Beautiful Santiago

Unlike many of the other cities that we will be visiting, Santiago is landlocked and surrounded by mountains. I've always prefered the waterview. In Seattle, we're lucky to have both the water and the mountains. However, being amongst the mountains have its own charm. Don't you think?

View from our apartment:

1. During the day
2. At sunset
3. At dusk
4. At night

End of the World: Punta Arenas, Chile

Claim to Fame: Punta Arenas is the southern most city on the contiguous continent of South America
Excursions: Trekking the Magellan Forest Reserve (all four of us)
Brief Thoughts: We saw a lot of stray dogs in the city. The hike was nice, but J and I learned that we liked hiking by ourselves as opposed to with a huge group of people. It was extremely windy. Perhaps as windy (if not more) as the time we went up that little tram in Lake Hakone in Japan back in 2006

1-4. Views along the first of two trails - Mirador de la Garganta. Highlights included windswept trees and a deep canyon
5-9. Views along the second trail - Mirador Zapadoraustral. Highlights included the forests of Patagonia and a vista where we could see Punta Arenas and our cruise ship.
10. Gigantic corn

This costs HOW MUCH?! Transfer from Valpariso to Santiago

this is my first non-food related How much?! post

Item: Transfer from the cruise port in Valparaiso, Chile to the front door of our apartment in Santiago, Chile.
- Valpariso Bus Terminal to Santiago Bus Terminal via Pullman Bus (Google estimate: 2 hrs 33 mins; 132 km)
- Cab ride from Santiago Bus Terminal to apartment building in Bellavista Barrio
Location: Chile

Please submit your estimates in USD.

Day 92: Disaster strikes

I'm not talking about the 4.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Puget Sound this morning. It was so minor that it wasn't even on komonews.com's front page.

Last night I basically found out that we no longer have anywhere to stay during our month-long stop in Sydney. When do we arrive in Sydney? One week from tomorrow! It doesn't help that I'm still on this cruise - $0.37/minute for internet! 

What to do? What to do? We've been so incredibly lucky on our trip so far. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Let's hope it works out in the end.

If any of my readers have any leads that may help out our situation please do let me know! 

Current Location: Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile

End of the World: Ushuaia, Argentina

Claim to Fame: Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world.
Excursions: End of the World Train & Gaucho Show (J's Parents); Hiking in Tierra del Fuego (Me and J)
Brief Thoughts: We decided to forgo the ship excursions for a couple of reasons - 1) Nothing on the ship excursion list really appealed to us 2) We wanted to see how much cheaper we can do an excursion for compared to RCCL's prices and 3) We wanted to spend the rest of our Argentine Pesos as it is our last stop in Argentina. Our conclusion is that there is a 3X markup for ship excursions.

1-3: Ushuaia
4-14 : Tierra del Fuego National Park
15-20: A few of the numerous glaciers we saw on our way to our next port.

Who can guess what #14 is?

End of the World: Sailing around Cape Horn

When the Captain said we were "sailing around Cape Horn" I thought we were going to simply sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean around the southern tip of South America. Not the case. He really meant that we were going to sail around Cape Horn! As in, Cape Horn is actually an island and we were going to loop around the island. So, we sailed from the Atlantic, to the Pacific and back to the Atlantic again!

1. The house and flag mark the official location of Cape Horn
2. Looking South, to the left of those rocks is the Atlantic Ocean, while to the right of the rocks is the Pacific Ocean

Day 84: Penguins at the Falkland Islands

Port of Call: Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
Excursions: Bluff Cove Penguins (Me and J); Rockhopper Penguins (J's Parents)
Brief Thoughts: Getting to and from the penguin rookery was an experience in itself. "off-road" is an understatement. We saw thousands of adult and chick Gentoo penguins at Bluff Cove as well as a few King penguins. While the adults avoided us, the chicks were fearless, especially the two little ones which you will see in the photos below. The chicks had started to moult and were absolutely adorable. J and I really enjoyed this excursion. It was definitely the highlight of the cruise so far.

Here are some assorted penguin pictures from today. Can anyone guess what Picture #18 is?

Current Location:52D09.03'S and 058D01.85'W