Southern Chile and Argentina!

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Hello from Argentina! Finally off the boat after three days at Sea including Christmas and crossing Cape Horn.

In Punta Arenas, I managed to go on a tour to Pinguiterria, a penguin colony in the coldest place on earth! Walked into a side street tour agent who had no tours for the day, but called an old boy who came in his own car and drove me the 70km to the colony, giving an overview of everything on the Island on the way. He also drove like a Chilean Colin McCrae which was pretty interesting when he made a full tour bus tilt wildy going past the edge of the road while he held the centre line. Good blood pumping stuff.

Scott of the Antarctic has never been to Pinguiterria, otherwise he never would have continued to the Antarctic. FREEZING!! When I got there the old boy took cover in a cafe and I went for an hour walk to the point in the Island where the penguins were all, for some reason, bathing in the ice cold water which was rushing straight off the Andes Mountains. Took some great piccys although found it strange that the male penguins brood, like the females, and also take care of the baby penguins 50% of the time while the females depart the colony early. Crazy stuff - i tried to set some of them straight.

Fell asleep on the car back to the ship and got woken by Chilean Colin McCrae to report I had survived the drive and was ready to walk into the port. That night we had a massive one on the red wine and happened upon a Karaoke night in the main bar on the ship. Dont Fear the Reaper, JailHouse Rock were both sung by Josh and Evvy, pretty well, before the three of us gave a rousing Dont Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith upon request. Have since been stopped by quite a few people on the boat all pretty much saying, oh you are the crazy Australian karaoke guys. We did well. CP woman was rubbish at her second attempt behind the mike.

The next two days we had a good Chrissy brunch on board, and spent plenty of time in the pools and spas. One night we had a five course dinner in the french restaurant that included wines matched with each course. Very Deluxe! Last night the ship had the biggest party of the trip, the White party, where everyone on board wears only white. They did not tell us beforehand and all I had was a soiled white Rivers T-Shirt containing scrub stains from Macchu Picchu. So, we attended the White party in our Fluffy White Bathrobes from the room and made a grand entrance! Kept them on all night for the party, on top of dress slacks, shirts and leather shoes topped off with our Panama hats. Fashion redefined! In between we had crossed Cape Horn which was remarkably calm although Josh refused to buy me an I Crossed Cape Horn T shirt for Christmas. Grinch.

Today was possibly the best of all - we arrived in our first Argentinian port which is Puerto Madryn, a beautiful beachy coasty town and I SNORKELLED WITH SEA LIONS! Had to get up early then we got into our wetsuits which let us float on top of the water and got about a 45 minute boat ride to a remote beach where there were sea lions and seals all over the rocks. Our guide looked like an Argentinian Bono. We had some instructions then got into the water and got together about 15 of us in a tight circle so they would come up to us. At one point I put my head underwater to see if there were any underneath us and copped a sea lion nose right on the goggle! They were awesome and a few came up just to be patted in the water so took some great piccys. The tour guide also took pictures for all of us and have put them on a CD I can take home. Sometimes we had to join arms in one long line and then kick backwards to create white water for them to chase and then they came from underneath and popped up right in front of us. Apparently the only place in the world you can do this with the lions so was pretty happy to get into it today! The other boys didnt get into this tour so not sure what they got up to today.

Back to the boat now and I think we have two days at sea before our next port - Possibly Punta Este in Argentina or Montevideo in Uruguay, will have to check that out before we dock!

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