Cruising to Antarctica and South America with many photos

[scubacruiserx2]

 

It's about a 3 hour ride to Torres del Paine and it involves crossing into Chile so we left at 08:00 . We did stop for a couple photos like these Rhea .

 

 

The boarder crossing meant paperwork for both countries and being stamped in and out twice .  

 

 

We stopped near here for lunch 

 

 

 

They had our favorite Irish Butter here provided a familiar taste in a far away place .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Glacial lake

 

 

 

 

There were flamingos on the other side

 

 

 

The Torres were hidden by clouds at this point

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Fauna found in the park . Life's a beach .

 

 

 

Nap time

 

 

Too cute 

 

 

 

High jumper

 

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[Walt fan]

I am so glad I found your review!  I have been away from the boards for a while.  Your pictures are amazing.  I have to ask, how did you decide on your pre and post activities?  It seems like a lot of planning!  I gather you have been in these areas before?  So amazing, I did not realize these enormous beautiful glaciers were there.  Following along and enjoying.

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, Walt fan said:

I am so glad I found your review!  I have been away from the boards for a while.  Your pictures are amazing.  I have to ask, how did you decide on your pre and post activities?  It seems like a lot of planning!  I gather you have been in these areas before?  So amazing, I did not realize these enormous beautiful glaciers were there.  Following along and enjoying.

 

Thanks , we're glad that you found the review also, so welcome aboard . We did a similar cruise on the Zaandam  in 2013 . We didn't go to Antarctica or The Falkland Islands, which were included on this cruise.

Part of the pre and post cruise were from guide books, internet and some experience. 2013 cruise, we did go to Torres del Paine with the ship and wanted to return. El Calafate , we had visited for 2 days  in 2013 and that is not enough time. El Chalten, we found when we were researching Perito Moreno. Buenos Aires is where the cruise ended and thought we would stay a day or 2 and get a better feel for it. Patagonia is amazing.

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Flora found in the park

 

 

Orchids near the horns

 

 

Porcelain Orchid

 

 

Virgin's Slippers

 

 

 

 

Thanks to my wife for the flower shots !

[ski ww]

Great shots as always.

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, ski ww said:

Great shots as always.

 

Thank you !

[scubacruiserx2]

 

The towers

 

 

The horns and the towers

 

 

The horns , the towers and the lake .

 

 

The horns , the towers , the lake and us .

 

 

[nanfern]

This is an amazing review/journey.  Thank you so much for sharing.  

 

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, nanfern said:

This is an amazing review/journey.  Thank you so much for sharing.  

 

 

Thank you nanfern , we hope that you enjoy the rest of the trip .  

Edited February 9, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Lake Nordenskjold

 

 

Salto Grande Waterfall connects Lake Nordenskjold and Lake Pehoe

 

 

Lake Pehoe

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had been a long day . We left at 8 AM and returned at about midnight .

Edited February 9, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[oakridger]

Absolutely gorgeous.  You have inspired me to possibly go to Patagonia in the future.  I had no idea how beautiful the area is!

 

Thank you,

Nancy

[Krazy Kruizers]

I never tire of looking at your beautiful pictures.

[scubacruiserx2]

11 hours ago, oakridger said:

Absolutely gorgeous.  You have inspired me to possibly go to Patagonia in the future.  I had no idea how beautiful the area is!

 

Thank you,

Nancy

 

We love the beauty and the lack of crowds there where we felt comfortable driving .It was also cool there , but not in Buenos Aires !

[scubacruiserx2]

11 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

I never tire of looking at your beautiful pictures.

 

Me too , but I'm getting a little snow blind while editing the Antarctica photos !

Edited February 10, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Our last day in El Calafate was laid back with a delivery pizza for lunch

 

 

On the following day  we stopped at these flowers as we were leaving

 

 

And we wanted some cool cash from the iceberg machine before leaving

 

 

The first class flusher on the plane to BA .

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

So wonderful to see the flowers.

Thanks for sharing them.

[*Miss G*]

The iceberg machine.  

 

I am so glad you chose to share your trip with us.  The pictures are beautiful and I can only imagine just how much more beautiful it is in person.  Like @cat shepard I would have tears in my eyes with the overwhelming majesty of it all.  Thank you.

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, puppycanducruise said:

So wonderful to see the flowers.

Thanks for sharing them.

 

 Pat did a great job with them . 

[scubacruiserx2]

59 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

The iceberg machine.  

 

I am so glad you chose to share your trip with us.  The pictures are beautiful and I can only imagine just how much more beautiful it is in person.  Like @cat shepard I would have tears in my eyes with the overwhelming majesty of it all.  Thank you.

 

 We are happy that you have chosen to go along with us and were ready to get the cruise going . Thank you for writing in . The iceberg machine , we love it  

[scubacruiserx2]

When we arrived at AEP on Sunday afternoon we found out that for a second time Premium Taxi did not show up to meet us after Emailing us that they would . We found out after returning home that they are closed on weekends ! We don't know why they didn't tell us that . We stayed at a Holiday Inn near EZE for our early morning flight to Santiago in the morning . It was a nice Holiday Inn but we did have a noisy park across the street with loud music and a helicopter practicing touch and go landings in the evening . At 5 in the morning it was raining while we waited for our ride and there was a ghostly image in the window photographing the rain in pool .

 

 

The lounge at EZE is very nice and quite at that early hour in the morning .

 

 

 

We were excited to be going to the cruise ship !

 

 

As we walked down the ramp to board the plane we had to make a dash in the rain to board a bus . After a 10 minute wait to drove to the plane and  got pretty wet while waiting on the stairs for some slow moving people ahead of us to get settled . We were in the front row and watched the rain falling mainly in the plane until everyone boarded and we could close the door . The flight was a good one and we had a nice view of the Andes near Santiago .

 

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

More great pictures.

 

Love the background for the cash machine.

[scubacruiserx2]

34 minutes ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

More great pictures.

 

Love the background for the cash machine.

 

Thank you . We had tried to use the ATM the previous Sunday in EZE the BA airport and they didn't work . We thought that the iceberg machine in the El Calafate  airport on Sunday might work - but it didn't .

[scubacruiserx2]

 

We had used the HAL bus transport from the Santiago airport to the cruise ship on our last visit in 2013 and we had hoped for a more enhanced and private tour .

 

 

We had a recommendation for Personal Tours Chile and we contacted and agreed with them for a visit to a winery and a local lunch before our transport to the ship . They were another no show . (He later said he was there, but we could not find him). When contacting them from the airport we were told that we were scheduled to meet at 2 PM instead of 9 AM . This was contrary to our agreement . Plan B became to catch a ride to the port and arrive early at the ship . We thought that we had a legitimate cab and agreed on a price before entering the car . However after leaving the airport we stopped at a gas station and the person who "booked" our cab and a 3rd guy showed up demanding full payment and threatening to leave us if we didn't pay.  DW tried 2 ATM's they took us to, thankfully didn't work. Then our credit card, and that didn't work. They agreed to take pesos but with a new price. Long story short, we agreed on a "lower" price and made a white knuckle ride to the port. Later to find out they are"Taxi Pirates" and they did manage to get only a couple hundred USD from our bank. Our bank was alerted and we were refunded the amount.  I guess we were lucky. 

We splurged on this vacation including booking the last available Neptune Suite on the Port side  7030 . One of the perks is Priority boarding but we could't find a priority boarding line and we were told to just get in line 

 

 

Fortunately my DW saw a lady who worked for HAL who moved us up to security . When we got to check in they did have priority boarding area to the right of this line .

 

 

And after surrendering our passport we were put on a bus that took us to the ship

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by scubacruiserx2