Arica, Chile

Good news, the engines are broken! I know I know, you’re thinking what’s so good about broken engines? The ship is still in working order, but we have to go into dry dock for repairs. We will be in dry dock for 5 days in San Francisco! And what work will I have to do while we are there? None, ha! Well, I’m sure I’ll do a little cleaning and organizing in the broadcast room, but for me it’s a paid vacation. To top it off, we aren’t taking on any guests before we sail to Hawaii. We will pick them up when we reach the islands. So the crew will have 4 days at sea with no guests. We will have the ship all to ourselves. There are going to be parties every night. The only down side is that we’ve cut one of our Hawaii cruises. So we’ll only have one week in Hawaii instead of two. But hey, it’s like a 9-day vacation for me. Yay!

So, now back to my tour of South America. I’m almost done. I’ve got Peru to go and that’s pretty much it for South America. Our last stop in Chile was in a town called Arica. It’s the armpit of South America, and I don’t mean that the town was bad. It was nice and quaint. I mean if you look at a map of South America and look on the Western side to where the land dips inward and then goes strait down, right at that joint is Arica. I went on an ancient ruins tour where we saw old Incan ruins and stopped in a small farming town where I took the pictures of the little girl and her lama and the two characters in a local bar. Then we went to the top of some mountains where a medicine woman did a blessing for the fertility of the earth and some dancers did a traditional Chilean dance, that’s what the feet in the sand are. Arica has a huge desert with a river that everyone lives and farms by. It was an interesting place. Next stop Peru.

Katie

Pisco Sours

In the Southern part of Chile I went to an estancia where they raise sheep. They did a shearing demonstration and a herding demonstration where a cowboy/shepard was on horseback directed his dogs who moved the sheep around. I’ve never seen sheep herded that way before...come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever seen sheep herded. There were lots of cute dogs on the ranch and we had another spectacular meal.

When we arrived, we were welcomed into an old farmhouse full of antiques and were served Pisco Sours. Now a Pisco Sour is a very small innocent looking Chilean drink, but man does it pack a punch. It tastes good, like a hard lemonade and I had two, because I thought they were serving different drinks, but they were the same drink just in different glasses. Right after that we had lunch and I had a glass of red wine with my lamb. I was talking and laughing and having a great time. Then I stood up. It wasn’t until that very moment that I realized I was drunk. Sandy the sports coordinator happened to be along with me on this one and now every time I pass him in the hall he always says something like, ‘hey, Katie, you’re looking a little shaky there. Have you been sampling the Pisco Sours again?’ or ‘Katie, going to the crew bar tonight? They’re serving your favorite, Pisco Sours.’ I’ll never live it down.

Katie

New Manager On Board

My old manager, Sean, has already left the ship and has been replaced by a new manager, Resty. And when I say new, I mean brand new. He’s worked longer than I have, but only as an assistant. This is his first time as a manager. And he got no handover. Usually they send crew a few days before the person they are replacing leaves, that way they have some time to go over things together. Resty didn’t get that and we were expecting an experienced manager to come on, but the one we were expecting left Celebrity and went to work for another company.

So I got a brief handover from Sean before he left and now I’m training Resty. It’s very hard on us both. Resty has company training most of the day and I am trying to do the manager’s job and my job at the same time while teaching Resty and slowly letting him take over. Resty is great though, he works very hard and he’s catching on all right. I’m sure once we get through this cruise it will get better, but right now, I’m beat.

There will be more of my South American adventures coming soon. Right now we’re heading to Aruba. I’ve left you a little behind with the pictures. I’ve already become a shellback. That means I’ve crossed the equator. Before you cross the equator, you’re a pollywog. And they have a big ceremony where a person dresses like King Neptune and everyone gets really silly and they cover the pollywogs in batter and flower and through pies in their face before tossing them in the pool. I was shooting the event so I didn’t have to go through it, but someone still managed to get pie in my face.

Katie

Ushuaia, Argentina

Most of these ports I have been in twice. Once on the way up to Brazil and again on the way back around Cape Horn, through the Straits of Magellan and back toward the Panama Canal to end up in Ft. Lauderdale at the end of this cruise. So I’ve been to Ushuaia, Argentina twice. I’m going to tell you about the first time now and the next Chronicle will be about my second time to Ushuaia.

On this trip, I went hiking to the bottom of a Glacier with Sandy, the Sports Coordinator, Phil a Tasmanian sax player, and Nate an AV (audio visual) guy. We took a lift up to the bottom of this mountain and hiked the rest of the way to the bottom of a glacier that was there. It was about a two-hour hike and man was it steep. That hike has inspired me to work out on a regular basis. Before we left, we stopped off at a little restaurant/cabin and had soup and coffee and red wine. It all tasted wonderful. And the woman who brought us our food was great. She let the boys try three different beers and warned them that Argentinean beers weren’t so good, but the wine was excellent. We finally ended up splitting a bottle of wine.

Katie

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires (remember Eye-res, not Air-res) is probably going to be my favorite port in South America. Rio is second favorite, it might have been first if not for the Carnival and my fear of being mugged, even though nothing bad happened and I never really felt in danger, I had so many warning going in and there were so many slums that all the poor people had to live in, it just made it a little less romantic for me.

I was more comfortable in Buenos Aires and I loved England when I went and Buenos Aires has a strong English influence. When I was there I saw a Tango Show. The Tango was born in Argentina and let me tell you, you have never seen it danced until you’ve seen Argentineans dance the Tango. Wow. I couldn’t even really capture most of the amazing stuff they were doing, but you can get an idea from the pictures. Next will be the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.

Katie

Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo, Uruguay is a nice town. I already sent pictures taken by my friend Adrianna from the Estancia that we went to in Uruguay near Montevideo, but we were there twice. I’ve attached some of my pictures from the Estancia and also pictures that I took when I did a tour of the town. I got to see the beaches, which was actually the shore of a river, so I guess it wasn’t technically a beach, but the river was so wide you couldn’t see the other side and it just looked like a beach with brown muddy water. I saw a statue of Artigas in the old part of town and the large government building where the Senate and the House of Representatives reside. Outside there were two guards posted in traditional uniforms you can see in the picture below. Next I will take you to Buenos Aires and show you what a real tango looks like.

Katie

Buzios, Brazil

Before leaving Brazil the ship made a stop in a small port town called Buzios...or something like that. It was a cute little port town. There aren’t too many places where cruise ships dock that aren’t developed and touristy, but this town was nothing of the sort. Everyone was very friendly. I had sangrias at a nice local restaurant and walked along the beach and through the town. I took a picture of a church and the ship from one of the beaches. We weren’t docked, the water was too shallow, so we had to tender. Tendering is when they take some of the lifeboats back and forth from the ship to the dock to transport passengers and crew. It’s such a pain and sometimes it’s a really long bumpy ride. In the Falklins the tender ride was twenty minutes, but I’m getting a head of myself.

We made another stop in another Brazilian port where I went to the beach and took a self-portrait on the beach by some large round boulders that looked really cool. And that’s all for Brazil. Next will be Uruguay.

Katie