hadn’t adjusted to the 11-hour timezone differece, and the change in hemispheres meant sunset was deceptively late, we completely lost track of the time! Luckily for all three of us, it was a Saturday so we could all recover the lost sleep the next day.

Seriously…we literally did nothing but sleep the next day. No pictures.

 

View of Santiago from Italo’s balcony

 

Italo treats us to fresh oysters and several bottles of *exquisite* Chilean chardonnay

 

Enjoying a fantastic evening with Chile’s best wine ambassador