Monday, 31 January 2011

ROUNDING CAPE HORN


1730 (2030 UK time) and we have just rounded Cape Horn.  I hadn’t realised that all ships that navigate the east coast of South America and up the west coast don’t always go round Cape Horn.  It is dependent on the sea conditions, and today the captain said that as the swell was only 5 metres, it was perfectly ok for ‘Aurora’ to take this course. As I write this blog it has now started to rain, and almost all the coastline is obscured! I forgot to say the temperature is 6c and there is a Force 6 wind blowing.
We are now making our way towards our next port, Ushuaia (pronounced Ooshwya) where we are not expecting the conditions to be any warmer!  Our tour here is on board a train for a 50-minute ride through part of the Tierra del Fuego National Park, marketed as “travel to the ‘end of the world’ train station”.  Read more about this in my next blog.

FALKLAND ISLANDS


King penguins

Monument to the fallen in Falklands Conflict

The Falkland Islands comprise two main islands, East and West Falkland, and over 700 smaller islands, a total land area of about 4,700 square miles.  They are 300 miles to the east of southern Argentina. This isolated dependent territory of Great Britain is 8,000 miles from the home country.  Port Stanley, the capital and only place of any size, is situated on the east coast of East Falkland, which has around 2,500 inhabitants. 
We had a magnificent sail in, calm seas and very little wind; even the tender ride ashore was without incident, which is very unusual. We had been warned to wrap warmly, with several layers of clothing, hats, gloves etc, so most of us emerged on the quayside looking very similar in shape to the penguins themselves!  However, the drizzle that greeted us soon made way for clear skies and warm sunshine and that remained for most of our stay.
We were taking a tour to Bluff Clove Lagoon, to the penguin colony – mostly Gentoos – which can be seen in the little video, but the photograph shows a small group of King penguins in the middle of the colony.
The driver of our mini bus was Trudie and it was her husband Charles who took the four of us in his farm Land Rover for a bone shattering 20 minute “ride” to the cove.  I can see why people with any back problems were warned against going on this trip, as I have never before been taken on tracks where the ruts were over 2ft deep and many a time the steepness of the sideways angle made us sure the vehicle would tip over.  Our heads made contact with the roof of the vehicle on many an occasion!
A bit more information about Trudie – I don’t know if any of you will have heard about a lady on the Falklands who 30 years ago guided paramedics many many miles in the dark to groups of severely – and many critically injured soldiers. Thankfully it was a moonlit night and as she walked, Trudie held up her hands on which she wore white gloves so the paramedics could see where she was going. Only a local would have that knowledge and this was a remarkable feat by a very brave woman for which she received a well-deserved commendation. The terrain is the most bleakest imaginable with no trees at all, huge boulders and not much grass, so impossible to get your bearings. She said she was so angry that her island was being invaded that she would have done anything to help the British troops.
A large British military presence of about 1500 men and women remains on the Falklands and the islands remain strongly pro-British.
What a privilege to have visited these remote islands and so refreshing to get the true picture from the Falklanders themselves regarding the 1982 invasion and subsequent conflict.
A final piece of useless information – Port Stanley is on the same latitude south of the Equator as Watford is to the North!



Friday, 28 January 2011

BUENOS AIRES

Buenos Aires Cathedral

La Boca district

Tango dacers

Tigre passenger boat
 
GRAND VOYAGE : FIRST SECTOR – SOUTHAMPTON TO BUENOS AIRES
The voyage is divided into 5 sectors:
Southampton to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires to Valparaiso
Valparaiso to Sydney
Sydney to San Francisco
San Francisco to Southampton
Each sector is where there is a passenger/crew/entertainer changeover.
We sailed into Buenos Aires on Wednesday 26 January and it wasn’t too long before it started to rain. Our city tour was due to start at 0930 and although we were late leaving, the coaches were on their way by 1000.  Thankfully the rain had eased by the time we reached our first stop, the Plaza de Mayo, where the sight of huge white sheets printed with Spanish words regarding the Falklands greeted us!  These protestors had been there 1000 days and planned to be there for the immediate future. We also saw the Casa de Rosada, the pink Presidential Palace where Evita had appeared on the balcony and our final visit was to the Cathedral.
From there we were shown various city areas, the most interesting being La Boca, the area where the tango was born.  Our final stop was to Recoleta where Evita’s family tomb can be seen in this huge cemetery.
We arrived back at the ship at 1400, had lunch, and then got ready for the Tango Show & Dinner.  Our coach left at 1745 to take us to a restaurant short distance from the ship.  We both had the same, empenadas to start (a cross between a Cornish pasty and a samosa!). That was followed by the biggest, thickest and most tender steak I think we have eaten and dessert was cream caramel. Wine and water flowed freely. We then left the restaurant to cross the road where the tango show was to take place.  A glass of sparkling wine was waiting for us and the show was absolutely fantastic, the music, the dancers, the atmosphere, everything was perfect.  The room seemed to be like a dark, seedy nightclub-type of place recreating where in the past prostitutes danced with the wealthy men while they were waiting for their ‘ladies’ to become available!
Thursday: A beautiful day dawned, still nice and warm, around 28c.  We got the coach, this time to take us on a Tigre river delta cruise.  Very interesting, again good photo opportunities, and fascinating to see how people lived along the banks of the river, where their houses were built on stilts and their motor launches were moored at each individual jetty.
We sailed at 1745 for the Falklands, which we reach on Sunday 30 January. We had a warning about the weather from the captain, 3-4 metre swell for tomorrow, and Saturday will be similar but wave height will be up to 5 metres!  However, the one good thing is that the weather in the Falklands is forecast to be fairly calm which will enable us to go ashore by tender.  We have been told to expect rain and the weather is good for a summer’s day, around 12c!
So as we sail down the River Plate on our way back to the Atlantic, we will enjoy the warm weather while we can!

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Montevideo


Parliament building

Our 1910 steam train to the Juanico Winery
Tuesday 25 January – Montevideo.  Because we were on a tour at 0900, we decided to order room service breakfast for 0700.  The day dawned cloudless and warm, temperatures heading towards the high 30s.
We boarded the coach for a tour through Montevideo city on our way to the station to board the steam train taking us to the Juanico Winery where we arrived soon after noon.  After a welcoming glass of sparkling wine we were taken on a tour of the cellars then into the restaurant where we were given a further 5 wine tastings – interspersed with lunch!  The wine flowed freely and those of us that could still hold a pen were encouraged to mark the wines with appropriate comments!
Lunch was followed by a short demonstration of the tango by two couples – many of the men were by this time wiping their brows! We left the winery around 1500 to drive back to the ship, where the passengers poured out of the two coaches proclaiming it had been one of the best ship’s tours so far!
We sailed at 1815 for Buenos Aires, just across the inlet – a journey that the local ferry does in 3 hours, but it takes us until 0800 tomorrow! 

Sunday, 23 January 2011

RIO DE JANEIRO

Sugar Loaf Mountain

Copacabana beach

Christ the Redeemer


We were up early – 0630 – to watch our arrival into Rio de Janeiro.  We were keeping our fingers crossed for fine weather, especially in view of the recent rains there, but the sun rose to cloudless skies and hot temperatures – between 32 and 38c!
We had booked a full day’s tour here, in the morning to Sugar Loaf Mountain, which involved travelling by coach and cable car, lunch at Ipanema, then after to Corcovado to take the train to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
Rio is a beautiful city, so different from Recife!  Our coach journey took us through the city, past the botanical gardens and to our first stop at the cable car station to await our transport to take us 1293ft to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. We had 40 minutes free time that gave us plenty of time to take photographs and have a drink in the shady part of the gardens.  We were fortunate because we had hardly any queue for the cable car consequently there weren’t too many people around, but when we left, it was difficult to move to vantage points to take photos.
We then boarded the coach that drove us past Copacabana beach, a fantastic stretch of white sand covered in colourful beach umbrellas.  From there we went through LeBlon and then to our lunch stop at a restaurant in Impanema, a dining experience not to be missed!  For any meat eaters who are reading this blog, all your prayers would be answered!  The waiters came round bearing 2ft high skewers, each carrying sausages, chicken, spare ribs and best of all, steak.  There was as much meat as you could eat with salad, fries and numerous Brazilian side dishes.  Ice cream was to follow with almost undrinkable black coffee in cups the size of egg cups!
Back onto the coach then for the short journey to the Parque Nacional de Tijuca to view the 125ft statue of Christ the Redeemer.  We first had to get to the train station, where we queued for about half an hour before boarding a 2-carriage cog train which took us up the extremely steep 2.5 mile route to the top, which took around 20 minutes.
This was where there were massive crowds, many of whom wanted to lie flat on their backs and get their friends to stand in front of the statue with their arms stretched out! This made getting anywhere to take a photo a bit difficult but we managed. 
Again we were given warnings about the high crime rate at these top tourist stops, but there were police in evidence, more so at the statue, and we had no problem at all.
Having left the ship at 0945 we arrived back at 1815 to get ready for dinner at 2030.  The ship sailed at 2300 for our next stop in Montevideo on 25 January.


Thursday, 20 January 2011

RECIFE


Casa da Cultura
One of Recife's squares

Recife, or as it is apparently known, the Venice of South America.  Well what can I say!  The port lecturer gave us dire warnings about crime being rife, not to wear jewellery, take expensive cameras etc, and as there were no spaces on the organised tours, we had to take the shuttle bus into the city centre and find our own way around.
But I’m jumping ahead here – the first thing we noticed was the area in which we docked – a very non-attractive container area!  There were also hundreds of flies – and a horrible smell.
After breakfast we boarded the shuttle bus for the 15-minute journey into town.  We were dropped off at the Casa da Cultura – Cultural Centre – a converted prison, whose cells were now hundreds of little craft shops.  But rather than look around there first, we tried to find our way to an area that wasn’t a street market or little stalls selling goldfish dangling in plastic bottles! 
We wandered up and down streets, taking some photographs of churches, street scenes etc, but after 2 hours, in a temperature of a very humid 32c, we called it a day, and made our way back to the Cultural Centre to get the shuttle back to the ship for lunch.  The Cultural Centre was, in its way, very attractive, with good quality items for sale, but we kept our hands in our pockets and all we spent was 4 Reals  (about £1.30) on 2 cans of Coca Cola!
Not a very attractive city at all.
Well the forecast was wrong, it didn’t rain and the ship sailed for Rio de Janeiro at 1800.

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

STILL AT SEA AND CROSSING THE LINE CEREMONY


Saturday 15 January
Awoke to cloudless skies and moderate seas.  Another leisurely day at sea beckons interrupted by visits to the restaurant for meals and reclining on sun loungers on deck with our Kindles!
Aurora is making her way very sedately towards Recife, where we dock on Wednesday 19th.  We have seen very little sea life since we left Madeira except for a couple of whale spouts on the horizon and flying fish this morning. At around 2200 this evening we pass between the Cape Verde islands. 
Tuesday 18 January
At 0330 this morning we crossed the Equator and at 1530 this afternoon there was a ‘Crossing the Line’ ceremony – we have seen one of these before.  Supposedly we have to ask Neptune to allow us to continue our voyage!  Should be a good photo/video opportunity if the rain stops!!  Have just seen two birds, the first since leaving Madeira.  They were exactly the same as we saw in the Caribbean last month, booby, a member of the gannet family.  Hoping to see something a little more exotic as the cruise continues. 
A couple more anomalies for you - because of our itinerary, we lose the 22nd February completely and have the 12th March twice!  We put our clocks back again this evening which makes us 3 hours behind the UK for our arrival in Recife tomorrow.           

Friday, 14 January 2011

At Sea and Madeira


Wednesday
A bit of excitement today; late afternoon the captain informed us that one of the two evaporators on board, used for turning salt water into drinking water, had broken down.  That meant instead of our usual 16.4 knots we were now doing 22 knots – Aurora’s maximum speed is 24 knots.  This higher speed had to be kept up in order that fresh water could be made from the remaining evaporator but that in turn meant we would be in Madeira at 2300 Wednesday instead of 0800 Thursday!
We had a lovely day in Madeira, blue skies and temperatures around 20/21c.  We walked miles, visited a local park/garden and I took quite a few photographs.  Late afternoon we went out again and bought some lovely flowers to brighten up the cabin.  The photo shows them in the beautiful Dartington cut glass vase that we were given for taking the Grand Voyage.


We left Madeira just after 1800 but not before the captain had again warned us of some bumpy weather ahead in the north Atlantic, predicted to last from late evening today and all day tomorrow (Friday).  The warning is for a 4 metre swell which will cause Aurora to roll!  Oops!
We now have 5 days at sea until we reach Recife, which will be where my next blog will come from.







Tuesday, 11 January 2011

SOUTHAMPTON AND BEYOND


Just how much luggage do you need for 13 weeks cruising?  The photo shows just how much!


Sailing day dawned frosty but sunny and the taxi picked us up at 1030.  After an uneventful drive to Southampton we joined a queue to go on board.  This took around an hour because, as we found out later, the computers went down which meant no luggage or passports could be scanned.
After a light lunch we were able to go to our cabin just after 1400.  I think the words “small but perfectly formed” would initially sum up cabin A167, but actually it was fine. The wardrobes looked minute but after triple and quadruple hanging, we were able to shoehorn all our belongings away and tuck all but one suitcase under the beds.
The captain warned us of some rough weather ahead for 48 hours, and if people were prone to seasickness, then take medication! He did say the weather would be much better by the time we reached Madeira on Thursday, 13th, so will look forward to that.
We were late sailing, but after an excellent firework display put on by P&O, we left Southampton just after 1845.  There are 1900 passengers on the ship, and we later learned that 1450 of us are doing the full 95 days!
Sure enough, Monday saw us sailing in a Force 8 with the Promenade Deck being closed off!  Skies are overcast and temperature 10c.  Even the balcony doesn’t look inviting as the sea spray is blowing in and covering the patio door.
 Tuesday 
It's sunny and we now only have a force 7!  Time to venture outside for the first time since we left Southampton.