The goal for the year is to visit a new country on each continent. We have now visited 5 continents and will visit the remaining two this spring/summer. Greenland for North America and Iceland for Europe. Stay tuned for more blogging in the spring.
Thursday, 29 January 2015
BY THE NUMBERS
BY THE NUMBERS
0 the cost of our cheapest nights (camping in Fitzroy and a few nights in Torres del Paine)
2 the longest number of hours that we have been apart for on this trip
5 Continents visited (Oceana, Asia, Africa, South America, Antarctica)
9 new countries for Jackie
12 new countries for Steve
15 the total number of countries visited (Cook Islands, Australia, Bhutan, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay)
20 weeks (approximate) until the next trip to visit the remaining 2/7 continents
21 bottles of Champagne consumed on our trip
35 the number of flights we had
66 lions observed in the wild in Africa
750 US$ was the most expensive night (including breakfast and dinner ) for Jackie's 50th
AND
49, 000 Total miles travelled around the world
HOME
We arrived home to balmy 11C temperatures and were greeted by two warm and smiling faces....
Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Last 2 nights in South America
Copious amounts of body glitter, ridiculously high heels, fabulous feathers and plenty of bare skin was best way to describe our last night in Uruguay. For the "pre" Carnival, the salsa groups were out in full form dancing and grinding in the streets of Montevideo. I am not sure what was more impressive the fact that most bodies had more body glitter than clothing or the moves the men and women were able to make in the high heels. Then there was the most creative use of feathers. WOW...a truly impressive show.
The last night of the trip in a hotel, was spent in BA. We celebrated the fun of the past 5 months with a bottle of Argentinian Baron B Champagne, ceviche from Steve favourite BA restaurant, Osaka and then had a long walk back along the river to our hotel. Nothing left now but a long flight home.
Tuesday, 20 January 2015
La Pedrera, Uruguay
We were thinking of renting a car to explore the more remote northern reaches of Uruguay. 
After the class, we relaxed with a drink on our deck and chatted with the gardening staff. Only two more days of surfing left!
Not going to happen, due to our new addiction.
The folks at the La Pedrera Surf School are amazing! Extremely positive, supportive and enthusiastic. Jackie caught on to surfing very quickly.
Steve did well too - by the end of a couple of classes, he was surfing as well as the four and five year olds in our class! The next youngest person in our class is 14, but I think that we have been having more fun!
Monday, 19 January 2015
Argentina to Uruguay
Such a simple plan. What could possibly go wrong?
Fly to Uruguay. Catch transport to the beach resort. Simple, right?
Next thing we know, we are walking down a gravel road at midnight.
Aerolineas Argentinas, the airline that I love to hate (for those of you who complain about Air Canada, you should try an airline with 50% of its flights late, hours long line ups, sometimes not to even opening up check in until 45 minutes before flight departure, and a government guaranteed monopoly on most routes!) delays our connection from Buenos Airies, Argentina to Punta del Este, Uruguay for no announced reason. We whisk through customs and immigration is seconds, get our bags in a couple of short minutes, and then have to go back through customs - back packs look like we are trying to smuggle in FRUIT (into a country that recently completely legalized marijuana!). Ok, after trying every credit and ATM card that we have, we conclude that the airport ATM has no cash! No problem - we have enough cash for a taxi and just enough time to make the last bus to the beach! The last bus is supposed to get to the seaside town if La Pedrera at 11 p.m. Hey, 11:30 is close.
But there are no taxis at the bus stop, as promised by the resort. And no taxis in the centre of town, as suggested by the bus conductor. But there are some guys barbecuing beef on the street, who point out directions and give rapid fire directions in clipped Spanish when I ask where our resort is. A couple pushing a baby in a stroller down the dimly lit road (yup, at midnight - the locals are just finishing dinner at that time!) give us further directions in pretty good English. We hike down the main highway for a while and turn off down the gravel road that should (could? Might?) be heading to our resort. At the last street light, we stop a young man with a huge fishing rod on a tiny motor bike - " a la derecho, a la derecho!" He says with a smile. Keep going straight. Next we see a glow in the distance. When we peer through the fence, we see what looks like the swimming pool that was pictured on the Internet. "Where did you come from?" asks the incredulous owner. "We walked" we proudly reply. "Then how about a glass of champagne on the house?" was his unexpected suggestion.
Life is good.
We have a cute cabin just back of the beach. Two days of surfing lessons have just made us want to go back for more. Steve even managed to high five one of the instructors while surfing by him today. Jackie had such a spectacular wipe out that her board was launched ten feet in the air, but subsequently road in three waves all the way to stepping off her board onto nearly dry sand. Most of the class is a lot younger than us - there is one cute little four year old girl who has her own wet suit, her own surf board, and a customized protective bag the same size as her little board. So cute! But I think that the instructors get a bigger kick out of seeing us older kids catch a wave!
Life is good!
Thursday, 15 January 2015
CHILE : Pucan
The last week felt less like travel and more like summer in Canmore. We rented a car, stayed in a cabin surrounded by mountains, cooked our own meals and spent our days hiking and climbing. The high peaks are all volcanoes, many of which are still active. The first volcano we saw was Osorno which was best viewed from Petrohue waterfalls.
The hiking was through the forest with views of lakes and of course ..... more volcanoes.
After spending a few days looking at Volcan Villarrica, we decided that it would be fun to climb it.
The climb was an easy snow ascent followed by a short section of lava rock where we dodged clouds of steaming sulphur to the summit and views of the deep crater.
We didn't linger on the summit as the smell of sulphur was strong when the wind changed direction and sent it towards us. The snow on descent was still quite firm so required crampons for the first few hundred meters. Luckily Jackie was able to "McGiver" her broken crampon strap. Did I mention rental gear.....and we rented from the quality shop. Once we reached softer snow, we pulled out the sleds attached them to the waist belts on our packs and soared down the slopes.....FUN.
Part way down we came across the guided groups......300 people in total. YIKES........we sure glad that we had an early start.
Next stop.......Bariloche, Argentina
Argentina - Bariloche
Took a very scenic bus ride from Puerto Montt, Chile to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. The ride got more spectacular after we crossed the pass in the Andes into Argentina. Ten years ago, Steve worked for a week in Buenos Airies, and then we spent two weeks rock climbing near 
Bariloche. Ten years later, the place seems to be about ten times bigger! But it is gorgeous - beautiful lakes, rugged mountains.
We caught a local bus from Bariloche towards the end of one of the local lakes that dropped us off at the trail head for a hike to Laguna Negra. The trail wound its way scenically up the mountains between streams and waterfalls.
Laguna Negra means Black Lake. The lake is actually very blue, but it reflects the surrounding black coloured lakes.
It was such a beautiful day that we carried on up to the ridge of Cerro Willis, to get an awesome view of Mount Tronador, one of the highest volcanoes in Argentina.
We raced down the 19 km and 1200 vertical meters to get back to the bus stop 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to arrive. Supposed to. We ended up waiting an hour and a half! At least we go to chat with a lot of locals. Our Spanish ( more like Spenglish) is slowly improving, but we still make plenty of mistakes. The bus ride from Chile had onboard bingo. Steve was within one number of the full card black out that would have won him a bottle of wine, but it took both us us concentrating to catch all of the numbers. Sixty and seventy, in particular, sound very alike!
Somebody asked Steve how long he had been in South America. He meant to say two months (dos meses). Instead, he said two tables (dos mesas). We though it would be funny if Jackie said that she had been here for two chairs!
Off to Uruguay today for nine days of such surfing, then home!
Thursday, 8 January 2015
Chiloe, Chile - Penguins, Accordians and Churches
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After getting off of the ferry from Puerto Natales (" all the charm of stowing away on a freighter" according to the Lonely Planet guide!) we went to the island of Chiloe for some culture. The big attraction was Maggalenic and Humbolt penguins.
We also took in an accordion festival. 4 different acts per hour for two days! My favourite was the teen soloist who played death metal on his accordion (Ivan, I have a vague recollection of you once playing some Elvis on your accordion- here is a chance for you to expand your repertoire!). We got to try the local special - curanto, a mix of shellfish, sausage, chicken, potatoes and dumplings. Traditionally, it was prepared by burying coals, putting all of the food on top, covering it with leaves, soaking it in wine and then leaving the whole thing to steam for few hours. Now they just boil them up in big cauldrons.
The part of Chilean cruise that I like the most is CAKE. They call them tortas, kuchen, tarta or cake - all of them are fantastic! Some people have suggested that it is a German influence.
European influence is strongly seen in their churches. In the northern most part of Chile, the churches are made of adobe and look Mexican. In the centre, they are made of stone and look gothic. There are almost a hundred churches for the 30,000 inhabitants of the island of Chiloe and they took inspiration from Europe, but adapted their ship building skills to create some of the oldest standing wooden structures in the world. This church still has most of the original construction and was built in 1730.
The interior has seen some repairs, but most of the wood is original. A super hard, weather resistant tree called the Accaruia was used to build the churches - the same wood was used in their boats. The tree is now almost extinct, so it is illegal to chop down live ones. Mass is still celebrated every Sunday. While many of our Catholic priests in Canada are from the Philippines, many priests in Chile are from Spain. The current pope is from Argentina, but the locals don't care for him much ( unlike just about everywhere else in the world, where he is becoming one of the most popular popes of all time). It may be because he is Argentine ( neighbours don't always get along) or because the locals still adore pope John Paul, who visited Chile at great personal risk during the time of their military dictatorship.
I got there just as the opening hymn started and sat in the middle. By the end of the mass, there were twice as many people in the church. I guess punctuality is not highly prized amongst church goers!
In some of the churches, the locals wanted the pillars to look like marble, so they painted them.
Every church has a bell tower! We're we scared climbing 200 year ladders? Nope. Hmmm. Maybe we should have been.
In the main city of Castro, a church has been on the same site since 1467, but has burned down three times. The most recent church is very new - it was finished in 1907. The locals wanted the exterior to look like a European cathedral, so hand painted and hammered these tin plates for the exterior to resemble stones.
The interior is done all in wood, creating one of the most beautiful church settings I have ever seen.
In Castro, we stayed in a Palafito, a traditional shore structure built on stilts. The tides are so great that during high tide the water is at the top of the stilts!
There is also a lot of varied and beautiful scenery on the island, including huge remote beaches, swamps and some areas of jungle.
Saturday, 3 January 2015
CHILE- Navimag Ferry Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt
The trip takes 3 days and 4 nights travelling through the remote Chilean fjords. There is only one settlement enroute, the tiny village of Eden with a population of 90 people. The Navimag Ferry that stops 2 times per week is their only mode of transport and delivery of goods. The port is not capable of handling the ferry, so people and goods are transported to and from the ferry by zodiac.
The scenery varies from narrow passages that are 80m wide to the open sea.
Thankfully the open sea portion is only about 16 hours and half of that time is spent sleeping. We had a very calm time in the open sea as the waves only 3m at their highest. Steve used the last "patch" for this portion and managed the swells much better than on the Antarctic cruise.
The passengers are from around the world some travelling for a few weeks on their honeymoon while others are travelling for much longer. One french Canadian couple is travelling for 2 years. They decided to do a long trip before they turned 50, so will end their trip before their birthdays and celebrate their 50ths when they return home. The couple that I have enjoyed the most is the the first couple that I met. Tony (English) and Jean Marc (French). They are both 70 and live in the north of France in Basque country near the Spanish border.
The most unusual part of the trip is our cargo.
One of the odd rules on the boat is that alcohol is prohibited. We learned this in the safety briefing after we had left shore. After this statement appeared on the screen, you could hear the thoughts in minds of our fellow passengers..."what, did I hear that correctly that there is no bar onboard"....."good call to bring booze on board"..... ......."damn we should have brought (more) booze on board"... and then the really important question......."it's new years eve in 2 days, will we all be hiding in our cabins drinking our prohibited substances like a bunch of underaged teenagers?" We were curious as to how the no alcohol rule came to be so we asked. Three years ago they had problems with a handful of drunk guys falling down the stairs. Two years ago a famous British actress and her boyfriend were drunk, had a heated argument and she fell overboard breaking her neck and dying. Last year, some very drunk young guys decided to have a bbq in their cabin and set the boat on fire. It took 3 hours to extinguish the fire. Hmmmmmm!!
New Years eve was indeed interesting. At 10:00 pm we were cruising around the ship looking for the party girls (from Scotland that were also keen to have some type of celebration)
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