New Year's Day Sailing

The New Year's Day was spent at sea, making our way northward through the Atlantic Ocean. It's a good idea to start the new year with exercise, which in the case of being on a cruise ship involved walking the entirety of the ship, from one side of the lowermost deck 3 to the opposite end of deck 16, snaking our way across all the decks in between. We even made sure to visit the internal corridors housing the inside rooms on decks 7 through 11. Bonus was passing by the suites on deck 11 as they were being cleaned and being able to poke our gaze through the open double doors. We later visited the buffet where we noticed a huge selection of cakes decorated for the new year. Perhaps this is a cruise ship tradition?

Puerto Madryn and Punta Tombo (January 2nd, 2024)

The next day we arrived in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Here we docked, just like in Ushuaia, except without the wind. It was now much warmer than down in Tierra del Fuego. We had booked an excursion to see Magellanic penguins at the Punta Tombo rookery (place where penguins hatch). Well this was bit of an adventure. The bus we got has definitely seen better days, as indicated by the interior looking quite beat up. Just as our nearly 3 hour drive was coming to an end, with only around 10 miles to go, the bus broke down. It also broke down in an area with no cell signal so the driver could not even communicate this to the headquarters. After a while another bus passed by and apparently there was some conversation between the drivers with the other bus promising to come back and pick us up. Well after another 30 minutes of waiting it became apparent this was not happening. Luckily, the driver was able the jerry-rig some fix that got the engine purring again and we arrived at the rookery about an hour behind schedule. But this actually ended up being a blessing in disguise. We arrived just as passengers from the other dozen or so buses were heading out and thus had the park mostly to ourselves. The guide told us not to stop at the first penguins and to keep walking to the ocean. Of course nobody paid attention and we all started photographing penguins the moment we saw the first few birds.

Well, after a while we all realized that yes indeed, there are many of them here and it will be the best to continue walking. Still, the penguins are really interesting. This was my first time seeing them in a non-ZOO setting. The most fascinating aspect is that they all just stand around in the open, like black and white garden gnomes. It is such a strange behavior. I guess they don't have any land predators? Most animals try to hide or at least blend in with the environment but these birds just stand there, fully exposed. And unlike "regular" birds, they don't even have the luxury of flying away were some predator to appear.

We were also lucky in being able to see some babies. They looked very fluffy. Of course we were not allowed to approach the animals so can't report if they actually were.

Back at the parking lot we spotted a herd of guanacos, the Argentinean version of a llama. The driver managed to make more fixes to the bus and we made it back without more breakdowns, although we were definitely running behind schedule. One other bus arrived right after ours but the moment we were on board, the ship pushed off, with all other cruisers long aboard. This was one of those cases where being on a ship-sponsored excursion paid off, since had we booked a similar trip privately, there was a non-zero chance of missing the ship. As one more side note, being the three of us, I ended up sitting next to some random lady from the ship (the bus was fully packed). She was telling me that her husband was supposed to come but had to stay in as he was not feeling well. We definitely noticed that as the cruise progressed, the coughing got more prevalent and more people ended up falling ill. Luckily for us, neither of us got anything obvious, but had we been sailing earlier into the COVID-19 pandemic, we likely would end up being one of those prime TV, news-discussed cruise ships stuck in a quarantine limbo instead of making its way to its destination.

Sailing (January 3rd)

Following was another sea day. We ended up again doing much of the same: coffee at Cafe al Bacio, gym, various lectures, drinks at the outdoor bar, relaxing at the Sky Observation Lounge, dinner at the main dining room, followed by a show (which tonight was in the form excellent acrobats), and also enjoying the beautiful sunset.

Punta del Este (January 4th, 2024)

On day 13 of our adventure we arrived in Punta del Este, Uruguay. To be honest, I have never heard of this town prior to this trip, but per Sandra, it is a widely known holiday destination for the Latin American well-off crowd. Apparently it is the Monaco or the Hamptons of South America. We figured that we can get by here without an excursion, so after getting off the tender, we basically just strolled around. It is a very nice town for doing that. We started our sightseeing on the "peninsula" which is also where the tender boats dropped us off. From here we walked to the Playa Brava on the eastern side of the peninsula. This beach is facing the Atlantic ocean and had rough waters and rocky feel to it. Our next stop was a little cafe selling empanadas. We noticed they were selling small single-person bottles of Uruguayan wine so we asked for one each. I don't think I have had Uruguayan wine before but it was actually excellent, and we ended up with several more rounds. Then after this lunch break, we walked over to the other beach, Playa Mansa, on the south/west side of town. Here the water was calm and the sand golden. While this beach also appears to face the ocean, it is actually along the massive 140-mile wide outlet of the Rio de la Plata that forms the gulf where one also finds Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It was nice having a relaxing day for some casual strolling.

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