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Live - SIlver Explorer October 25 2017, Guayaquil to Valparaiso


jpalbny
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Monday, October 23, 2017. T-1 day until launch!

 

Today was a bit of a crazy day. We had prepared pretty well over the weekend despite both of us being on call and working. The packing is done and the bags are ready to go tomorrow.

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We had left a few last-minute preparations for today, but the day started pretty early when I woke up just before 4AM with a premonition. Sure enough the phone rang 10 minutes later and my resident had a case to review with me. Further sleep was futile so I headed downstairs after that and fed some prednisone to the cat, and proceeded to get ready for a full day of activity.

My original plan had been to take the day off to finish up some pre-winter activity at the house while Chris worked, but I ended up going in to work for an hour to wrap up some stuff before coming home. I spent the morning getting the pool ready for closing. Then I dragged the compressor out of the garage and blew out the lawn sprinkler lines to get that ready for winter as well. I don’t know whether we’ll have freezing weather between now, and when we return, so taking no chances. Then I took in our summer patio chairs and made sure that things were ready for cold weather.

In between that I had to arrange for the pet sitter, and make final boarding arrangements for the oldest cat (20 ½ years old) because she is just too frail to stay home with once daily visits. She will stay at the vet’s office for the three weeks that we’re away, where one of our good friends is a veterinary tech so I know that she’ll be in great hands.

After I picked up Chris from work we had a nice dinner at home, then did a water change for the aquarium. We usually do that every two weeks so I did a little extra to make sure it lasts the full three weeks that we’re away. A little relaxing with a glass of wine, and hopefully we’re all set.

***

We’re heading out tomorrow from Albany to Quito, where we’ll overnight at the Wyndham at the airport before flying to Guayaquil Wednesday morning. We’ve arranged a short tour of Guayaquil that ends with a drop-off at the pier to meet Silver Explorer.

 

We are traveling with two other couples this trip. We all met on a Silver Explorer cruise in October 2013, where we visited the Panama Canal, Darien Jungle, and Costa Rica. Since that cruise, we’ve taken a few fantastic land trips together (Rwanda, Tanzania, Madagascar, and South Africa) and we’ve met up for many great weekends in the wine regions near our homes (Finger Lakes, Niagara, and Lehigh Valley). Looking forward to another great triptogether.

Also on this trip, we have a great group of CC posters – and Laura from CC was kind enough to arrange for a meet and mingle party which we’re looking forward to. In addition to Chris, me, and our four friends, we have breckpatty, caradara, stz, zigtraveler, bsugar, Rocchi, and FauxNom with two guests. Final count for the meet and mingle is 21! This is by far the biggest turnout I’ve ever had so it should be a great time.

***

For us, it’s a greatly anticipated return to Silver Explorer for our fourth cruise. We are traveling from Guayaquil to Valparaiso, a food and wine cruise with interesting tours including a flight over the Nasca Lines, and local chefs who will come on board to showcase regional food delicacies along with matching wines. We’ve been booked for over 18 months and it’s hard to believe that it’s almost here!

Our journey:

 

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And the best part is that the journey doesn’t end in Valparaiso. After a day touring the winelands, we’ll be ready to fly to Easter Island for 3 nights. Very grateful for the chance to explore that remote part of the world.

More to come…but now, it’s time to try to get some sleep!

Edited by jpalbny
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Fair Winds and Following Pacific ocean Seas for your Explorer SoAm expedition voyage JP & Chris.

 

Look forward to vicariously traveling with y'all and especially reading/learning about your favorite Chilean wines & food (and seafood) pairings. Are you doing the Elqui Valley or Limari Valley excursion in Coquimbo?

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Tuesday, October 24. Leaving Albany

 

Up early today...what else is new? The ancient cat was calling before 4AM but I didn't get up to give her meds to her until 4:15. Then we slept until a little after 6.

 

No big plans for today, as we'd prepared pretty well over the past few days. We got ready and packed up Ashley for her trip to board at the vet while we're away. We headed out and arrived right on time at 8, checked her in, and were back home before 9. Goodbye for now...

 

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Once home, we made sure that the pet sitter and the contractors were all set for the duration, and then I called for a Lyft ride to the airport. Wow, what a pleasant experience that was!

 

Patrick was right on time with a clean car and the ride was such a great experience. There is just no comparison between that ride and a random taxi cab. We were at the airport by 10 after 10, and headed to the check-in counters. Neither of us had been able to check in on line, so we expected some sort of problem.

 

But there was no issue. They just needed to do a physical document check. Love the tiny Albany airport.. .we were through the non-existent line at Precheck, and having a cold beverage, by 10:20.

 

Boarding was on time, and now, it's official! We are on vacation! Cheers!

 

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Next stop, Atlanta for almost 3 hours (hi Wes and Ida), then on to Quito! We're now 30 minutes from landing. Planning a stop in our favorite ATL restaurant, One Flew South, in Terminal E.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

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JP and Chris, have a great trip. I really love reading your reports as I find we are very like minded about things. How in the world have you managed 3 weeks in a row off work?

 

Had to laugh about loading your cat with prednisone. We too have a kitty who now cannot do the once a day cat sitter visit to the house, so she has to stay with our vet. The vet techs know and love her and let her wander around the office when no one else is there.

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Have a goodun JP..... Hope your internet is working well if you find the time to post live accounts of your journey. Look forward to some photos from Nazca.

 

Very envious especially of the last part of your adventure. Ive had Easter Island statues in my back garden for years. Just not quite the same thing! :p

 

Enjoy.

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Hi back JP & Chris--have a blast on your vacation/Silver Explorer cruise. Next time your traveling through/near ATL, u must try you're next fav metro Atlanta restaurant; Casa Wes & Ida.

 

Just finished an email to one of our favorite Regent Seven Seas cruise critic posters (flossie009 from the UK) suggesting they follow along with one of the most enjoyable/entertaining cruise critic posters (prose & snaps) JP & Chris.

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Tuesday, October 24. Leaving Albany. Boarding was on time, and now, it's official! We are on vacation! Cheers! Next stop, Atlanta for almost 3 hours (hi Wes and Ida), then on to Quito! We're now 30 minutes from landing. Planning a stop in our favorite ATL restaurant, One Flew South, in Terminal E.

 

Looking forward to reading all of the details and seeing as many visuals as is possible. Glad you posted earlier the map with your stops as you travel down the western coast of South America. Very interested in this part of the world for our future planning.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 188,889 views for this posting.

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All the best JP.I wish a smooth but memorable cruise.

Amazing getting a meet and mingle on the Explorer for 21 people.We haven't ever made it to the minimum 6 on her.

But you have reminded me to finally do a report on our Explorer cruise earlier in the year.When it was underway I had problems posting pictures and then Spending more time at work.

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Thanks everyone for the wonderful number of responses! We're enjoying the trip immensely so far. The food has been awesome and everything seems so fresh. Yesterday David Bilsand was filleting a whole tuna and cooking the steaks for us at the pool grill as soon as he trimmed them. Unbelievably good!

 

We have unlimited internet which is OK but haven't tried uploading pics yet. We will see.

 

Emtbsam and Silver Spectre, thanks for the good wishes for our old cat. It is amazing that she is still kicking.

 

Ronrick1943 and TLCOhio, thanks for following along. Drron29, looking forward to catching up with your thread some time. Funny, we had lunch today with zigtraveler and we were talking about how much we enjoy your travel blogs!

 

Les, will see what I can post. Not promising anything. Rachel, we only got 3 weeks in a row because we took no vacation for 6 months. It was a painful sacrifice.

 

Wes and Camillus, we enjoyed One Flew South as usual. What a nice place to stop over! Jeff, Keith, Sophia, Mysty, 57 varieties, and Stumblefoot - thanks for stopping in and for your well wishes. Now, back to Tuesday...

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Tuesday, October 24. Albany-Atlanta-Quito

 

Nice layover in ATL. We were tough on ourselves, and walked from Gate B1 all the way to the E terminal. Then had a nice snack at One Flew South - a glass of Txakolina and a Trimbach Alsatian Riesling while we sat "outside" and perused the menu.

 

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We enjoyed the wine with an order of edamame, and some duck croquettes. Yum!

 

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After a quick visit to the Delta Sky Club, we headed to our gate and were very pleasantly surprised to find that passengers were not crowding around the gate. We leisurely walked on board, and enjoyed a glass of champagne while awaiting takeoff.

 

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Unfortunately we were delayed a good 20 minutes while they searched for the bag of a passenger who didn't board. Had been hoping for an early arrival, but now it's not clear whether we will be on time. The sun got closer to setting as we taxied towards takeoff.

 

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Dinner was ok - chicken and a kale salad.

 

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A little more wine before calling it a night, but we didn't sleep much. Watched some movies, dozed, and arrived in Quito less than 5 minutes late.

 

Immigration wasn't too bad. It only took 5-10 minutes. Waiting for our luggage added a few more minutes, but we were out by 10:45. As seems to be our theme lately, there was nobody waiting for us, even though we'd pre-arranged the hotel shuttle. So I called the hotel and they rounded us up. We were at the hotel a little after 11:00, and in bed shortly thereafter. With the time change, that was midnight back home, so it had been a long day!

 

Good night from Quito! Tomorrow, we fly to Guayaquil for a brief tour and them embarkation.

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Great start JP!

 

Quick note... I know you’re touring some wineries when you get to Valpo. We arrived today and spent the late afternoon / early evening at Concho y Toro. They make ALL of their premium wines available by the glass. If you have time, be sure to try the Don Melchor 2014; 96 pts from Wine Specatator, 97 from Suckling, 95 Atkin, and 94 Parker. It was stunning and I can only imagine what’ll it’ll be like 2 decades from now.

 

Tomorrow we’re going to head to Veramonte’s winery after spending 3-4 hours in the Dictatorial museo.

 

Keep havin’ fun! I can only imagine how delish those fresh tuna steaks must have been.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thanks for the recommendations, Stumblefoot. Will keep that in mind as we have some winery visits planned next month when we're there! I like saying that because it makes the end of the cruise seem so far away!

 

***

 

Wednesday, October 25th

Quito to Guayaquil

I was awake at 4 but managed to get back to sleep until 6:30. Considering the 1h time change (Ecuador is 1h behind EDT), and the fact that we're catching a plane today at 10:15, that was remarkable. We got ready for breakfast, and I checked in online for the Guayaquil flight, using the Avianca app which I'd downloaded to my phone.

It was already delayed 30 minutes, to 10:45, so that gives us extra time. Hope it doesn’t get even later! We had a minute to get a glimpse of Quito from our window, but that's all there is for this visit.

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Breakfast was included in our room rate and it was pretty nice. The white corn empanadas were especially tasty. Nice cafe con leche, too. Back to the room to reorganize, and we caught the 9:00 shuttle to the airport. It was a 5 minute ride with a view of our hotel.

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And there wasn’t a line at the Avianca counter. The flight was still only 30m late. Security was a 5 minute wait, and we headed to the Salon Quito with our priority passes for a pre-flight stay.

 

Around 9:45 I rechecked the Avianca app, and it said the flight was now on time, leaving at 10:15, as scheduled! The monitors in the airport showed that it was still 30 minutes late. We headed to the gate and they were boarding. So we hopped on and waited...

Push back was only 15 minutes late, but we sat on the runway forever while they chased a flock of birds away. Finally we took off after 11:00, then headed north, looped west over some clouds, and then finally turned south towards Guayaquil. We landed at 11:45, 30 minutes late, as expected. Luggage was there by 12, giving us a second to take in the nice décor. A pretty airport.

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As we had hoped, our tour guide Mario was waiting for us. Finally, someone who showed up when he said he would! We had booked him a few months ago for a 3-hour tour and drop off at the pier, rather than just do a transfer. We could have gotten to the boat earlier but we figured we'd like to see just a little of Guayaquil first.

We headed into town to see the original main plaza and the cathedral. The plaza is now a park, full of iguanas! They are crawling all over the place. People come here to feed them.

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The cathedral was across the way, along one edge of the park. There was a statue of Simon Bolivar in the park as well. That is our next stop.

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