South America 1 & 2 segment: Anything I should know?

[Jimpeyton]

I'm doing the 1 & 2 segment of South America this Jan. Is there anything I should know to make this a great trip. Any recommended excursions, places not to miss, etc.? Your insight is appreciated. My trip begins in Ft. Laud. and ends in Buenos Aires.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[JDRMYS]

Chan-Chan is the one place that you shouldn't miss during the 1st segment of the cruise. BTW, we will join you for the 2nd segment of the cruise: Lima to Buenos Aires.

 

We took the Ft Lauderdale to Lima segment the 1st year that the Mariner was in service (I think that it was 2001 -- my memory is not what is once was) and enjoyed it very much. We are taking the Callao to Buenos Aires segment this coming January. We have also taken the Manaus to Ft. Lauderdale segment. After the cruise in January, we will have only the Buenos Aires to Manaus segment to go -- but I think that we might skip that. Having been up the Amazon on the Mariner once, we don't really need to do it again.

 

We love Regent and have spent 120+ days on board Regent ships -- including a transpacifc on the Mariner from LA to Aukland. We are now booked on the Voyager's November, 2008 transatlantic from Rome to FT. Lauderdale. When we are on board the Mariner in January, we intend to book the 2009 Voyager westbound transatlantic (bookings are not yet open). We waited too long to get our favorite suite on the Voyager for the 2008 TA. We will make do with being on the shady side of the ship for that crossing, but, in future, will try to book our TA crossings as soon as they become available for sale!

[Jimpeyton]

Thanks for the Chan-chan recommendation. Has anyone done the Regent land excursion to Machu- Picchu? Again, I appreciate any insight regarding the 1 & 2 segments of circle south amercia.

[RachelG]

Regarding an excursion to Machu Picchu, while I have not done this from a cruise ship, I have been there as part of a much larger land based trip. And my opinion is that unless you have no problem whatsoever adjusting to high altitudes, you probably should do something else. Cuzco and Machu Picchu are at very high altitude. Cuzco is actually higher than Machu Picchu. A lot of people get altitude sickness at these heights, and there is a whole lot of walking involved at this site. We took a week to acclimate before visiting Machu Picchu and had no trouble, but I was really tired the first few days of our trip at the higher elevations. I think getting off a cruise ship (obviously at sea level) and trying to visit here without time to acclimate would not make for a good trip. We saw lots of people there who were sick--I'm glad I wasn't one of them.

[Jimpeyton]

Regarding an excursion to Machu Picchu, while I have not done this from a cruise ship, I have been there as part of a much larger land based trip. And my opinion is that unless you have no problem whatsoever adjusting to high altitudes, you probably should do something else. Cuzco and Machu Picchu are at very high altitude. Cuzco is actually higher than Machu Picchu. A lot of people get altitude sickness at these heights, and there is a whole lot of walking involved at this site. We took a week to acclimate before visiting Machu Picchu and had no trouble, but I was really tired the first few days of our trip at the higher elevations. I think getting off a cruise ship (obviously at sea level) and trying to visit here without time to acclimate would not make for a good trip. We saw lots of people there who were sick--I'm glad I wasn't one of them.

 

Excellent point! I do remember my trip to Pikes peak in CO at 14k feet, and having tunnel vision and being light headed. I'll look into the matter on how to best adapt, but I don't think there is lot one can do.

 

Has anyone done the excursion by Regent to "fly over" or land on Antartica? This is being offered aswell on the this cruise.

[ridojar]

You'll be mesmerized going through the Chilean Fjords. Bring your binoculars to fully enjoy it.

[Grothj]

We did the complete Circle of SA on the Mariner her first year - 2001 and loved it. I second that you should not miss Chan-Chan. We also enjoyed the "temple of the moon" excursion. In fact, I can't remember a single excursion that we did that we did not love. The west coast of South America is one of our favorite places..we loved it even more than the east coast.

 

We did the ships excursion to Manchu Pichu and enjoyed it very much. Since we live in Denver at 5280', we did not have any problems with the altitude. And, we had been on the ship since Ft. Launderdale so had become most accustomed to sea level. In our group of 30, only one man had a problem and he was one of the younger ones (younger than us anyway!). The ship sent one of the nurses with our group and so we had access to help if we needed it. The Hotel Monasterio in Cusco has oxygen available just for the asking and some of the rooms have oxygen pumped in automatically. Manchu Pichu is actually lower than Cusco and the tour company (which was excellent) had extra help during the visit and carried oxygen in case anyone needed it...no one did. Pikes Peak is actually higher than you will be on this trip.

 

We loved Manchu Pichu so much that we are doing it again this year as a pre-cruise excursion. We will be joining the ship for the Lima-Buenos Aires segment. And, we booked the "fly over" Antartica already.

 

 

 

We leave on Wednesday for the Grand Mediterrean on RSSC Voyager!

[RachelG]

The tendency to get altitude sickness unfortunately does not depend on one's level of fitness or health generally. So just because you are young or very healthy does not guard against it. My oldest son is a Marine, definitely very fit, and he is more prone to it than anyone else in our family--usually gets sick the first day of a ski trip in Colorado but is fine after that.