Capetown, South Africa

Hi from Africa,
Today we are in Capetown and what a beautiful city.  Surrounded by hills and mountain and located on the Atlantic with lovely sandy beaches.  The Cape of Good Horn is here where ships turn to make the trip around Africa.  What we have seen so far has been a very clean city, modern with many parks and green areas.  Most of the people live in single family houses, so there are very few apartment buildings.  Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent most of his adult life in prison is also located here a few kilometers off the coast.  It is the 20th Anniversary of his release from prison, so there have been many celebrations.  The African National Congress (ANC) is in power in this country, which is Nelson Mandela's party.  While things are not perfect they are much better without apartheid.  We get off the ship tomorrow and fly to Johannesburg for our safari.  Don't know exactly what to expect but hopefully some good pictures.  More later from the bush, if we have internet access there.  We'll be home on Friday.  It has been a great get away and experience but home sounds pretty good about nw.
Love, Gwen

Pictures from Buenos Aires

Tango dancers in Buenos Aires.  They are dancing in the streets and in front of outdoor cafes.  They are so graceful and proud of this dance.

Hello,  We are still sailing from South America to Namibia, South Africa.  We will arrive there on Thursday.   Having never been to Africa, I am looking forward to it very much.

This picture startled me when I looked at it,  can you see the ghost by the tree.  I have been having fun with the staff showing them this picture.  They are from Indonesia and many of them believe in ghosts, and have their own ghost stories to tell.

More later from Africa.
Love to all, Gwn

From the middle of the Atlantic Ocean

Hello everyone from the middle of the South Atlantic where we are cruising from South America to South Africa.  It is day 3 of 8 days to complete this crossing.  We have a lot of things to keep us busy, lectures, music, swimming pools, hot tubs, books, food and the piano bar.  We had a lovely three days in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay.  Buenos Aires is a beautiful city, sort of a combination of Paris and New York.  There are many parks and squares including one large park, like Central Park in New York.  The streets are very wide.  One is twelve lanes wide and there is a walking street that is fun to stroll on, with many shops, restaurants and tango dancers.  We visited the cemetery where Evita Peron's tomb is.  In Mondevideo we had lunch with some of Dick's friends.  He spent a lot of time in Uruguay back in the 80's and 90's.  These are two beautiful cities and are worth a trip just by themselves.  They are divided by the Rio de la Plata (silver river) and are close together.  It is the middle of summer here and very warm, even in the middle of the ocean.  I'll send some pictures later.

photos from Antarctica

 Hi again,
Here are a few pictures from the many that I took while in Antarctica.  This is one of the famous "blue ice". 

I thought this one looked like the Metrodome, but it is just an iceberg.

This is a typical rock and ice covered mountain, most of the scenery is breath taking.

 I thought this one is interesting because of the sun and snow in the area.

This is still my best picture of penguins, I cropped it from when I sent it before.

More later,
Gwen

back from a South Pole Expedition

Hi again,
We have spent about five days in the Antarctic region, cruising, looking at whales and penguins and enjoying the solitary beauty of the last place on Earth not interrupted by man, or at least very minimally.
We have been out of reach of both TV and the internet while in that region.  We had various kinds of weather in the Antarctic, one day was cloudless, very sunny and calm, the mountains, land glaciers, floating icebergs and blue sea were spectacular.  We had a couple of cloudy days and one with heavy fog.  We stopped and picked up some young people from the Palmer Research Station, which is a US operation.  The Palmer staff made a presentation about their work and research in the antiarctic.  The lead research person was a young man from Minnesota.  While they were aboard our ship (The Amsterdam) they had haircuts, ate sushi and made use of all of the comforts that they don't have at their station.  We also had a very knowledgeable polar staff on board, an Ice Pilot, to guide us through the ice, a geologist who knew all about the continent and islands and a biologist who knew about animals and birds.  We saw several penguin rookeries (Gentoo and Chin Strap) in the wild.  It is the time of year that they are raising their chicks, so it was fun to see the parents and their babies.  We also saw lots of petrels (birds) who love to follow the ship.  We were supposed to go to the Falkland Islands today and stop at Port Stanley, but the weather and winds were not favorable (in fact dangerous) so we had to bypass those islands.  I took a lot of pictures in Antarctica so I will try to sort out a few good ones and send them along with my next blog.  Love to all,  Gwen

Cape Horn

Hi again from near Antarctica.  After spending three days at the very Southern tip of South America we have passed Cape Horn and are on our way to a peninsula in Antarctica.  When we were in Punta Arenas (sand point) we took a trip to a penguin rookery in the wild.  We hiked in about a mile and saw the Magellan penguins on the beach, pictured below.  We also saw the ones marching from their nests to the beach, they were very close and it was great fun to see them.  We spend a day in Ushuaia, Argentina which is the Southernmost city in the world.  While there we took a narrow gauge train ride through Terra del Fuego national park.  Terra del Fuego (land of fire) is an island owned half by Chili and half by Argentina.  It is a lovely city carved out of snow capped mountains with very colorful buildings.  The next day we got up very early to view the passage around Cape Horn with its many glaciers like the one pictured.  We will now spend three days in Antarctica.  The ship has Antarctic experts on board that give lectures.  All of them with many years of experience.  One is an ice pilot, who plots our course through and around the islands, one is a marine biologist and the other is a geologist.  The latter two have connections to the University of Minnesota, having studied there or worked there.  We are learning a lot about this remote area of the Earth and will appreciate it more after this cruise.  We hope to see more marine life, whales, seals, penguins and many large birds like Petrel.  I'll try to get some good pictures.  Love from the sea,
Gwen

Magellan penguins, it was nice of them to pose for us as they marched to the beach.

Bottom of the Earth

Hi again from the bottom of the Earth. Today we are sailing through the Chilean fjords without going out to the big sea. The seas are much calmer and the view is spectacular. There are large cliffs of granite and snow capped mountains as well as glaciers. Some of the people on this cruise are going to fly to Antarctica tomorrow. It costs $3500 a piece and they have to have their clothing and shoes disinfected. They are very strict about what you can bring with you or carry out. Basically, nothing because they are trying to keep it pristine. Tomorrow we are going on an excursion into a penguin reserve. We will be hiking into a park to see Magellan penguins in the wild. I'll try to get some good pictures.
Some information about the people on this cruise. There are 1035 passengers, 800 of which are going all the way around the world, starting in Florida and ending up in Seattle, WA at the end of April. We are going to get off in South Africa. This is a very geriatric group. Who else could take this much time off and spend this much money ? There is one woman who lives on the ship and has been on it for ten years. They call her Miss Dolly, and she is probably living out the premise that it is cheaper than a nursing home. The single gentlemen vie for a chance to sit next to her at meals or in entertainment venues. I think she holds court in her suite as well. We haven't been invited. The crew are young of course and mostly from Indonesia. They give excellent service and are fun to talk to about their native country. Until next time,
Love, Gwen