January 4: Where We Spend Six Whirlwind Hours Racing Around Buenos Aires To See All The Things
We had the first of our three tours scheduled for this week. Today’s was a 6-hour tour of Buenos Aires. Our tour guide’s name was Juan. Very knowledgable about Buenos Aires. He told us about the many courses he had to take to get a degree and certification as a professional tour guide. He was terrific – speaking for 6 hours in a language that is not his native tongue.
First stop – The Floralis Generica. A giant mechanical sculpture that used open and close. Unfortunately, the mechanical parts are broken and somehow a city with a huge college of engineers can’t find an engineer to fix it. Two of the petals were restored to their positions just a couple of weeks before we arrived.
Floralis Generica
Next photo op: the law school of the University of Buenos Aires.
Faculty of law building at the university of Buenos Aires
And then the seat of the Jose San Martin Institute. San Martin was the founder of Argentina, akin to George Washington for the US.
Jose San Martin Institute – he was the George Washington of Argentina in 1820
Next stop was the Paseo El Rosedal – a huge rose garden. It was too much for me to walk, so I enjoyed the sunshine while Andy and Juan went looking at roses. Here are some of the photos he took.
Circle of Poets
Here is the monument to Eva Perón – first lady of Argentina in the 1970s and 80s. She is still greatly revered in Argentina
Monument to Eva Peron
It was fitting that our next stop was the Recoleta Cemetery that is the final resting place for the rich and wealthy in Buenos Aires for the last 200 years. The cemetery is complete – the only way to get buried here is to have a family mausoleum or be somebody incredibly important. In other words – most people don’t rate.
A couple of notable mausoleums:
Tomb of Admiral William Brown, founder of the Argentinian Navy
I forgot to make note of who these people are. Juan says this is typical of the interments in this cemetery – the coffins are above ground. The only exception: Eva Perón.
And here she is. Evita is buried underground. Other family members are housed in the mausoleum.
The Recoleta cemetery was endlessly fascinating, with all the different designs
Tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak – killed at age 26 in an avalanche while she was on her honeymoon
The next few stops were quick ones.
Treatro Colón – opera house and theaterPalacio de JusticeThe obelisk – a monument commemorating the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Buenos Aires
Next up: the beautiful Catedrál de Buenos Airs, where Pope Francis was the archbishop before he became pope.
Pipe organFloor mosaicMain altarpiece Catedral de Buenos AiresDome above San Martin’s tombTomb of San Martin – liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru, all represented by the statues on each side of the tomb. The tomb is always guarded by 2 honor guards who change off every 2 hours
Randomly, Juan asked us if we were religious. We told him we were Jewish, which triggered a surprise: an exhibit memorializing Jewish victims of the holocaust and terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires. It is the only memorial of a different faith in any Cathedral. The normal requirement to remove your hat inside the cathedral is waived in this nave, because it is Jewish custom to keep your head covered, even inside.
Our next stop was the Plaza de Mayo, the main square in Buenos Aires, created in 1884.
Monument to General Manuel Belgrano, creator of the Argentinian National flagMarch Of Stones – dedicated to the victims of COVID on August 16, 2021Changing of the guard at San Martin’s tombEvita’s balcony. Madonna was filmed singing on this balcony in the movie version of the stage productionCasa Rosada – the seat of the Argentine federal government
On our way to the neighborhood of Caminito, we stopped by the market of San Telmo. We had a fleeting thought of getting lunch in here, but that quickly evaporated. We were crushed from all sides just trying to move forward. We didn’t get very far at all before we gave up, turned around and came back out.
Entrance to the Market of San Telmo
Caminito is my new favorite city neighborhood. Home of past generations of immigrants living by the docks, it’s now a lively food/arts/party scene, with colorful buildings, fanciful cartoon figures on the street, street side cafes, and plenty of great shopping. The only problem: the streets are all cobblestone making it very painful to walk, and my transport chair can’t function.
People line up to take their photo under the “Messi” with the World CupGuy cosplaying as a tango dancer
On our way back to the hotel, Juan pointed out two more interesting landmarks.
Puente de La Mujer – a rotating footbridge built in honor/tribute to womenThe ARA Presidente Sarmiento, an historic naval training vessel
It was 3:30 p.m. by the time we were back in our room. Juan and his driver had done a masterful job of showing us as much of this beautiful city as can be seen in six hours!
We ended up having an early dinner or maybe it was a “linner”, since we never did manage to squeeze in lunch in those 6 hours.
Tomorrow: Super crazy day – up to Iguazu Falls and back.
Where We Are Gently Encouraged To Get The Heck Off The Ship So They Can Clean For The Next Batch Of Cruisers
And We Enter The Final Week Of Our South American Adventure
January 1, 2026
Day at sea. Everybody is recuperating from the night before. I realize I’ve come down with Andy’s cold.
January 2, 2026
This was supposed to be a tender day in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, with a planned excursion boat ride to see yet more sea lions do nothing. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and windy and deemed not safe for tender operations, so the port was canceled and we have yet another day at sea. At this point, I reached that moment that I can only describe as “antsy”: too many days on a ship and – in particular – too many days at sea. On this itinerary we missed: the Magellan Straits, Punta Arenas, and now Punta del Este – about half the itinerary. Now I just want to get back to dry land, where we have more control. I spent a could chunk of the day artfully arranging vacuum packed bags in my suitcase of what’s left of my clean clothes.
January 3, 2026 Disembarkation day
Disembarkation day is always a bit of a mess, especially when we’re walking off the ship and going back to the hotel where we stayed 2 weeks before. I had arranged with the hotel for a taxi to come get us, instead of us having to stand in line for whatever taxis were available.
We had breakfast in the restaurant for the one and only time this cruise, then went to wait with other people who requested assistance navigating the incredibly steep ramp off the gangway. That process worked pretty well. I was safely deposited at the bottom of the gangway, and the bus took us back to the cruise terminal, where we found our bags. Cruise staff helped us to get our bags to the curb to wait for our taxi.
Who had no idea where we were, because we didn’t know until that very moment that we would be at Gate 3. After a bunch of back-and-forths with the hotel and the cabbie, the cabbie found us by calling me and watching to see what phone rang. Rather clever, I thought.
We arrived back at the hotel in no time, where the front desk told me they did not have a reservation for us for January 3. Um. What? This had all been confirmed several months ago. They had a reservation for June (?!?). But it was all good – they had a room available for the dates we needed it. {Side note: eventually I had the time to go back through all the correspondence and found my original email asking for “3 January 2026 through 7 January 2026”, followed by the hotel’s response confirming the dates with a confirmation number. There was another email where I used “3 Jan” instead of “3 January”; I think this is where they saw “Jan” and thought it meant “Jun”. Anyway, luckily it was not an issue.
The view from our room on December 19 was several HUGE air conditioning units. The view from this room was ever so much better.
We had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant. It’s just not our “vibe” or something. And my head cold had hit hard; nothing looked or tasted appetizing.
We went out afterwards looking for a pharmacy to buy some over the counter head cold stuff, which turned out to be more difficult than one would think. There’s no CVS-like store in Buenos Aires. The small pharmacies fill prescriptions and display skin care products. We found a bigger pharmacy that had a couple of things I was looking for.
Which called for ice cream, of course! We went back to Freddo and tried different kinds of chocolate. Still fabulous.
View from Freddo
Feeling adventuresome, we walked further away from the hotel in search of a souvenir store. The one we found didn’t have anything interesting. But it was across the street from a shopping mall, so we tried looking in there. Nothing but clothing stores. And the bathroom.
We decided to have dinner at one of the sidewalk restaurants. We picked a random steak house. We noticed a huge brick wall across the street that turned out to be the big cemetery we’ve hears so much about. That was on our list to the next day on our 6 hour city-tour.
I was fading quickly, so we went back to the hotel and I just went to bed. I hoped to shake this cold before our Big Day on Tuesday, when we fly up to Iguazu Falls and back on the same day.
Puerto Madryn in the distance as we pulled into port looked like a resort town:
Greeting our arrival into the port were Southern Giant Petrels
Southern giant petrel
We booked another wildlife excursion for Puerto Madryn to (hopefully) see dolphins and, yes, more sea lions. As with many of the other excursions we booked, the exact details were very fuzzy. We had talked to Luis in the excursions desk the day we boarded – there was concern about the very long walk to the end of the pier to get to the excursion boat. Luis said he would be there to get me some help.
Turns out there was a regular shuttle running between the dock and the end of the pier. Unfortunately, the shuttle driver was confused as to why we were taking the shuttle if we were on an excursion. Finally, Andy, said, “This is what they told us to do”, and we were able to take the shuttle to the end of the pier to meet up with the group.
I was a little concerned about the mechanics of climbing into the zodiac boat, but the walk on the beach to the boat was very short, and the crew helped me climb up the ladder and into the boat without a problem.
It was an absolutely glorious day! Low 70s, sunny, nary a cloud in the sky.
We rode out for a bit before arriving to a spot where we were likely to see dolphins. I always managed to be on the wrong side of the boat, but I was able to capture something of a dusky dolphine.
Dusky dolphin
We traveled to a different spot to see sea lions and cormorants
Guanay cormorants
Also visiting with us were a couple of snowy sheathbirds
And many sea lions.
We also saw jellyfish floating in the water. Our tour guide said these didn’t sting. You can just about make out the blobby white shape just under the water.
Back on the beach, I managed to climb down from the boat onto the sand without hurting myself!
On the dock was this monument.
Monument to the Diving Pioneers
Andy took a few minutes to run into a souvenir shop, but the stores were all closing early for New Years.
The dessert at dinner was baked Alaska, and also this fabulous chocolate macaron.
We didn’t participate in any of the ship’s New Years activities – we were both very tired, and I felt a cold coming on. I think I woke up long enough to see the countdown on the TV flip to 12:00.
Happy 2026!
Tomorrow: last day at sea.
January 2: Punta del Este, Uruguay – more sea lions!
By all reports, today was going to be a challenging day. We were taking an excursion to Bluff Cove, a privately owned beach cove known to be the home of two penguin species: King and Gento.
We were warned that the weather might be windy, raining, and very cold (max 45F). Port Stanley was a tender port, meaning that we have to climb into a smaller boat to take us to shore. We were warned that the wait for a tender to return to the ship might take up to two hours.
So we bundled up in many layers. The forecast didn’t call for rain at all, so we took the chance and left the rain gear behind in the room.
The sky was very overcast and it was a bit chilly when we arrived at the tender dock in Port Stanley.
Our “bus” was a large van. The driver provided a two-step up into the van making it easy to climb in. She drove us directly to the Bluff Cove within 20 feet of the penguins.
The first thing we noticed: it wasn’t cold, rainy or windy. It felt a lot warmer than 45F. The sky cleared up and the sun was out. It was quite a beautiful day!
We first walked over to the King penguins. This group was away from the beach up on a small hill. Some of them were incubating eggs – you can tell by the way their feet are hidden by a pouch of skin. Some were just staring into space. These birds are huge. They are close to 3ft tall. They wander wherever they want at their own pace, completely oblivious to what these silly humans are doing.
This guy was initiating the mating ritualThis one seemed to be dosing off while incubating the egg
The second group of King penguins were all the way down on the beach of the cove. A ranger said in previous years the beach cove is where all the King penguins lived. For some unknown reason this year a group split off and moved inland to the top of the small hill.
The penguins ignored us completely. We had white flag markers to show us how close we could get to them, but we were able to walk within just a few feet. Three king penguins nonchalantly toddled up from the beach and passed right by us to join the others.
Right next door were the gentoos in a much larger and noisier group.
Gentoo PenguinsI think this guy in front is a chickHanging outA bunch of chicks lying down in the dirt
Andy found this sad remainder of a gentoo egg. The ranger said it probably had been snatched by a predator.
Andy went to explore more of the beach while I caught a ride with a ranger dow to the cafe and gift shop.
I had heard from a couple of sources that the bathrooms were absolutely gorgeous and worth a visit just to see them.
Nice wall paper and wall art? I’ve seen more beautiful bathrooms….
I bought a bunch of stuff at the gift shop and then caught up with Andy. We went into the cafe for our free treats.
Hot chocolate, chocolate cookie, and a mini-scone with clotted cream and homemade jam. YUM
I loved the old stoves used to heat the buildings.
Clarke Buckingham II 5.1kW Cast Iron Multi-Fuel Stove. This is a Rayburn Supreme solid fuel range cooker.
Here I am all bundled up and a bit overheated standing next to…not sure what this collection of objects is supposed to be:
This is a photo of “sea cabbage” – the vegetation that lives in the sand by the beach. The name of the cafe is the “Sea Cabbage Cafe”.
Sea cabbage
Our driver returned right on time to take us back to the port. We saw some random sheep wandering around.
Local sheep that get to wander around wherever they want
Back at the port, we decided to wander around for a bit. Before we went anywhere, I found a bathroom where I took off 3 of the 4 layers. The air temperature felt very close to 60F, no matter what the weather app said.
We went to a gift shop and bought more souvenirs. The next block down was the Christ Church Cathedral, the southernmost cathedral in the world. Andy went inside to take a look.
Christ church cathedralInterior of Christ Church Cathedral, southern most cathedral in the worldWhalebone arch
After this we decided to return to the ship. We walked right onto a waiting tender – no wait at all.
What a fantastic day, far exceeding all expectations!
Tomorrow: A day at sea.
Day after tomorrow: Puerto Madryn, where we will go on another wildlife cruise, and the temperatures will be back into the mid 70s.
December 27 – Where We Finally Make It To Almost The Bottom Of The World: Cape Horn
December 27, 2025 is technically a sea day, only for once we have something to look at: Cape Horn, the southern-most land mass in the Western Hemisphere. It is as close as we’re going to get to the true bottom of the world (Antarctica), at least on this trip.
The captain announced that we would be at Cape Horn at about 10:00 a.m. The ship would be doing a 360 degree turn, so that everybody could get a good view from wherever they are on the ship without needing to clump or compete for a good spot.
These photos are tinted blue from the windows.
A panoramic view of Cape Horn and the rest of the islandClose up of the Horn
There is a lighthouse maintained by the Chilean government – it is the true “lighthouse at the bottom of the world” due to its location on Cape Horn. There is also a Chilean scientific outpost, where the Chilean Navy lighthouse keeper and his family live. At the top of a hill is the albatross monument to honor all the sailors who lost their lives navigating this area, notorious for its rough seas and trick
The Cape Horn Albatross Monument (at the top of the hill on the left) is a steel sculpture designed to commemorate the thousands of sailors who lost their lives navigating the notorious rough waters around the Cape.
After rotating for about 2 hours, it was time to get back underway towards our next stop, Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands.
Tomorrow (December 28): another sea day. Day after that (December 29): Port Stanley.
A Visit From Santa and We Visit The Almost Bottom Of The World
December 25
Having Christmas Day being Day 3 of 3 sea days worked out well for all the little kids on board ship. Lots of games and a visit from Santa, who had a little something for every kid under the age of 17.
Looking down at the Grand FoyerCovering all the basesWinter Wonderland in the Grand FoyerThe Grand FoyerSanta distributing giftsCloseup of decorationDessert at dinner with happy message
December 26 – Ushuaia
At long last, we are docked again!
View from our veranda. The other side of the ship saw the town itself.
We have a multi-hour excursion booked – a combo of a bus tour of the national park in Tierra Del Fuego plus a boat ride on a catamaran through the Beagle Channel. The tour groups were split into two parts – one part took the bus tour first, the other half took the boat ride first. We were assigned to the bus ride first.
One of the things I noticed right away was the way the tour guide pronounced the word “Ushuaia”. I was pronouncing it “oooshhh-why-yah”. Apparently, it’s really “OOOS-why-yah”. Learn something new every day.
Living up to its reputation for a rainy place, it drizzled the whole morning. Never really reached soaking rain status, but enough to be annoying and make the ground muddy.
We drove through the forest and stopped at several scenic spots. Because of the misty rain and humidity, it was almost impossible to see anything through the windows.
Our first stop was at Ensenada Zaratiegui
The ground was quite muddy and slippery. And when I came back from a bathroom break, the bus was no longer in the spot where it had been 5 minutes previously. I am inordinately proud of myself for being able to say “I am looking for bus 15” in Spanish and was actually understood! Apparently the bus driver pulled our bus into the exit queue. Getting to the bus required scrambling over a muddy embankment.
This was the second stop, which looked pretty similar to the first. I was too busy watching my feet in the mud to remember what the tour guide said the name of this place was. Possibly Senda Costera
Next stop was a pit stop in Alakush.
Upland geese mated pair male with white head and female with brown headlake frontThere was a gift shop, too!
Next was Lago Roca, a lake that has three names. It’s Lago Roca on the Argentinian side, Lago Errazuriz on the Chilean side, and Lago Acigami – the indigenous name.
Lago RocaLago Roca
Our bus tour was coming to and end. The next and final stop was at the meeting point for the catamaran. The tour guide said it would be a “5 minute walk”, which of course turned out to at least feel a lot longer than that.
I couldn’t find a name for this mountainA bit of a political statementOn the way to the catamaranDifferent view of the same scenic mountain, whatever it isThe catamaran
It was now noon. The excursion description had said nothing about what was happening with lunch. There was a little food stand on the catamaran, but the choices were ham and cheese or some dessert-something. I chose a giant chocolate cookie with a caramel center and a hot chocolate.
This map shows the route we took
We had some scenic sailing in the Beagle Channel until we reached The Lighthouse At The End Of The World
And here we are at The Lighthouse At The End Of The World!
The Lighthouse is fully automated. The sea lions just lie there. So many sea lions
Cormorants and more cormorants, everywhere are cormorants, a mixed colony of two different species. The more the merrier.
And so many sea lions! Doing absolutely nothing.
We had another 30 minutes or so to get back to the port by 2:00 p.m. We found out afterwards that there was supposed to be a catamaran only excursion at 2:10 p.m., but it was canceled, because the winds picked up to a dangerous level.
I thought I was prepared for the winds – I had many layers on under my winter coat plus my favorite ancient neck gater. I should have been good to go. Unfortunately, the catamaran had docked at the furthest end of the dock away from the ship. I started walking, got about maybe 1/4 of the way there and just stopped. I was almost walking backwards.
We decided it would be better for me to stay put while Andy went ahead and got a wheelchair to wheel me back to the ship. While I waited, I took some photos
the Bark Europa, a classic sailing ship that operates globallyARA Puerto Argentino, a ship equipped to sail to Antarctica.
Watching Andy attempting to push the empty wheelchair in the fierce winds was amusing. The chair kept going everywhere but straight. He eventually gave up and picked it up to carry it. At least the wheelchair did the job – we were back on board the ship in just a couple of minutes.
The high winds delayed the ship’s departure by several hours. We were supposed to leave by 5:00 p.m., but didn’t get underway until sometime after 9:00 p.m. The wind conditions will determine exactly when we’ll arrive at Cape Horn in the morning.
Tomorrow: Scenic sailing to Almost the Bottom of the World!
Not a whole lot going on. Sea days fall into a rhythm: we get up, I go to breakfast while Andy’s at the fitness center, we meet for lunch, hang out somewhere near a window for the afternoon, wait for the cookies at about 3:00 at the coffee bar, go to dinner, and then the 9:00 p.m. show (where I do my best to stay awake, but no guarantees).
A couple of things that are different from previous cruises:
The average age is skewed much lower than usual, with many families with kids – an artifact that school is out this week in most places.
This is the first time that I can recall the clientele isn’t 80% American. Fully half, if not more, of the cruise guests are Spanish speaking as their native language, and most of them from Mexico.
This means all announcements and other communications are repeated in Spanish. It has been a great opportunity to dredge up the remains of my 6.5. years of Spanish in school over 50 years ago. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how much I understand. And every once in a while I say something in Spanish to somebody that they seem to understand! Amazing!
Some views of the Christmas decor around the ship
Grand FoyerView from glass elevatorMulti-cultural holiday display
Grand foyer display
We have one more day at sea before we arrive at Ushuaia.
December 22, Where We Finally Make It To Montevideo, Go Bird Watching, And Meet A New (To Me) Family Member
The ship docked in Montevideo some time after 10:00 p.m. on December 21. Our cruise director, Manuel, encouraged people to go out and enjoy the Montevideo nightlife! We decided to wait until the next morning for our bird-watching excursion.
Because of the delayed arrival in Montevideo, we were now playing the time honored cruise game of “Itinerary Shuffle”: the entire itinerary had to be adjusted. Port Stanley (Falklands) was now scheduled for December 25. Unfortunately, the scenic sailing of Cape Horn was canceled to give us enough time to make to Ushuaia on time. Ok, well, a little disappointing, but out of our control.
The next morning, for our excursion there were maybe eight of us in our group, including a family of 4, and a couple from England who were obviously avid birders. Our guide handed out paper check lists for us to mark off the birds we saw that day. He said the record was 97 or so different species. We did luck out with the weather, because it was warm (but not hot) and overcast (but not raining).
The photo quality is not the best, because we were using our phones, but here are some of the birds we saw:
My absolute favorite was a Burrowing owl, though we were unable to snap a photo because we were driving around a round-about and had to keep moving. My next favorite is this scary guy – a giant pigeon the size of a raven. As one of our group members said: This is South America where everything is bigger!
Pizacuro Pigeon
I have to boast that I was able to hold a very, very short conversation in Spanish (dredged up from the nether regions of my brain) with our bus driver. Of course, I was asking about where our bathroom might be and how soon – he understood what I said, and even more importantly, I understood him back!
We were back in the city by about 12:30 p.m. and we were off on our afternoon’s adventure.
Many weeks ago I received a ping through Ancestry.com from a DNA match. I knew who they were as soon as I saw the last name: a cousin from a branch of my father’s family that we had lost contact will over 40 years ago.
My father’s mother came to the US from what was “the Ukraine” around 1913. Her brother left the Ukraine in the 1920’s. By then the US has started instituting stricter immigration laws; he did not make it into the US, so he went to Argentina (a common trajectory), eventually making his way to Montevideo, Uruguay. The two branches kept in touch – I have some of the correspondence my parents saved, including an invitation to a bar mitzvah. The last letter I have from the Uruguayan cousins is from 1983.
It was exciting to reconnect with the next generation of cousins! It was a wild shot asking to meet one of them in person on The One Day we would be in Montevideo, but there was nothing to lose. And behold! One of them did. Since this cousin is not on social media, I won’t be revealing their name to protect their privacy, but I was super excited to hear that they would be willing to meet us!
We had set up everything on Sunday, December 21, but, of course, that did not happen because of the change in arrival date. But, they were willing to take their lunch time with us! They gave us a specific time and place to meet in downtown Montevideo.
Our excursions desk had given us expectations that there would be a big cruise terminal with shops and restaurants right outside the ship, with a taxi stand. When we came back from our bird watching trip, we saw no such thing. Our tour guide told us to follow the “green line” out of the port area and into the city. Still no port terminal building.
We walked into what turned out to be an government office building. The front desk people gave us instructions to an ATM (cajera automatica) – in Spanish – which clicked in my mind once we were back outside and looking across the street. It was not an ATM, but a money exchange kiosk. The people inside did not understand what we needed – we wanted to exchange some US dollars for Uruguayan pesos, but not a lot. Just enough for a couple of cab rides.
We finally gave up on that and found a cabbie who would take credit cards. I showed him the spot on google maps, but he seemed to not understand or know what I was talking about (even though my cousin had given me all the commonly used names for the square). Plus I couldn’t figure out what he was asking me, until he put it into Google translate – he was asking if this was the only place we wanted to go.
And then it occurred to me he wanted to give us a “tour” of Montevideo – for an undetermined fee. Yeah, no. The last time I fell for that I was 19 years old, visiting Mexico City for the first time. Finally I was able to put the sentence together: “I’m going to meet my cousin at this <place>”. That ended the conversation.
After all this fuss and bother, it turned out to be a 5 minute drive. And there they were, wearing the red shirt as they had told me earlier in the day. I took one look at their face and I saw my father’s features. The Adler genes run strong on that side of the family!
We had lunch and chatted for about 45 minutes, reviewing what we knew about our grandparents – unfortunately, not much. In particular, neither of us knew for sure why our grandparents left Europe. Our assumption: pogroms were increasing in frequency, and it just wasn’t safe anymore.
Apparently, their children are trying to obtain EU citizenship based on previous generations’ citizenship. They were targeting Poland, because 100 years ago “the Ukraine” was a part of Poland. Poland used to accept evidence of grandparents’ citizenship, but now was requiring proof of great-grandparents’ citizenship, which was why my cousin was asking me what I knew about her grandfather. Unfortunately, I knew nothing that could help them.
Eventually my cousin needed to get back to work. We were so ecstatic to reconnect! Hopefully we will be able to maintain the connection going forward.
Andy and I wandered around for a bit afterwards. There were vendors in the square and on the street, but we didn’t have any cash to buy anything.
Gateway of the Citadel (Puerta de la Ciudadela) on the Peatonal Sarandí pedestrian walkway in Montevideo, with the historic Palacio Salvo visible in the background
We walked back to the spot where we had met my cousin to hail a cab back to the port – and we lucked out! A cab pulled up to let out passengers, and we grabbed it. I told the driver: “Puerto Crucero de Montevideo” and he knew exactly where that was. Five minutes later, we were back at the ship.
A highly successful day!
Right before dinner, the captain came on the loudspeaker to announce the next round of Itinerary Shuffle. Apparently, Port Stanley didn’t have any room for our ship on December 25 (or maybe short staffed because of the holiday?), so we had a new shuffle: we lost Port Stanley as a port and we were now heading straight to Ushuaia.
But wait! There was yet another round of Itinerary shuffle: Port Stanley is back (yay!) somewhere near the end of the cruise, but we’ve lost Puntas Arenas (boo!). Andy had a penguin expedition booked for Puntas Arenas, but not anymore! And we regained Cape Horn, but sailing the Magellan Straits is now gone. This is dizzying.
AND – we now have 3 contiguous days at sea, instead of two.
The itinerary is now completely unrecognizable. We were provided a written update, which helps. We will be refunded the cost of the Puntas Arenas excursions – first as onboard credit, and then a refund of whatever we don’t spend onboard.
Quick Summary of December 18, 19, 20, and 21 Because, Quite Frankly, It’s All Been One Very, Very, Very Long Day.
So far the theme of our current adventure is: DELAY. Fortunately, nothing really terrible, but sufficient to be annoying every step of the way.
December 18
We drove from Maryland to JFK in New York to take the non-stop from JFK to Buenos Aires. We do this quite frequently: avoiding connections that increase the chance of losing luggage and just to eliminate complications is a top priority.
But the drive took much longer than it should have – 7+ hours for a 4 hour drive. Endless traffic in Maryland due to construction, Traffic in Delaware for {no idea} reasons, and then BAM! right into NYC rush hour traffic.
Once at the airport, boarding went smoothly enough, but then we sat on the ground for an extra 90 minutes while the wings were de-iced.
December 19
Once we arrived in Buenos Aires airspace, the pilot told us one run way was closed for {no idea} reasons. We landed an hour after the already updated arrival time.
Luckily, the taxi we had arranged through our hotel waited for us. Another hour to the hotel, and finally we were there.
We were staying only 1 night. Which was good, because the view from our room left much to be desired.
We did begin our quest to sample all the recommended ice cream chains in Buenos Aires.
After breakfast on December 20, the front desk called us a cab to take us to the port. We were early for our 11:00 time slot, so we just sat in the waiting room.
Boarding the ship was a little weird – after all the security protocols, we boarded a bus (a first) that took us to the ship. And then the skies opened, and it poured and poured and poured. We wondered why the ship didn’t anticipate the rain and put up tents. We certainly hadn’t anticipated it.
By the time we were finally on board, we were soaked. And our bags hadn’t arrived yet, so we couldn’t change. So we went to lunch.
After lunch we went to our muster station for the required safety training. We felt the ship moving (??). It’s not supposed to be moving. We haven’t left the dock? The crew member who reviewed the security training with us said that the rain storm had turned into a wind storm, and the ship was in danger of bashing into the dock (!), so the captain was moving away from the dock. Disconcerting, much?
After the security briefing, I wanted to talk to the excursions people to get more detailed info – sometimes the excursions are labeled “moderate” for not much reason at all.
Chatting away with the excursions guy (Luis), we noticed a ship was coming super close to ours…and BAM, it hit us, smashing a couple of the windows right in front of us. Luckily they didn’t shatter and spray glass (I’m sure that’s a planned safety feature.
After that excitement (followed by assorted people to look at the broken windows), we were able to determine that I will be able to do all of the excursions we purchased.
Before we left home, I reached out to a distant cousin who had connected to me through DNA results. We are hoping to actually see each other in Montevideo on Sunday, even if it’s just for a half hour.
5:00 p.m. comes and goes and it’s obvious we’re not leaving on time. We go to the ship’s Hanukkah celebration with Rabbi Avrom. We missed the first minute when he introduced himself, so I don’t know where he’s coming from. There’s about 40 people in the room from all over the world – England, France, Canada, US (including a family who live not far from us in DC), and Melbourne, Australia.
Particularly touching: there were a few people who were not Jewish, but came to support us as allies in the aftermath of the hideous terrorist attack in Bondi beach, Sydney. We were happy to have them!
We said blessings over electric candles, followed by jelly doughnuts and latkes. Celebrity knows how to do Hanukkah the right way!
During the evening there were several updates that didn’t say much: (1) after the wind storm, there’s now issues with refueling (2) now the ship needs final inspections (3) and finally, we’re not sailing until 10:00 a.m. on December 21 to make sure all the final safety inspections are completed.
So no meet up with my cousin, at least not on December 21.
I managed to stay awake through the evening performance of tango dancing.
When we came back to our room, we discovered our next door neighbors were having a marvelous party! I’m guessing they may not realize that the stateroom walls are paper thin and we can hear everything as if we are in the room with them.
The party died down at around midnight, which is fine, since we were no longer getting up early the next day.
But they woke me up at 4:00 a.m., which is uh-uh, nope, nope, nope. I called guest services, who came up and heard the noise from outside the door. Two minutes later, the noise stopped and both of us were out like a light.
December 21
The ship started moving a little after 10:00 a.m. We had one more update from the captain and the program director, Manuel. We’ll be arriving in Montevideo at about 10:00 p.m. tonight. There was a very cryptic mention of “in time to enjoy Montevideo night life”.
Today is a beautiful day for a sea day! Maybe we’ll be able to sit outside for a bit.
Still no info on how long we’ll be docked in Montevideo. I’m sure the excursions staff is scrambling a mile a minute to come up with something. I have full confidence They will figure something out. I’m hoping against hope to be able to meet up with my cousin!
My Alaska blog suddenly cut off, because apparently I had signed up for the free version of WordPress back in 2019 when the amount of free storage was 3 GB, and I had reached that limit. To increase the storage required starting a subscription, which I did not want to do on the ship’s wifi. At that time (back in August 2025), I figured our next trip wouldn’t be until April 2026, so why bother paying for a subscription I wasn’t going to use for 9 months?
And then we decided 9 months to our next adventure was was completely unacceptable!
We decided to book the cruise we’d been talking about for years, but never got around to doing it – the east coast of South America down to Patagonia!
Our Itinerary
Round trip from Buenos Aires, which made the airfare easier to book. Of course, this means it will be the South American summer – which is great! It’s been so cold here in Maryland for the entire month of December, that I’m looking forward to a snippet of summer.
Plus here in Maryland daylight hours are still shrinking. In South America, we’ll be back in full summer daylight, and a midnight sun in Patagonia.
We’ll be arriving on December 19, a day before we’re scheduled to board our ship, because we don’t trust the airlines at all. After we disembark the ship on January 3, we’ll be in Buenos Aires for a few more days before returning home on January 8.
Note: For about half of the trip it will be hot, and the other half it will be cold. Long range weather forecasts for Ushuaia shows highs in the 30s and rain. That’s what I bought a new rain jacket and rain pants for.
