reallyjillytravels

Tuesday, February 21,2023. Stanley, Falkland Islands The first thing we noticed when we got up—it was noticeably warmer. It wasn’t freezing in our cabin! Although we tried to get a tour to see penguins, all penguin tours were completely booked. Melissa, the whale expert onboard, had spent a few months as a researcher at Stanley and advised us there were penguins at Gypsy Cove, a 3-mile walk if no other transportation was available. We slept in, had breakfast and headed for the Insignia Lounge to pick up our tender tickets. We boarded the tender with John, Shelly, and Margo from Oregon--some of our favorite people on the ship--along with many others. The bay at Stanley is shallow so we were anchored quite far from shore--it took at least 20 minutes to get to the dock. There was another Oceania ship in the harbor, also tendering to shore. The small town had a fair number of tourists. The island Stanley is on is relatively flat and windy.  We heard it was more windy than usual the day...

 February 15, 2023 Ushuaia (oo-shoo-EYE-a), Argentina      This was a lovely, lively town to sail into at 11:00 am. There were close to 10 cruise ships—some docked and some anchored in the bay. We were lucky and had a spot at the dock. Our afternoon tour was booked, so we disembarked as soon as we could to see the town before the penguin tour. Coming in to Ushuaia  Our ship is the small-ish one at the end of dock (left side of photo) We poured into town with the rest of the tourists, hiking up the hill. It was cold and wet. The first thing we did was buy churros from a street vendor. We had been warned by ship officials: don’t eat any street food in Ushuaia.  Warmed with churros, we ducked into a chocolate shop to borrow some wi-fi. We were looking for a museum and a lunch spot. It started snowing while we were in the chocolate shop. We bought chocolate with dried blueberries, and downloaded directions to the museum. Museum located, we arrived there only to...

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 Punto Arenas, Chile We had a wakeup call at 6:15 am. The ship was already in Punto Arenas and we had a tour scheduled for 7:45 am to Magellans Strait Park. This is the southernmost area of Chilean Patagonia, on the Brunswick Peninsula.  As luck would have it, this was the best tour we have booked through Oceania (not generally impressed with their tours). Our bus headed out along the waterfront, and porpoises were jumping in the channel between Punto Arenas and Tierra del Fuego. Photo op at Cerritos de la Cruz. Classic Chilean lighthouse The weather was decent, and we stopped for photos after about 20 minutes at Cerro de la Cruz, a high spot with a good view of the area. Then back in the bus for about an hour until we arrived at Magellans Strait Park. We stopped at the gate for the guide to buy tickets, and someone came on board to count us all.  Magellans Strait Park is where the original settlement of Fuerte Bulnes (Fort Bulnes) was established. It...