TravelBluebird

@TiogaCruiser thanks; that looks like a handy device for local backup. Is it quick for video? I have a small 1TB local hard drive I travel with, mostly in case I fill up my phone’s memory, but it is painfully slow to transfer any large files like video

Well I’ve been TRYING to post them but for some reason they won’t load up. Will have to send after today’s excursion. Sorry for the wait!

We are awake, have had traditional breakfast on the Lido (since our tour is 10:30 to 2:30; no break for lunch) and are in our room as the tenders are being lowered into the water for our day in Punta del Este. Punta del Este is a real beach resort town; the “Monaco of Argentina” Our excursion is the city tour with the Ralli museum and Casa Pueblo. In the meantime, next post will be some more penguin photos; from my Nikon at Punta Tombo reserve.

Haven’t seen one mosquito. they always bite me first if they are around. In Port Chaccabuco for our walk they said to wear insect repellant which we did not have and I was worried. No need to be. That said, if you visit at a slightly different time, who is to say it won’t be mosquito season then?

Warm weather clothing was Santiago for pre-cruise, so 3 days total. It got pretty chilly right away as we went down the coast of Chile; warm weather didn’t come back until Puerto Madryn, so warm weather 6 days in total at the end of the trip (including the departure day in Buenos Aires). There was a shoulder day on either side that could go either way depending on your personal preferences (ie..husband in short sleeves but I was in long sleeves). So, overall, we had 2 weeks of cold weather and 1 week of warm weather, plus the extra days in Santiago. Hope that helps; even with 2 bags of laundry, I’m running out of clean warm weather clothing again, because I didn’t bring enough. It’s truly a 2 season packing situation—we packed way more than normal.

My biggesr concern is my phone—due to the slow internet uploads, my photos and video are NOT backed up to my iCloud; if my phone was stolen, my photos would be gone. I’m actually thinking of just taking out my Mini Osmo 3 video camera for my Buenos Aires tour the first day. I have a small van tour of Buenos Aires through Holland America on our first day, and then an all-day tour on the way to the airport in the evening, so its not like I won’t see things. Of course DH wants to go out and about on his own…sigh. I hope he is super careful and OK. Honestly, with the two tours and the last day being the day I need to pack and get ready to go home, I’m OK with not doing more touring than that. And you bet I’ll do another LIVE!

Have you been to Amsterdam? If not, I highly recommend you spend time there prior to your cruise. I think that the Pinnacle class ship the Rotterdam will be a more familiar experience for you. Love the additional restaurants: Tamarind, NY Deli & Pizza and the Dutch Cafe. And a few more entertainment venues too including BB Kings. But the smaller ships in the Oosterdam class are special to me too; I think it is easier to get to know the other Yes, I think that we are going to do that—its lots easier to fly to Amsterdam from the USA, so we’ll head to Amsterdam for some touring first, and then move on to Rotterdam and the cruise! And we are excited about trying the larger Holland America ship, although we have most certainly enjoyed the Oosterdam, and she has been the perfect ship for this adventure.

Well….we did it. We are having such a good time that we’ve booked a future Holland America cruise on board. This is something we never do. And me, pay a full cruise fare? Never 😂. But we did. We wanted to visit Rotterdam and get up to Iceland. We would have loved the Greenland included Legendary cruise in 2025, but DH just doesn’t want to be away for nearly a month again, and I shouldn’t really do that either. SO we are doing a “collections” cruise which is really two 7 day cruises that gives us a loop starting and ending in Rotterdam. It’s the Fjords of Norway & Iceland, back to back with the Viking Trails & Celtic Origins. It’s on the Rotterdam, and I will enjoy checking out one of HAL’s newer ships. With the $200 completely refundable deposit until 90 days before the start of the cruise, plus the other incentives to book now, HAL made it very easy to book—err, too easy to book— (and Neil, the Future Cruise Consultant, is excellent to work with!). YAY! Can’t believe that DH had such a great time that he was also OK to do this—he’s a tough customer, and he is super excited too.

Thanks for the reminder—I don’t know where//who the internet person is on this ship, but I will figure it out for you!

Yes, the inflation is very very bad and the political unrest has increased. They had nationwide protests yesterday, which we saw in Puerto Madryn. Evidently in Buenos Aires, many flights were canceled, because all of the government workers were on strike. There are no current protest planned for the day we leave, but I am still nervous.

I am currently up in the crows nest as I had some questions for the excursion desk about our tour and transfer to the airport. Soon be heading downstairs to get our passports back which is ship has held since Santiago.

We watched the pork talk on Buenos Aires in the Rolling Stone lounge because the main stage is packed. Ed the cruise director heavily emphasized the current political unrest in the city, as well as a high-level of crime, and told us how he was mugged in a very supposedly safe area by three men. So walking alone in the city was heavily discouraged and Uber is probably the best way to get around.. Also, he talked about the extreme damage to the terminal at the port from the hurricane that hit Buenos Aires that happened at the Scott start of @NorbertsNiece cruise. Evidently 75% of the terminal was heavily damaged when the roof caved in. Most of the services including coffee shop waiting area and information desk no longer exist so things are a bit up in the air about how things work in that terminal I know I’ve had a couple of questions from people who will be embarking at that terminal and I wish I had more information for them.

@flamingos 822 Argentine Pesos per US dollar. That is the official exchange rate, the “blue” rate is 1,200 per US dollar. Hubby did not get a receipt from the ATM and he is not sure, but since it was from a bank ATM we are assuming the “Red” official rate.

Slept like a baby! No alarm to worry about. DH woke me up with a single espresso from the Crow’s Nest about 8am. We are currently outdoors at the sea view pool having coffee and some fruit. Tonight is dressy night; our final one. Just enjoying having a warm sea day! Current view:

822 Argentine Pesos per US dollar. That is the official exchange rate, the “blue” rate is 1,200 per US dollar. Hubby did not get a receipt from the ATM and he is not sure, but since it was from a bank ATM we are assuming the “Red” official rate.

So true! I think a photo book is definitely a great idea. I hope my YouTube audience appreciates the more travel-intensive cruise information from this trip. When I get home I can post all of my vlogs from the ship (other than the 2 Penguin shorts, I’ve given up in uploading while on board…just too slow). I’ll try to mix it in with some Caribbean-type cruise information, just so they don’t all flee. My next cruise in exactly a month is the new Carnival Jubilee out of Galveston, so that should keep everyone happy 😀

Internet has not been my friend tonight; just finally cleared up. No main stage lie entertainment; just the latest Indiana Jones movie. That may have effected it, DH did not go on the tour to Punta Tombo. Instead, he kicked around in Puerto Madryn. He said there really wasn’t much to do//look at, but he enjoyed walking around. There are beaches (the beach is a different color than the beaches we are used to back home..the sand is grey. He also ran into a political protest (which was setting off fireworks for some reason) and had the very Argentinian experience of getting $25.00 US out of an ATM and receiving a giant wad of Argentine Pesos. Still haven’t sorted out my Nikon photos from today; I’m super tired; had to wake up at 7am this morning. We had a nice dinner; each a bay shrimp cobb salad for appetizers and then the pork loin for DH and again for me the Prime Rib (its like Christmas once a week on this ship; that is our classic Christmas dinner and I love it!). We then had a “date” to go get ice cream cones up on the Lido for desert. The chocolate ice cream is yummy. Tomorrow is our last sea day. I am going to try and really savor it!

Had a great day in Punta Tombo. The last of my 3 penguin adventures. At some point I’ll compare all 3 to make it easier for people to pick which one(s) are right for them. This was another long drive—2.5 hours each way in a flat and same type desert landscape. Only last 1/2 hour was on a gravel road so just that part was bumpy. The highlights of today were the nice long (warm) walk through a penguin-dotted landscape that included beach and desert. PLUS wild guanacos roam the area!

@NorbertsNiece Thank you for the article. Not a happy event at all. Do you feel protective over Antarctica after visiting there? I do; its like a fierce love and appreciation that you just can’t get from movies or books.

I hope so; at least that gives them a reason….BUT they had plenty of time to send an email to cancel! The captain and the cruise director had people pretty worked up about if the ship’s horn blew continuously, everyone had to get back to the ship because weather conditions had changed. I asked and found out it is actually an extremely rare occurrence, but just tossed my essential medication in my bag for the day just in case. I did meet one lady who said she cancelled an independent to Volunteer Point because she was so anxious about it. This morning I am off to my last wildlife adventure—the penguins (and guanacos!) of Punta Tombo. After that its all city touring—Punta del Estes, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. 7:55 meet up for the Spanish Language excursion! Sólo hablo un poco de español so we shall see how this goes!

At the second The Company Men show! Russ at his first since he had that cold earlier this cruise

LOL if you had said hi, I would have been hard pressed to notice, I was so enthralled by those penguins! I think at one point Russ came up to me and decided to just let me be I was so engrossed!

Your photos are fantastic! Wasn’t that a magical place? And they definitely are the least smelly penguin type so far.

Here is a short video of some of the VERY interesting penguin activity we saw at Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands!

@MabePearl It is a private tour that you can and should book in advance. Definitely at least a few months in advance, but if you email them, they are very quick in getting back to you. The cost was $200 per person; considerably less than a similar HAL excursion. 12 people on our ship did NOT turn up for their pre-arranged excursions with Estancia, and they didn’t let the company know in advance! So they lost all of those dollars, and it was unfair to both the tour company that trusts people to show up AND to others on the ship that would have loved to have had their spots.