Page 28 of Trabern Travel Blog Posts


South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires March 19th 2016

This morning at 07:43, after sailing 124 nautical miles at an average speed of 11.5 knots, we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The ship has tried to make us all terrified of venturing out in Buenos Aires on our own by disseminating information about how dangerous it is in Buenos Aires. No doubt this is to encourage the passengers to book Holland America Line on-shore excursions!? Bernie and I decided that BA is probably no more of a risk than any big city in the world and, provided you remain aware of your surroundings and exercise a sensible level of caution, all will be well. Apparently the big scam in BA is to squirt or spray something onto your clothing and then tell you that you have bird poo on your back/shoulder which they will help ... read more
Womens Bridge
Sarmiento and the Womens Bridge
Peron


At 08:47 this morning, after sailing 1,042 nautical miles at an average speed of 17.1 knots we docked in Montevideo, Uruguay. After two gloriously fine and sunny days sailing the Atlantic Ocean we were greeted this morning by a monsoonal downpour in Montevideo. Ideally we would have waited for the downpour to abate somewhat before venturing ashore, but we had a 'Wine Experience' booked and needed to get ourselves ashore - in torrential rain! - to meet our guide, Ryan. We put our raincoats on and headed down the gangplank and promptly got soaked from mid-thigh down. We followed the pedestrian path from the boat to the gate out of the port area. With no sign of Ryan we took shelter in the Tourist Information Centre. This ended up being the perfect spot to wait as ... read more
Three damp Aussies
Ryan tasting the grape juice
In the cellar

Oceans and Seas » Atlantic March 17th 2016

Day two at sea coincided with St Patrick's Day so overnight the whole ship had been decked out with green decorations. Crew members were sporting silly St Patrick's Day hats and even some passengers had entered into the spirit and were parading around the ship in green clothing and/or silly hats. Yesterday we had a glut of activities to keep us amused while the m.s. Zaandam sailed towards our next port of call, Montevideo. Today we slept in, had a late breakfast, walked a few laps of he deck, blogged, ate again, enjoyed mid-afternoon nana naps (this doing nothing really makes you tired!!) and Bernie caught up with his photo processing. When we boarded nearly two weeks ago, we found a voucher for dinner in the Pinnacle Grill compliments of Bunnick Tours. With our voucher we ... read more
Morning walk
Lunchtime by the pool
Much nicer arvo

Oceans and Seas » Atlantic March 16th 2016

Ho hum, the first of two full days at sea today as we sail the 1,042 nautical miles to Montevideo, Uruguay at an average speed of 17.1 knots. We had a pretty lazy morning ahead of all the activities we had scheduled for the afternoon. At 2.30pm it was time to head for the Ocean Bar for the South American Wine Festival. For just US$25.00/head a few of us had signed up to enjoy a selection of wines from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The beverage selection was rounded out with four cocktails and there was a table groaning with bread, crackers, cheese and grapes. I took it pretty easy at the wine festival because I was mindful of more eating and drinking to be tackled later in the afternoon and evening. I'm pretty sure that Bernie ... read more
Wine Tasting
Atlantic Sunset
Dessert time


As we finished our approach to the Falkland Islands we were rushing about having breakfast and getting ready to go ashore at 8.45am. Our tickets for the King Penguins 4x4 Adventure stated that we needed to meet in the Mondrian Lounge at 8.35am for an 8.45am departure. We checked in at the desk at 8.30am and we were allocated to Vehicle 11. Whoa, there are some fellow passengers who are really keen to see those penguins because that makes us about 41st and 42nd to check-in. Unfortunately though, it was 09:30 before we officially arrived. With the tenders not being released until after we were anchored our start to the day's activity was a little delayed. The first tender of the day was eventually under way filled with keen 4x4 adventurers. When we arrived in Port ... read more
Bushbashing Falkland Island style
Magellanic Pair
Peeking out

South America » Argentina » Tierra del Fuego » Ushuaia March 14th 2016

Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT, we reached Cape Horn right on time this morning just after 7.30am and I was still confined to quarters. Rounding Cape Horn was one of the events on this trip that I was most excited about. I talked with Bernie about whether to sneak out of the cabin for a few minutes but, being such a compliant person, I did the right thing and stayed confined. Bernie went out to the bow to take photographs. Our stateroom is on the port side of the ship and as we were sailing east to west past the horn it was to starboard. Grrr! I was positively itching to throw on some clothes and my puffer jacket and head to starboard. At 7.59am Captain PJ sounded the ship's horn to signify our passing ... read more
Cape Horn
Lighthouse and Memorial
Cape Horn Memorial

South America » Argentina » Tierra del Fuego March 13th 2016

NOTE: Oh no, the laptop is dead!! This means that photos cannot be uploaded to travelblog.org. Bernie has decided that my words alone without his photos will bore our followers so there are not going to be any more blogs until we are home (4th of April) and Bernie can repair the laptop or load our photos from the desktop ... whatever it takes?! All photos are backed up so no photos are lost, they are just temporarily inaccessible.?T Between 7.00am and 9.00am this morning we were cruising the Beagle Channel and Glacier Alley. Bernie was out on the bow photographing while I tried to see what I could from our stateroom. The weather was still fairly bleak so maybe I was better off viewing from the comfort of our cabin rather than risking being blown ... read more
Glacier Alley
Glacier Alley
Glacier Alley

South America March 12th 2016

GROAN!! I made it through to 4.00am before the overindulgence of last night's degustation dinner caught up with me. Damn it, I really thought my diarrhoea had started to settle down because it was more than 12 hours since I'd been on the loo. And to top it off I had started to cough. Because I can't take anything with Codeine in it, I had Bernie trying to read the small print on his cough medicine bottle in the middle of the night. It didn't list Codeine, but had another warning about how toxic it is for your liver and not to exceed four doses in 24 hours. I was already dubious about taking it because I think not having a gall bladder might inhibit the liver's ability to process things like cough medicine. Then on ... read more
Downtown Punta Arenas
Magellan at Plaza de Armas
La Cruz Hill viewpoint

South America » Chile » Magallanes » Torres del Paine March 11th 2016

Another day at sea as we began cruising Canal Sarmiento. Unfortunately the weather remained bleak and the temperature dropped into single figures; so glad now that I lugged my puffer jacket half way around the world!! I broke out the Vegemite this morning to have on my toast for breakfast. I'm trying to eat fairly lightly out of deference to my dodgy digestive system and our travel papers arrived from Bunnick in a wallet that very thoughtfully included some individual serves of Vegemite. I need my guts to have settled down by later today because we have booked in for a degustation dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. We had a long day of cruising today before we arrived at our first point of interest - Paso Summer at 4.00pm. Captain PJ told us earlier in the ... read more
Paso Shoal
USS Riverside
USS Riverside

South America » Chile » Aisén » San Rafael Glacier March 10th 2016

We were at sea again all day today cruising the Chilean Fjords at an average speed of 15.3 knots in unrelentingly bleak conditions. After a pretty late breakfast we completed four laps of the promenade deck. Four laps of the deck equals one mile. We are trying to do a bit of exercise despite being cooped up on the ship all day!We think there is an unwritten rule that you are supposed to walk the deck in an anticlockwise direction. That is certainly what the majority of walkers do. However, there always seem to be a couple of walkers swimming against the tide!! We reached the San Rafael Glacier in the middle of the day and spent quite a while admiring its alluring blue face. Our Location Guide, Ryan, was providing commentary over the ship's PA ... read more
View of the Chilean Fjords
Triple waterfall
San Rafael Glacier in the mist




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