As
promised earlier in my 2018 World Cruise blog, we are off to
Antarctica on-board Azamara Pursuit (yes, trying out the
“opposition”). Of interest to cruise fanatics, - the Pursuit,
until March 2018, was P&O Adonia and in an earlier life was the
Royal Princess (2007-11).
She
was the last of the Renaissance ships – R8, built in 2001. Although
the passenger capacity has now increased a bit to 700, we cruised on
one of her sister ships, Ocean Princess (since sold to Oceania)
between Rome & Sydney in 2013, so we know (& like) the
smaller size ship.
Our
cruise leaves/returns to Buenos Aires and as much of the time we will
be at sea in far-flung geographical locations, I don't know how
reliable the internet connection will be, so I will give a bit of an
overview now and hopefully get updates away as/after we travel.
5
January - fly to Buenos Aires in the evening, arriving mid afternoon
the same day.
6
January - board Azamara Pursuit (balcony cabin, deck 7, starboard
for a change)
7
January - Montevideo, Uruguay (just 100kms across the Rio de La Plata
aka River Plate)
8
- 10 January - at sea
11
January - Ushuaia (bottom of South America) 1/2 day only
12
January - Drake's Passage
13
- 15 January - scenic cruising around the Antarctic Peninsula
16
January - cruise past Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands
17
January – at sea
18
January - Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
19
January - at sea
20
January - Puerto Madryn, Argentina
21
- 22 January - at sea
23
January - Buenos Aires (disembark)
We have a few days to explore the area and decided that we we'd come this far, we'd venture up to the Iguazu Falls and later try to get in a ranch visit and some Tango! So here is the plan:
24
January - fly to Iguazu and explore the Brazilian side
25
January - Iguazu Falls, Argentina side and fly back to Buenos Aires
26
- 27 January - Buenos Aires sightseeing
28
January - Buenos Aires sightseeing & fly out at midnight
30
January - arrive home early morning (remembering that we've lost the
29th!)
Now
our visit to Antarctica is a “cruise by” as opposed to a
“landing”. There are pros and cons for both, but we do not feel
the necessity of getting up close and personal with the wildlife (we
plan to do that in the Falklands).
December
& January are the most popular times to visit, with the tourist season from
late November to early March. As we are pretty well in the middle of
the season, with loooong daylight hours & “warmer” weather,
we are starting to cross our fingers for smooth seas and fine
weather.
The latest predictions I can see for the Antarctic
Peninsula is a high of 0 degrees and a low of -3 degrees, with
*snow*.
