Veendam Day 9 - Pt. Stanley, Falkland Islands

Here is a photo of the ship entering Port Stanley.
Whale Bone Arch, erected in 1933 to celebrate 100 years of British rule.

The Falkland Islands consist of 2 main islands and a group of small landmasses located 300 miles east of the Argentine Patagonian coastline and 480 miles northeast of Cape Horn. It is the most accessible of the sub-Antarctic islands. With a population of approximately 2000, 2/3 of which live in Port Stanley, Falkland Island is the smallest, most remote capital city in the world. This very British island was invaded by Argentina in 1982, but a counter-invasion by Britain led to reclamation of the island within 3 months. Its pubs, neat gardens, British ‘bobbies’, red mailboxes and the Union flag flown over the Government House leave no doubt that British roots run deep. This very unique port is built on the north facing slope of the island to catch the sun year round and overlooks Stanley Harbour. Houses with brightly corrugated metal roofs dot the hillside and are a striking contrast to the surrounding countryside. The residents are extremely hospitable as they welcome you to this very isolated, but not insular, part of the world.

The climate is temperate, but generally cold, wet and windy. Even in summer the maximum temperature is 75 F. Now y’all see why we had to pack summer things and warm clothes. This is summer time down here!

Veendam Day 8 - At sea

Another sea day. There's a good chance we four will be sitting here a lot today, watching the sea go by. This is called the Crow's Nest. We call it the office for now. Life is good!

Update:

We spent part of the morning sitting here reading. Dick has gone to a Q&A session with the captain and I am in class. The internet system has been down more than up...I have msgs in my inbox that I have been trying to send since last night:-( All is well, other than that. Having a good time. Hopefully the weather will cooperate at Pt. Stanley tomorrow, although they are having gale force winds right now.

Veendam Day 7 - At sea

So today is a sea day, which we love.
Here is a photo borrowed from the internet of Montevideo. Uruguay was another new country for us on this fascinating adventure.

Veendam Day 6 - Montevideo, Uruguay

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, but boasts of a healthy economy, impressive living standard, and the best social services in South America. One and half million people, or over ½ of Uruguay’s population, reside in the capital city of Montevideo, located at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Cattle and sheep estancias (ranches) occupy over ¾ of the land. The coastline, however, is one long sandy beach. A scenic riverside road starting near the port and ending at the city limits links the beaches. Within the city proper, the beaches lie along the river, so water quality is not the best. Montevideo is an architect’s delight, with styles ranging from colonial to art deco.

We’ll be docked here for the whole day. Janet has a cold and might stay in today...the plan is to go ashore and get on the local bus and do some sightseeing. We are late getting in by about an hour and a half. If you get behind a slow ship in the channel, you are stuck going slow. Oh well...stuff happens. We are not doing a tour, so it doesn't matter to us.

Yesterday, Dick and Jim did the HoHo bus while Janet and I shopped and had fun dodging the sidewalk shop hawkers. Lunch and a nap felt mighty good. The show was quite good last night. The guy was part of a group that we saw onboard a Costa ship in the Med back in '02 when there were three guys. Now he and his wife are the entertainment, offering more variety than the guys did.

Having fun in the sun...temps are about the same...then we'll have two sea days before arriving in the Falkland Islands. We'll be editing photos and uploading them very soon.

Ciao!

Veendam Day 5 – BA!

Buenos dias! The plan for today, back when I was setting up these daily blogs, was to send a live photo today from BA using my crackberry, since we are here all day. Since I couldn’t get international data service down here, that idea went down the tube.

So here is a live update instead! Yesterday, Dick, Janet and I left Jim onboard nursing some hip pains (he had a replacement done recently and overdid using it, thinking he was good as new after so short a while…wrong!). We caught the shuttle in to town, then got on the Hop on/Hop off bus (HoHo bus for short). That took us all the way around and through the city, for well over two hours. Photos will follow later on the ivylog blog.

Today’s plan is for Dick and Jim to ride the HoHo bus, while Janet and I walk around the shopping district and poke our noses in the stores. Sounds like a plan to me!

Our onboard entertainment tonight is The Best of Argentina, Tango and More, so we’ll get our tango fix tonight after sailing. Another good plan! No worries that our two boys will be trying that out.

The weather is perfect—low 70s—and the sun is shining. Life is good!!!

Veendam Day 4 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

We are here for two days in the capital and largest city in Argentina. It is considered the wealthiest city in SA. With 13 million inhabitants, it has a very European flavor, and is often referred to as the "Paris of South America."

Tango music was born in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, notably in the brothels of the Juníny Lavalle district and in the arrabales (poorer suburbs). Its sensual dance moves were not seen as respectable until adopted by the Parisian/wiki/Paris high society in the 1920s, and then all over the world. In Buenos Aires, tango-dancing schools (known as academias) were usually men-only establishments. Today there are many tango dance styles.

The language spoken is Spanish that is closer to the Neopolitan language of Italy. Tourism, manufacturing and agriculture are very important financial aspects of this area. The temperate climate draws visitors to the area year round, and with the relative low cost of living, many come here for a visit and stay!

Snow or sea?

I’ll take the sea, thank you very much!  Mayberry got about an inch of snow…as we were enjoying a bit of sunny sailing along the coast of South America.   Ahhh, the Good Life!  Hate to rub it in, kids, but at least the snow didn’t last long.

What a disaster it was trying to get onboard the ship on Friday.  Apparently the Rio health authorities and the immigration authorities were having some power struggles of their own, and everyone from the captain, the crew and the passengers had to have EVERY passport inspected and NO ONE got off till they were completed.  We were supposed to set said at 5p and instead, passengers were still disembarking at that hour when we were finally able to walk up the plank. 

Holland America didn’t handle it very well from a public relations stand point either, not telling all the milling, waiting crowd what was going on.  They moved us from one terminal where our hand luggage was scanned, to an adjacent terminal to sit and wait.  At least they brought sandwiches and cookies to the masses.  When we were finally allowed to board (how were they going to herd up all these unhappy folks?), they began running hand luggage through ANOTHER x-ray machine.  Huh?  That would have taken HOURS to re-do, and by then the crowds were getting larger and larger around the exit area.  The folks herding the cattle finally gave up on that screening idea and let folks begin walking through the metal detectors.

And these are the same authorities that will be in charge when the Olympics arrive in Rio.  You couldn’t give me a free ticket to come back and attend.  Just sayin’.  And the clerks, ticket takers and waiters we encountered did not speak/understand English, and I am not referring to fluency…I am referring to anything beyond the basics of hello, thank you and goodbye!  I don’t expect other folks to be fluent in this international language, however, when they are in the service industry of dealing with travelers, they should have enough speaking ability to at least get by and assist their guests.  Sadly, they have a long way to go, and while Dick and I can compensate and get by, not every traveler will be as adventuresome and understanding.

We are enjoying the digital workshop onboard and are huge fans of Windows Live Photo Gallery.  Dick posted some Rio photos yesterday during class… www.ivylog1.spaces.live.com –check it out and leave him a message.  I posted a few photos today… www.ivylog2.spaces.live.com .  The class is mighty popular, and since we’ve had the classes before, we try not to ‘hog’ the computers.

Copacabana Beach…in the rain yesterday from the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain yesterday.  Christ the Redeemer statue is off to our right…in the clouds.  We did get a few peeks at that massive structure.    

So today we are enjoying music, reading and napping.  Ahhh, the good life!  Did I mention that???  It’s off to class we go…ho, ho, ho…

With love from the sea…