Raina's Blogging again - Rhapsody "Around the Horn" & Antarctica.

Hi all,

I'm back again. And doing another blog.

I have just returned from another amazing trip. I didn't make this a LIVE blog due to it being such a busy schedule and not enough time to keep up to date.

It was a huge trip. A real "Bucket List trip".

"Around the Horn" of South America on Rhapsody with a few 'side trips'.

The 'side trips' were two days to Iguazu Falls, a few days in Buenos Aires and 21 days to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands. Then Around the Horn. I saw such amazing stuff. Things that nearly made my head explode. You have no idea what it is like to stand on a beach with 400,000 King Penguins!!!! :eek:

I know people want to hear about the Iguaza Falls trip (as it is a common side trip when cruising) ........... but do you want to hear about Antarctica as well? Let me know!

As normal my blog is about the trip rather than life on the ship. I am a boring cruiser - when it comes to reviews and blogs. I really travel for the ports. I go to the Concierge Lounge and explore ports. I don't go to heaps of shows or evening activities. But I will be able to answer some ship questions.

So ask away!

And my little caveat - This is being done from my notes that I did on the trip.... so there will be tense errors.....and because it is me - there will be (many) spelling mistakes and typos! Life to too exciting for proof reading :D

And there will be lots of photos....... I am so proud of some of the photos I took on this trip..so I just have to share!

I'll try to remember to keep my actual report in this blue old font - so it is easier to skip to the next part if you want to skip the chat.

Raina

This one I'm looking forward to Raina.

I called my trip - "Go with the Floe - The Ice Floe that is!"

Getting ready

A very wise man - the Dalai Lama said

"Once a year, go some place you have never been".

So I shall. I will indeed.

At the end of 2013, I decided that the time had come to start planning a trip to Antarctica. I had wanted to go since high school when I would tell everyone that there was an "Ice Age coming".

I did all the research, read the brochures, and had a heart attack over the prices.

Reading Trip Adviser, everyone said to do the longest trip I could possibly afford and to include South Georgia and The Falklands. So.....I expand the research.

So many options..........

Where should I go?

*Crossing the Antarctic Circle,

*Fly in and out of the continent,

*See the 'other' areas, The Sub Antarctic Islands, as well.

What kind of journey, what class of ship?

*A Cruise ship - where you sail down past the continent and look at it. With all the mod cons and luxuries of a modern cruise ship.

*An Expedition ship

*A Research ship

I wanted to walk on the continent, but still have some comforts, so my choose was easy! An Expedition Ship.

What itinerary and timing?

*Did I care about birds?

*Was I most interested in baby penguins or in fluffy moulting penguins?

*Did I want lots of mammals or lots of ice?

I finally decided on an Expedition ship, going to South Georgia and the Falklands, at the end of the season. That would be a long trip.

I found 'Poseidon Expeditions'. They have been working in the Arctic for many years and were just about to just come down to Antarctica. They had just bought the lease on 'Sea Spirit' - a nice ship and some of the Quark expedition crew were going with the ship. I then found people here that had been on Sea Spirit and he gave a great review. Nice prices and early bird discounts.

So the trip was locked in.

Poseidon Expeditions.

On the Sea Spirit.

21 days doing Antarctic Peninsular, South Shetland Islands, South Georgia and the Falklands. This trip covers so much - Ice, Marine Mammals, Penguins and Albatross. Leaving Ushuaia, Argentina on the 18th February 2016 and finishing in Buenos Aires on the 10th March.

So time to start planning.

More planning and more research.

My only disappointment was that I wouldn't see much of South America. Just Buenos Aires and Ushuaia. BUT, then I found a thread on CC talking about 'Rhapsody of the Sea' leaving Buenos Aires and sailing "Around the Horn" of South America THREE DAYS after I disembarked in Buenos Aires. Of course I had to book it. Serendipity!

Now I had a plan....an awesome plan.

12th Feb - fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina via Santiago, Chile.

13th and 14th Feb - Igauzu Falls.

15th to 18th Feb - Ushuaia -"The end of the World"

18th Feb to 10th March - 21 night Sea Spirit expedition

10th to 13th March - Buenos Aires

13th to 27th March - 14 nights Around the Horn.

28th March - Home.

Did I mention "YAY! I'm going to Antarctica."

Packing - “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear.”

I normally pack a few nights before a trip. I've done enough travel to know what I need, and I have much of my gear stashed in a certain cupboard. But not for this trip. This was so different. Packing preparation began months before. Mainly buying gear. This trip will include Iguazu Falls with 40 degrees and 100% humidity to the Antarctic Peninsular, maybe minus 15 plus the wind chill factor.

I flew Qantas - in Economy - Yuck, but did pay for the extra leg room seat. It was the best $160 I have ever spent.

Had a slight hiccup when I arrived in Santiago. My luggage was only through checked to Santiago, so I had to collect it and recheck it with LAN Airlines for the flight to Buenos Aires.

As I went to collect it Chile immigration wanted a $150AU reciprocity fee - to be in their country for all of 10 minutes. I had to go to five different places to try to sort it out. Eventually LAN Airlines organised for it to be collected and transferred. Hummmm. I did wonder if it would follow me to BA.

But at least I didn't have to pay $150. The flight was 3 hours late so I arrived In Buenos Aires much later than planned - but that's South American flying I soon learnt.

I was on the way.

Iguazu Falls.

Iguazu is a Guarani word for - "Great water"

Pronounced "Eeee Gwar-Sue"

Iguazu Falls is supposedly the world's most spectacular waterfall and is one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. It's a horseshoe shaped gorge, 2.7 ks long and splits Brazil and Argentina.

The Iguazu River flows over the Parana Plateau, resulting in up to 300 waterfalls. Half of the water volume goes through Devils Throat, then falls 82 metres.

It's subtropical, and February is THE WORST month to visit. Extremely hot and humid. Yay. But this is when I am here so that is when I will see it.

You really need to see both sides of the falls. Basically the Argentinian side is where you look down, the Brazilian side you look up.

After my big day yesterday of flying to Buenos Aires, I climbed out of bed at VERY stupid o'clock to be at the airport in time for my flight to the falls. Boarding was at 4.45AM.....But that is in real time - not South American Plane Time. We were on and taxiing by 7.30

I did the walk into "la Garganta del Diable" the Devil's Throat. AMAZING!

The sensational boardwalk out to "La Garganta del Diablo" - The Devil's Throat. Fantastic. A 1.1km walk each way through jungle and across water.

My wonderful new hat - that I really like - went as a sacrifice to the Great Fall Gods! Very sad. In the 30ish minutes it took me to walk back and but a particularly attractive (NOT) hat, I was baking! It was only 32 degrees but 100% humidity. And virtually no breeze. Tomorrow is going to be 36. Yay.

There were Coatis everywhere. So cute! Yes - I do want to bring some home. They have a soft flexible snout. The lower jaw only comes about half way forward. So the nose is squishable and very handy.

I caught a taxi from the airport to the park and organised my driver to come and get me at a set time.

I then crossed over to Brazil. Takes about one hour in a taxi - including the two stops - one to leave Argentina, the other to enter Brazil. Cost 600 Peso, so about $55 each way.

There was a huge storm so it cooled down for about 7 minutes then became even hotter and muggier - How that is possible I do not know.

I had to put sun block on every 30 minutes as it just sweated off.

Iguazu Falls continued. Brazil Side

I got dropped off at my 'cheap and cheerful' hotel, Canzi, then headed off to walk to the 'Jungle Bird Park'. It is set in rainforest and was lovely. Muggy but lovely. It was a botanical gardens and collection of South American Rainforest Birds. Pretty impressive.

The bird park was only about $7US entry fee. When I first walked in there were some not nice cages and I nearly left. But then the cages were lovely. Well worth a visit.

I got back to the hotel and was so hot after a huge day of touristing that I took off shoes and plopped into the pool. Washing and cooling done in one effort!

I missed dinner. I got out of the pool and was ready for early dinner - 6pm. But that doesn't happen in Brazil. So I slept instead. Maybe tomorrow I will get some food! Lucky I have my stash of nuts and apricots with me.

Lovely pictures already. Please, if you have the time, all your pics would be great :)

fabulous pictures and great start to your review! :)

Iguazu falls - Brazil side.

I slept well on my hard bed and got up at a sensible time of 8am. Breakfast was horrible! But oh well.

It has some "western breakfast foods" - scrambled eggs that probably win the prize as the worst. And big bowl of chopped up hotdogs in sauce! And cakes. So many cakes.

Then off to the park for 9 am opening and a big day of adventures.

First - a helicopter ride over the Falls. It was $100US. It really was amazing. It was a huge 7 seater - and Yay, I got a window seat. And when I saw amazing I really mean Amazing!!!!

Mind blowingly amazing.

See the boardwalk walk that I did yesterday to the Devil's Throat.

I was fairly happy!

Igauzu Falls - Brazil Side.

The Helicopter base is just outside the park, so in I went. ell that is after about 45 min in line to get in. One inside there is a free bus that takes you to the different sites. I forgot to mention that on the Argentine side there is a free train that takes you to the different sites.

My first stop was to do the famous boar ride under the falls - and it to was amazing. It started with a jeep thing ride through the jungle, then a walk, then into the boat.

The jungle was beautiful - and so much cooler! They have Puma's and Jaguars - but we didn't see any. They are very shy and nocturnal. We did see one of the live cams for watching them at night though.

At the boat you stripped off to the level you wanted to get wet. Some people in swimmers, others dressed in plastic bags (coats). Damn. We were sweating like piggies in normal clothes. Don't know how they managed in their portable saunas. And yes they all said they were wet after the falls. Probably all sweat.

It was a 15 minute trip up the river against a huge current. Our boat had 2 x 200 horse engines and they both worked hard on the way up. All the web sites talked about going through Level 5 rapids. Sure thinks I...the scale only goes up to Level 7. Well.....you should have seen some of the said rapids. Pressure waves nearly 2 metres high. At the worst point the boat seemed to be stuck and couldn't get through this narrow strong part. Next to a huge rock and pressure wave. We took about two minutes to get through - even being pushed backwards a small amount. I'm sure it was all a show for the tourists. Fun though.

And so pretty.

And then there they were. Huge. This photo doesn't really give an indication of size. See the smaller of the two rocks on the left. We weren't as big as that.

Iguazu Falls - Brazil Side

We went under the waterfall - and got wet.

Totally wet. So much fun. The water was like a fire hose. So hard it almost hurt. Definitely hurt your eyes.

We all squealed and whoops with joy. The floor of the boat had about 150m of water in it.

The jungles were full of butterflies. All colours and sizes. And SO hard to get photos of!

This activity was ?$60US and went for nearly 2 hours. Great value.

Iguazu Falls - Brazil Side

 

 

 

We went under the waterfall - and got wet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totally wet. So much fun. The water was like a fire hose. So hard it almost hurt. Definitely hurt your eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all squealed and whoops with joy. The floor of the boat had about 150m of water in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jungles were full of butterflies. All colours and sizes. And SO hard to get photos of!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This activity was ?$60US and went for nearly 2 hours. Great value.

 

 

 

Wow, sounds like you had an awesome trip[emoji3] I will keep reading & looking for more of your fabulous photos -thank you! And you went solo?

Lovely pictures already. Please, if you have the time, all your pics would be great :)

Trust me! You don't want them all. I took around 175g of photos. LOL. But will include more then I normally would. Tell me if you want me to slow down on photos.

R

Wow, sounds like you had an awesome trip[emoji3] I will keep reading & looking for more of your fabulous photos -thank you! And you went solo?

Yes, I had an amazing time. And Yes I was solo. I should have mentioned that!

R

Iguazu Falls - Brazil side

I then hopped onto the bus and went up to the end with food etc. Lots of tourist shops and restaurant. This area is just opposite the Devil's Throat.

I had some lunch then headed off again. I meet some more Coatis today. Then I got mugged by one.

I had been carrying around nuts and apricots etc for my food when I had no time to go for real food.

I put my backpack down to take some photos and up comes this big sleek fatty.

He leapt on my bag, I laughed and told him there was no food in there - just as I remembered. At the same time he got his nimble little paws up, pulled at the closed zipper and stuck his very dexterous snout it and grabbed my food. Fat piggy. I yelled at him to stop, then saw the glint in his eyes - more of a "crazy eyes" then a cheeky glint. I yield to him. I was not going to wrestle him for it. He was happy.

Down to another amazing look out, out on to the walkways and soaking wet again! So worth it. The place is stunning. Note - there is an elevator here so is totally accessible.

Iguazu Falls - Brazil side.

I then hoped back onto the bus and headed back to the entrance to meet my taxi driver. Back we went to Argentina. Through the Brazil border and the Argentine boarder. You need to stop for passport control so need to think of that when planning time.

The other tricky thing is Brazil has daylight saving - Argentina does not. So when panning you need to go through it a few time!

there are a million ways that you can spend your to days....but I did it this way to take advantage of daylight saving and the morning light.

Have I mentioned Argentina's people and their love of queueing? If a plane is due to board at 8 - they queue at 7.40. They just line up! Even before the cabin crew arrive. The seats are assigned...but still they strive to be in that queue. No idea why. Maybe I will find out when I am at the end of the line and they say "sorry". You can pick the tourists as we all sit down until the line is gone they board. And remember it always seems to be late....so on this occasion the line was in tact for over an hour!

SO.....in case you are planning a trip to the Falls..and trust me - you should!

I did this side trip for well under $1000. Flights, hotel, parks, taxis, activities, Brazil visa! (many people don't do the Brazil side as they need the $100US visa. They do miss out). The other thing is where to fly out of/into.

The two Buenos Aires airports and about an hour apart ($0US plus each time) so plan airports and hotels to save taxi trips.

I was back in Buenos Aires at my hotel by about 9pm and went out for a meal.

The Argentinian BBQ is truely amazing.

I sat outside, as at 10pm the temperature was amazing - and ate beef - About 8 tons of it. (Well I ate half of one of the four strips I got). An old man played an accordion, the owner of the restaurant and a lady tangoed. The lady did more Tango. And all the restaurants have Tango. So much so that I didn't end up going to a Tango show.

This is amazing! Thank you so much for this blog. I can't wait to continue with this adventure!

One of my bucket cruises, very much looking forward to this!:D

I would love to hear all about antarctica! Doing this trip in 2 years- cant wait! What was the resteruant in brazil? So u recommend it?

Ushuaia.

So another early morning..but this one was quite civilised. My flight wasn't until 8.30am. I was flying don to Ushuaia. Pronounced "Oos - wire"

The four hour flight was fairly painless. And HOORAY. My last domestic flight for this trip. Just ships for a long time. No fussing over luggage, spending hours at airports....and watching people stand in queues.

As we flew in I got my first glimpse of Patagonia. Just a bit of a glacial influence on the land.

So here I am. I've been to the northern most (Barrow, Alaska) and the southern most cities in the Americas.

Background

The southern part of the continent of South America is called Patagonia. It's a pretty wild area with the Andes Mountains, steppes, deserts, glaciers and grasslands. A mecca for adventurers - rock climbers, ice climbers, bush walkers, big wave surfers.

The Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route separating the South American continent from the archipelago Tierra del Fuego. Tierra del Fuego or "Land of Fire" named by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520, when he saw fires burning in the camps of the Aboriginal people (who have lived there for 100,000 years). Nothing to do with volcanoes at all.

The main island is Isle Grande. Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world. Ushuaia, "fin del mundo principio de todo" or Ushuaia, "end of the world, beginning of everything".

The Beagle Channel, (named after Charles Darwin's ship Beagle when it first visited in 1826) separates the main island from the many small islands in the archipelago. The channel is navigable by large ships but the southern route of the Drake passage is easier. More dangerous, but easier). The Channel also splits Chile (south) and Argentina (north).

Cape Horn is the southern most headland, on the southern most island, Hornos, in the archipelago and is the confluence of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. It is the top of the Drake Passage and is hit by the "Roaring Forties" and "The Furious Fifties" as they run into land after thousands of kilometres of nothing. That plus the occasional ice bergs. An infamous sailors graveyard - estimated 800 ships and 10,000 seamen.

I was having four days in Ushuaia.

This day I wandered around town. I ate the best empanadas - crab filled for lunch.

Then dinner at a BBQ place. The lamb have been cooking since I saw them at 2pm.

As they were carving my meat I heard a cheer from the kitchen. They delivered my meal and told me how lucky I was. I got the kidney. "Oh joy!" It was super good luck and had to be eaten. Now I knew that if I didn't eat that dry, floury, shrivelled little kidney bad luck would fall upon my two sea voyagers. We would have bad weather....we would miss landings....we would not see a lot of wildlife. And even if no-one else knew.....I would know. IT WOULD BE MY FAULT! So what did I do.....I choked down that horrid little floury pee filter. I did wrap the little pieces in lamb fat and gulped them down!

So if we get good weather, lots of landing and great wildlife it would be to my credit! Fingers crossed.

Ushuaia is beautiful. A really pretty town with the mountains coming right to the edge of town.

Awesome!! :D

I'd love to hear about Antarctica.

Ushuaia

Today I signed up for two different tours.

Trip 1

Was a trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park. This is one of the main trip that cruise people do when in town for a day.

It started with a ride on the 'End of the World' train - 60 minutes on a narrow gauge railway built by convicts. Very pretty. Much of the area was covered in dead trees and tree stumps. This is a result of the penal settlement. They used lots of timber. They arrived here with convicts and said "start building"!

(The train trip was ....not brilliant for the $50 US cost. It was pretty - but everything was pretty).

Then a visit to a number of stunning places. Really pretty bays on Lago Roca.

Lupins grow everywhere. Any Monty Python fans out there?

We visited the southern most post office and sent postcards.

I was dropped back at the hotel in time to get ready for my second tour!

Ushuaia

Tour 2

In the afternoon I went with Pira Tours on the "Walk with the Penguins" trip.

It was a bus trip out to Haberton Ranch, then onto a boat to go across to Martilli Island to see the Magellanic penguin rookery. I thought this was a 4 hour tour. Turns out it was a 7 hour tour. Lucky I wasn't on a cruise ship yet.

A 2 hour drive through stunning areas. The mountains were SO big - and the tree line was down to 600m. Huge areas of bog, past ski resorts, sled dog racing areas and more.

We arrived at the ranch

and went to see the amazing museum / science place. It is the best collection of bones of cetaceans (whales and seals) anywhere. It is a privately owned place but had working scientists here and (obviously) is open to the public.

This is the "Bone Room" where skeletons are soaked in vats of sea water to break the tissue down.They don't use chemicals as it changes the bone. A whale skill takes 3 or so years to get clean.

It was then over to Martilli Island on a giant Zodiac. The beach was just covered with Magellanic penguins. And a few Gentoo - and 6 lost Kings.

15-20,000 Magellanic's. Crazy. And amazing. Pretty funny little guys.

Molting - I love it!

Ushuaia

"Walking with the Penguins" continued

The conditions are a bit harsh.

Turkey Vulture

Dead trees everywhere - this is for a few reasons.

1) the forests are full of downed trees. The last ice age finished here with the glaciers retreating only 20,000 years ago. At that time the land was bare rock. In many places the top soil has only developed to 20 cm deep. So huge trees and huge winds make for many fallen trees.

2) decomposition is extremely slow. A tree takes around 300 years to break (the cold) down into soil. So there are many fallen trees.

3) I do believe the Beaver is THE MOST destructive feral animal ever introduced to a place. In there wisdom they introduced them here in the 40's. But the weather was too mild to produce the amazing coats they got in Canada. Here is is rarely below minus 15 degrees. HAHAHA. So they set them free - them and minks, and rabbits and trout. And then they brought a grey fox to try to eat the rabbits. Well planned! The beavers rip down any tree on flat land that gets a drop of water. Then dam it up and make a new river. They have now started swimming into Chile. Beasts. At least the government has decided to get a bit serious and to try to control them.

Bottom line - life is not easy for a tree on this island.

This was a brilliant tour and well worth doing. $119US. If you were on a ship and the time didn't work out - it would be worth paying the ship price to do this trip. "Around the Horn" penguin tours only saw 20 penguins.

WOW! Fantastic review and photos!!

I always enjoy your trip reviews and pictures. This one is definitely a WOW!