Part Iii - Heading North

[bobpatj]

Continuing our wonderful SA/Antarctica Cruise report.

Jan. 16th - SEA DAY. We're suffering from Antarctica withdrawl. No more icebergs passing by or beautiful scenes of snow and ice on jagged peaks. No penguins, seals, whales...sigh! Jan. 17th - STANLEY, FALKLAND ISLANDS. The ship is at anchor, and it's a bit of a trip on the tenders to Stanley. It's overcast with occasional rain. Our tour is the "Bluff Cove Penguin Rookery." What an adventure! We take a bus for a half hour to a place on the highway where many Land Rovers are parked. The group, completing their tour, board the bus while we get in the 4-wheelers. We bounce over bogs for about a half hour. No one gets stuck! This is private farmland that the owner allows tours to use, during the summer months. Reaching the rookery, which is close to the sea, we see hundreds of Gentoo penguins and several King penguins. A new "comfort station" is located up a hill. Part of it contains a tea room where coffee, tea and homemade breads, cakes and cookies are served - a good place to take off the chill. When the Land Rovers arrive with the next group, we get back in for our bouncing trip back to the bus. Great fun! The landscape is interesting, ribbons of stone and colorful ferns and mosses are by the roadside. There are still minefields left behind by the Argentines during the Falklands War. Signs and fences keep you out! Back in Stanley, we ate lunch in a cute pub, The Globe Tavern, and looked around at some of the shops. Back to the ship and sail-away at 5 pm. The Amsterdam Cast's show, this evening, is "Hats Off." Jan. 18th - SEA DAY. This is our 3rd formal night and the Officers' Black & White Ball at 10:30 pm in the Crow's Nest. Jan. 19th - SEA DAY. At last, a cure for Antarctic withdrawl! The photo shop has an Antarctic "Cruise Cronicle" video premiere, in the Queen's Lounge. A packed audience! It's available for sale on tape or DVD. A hot seller! This is Mariners' Awards Night, and Bob and I received our copper medallions. We ate at the Pinnacle and had a wonderful meal. Ummm, chocolate volcano! Jan. 20th - BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA. It's warm and sunny, at last. In the morning, we take the "Highlights" tour. At the pier terminal, you have to take shuttle busses to the tour busses. Our knowledgable guide takes us first to the Recoleta Cemetary, where Evita is buried. Next, we tour through the city, noticing the many different European styles of arctitecture. We stop at colorful La Boca, with it's many Tango theaters, shops and a very nice outdoor handicraft market. In the afternoon, we attend the "Tango Show" tour with at least 5 busses from the ship. It's held in a small, old theater and is very crowded. Champagne, wine and soft drinks are served. The dancers, the Tango musicians and the Andean musicians, on their traditional instruments, all gave a wonderful show. We were back to the ship by 6 pm. Tonight, for the first time, we set our clocks ahead one hour. Jan. 21st - MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY. It's warm and sunny, again. Bob and I take different tours. I take, "Highlights of Montevideo," and Bob, "Montevideo & the Wine Trail." Both tours were very worthwhile. The Legislative Palace is especially beautiful inside and out. Besides touring the city and the winery, Bob said they enjoyed champagne, several wines, a HUGE meal, and were entertained by music and dancing. As we were sailing away and just seated at our table for dinner, the power went off! Auxilliary power came on right away to the hotel section of the ship and the Captain announced what had happened and that it was not serious. We were in the calm waters of the River Plata and it wasn't too long before the engines were restarted. The Indonesian Crew Show was later, tonight. Jan. 22nd - SEA DAY. Sunny and warm day at sea. This was our 4th formal night and the Dessert Extravaganza was held, later, in the Lido. The Environmental Officer joined our table for dinner. Jan. 23rd - SEA DAY. This morning, the "Champagne Disembarkation Talk and Crew Farewell" was held. The Amsterdam Cast presented "Dancin' Fool" in the evening.

Jan. 24th - RIO de JANEIRO, BRAZIL. We sailed into port at about 7 am. The sail-in was at sunrise and very pretty, though where the ship docks is not very attractive. Our tour, this morning, was "Tijuca Park Nature Excursion." Actually, most of the tour was spent at the Botanical Gardens. From there, we boarded open-air jeeps and drove up the Tijuca Park road. There was a photo stop at an overlook of the city and a second stop by the park's waterfall. Then it was back to the bus and the ship, by 1 pm. It was very hot and humid, so we didn't bother to go into town for any shopping, but there were a few nice shop in the terminal. We spent the afternoon packing (so soon?). At least 8 busses from the Amsterdam went to the "Dinner and Samba Show" tour. We decided to spend the last night on board the ship, instead. In spite of so many off the ship, the 4 dinner times were kept in place and the dining room was decorated and the stewards dressed in a Carnivale theme. Our luggage was to be out by 1 am. Jan. 25th - RIO, disembakation day. We'd booked an all day tour (these tours on disembarkation day have to be booked on the ship) and our tour bus would take us to the airport. Our luggage was to be taken to the airport by truck. We waited in our cabin for our number to be called, which was around 8:15 am. Our carry-ons were stored on the bus and we were off on our "Sugar Loaf Mountain & Corcovado" tour. We went to Corcovado first, and it was a long, hot hour to wait for our tram. Once at the tram stop, there are elevators and escalators if you don't want to walk up all the many stairs. The Christ the Redeemer statue is wonderful to see up close. The views of the city are beautiful from up here - you can't see all the graffiti that covers so many of the buildings, sadly. After leaving the tram at the bottom and boarding our bus, we were driven passed the famous, and very crowded, Ipanima and Copacabana beaches. We had lunch in a very nice seafood restaurant, in view of Sugarloaf Mountain, our next destination. Two cable cars take you to the top of Sugarloaf, for more wonderful views of Rio. Our last stop was at an unusual, very modern church, with beautiful stained glass windows. On our way to the airport, we passed the Amsterdam, still tied to the pier. There were long lines at the airport, but we had no trouble finding our luggage and happily, all of our flights home were on time. This was such a very SPECIAL cruise and we feel so privileged to have been able to take it. The Amsterdam will undergo it's SOE in the fall, between the last Alaska cruise and the Asia Pacific cruise. It will be hard to "improve" this wonderful ship!

[Bill S]

Pat: thanks for sharing your wonderful cruise experiences with us again! Congratulations on the Copper Medallions, too! We still think that the SA/Antarctica cruise is one of a lifetime event-sounds like you really enjoyed it on the Amsterdam.

[Aussie Gal]

Pat,

 

Thanks so much for the final part of your wonderful cruise. I have enjoyed reading it and have filed it away so that I can bring it out during the year to reread for information regarding the ports in the 11 month lead up to our cruise.

 

Jennie

[DFD1]

Fascinating report full of interesting things. Thanks so much. One tip, if I may...it would be easier for us old geisers to read if you broke it up onto several paragraphs.

 

Thanks again for sharing this wonderful experience with us. I will probably never take this cruise and you have given me the opportunity to understand at least part of what it would be like.

[grannynurse]

It was wonderful reading your account of your trip. Hopefully we'll get to do it some day.

What's next for you?

Hope to see you both again on another cruise.

GN

[bobpatj]

DFD1 - Sorry everything all ran together. I did separate the paragraphs, but that's the way it came out. Maybe next time I do a report, I'll use double spacing and see if that works.

 

grannynurse - We have another "Dream Cruise" in Nov. Again, we'll sail on the Amsterdam, the second half of the Asia/Pacific cruise, from Singapore to San Diego, 31 days. It was selling out so fast, we booked it last May!