Archives for posts with tag: antarctica-experience

Puerto Madryn and the Cellar Master’s experience

January 27, 2026 //

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.

Tags adventure, antarctica-experience, Buenos_Aires, cruise, cruise experiences, cruise-experience, cruising, cruising_experience, food, Foodie, La_Rambla, Mariscos_de_Golfo_Nuevo, Montevideo, Monumento_Indio_al_Telhuelche, port_safety, Puerto_Madryn, running_safety, seafood, travel, travel-to-south-america

Categories Foodie, Running, South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel, Travel Logistics

Looking ahead to the Falkland Islands!

January 22, 2026 //

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.

Tags antarctica-experience, cruise-experience, cruising, cruising-tips, food, seafood, travel-to-south-america

Categories Books, South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel, Travel Logistics

Leaving Antarctica

January 22, 2026 //

So yesterday I had a pretty amazing men’s facial, shave, and haircut, not necessarily in that order.

The original plan was for us to arrive at Deception Island around 6:30pm. As it seemed we were running late, I went up to the spa and asked if they could smash my two appointments together and begin at 6pm, and they accommodated.

It was great. I pre-booked these appointments over a month ago following on someone’s advice – Antarctic nights tend to be fairly calm and the expedition team and Captain go off duty so it isn’t a horrible time to book services as they are discounted. My appointment dragged on a while though. We were done at 8pm so our options for dinner were room service or wait for late night dining to open or take advantage of the Neptune Lounge. We chose the lounge option as we are now on the “two meals a day” plan anyway.

I still managed to snap a few photos. I barely went outside in the evening, though.

Panorama view.

Others did go outside.

Today’s two meals are Pinnacle Grill breakfast (asian congee) and Pinnacle Grill dinner. Hopefully the boat doesn’t rock too much.

Anyway, I captured a handful of photos of Deception Island during and after my spa appointment. I wasn’t going to go outside for long, though, as there was an incredibly strong wind. Deception Island seems very desolate, and now that we were away from the peninsula where less precipitation falls it didn’t necessarily seem the same. I think Deception Island is a place where you need an expedition ship to enter the caldera and hopefully get off the ship a bit to see properly.

We spent the night moving from Deception Island to King George Island. Before we went to bed, we went out on our veranda and realized the waves were coming from behind; this made sense as there was a 30 knot wind from the southwest and we were moving to the northeast. End result was there were occasional thud noises as waves hit the flat stern of the ship.

Blue in the morning!

More penguins!

Leaving blue waters behind

This morning was our final scenic touring which started in one arm of Admiralty Bay and moved around considerably. Again, like last night, at 7am conditions on the bow were rather inhospitable, but this didn’t stop me from catching some photos of the blue waters of the bay.

Eventually we moved on from our first stop and caught some sunshine and conditions improved – we spent probably an hour parked at the base of a very large glacier where we were witnessed to a decent sized calving of a glacier followed by a couple hours of slow sailing through the bay past multiple research bases –

the Peruvian,

Uruguayan,

and Brazilian research bases, and then to return. By noon we were leaving the mouth of the bay and heading to sea.

So how do I rate our Antarctic experience? Honestly, I do think it was better than expected. Even though there were three days where half the day had absolutely miserable weather, the rest of the time the weather was fairly decent. We saw most of our penguin wildlife early in the stay. We saw a lot more whales than I was expected (perhaps into the hundreds if you were out there for most of it). We saw fewer seals and sea lions than I expected. And there were more ships and boats down here than I was expecting.

Conditions on the Drake headed south were reasonable. On the north remains to be seen but doesn’t look as if it’s going to be apopalyptic. Internet connectivity has been good, and there have been things to do.

We finally hit our groove as far as getting enough sleep and attaining a healthy groove of dining and fasting and exercise. I’ve replaced some of my workouts with walking the promenade instead of using the treadmill. One note – I tried the fitness classes; I don’t really like them here.

Anyway, northward.

Tags adventure, antarctica-experience, antarctica-life, cruise experiences, cruising, Foodie

Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Antarctica Day 1 – Plans change! But not too much. January 19, 2026

January 20, 2026 //

So, my notes from yesterday. This post is going to be all over the place a bit.

Supposedly on the last cruise down here in December they only saw a single seal. Now I’m seeing photo posts of multiple in multiple locations (I have one myself).

Yesterday we started at Palmer Station, paid a visit to Port Lockroy, did some scenic cruising through Nemaire Channel and sat at the base of a glacier in a floating field of bergy bits for a while playing chicken with Seaborn Journey (I have some fun photos of that), circled most of Wincke Island…. The original plan was for us to overnight in Paradise Harbor (I believe this is still the plan) but we were to spend the afternoon not in Nemaire Channel. The weather changed though – it was sunny and in the upper 30s (maybe 3 or 4C). It has been great for walking the deck.

There had been some flurries and mild snow squals but it was mostly peaceful until after bedtime. Darkness fell sometime after midnight (I wouldn’t really know, I wasn’t awake, but around 2:45am I saw light outside even though sunrise is around 4am).

Last night instead of Paradise Bay (supposedly there was ice) we were situated in a strait somewhere south of Dallmann Bay with the intention of visiting Cuverville Island, Dallmann Bay, and Wilhelmina Bay tomorrow, in that order. Obviously that’s the intention. Today’s reality was slightly different than planned – we did not visit Paradise Bay due to ice and we did not visit Lameire Channel due to ice. However, Palmer Island and Port Lockroy had plenty of penguins – that was this morning. Then we had a face-off with a Seabourn ship. Otherwise, the Captain spent the day driving around…

Around 4:30 yesterday afternoon I was napping in my cabin to the pleasant sounds of the bow camera on the television when suddenly the captain put on full thrusters – slamming on the brakes, as it were, as we feel this quite well on the stern. I thought, “Uh oh, something is going to happen.” Captain gets on the horn and tells us all we’re approaching a pod of killer whales! Now according to The Boss who was in the Crows Nest at the time everyone from the Crows Nest suddenly rushed the windows and there was no seeing anything. It was absolute mayhem. I went back to sleep though. She went out to the bow and looked for killer whales and sure enough there they were and penguins started flying out of the water trying to get away! Some got eaten…

As you can tell I’m not the most fanatical about wildlife sighting but I’m not the least fanatical either. I’ll share now a samping of photos.

This is from when we came back from an hour in the casino after dinner. The light is really surreal here. Also, from the veranda the ship was mostly silent and the waterwas still, at least for a few minutes. I guess we’ve found our place to sit for the night.

There were icebergs and masses of ice everywhere, but none too close. We later learned (today) that a Seabourn ship and another expedition ship came and hoovered in Dallmann Bay with us. Turns ou the Seabourn captain was a crewmate with Captain Kevin on the Konigsdam a few years back before Captain Kevin took the helm on this ship. Yesterday afternoon, as other guests put it, we attempted a “kiss” with the Seabourn ship.

I mean, we were really close.

REALLY close.

I don’t know who these guests are.

Zodiacs buzzing around Seaborn Journey and the Oosterdam

We visited a couple of different penguin rookeries yesterday. First was the gathering at Palmer Station.

You really couldn’t see them well there as we were fairly distant, but this was our first stop in Antarctica. In some years the Palmer Station scientists send a zodiac out and exchange supplies and occasionally give a short talk, but for us this was not to be this year.

Just a handful of Palmer-adjacent penguins

After Palmer Station we had time to freshen up a bit before our stop at Port Lockroy where there were massive amounts of penguins.

Lockroy is popular with smaller expedition ships as well as sailing yachts. I think we probably saw five or six sailing yachts yesterday.

The station there was founded by the British during the middle part of the 20th century but then was abandoned for a number of years until a preservation group showed up in the 1990s to restore it. Now there is a small museum, shop, and post office. They have no boats though so they rely on others for transport.

This is actually an outbuilding at Port Lockroy. You see some zodiacs buzzing around dropping passengers off. Penguins appear to be nonplussed.

As you can see there are penguins everywhere.

They are actually a lot denser than this in many places, but here they sort of look like our greyhound at home. They just sort of stand around looking at people wondering why they’re there.

Later in the day we went on a sailing expedition to another point in the bays which is where we encountered the Seabourn ship.

Anyway. The Antarctic days (four of them) are lightly scheduled as far as entertainment activities go. There was only one talk scheduled yesterday. Today (spoiler alert) there were three. The Rolling Stone Band was largely off . There was a show on the main stage today – a stringed instrument player. For the record, we haven’t seen any main stage shows yet, but we intend to see the mentalist tonight. We’ve been more focused on catching snippets of shows elsewhere and going to bed early so we can wake up early. We’ve been up between 5:30 and 7 most days for the past two weeks compared to my usual 6:30 on weekdays and 7 or 8 on weekends.

We did spend a good chunk of the day looking at wildlife, one of us more seriously than the other. My mother spent probably eight or nine hours today at various places out on deck with a camera (I spent about 3 or 4). The weather wasn’t bad for it yesterday. Sunday’s weather would have been brutal. So, to some degree we lucked out, but I’ve seen people say this in reports regarding most all of the Oosterdam’s pastAntarctic cruises going back two years.

Nothing exciting in the dining room today, but nothing bad either. It was a good day. We played some blackjack and came out even and The Boss taught me to play craps and I came out way ahead.

Tags antarctica-experience, antarctica-packing, blog, cruising

Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Crossing the Drake Passage – Day 2, preparing for Antarctica, January 18, 2026

January 20, 2026 //

From our noon update on Sunday –

60 degrees 50 minutes South, I didn’t catch the West, 16 nautical miles per hour headed south. We are 308 nautical miles from Ushuaia and 235 nautical miles to Palmer Station. No icebergs will be seen until early tomorrow based upon the ice maps and ice forecast. Currently the temperature is 6 degrees Celsius with a northwest wind at 30 knots. Sunset 10:54pm. Temperature tomorrow morning and through the day will be around freezing with sunrise at 3:52am. We are experiencing 2 1/2 meter swells. Again he warns one hand for the ship, one for your drink. Scenic cruising starts at 6:15am tomorrow.

About this scenic cruising.

So, today I sat through three talks, two by the expedition team and one by the captain. All were repeated in the afternoon as well. The first lecture was to a mostly full house; the second was to a full house, and the third we were bursting at the seams. It seemed as if a lot of people were frustrated when they realized that in order to have a seat at the 11am talk you need to show up at the 9am talk or you have to be patient – and expect maybe you’re going to be turned away to return in the afternoon.

Pro tip – if you stand in the aisles or sit in the aisles or on the stairs they will make you leave and the whole theater will wait until everyone situated as such has left.

The Boss reports that the questions asked in the afternoon were… less well thought out than the questions asked in the morning.

Adrian the geologist mainly spoke about the geology in the glaciers – the patterns and layers that develop as the glaciers and ice moves and flows, because it does flow.

Antarctica is basically covered by a system of ice streams as shown above with darker colors indicating faster flow of ice and lighter colors indicating nearly-still ice. By faster flow we’re not necessarily talking fast; we’re talking three feet a day, or one and a half Oosterdams per year.

He said he sees these patterns everywhere.

But here is what it looks like on the ice:

This is literally an ice river on Antarctica.

For scale – it’s about ten miles across and it’s taken at an angle, most likely from an aircraft flying into a valley, where you would notice it.

The second talk focused on a bit more depth as Ed is actually a person who studies the ice instead of being ice-adjacent due to time studying geology next to or hidden by the ice. And Ed is a great speaker as well (so is Adrian).

Antarctica has 24.4 million gigatonnes of ice. As you can see above, a gigatonne is a billion metric tons. As you can see below, the size of a gigatonne is roughly a 700 foot tall building sitting on Central Park in New York City.

As always New York City is the city that gets demolished by a megaton of ice

He also spoke a bit about the creation of icebergs and what happens over an ice sheet’s lifetime – the water flowing under the ice, fresh and salt water moving underneath the ice where the ice breaks off, and so forth. He spoke a bit about the A23a iceberg which is 918 feet tall with only a small portion above ground; A23a also is, or was, the size of Rhode Island and I believe floating somewhere near South Georgia Island now.

But both Adrian and Ed were not the stars of the show. The star was Captain Kevin. In the Antarctic cruise community, at least online on social media and in various forums, Captain Kevin is a hero, in part because he explains in detail what he’s doing but also because he has nervous travelers convinced he has their safety in mind. And he’s funny too.

On Sunday Kevin gave us the details behind his planning for the first two days of the voyage. The goal was to visit Palmer Station early Monday morning, like 6am, then visit Port Lockroy and drop off postcards to be mailed, and take an afternoon cruise through Lemaire Channel. Eventually we would overnight in Paradise Bay.

For Tuesday we would visit Cuyerville Island, Dallmann Bay, Gerlache Strait, and Wilhelmina Bay.

Much of this didn’t actually happen, but stay tuned. I didn’t take any more photos on Sunday.

This is the expedition team. Tomorrow they’re presenting on “Life in the Deep Freeze.” As the times line up with a couple of the scenic cruising sites I’m not certain when we will make them. The expedition team is mostly into physical sciences – not so much life – but they’ve done a good job with life sciences and ecology on Antarctica as well. Adrian in particular is highly naturalist-adjacent. I believe he’s married to a PhD biologist.

Anyway. Sunday night was a decent dressy night interspersed with football playoff games. This weekend they’ve been playing the playoffs in Billboard whereas last weekend everybody was left to fend for themselves. There was also a tango dance show tonight, jazz band, and of course the Rolling Stone band. It is / was a lively night on ship.

Weather continues to be gray and gloomy with temperatures falling more and more, and frankly the forecast is not looking promising for New Zealand. I believe the December cruise had two beautifully sunny days out of three; they’re telling us not to bank on that right away. But they’re telling us there are currently reports of lots of penguins in the places suggested so far.

This is actually one of the things the current expedition team is good for – they have a lot of contacts who are out on the ice and have access to current information in conjunction with the bridge.

At least the ship is relatively steady. We should sleep well.

Tags adventure, antarctica, antarctica-experience, antarctica-life, cruise experiences, cruising

Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Crossing the Drake Passage – January 17, 2026

January 18, 2026 //

Imagine setting your alarm for 5:30 and then putting on warm clothes to go out on the bow of the ship. Brrr. A shock to the system. It was raining, so thankfully I had a hat on. It was also windy, so hold onto your camera tightly! But they did bring coffee and pastries out, so there was that. Of course, we also had coffee delivered to the room.

I spent about 40 minutes out there on the bow as we hovered in place by the island that makes up Cape Horn. There is a lighthouse station there as well as a small shiny monument, but otherwise it’s relatively non-remarkable in comparison to the dozens of other islands and hundreds of islands, mountains, cliffs, and rocks we’ve seen lately. It’s significant, though, as it’s the point of no return to some degree.

We were told this was the closest Captain Kevin has ever come to the point, but didn’t he say that last year?

Cape Horn actually is an island that sits in a large bay with a number of other rocky uninhabited islands. Anyway, after a while the ship rotated 360 degrees and then we spent the morning sailing around the islands and up and down the bay until the pilot boat showed up to take our two pilots on shore. Someone on the ship reported they saw two people get off with luggage which makes sense as they were Magellan pilots, meaning they were the pilots responsible for navigating us through the Straits of Magellan as well as the Beagle Channel, so likely they had been on a few days.

And now we’re headed south.

Sea life was fairly constant throughout the day. As soon as we were offshore the clouds and sun were more consistent. Instead of small spots of sunshine there were large spots of sunshine. When I walked the promenade this afternoon (four miles) there were some wet snowflakes; the temperature had dropped to 42 degrees Fahrenheit or about 5 degrees Celsius. Winds were over 30 knots; the ship has been leaning slightly much of the day and swaying a bit, but nothing too horrible and not as bad as the Bay of Biscuits.

From yesterday morning we had 608 miles to Palmer Station – I wonder if that’s the captain’s signal we will be starting our touring at Palmer Station rather than further south? Also, we enter Antarctic waters around 6:35 am tomorrow at which point we should expect a burst of wildlife. To be determined if I am awake at that time.

Otherwise, it was a relatively quiet day at sea with some napping, some game playing, and some soaking in the thermal spa. Dinner was lovely but unremarkable. I now have a glass of scotch whisky and we’re watching football in Spanish.

Tags adventure, antarctica, antarctica-experience, cruise, cruise experiences, cruise-experience, cruising, travel

Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Ushuaia, Fin del Mondo

January 18, 2026 //

Okay, so I’m catching up on my writing as today is our final sea day until our Antarctic adventure begins. I went to two lectures on polar ice today and a third discussion led by the captain on our planned route once we reach Palmer Peninsula early tomorrow morning. Basically he warns us “if you’re living life to its fullest you’re going to be busy.”

Our mornings are predictably beginning fairly early here and I’m finally settling into a routine where I’m able to fall asleep and take a nap if I’m trying to live life to a fullest. Unfortunately, my Oura ring which I’m using to track my stress levels, heart rate, readiness, and sleep doesn’t seem to be able to tell when I’m taking a nap on a ship. I know it can tell how much sleep I am taking at night but it doesn’t see when I reach the same level of stillness I normally do for a nap at home – because obviously the ship is moving.

It hasn’t tracked a nap since Santiago.

Anyway, the first thing I tend to do in the morning is look outside off the stern of the ship. If it isn’t raining I hop out there and snap a photo. Beautiful, isn’t it? Then I sit at my desk here and write a little and sip coffee.

The further south we were going in the waterways of Chile the more ice we saw and the closer it came to sea level.

On Friday we went down to Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.

The Pinnacle Grill menu is obviously more substantial than the MDR menu. On this particular day I had the aloo masala (potato curry I think) and egg burjhi (eggs with peppers and spices I think). It was served with a dosa (lentil crepe), chapati bread, stewed lentils, and some chutneys.

For comparison, today I had the Pan Asian breakfast, you know because I have to try everything out.

This was served alongside miso soup poured table side.

I’m really impressed with the variety of food served here. It’s even higher than what we saw traveling in Aqua Class on Celebrity. I know we have some perks due to Neptune Class, but this variety even extends to the room service.

Anyway. We were cruising through the Beagle Passage past a series of five glaciers as we were dining that morning. I didn’t get the best photos, but that’s fine.

Many of my glacier photos were stained by the window

It was enjoyable to capture the moment and instead rest for a change.

We were able to have a fairly active morning as we were not due to arrive in port until 1pm. This was actually delayed even though our original plan was 2pm; the captain had to wait for a couple of expedition ships to clear out before we had space on the pier.

I was able to go to the gym and have some treadmill time (something I’m hoping to repeat today) before going to the aquatherapy room and the thermal suite.

I mean, this was a civilized way to come into port.

Anyway, unlike Punta Arenas, in Ushuaia it just seems as if you suddenly arrive on a scene. The city itself likes tucked up against the mountains on a narrow tilted shelf pouring itself out at the harbor. It looks and feels as if you’ve suddenly been dumped in Queenstown, New Zealand, or Aspen, Colorado. And it’s priced the same.

And there are these pricy expedition ships docked there to remind you of your mortality.

As we didn’t really have any opportunity for souvenir acquisition in our previous three stops we decided to begin our time ashore by going shopping.

Typical construction in Ushuaia – both old and new

There are a lot of shops that sell chocolate alongside t-shirts. And a number of liquor shops as well with whisky that normally costs us $60 at home going for $200 here. Fortunately the local stuff is cheaper – I think a small bottle of Patagonian gin was about $15 USD. We actually found the most interesting gifts in a coffee shop / cafe called Espirito Fueguino Cafe & Gift Shop. I now have a heavy black hoodie with a mythological Patagonian creature on the back of it; it should come in handy the next few days.

There are three museums near the port (there may actually be more, but I searched and saw three). There are two Museo del Fin Del Mundos; we visited neither. We did, however, visit the museum at the Presido, the old prison, which actually consists of about five small museums in one.

This museum has about two wings dedicated to prison life – one to the history of the prison and the prisoners who were in residence, and then one completely devoid of furnishings so you could wander around and enjoy the silence.

There were also two gift shops. And an art gallery.

The only requirement for a piece of art to be in the art gallery is it had to be pretty good and it had to have something to do with water. Nonetheless, it was good art, mostly South American from what I could tell. Much of it resembled European art work, or even American art work from the time periods where they were created. For instance, there were a couple of Hopper-esque oil paintings I enjoyed. I could have enjoyed standing in silence in this wing for a while longer but I wasn’t alone. It was time to go eat.

And even though it was neither Patagonian lunch time nor dinner time, we found a nice meal at Isabel Cocina Al Disco.

I think we actually spent big city prices for our meal but it was worth it. One massive 750ml beer from Patagonia Brewing Company and two large but not massive beers from a local brewery that makes a red ale. We also shared the house specialty – seafood and potatoes cooked in a disc from a plow, or a de arado, or plough in British English. In modern times they actually use a cast iron pot with high edges similar to a paella pan.

It was so good. Mussels and baby octopus and shrimp and calamari stewed in white wine-tomato broth with nicely roasted and fried potatoes.

I tell you. I researched this place months ago. I had no idea what the cast iron pot was until now and didn’t connect it until I saw “plough” on the English language menu. And Isabel is easy to get to from the port – you walk off the ship, down the pier, out through the gates, and across the street and it’s to the right one block.

Back to the ship for us.

It was a beautiful late afternoon stroll back to the ship where we whiled away the evening with our feet up on the loungers in the Crow’s Nest.

Ushuaia is a great cruise port – my favorite so far. Logistically it’s easy. For excursions buses and vans come straight out to the ship. Visiting town is a half mile stroll along the pier.

Local beer here is great, by the way. Next up, two days at sea.

Tags antarctica, antarctica-experience, cruise, cruise experiences, cruise-experience, cruising-tips, culinary, port city, seafood, travel, travel-blog, travel-to-south-america, urban exploration

Categories Foodie, South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Two days of scenic cruising – as we travel the various passages several hundred thousand miles south through Chile.

January 14, 2026 //

Yesterday was supposed to begin with scenic cruising past Wager Island, but instead it began with scenic cruising through heavy rain and pea soup fog. Wager Island was not to be seen which certainly enabled us to understand this morning’s lecture better.

This is an accurate representation of how much we saw before noon yesterday, so instead I attended a lecture and lost $104 playing blackjack.

Amidst all of this we started seeing a lot of albatrosses and other sea birds, but mostly the albatross (photo above taken with iPhone 17 Pro). Sneaky birds didn’t come close enough for me to capture them frequently but as I spent over an hour walking laps on the promenade I certainly was able to photograph plenty of them.

When the weather cleared it was really spectacular.

After I spent time on the promenade in the afternoon I ended up spending forty five minutes on the treadmill. What’s great after the treadmill? Time on the bow on the 9th deck in front of the fitness center. Isn’t it beautiful? As there was a considerable breeze it also helped with cool down.

As the day began to wind down, we settled down for dinner at Oosterdam’s Italian specialty restaurant – Canneletto. The food here was great, but the views were even better.

Along the mountains here along the edge of the sea there is a fairly wide level area, perhaps twenty minutes walk across, which reminds me of the east side of Barbados or parts of the west coast of New Zealand. Elsewhere in southern Chile it just drops off to the fjords or the water.

Most of these places seem like they have nobody around

This morning we woke to more scenic cruising. Imagine you’re sitting at the desk in your cabin looking out the window and you start seeing little bergy bits such as these going past. Still with pajamas on (I know people are going to flame me for this) I threw on a sweatshirt and walked to the far end of Deck 4 to go out to the bow because I knew we were near the glacier.

The moment I knew we were nearing something different

Captain Kevin managed to pull the ship into a narrow passage at the base of Brujo glacier.

He has also been keeping the bow open for most of the day for cruisers’ use for sightseeing and photography. I spent a short time out there but as I was not dressed as Nanook of the North like the folks above I eventually retreated to our aft cabin, where I continued to duck out into the rain and cold for photography.

View from our wrap-around aft veranda, 963 feet to the rear

Fortunately Captain Kevin elected to spend over an hour in this spot all while doing pirouettes and pivoting in circles so we could all have a view.

Periodically we would hear rumblings from the ice. I believe the glacier is about ten kilometers long. From the above it appears to be several hundred feet thick at its thickest point as well. I’m not certain without checking the map but I suspect the snowpack and ice collects beyond the initial range of mountains and squeezes through this valley to the top of the fjord. It isn’t the only one around in the immediate vicinity.

In today’s overcast weather the ice had infinite shades of green and blue as well.

Eventually after nearly ninety minutes spent we waved goodbye to the ice and made our way back towards the sea.

The headlands along the fjords are much more barren today than yesterday or the day before. It’s clear that winters here are longer and sunlight is harder to find – and the scraping of glaciers is more recent.

And now the weather has turned rainy again. Fortunately, I can sit here with our plant (the ship refreshed our prior green friend for a more sturdy and robust model) as we travel south.

Tags adventure, antarctica, antarctica-experience, cruise, cruise-experience, cruising, scenic, travel, voyage-writing

Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Day 2 – things learned on a sea day off the coast of Chile

January 11, 2026 //

So today was a good sea day if a bit busier than I would normally hope to be on a sea day. Things I learned today –

If we order room service for delivery at 6am they will actually show up close to 6am.
All of the treadmills are in use by 7am; only one of us was able to run this morning and she spent 2 1/2 hours on the treadmill. Not certain if anybody stuck around long enough to notice.
The fitness instructor doesn’t care if people doing yoga want to stay balanced on both sides.
HAL likes to focus on meal pacing. Tonight they asked us if they were pacing our meals properly or if we would like to go faster or slower.
Even with a beverage package they want you to sign – sporadically, part of the time.
The cable boxes (IPTV converters) freeze when the WiFi freezes, or when Elon Musk coughs, but they can be rebooted from the hallway.

All in all, we’re beginning to understand why Holland America cruisers are so loyal. Whenever you ask someone to do something, if it’s within their authority and they have time and energy, they do it. People have been so helpful. Tonight, we had a couple of additional chairs delivered to our cabin so now we can host parties. We bought a beverage beyond the limit of our package and they told us not to worry about it. They handled our query about fixed dining perfectly – and followed up, both from the concierge and the maître d’. In short, it sounds like they were trying to tell us to “just use Club Orange and dine whenever we want.” We decided “we’d rather depend on having the same waiter every night and having the same spot near the window.” And they’re smart enough to tell us the Club Orange menu now (they were before, we just had not asked).

We had a couples massage this morning. Swedish massage. We both fell asleep in the middle. The upsell was moderate to heavy, probably because they know we are suckers sometimes. We also enjoyed the large hot hydrotherapy pool mostly to ourselves – picture loungers in the water with jets and bubbles; this is where we will be when we get chilled from watching for penguins flying in boats.

We also went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet, where people clapped when I said “this is the longest we’ve taken off work in three decades…”. I met one of the cruisers who was staying at the Sheraton Thursday night who was having fits with the excursion crew in Santiago Thursday night. He was actually at the winery at the same time we were at an earlier time (I wish he were in our crew because he’s an interesting guy).

We’re all settled in for another twenty days here.

So, because I couldn’t get on the treadmill this morning I walked several laps on the promenade instead this morning even though it was windy and cold. I met a man who lives on the same road as my parents – he grew up “back home.” Turns out he lived for 17 years about six blocks from where we live in Arlington. What a small world.

Because I couldn’t do the treadmill I decided I either need to get up tomorrow morning for treadmill time or I needed to do it this afternoon. I went this afternoon instead (it’s rare for me to get motivated for this on vacation). I watched The Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix while running a few miles. In this show whales act as a metaphor for Attorney Woo helping her analyze life as an autistic attorney. Whenever she has a brainstorm, or a deep thought which breaks the wall of autistic thought patterns, she sees whales or dolphins, usually splashing out of the ocean. Today, I had a pleasure of watching the whales with the ocean as a backdrop.

Reporting in on logistical matters –

People dress nice-ish on dressy nights on HAL scenic cruises. Nobody is messy but there are not too many dresses and we didn’t see too many tuxedos. The split between suits and just a dress shirt seemed to be about 60/40 towards a suit. Not too many people wore ties either (myself included; I’ll send photos sometime as I look perfectly presentable and professional without a tie).

Dressy night got us a few extra menu options. Tonight’s steak options were a tenderloin and a NY Strip Steak. Orange menu got us a braised short rib. I had “rack of lamb” which consisted of two thick lamb chops. They were good and didn’t taste like they were sent from New Zealand so they may have actually been brought on the ship in Santiago. At lunch today I had crab Louie salad.

We played blackjack for a bit this afternoon, losing more than winning but having a good time. We likely won’t play again for a few days as the next two are port days.

Tonight, after calling the cable guy, we’re watching football. We sent out laundry today and I called my kid to have a difficult conversation. It’s almost as if we’re at home. Well, we do our own laundry at home.

Weather – cold and damp this morning, upper 50s (14C). Warm and sunny this afternoon, around 70 (21C) but with nice warm sun. I sat shirtless in the sun a bit and became a little pink. Tomorrow…. I frankly have no idea but it looks like upper 50s and “chance of a shower.” People report that weather can be highly variable in Puerto Montt and Puerto Chacabuco. we’ll see.

17,947 steps today. Not enough sleep last night so we shall be sleeping soon.

Tags adventure, antarctica-experience, cruise-blogging, cruise-experience, cruise-foodie, cruise-life, food, Foodie, relaxation travel, Running, travel

Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Travel Reading and Time Management for Dummies

January 5, 2026 //

Good morning everybody! We fly tomorrow. End result – our fridge is empty, teens have gone off to their mother’s for a few weeks, and we’ve packed up. Our dog is ready to be dropped off at her friend’s house tomorrow morning where they’ll have a great time for the next month.

Yesterday’s pre-travel opportunities included lining up the neighbors to take our trash out later this week and bring the bins back in; coordinating with the plant caretakers; and most importantly polishing my shoes while watching football!

Also, I finished my third “Travel reading” book, Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler. It’s going to Antarctica with me so I can hand it off to my mother while will be on the same cruise.

Sara Wheeler breaks Terra Incognita into roughly three different parts. Her first part is where she flys from New Zealand to McMurdo, the American base on Ross Island by the Ross shelf and spends at least a couple of months at McMurdo as well as flying, sledging, helicoptering, and otherwise traveling out to various research camps elsewhere on the ice including a visit to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet as well as the South Pole research station. She spends a lot of time talking about the early explorers of Antarctica especially the British (spoiler alert – Sara is British). She isn’t exactly easy on the British; for instance, she poked fun at their attitude that “of course a Brit would reach the pole first.” Much of what she discusses about life on the ice especially life at the Pole was shared with me by a friend of mine who spent ten months wintering at the South Pole in 2004 and 2005.

After her stay at McMurdo in the first part of the book, she transfers to the British bases the largest of which is Rothera; her experience there is entirely different. Although the book is set in the 1990s which seems like the modern era to me, and only ten years before my friend was at the pole, her experiences on South America, especially at Rothera, seem as if they were from another era. During this time she was much happier at research camps away from the stations rather than at the station itself. Also, in order to travel to Rothera, on the Antarctic Peninsula, she literally had to fly throughNew Zealand and Los Angeles and then home to London to return via Royal Air Force transport to the Falkland Islands and then a Dash-7 to Rothera…. It certainly was thelong way round.

For her final stay, she felt called to return – towards the end of the Antarctic winter, and in case anybody is interested in reading it, I won’t spoil it, but it was her happiest time on Antarctica it seems.

One thing she reminds the reader, and this is relevant for Antarctic cruisers – The Antarctic Peninsula is the banana belt. Especially in the summer it is warmer than Ross Island by 20 degrees and warmer than the South Pole by even more. Year round the peninsula is close to the temperature of the water around it. Areas that are surrounded by ice or land are much, much colder. It’s also the wettest part of the continent.

Anyway, if you read this, thanks for reading along. If you’re interested in the science and experience of being in Antarctica as well as the history, Terra Incognita is a great read. I also read Travels in a Thin Land where Sara Wheeler speaks of her experiences traveling the length of Chile – top to bottom – for the better part of a year, and I read Endurance by Alfred Lansing about Shackleton’s expedition. Hopefully if all goes well we will come close to Shackleton’s landing spot on Elephant Island.

Finally, I have an Antarctic Cruise Guide for understanding the geography around the peninsula as well as the wildlife, and I have a Lonely Planet South America guide forideas on how to spend time in Santiago as well as port days where we don’t haveexcursions planned. I wouldn’t recommend the Lonely Planet book – it’s too heavy and takes up the weight of a couple of pairs of jeans in your checked baggage! I’ve included a gratis photo of “Time Management for Mortals” for those who worry about getting everything done before traveling…

Today I wrap things up at the office and tomorrow is the day we travel. I may have felt comfortable waiting until Wednesday to travel but I figured we would want to get to know Santiago a little before getting on a ship and this gives two whole days for things to go wrong rather than one.

Happy Monday to all who celebrate!

Tags antarctica, antarctica-experience, antarctica-life, antarctica-packing, travel reading

Categories Books, travel