We saw Magellianic penguins in Puerto Madryn Argentina then we saw hundreds up close in Bertha’s Beach in the Falkland Islands …. penguins everywhere!!!

City tour and Tango dance demonstration. Country population is 10 and 1/2 million. 1 and 1/2 million live in Montevideo. No natural resources in the country. Number 1 economic factor is cattle. They export beef and each cow has a chip implanted so meat can be traced if there’s a problem with it. They also export sturgeon caviar. Currently they have 9% unemployment and 9% inflation…. tough economic times.

Houses and cars are sold in US dollars and most people get a 25 year mortgage. Property in Montevideo is expensive…. approx $3000US dollars per square meter(about $333 per square foot), that equals approximately 333,000 dollars for a 1000 square foot home!

Now to the fun stuff! There’s an argument as to the origination of the Tango! People in Uruguay contend it started in Uruguay, the rest of the world thinks it started in Argentina. And yes, “It Takes Two to Tango”.

I caused a self inflicted problem…. The short version: we got to the ship and I didn’t have my passport!! I remembered that I set it on my seat on the airplane when we boarded in Calafate. A Viking rep went with us back to the airport in hopes of finding my passport!! Argh!! Fat chance, is what I thought. We went to the airline ticket counter and their cleaners did not find it. Airline agent recommended we go to the police office. A 10 minute walk and police did not find it, but….. They suggested we check at the police office near the ticket counter….. They had it !!! That saved an all day visit to the American Embassy to get a temporary passport.

The cab driver waited at the airport and when we got back to the ship the fare was only $12…. I gave him a nice tip!

Most of the day was spent looking at the magnificent Perito Moreno Glacier. It’s in Los Glaciares National Park. This park is the 3rd oldest national park in the Americas, Yellowstone is the oldest and Banff in Canada is the second oldest. In 1946 this park had 15 visitors, last year it had over one million. The 97 square mile ice formation is one of the largest in the world and is the only advancing glacier in the world. We saw it from afar, from above, down close to the water level and from a boat! We heard it crack several times, sounded like a large gun shot! Also saw it calve a few times.

First stop Santiago

The Uber driver was on time and then it began to go wrong! The keyboard on the garage door didn’t work!! It turned out to be a dead battery. I had to scramble around to find a screwdriver and new battery. All’s well that ends well. we got to the airport with time to spare and toasted at the Atwater Brewery. Then it was 15 hours of flying….. first to Dallas then a plane change to Santiago(a red eye arriving at 9am). This is a trip organized by Viking and the Viking rep was there waiting for us. We had 3 hours at the hotel then a 3 hour tour of Santiago.

Our trip finished in Athens back in October. I have to give closure to this trip as we are about to embark on another trip next week. Seeing Olympia and the site of the first Olympics was fascinating. The Parthenon in Athens was also fantastic. Patty is pointing to the spot where the summer Olympic torch is lit every year and then it starts its journey to the current Olympic Games site.This arch is where the spectators (men only back in the day)and athletics walked thru to compete on the track

It’s 193 feet long and 35 feet wide and they pack lots of nice features in a small package! We could get into smaller harbors that big cruise ships could not. Logistics of ports of call were very simple. Very often we just grabbed our ships ID card and walked into town. With a crew of 21 and a passenger capacity of 50 we got to know many of the crew. Our waiters, Moos and Sanjay knew our names, what we drank, and our food preferences by the 3rd day of our 11 day cruise. The cabins were comfortable and kept very clean. Following are some pictures of life on board the ship.

We left the national park and headed to Split, Croatia. High winds closed the freeway and we took a longer route through the mountains using secondary roads. This allowed us to see the aftermath that still exists from the Serbian/.Croatian war of the early 1990s. Small towns and one larger city still show lots of damaged and destroyed homes and businesses. Unemployment is high in this region and more than half of the people did not return after the war. It is a country that is slowly recovering.

Rebuilding of the country includes wind farms and road work.

After a winding mountain road drive we were glad to arrive at our ship, The Athena. She has a capacity of 50 passengers and a crew of 21 plus our two trip leaders.

Our first stop was Plitvice Lakes National Park. A very large(114square mile) park. Beautiful hiking trails…..16 blue turquoise lakes connected by streams and waterfalls. We hiked for 2 hours. Some of us(Rod) hiked a few hundred feet down to the bottom of some falls and back up. Patty was with the group that looked at the lakes and falls from the upper vantage point.