Puerto Madryn

Today started out with little more than the idea of

“let’s just walk around a bit”.

We walked along the malacon for about a kilometre

before turning back out of sheer boredom. The town

is nothing special. On return we walked along the edge

of the ocean wavelets B-R-R-R!  The cold water

temperature did not stop the local children doing

their swimming lessons however. I think these

Canadians have gotten a little “soft”. Ha-ha

This is a panoramic shot I took

We realized we had overdressed so we went back

to the ship, put on shorts and put away our jackets.

Back in the town we went to the local tourism office

and got information on a natural history museum and

the first schoolhouse built in Patagonia. First was the

museum. Utilizing a mansion built by a pioneer we

found the house was more interesting than the museum

artifacts (although in truth the artifacts were well

presented and were of good quality). We just happen

to like that style of house. We were probably in the

museum for 15 minutes at most before heading

down the street to the “Casa Toschke”. This was a

gem of a visit. An original school built by a German

in 1903 (and almost all of both buildings are still

completely original). The guide gave us a history

lesson as this area was originally built up by people

from Wales fleeing the oppressive English overlords.

We were very impressed with this place.

Now it was a bit past 1 PM so we went to a nice

restaurant to have some local cuisine and Argentinian

beer/wine. Of course the restaurant had wi-fi so

I could send some e-mails and text chat with the kids.

The late afternoon was spent playing crib/relaxing/watching

the tour buses returning/eating a light supper;

and later me getting ready to watch the football game

between Alabama and Clemson which starts at 10 PM

(yikes!)

Today we did 11.6 kilometres,13 floors (so far),

and 18,500 steps. To both of us it didn’t feel like we had

done that much.

First full day at sea

Slack day for us while we are at sea. Only 9,000 steps and 5.7 km BUT 27
flights of stairs!

Today we just hung out doing whatever we wanted to do (much of the time
independently).

We attended a presentation on our next port of call. This port has some interesting
animal viewing
but everything is so far away and it isn’t worth it for us to get a tour. After that
presentation we
watched a documentary on penguins. Later I watched a very good presentation
on secret codes
that may or may not be to be shown on renaissance paintings

Tonight was a formal dress night followed by a champagne fountain.

The evening theatre show was a speciality Broadway type show which
was extremely
well done but not my cup of tea.

All four of the NFL wild card games were broadcast on TV and the
big screen between
yesterday and today and I caught a bit of a couple of them.

Montevideo

We awoke to the ship entering Montevideo.

After our breakfast we walked off the ship,through the mass of people offering tours different
rom the eight or ten offered by Princess.

We walked through the historical center of town before stopping for some refreshments
nd an internet connection to text with the kids. Love to see the snow (in the photos!!!)

Next we hooked up with a two and a half hour walking tour with the guide explaining all
about Uruguay. He was really good.

After walking quite a bit more we stopped at a famous bar/restaurant for typical Uruguayan food.
t was really good. Too late we discovered a place containing numerous restaurants where they
cooked all kinds of meat on open barbeques. We were too full so we headed back to the ship

Later on after a light buffet supper (Mexican food) Caro went to see the early theatre show
and I watched some of the NFL playoffs on the big screen.

Caro returned from the show,convinced me to go in the hot tub and further convinced me
that I would enjoy the late repeat of the theatre show with her.It was a Brazilian singer who
was really very very good. She sang all Brazilian songs and I am glad she had me going
back with her.

Todays hiking was 14.4 km and 23074 steps

Full day in BA followed by cruise

Well now,”that” was a fantastic day!

We started this morning by walking from the cruise terminal to the area
where we spent yesterday.
The distance was about 3 kilometres and after going through a sketchy i
ndustrial area we came out
at Plaza San Martin which is a beautiful park containing this country’s
memorial for the Falklands
(Malvinas) war. There is a massive rubber tree who’s limbs are so big
they are supported by
metal “U” brackets.

We had tickets for an english speaking tour at the Theatre Colon.
This opera house is ranked as the third best in the world and the
guide was really
good so we came away very impressed indeed.

After the tour ended we were walking the area of the city
called “Microcenter”
(where we have spent the last few days)and popped
nto a restaurant for a traditional
Argentinian meal of empanadas. Of course I made sure
there was wi-fi so I could text message
with the kids and get updated photos of Hannah! Mission
accomplished!! While walking Caro
had a misfortune and tripped and fell, however nothing
broken, just painful wrists and knees.
Thank goodness it wasn’t worse!

We next walked down to the area of the Presidential
Palace. It is a pinkish colour and is
located in an area of old buildings and beautiful parks.
Oh my!

We do love walking the streets here.

We caught a taxi back to the cruise port terminal
nd after being back on board we had some
quiet time before the safety class everyone has
to go through was completed.

We had just started our supper (and were speaking to the
couple in the next table-they
were from Utah) when Caro noticed that the ship was moving.
SHOOT! We wanted to watch
the cityscape as we sailed away so we wolfed down our meal .
Once outside on the promenade deck
we enjoyed watching Buenos Aries slowly disappear. I got a
great black and white photo.

We decided to watch a movie on the big screen outside in
midship at night under the stars.
The movie was Jurassic World; it was a very warm night-NO BUGS-
and a thoroughly wonderful
way to finish off our hectic day.

23,699 steps;15.6 kilometres

First full day in BA

I was so tired last night I was asleep by about 7:30  P.M.  Caro stayed up quite a bit more

We slept on top of the sheets with the window open and the air conditioning doing nothing really except providing some great white noise. We both slept wonderfully!

We started our usual walking and chose a nice looking restaurant for brunch. After being assured they accepted Mastercard we had a nice meal. It turns out our Mastercards did not work in their machine so we paid with our very limited supply of Argentinian pesos (we couldn't get any pesos at home due to a currency crises here but had got a cash advance from Mastercard yesterday).

After having no luck using my debit card in one bank to get cash from our chequing account we went to HSBC and got an employee to help us. We were able to take out the maximum amount which is 3000 pesos (27 pesos to the dollar). On top of that we were dinged almost 11% commissions etc. OUCH. We were told that this is the norm here.

We walked back to the Theatre Colon and purchased tickets with Mastercard for a tour in English tomorrow at 11 AM.

It is 2 PM and I decided to write this now as we are going to the ship soon and I don't know when I can upload again.

My cell phone shows that we walked 8.3 kilometres this morning (12654 steps)

Arrival in Argentina

Well that flight was long....for me (about 2 hours of crappy sleep) but for Caro she managed to get closer to six hours (lucky her!)

Arrival into the country went very smoothly and after picking up our luggage we grabbed a cab to the Air bnb. The apartment block guard gave us the keys and so up to the fifth floor we went. The apartment is "cozy" but will do for tonight. The air conditioning doesn't work very good and there is a gas odor so we have windows open for now ( was 28 degrees today)

We showered and made ourselves half presentable before starting to go walking in the area. We enjoyed an Argentinian lunch and then we must have wandered a couple of kilometres. This part of the city has some beautiful  old buildings. By about 6 we were bushed so decided to stay in the apartment for now

Houston on New Years Day

Lisa dropped us off at the airport at 5:10 this morning and by 0600  we were through American security and after a further two hour wait we were in the air for the almost four hour flight.

We are in the middle of a nine hour wait and because it is New Years Day there wasn't much to do in the city so we are staying in the airport killing time by wandering all the terminal buildings of this massive airport. We took the Skyway train from "our" terminal (E) to terminal A where we ate some Chinese food and then found the location where I am writing this.

 Caro has a  new selfie stick so now all we have to do is look at the camera correctly!

We should be able to use our lounge passes that come as a perk with our ATB mastercard. We get  three hour max time so I think we will go there about 5 this afternoon. It is 3:30  (Houston time) as I write this.

Caro slept on the plane but I didn't. Our ten-ish hour flight tonight will give us plenty of time for more cramped sleeping!