Serene Wandering

January 31st was our first day exploring in Antarctica!  We thought we were going kayaking – one of two optional excursions we had booked on this trip.  Almost everything on Expedition Cruises are included in the cruise price.

In the meantime we had been told about the planned excursions to see two old Antarctic stations – both closed for decades.  Historic things are always of great interest to me so I hoped we would get back from kayaking in time to go see the stations.

We had been told by the expedition leaders that flexibility was necessary because the schedule always changes!  So it did, and I was glad.  Kayaking was cancelled due to the weather conditions.

Our day would be spent exploring an area in Marguerite Bay.  This area is locked in by ice 8-9 months of the year and is further south than most cruises go. 

Because the bay was accessible, and because our cruise was two days longer than most, we were able to visit.

I am all dressed up with someplace to go!   It seemed somewhat complicated at first to figure out our layers, our jackets, which gloves, which accessories,  life jacket, and on and on.  It seemed like a lot the first and second days but we got much better at it and learned we didn’t need to wear and take nearly as much as we did at the beginning.  

The protocol for going to shore was to be all put together when your color group was called and proceed to the staging area.  Then when directed, we would go to the mudroom to get our boots on and then line up to board the zodiacs. 

While waiting to leave the ship, we watched an earlier group decontaminate their boots as they returned.

We checked off the ship using our key card and went down to water level to get on the zodiac. 

Each zodiac holds a maximum of 16 passengers. We motored through the waters of Marguerite Bay on our way to Stonington Island.

Randy was all geared up too! Whenever we were ashore, the ship provided walking sticks. We soon learned that they were just something to carry!

It was nice to have views of the Venture from land. She is a pretty ship.

There are two historic stations at Stonington Island, a US station in the foreground and a UK station in the background. 

These photographs were done by ship photographer, Harry.

Our first pictures are of the UK station which had two periods of operation – 1946-1950 and 1960-1975.

 

The station looked as though it could have been occupied recently.

The American Station was named for explorer Richard Byrd.  

Byrd had become famous by flying to, and circling, the South Pole in 1929.

One hundred twenty men built and worked at the US Station during the 1940s in periods before and after World War II.  

Two women, wives of men who worked on the American Station, were the first women to over winter in Antarctica.

We saw equipment left at the US station, including an engine that was never taken out of its crate.

There was also a tank.

After walking around for an hour, we were ready to go back to the ship.

We had never been cold – giving us ideas on what we could leave behind on our next outing.

The afternoon zodiac excursions were cancelled due to snow and wind – just the first instance of how quickly the weather could change in Antarctica.

The expedition team changed gears and provided lectures.  Our impression was that each team member had a repertoire of lectures that were added in based on time, location and what we had seen, or hoped to see.

The first was Modern Antarctic Adventures presented by expedition member Robert Egelstaff.

Amundson, Scott and Shackleton and their historic expeditions are still revered and many modern efforts mirror back to theirs.

Robert Egelstaff was one of the four adventurers who retraced Sir Ernest Shackleton’s journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. 

They completed their journey over the Antarctic summer of 1993-1994.

Roger Mear and Robert Sean wrote a book about their 1986 expedition called In the Footsteps of Scott.

Vivian Fuchs was once the base commander at the British station we visited earlier in the day.  He and Edmond Hillary used snow cats to go across Antarctica, leaving from opposite sides, and meeting in the middle.

Many have tried to be first at something in Antarctica!

Reinhardt Messner skied 2000 miles across Antarctic, used kites and sleds.

These men rowed for two weeks to cross the Drake Passage.  Our trip across took two days.

In another lecture, we learned more about seals!

And how they are different from sea lions.

We completed our lectures learning about a website called Happy Whale. Whales are unique and are identified by their fluke-prints.  When citizen scientists photograph flukes and send the photos to Happy Whale, whale movement can be followed.  If the fluke is new to the collection, the citizen scientist is able to name the whale.  We did not try to send in our fluke pictures but others on the ship had fun with it.  We are aware that one whale was photographed and named from the Seabourn Pursuit, sister ship to our Seabourn Venture.

Next up:  One of our most epic days in Antarctica!

We had two days of sailing through the Drake Passage from the tip of South America to the outer islands of Antarctica.  Conditions weren’t bad on the first day, but restless enough that Randy took some Dramamine.  Fortunately, we were both able to go about our day. That meant opportunities to learn about what we would see and do on this sailing.

We started with a required briefing on the submersible and kayak operations.   It was required because we were both signed up for kayaking and Randy was signed up for the submersible.

After the briefing, we were invited down to the submarine garage to see the vessels. 

Once we saw them, I decided I wanted to go too.

Seabourn has two submarines, each costing $5 million.  They operate with electric motors.  

We were also invited to view the bridge area.  When it was our turn, all of the officers who were able to talk to passengers were already engaged. 

It was basically just a walk through – but that was still interesting.

Then it was back to the Discovery Center (theater) for phone photography training.  Harry, the ship photographer, gave us so many tips that I ended up watching the lecture again and again on our stateroom TV.

The absolute best tip he gave us was just to enjoy our time.  We should only worry about taking the “people” shots because he would be out there taking all the scenery and animals. His pictures would be our pictures.  We didn’t have to buy them.  They were part of our cruise and we could use the photographs as though we had taken them.  

We had a lecture about Sir Francis Beaufort, 1774-1857.  We learned lots of interesting things about the man but the most relevant part was that he developed a scale to measure winds and waves at sea.  The wind scale ranges from 0 to 12, but intense storms can go beyond 12.  The Drake passage was generally a 7-8 in their earlier crossings.   In honor of the man, there is also Beaufort Sea north of Alaska, and Beaufort Island in Antarctica.

Next we learned about Sir Francis Drake, for whom the Drake Passage is named.

Francis Drake was Pirate of the Queen, that being Elizabeth of England.  He had a license to be a privateer.  

He, and his English armada, went on a grand voyage financed by the queen.  After a severe storm, only his ship was left.

He looked for the Spanish ship, Cagafuego, because of the riches it carried.  When he found it, they won a short battle and took the riches.

It took him 10,000 miles and three years to bring the riches back to Queen Elizabeth.  Her investment in his venture brought a 40 fold yield and funded the beginnings of what became the British Empire.

Sir Francis Drake never sailed the passage that bears his name.

Again, the Drake passage is 600 miles wide and can be the roughest seas in the world because of unstopped winds.  

Antarctic fetch is the distance wind blows without interruption over water in the Antarctic region.

Although, the first day wasn’t bad, our second day on the Drake was even calmer.  Drake Lake for us – at least in this direction.  We’d go back through again at the end of our trip.

Our first activity on the second day was to take any clothes we brought with us that might possibly touch the ice to the expedition crew for inspection.  They looked very closely at any Velcro closures and picked out any remaining particles with tweezers to avoid any contamination of the Antarctic ecosystem. 

We finally explored the rest of the ship, and then went to a lecture on the penguins of Antarctica.

There are 16 varieties of penguins in the world.

Six varieties can be seen in Antarctica, although they were only sure we would see Chinstrap, Gentoo and Adélie.

This generally shows the penguin life cycle but climate change is altering timing and impacting the survival of the chicks. The Gentoo species is highly adaptable and is taking advantage of climate change circumstances but it is to the detriment of the Adélie and Chinstrap. 

Penguins take 3-5 years to reach sexual maturity, and live 15-20 years.  Leapord seals and a type of orca are their predators.

The second round of expedition lecturing was by a scientist with a PHD in Reproductive Biology.  We learned about Marine Mammals in Antarctica.

He said we will likely see humpback and Minke whales.  There are four types of Orca in the southern hemisphere.

He talked a bit about the seals we would see, but many of the adults were already gone for the season.  

Deep diving seals have oxygen rich blood and very large eyes that are adapted to take advantage of the most minute levels of light.

A fascinating portion of his lecture was about embryonic diapause – when some species can actually pause a pregnancy until their situation improves for better viability.  That is crazy!

We continued our learning when we went on a Galley Tour.  We walked through The Restaurant.

This is the head chef.  He has 26 chefs that work with him and are responsible for various tasks.

Meals are plated by one chef, typically the one cooking the protein.  That is done on all Seabourn ships because each have fewer than 600 passengers.  He said that across all restaurant systems, if there are more than 600, plating is done by conveyor with each chef or assistant adding specific items to the plate.

The most fascinating thing we learned was that the ship does not have enough plates, bowls and cutlery to serve all of the passengers.  They have much, much fewer than that.  But, they have a 90 second dishwasher which means they are constantly reintroducing items that were just used.

Our next lecture was from the historian, Udo.  He told us about a variety of expeditions in the early years of Antarctic explorations.

We were happy to hear him talk about the Belgica Expedition as we knew something about this one.

Randy and I both read Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton as trip preparation.

They were the first group who ever overwintered on Antarctica, and though most survived, it wasn’t without trauma.  However, things learned by the ship’s doctor have impacted treatments for over a century as well as providing insight for NASA.

Udo discussed several other expeditions.

It was amazing that so many wanted to go to Antarctica and what they accomplished with limited resources.

Another presenter told us about the Ice Sheet.  The continent of Antarctica doubles seasonally with the freezing of sea ice.  Because we were sailing later in the season, we will likely go further south and be able to see some sea ice.

Although I didn’t really understand it because my brain was full, we were told about the Antarctic Convergence. 

I did understand, however, that we would be crossing over the Antarctic circle about 9:45 pm.  It would be the first time this season that the Seabourn Venture has crossed it.

Next up: Antarctica!

On January 28th, we had a reasonable wake up call and a nice breakfast before boarding busses to the airport in Buenos Aires. Once on the bus, we were told that our charter flight to Ushuaia was delayed. That gave us a chance to meet some of our fellow passengers.

In our conversations, we learned that most of us were new to Seabourn. We met people from Australia, South Carolina, and Florida.  We met a woman whose traveling partner was having a hard time getting from Las Vegas to Buenos Aires.  He did not make the charter flight but Seabourn arranged for him to take a commercial flight into Ushuaia. He would probably make the cruise, but his luggage likely wouldn’t.  

The flight was uneventful and, as our flight attendant said, we made it to the “tippy bottom” of SouthAmerica.

The archipelago at the most south, Terra del Fuego, is shared by Chili and Argentina and separated from the mainland.  The Beagle Channel is a waterway between the two countries.  We would sail through the Beagle Channel to get to the Drake Passage – more on the Drake later.

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We learned just a bit about Ushuaia as we were bussed from the airport to the ship.

The city has 100,000 inhabitants and the primary occupations are tourism, electronics and public employment.

There she is!  Our first view of the Seabourn Venture!

Venture and Pursuit are expedition ships in the Seabourn Line.

We boarded and found our cabin.  

This cabin is handicapped accessible.  It was offered to us as an upgrade a week before departure at a very reduced rate. We definitely thought we’d like the extra room.  We “lost” a walk-in closet and bathtub in the upgrade.

We asked our room stewards (at some point) if they had ever had anyone in the cabin with significant mobility issues.  They had not and, given the nature of the trip, we can’t imagine anyone with mobility issues doing anything off the ship in Antarctica.

We tried on our “free” gear – a black puffy jacket and orange parka, a hat and a waterproof backpack.  (We got to keep them all after the trip.) We had pre-ordered sizes so they were waiting for us in the cabin.

We did the normal “get on board a cruise ship” activities such as watching a safety video and going to our muster station.

Luqui, shown introducing his team, worked in tandem with the captain. He, and the weather, were in control of our Antarctica experience. The expedition crew served in various capacities including zodiac drivers, lecturers, shore guides, kayak leaders and submarine pilots. They were always recognizable by their red jackets.

We learned there were a couple of musicians and a singing cruise director onboard. That is way fewer entertainers than most cruises but typical entertainment was not the focus of this journey. There was almost a 1:1 ratio of crew to passengers on this sailing of the Seabourn Venture with approximately 230 of each. The passenger maximum capacity is 264..

We were told that our 7 o’clock p.m. departure would be delayed because one passenger was yet to come. We assumed he was the partner of the woman we met earlier. We just hoped his luggage made it too.

We spent time in the afternoon unpacking and organizing our cabin.

We went to the mudroom to be sized for our waterproof boots to be used when on a zodiac or going ashore.  We were shown the decontamination protocol for cleaning the boots afterwards. Our cabin number was 738, higher than Serene could reach for the boots in back. (Randy added that sentence.)

After dinner, we had our first of many expedition meetings.   We were introduced to the philosophies of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

We learned about the treaty that “governs” Antarctica.

Expedition leader, Luqui, told us a bit about the Drake Passage, a 600 mile waterway between Cape Horn and the outer islands of Antarctica.  It takes two days to go across.

The Drake passage is sometimes called Drake Lake and sometimes Drake Shake depending on the conditions.  Time would tell what we’d have.  

Some tourists to Antarctica are so concerned about sailing across the Drake Passage that Silversea cruise line, and others, design their Antarctica experiences to fly in. That wasn’t for us. We were there for it all!

Travelers to Buenos Aries often fly up just for the day to see  Iguazú Falls. Almost always that means seeing the falls only from the Argentinian side because of the time involved crossing the border to Brazil. The experience from Brazil was great but our guide, Maria, said the sides were very different.

She arrived early so that we could begin when it was a bit cooler because we were going to be mostly walking.

Leaving the hotel grounds, we walked through an arch of golden bamboo. This bamboo had been introduced to the area and is now considered invasive. 

There are four natural bamboo varieties in Argentina, including this green variety.

We walked past the original hotel, used back when it was a lengthy and hard trip for tourist to come to the falls.  The building is now used for offices.

Maria stopped us at this large map to give us an idea of where we were going. There are three walking routes.

The falls are a mile and a half in length, shaped in a horseshoe.  The three routes allow you to see it from almost all vantage points.

We walked to a park train station, where we would embark on the first leg of our journey.

An interesting part of the station was this enclosed picnic area. The monkeys can be quite aggressive about stealing food and even cause injuries.  They eat so much people food that some have been found to be diabetic.

We were there in the morning and there were no monkeys visible. She said they know when it’s lunchtime.  It was one of my hopes for the day to see the monkeys in the wild and Maria said it would be unusual not to. 

Our train ride was cozy but pleasant.

We disembarked and began walking over a series of walkways above the river.  Although I don’t remember specific dates, these are the latest version of the walkways after the former ones were wiped out in flooding.

We enjoyed this view as it looked like we were walking up to a giant sink hole!

The normal water flow is 1700 cubic meters per second.  The power companies adjust up or down as needed. 

We walked to a different area with a different view.  

We saw a bit of the wildlife – but no monkeys!

There is a tarantula in there!

A particular type of bird collects snails for a meal.

There were several types of butterflies around – this one was attracted to the red on my backpack.  

All of the waterfalls seemed to be named but few registered with me.  We had learned about San Martín in Buenos Aires.  He was a hero to several South American countries for fighting the Spanish.  

There were more views at every turn.

It was fun to watch the boats for a bit!

Maria showed us a few varieties of plants that were used by the indigenous peoples for medicinal purposes.  

Throughout the course of the morning and early afternoon we walked our way around all three routes.  It was all beautiful and we were glad to have seen Iguazú Falls from both sides.  We never did see any monkeys – but I guess that means they didn’t bother us either.

Maria told us that this land was once all forested.  By 1920 the forests were gone for timber.  The area is now protected under the national park.

The park was created with land donated by one family.  It was created in 1930s.  The same family still owns the land in front of the falls where the hotel sits.

The Gran Malia Iguazú was a delightful place to stay!  Even though we had checked out of our room before meeting Maria that morning, we were able to use the spa area to shower and clean up for our late afternoon flight back to Buenos Aires.

We had lunch and one more drink – with peanuts and potato chips as always.

Maria picked us up to take us to the airport.  We usually change dollars to local currency for gratuities. However, at the end of our time with Maria, we asked her which currency would benefit her more.  After some reluctance, she said that she could spend US dollars in Paraguay so that is what we did.

And speaking of Paraguay…I don’t know when we would ever go there if it wasn’t on this trip.  I guess it will always be a country we missed.

We were near the last to board our Aero Argentinas flight back to Buenos Aires.  The gate attendant had trouble with our boarding passes because he didn’t recognize than we had been upgraded to first class!   We have status on Delta and the Sky Team alliance kicked in.  

The funny thing was that we were both upgraded but not seated together in first class.  There were eight seats and only three were occupied (including our two) so we moved and sat together.

At the end of the flight the flight attendant made an announcement and people on the plane cheered.  When she repeated the announcement in English we learned that the first officer was completing his final flight before retirement.

As we approached the gate, our plane was sprayed with water from the fire trucks and people along the tarmac lined up to make it a big deal for this pilot.

He stood at the exit so we could all give him our congratulations!

We were very glad we visited Iguazú Falls but we were ready for the main event.  We went back to the Alvear Palace for one more night to connect with Seabourn before leaving for Ushuaia and Antarctica.

Next up: We board Seabourn Venture.

This is an arial view of Iguazú Falls! We wouldn’t see the falls from that perspective (helicopters are possible) but we were planning to see the falls from both Argentina and Brazil. The advantage of having a very experienced travel agent is that she knows these things when we do not.

Iguazú Falls are located on the natural border between the two countries. 

Iguazú Falls  are on the list of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.  Our Antarctica cruise company offered a pricy pre-extension to the falls. We opted for a less expensive private excursion arranged by our travel agent. 

We had a two hour flight from Buenos Aires to the town of Iguazú.  Maria, a Tours by Locals guide, and her driver met us at the airport and took us into Iguazú National Park. 

We needed entrance tickets for the park right away because our hotel was inside the national park. 

This was our first impression as we walked into the lobby of the hotel. It was lovely but , as designed, your eye goes straight through to Iguazú Falls.

Our second impression was being told we needed to be sure to lock, not just close, our balcony door because the monkeys have figured out how to open them. 

We had to sign that we understood the mandate- presumably so we would take it seriously. Otherwise, we could be held liable for their mischief.

After settling in, we explored the hotel and grounds.

We saw the very beautiful pool and lamented not bringing our suits.

We saw the brown capuchin monkeys crawling around the hotel.  A couple of the small ones stayed on the top of the building, seemingly not yet coordinated enough to scramble around on the balcony glass.

We met Maria and a different driver quite early the next morning because of the summer heat and likely delays crossing the border between Argentina and Brazil. Crossing borders is referred to as “going to the other side.”

We saw a few guinea pigs alongside the road.  Indigenous people in this area eat them but not the regular population.

We also saw numerous signs asking drivers to be aware of jaguars.  They are nocturnal so our chances of seeing one was very slim.

Maria collected our passports and Brazil visas.  She filled out the Argentina required paperwork for the four of us. The process of doing it all by paper seemed inefficient, but it isn’t our country.

We were in an expedited lane because our transit was for tourism. It still moved slowly  – but more quickly than the others.  

The billboards advertised electronics which are much less expensive in Paraguay.  Maria said there is an illegal market for buying in Paraguay and reselling in Argentina.

Eventually we made it through the Argentina exit with Maria handling everything.

We went through a few hundred meters of no-man’s-land, and stopped to enter Brazil.  This time Randy and I needed to get out and move through the process in a more traditional way.   Our passports were stamped.  

Maria and the driver did not need to do anything to enter Brazil because their visit was to be less than 24 hours.  As an Argentina resident, Maria can travel anywhere in South America with just an ID card.

Before the September 11 attacks in the United States, there wasn’t any legal border crossings between Argentina, Brazil and nearby Paraguay.  Restrictions have tightened more with various world events including the Hamas attacks and Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Even though crossings can take hours, Argentinians do everything from buying groceries to vacationing in Brazil.  The Brazilian currency is stronger and more stable than the Argentinian peso.

The city on the Brazilian side of the falls has developed tourism infrastructure including a water park, aquarium, and golf resort.  These are used mostly by Brazilian families on vacation.  International travels are usually in and out just for the falls.

We could see our Grand Malia Hotel  right over there – yet it had taken us two hours to go around.

Maria told us that the experience from the two sides of the falls are very different. Brazil has the panoramic view.

Some visitors take a boat to get “up close and personal” (and wet) by the falls.

We saw coatimundi!   We saw them several times but getting a picture was very hard. Randy got lucky!

We saw signs discouraging visitors from feeding the animals because human food makes them sick. 

We enjoyed some wonderful views!

We occasionally got a cooling spray.

We could see where we would be walking on the Argentina side the next day. The flag is just visible in the top center.

This is our delightful guide, Maria!

At the end of our walk along the Brazilian side of Iguazú Falls, there was an elevator to take us back up to street level!  How great is that!

On our drive back we saw more signs to watch for leopards.

We made our way back through the borders. Brazilian border patrol stamped our passports again.

We were hot and tired when we got back to our hotel and went straight to the gift shop to see about buying swimsuits. There wasn’t anything workable so we decided we would go in shorts (and a top for me). It was fine.

The pool was great – and with such a view! We ordered Argentinan beer from the pool bar. It was served with potato chips and peanuts. 

Every time we had drinks in this hotel, it came with chips and peanuts.  It wasn’t hard to get used to!

It was a great day, with two new acquaintances, beautiful views and greater understanding of life in this part of the world.

Although not specific to Iguazù Falls, I did learn some interesting things about Brazil while preparing for this trip:

*The large triangle that is Brazil in South America has borderers with every other country in South America, except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil’s landmass is bigger than the contiguous United States .

*Since 2021, Brazil is second in the world in making cheese. Only France makes more.

*There is a program in Brazil’s prison system where reading a book and completing a report, can take four days off your sentence up to 48 days a year. It is seen as a mode to enhance the prison prisoners rehabilitation, and also to reduce crowded conditions..

Next Up – We see the falls from the Argentinia side.

Our full day in Buenos Aries, January 24, began with a very nice included breakfast buffet – one of the top three or four we’ve had anywhere.   The Alvear Palace continued to impress.

Next, we had a private tour of Buenos Aires.  It began in the government-historic area. 

We were in front of Casa Rosada, the seat of national government.  It sits on the former site of the Fort of Buenos Aires, erected in 1580.  The current building combined two structures in a symbolic way, putting a middle section between the two buildings formerly housing differing political ideals.  Our guide says no one knows exactly why the building is pink.  She likes the explanation that one faction was represented in white while its opposition was represented in red.  The pink is another symbolic joining. 

The Plaza de Mayo is surrounded by buildings and palaces that represent Spanish rule, Argentine government, protests, and independence. 

The statue shows General Manuel Belgrano. He was important in Argentina’s war of independence and is considered a founding father.

The rocks at the base of the statue represent every person in Buenos Aires who died from Covid.  I asked about the government’s Covid response and our guide said it was horrible.  They were on lockdown for about two years and didn’t receive vaccinations until six months after they were available in the US.

Belgrano was the designer of the Argentinian flag in 1812.  His version did not have the Sun of May emblem at the center which was added in 1818.

The May Pyramid is the oldest national monument in the city. It was constructed in 1811 to celebrate the 1810 revolution.  Notice the scarves on the pavement at the bottom of the picture.

These scarves represent the older women who marched two by two (because more than two was not allowed) in the 1970s. They marched to protest the disappearance of so many citizens during military governance.

From the square, we walked to the Municipal Cathedral, more formerly named IGLESIA SANTÍSIMA TRINIDAD EN BUENOS AIRES or the Catedral of Buenos Aries.  

The cathedral was beautiful, as so many are. 

Notice the silver on the pulpit and altar. 

This cathedral was where Jorge Mario Bergoglio served before becoming Pope Francis. In Argentina he is called Papa Francisco.

We were able to see the daily military honor for interred Argentinian war hero General José de San Martín.  In the early 1800s, San Martin helped lead revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentina, Chili and Peru.  

Opposition and independence were repeated themes in what we saw and heard.

We saw many representations of another opposition figure – Mafalda. She was created in Buenos Aries in the 1950s to resist the positions of the military and far right. As an “eight year old who disliked soup” she gave voice to concerns of the people. We saw her in numerous places on our tour.  She is still very popular in all of South America.

While we were waiting to take my picture with Mafalda, there was a Brazilian family in front of us and a half dozen couples behind us.  

Our guide, Mili, (also pictured) said the line up for pictures can be an hour or more long.  Mafalda’s friends represent different segments of the population.

This wasn’t a food tour, but we did stop at a shop selling dulce de leche, a very popular treat in Argentina.  It is similar to caramel, often infused with flavoring. It can be eaten on ice cream, bread, waffles, and many other ways, including on a spoon.

One souvenir shop was giving out samples of sandwich cookies using dulce de leche.  The samples were delicious.

From there we went to an area called Caminito where dockworkers and immigrants lived and gathered when they first came into Buenos Aires.  It is a very colorful tourist area today.

That is Messi, the Argentine footballer (soccer hero) holding the trophy!

We saw more representations of Mafalda and Pope Francis.

We saw this mural representing the protest led by grandmothers on the Plaza de Mayo.

This is a souvenir of the soccer stadium in this part of Buenos Aries.  We had already passed on an opportunity to stop and take a picture at the stadium, but then Mili told us a great story.  The soccer team from this area did not have team colors for a long time after they began playing.  When they eventually thought they needed colors, they decided to adopt the colors of the flag on the next ship that came into port.  It was a Swedish ship so their colors were blue and yellow.  For many years, Swedish nationals were given free admission into the stadium.

We stopped outside the University of Buenos Aires law school.  School was not in session so it was very quiet.  There are campuses all over the city for various colleges within the university system.  Students attend for free, even international students.  Mili guessed that the student body was 80-90 percent Argentinian.

We walked to the nearby Floralis Generica, a gift to the city from a former student.  The petals are made from aircraft metal and can open and close for day and night.  Because of the expense of operating the flower, it is now left open.  

One of the nice things about a private tour is that the itinerary can be modified.  Recoleta Cemetery wasn’t on Mili’s itinerary, but was of interest to me because it is so often mentioned as a place to visit in Buenos Aires.  Evita Peron is entombed at the cemetery which is why most foreigners seek it out.  

It was unlike any cemetery we had seen before with family crypts (all above ground) and narrow passages.  Most were well kept.  

Our guide said people of any religion and nationality can be interred there – if they could buy a location. Even English speaking females were allowed.  The plots are all sold but families who own one can continue to place family members.

Mili told us about Rufina who dropped dead and was put in a casket in her family’s mausoleum.  A night watchman heard screaming coming from the area.  By the time they looked within that mausoleum and casket, Rufina really was dead.  There were scratches on her face and the top of the casket. She is now believed to have suffered an epileptic seizure, not understood at the time. She is shown trying to get past the door of the mausoleum.

These pictures are of the Duarte family mausoleum in which the remains of Evita Peron are kept.  It is less ostentatious than I would have thought, but this is her family’s crypt, not that of the Peron family.  Our guide said Evita never said the words “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.”  She did give a speech that could have been reasonably summarized that way, but not literally.

This young woman died in an avalanche in Europe. At the very same moment her dog died in Argentina.  They are interred together in this place.

The last stop on our tour was the El Ateneo bookstore.  Mili repeated how very important reading and bookstores are in Buenos Aires, something I mentioned in the trip prep post.

The El Ateneo took over a former performance theater and made it into a very elegant space.

There were a few books in English.

We were happy with our tour and also happy with a relaxing afternoon.

Our evening activity was an Early Dinner and Tango Show. Early meant dinner at 7:00 for tourists as opposed to a more typical 9:00 or 10:00!

Our guide told us there is a difference of opinion about whether tango originated in Argentina or Uruguay.  What is certainly true is that it developed along the river they share.

Once the show began, Randy recognized two of the dancers as people we had an unpleasant experience with earlier in the day.

While in Caminito, a female tango dancer put a hat on Randy and pulled him around for posed photos. Then her male partner did the same with me.  It took 3-4 minutes tops.  It was obviously a pay for photos moment and Randy rolled his eyes and paid the requested $20.  It wasn’t worth arguing about until she demanded another $20 for her partner.  Randy refused, Mili came to see what was up, and we walked away. We scoffed at our own foolishness and deleted the pictures because why would we want to remember that unpleasantness.

Go forward eight hours and there they were on stage – the woman on the left and the man on the right.

We enjoyed the other performers more than them.

Overall, the food was good and we enjoyed chatting with those at our table who were preparing to embark on Princess cruise to Antarctica the next day.

Next up: We head north to Iguaźu Falls.

On January 23, we disembarked in Buenos Aires and went through a very long line at immigration. After watching the immigration officer get annoyed at someone for not knowing the address of her hotel, we were prepared.

All we usually concern ourself with is how to locate our driver and the name of the hotel to confirm with the driver. The address is always in the paperwork, but not in my head!

We ended up with the same immigration officer but she must have gotten her annoyance out of her system because she only asked how long we were going to be in Argentina and the name of the hotel.

Our passports were stamped which happens sometimes and not others. We don’t tend to pay much attention to our passport stamps but we are required to have ten empty pages for a trip this summer so wasn’t happy when she stamped a new page. (Post trip – we both still have 12 empty pages.)

Then we picked up our luggage and walked straight through customs. 

We connected with our driver and began an hour commute to our hotel, the Alvear Palace. His teenage son found an English music playlist on his phone. It was a nice gesture.  

The driver chatted along the way and described Buenos Aires as having: French architecture, Italian food and Spanish language.  That definitely sounds like a place worth exploring!

Buenos Aires was not bombed during either World War so the old world architecture has lasted.  The city also takes pride in its green spaces with mature trees and clean grounds.  

On the downside, political corruption has been, and continues to be, a problem.

We traveled along an avenue he described as the widest road in the world.  The avenue has twenty lanes of traffic if you include the side roads that run parallel and must be crossed in order to get from one side to the other.

The avenue is named  “Avenida 9 de Julio”, which  means “the 9th of July Avenue” – the date of the Argentina’s Independence Day.

The large white building along the avenue, built in 1936, houses the Ministry of Health. Two different representations of Evita Peron were attached to two facades of the building in 2011. It is now commonly called the Evita Building.

The Obelisco de Buenos Aires is at an intersection along Avenida 9 de Julio.  It was completed in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the city’s founding.  The obelisk serves as a gathering point for celebrations and protests.  It is possible to go to the top but we did not. 

It sits on the site of a former church, significant in that it was where the Argentine flag was raised for the first time in 1812.

Our driver said that our hotel, Alvear Palace, was one of the nicest in town. 

It is the hotel Seabourn uses for their guests prior to leaving on their Antarctica cruises.  

Our travel agent booked us at the Palace for this segment of our trip so the hotel would hold our luggage while we went to Iguaźu. We brought along a duffle to use for that side trip.

We had nothing to compare the hotel with in Buenos Aires, but it certainly was lovely, one of the nicest we’ve been to anywhere.

And best of all, a room was available at 11:30 am.    

We have a collection of international power adaptors and I was glad I brought the ones that worked in Argentina.

There were a few North American and USB outlets in the room but we always seem to need more!

At the concierge desk, we traded $140 USD for 200,000 Argentine pesos. Those are some bizarre numbers!  Ongoing inflation has impacted the currency dramatically.

A few weeks later, when I took the screen shot showing the currency exchange to write this post, it was less than 200,000. It seems that is the way of things in Argentina.

While doing the transaction, the concierge rejected two of our $20 bills for very minor tears.  He said they were “broken.” I had read other travelers commenting on the need for flawless bills, but this was our first experience.  (We exchange currency every year in Mexico and it has never been an issue.)

We napped for a couple hours, cleaned up, and walked around the block to a recommended steakhouse. Argentina beef is a thing!

We were there about 2:30 because the restaurant closed at 4:00 and didn’t open again until 8:00 pm. Staying awake, let alone eating that late, wasn’t happening – especially after an overnight flight.    Note to self: Stop taking overnight flights.

Fervor is a Michelin Star restaurant. Our experience was very good. I was hungry and tired enough to forget to take pictures. Our meal was a little pricey, but it also felt like a small celebration after arriving in a new country and being at the beginning of a new adventure!

Next Up: We have a full day in Buenos Aires.

Antarctica: January-February 2026

Our next adventure was to Antarctica!  We were going on an expedition cruise to see icebergs, whales, seals and penguins!

We were beginning with a couple of days in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Then we were to go north to the Brazilian border to Iguazu Falls before going back to Buenos Aires to connect with our Seabourn Cruise.

This was to be our first cruise with Seabourn, specifically on Venture. She is one of  two ships the company has designed and built for expedition cruises in polar regions.

Prepping clothes and other items for this trip was quite the undertaking.  Our guest room was the staging area for weeks.

We had to pack for warm weather in Buenos Aires, hot weather at Iguazu Falls, cool temperatures on the ship and cold weather in Antarctica.  We also had to take an extra duffel for the flight to Iguazu Falls because big bags weren’t supposed to go on that plane. Whew!

I like to read about our destinations before traveling but really struggled finding something for Buenos Aires.  (I don’t want to read heavy books when the world feels heavy.  January 2026.  Ugh.)

I started and DNF (did not finish) a book that involved German Nazis who made their way to Buenos Aires but continued killing. There was another that had a tango plot line but with a background of Argentina’s long standing economic woes. I didn’t even start that one.

Given my struggle, I chuckled when I learned that Buenos Aires is Latin America’s Literary City. It leads in publishing with over 20,000 titles published annually. The city has over 800 bookstores and UNESCO gave Buenos Aires the title of World Book Capital.

We moved on to reading about Antarctica and that book will come up in a later post.

We both love to travel but don’t like to pack.  However, by mid-day on January 21st, packing was accomplished and we spent the evening watching the movie Antarctica-A Year on the Ice.

It was about the scientists and the support community who live and work on the continent. It highlighted the international cooperation and day to day life in both the summer and winter seasons.  It is a very different experience than what we would see on an expedition cruise, but fascinating nonetheless.

Then it was go time! Our flights were Phoenix to Houston to Buenos Aires.  Much of our country was getting a huge winter storm, beginning January 23rd and airlines were preemptively rescheduling flights.  Our flight through Houston was on the 22nd.

We flew United from Phoenix to Houston and were on an old Boeing 737.  The controls for the small Direct TV entertainment screen were on the armrest.  It was very easy to disrupt your own, or your seat mate’s, programming.

We had better digs on our overnight flight from Houston to Buenos Aires.  We sat in premium economy on a Boeing 777. That gave us larger seats, a pillow, a blanket and a little toiletries pack.  

While we were boarding, one of the attendants told us that the crew expected to be stuck in Buenos Aires for a day or two because of the weather.  She has animals on an acreage near Houston and made arrangements for their care.

Overall, the flight was okay.  After dinner and a movie, we settled in to try and sleep.  There was a fair amount of turbulence and the pilot kept asking passengers to make sure their seat belts were secure. At one point they asked for any doctors to make themselves known because of a medical situation.  There was a lot going on…

During the last couple of hours, the flight attendant who was assigned to our section just stopped working.  After getting the drink cart in place,  he had to wait a bit for passengers to get their stuff sorted and he just walked away. The cart sat there while breakfast was served and passengers on the other aisle got their drinks.  Because of my seat placement,  I was aware that the other attendants were wondering where he went.  Several others, including one from business class, combined to do his job for the rest of the flight.  I hoped he wasn’t sick – for him and for us.  If he wasn’t sick, it doesn’t bode well for his performance review.

We landed at about 9:30 a.m. Buenos Aires time.  It was new country for us – Argentina!

Next up: We get to the hotel and try to recover.

We always drive through Las Vegas on our way to Boise. We occasionally stop to see a show and this time it was The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere.

People seated around us were from California, Utah, North Carolina, Alaska, Oregon and, of course, we are from Arizona.  Randy has been reading that tourism in Las Vegas is way down, but the Sphere is doing well.

We watched The Wizard of OZ, but it was enhanced exponentially with far more size and clarity than any IMAX you’ve ever been to.

We had wind and leaves blowing around us during the tornado!

The “screen” was so big!

We had stuffed apples flying throughout theater when the trees were angry as Dorothy picked one.

Quite a few people got one to take home!  (I bought one from the Sphere website to use as a Christmas ornament.)

When the monkeys were flying- we had monkeys!

This experience was great!

The credits showed just how many people it took to get this done. 

When the Sphere highlights another show, we’ll go again!

In a piece of serendipity for me, one of my book clubs had just read Finding Dorothy. It is the story of how Maud Baum, wife of author, Frank Baum, inserted herself into the making of the Wizard of Oz movie.

Maud, age 78, befriended Judy Garland, age 16.  Maud tried to protect Judy from all sorts of tribulations when Garland’s mother wouldn’t.

The book also described how the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow was almost cut due to the film’s length.

We listened to Game 5 of the World Series as we left Las Vegas.  That  reminded me that I had once seen a picture online of the sphere projecting a Mariners tribute.  Or someone did it with AI.  Who even knows anymore?

We were heading to Boise for two reasons.  

First, we were picking up a cedar hope chest that had belonged to my paternal grandmother when she married in the 1930s.  She gave it to me (full of course) when Randy and I married in 1980.  

Natasha took it when we gave everything away to go full time RVing in 2014.  Recently, she wanted to clear some space in her apartment and asked if I wanted a few of those family things back.  The cedar chest was the one I chose to take back.

We scheduled our trip to Boise to pick it up in early November.

In the meantime, Natasha’s old Mazda was crunched by a hit and run driver in a parking lot.  It was still drivable but the event convinced her it was time for a new car.  She wanted Randy’s help with research and the purchase process.

For Boise friends reading this, we made very few advance plans because we just didn’t know how long the car purchase would take.  We had a week and hoped she could find something she liked and we could get through the rest in that week.

In the end, the car purchase took about six hours.  She and Randy had narrowed down the initial choices to a Hyundai Palisade and a Kia Telluride.  All of us expected to like the Telluride best, so we started with the Palisade.

We were all blown away by the features on the Palisade and when we looked at, and drove, the Telluride, it no longer felt like the choice.

The Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy is her very first brand new car.  Whoohoo!

Car purchase accomplished, we enjoyed just hanging out with our daughter and grandson.

We watched him play hockey. We also took him to see a Boise State University basketball game.  That was a fun step back in time.

We took him bowling!  Randy and I were pretty disgusted with our scores considering we were once pretty good bowlers.  We were also disgusted that we were sore the next day.  

We started watching the original Star Trek series with Natasha. She had never watched the original series. 

It was very fun for us since we had been to the Star Trek set museum a few weeks earlier and could tell her how they did things. For those that missed it – that post was Ticonderoga: Stardate 1312.4 

We ate at two of our favorite Boise restaurants, the first a Vietnamese restaurant where we always have spicy beef.

We actually ate there twice in one week!

We also ate at our favorite, family owned, local Mexican restaurant chain – Chapala.  Twenty five-ish years ago I had a kindergarten student whose family owned the restaurants.  Marco was still memorable because he was so cute when he’d come to school in his dress clothes. He wore a lot of cologne and I couldn’t help but smile when he’d pull out his wallet.  I’d send him all over the school on errands so everyone got a chance to see, and smell, him.

When we were at Chapala, I asked our waitress if the same family still owned the restaurants.  They did.  So I asked if there was a Marco working in the restaurants that was about 30 years old.  Yes, and he was there!

We met Marco and he was polite but not really that interested in meeting his former kindergarten teacher. It was fine.

Overall, it was a productive and relaxing week in Boise.

We began the drive back to Phoenix with another special event to bookend the back of the trip.  

We were going to opening night of the Pentatonix Christmas in the City Tour in the Salt Lake City area.

We checked into our hotel and found that our destination, the Maverick Center, was an easy seven minute walk.  So much for prepaying parking!

During the 2002, Winter Olympics the Maverick Center served as the main venue for the ice hockey events.  

The Utah Grizzleys of the ECHL still play hockey there. No ice tonight!

I would say the concert was good, not great.  Part of what made Pentatonix unique was that they use vocal percussion and, at one time, no instruments.  

In this concert they used instrumental enhancement on most songs.  Nice, but not what I was expecting.

The woman sitting next to me was a wealth of information about the group and she definitely added to my experience.  She knew a lot about Scott Hoying’s time on Dancing With the Stars.  His dance partner was from Salt Lake City and she went up for a cameo dance.  The crowd went wild!  

Towards the end of the concert, the group came down to our end of the arena.  That was nice.

We probably won’t go to one of their concerts again so I was glad they sang my two favorite Pentatonix songs acapella: Mary, Did You Know? and Hallelujah!

I am now caught up with our travel blogs. Happy Holidays everyone.

See you in February !

We were getting to the end of our New England road trip, arriving in Hartford, Connecticut.

We originally had one night in Hartford, but with the change in itinerary, we had two.

While driving to get breakfast, we saw the Hartford Building,  It would make sense that The Hartford company is headquartered in Hartford.  

That led me to look at what other companies have headquarters in Hartford.

There is definitely a health insurance and finance emphasis.   Pratt & Whitney, highlighted in the last blog, is in East Hartford.

On the way back to the hotel, we looked closer at a mural on the building next to our hotel.  We certainly knew Michelle Obama, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Kamala Harris.  We did not know the fourth woman.  A little research revealed she was Governor Ella Grasso, the first woman to be elected governor of Connecticut.  She served from 1970-1975.  The artist said each woman was chosen for their groundbreaking contributions to women’s rights, justice and leadership. The mural is on the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Empowerment Center, and was completed by artist Micaela Levesque, pictured below.

She has dozens of works ranging from food trucks to additional building murals.  All are very colorful and beautifully done.

It was a Sunday (October 19) and the weather was iffy. We had done a lot over the previous week, and were ready for a down day.  We read, scrolled, and watched football.

The next morning we were ready for our Hartford activity and then on to Boston for a late afternoon flight to Phoenix.

We headed to the Mark Twain House – one of the premier tourist activities in Hartford. Yet, the first house we came to was the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. 

Built in 1871 for a lawyer in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, purchased the house two years later. She lived here with her husband, and twin daughters. After Stowe died in 1896, the twins sold the house.  In 1927, it came into the family again when purchased by Katherine Seymour Day.  Katherine was Stowe’s great-niece. She facilitated the house being used as a museum. The Harriet Beecher Stowe house, a national historic landmark, was restored in the 1960s and is open to the public.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the Stowe House because we were in the first tour of the day at the Mark Twain House.

We didn’t know exactly where to go for our tour but enjoyed some views all around the house while searching!

We later learned “No two elevations are alike; generally symmetrical gables are, upon closer inspection, subtly different in their decorative treatments.”

“Various chimneys and towers rise spontaneously.” The outside was beautifully done.

We found the adjacent museum, and tour desk.  We didn’t have much time but we enjoyed learning what we could.

Samuel Clemens was born in 1835 in Missouri‚ the sixth of seven children. At age 4‚ they moved to Hannibal‚ Missouri‚ on the banks of the Mississippi River. Missouri, a new “slave state”  acquainted Samuel with the lives of slaves, forming opinions that influenced his later writings.

Samuel’s father died when he was 11 and he left school to work as a printer’s apprentice for a local newspaper. This was the first of many newspaper jobs he held around the country throughout his life.

In 1857‚ Samuel returned home to become a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. The Civil War interfered and he joined a volunteer Confederate unit but quit after two weeks.

Samuel headed west in July 1861‚ in hopes of striking it rich in the silver fields of Nevada.  Failing at that, he began writing for a Virginia City‚ Nevada newspaper.  This is where he first used the name Mark Twain, In fact, mark twain is a measurement term used on the Mississippi riverboats.

Clemens continued west writing for San Francisco and Sacramento papers. The latter sent him to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The popularity of his writings led to a lecture tour which honed his skills as a stage performer.   

Samuel continued travel writing in Europe and the holy land. These writings were later compiled into his first book, The Innocents Abroad.   He met his future brother-in-law on that trip, who showed him a picture of his sister, Olivia.

After courting for two years‚ Samuel and Olivia married in 1870. They settled in Buffalo‚ New York‚ where Samuel was a partner, editor and writer for a local newspaper.  Their first child‚ a son, was born but died at age two.

In 1871, the Clemens family moved to Hartford‚ Connecticut.  They later had three daughters, Susy, Clara and Jean.

In 1872, Samuel’s stories from his western adventures were published in his book Roughing It.  

In 1873 Samuel co-wrote The Gilded Age, a novel that highlighted political corruption‚ big business, and the American obsession with wealth.  

The financial success of his writing allowed the family to build a 25 room house, costing a lofty $40,000.  

The museum did not allow pictures but I found a few on their website and Connecticut tourism sites.

For 17 years (1874-1891) the family lived in their Hartford home. Samuel completed his most famous books there, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  

He wrote against slavery in his most famous work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  It was also the first book published by his own publishing company.  

Samuel Clemens had financial success writing but made bad investments in other ways, specifically the Paige automatic typesetting machine.  The Paige Compositor was six times faster than the most skilled human, but often broke down.  It used 18,000 movable parts.  Another machine was slower but more reliable, so captured the market.  

Clemens eventually declared bankruptcy and was forced to move to Europe and do speaking engagements to support the family and pay his debts. During their time in Europe, Susy Clemens‚ age 24‚ came back to the Hartford home for a visit and died from meningitis in 1896.  The family chose to never return after that.

In his later years‚ Samuel’s writings reflected his disillusionment with colonial powers, including the United States. He was a vocal critic of the government.  

Samuel Clemens died in 1910 at age 74. He outlived his wife and three of his four children.

We enjoyed several of the Twain quotes highlighted in the museum.

The abbreviated version of the quote above was predominate in gift shop products and we bought new luggage tags using it. The quote is our new mantra!

We would have enjoyed more time at the Mark Twain House and Museum, but we needed to get to Boston.

We had more fall foliage along the way.

We arrived at Boston’s Logan Airport at a very busy time for the car rental company.  We were told “leave the keys, you’re fine.” 

We were fine until the car did not register as being returned as we were waiting for our flight, or when we got off our flight, or even the next day.  For three days I received car overdue notices and spent time and angst trying to figure out how we were going to prove that we had returned the car.  Finally I talked to the right person, could give them the time we returned the car, and the issue was resolved.  We’ll never walk away from a rental car again without it officially being accepted or at least having pictures showing the return!

I haven’t said much lately about the Mariners contest against the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series.  After taking the first two games from the Blue Jays in Toronto, the Mariners gave up their huge statistical advantage, losing two of three in Seattle.  They went back to Toronto needing to win one of the last two games.  After losing the first game, the series was tied three to three.   Game seven was going to happen while we on a plane between Boston and Phoenix! 

Immediately after boarding our flight to Phoenix, I paid $29 for inflight wifi so I could watch, or listen, to the game.  As it turned out, the game was on in-flight TV so I used the wifi to listen to the Mariners announcers on their radio broadcast.

At one point the in-flight TV gave out so the man in the window seat got the game for me on his computer using his T-Mobile capability.  He was a Boston Red Sox fan but got into the spirit of rooting for the Mariners to get into their first world series.

I thought it was fun that, at one time, all three of us had the game on our devices.  The Red Sox fan eventually went back to his own interests but looked over at my iPad regularly.

Alas….the Mariners, ahead for most of the game, lost. Ugh…gut punch.  Even the Red Sox fan was a little sad.  The only thing good about that was that Randy and I were able to enjoy a fun world series without stress.

When we returned home, we applied the Connecticut sticker to our states map. It was the only New England state remaining. Yes, I already have a trip reserved to pick up Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.

This is our final post about our fall New England road trip.  At the end of our last trip, I finished with this meme on Randy – which he didn’t mind.

This time, I’m leaving this one on me.