Punta Arenas Chile March 14, 2014

OK, I will now I will try to catch up all that has been happening in the las 7 days.  Sorry I am so late once again, life on shipboard, has a way of floating into one lovely time after another.  You really get spoiled, and the longer you are on the more spoiled you get, how am I ever going to do my own cooking and cleaning again????

So, to pick up where I left off,,, we arrived back to Punta Arenas, about two hours late, and the ship was waiting for us.  We were the LAST TENDER, we didn’t care,,, we had such a grand time, on the plane, and they fed us so well with crab, etc. and all the booze we wanted, including Pisco Sours (nice but STRONG) all 42 of us were in a great mode.  We were all tired, but happy, what a day!!!  We will never forget Antarctica or the day that is for sure.  As they said, very few people ever get to go there, and we knew we had been blessed.  They gave us a certificate suitable for framing and showed us how our passports had been stamped, so it was all official, we had not just dreamed it all!

March 15, 2014

Next day it was scenic cruising Amalia Glacier, it was impressive, but not more so than what we have seen in Alaska.  We had a bit of a party on our deck, and watched the Ice and snowcapped mountain peaks and looked for wild life, but there was nothing, not even a fish.  When we had to sail back out into the open sea, it again got rough, but that was ok with Ed and I as we went to bed early, and just got rocked to sleep.

Amalia Glacier

Claudia 

March 16, 2014

The next day was also a sea day and it was wonderful to just rest up.  We did go see a pretty funny comedian guitarist Dan Riley, and then turned in for another restful night.

March 17, 2014

Craig and Barb

Claudia and Ken

St. Patrick’s Day,,,, we found a shamrock on our door, Claudia had gifted us!  And we were now going to have a wonderful day, as we canceled our tour, that we had here in Puerto Montt, it was to be a very long tour to the lake district and we felt it would have been over kill after Antarctica.  So we took the tender to town after the rush, and caught a taxi for $2, and made our way to town.  It was interesting, we found a coffee shop, and had a cupa, and found a jewelry store and Ed gifted me with Lappas earrings and a penguin necklace charm.  And a cute little Lappas Penguin for himself.  We came back before all the tours, and heard later that the lines to get back were incredible, and the seas were really rough.  All were suppose to be back on board by 5, but of coarse they weren’t so we were late departing, that was ok as we again had a sale-a-way on our balcony and had another good party, and we all went to dinner in our green, and continued the party in the dinning room.  

Have I mentioned that we have some of the best wait state in the dinning room?  Well we do, so we try to sit in there section every night we go to the dinning room.  It was a good thing the next days are  sea days.

March 18, 2014

Tonight is Formal night, and Ken and Claudia joined us, so we were a table of 6, and we had a "swell time”  That was the name of the show in the theater, but we didn’t make it. We did go to the Captains Party, and the most traveled was awarded to a couple from New Jersey, they had 1,391 days with Princess!  Wow not sure we will ever have that many days, but we are working on it!  Big happening today,,, we booked another cruise, more about that in the future.

March 19, 2014 

The last sea day of this leg, tomorrow we will be in Valparaiso, so rest up for big day tomorrow.

March 20, 2014

VALPARAISO

The end of the second leg and the begging of our third leg of this 49 day cruise.  A lot of people, I think they said 500, disembarked here today, not sure how many got on.  We had a Princes tour booked here, to the homes of Pablo Neruda, he was a very important man in Chile.  He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.  His house on the coast is Isla Negra, and is now a museum house, it was interesting, loved the area it was built on and I would love to have the view in his bed room, it overlooks the ocean, we couldn’t take any pictures inside.  And it was cold here today, like 55 and the wind blowing, and fogy.

Then we went top Casas del Bosque, winery and had a wonderful lunch, and wine.  It consisted of Goat chess and olive salad with mustard dressing, one of the freshest salads I have ever eaten, pared with there white Chardonnay, it was VERY good and I don’t usually like Chardonnay.  then we had a  slow-cooked Wagyu served with a sweetcorn and basil puree.  It was outstanding it was served with there Reserve red wine.  Then the BEST chocolate tart and red berries, I have ever had, good thing I can’t come here again, as I would gain every pound back I have lost in the last year!

Then it was back to Valparaiso, for a tour of his second home La Sebestiana a five store high house with a great view of the city, but we opted out of that climb, as it was foggy and hazy so you couldn’t see much any way.  So I did some more Lappas shopping and Ed stayed on the bus and watched me.  

We got back to the ship about 5, and canceled our tour to the observatory, in Coquimbo, tomorrow, as we are just not up to another climb up a mountain and another long bus ride.

So we said good-by to Valparaiso and a start to our last leg of this wonderful cruise.  And once again we had a nice sail-a-way party, this time there was  10, this room is a nice size but 10 is pushing it, and it was again cold outside so no sitting out side.