1/29/2008 Ushuaia, Argentina

From: Sherman Rootberg

Date: Jan 29, 2008 5:42 PM

Subject: 1/29/2008

1/29/2008

USHUAIA, ARGENTINA

Again, it sounds like oosh why ah. It looks like it too. No, I don’t know what that means. It is located on the island of Tierra Del Fuego. It literally means, the land of fire. It more likely means Hades or Hell. This is what it is like where Hell freezes over. The island is half Argentina and half Chile.

If you look at a map of the bottom of South America, you will see a large section at the furthest south end. You have to look close to see that it is actually an island. That was not known until some time ago, but not really long ago, I think. Beaver Channel is what separates it from the main land, but I told you that before. So pay attention and then I won’t have to replete myself so much.

Last night we had to turn our clocks ahead another hour. That’s three hours ahead of Miami time now. If you want to further confuse me, tell me that tomorrow we are going further east yet, but we turn the clocks back an hour to where they were yesterday. That’s what’s happening. And I thought I had no idea what I was doing. These people can’t even tell time.

We had an early morning tour again. Naturally it was the usual confusion. We were docked and all we had to do was walk down the gang plank at the allotted time and get on the bus they point us too. Of course there was no bus for our tour nor was there anyone from the travel department out on the dock. They have got to get this together.

Finally the buses for our tour did show up. All seven of them. Again our guide was a nice young girl who spoke something I mostly could not understand.

This is a really gloomy little town. It never gets warm and is not fit for human or animal habitation. There were no mammals until they were introduced. They claim there were Indians 6,000 years ago, but I don’t know. If they were here, they were lost.

The towns big claim to fame is an old prison. They would send anything from serial killers to shop lifters to the prison. They made the prisoners build the prison and just about everything else. They claim no one escaped. When they got away they came back or died from cold and starvation as it never gets warm and there were no animals to eat. The entire population came from these prisoners who were allowed to have land once their sentence was up. Sounds like I said. The only reason to live here is if you are forced to do so.

There is a small downtown by the dock. This is where the streets are paved. Most other places we visited did not have paved roads. There are about three nice buildings and the rest were junk. They cannot ever get very high winds in the valley where the town is located. It they did, most of the buildings would blow over. One man on our bus asked if they had building codes. The answer was, what’s that? It is supposed to be a nature sanctuary and many of the houses are illegal.

Our tour was a drive through the area. The mountains surrounding the area were very nice but it was grey most of the day and that is how it almost always is. We even drove to the end of the earth. That is where the Pan American Highway ends at a bay. But the only way to get to this island is by a Chilean ferry.

At least it was as warm as it ever gets at about 55 for a high. As soon as we left the downtown area the roads were unpaved and made of white dust. Everything was hidden in clouds of white dust coming from the vehicles driving on these roads. You could see the vegetation on the road sides covered with many inches of this dust. It was great to breathe too.

After a pretty long ride on a dust bowl road, through a forest, we came to a station with narrow gauge trains. The world’s furthest south railway. Ours was to be with a steam engine. The railroad had been originally created to haul out lumber and rocks for building. Now it is just for tourism.

It was a very nice train ride through the same type of forest as we had just come through on the bus. There were small rivers with rapids, all over the place. We say many horses, rabbits and Beaver dams. But strewn everywhere by the thousands, were old pieces of trees just felled and left to rot. These small trees take 80 years to be adult size and they just chop them down for the best parts and leave them lay. Whole forests are destroyed.

The little trains were cute and we enjoyed the ride. Then it was back to the bus for a long ride back to town were we visited the old prison. It was made into several different types of Museums and meeting rooms. We toured some of the old cells. I decided this was not the place for me. I spent a lot of years trying to stay out of places like this and I did not want to pay to be in one now.

When we got back to the ship we had a big decision to make. Tonight at 5:00 PM we were supposed to go back to the prison for a party for those doing the round trip on the ship. There was a card waiting in our room reminding us about our reservations at Signatures for 6:30 this evening. Oh decisions, decisions. Like that one was not even close. Go to a dank, stinky, old prison or the Cordon Blu restaurant. I was not thrilled about going back to the prison anyhow.

Dinner was fantastic. Escargot in pastry puff shells. It was like a roll scooped out and filled with about a dozen perfect snails. The whole thing is put in a large soup bowl and filled around the pastry with garlic butter. Next Bobbi had the most wonderful mushroom soup with creamed garlic and I had crab bisque with avocado to die for. Peach, Champaign, sorbet was next. That was one excellent popsicle. For the main course Bobbi had the rack of lamb and I had Tornados Rossini with a double of seared Foie Gras (seared goose liver). Everything was better then perfect as was the service by a real French waiter without an attitude. And those are really hard to come by.

1/28/2008 Crusing through the Beaver Channel, viewing the glaciers, on the way around Cape Horn, and on to Ushuaia, Argentina

From: Sherman Rootberg

Date: Jan 28, 2008 8:11 PM

Subject: 1/28/2008

1/28/2008

CRUSING THROUGH THE BEAVER CHANNEL, VIEWING THE GLACIERS, ON THE WAY AROUND CAPE HORN, AND ON TO USHUAIA, ARGENTINA

We ran into some more people, again today, who are reading this blog. When they saw me they too had to tell me how wonderful I was. I had to agree. However, they said some of my facts were wrong. So I will repeat. Somewhere near the beginning of this thing, this year, I explained that this is a blog of misinformation. Checking of facts involves some amount of work. Work is a four letter word that I try not to use and God knows, do not do anymore. So don’t expect accuracy.

We had to get up early again this morning. This time we did not have to leave the room though. Again we were very lucky, or perhaps it was the wonderfulness of myself, to have picked the port side of the ship for our cabin. Most of the good stuff was on our side.

As was for the last few days, I don’t have the words to describe how beautiful this place is when the weather is clear enough to see. Today it started out overcast and with just a bit of fog in the distance. Soon it got very windy and drove away the fog. There were several times the sun even came out. It is very strong when it is out. Most of the time it was cloudy and then it was cold.

The narrator started at about 8:00 AM. She pointed out all the different sights and wild life as we passed. We even saw a whole colony of penguins. We saw five large, named glaciers. They had large waterfalls and some went all the way down to the sea making them tide water glaciers. We also passed another recent ship wreck. If I remember right, which is rare these days, it went down in 1992 or maybe 1987. Who cares. It made for a good picture. It had been carrying a load of bibles to distribute throughout the world. It ran onto rocks in bad weather and the entire cargo was lost. That will teach them to spread that silly gossip. No lives were lost though.

At about 9:00 AM we were told that all the exciting stuff had passed and the narrator would be signing off until about 8:00 this evening. She will start up again as we go around the Horn. Beep, Beep.

Last night it was light at 10:00 PM. I am sure it will be the same tonight if the weather is clear. Bobbi went to get her hair done and my movie is over so I started this thing early today.

So far we are just coming out of the Fjords into the open ocean. It is 3:25 PM local time and the ocean is still fairly calm. I haven’t seen any sea monsters yet today but I did see some scary ones on board.

Bobbi just came back from the hair dresser. She looks great. They did a wonderful job. Better then at home and only double the price. Now she wants to have her hair done here all the time.

At 4:15 PM, according to the information they give us on the TV, we are going almost head on into at least 65 mile an hour winds. Seas are starting to pick up and the winds are blowing water out of the sea and all over the ship. We are going less then ten knots now.

I am under the understanding that we have to make a technical stop. What that is, is a stop at a neutral country or it’s possession when going from one port to another where it is not allowed. My guess is, we have been in Argentine waters or territory all day and the Falklands do not allow ships to stop there after being in Argentina. A few years back, Argentina tried to take over the Falkland Islands. They belong to the UK and most of the people still want to be British subjects. So they had a little war where the US had to intervene.

No, that was all wrong. We are not going to the Falklands yet. Forget about that.

We passed Ushuaia much earlier. If we go to the cape we will have to go backward to get back there as scheduled. If Argentina won’t allow ships to enter from Chile, then what other country is there to stop at? I am so confused. The hell with it. I’m going to do the only intelligent thing. I’ll take another nap.

The couple from Virtuoso just called. They said they are going to try to reschedule tonight’s dinner time so we can see the Cape at 8:00 PM. I thought the dinner the other night, with them was the rescheduled one. We think they do not remember who they are talking to but that’s all right. Tonight’s dinner is at Latitudes. That is the Indochine restaurant. You have to make reservations way in advance. We ate there again the other night. It was wonderful. So we said fine, we are coming. Now they will figure out they made a mistake and probably never call us back, or they called us thinking we were someone else in the first place? They are old you know. I am so confused. We are just going to show up there anyhow. The manager of that restaurant is my girlfriend, Sweet Leilani. She will get us a table anyhow. She is madly in love with me. She always comes over and hugs me. Of course, what’s not to love?

Okay. I think maybe I have it straight now. We had been in the Beaver Channel which was both Chile and Argentina, maybe. Now we went to or around the Cape which is still Chile. We have never officially been in Argentina, maybe. I do know for sure that we are headed back to the Beaver Channel where we will make a stop at Williams Port to officially enter Mexico or Venezuela or some one of those southern places. Argentina. That’s it. Right. Argentina.

We did have lunch, or make that dinner at Latitudes. It had become a Thai restaurant while I wasn’t looking. The food was very good even though most of it did not taste like the Thai food I have gotten at Thai restaurants around the world. It was more like someone took recipes out of a Thai cook book and made them very well but not authentic and gave some wrong names. But again, it was very good. Had I never been to Thai restaurants, I would not know the difference and would have thought I must like Thai food.

We were still finishing up with dinner when the narrator came on the public address and started telling us about the cape. We quickly finished and went back to our room. Almost all the action was on our side again.

It is not named Cape Horn for the mountain called the Horn, at the tip. It is named for the ship that first navigated it. The only reason we had to go here, was to go here. It was not on the way.

The winds had died down quite a bit on the way here. At first it was foggy at the island but did clear up a lot. There were very low clouds moving at high speeds and a lot of mist from the wind blowing the waters into the air. We were in the lea of the island until we rounded the cape and went toward the Horn. It is a mountain that looks much like Sugar Loaf in Rio. That is because it is the same shape and the exact height, 1,300 feet.

As we rounded the Cape we started to get the full effects of the ocean. Winds were down to about 35 knots. The average is 35 knots with 62 knot gusts. This was a little better then average. Some times it can be flat and more often, ridiculous. The narrator said that during the 39 times she has crossed it in cruise ships, they were dipping their bows under waves. This had been the best trip through the Fjords and around the Horn that she has ever had. She has seen more and spotted more animals then all the other times put together. I guess it just must be because I’m here this time. I am just good luck.

1/27/2008 Punta Arenas, Chile

From: Sherman Rootberg

Date: Jan 27, 2008 7:59 PM

Subject: 1/27/2008 7:59 PM

1/27/2008

Punta Arenas, Chile.

I don’t know when we docked. We were not supposed to until 7:00 AM but we had been tied up long before. Since yesterday we have been moving at only 4 to 5 knots and sometimes even slower. There are many twists and turns and they saw it is very dangerous. We have two pilots aboard. Some of the larger freighters and tankers find it easier and safer to go all the way around then to take this inside passage. The freighters and tankers do not have thrusters to make tight turns and would require a tug to accompany them.

The internet, telephone, and TV news had been out from yesterday evening until about 11:30 this morning, our time. We are two hours ahead of New York time or three hours ahead of Chicago time.

This afternoon we took a city tour at 1:30. The warmest they usually get is about 55 degrees but it got to over 60 today. That sounds warm but there was a very strong wind. We went out on our balcony and quickly decided to put on the parkas again. That turned out to be a good idea. There was a long walk down the dock to get to the terminal building. Not only was it trying to blow us over, when it came off the cold water, it got much colder. Again, this was another cold miserable rainy place not fit to live in. The Indians had given it a name meaning the place the sun does not warm.

These buses were not supposed to be air conditioned so of course they were. That was a good thing. The sun was quite hot coming in the windows and was really cooking the inside.

There was really not much of real interest to see on a four hour tour. They made up for it with a lot of free time stops in the middle of nowhere. This was a nice clean town. The downtown buildings looked like they had come from a much earlier time but the town didn’t get started until about 1835 and the better buildings downtown were from about 1845. The people were from all over Europe. They had put a bounty on the Indians and they were quickly wiped out.

This town of 150,000 could have been in any northern area of the US were it not for all the signs in Spanish. They are one of Chile’s wealthiest cities. They have the only oil in Chile as well as copper and it is one of the best places for raising sheep that grow great wool. The people, as all over Chile, seem very pleasant.

We visited a cemetery with lots of rich folks in expensive crypts, but only the dead ones live there. Actually, they did not live there. They were just dead there. Next was a city square. All over Central and South America, the cities have at least one central square. We spent some time there getting blown around. Then we drove around seeing the different areas of the city. Last was a visit to an old ranch where the descendants of the first settlers still live and work. We were all shown through the house and grounds and by the grand daughter of the original founder. She was a very nice young girl and spoke perfect US English.

The bus had parked and let us off in a gravel lot close to the house. We all walked to the front door to enter. Across the lawn was a large dog limping badly. He was a Bearded Collie. They look almost like an Old English Sheep Dog but have long tails and a much better temperament. They are usually far more intelligent too. The whole bus load of people had walked by but the dog walked up to me. That happens often. As I mentioned when that happened before, I must have been a dog in my last life. He just wanted to be pet. There was another big dog that had very long hair. He really looked like a lion. I guess the only thing that could survive the terrible weather was a big long haired dog.

Their trees are quite different from ours and they do produce some beautiful woods as we saw in the old house. After looking all over the house and taking turns to pee in the one bathroom, they brought us to a finished and heated barn like building. Here they showed us a Rah, rah Chile video for about 15 minutes. Next it was into another room where, of course, they fed us. Again, the food was terrific. They gave us meat and cheese empanadas, cheeses that were wonderful, liver pate, tiny rolls and garlic bread and other stuff. There was plenty of hard and soft drinks also. This was all very nice.

The young lady who was the owner also showed us her grandfather’s 1938 race car. It was the only one any where in the area, so he would race himself and of course always win. It was a 1938 version of an Indy type racer with most of the parts missing.

While these towns are not a major attraction and you would never come this far just to see them, I enjoy seeing different places. How they differ from home and what the people are like. Every place in Chile, where we have been served food, the food has been great. I am sure I have seen Chile restaurants advertised in the Miami area. When we get back we have got to try one.

At about 7:00 PM we were suppose to leave the dock. The wind thought otherwise. It was blowing so hard it was holding us to the dock. I don’t know if we didn’t have enough power in the front thruster to pull away or they could not use full power or they would undermine the pilings for the dock. For the first time I have been on Radisson/Regent, they had to hire a tug to pull them off the dock.

1/26/2008 Cruising the Chilean Fjords on the way to Punta Arenas, Chile around the Horn, Day II

From: Sherman Rootberg

Date: Jan 27, 2008 8:37 AM

Subject: 1/26/2008

1/26/2008

Cruising the Chilean Fjords on the way to Punta Arenas, Chile around the Horn, Day II.

The morning started with misdirection. Yesterday we had been given invitations to meet on the 7th floor by the atrium at 7:45 AM. From there we were going to go out on the outside front deck, weather permitting, for a special look at a ship wreck. They called it “Wreck From The Deck”. This was only for those doing the full round trip from and to Ft. Lauderdale. They promised a unique gift and said bring your cameras and appetite. Doesn’t that sound like they were going to have breakfast? It was 7:45 in the morning.

For many days now they have been telling us this has been some of the warmest weather in history. The guides and the narrator for the ship keep telling us they have never seen it so clear. It is almost always raining and foggy. The narrator says she has been doing this for 20 years and has never before seen some of the glaciers and mountains we have seen today. But the “Wreck From The Deck” had to be changed to a rear lounge because of the weather. It this was not good enough weather, and there has never been weather this good, what genius thought up this stupid thing? Another job well planned. They have to be hiring at funny farms to get this quality personal.

How about, “bringing your appetite”? What would you expect at 8:00 AM? Breakfast foods? Pastries? How ridicules of anyone to have thought that. Doesn’t anyone besides these geniuses know what you serve at 8:00 AM? It’s so obvious. Pretzels of course. See, I knew you would never get that one. But they did have coffee without enough staff to serve it or enough cups. Whoever plans this crap should be lynched, or maybe this is how it’s done on NCL.

Now what about the “Unique Gift”? You will never guess this one, too. In preparation for our shore tour to Ushuaia in a few days, they have provided us with striped prison costumes. Can you guess where I would like to shove those uniforms, I mean “Unique Gifts”? I’ll bet you got that one right. There is an old prison that is now a museum in Ushuaia. (sounds like OOsh why ah). It must be a great idea to show up dressed as inmates so we don’t get confused with the inmates.

Moving right along with stupids R them, it was gorgeous sunny weather. It was in the 50s which is as warm as it has ever been. The scenery traveling through is mile after mile of amazing things. Soon we came to the ship wreck we had to get up and eat pretzels for. They did not even slow down let alone stop when we got to it. We had asked the captain which side of the ship it would be on. As it was going to be on our side, we forced ourselves to give up pretzels and the cattle call to get near a window in the lounge, and went to our cabin to get what turned out to be the best possible view.

The wreck had a very interesting story, if it is true. The ship was the Santa Leonora of the Grace Line. It went down in 1987 if I remember correctly. When going through this Magellan Channel there is always a pilot or two aboard. At this point there had been an argument between the ship’s captain and the pilot. The pilot said they had to turn left and the captain said they had to turn right. After a short argument the captain gave in and said all right, all right. The mate hearing only the right immediately turned right and into the rocks.

The weather stayed wonderful all day. We saw five whales, loads of sea lions and penguins, and all kinds of birds. It was chilly out here in Chile so we had put on our parkas and sat out on the balcony and watched the beautiful snow covered mountains and green, green valleys go by. I was dozing a little when we saw this funny shape come out of the water. It was very close to the ship. At first it looked pretty small but quickly became huge as more and more of it came out of the water. It looked like some kind of dinosaur or maybe more like the pictures of that Lock Ness thing. We did not wait to find out and dove into the room from the balcony. It may have been just in time. As we turned to look back we saw it stick it’s head onto the balcony next to ours and grab hold of the lady standing there. It almost bit her in half. Blood was everywhere as he took a couple of chews and swallowed her. She didn’t even have time to scream.

These sea days don’t have much to write about. None of that monster stuff was true. I made it all up to see if you were paying attention. Everything else was true though.

The other big deal was when we had to stop to see a cross on top of a mountain. It is called Cape Forward. This is the furthest south piece of land on the South American continent. There are other pieces of land further south according to the map but they are islands. Then we went to dinner. Dinner was very good.

1/25/2008 Cruising the Chilean Fjords on the way to Punta Arenas, Chile around the Horn

From: Sherman Rootberg

Date: Jan 25, 2008 9:46 PM

Subject: 1/25/2008

1/25/2008

Cruising the Chilean Fjords on the way to Punta Arenas, Chile around the Horn.

It got very foggy again last night and the ship got Horny again. Every couple of minutes, off went the Horny. By late morning it had cleared and we even had sun. I have forgotten to mention that we have been warned about the sun here. This is the area where the ozone layer has the big hole and there is little protection from the UVs. It is best to cover up and not be in it with or without sun block.

We were cruising through the Fjords and in some places it was pretty narrow but very deep. 1,000 to over 1,500 feet deep. We still have the lady that narrates as we travel through the interesting places. She was on the TV and the address system in the public areas, all day. She explained the difference between Fjords and other waterways. Only Fjords are formed by glaciers. Deep ravines are carved in mountains by the weight and action of the glaciers falling down them. Fjords always have mountains coming right down into the waters. When the glaciers melted, thousands of years ago, the waterways were left. Many of these Fjords are mislabeled by people who did not understand this. They may be named as channels, bays, rivers etc.

Again it was just gorgeous traveling through here. Besides the mountains and greenery there were huge Albatross of different types and many other birds following. There were different types of dolphin and sea lions every once in awhile. Very interesting.

We had an invitation to join the Virtuoso couple for dinner a few nights ago. We had gotten back late and everyone was exhausted so they canceled it. They re invited us this evening.

A couple of hours before dinner we had come out of the Fjords and gone into the open ocean. The waves were hitting us from the side and rocking the ship quite a bit. Dinner was at the Veranda on the 11th floor. Oh fun. The higher up, the more rocking. If I have not mentioned it in the past, this restaurant has a buffet appetizer and desert bar. Oh even more fun to watch people tossing food everywhere. The big event was watching a bottle of wine, in a bucket, on top of a stand, go flying. The thud from the bottle and the bucket was quite dramatic. Then watching the 12 waiters go running to pick it up was very entertaining as long as you didn’t happen to be too close.

The Virtuoso couple and the other two couples at the table were very nice and we had a good time.

I talked to Vicki, our close friend/slave/travel agent today. I told her about my worries with what was going on with Regent. We had been on about every line out there and Regent/Radisson had been by far our favorite. They have been bought by Apollo. I am not sure of the spelling but they own NCL which sucks, and Oceania which is just so, so and not nearly in the luxury class.

Following is a list of what makes me wonder if things are not going to continue to be top notch as in the past. We find out tonight that a pod was not working properly a year ago and still continues to be that way, causing the ship to go slower, see fewer places in the same time, and make the ship less reliable. We saw that refurbishing and replacing of carpet, furniture, draperies, etc have still not been done on the Voyager, as promised two years ago. The food we have had, in most cases, is as great as ever. However, menus have not been. There are not the variety and quality offerings we have had in the past in the restaurants. The Veranda all too often becomes a Mediterranean Steak House. That means they take all the lobster, shrimp, steak and other good stuff off the menu and instead offer a cheap, by comparison, special and two other low cost items. The buffet for salads and appetizers is about half of what it was last year. Same in Signatures. They change the menu and much of the good stuff disappears.

We know costs go up but the prices they charge have also gone way up not to mention a fuel surcharge has been added. When prices go up and quality goes down you have to start looking.

1/24/2008 Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

From: Sherman Rootberg
Date: Jan 24, 2008 7:28 PM
Subject: 1/24/2008

1/24/2008

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

We anchored at about noon. All morning we watched as we cruised along this waterway in the fjords. The scenery is unbelievable. There is no way to correctly describe it. Pictures really do not nearly do it justice.

We signed up for a 5 hour tour today. It was cool this morning so we took light jackets. That was the first mistake. As soon as we tendered to shore it started to get very warm. Then we boarded the buses that the tour description described as air conditioned. Surprise, surprise. No air and no opening windows. It quickly became an oven.

Our guide was a very nice little girl that didn’t know much and didn’t speak much English. What she did say was often mispronounced badly enough that she couldn’t be understood. That was okay because there wasn’t much worth hearing about. The tour wasn’t much either. The only thing we saw that was really worth seeing was the scenery. The mountains and valleys were spectacular. The rest of the supposed attractions were not worth stopping for.

We stopped at a river. Whoopee. Like we never saw a river before. Next was a very small museum that wasn’t worth looking at, so we walked out. Then we crossed the Andes to their largest town, Coyhaique. None of the locals can pronounce it either. It was a waste of time. Then we headed back. On the way we stopped at a local restaurant for snacks. There was far more then enough food and it was good. Then it was back to the dock.

We drove quite a distance through switch backs and up and down mountains. The bus sucked and rode hard as rocks over the lousy roads. Even worse then the bus was the stupid driver who did not know how to drive a bus. We kept hearing this crap about how this was the hottest day they have ever had. We did see buses with air. Our tour manager on the ship obviously decided not to pay for them and let us roast. He really sucks. We got back over three hours late, all soaked from sweat and we missed a dinner reservation. Naturally not many people were there on time and the restaurant manager, Sweet Leilani, would always take care of us anyhow.


Some of these tours are being very poorly arranged. The tour manager does not seem concerned and is frankly doing a lousy job. The prices being charged are fantastic for the poor quality and service. If there was some reasonable way to use something other then the ships tours, I would be there in a moment.

1/23/2008 Puerto Montt, Chile

From: Sherman Rootberg
Date: Jan 24, 2008 7:39 AM
Subject: 1/23/2008

1/23/2008

Puerto Montt, Chile

We had to get up early this morning for a Virtuoso seven hour tour. We were up at six AM. It was only in the 50s outside. I could see we were far from any anchorage but got ready anyhow. We met in the theater and were promptly told that the ship would be about an hour and one half late to anchor.

I always love it when they lie to us. The reason given was strong currents last night. Bull feathers. We had been battling a head wind all day yesterday. The ship is unable to make enough speed due to a problem with one of the pods that turns the propellers. One is supposedly being built to replace the damaged one. It is supposed to be installed in April. Until then the ship cannot cruise at normal speed.

The area we are in is absolutely gorgeous. The scenery looks like a painting. Everything is very green and beautiful mountains are in the background. Many of these mountains are snow capped. This part of South America is a maze of river like waterways separating hundreds or thousands of fingers of land. This is called the Chilean Fjords or sometimes the South American Fjords. This is the lakes area where there are multitudes of salmon farms in the fresh waters. There are also many volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. They do kill lots of people from time to time.

Everywhere we went, they kept telling us how lucky we were. This area is much like the Pacific Northwest. It normally rains and is so foggy you cannot make out the many volcanoes and mountains. Today it is sunny and is getting much warmer then normal.

Finally, upon returning to the theater at about 9:30 AM, we boarded a tender for the trip ashore. Being so far from the equator, there are tremendous tide changes. Now it was low tide. We left the tenders at a floating dock and then had to walk almost straight up on a ramp from the floating dock to the land. It had gotten to the high 60s by now. Our next remarkable experience was a bus without working air conditioning.

First we visited a Chile style ranch. They had a Chilean style rodeo for us. They call their cowboys wasos. Sounds like wah so. Seven of these wasos did some amazing performances with their horses. The horses are a special breed. They were originally brought over by the Spanish but have been bread to act like quarter horses only they are smaller.

Now it was breakfast time. They served meat empanadas outside and then, brought us all in for a buffet of ham, bacon, cheese, etc, etc. While outside there had been three, very well taken care of, dogs. One is a St Bernard, one is a Belgium, and one is a toy poodle. The Belgium won’t leave the owner alone. She just stands touching him with a big dumb grin on her face. He has the Belgium and the Poodle do a trick, then the St Bernard does the best trick of all. Whatever you tell it to do, it just sits there and looks at you. The Poodle is a white one about the size of Spike and is also eleven years old like Spike. This one even walks with the same limp in the right front leg. One of the empanadas was dropped. You should have seen this old dog grab it and run. The Poodle, named Poopy, was the only one allowed inside. Naturally he walked around looking for food to be dropped. When he came by me I offered him a piece of roll. That was all that was on the table at the time. He walks over and takes a sniff and sticks his nose in the air and walks away. That is spoiled. Spike would have grabbed it and run.

Breakfast was very nice as was the ranch. The entire area could have been rural Iowa or Wisconsin. That’s how the countryside looks until you see the volcanoes and mountains in the distance.

When we got back in the bus it was now in the upper 70s and with the bright sun the inside of the bus was an oven. We made a lot of noise about lack of air until they found a way to get another bus after lunch. Meantime they got all the people from our bus into the other two busses.

We went for ride around the area and ended up in a tiny museum with an old mill with a water wheel. That wasn’t much.

Next we went a short distance to very pretty lake. The water was very cold but people were going in anyhow. There was a restaurant on the lake where they had lunch prepared for us. Steak and Salmon were the choices. Everything in Chile starts with empanadas. These were cheese empanadas.

After lunch they dropped us off at a casino with a local crafts place next door. We went in to the crafts place. Big mistake. Bobbi wanted to find more of the pretty blankets they make out of the local wool. We went into about seven or eight stands and no one had them. I thought I was in luck. As we were leaving, in front was a real store. It looked like just more of the same stuff but they did have some wool blankets. To make the story a little shorter, they do not speak any English here. But they did know enough to call me Santa as I schlepped this huge plastic bag to the bus. The worse part was getting it to the ship on the tenders.

The guide carried to the dock for me. A ship crewman carried it onto the tender for me and another carried it off the tender and up the stairs to the ship. To add insult to injury, when we walked into the store on the ship, after dinner, they had gotten the same blankets and their asking price was the same as the price I had bargained the locals down to.

As we ate dinner we sailed through these waters with the beautiful scenery. It was something to see.