Antarctic Cruise: Puerto Chacabuco (2.17.24)

Our next port, Chacabuco, a town in the province of Aysen, was in the heart of rugged, wild, gorgeous Chilean Patagonia.  Our guide said his family had moved here to get away from the chaos and pollution of Santiago.  He hoped to work at a new national park being funded by Karen and Doug Tomkins, the owners of the US outdoor wear company, "Patagonia."  We have a Patagonia outlet in Salt Lake City. The Tomkins bought and donated to the Chilean government huge swathes of land to be used as national parks.

We stopped at a beautiful lake and then spent an hour or two hiking to waterfalls nearby.

We stopped for lunch at an "estancia," or small ranch. 

We watched as the rancher grilled lambs for his guests.  

Neither Dave nor I could bear to eat the poor lambs, but we did love the freshly made sopapillas--fried bread served with chimichuri sauce, made of minced herbs, onions, and tomatoes.

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The ranch house was small and rustic, but located in gorgeous countryside.

Several large dogs lay about the estancia.

After lunch, we hiked to the confluence of two rivers, where we could see the blue one flow alongside the brown one.  The day was a feast of beauty.

Antarctic Cruise: Puerto Montt (2.16)

It is always a challenge, choosing shore excursions.  We docked at Puerto Montt, the northernmost port for Patagonia, on February 16, 2024.  I randomly chose a trip through a national park to see a rare tree, with a stop afterwards at a museum housing vintage artifacts from German settlers from the late 1800s.  It turned out to be a fascinating day.

The national park protected alerce trees, which are similar to sequoias in that they grow very tall, very slowly, and for thousands of years.  

Our guide pointed out a tall tree, which he said was 6000 years old.

We walked on a boardwalk through the forest, looking at the tall trees and the moss-covered undergrowth.

Next stop was the German colonization museum in Frutillar, where many Germans settled.  Chile decided, in the late 1800s, that it needed its southern frontier colonized, and it advertised in Germany for settlers.  Many of the immigrants who arrived had no idea that the Patagonian wilderness would require them to rip out whole forests before being able to farm.

I used to think that the people of South America were primarily Indian (Indigenous) or a mixture of Indian and Spanish.  That might be true of Mexico, but Chile, Argentina, and Brazil have large groups of German, Italian, Croatian, and even Welsh settlers.

The German colonization museum included clothing, books, equipment, and other personal effects from the many Germans colonizing the area in the late 1800s.

There was even a variation on a player piano which played beautiful European songs from "records" that could be rotated.

The cafe at the museum sold German kuchen.

Our last stop on the tour was Puerto Vargas, a resort city on a lack.  Bariloche, just across the border in Argentina, is the heart of the Argentinian Lake District.  There were fancy hotels surrounding the lake and upscale craft shops. There was also a huge Native statue decorating the lake front.

Sometimes the ship can pull up to the dock at a port, and sometimes we have to get to the port by "tender", or small boats that dart from ship to shore.  As I entered this little covered boat, I felt like I was crawling into one of the Jaredite boats, shaped like dishes, that crossed the Pacific, as described in the Book of Mormon!

Antarctic Cruise: Oceania Marina (2.13.24)

Our ship was the Oceania Marina, a small, elegant vessel with just 1250 passengers, compared to the 3000 and 4000 passenger behemoths that are being built today.  The huge ships have ice skating rinks, water slides, and whole streets of shops.  The Marina had just the classic cruising essentials--beautifully decorated cabins and common areas, excellent food in the main dining room and four specialty restaurants, thought-provoking lecturers, and many types of live music, from rock to a quartet playing classical pieces as guests had a drink and nibbled at nuts and cheese before dinner.

There was a huge screen on the pool deck which showed the path of the ship and where we were.  Every morning the captain addressed us over the intercom, telling us the windspeed, height of waves, how many knots the ship was traveling, and other essentials and nonessentials.

The Marina

The pool deck.  There weren't many swimmers in the still-chilly weather of South American fall, although one brave woman crawled into the hot tub in her bikini as guests speed-walked around her in their parkas.

We had a very comfortable cabin with a veranda and king-size bed.  We happened on a great deal when Oceania rerouted the Marina from the eastern Mediterranean to the Antarctic as the Gaza War began.

The Oceania is a luxury line, more expensive than the cruise lines we have sailed in the past.  All the common areas were elegantly decorated, with art work and stylish, well-kept furnishings.  Every time we walked down the stairs, a steward was polishing the railings!

One of the highlights of the trip, for me, was that there were no extra charges for dining at the specialty restaurants.  Although the food was excellent in the main dining room, with choices from four courses every night, the four specialty restaurants had even more luxurious food--lobster, thick steaks, and unique Oriental, French, and Italian menus. I really like the Holland America line, but it charges up to an extra $75 per person for dinner at its specialty restaurants.

Another highlight, for me, was the cooking classes taught in an elaborate kitchen.

The instructor had trained with Julia Child, and had helped Julia write several of her cookbooks!

In my cooking class, I made salmon en croute, i.e. a salmon filet spread with mustard and herbs and baked in puff pastry.  I also learned to grill a steak in a fry pan.  I don't know if I'll dare try cooking salmon en croute for the 15 to 25 guests who attend my Sunday dinners, but the food I learned to cook tasted delicious to me! 

There was great entertainment every night in the amphitheater.  There weren't the huge Broadway production shows that the really big ships have, but we were impressed with the dancers, singers, and comedians who performed.

We had doting cabin stewards.  When I bought a stuffed lama and left it on the bureau in my cabin, a steward tucked it into my bed for the night!

Antarctic Cruise: Santiago (2.12.24)

Dave and I were finally off on our first, post-retirement adventure.  We flew to Santiago, Chile, on February 12, 2024, to board the Oceania Marina for a cruise through Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia, and south to the Antarctic.  We arrived in Santiago a day early and checked out the old areas of the city.  We got just a glimpse of the bustling, stylish, modern areas that make Santiago one of South America's most progressive, prosperous cities.  

Every major South American city, and most minor ones, have elaborately decorated cathedrals facing the plaza in the center of town. 

I love Spanish colonial art, in baroque style, and I savored the ceilings and archways down the nave of the cathedral, decorated with paintings of saints and angels.  The niches along the sides of the nave were filled with statues of apostles and saints and donors to the cathedral.  And, of course, there were many flickering candles.

Santiago has a great Pre-Columbian Museum, which we browsed through for several hours.  The museum showcased the history and art of the many different tribes and kingdoms that occupied South America before Columbus arrived.  The Incas were one of the strong tribal kingdoms, but certainly not the only one.

We also visited a Chilean history museum, where we learned about the tragic conflict between socialists and right-wing military dictators which resulted in the suicide (or murder) of Chile's President Allende in __ , followed by a generation of oppression, torture, and unexplained disappearances of opposition activists under General Pinochet.  Only recently has Chile become a democracy.

On the morning of February 14, we joined a tour that let us up St. Lucia Hill, the spot where, in 1541, the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia claimed the hill for the Spanish.  During Santiago's early days, missionaries used the hill to pray and worship.  Now, it has beautiful gardens and a magnificent view over the city.

In our travels through Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Patagonia, which is the section of South America south of those great cities, there were two historical figures that we heard about over and over.  One was Darwin and the other was Magellan.  Darwin formulated his theory of evolution on islands off the coast of Chile, and Magellan sailed around the world in the 1400s by way of the Strait of Magellan, south of the continent of South America.  The garden on St. Lucia Hill in Santiago was named after Darwin.

During the 1850s, Chile, flush with money from selling guano and other natural resources, built many fine buildings in Santiago.  On St. Lucia Hill, we passed the mausoleum of Benjamin McKenna, a Scottish architect who designed a whole city of elegant structures.

Another stop on our tour was the Plaza de Armas, where the Presidential Palace is located.  It was at this building that Allende stood at the window, trying to reason with the crowds that were bent on removing him. Rumor has it that the CIA was involved in the coup, because of America's fear of South America turning communist.  Pinochet was a more brutal dictator than the CIA expected.

We stopped by the statue of Allende near the Presidential Palace.  

A member of our group, in the blue shirt above, traveled to Santiago for business during the Pinochet years.  He recalled how austere the city was, with the military controlling Santiago so tightly that the businessman was afraid to go outside in the evening.  Groups of mothers gather on the square each week, seeking information about their sons who disappeared during the Pinochet years.

All over South America there were "helardias," where we bought ice cream cones.

Before our tour dropped us off at Santiago's port, to board our ship, we stopped at an upscale shopping center for lunch.  We could have been in the USA!