On the Quest to see pingüinos

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And just a few more







Then back on the bus and back to the hotel



This is the park opposite my hotel


The little store next to the hotel - open 25 hours a day - impressive.


and more views

 

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That night I met some others and had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Sottovoce. The food and service was excellent and not that expensive especially when they gave us a complimentary glass of limoncello at the end. They were happy for us to pay with card but all tips had to be in cash.



The wine they chose for us was superb







I have absolutely no idea what this meant

 

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The next day I was almost touristed out so just took it easy and wandered around.



I found somewhere that was recommended as having good empanadas and they were excellent.



The view from my balcony in my new room

and the square opposite.

 

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My last night in BA and the last night of my trip we were wandering around by the Recoleta cemetery and found another little Italian Restaurant called La Pecora Nera - The Black Sheep. Sottovoce the evening before was recommended by the concierge and almost everyone spoke English and was obviously frequented by tourists. This one the staff had almost no English but were delightful and the food and wine again was excellent. They chose a mid range wine for us (as the evening before). I can't remember the exact figure but I think our guide said that about 40% of the immigration to Argentina was Italian.

 

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So the time had come for me to head home. I had an 8.30am flight out of EZE then to SCL to SYD and ADL. If I had thought about it I probably should have gone to SCL the night before and spent the night at a hotel near the airport but it was too late now and I had to be up at 5am and I am NOT a morning person.

I supposed one of the advantages of getting up early was a pretty spectacular sunrise. There was another couple from the hotel who had a flight so we shared a car out to the airport. Apparently in traffic in can take an hour or more to the airport but our speeding driver and the early morning and we were there in about 35 minutes.

I had caught a few taxis while in BA and they always had the meter going and for the 10-15 trips were around $3-4 so I tipped generously and they were always grateful.






The good old Aussie Outback pub


The lounge was pleasant and had plenty of food and drinks and free wifi

 

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View as we were boarding and then was priority boarding.

















Breakfast was OK but not great.


Most people seemed to try and get some sleep on the flight

 

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As we were crossing the Andes they made an announcement that everyone had to fasten their seat belts and they were coming around checking. The views were spectacular.

 

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Santiago airport looks like it's undergoing quite a lot of construction. The lounge was really difficult to find.






The lounge was adequate but certainly not very exciting but I didn't have too long here before the next flight to SYD

 

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So onto QF28. I was in 15B upstairs.

The male FA was telling everyone he was about to take a package and couldn't wait to be rid of Qantas and the middle aged female FA was your typical dragon and tried to be as unpleasant as possible.

We were due to depart at 13.35 but had to go back to gate because of sick passenger who was eventually off loaded but luckily had no luggage. Taxi started again around 14.25. I asked Leo if I should have soup or salad and he said soup and rolled his eyes. The Vickery Riesling was pleasant and the soup was ok but the bread not fresh and the butter hard as rock. The chicken was tasteless. Cheese ok with muscat and a botrytis (just to annoy the female FA) and choc truffle




After having some amazing negronis on the cruise and in BA they said their coughtail of the day was a Negroni so I said fine - big mistake. It was awful






The fritters were OK



The arrived into Sydney and I was supposed to have about three hours until my flight home but the sweet lady at the transfer desk happily put me on the earlier flihgt.

I can't remember much about this meal from SYD to ADL because I was just a zombie by then but I was hungry and needed to eat something.

 

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The last day on the cruise Seabourn gave us a USB in a little tin case with things like the guest list and some photos and a video. Some of the photos were great so I'm going to upload them as well. The official photographers on board were allowed to use a drone but no one else could.

 

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Next 10

 

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and the next

 

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more

 

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Last 10

 

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So a summary of the cruise.

As I travelled alone, I received a dinner invitation every day to join someone in the dining room but never got invited to the Grill. Many of the others got invited but not every day. I suppose I accepted about half of the invitations depending on who it was hosting and I met some lovely people and some absolute idiots. I was a first time Seabourn cruiser so never got invited to a table with the Captain or anyone very important. The number of people that didn’t get off every day in the Antarctica because they were a bit tired and we’d see more penguins another day amazed me. I’d paid a lot of money to do this and I was going to see everything I could.

The food I thought was a bit variable – some meals were great and others were quite average. I thought it would be a lot better and more like what was served in the Grill. When you go to dinner, they offer you a red and white of the night and you can ask for others but it’s not the same as choosing off a wine list. The portions weren’t huge but very adequate. I was also surprised they didn’t have a better range of gins. Most of them were just the standards Tanqueray, Gordons, Bombay Sapphire etc.

When you go to the restaurant for dinner, you are always escorted to your table – someone puts you on their arm and off you go.

I know this all seems so long ago now but almost every American I met asked about the fires

I know I don’t feel the cold but I had my room setting on the lowest setting but I was always hot. There was just a duvet on the bed and at least it was in a proper cover. I did have the balcony door open when I could but sometimes when it was blowing a gale it just whistled and you could hear it outside in the corridor. I also didn’t need as many layers as they said and as many changes of clothes and ended up giving some of the thicker clothes to the crew when I left. I also purchased my own rubber boots before I left because it was cheaper than hiring them and gave those to the crew as well.

I did like the fact everything was included so you never had to sign for anything but I did find that meant that people wasted a lot. A couple of people I dined with chose two desserts and only had a taste of each and then left them. A lot of drinks were ordered and never consumed.

Whenever there was a briefing or get together there were always crew coming around with nibbles and taking drink orders- nothing was too much trouble.

As with any race found some of the Americans were charming but there were quite a few who just walked into the coffee place and said get me a coffee and 2 doughnuts and no please or thank you. There was one American who that I had the table with me one night who stood up at the beginning of the evening and said he was a proud Republican and a friend of Dick Smith. I presume I was supposed to be impressed. He was complaining that his wife didn’t like it if her bank balance was under 9 digits and he also worried if he was in the house on his own and got in the elevator he was concerned if the elevator broke down. He also told the guy in The Grill that he wasn’t making the Caesar Salad properly (one of their signature dishes).

I was surprised they didn’t ban people facetiming in the lounge and public areas and it was both Americans and Australians but it was incredibly annoying

The captain was great – he had a good sense of humour and always gave good updates about what was happening.

I used Flexiroam as an eSIM but I just found it really clunky and would prefer to get a local SIM.

 

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And here is a 20 minute video they also gave us on the USB. Some people might have a bit of time to look at it now

 

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Reading with interest. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go. When you get back, can you write about your last minute booking for the cruise. Is it better then booking 6 months out. Did you get the boat that you wanted?

So to answer your question which may not be as relevant as it was then.

I had always wanted to go to the Antarctic and had originally chosen a cruise that didn't stop on the ice but my travel agent convinced me to spend twice the amount of money and do one where you could get off. It did take a while to convince myself that this was a good idea but he didn't push me either way.

Originally I said no it was too much money and then about a week later he came back with a few thousand off so I made the decision. I could have gone on the Ponant cruise but that went from Ushuaia and didn't go on the Chilean Fjords which is what I wanted to do.

After all that has happened in the last couple of months I am incredibly grateful he pushed me into choosing this cruise and that I actually went on it because I'm not sure there will be many Antarctic cruises this year.

 

[OZDUCK]

Great photos - but what I wanted to say was as I just finished looking at your photos of the tomb of Eva Peron the radio station I am listening to played the Shadows instrumental version of "Don't Cry for me Argentina"!

 

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So that’s it for a massive TR and thanks to everyone for their feedback and kind words. I hope it gave people some nice memories of their trip or has whetted your appetite to visit but who knows when that will be. I have to be a little bit grateful to C word virus because I'm not sure how I would have found the time to finish this if I was out and about like I normally am

 

[OZDUCK]

So that’s it for a massive TR and thanks to everyone for their feedback and kind words. I hope it gave people some nice memories of their trip or has whetted your appetite to visit but who knows when that will be. I have to be a little bit grateful to C word virus because I'm not sure how I would have found the time to finish this if I was out and about like I normally am

As I said before great photos - and I am talking about your ones. B.A. seemed a lot cleaner than I thought it would - but that of course be due to the bright skies and where your guide took you. Anyway, thanks for the effort of putting this together.