Adventure of the month

Two generations of Gentoo penguins A small group of King Penguins. This is one of two churches with a whale bone arch, the other is in Yorkshire, England. A comically penguin-shaped tourist posing near the Newspaper offices. A Memorial to those who lost their lives during the Falkland War. Our fourth port of call was in the heavily-disputed British Falkland Islands. Or the heavily-disputed Argentinian Islas Malvinas . It depends who asks. Personally, I can't say that I formed an opinion one way or another. On one hand, they are undoubtedly within Argentina's maritime border. On the other hand, at no time during the islands' history did they belong to Argentina. It is one of those situations where it is easy to be swayed by either side of argument. Luckily, I was not there to choose sides. I was there to see penguins. Lots and lots of glorious penguins. In order to this, I had to do the one thing th...

The fourth port of call, our first in Argentina (country #78) was at the end of the world, or at least that is what the tourist office is eager to get across. Most maps simply refer to it as " Ushuaia ". Either way, it is the southernmost city in the world. Or not. Chileans will tell you that Punta Arenas, which is further north but has a population of 130,000 is the southernmost city while Ushuaia , with its measly 60,000 inhabitants, is merely a very southern town. Seeing as we hit both places, I can confidently say that I have been in the southernmost city and leave it at that. Prior to the cruise, I had made reservations for a boat ride across the Beagle Channel on a vessel named the M/N Barracuda . Therefore, it struck me as peculiar when we were disembarking from the cruise ship and I saw a docked boat that appeared to have been brought over by Magellan himself, looking as if it was about to sink any minute and bearing the name Barracuda. I rationalized that this m...

Our route. Map courtesy of NCL.com The one and only towel creation that ever manifest itself in our room. Other guests ended up with entire menageries. Passing through the Patagonic Channels. The first of many glaciers. Cruising through the Beagle Channel, something I would later do in a tour boat like the one pictured. The legendary Cape Horn. On the day we rounded Cape Horn, we had a ceremony where the Captain baptised us as honorary "Horneans" with ice cold water. Why I agreed to participate, I have no clue. Our room was an inside cabin, therefore channel 22, showing the view from a mounted camera became our official "window". Yup, I agreed to pour champagne into a pyramid of glasses aboard a moving ship. Not sure what I was thinking there, either. I can see how it is possible to interpret my running tally, where I am keeping score pitting myself against NCL when it comes to shore excursions, a...

Before ever stepping foot in Punta Arenas, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to get to Isla Magdalena, home to 150,000 Magellanic penguins. Then again, who couldn't want to do that? The problem was that there are only two ways to get to the island. The first is via a ferry that goes out there every day, which would have been great, but for the fact that the cruise ships reserve the entire ferry, making it impossible for the independent traveller to get on board. The second was via zodiac boats, which although colder and wetter are also much faster and can get you there way before the ferry arrives. With that in mind, back in early November, I called Solo Expeditions, who were the only outfit running zodiac boats at that time, and was told that all the outings were sold out. I called again right before getting on the ship, hoping for cancellations, but to no avail. Yet, having seen the median age of my fellow passengers (let's be generous and go with 60-ish) I was s...

Pto Chacabuco's man in the mountain. Our second port of call, Puerto Chacabuco, was touted as a place of majestic open spaces to be appreciated mainly for its solitude and remoteness. All codes words for 'don't expect much 'cuz there ain't nothing there'. This explained why, try as I might, I was not able to pre-book any sort of tour prior to the cruise. Not only were there no tour operators, I suspect that computers with an Internet connection were in short supply as well. But not to worry, the cab drivers of Chacabuco and its neighboring "city", Aysen were more than happy to fill this gap. As soon as we got off the boat, a small army of drivers awaited us with identical signs promising a tour of all the area's highlights. They all offered the same circuit for the same price ($120 for up to 4 people versus $99 per person on NCL) so the only question was which driver we would choose. I'm not sure if there had ever been any English-speaking gui...