So, dear reader, I owe you some updates. There have been some decent adventures since we last met! I still owe the three remaining days of our WNY / Finger Lakes adventure. Then we returned home and the following week (this most recent week) I went off to Baltimore for a conference (I’ll likely cover that in a single post). Finally, this recent Friday and Saturday I spent with my friends in their timeshare out in the Shenandoah Valley. But one more – we’re planning a camping trip with the dog in two weeks. This shall be an adventure as the dog has never camped before! But for now, we will start with the Martin House.
May 25 started just as many late-spring days in Buffalo – with clouds and gloom. Well, the gloom continued. It didn’t rain though; it was generally pleasant. We had breakfast at SPoT Coffee again with better service than the two prior days (did I mention how much I enjoy their espresso grind?) and then we checked out and went for a tour at The Martin House.
The Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York, is a world-class architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1903 and 1905. It’s widely considered to be the best (well, in my opinion one of the best) examples of his prairie house era. Martin was a successful executive, the chief financial officer, I believe, of a large company headquartered in Buffalo at the time and very much appreciated by his employers. He eventually was in charge of building a new corporate headquarters, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but as a lead up to this he commissioned his own house. Before building his own house he had other homes built on the same plot of land. The gardener’s house above, for instance, was commissioned, as was his sister’s house:
And here is the view of the Martin house from his sister’s house – probably the only place where you can take a photograph inside at the Martin House. You can see from the above there are large beds of peonies that are likely blooming now, two weeks later, but at the time they were just green. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the windows used throughout.
Including these on the main house. Again, you can take photographs from the outside but not inside. Below this line of windows there are glass windows allowing light in to the basement level as well.
Upon entry to the main house you have a view towards where I am standing in this perspective. The entry has a door to the steps on the street as well as a door back in this direction to the walkway to the conservatory. The entry itself is fairly compact for the era with an archway to the left on entering (to the right from here) into a receiving room and then to the right (to the left from here) into a formal family area. If you have ever been in a Wright House it follows his philosophy of “compress and release.” The doorway and movement between rooms is compressed and then the room spreads out away from you and higher than you – the release as it is, capturing you into the space.
The view through the entry and down the covered corridor to the conservatory yields this – intended to impress.
What I enjoyed the most in all of this space was the Steinway covered with white oak; most are black but his wife had one covered with white oak. It returned to the house many years ago and is played by volunteers for maintenance.
While we were at the Martin house we started getting text messages from the Inns of Aurora where we were checking in later that day – 140 miles away! Seems they accidentally did not change our spa appointment to the next day. Therefore, we did not dillydally. We moved on, but first stopping at the Walden Galleria to verify that Western New York is not entirely populated by Dead Malls. I had to buy some sponge candy and a pair of swim trunks! And lunch of course (which sucked – mall food court food).
At the Inns we checked into the Zabriskie House, our home away from home for two nights. We definitely could have stayed longer. We enjoyed a couple’s massage at the spa here this evening (more on that later – we returned to the spa for their outdoor thermal spa experience the next day). We would both rate their massage experience as superb, probably the best compared to other resorts where we’ve enjoyed the massage experience (Woodloch Resort for instance, and Wildflower Farms in Gardiner New York). Not that there was anything wrong at the other places… we both realized that some of the reason why we enjoyed this experience better may be because we both had a male masseuse! Bigger hands with pressure more spread out.
We had dinner at the 1833 Kitchen and Bar which is part of the Inns. It was their third night open for outdoor dining for the season.
There are a ton of wines on the list I would have enjoyed traveling but the slow service allowed me to get as far as two only. We did enjoy some good food like this tuna crudo –
And some really good lamb as well (along with salmon, without the lardons please for her). Pro tip – some members of the guest services staff will do nearly anything for you, including the guy who checked us in who said he was “like a dog with a frisbee” and would answer any question. He told us how to get down to the waterfront in the morning for instance:
“Absolutely! No bother at all! You’re throwing a frisbee at a dog! I love this stuff! You will kindly find your way to the right side of The Rowland House following the grass down to the dock just behind the house. The Rowland House is marked with a large R on your map and just across Main St. from your location at Zabriskie House.”
But our true reward for the journey was sunset over Cayuga Lake.
And we continue with our January adventures…. As they rolled to a close! It’s time to catch up as now there have been more adventures.
So, Holland America has as an excursion option on disembarkation day the choice of having a private car and tour guide for eight hours – ending at the airport. For a solo person the car for two would be great. It’s likely a car the size of a Toyota Corolla I suspect. As we have six pieces of luggage with us (two checked each plus carry on) we realized we needed something bigger so we booked a “private minivan” which is supposedly large enough for three or four couples. I tell you, the van that picked us up this morning was big enough for about 12 people with 22 days of baggage but there was only ourselves in it.
Ours was listed as “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Minivan) Ending at the Airport.” I suspect you’d want “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Car) Ending at the Airport.” I’ll describe now how it worked for us. We think it was worth it and I’ll explain way, but also use this as an excuse to describe the experience.
The cruise port in Buenos Aires is pretty chaotic. So, from beginning to end.
As is the case for all disembarking passengers luggage goes out the night before by midnight. They haul your “checked bags” down, you bring down your carry-on. You have to carry your carry-on down in the morning to the cruise terminal shuttle and then carry it to the terminal. For these private touring transfers you are in the last group to disembark – at 8:30 for us. They give you enough tags for your bag and they call you when it’s time.
Upon arrival from the terminal you get off of the bus and go into the terminal and find your other luggage, which if like us would be Blue group C, a fairly small section towards the near end of the baggage claim area. Then you take your baggage (there are no carts) out through customs. At customs you must put everything through an X-ray machine (they will put it up for you but really didn’t help taking it down). In general there were not luggage trolleys available.
For us, this was a matter of maneuvering, between The Boss, myself, and my mother, one 76 pound rolling bag, one 65 pound rolling bag, one 40 pound rolling bag, a couple of fairly heavy duffel bags, a rolling carry on, a few shoulder bags and one backpack out through a fairly good sized building.
Then you spill out onto a wide covered apron near the street where a HAL person will direct you through a crowd to a corner of the building where there were numerous people carying signs with your name on them.
Pro tip – pack less than we did. Take advantage of the unlimited laundry offer.
So, we found our guide and he directed us across a dip in the concrete to a van that was luckily waiting on the best patch of curb available. The driver loaded our luggage and we were on our way.
Logistically, the way it works is on embarkation day the HAL excursion desk leaves you an envelope with a form for you to fill out regarding anything you may want to see on your private tour. In reality, our guide had a list of eight main areas he shows to everyone but if we had anything special we wanted to see it should go on the list. I was looking at something that wasn’t steak for lunch so I researched, and we wanted to see the Evita Peron Museum, so I researched that as well. Otherwise, he covered the five main areas we wanted to see including the cemetery and Plaza Mayo along with Recoleta and Palermo neighborhoods, We also added Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore which was also among our favorites.
So as I was saying, they picked us up and we were on our way. We spent the morning heading towards the central and then the more southern part of the close-in city and then after lunch we headed towards the northern part of the city. Finally, we went to the airport.
We stopped by Teatro Colon which unfortunately was closed except for the main hallway due to some electrical work being done. We could have done a tour here for forty five minutes in English but it would not have happened anyway.
One note – our guide, and most of the guides, are fully licensed and many of them have college degrees for being tour guides. With his badge our guide was able to visit most attractions without paying a fee, although we had to pay the international rate. he also seemed to know somebody on every single block. Martin was approached many times for the typical Argentinian kiss on the cheek greeting. Oh, but one other thing – even though he has free admission everywhere at attractions where they sell an electronic guide or otherwise he is often forbidden from providing his own commentary. More on this later.
We spent a bit of time in the square behind the theater talking about the buildings in the neighborhood including the palace of justice. Then, back into the van.
I snapped this photo of The Obelisk on our way to our next stop, Plaza Mayo. Santiago and Punta Arenas both had Plaza de Armas; Buenos Aires has the same thing, Plaza Mayo. Most Spanish colonial cities have something similar.
This heavily-touched-up photo I took of the pink house – their presidential mansion. It sits on Plaza Mayo along with the national bank and the cathedral and a number of other buildings.
This is the inside of the cathedral on the square. As it was Pope Francis’ seat when he was in Buenos Aires there is now a small Pope Francis museum attached apparently but we did not visit it. There is actually a bit to see here including The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence. If anybody is curious I’ll look it up when I get around to reviewing my notes.
Back in the van. Let me tell you, it’s nice to only wait for two others climbing into a van. Martin wanted to take us to the San Telmo neighborhood but as we visited it yesterday we suggested moving on. Instead, he took us straight to the La Boca neighborhoodwhere we drove past the very famous soccer (futbol) stadium. Every building in La Boca seems to be painted in its colors. Here we got out of the van and went for a coffee in what I would call a “coffee speakeasy.”
This was my cafe cortado. Mmmm. Anyway, the entrance to the coffee shop was through a souvenir shop behind a painted door and up some stairs in the back. You would not know it was there.
La Boca is a neighborhood that was settled first by Spanish immigrants and later by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Along the port there there is a walking street, Caminito, leading to the small port where today many artists sell their wares.
Caminito is actually a combination between an outdoor market, walking street, and outdoor gallery.
Our guide Martin highlighting one of the artworks.
The back of a meat-selling restaurant.
After this part of the tour it was time to say goodbye to the South and head north. Along the way we passed the new port district along the eastern side of the district, much better than the cruise port neighborhood. It reminded me of the newer parts of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor district or some of the developments along the Chicago River in Chicago.
Martin insisted we stop at this – it was not on our radar at all. Two years ago, long time Cruise Critic readers will remember, around the time of one of the January Antarctic sailings there was a tornado that hit this part of Buenos Aires collapsing part of the roof in the cruise terminal. In addition to collapsing the cruise terminal it did some damage to this, Floralis Genérica. This has only been reopened for the past two weeks. Prior to 2023, it opened in the daytime and closed at night; now it is just… open, but hopefully it will soon return to its opening and closing status.
After the flower we visited Recoleta Cemetary where Evita and her family are entombed. Of course, our guide told us the story about this as well. She was not actually entombed there until years after her death of course and there are many many mausoleums that are more grand than hers. If anybody is interested, please let me know and I will share more photos.
And then finally we visited Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore.
This bookstore is great, obviously. It’s like a large Barnes and Noble if you speak Spanish. If not, then it’s just pretty. The English language section is on the ground floor on the left. There is a gift and merchandise section in the lobby. On the third (top) tier for a fee you can see an exhibit regarding the history of the museum and they will serve you snacks. Or you can pay for a coffee and sit on the stage.
I bought a dual-language cookbook here, it was on sale in the lobby. We also somewhere along here stopped for lunch.
I’m not going to say lunch was a mistake, but it certainly was an adventure. I think our guide’s intention was to take us to one of the market restaurants or somewhere similar, but prior to the day of the tour when we provided our list I gave him the name of Niño Gordo – “Fat Baby” in English. This had the potential to be a legendary lunch except for two factors – one, we had eaten ourselves to death on the few days prior and two, halfway through the meal the power went out!
Our guide was actually a young guy – in his mid-twenties, and perhaps when I assessed him as an adventurous recent college graduate in a cosmopolitan city I was wrong :-). We took him to an Asian – Argentine fusion spot. As you can see above, we were seated in a section that had low seats, near the floor, with light spilling in from the tabled area and from the bar area. We ordered several dishes to share including kimchi, an Argentine-Asian beef dish, and a fish dish. It was going great, but around the second course the power in the kitchen goes out and half the restaurant goes dark. Not long after that, the air conditioning above us starts dripping on us – because it was off and no longer blowing the condensation elsewhere. So, surprise.
We finished our lunch and then made our way to the airport. The airport is a bit crazy though. The key here that worked out well for us is with the private car or van our guide snagged us a luggage trolley, walked into the airport with us and showed us where our check-in counters are, and showed us where the security desk is.
One thing I’m going to note now –
EVEN WITH PRIORITY STATUS EZE IS A FOUR HOUR AIRPORT IN THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. UGH.
Delta’s check-in opens at five. American opens at six as does United (I think). Delta has fewer people staffing check-in but the same number of planes as American. American opened early. We arrived at 5pm and my mother got in line for check in right away whereas the two of us sat and had coffee for ninety minutes as we had several hours to wait. With priority our check-in was 20 minutes; my mother’s was 90 minutes. The security line was I think 50 minutes, passport control was 20 or 30 minutes. Okay, so maybe with priority it’s a three hour airport. However, as we arrived so early we had time to kill. We enjoyed a light meal at Le Pain Quiotidien along with some wine and beer prior to running the security and passport gauntlet. And then? The best thing ever. We visited the Admiral’s Club lounge where, after spending a hot summer day touring Buenos Aires, I was able to take a shower! We finally boarded for our 11:59pm flight and were happily able to sleep on the plane as well.
And all of the bags on the right (the four) made it on the plane to Miami. When we landed in Miami it was barely above freezing and there were gusty winds which slammed our plane to the ground twice. I figured we’d be in for the same at home but it was a more typical landing. Even so, brrrrr.
On approach the Potomac was full of ice. And then we spent the next week clearing snowcrete from our driveway and walks…. Back to normal.
Normally I would want to blog about my travels as they happened, but as I fell off the wagon a week prior to the end of our January journeys I’ve been occasionally playing catch up instead. I find that this has actually been an enjoyable pursuit. I was writing a lot on Cruise Critic about our journey much of which I was transferring here, but revisiting it later instead gives me a different perspective. I also find that, with the aid of modern photography, I still am able to remember details effectively. So we will see how this goes today.
Montevideo appears as a city on the sea, rising above the flatlands just a tiny bit.
Montevideo of course is the capital of Uruguay, a surprisingly impressive country on the eastern coast of South America. Uruguay feels to me a bit like Argentina with similar culture and similar gaucho lifestyle but a little more laid back. It is also a little cheaper than Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, which I will review later, seems to charge American or New York prices for anything that remotely resembles a luxury good. In other words, date night there is still a $200 proposition.
Our ship, the Oosterdam, chooses Montevideo to provision rather than Buenos Aires. My initial guess was Buenos Aires is avoided for this purpose because the Uruguayan currency is stable and HAL buys enough that transacting in U.S. dollars becomes unwieldy. The Argentine Peso is not a stable currency so individuals carry on a lot of transactions in dollars. In theory Argentines are to report larger dollar transactions and then be taxed on them in pesos, but in reality they do not and wait for a tax amnesty before depositing larger amounts of money in banks and using them in the official economy. Instead, they participate in an unofficial economy. Now, a cruise line cannot choose that approach, can they? They buy from local wholesalers and it is taxed and the government chooses what currency to use (always the peso, which is not stable).
But my secondary guess is because it’s more practical. The Port of Buenos Aires is a monster and they can get everything they need, or more, in Montevideo.
Also, about ten percent of the ship’s staff turned over that day. Our waiters from the Main Dining Room went home as a number of housekeeping staff, but not ours (we asked). The last port with a large crew turnover was Ushuaia I believe. They also provision in Ushuaia. What do these two ports have in common? It’s easy for trucks and buses to drive straight to the ship. In Buenos Aires everything is offloaded and switched to shuttles and the dock workers have their own thing going on of course.
Anyway, enough about that. Montevideo is nice because you can walk right off the ship and you’re in town. I wasn’t too sure about Montevideo before we joined the cruise. I wasn’t certain how well developed it would be as I have ended up in a number of places where there’s a nice downtown core but then there’s a vacant no-man’s-land or an unsafe-to-walk-area outside of the downtown core, but Montevideo wasn’t like this. You walk off the ship and you’re in town. The only challenge was there were two other ships in port that day so there were a total of six or seven thousand tourists flooding the streets. Fortunately we had a longer stay than either so the impact on us was spread out. I feel bad for the folks on the MSC cruise who had perhaps a six hour stop in Montevideo – in my mind barely long enough for a massive ship to empty out and then reload again (our ship, for the record, carried perhaps 35% the number of passengers, and it really does make a difference).
Our first stop was the Mercado del Puerto mainly for two reasons – to walk through and browse shops and find a hat but also to scope out to see if it works as a lunch stop. As you can see above there was at least one place that fit the bill. There were actually several, and this is where we began the practice of dining at the bar at a wood fired grill. Why didn’t we do this sooner in our voyage?
Our journey from this point took us through pedestrian streets lined with shops and cafes to multiple squares, some tree lined and some not.
Along the way we passed the Plaza De La Diversidad Sexual. The Plaza was dedicated more than two decades ago now with a monolith. The monolith features the following inscription: “Honrar la diversidad es honrar la vida: Montevideo por el respeto a todo género, identidad y orientación sexual” (Honoring diversity is honoring life: Montevideo for the respect of every gender, identity, and sexual orientation). On a random weekday afternoon it was a quiet and peaceful place just a block off busy streets where there were only a handful of people hanging around – mostly some boys riding their bicycles up and down the ramp.
We had vague plans to visit the leather factory off of Plaza Independcia (shown above), but the leather factory was a floor above ground level and more oriented towards tailoring to fit with 24 hour turn around than tourist browsing, so instead we took a wander back to the ship. I wasn’t permitted to wander the ocean front around the peninsula as this had resulted in a five mile walk for us in Punta del Este…
Like many South American cities there was a large classic theater, the above perhaps skewed a bit by me using the iPhone on fisheye mode.
This residence or business had some delightful sculptures climbing on the railings. And by the way the street scene was interesting to watch. We would not have happened upon this on an official tour.
We did actually make our way back to the market for lunch. As I said it was bar seating with food prep going on in front of us. Wine and beer here was the usual situation – nearly always they sell you the whole bottle of wine and they encourage you to order two beers at once by only providing liter beer bottles.
You can see the jamon serrano I ordered as well as tortilla de patata set for wait staff to slice off a quarter for anybody who requests. Reminds me that I should cook some up at home sometime soon; the challenge is it’s designed to be served room temperature at your leisure and I’m the only one who will have it that way so I make a plate full and serve off two slices and then it’s just me. But it’s oh so good.
This was the best beef I had enjoyed in two weeks at this point. There are about half a dozen of these places within the market as well as the fresh food stalls, tourist shops, and other artisanal shops. Also it didn’t seem to be air conditioned. I imagine it isn’t heated in the cooler months either. We were there around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. With Uruguay being the same longitude as us roughly as well as being two hours ahead of us this tells me the summer time hottest part of the day comes around 4 or 5pm in the afternoon, and the locals have lunch between 2 and 5, so I am thinking we timed things fairly well. It was warm to hot but not what I would say is Virginia hot, and it was fine inside in the shade.
Since our visit to Montevideo I have read additional travel reports regarding the city and the country and it all sounds fascinating – a great place to visit and base yourself for a week or two if not longer and travel around the Uruguayan countryside. Also, based on our experiences as well as these travel reports it almost sounds as if it is a better place to end a long haul flight than Buenos Aires. The airport is smaller and better run than the airports across the estuary in Buenos Aires. Between the two of us I think we both want to re-visit Montevideo and Punta del Esta as well as Buenos Aires. I know I would add on Argentine wine growing regions, the Argentina side of Patagonia and the Andes, and some hiking in the rain in Chilean Patagonia, but more on this when I write up Buenos Aires.
Eventually we made our way back to the ship. The night prior had been our final night in the main dining room. As our wait staff departed in Montevideo and we had a large lunch we opted to “stay in” and prepare for our travels home even though it was still two nights out. Also, it was our final night at sea.
Lovely skies. We packed up and prepared for two days in Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile at home a few days prior a thick layer of snowcrete had fallen which would plague us for half the month of February before it was no longer a nuisance…
So, in a few different places I’ve asked after port safety in Montevideo, especially around the port / Mercado area and in general the advice is “we were there a few days ago and it was fine but as usual in a big city…” etc.
In Buenos Aires of course the advice is different – do not walk from the port area. The recommendations are to get a taxi or Uber to where we are going or at least as far as Plaza General San Martin, but much of Buenos Aires is still safe for people who look like better targets than Julia and I. Generally, but not always, we’re not the first target, especially on a Holland America cruise. Until recently neither of us wore jewelry or watches worth stealing either.
One of the things I end up doing every time we travel is I try to figure out if it’s safe for myself or a marathon runner to run outside. There is a fun little assessment I do regarding local weather conditions, traffic assessment, and comfort level. You’d be surprised where people aren’t comfortable running outside! For instance, sometimes places like Avignon, France, are lousy places for runners even in the wee hours of the morning because everybody is calling out for you!
So far, Puerto Madryn was one of our favorite places anywhere we’ve traveled for running (with obvious exceptions like Boston and New York City). Puerto Madryn has La Rambla along the sea which continues in some form or another more than three miles out to the point and to the ecological center.
An obvious turn around point for most guests when they walk or run from the ship is Monumento Indio al Telhuelche on a point of land at the end of the main beach.
This is a monument to the labor movement of the indigenous peoples in Patagonia several decades ago. It also has a lovely view.
View from the ship from three miles away.
The view beyond. I would have loved to keep going, but there was plenty to do. We turned around and ran back the other direction where I stopped near the pier for a large beer while waiting for The Boss to double my mileage.
This was a prelude to some souvenir shopping followed by lunch at Náutico Bistró Del Mar.
This was officially Mariscos de Golfo Nuevo with Golfo Nuevo being the gulf around Puerto Madryn. I’m not totally certain all of it was directly from the gulf itself but it certainly seemed fresh, cooked as appropriate, and seasoned with lemons, onions, and vinaigrette appropriately.
Perfect as we were planning to attend the Cellar Master’s dinner yesterday evening, a lunch to share with papas fritas and more large beers.
Eventually after some shopping we returned to the ship. Our original plan was to run, have a beer, return to the ship, and then head back out, but Puerto Madryn is the type of place where when it’s summer you walk around casually as you are. We felt comfortable in our fitness wear in open-door souvenir shops as well as dining outside.
We returned in time for the tango sail away!
Last night we attended the Cellar Master’s dinner. This appears to be focused on wine but is also one of the best meals available on an Oosterdam cruise. Food and beverage staff spoke at length and we were introduced to the entire Pinnacle Grill team – although we’ve met them all at some point.
The menu was great. Somehow we had a mix-up and two of us had scallops instead ofthe foie gras but we were both fine with that especially after yesterday’s bonus lunch.
The Pumpkin Sage Cappuccino is a delightful cream of pumpkin soup paired with a flavor-forward Pinot noir to offset it’s sweet and spicy nature.
For us the warm lobster salad was the star of the show. If it were twice the size of us then it would be perfect for a meal on a day like yesterday. This was paired with a rosé which actually wasn’t the greatest in our opinion, but we do think we would have enjoyed it better as stand alone on a sunny summer day.
The filet with the beef tenderloin and grilled shrimp was the best beef I’ve had on the ship so far but the shrimp were even better. This was nicely paired with the same MTC Syrah I had with dinner a few nights ago!
Dessert was decidedly not a tuille BUT it was the perfect size! Not huge! And Graham’s Six Grapes was a perfect accompaniment.
We both enjoyed this meal better than the Konigstafel but I actually think that’s the point. Konigstafel is to display a variety of what the king wants, Cellar Masters is to share food to pair with wine in more of a best-of. We also dined by ourselves. We’re at the point on a 22 day voyage where we are happy to not socialize as much.
One complaint?
Often it seems as if HAL glasses have spots on them. They need rinse aid of some sort.
So, a few other things to talk about:
We’ve spent a fair amount of time playing table card games, mostly blackjack, and a little bit of craps. We haven’t lost a ton of money – essentially we are even aside from an hour where I played about twelve days ago where I lost several hundred dollars and stepped away from the casino for four days as a result. In the meantime, we’ve gotten to know the casino staff really well especially while playing craps.
Last night we decided to curtail our visits to the casino as we’re winding down the trip. We spent a couple hours with our casino staff friends and gambling buddies playing craps. It was actually the latest we’ve stayed “out” on this trip so far (we’ll likely stay “out” later on the last night when we go to a closed door restaurant). It was a lot of fun.
Yesterday I mentioned running in port. I’ve largely curtailed my treadmill activities although I may pay a visit tomorrow morning. Instead, I’ve been walking an hour or more on the promenade. I’ve had some interesting step totals –
Yesterday – 21,589 (Puerto Madryn)
Sunday – 11,468 (Sea Day)
Saturday – 16,519 (Falkland Islands)
Friday – 7,991 (Sea Day)
Thursday – 15,334 (Antarctica Day 4)
Wednesday – 16,212 (Antarctica Day 3)
Tuesday – 17,667 (Antarctica Day 2, with treadmill time)
Monday – 16,944 (Antarctica Day 1)
I had planned to do a number of yoga and pilates classes, but early in the cruise after my first class I couldn’t get motivated to attend because I didn’t enjoy the instructor’s style, so I never went back. I’ve practiced yoga on Carnival and Cunard cruises, the last time being back in 2017, but I haven’t found any on this or my past two cruises that I truly enjoyed. I almost think decent fitness classes were a casualty of the Covid era.
One thing they mentioned last night which I never would have known – HAL canceled their bottle stewards after Covid. They still have a sommelier around and they have one full time in Pinnacle Grill, but not so much visibly; they just have a beverage runner in the MDR, at least on this ship. You order through your waiter. I wonder if HAL pushed bottles of wine versus elite beverage package more prior to Covid. This, by the way, is one thing I like more about Cunard; HAL has a decent wine list and I think it’s better than our experience on Celebrity nearly four years ago now but you have to ask for it. Cunard is a little more forward with their wine list. And we enjoyed (again, this is four years ago, right before all of the cuts) Celebrity’s beverage service in Blu a bit better.
But again, especially in the dining room, Pinnacle Grill, and with food in general, HAL has surprised us. The variety of food and drink available is stellar. The MDR menu isn’t as generic as we had on our Celebrity Silhouette cruise a few years ago – and thus we didn’t dine in the main dining room. Here there are often more interesting dishes offered. When you get to know the system and get to know your dining room staff, things are really in your favor. And the Pinnacle Grill breakfast experience is top notch; to think we almost missed it because our goal had been to skip breakfast every day.
Now, speaking of the Lido Market buffet – we still haven’t returned for buffet dining, even though today is Cake Day (it’s hard to handle Cake Day after a few days of a lot of eating). We’ve learned that they do not have an Asian corner on this ship as they do on Noordam and Westerdam (someone please correct me if I’m missing something regarding info and availability this winter please).
Also, today, without eating breakfast, I was craving a typical sandwich, something like a club sandwich, so we ordered room service lunch. They warned us it would be a 45 minute wait; it was a ten minute wait and the sandwich was great.
Looking ahead – what the guide says about The Falkland Islands:
“Many ships call into the Falkland Islands on their way to or from Antarctica. These stops usually turn out to be a pleasant surprise for those on board. Located 477 km (296 miles) east of southern Argentina, the Falklands are a rare mix of wildlife hotspot and delightful inhabited outpost. Comprising over 700 islands, the archipelago has a human population of around 4000, and a sea-bird population that dwarfs that. For wildlife lovers the Falklands are a fantastic destination. Unlike other subantarctic islands, they can be visited independently by scheduled flights.”
The archipelago is slightly larger than the area of Jamaica including water. Theya re around 51 degrees south latitude, the equivalent to Southern Labrador, London, and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in the north. They are, however, much colder and are constantly raked by strong winds. There are no naturally recurring trees. Temperature in the summer tends to be around 9 degrees Celsius / 48 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun shines more often than not.
The book talks about literally millions of petrels, albatrosses, penguins, gulls, and cormorants. Black-browed albatrosses, rockhopper penguins, giant petrels, white-chinned petrels, Antarctic prions, Magellanic and blue-eyed cormorants, kelp geese, upland geese, crested ducks, flightless steamer ducks.
There are mammals including Commerson’s and Peale’s dolphins, killer whales, Sei whales, elephant seals, South American fur seals, sea lions, etc.
We’re looking forward to it. We have a Volunteer Point excursion planned.
We’re also reading up on our next stops in Puerto Madryn, Punta del Este, Montevideo, and finally Buenos Aires.
I’ve been using Peter Carey & Craig Franklin’s Antarctica Cruising Guide for information on Antarctica as well as the surrounding islands including the Falklands; this includes the quote above.
For ideas on what to do in ports as well as Santiago and Buenos Aires, I’ve been using the latest version of Lonely Planet South America. This helped me give our private guide in Santiago a list of neighborhoods and sites to visit as well as for me to identify what was good for us to see on our own. I’m also using it for a similar guide in Buenos Aires. And it helped me with the museum in Ushuaia and to find Isabel Cocina al Disco in Ushuaia.
So as is always the case, the HAL tours require a bit of patience.
First off, one of the best parts of the day is this – I woke up early and went up to the 21st floor “Executive Lounge” at the Sheraton before 7am, before the sun came up. It was spectacular. The haze that appears in the daytime was non-apparent so I spent half an hour taking photos of the town and the mountains as the sun came up.
View of the tallest building in South America with the Andes beyond
A word on the executive lounge.
We live in greater greater Washington and often end up traveling to places like New York, Boston, San Diego, and Chicago. The end result of this is we have a partially-skewed sense of pricing. Therefore, when we come to a place like Santiago where we could have a King deluxe room for two nights for $140 a night, if we can upgrade to a higher floor for $160 or $180 a night and then get the lounge for $220 a night, well, we do it. Not always, but sometimes we do, and this time we did. The end result is we had “executive lounge access.” In DC money it saved us about three meals meaning it saved us probably about $200. And here’s a pro tip – if you bring a couple of friends during happy hour they don’t charge the friends for the buffet or happy hour cocktails as well; just items ordered from the menu such as the pizzas we had on Wednesday evening.
But Santiago is a relatively inexpensive place irregardless.
Now, to the parts requiring patience.
HAL’s excursion desk told us yesterday morning to put our luggage in the hallway by 7:30 am with our cruise tags attached. This morning, their sign said, “If you have a transfer, put your luggage in the hallway by 7:30am. If you have a tour and then transfer, bring your luggage downstairs by 8:30am.” Well, with our massive amount of baggage by the time we came down to the lobby at 8:30am all of the luggage carts were in use and there was no way we were bringing our bags down, not to mention half our floor had luggage in the hallway. The end result of this was we left our luggage in the hallway and trusted HAL’s tour operator to figure it out. Thanks to the magic of Apple AirTags we saw that our luggage managed to make it into a large box truck behind the hotel by the time we left on our tour a little after 9am. From there the AirTags showed our luggage sitting at the hotel until… 3:30pm, long after we arrived at the ship. Then they moved. They were in San Antonio, the port city.
Luggage that shows up at 5:45pm
Our luggage didn’t make its way to our cabin in totality until 5:45pm. The end result was we spent our time on board – after 3pm – touring the ship, briefly visiting our cabin, chatting with the Neptune Suite concierge, and… drinking wine. Eventually our bags showed up and we went downstairs to change our dining to late fixed dining rather than anytime dining and we had a very nice dinner, better than we were expecting, and saw a set in the Rolling Stone Lounge and came up to bed. Somewhere during all of that we unpacked.
So, recommendations here –
HAL does not have a tracking system. You hand them your bags and they’re in the abyss in Chile. You have to trust people to do their job. If you have a problem with this, hire a private guide for a private transfer – the kind that has a van that seats six or eight people or fewer. This way you can show up to the terminal at your leisure and see your luggage as it is passed on board. The Neptune concierge explained to multiple people multiple times that the procedure for luggage here is labor intensive. They bring in a big truck full of suitcases. They offload it in the tents outside the terminal warehouse (it really is a warehouse). They run them through security. They put everything back on a truck. They haul it over to the ship. they offload it at the ship, and it comes on board in batches of two, four, six, or eight bags at a time. It’s crazy. Like a wing and a prayer.
But it’s a 22 day itinerary so if you can’t hit the ground running the first night it doesn’t really matter.
Things you see on the “City Panorama Tour”
Today, on the way to the port we had a short “city panorama tour” and then we went to Viña Casas del Bosque. This winery we visited is perfect for pre-ship touring. They took us through the vineyards showing us the soil and the Pinot Noir vines, and then took us past steel tank fermentation, and then past barrel aging. The wine was good but not pretentious. It was like the Central Coast of California. They excel at Sauvignon Blanc and maybe Pinot Noir (we didn’t try it). They make a decent Carmenere which they ferment from grapes grown elsewhere in Chile. And they have a tract of land dedicated to Syrah vines here. We bought three bottles there. In addition, we have two bottles of better Carmenere which we bought in town yesterday.
An excellent bottle of Carmenere
Pro tip – HAL doesn’t scan your carry-on luggage for wine in San Antonio. They’re supposed to charge $20 corkage or take it away from you until the end of the cruise, but depending on what is going on they don’t really know. Port security doesn’t speak to HAL security. Downside of this is we don’t know if they tossed our passports into the Pacific or not (well, I’m just kidding). In the future if you see me writing notes like this at 11:30 in the evening local time just assume “pro tip” means “here is something interesting.”
Wine being poured
Anyway. This is our first Holland America cruise. We‘re enjoying it. We have a lot going on at home that is causing stress and strain but the moment the ship turned towards the Pacific Ocean and started leaving wake I felt as if we were sailing away from our problems. This is what inspired me today.
Watching the wake recede behind us
Tomorrow I’ll post a bit more on our dinner tonight as well as Rolling Stone Lounge in the evening. One of us also signed up for the fitness package. We’ll see how that goes.
Today we chose to wake up early and go for a run. The Sheraton is near the park along the river here so we decided to run on the trails along the river. If you’re a runner or a cyclist it’s actually quite nice. It’s a bit disjointed around the business district as there are a lot of street crossings but once you get nearly a mile north past South America’s tallest building it becomes a proper suburban trail with room for runners and cyclists. When we first hit the trail at 7am it was pretty quiet. By the time we returned near 8am it was busy with bicycle commuters as well as a moderate amount of joggers.
Running trail along the river
On our return to the neighborhood around the hotel we discovered a random Gandhi memorial.
Gandhi
One of the things I like to do when visiting major cities is to, well, go for a run. And after the run rather than enjoy the free or paid hotel coffee, I tend to find a local coffee or espresso bar. Today was no exception. After a shower we headed out into the Providencia neighborhood to find an espresso bar.
Morning latte
We found a great place called Bafel’s Coffee which opened at 9am (translation – they don’t do an early espresso here). Bafel’s provided me with a proper latte and “Mediterranean eggs” which I translated as “a proper shakshuka, albeit with American-style bacon.” After Bafel’s, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I spent ninety minutes on Zoom with my kid’s therapy group talking about supports needed back home, so, yeah, that used up some of the day, but nonetheless I am happy I wasn’t doing it from the ship.
Shakshuka
Sometime yesterday we decided we were going to take the gondola up Santuario Cerro San Cristobal rather than try to walk or run up it; honestly, until The Boss said it sounded like fun I didn’t have a huge amount of interest. Nonetheless the view was amazing at the top and it was about a quarter of the price of similar attractions at home.
Gondola – or cable car as the locals call it
On our way there we bumped into a few members of my mother’s cruising group who recommended we visit a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain because “they served us a whole bowl of whipped cream when we asked for cream.” We did, but we did not ask for cream. Instead I asked for a Flat White. And beef.
Flat WhiteCarne
So, I’m going to write about this in more depth, likely when I return home. We visited the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos aka the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. It may become clear why I’m waiting to write about it. It’s a very interesting experience and quite thought provoking especially in the current environment, but it may leave you feeling melancholy. And it’s open a little later than we expected, until 6pm, which came in handy as we were running out of time. I had hoped to go to jazz tonight but for purposes of maintaining rest and readiness I decided we should hold off unless we had a proper siesta which we did not. Instead, we were re-packing this evening and settling down so we do not exhaust ourselves tomorrow.
Human Rights Museum
Dinner was outdoors at one of the hotel restaurants (there are four it seems). I had Chilean oysters and a rockfish crudo along with a Carmenere red wine. My mother and one of her friends joined us.
Oysters no longer sidewaysRockfish
Logistically –
– The restaurants at the Sheraton can get busy or even close when there are conventions. The poolside restaurant closes if there is a chance of rain as they grill outdoors.
– Uber works great here and is 100% legal. It is about a quarter of the price of home. I’ve been ordering Uber Black for half the price of UberX at home. If you’re curious, the two cars we ordered were both made in China – an SUV built by the company that is “Great Wall Automotive” and another one built by Chery.
– The Human Rights Museum is a 30 minute ride in busy traffic.
– Ask the server in restaurants if tip is included. It often is. In the hotel they told us to write “yes” if we want to tip the included amount. In one case elsewhere I provided the recommended tip and also gave a 2,000 peso (about $1.80) note. In cafes I have been rounding up the dollar amount – by about 15 to 20 cents.
– Around the Plaza des Armas, the Presidential Palace, in the grand parks, and other areas which look and feel safe and are otherwise guarded, don’t wear jewelry – anything that can be snatched, whether it’s earrings, a chain around your neck or otherwise. In these neighborhoods the streets are busy but there are a lot of tourists. Pickpockets are there. There is one scam going around where someone splashes something on you and then an old man tries to help you by holding your bags while you clean up. Watch out for stuff like this. In the local, nicer neighborhoods you will see the locals walking around with phones stuffed down the waistline of their pants sticking out where it seems safer and likely is (and there is no police presence, unlike the places referenced above). Three people on our cruise so far have reported being robbed or otherwise on various groups.
– At the airport if you need a taxi see the taxi counter IN THE AIRPORT and follow their instructions.
– Bring Chilean Pesos. It’s safer at local establishments than using a card. At non-tourist establishments, if you stop somewhere randomly, they do not have provisions for dollars.
So it’s been a long day – and night and day. We’re currently ensconced in the 21st floor lounge at the Sheraton in Santiago with a wonderful view of the city and mountains after two flights yesterday (one redeye), customs madness at the airport today, and a city tour with lunch. Oh, by the way, it’s summer.
View from the Sheraton lounge
Logistically what we followed is we booked a private transfer through Cristian at Vamonos Tours. He recommended we expand it to a city tour and I agreed as we did an upgrade to First / Business Class on American Airlines meaning the flight was actually restful and I wasn’t too certain the Sheraton would check us in early (spoiler alert – my mother flew in on a different flight today as well and they wouldn’t check her in without an extra fee).
Plaza des Armas
So I’ll say this. What enabled us to have the energy to do this touring was this – American’s Business Class to South America was great. They offered us better service than I recall from Virgin Atlantic or British Airways’ business class although BA at least was a bit more comfortable (caveat – it wasn’t first class, and this was 2002 when I had the privilege to be upgraded there). Although the lay flat bed once flat felt like a coffin where your feet were constrained, the food was great and the service was very good. They even made us hot fudge sundaes. The domestic product flying to Miami worked well for us as well although obviously there is no lay flat bed (who needs it on a flight less than three hours?) but they did call us out by name as we boarded and as they provided us service.
Today we stayed fit by walking and climbing St. Lucia hill with Hidalgo castle on it. We managed to get more than four miles in (just one mile in the airport alone) and as of 6:57pm 9,586 steps. After all of that craziness, we checked into the hotel (there’s a Walmart convention here in addition to a thousand Holland America cruisers), went up to our room, showered and siestaed. This didn’t really do much for my six hour sleep debt according to Oura, but it let me decompress enough to write this all up.
View from St. Lucia
We’re truly inspired by the setting of the beautiful city of Santiago, in a valley surrounded by mountains, near the coast as if it were California. Although it is rough around the edges, the people we encountered on the street and in the market today were incredible. There is a lot of flair in the city.
Chinchinero Dancing
Our guide was happy we were lucky enough to show up when there was activity in the streets. He also laughed at us because he dropped us at the base of St. Lucia and told us to wait because he had instructions; we mis-heard him and walked up the mountain instead.
Mercado Central
One of the best parts of the day was seafood lunch at El Galeón at the market. It was such a lively scene there – on a random Wednesday afternoon in the summer. I’ve added photos and videos around the city – dancing in the streets, the Mercado itself, and of course a Pisco Sour.
DancingMercado from the outside in the mid-afternoon sunPisco Sour
Holland America 22-Day South America and Antarctica
Today’s Dad Joke –
I don’t like people who don’t cover their nose and mouth when they sneeze. They make me sick.
It’s 10:30 in the morning and we’re due to depart for the airport in a few hours. I am busily finishing off the remaining Christmas cookies, chocolates, and other candies. That, and heading off a minor crises at the office.
Yesterday I came downstairs just as The Boss brought her main luggage up from the basement. It’s HUGE and I didn’t realize how huge. Two years ago I had purchased a piece at the off-price section at Macy’s which I thought was the maximum limit for European carriers for our Queen Victoria Atlantic Coast Adventure. Well, she went to the same place and bought something bigger. So I pulled out the measuring tape and even with our upgrade on American Airlines it turns out we’re both in the $200 zone for oversize baggage. End result we’re heading to the airport a little earlier than planned in case something unexpected happens and we need to return home or over to the mall to acquire smaller baggage.
Oversize Baggage
Nonetheless, we are excited. Meraz the Greyhound has been taken to her friend’s house. I made my last minute trip to the bank (walked halfway there once and turned around because I forgot my wallet and returned to get cash). Last night we checked in for our flights. This morning I filled out Chile’s SAG form online for agricultural declaration. In the interest of science I’m declaring my factory-packaged ginger chews and will report back here hopefully with them asking why I declared them; they aren’t plant or animal products!
I also received the good news yesterday that as my employment anniversary is this year I now have an extra week of leave each year!
Curious, who else tries to cram into one bag? I know there are people out there who would travel with carry-on only for a 22 day cruise. That’s not us. And this time we’re packing for three seasons.
I’ll share some of my own strategies for reducing clothing packed –
Get the laundry package. We plan to send out laundry for the first time either on embarkation day or the day following to beat the rush. We expect weather will transition from “summer” to “spring” by the first port day (third day of the cruise).
Use yoga shirts as under shirts and then work out in them the next day. Same with plain, dark t-shirts, for my chosen button down evening shirts they can be worn casually through the day but under a shirt to be dressier in the evening.
I have an LL Bean coat lined wind breaker which is rated for 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Liner removal means it gets used with a layer and a hoodie underneath at a handful of port stops, in addition to with liner and scarf and hat and three layers when doing the Antarctic drive-by. Will report back on success of this approach.
I’m packing three pairs of shoes. One, beach sandals to go to the pool and/or spa; two, dressy sneakers for most evenings; three, dressy boots which are good when polished for dressy nights (you may debate me on this). As the boots are wearing and may be retired this spring, I’ll wear them for Volunteer Point in the Falklands as they are still waterproof (again, you may debate me on this as well and point out the error of my ways).
I’m wearing my running shoes to the airport.
Prior to Polishing
I think we’re both now of the opinion that for most adventures we need to downsize our standard luggage a little. These monsters are going to be unwieldy if we need to move them anywhere further from curb to cab, and even though we’re both relatively fit it’s painful for us to carry them loaded down a flight of stairs.
So we’re leaving for Santiago in a few days to join a cruise to Antarctica returning via Buenos Aires. This is a big deal – it’s something we started to dream about a few years ago and started to book 16 months ago. We’re in our mid-fifties; we started planning this when we were younger. This is our third cruise together. The shortest was 12 nights so we have certainly discovered that we are a younger demographic on longer duration cruise!
Questions I want to ask others are as follows. How did you decide to go to Antarctica? Why did you book on Holland America? When did you decide to go? Was this a long held dream or was it recent? If you have done it before, does the Drake Passage compare to other seas-of-drama? I’ve cruised the Bay of Biscay a couple of times and have touched a Cat 1 hurricane off the coast of North Carolina so I’m confident I will be fine – can it be that much worse?
For us, the story begins with a walk.
Walking in Valencia
When traveling and away from home we spend more time talking about things we enjoy. Often this happens when we’re sitting on a balcony watching the sea go by or when we’re on a long walk, or sometimes on a long run, because we do run. We talk about where we want to retire, how we want to live, or what we want to do next.
In 2023, we were in port in Valencia on a Cunard Queen Victoria cruise. We didn’t book an excursion because we felt we could explore Valencia on our own. Although Valencia port isn’t necessarily walkable, Cunard was nice enough to provide a shuttle to the City of Arts and Sciences. Valencia has a greenbelt built on the diverted Turia River bed that begins at the City of the Arts and Sciences and passes by the old town core so we used it as a conduit. It’s a two mile walk each way. We should have worn our running clothes and run instead.
Jardi del Turia
Anyway, I don’t know what exactly we discussed that particular day, but sometime around then we started talking about future travels and I suspect on the long walk we discussed much of what we wanted to see in the world. Patagonia and Africa came up as being fairly high on the list. To be honest, we didn’t talk about Antarctica.
Flash forward and we eventually started reviewing options and talking about planning. We discussed the merits of Africa over Patagonia, and I was sneaky enough to slide Antarctica in there. The Holland America itinerary is actually one I planned for January 2014 back in 2012 when I was still married. It’s a great itinerary starting in Chile and taking in parts of Patagonia, the Drake Passage and Antarctic Peninsula, and the Argentine and Uruguayan coasts along with the Falkland Islands. But obviously I’m not married anymore so I ended up canceling – my mother went instead, and we’ll see how this works out because literally two days after we booked this winter’s expedition she joined her local travel group to do the same. She swears it was merely a coincidence, but we shall see!
Compared to expedition cruises it’s very cost effective, and compared to other main-line options it’s longer and takes in a wider variety of ports, countries, and cultures. I was also looking at an Azamara cruise that covered roughly the same territory but we agreed upon Holland America. If we’re going to be on a ship for 22 days, we want relaxation and recovery in a larger cabin with more options.
So here we are preparing to embark in six days, and preparing to travel a few days beforehand.
