Patagonian Cruise Part 1

After spending some time in Santiago, we continued south, flying into Punta Arenas, where our cruise departed from. We arrived in the middle of a blizzard! It was the Canadoca's first experience with snow and we were eager to bundle her up and head out for dinner. However, the lobby bar at our hotel was most cozy, and they had Canada Dry ginger ale! (The things expats get excited about, right?)

 

So we stuck around. The town itself was cute and reminded me of mountain towns back home. We stayed at the Cabo de Hornos Hotel and were very pleased with it.

After much deliberation when planning our trip, we decided to go with the Cruceros Australis cruiseline. Are we ever glad we did, it was truly the trip of a lifetime.

Patagonia is known as difficult to access. Add a baby and all of her gear and, well, it gets a bit harder. When we heard about the Cruceros Cruise, although we've never really been tempted to do a cruise before, it sounded like the perfect way to experience Patagonia.

Without sounding too much like a brochure for the cruise line, here is what we liked about it:

• There were only 90 people on board (which was lucky for us as max. capacity is 150 or so).
• Every day we disembarked on zodiaks to go trek or hike. VERY COOL.
• The staff was awesome, very knowledgable and the trip educational. There were always opportunities to learn more about the places, plants, animals and glaciers we visited.  They also made us feel very safe on the excursions, etc. 
• It wasn't a "24 hour buffet" kind of cruise. Mealtimes were scheduled, and the food was very good.
• We were assigned a table at the beginning of our voyage, so we ate every meal for 4 days with the same people. By the end of it we felt like family! We really lucked out with our table and enjoyed our conversations a lot, obviously that is a point that could really make or break one's holiday. 
• We saw PENGUINS! PENGUINS, people!
• We didn't have to move our luggage for four days, but in those four days we saw sooo much! It was also convenient with a baby to always be close to the room, to feed, nap, or change her comfortably. 
• 18 countries were represented amongst the 90 on board.
• Canadoca was a hit - I think everyone on board knew her name (and we were known as her mom and dad... it's starting already!) and people took turns holding her, she was passed around quite a bit! 

On the first day of the cruise, we went on a zodiak excursion to Ainsworth Bay, home of the Marinelli Glacier. We had the opportunity to observe some elephant seals upon reaching shore:

 

One of many types of massive lichen growing on the tundra

 

This is how the Canadoca rolled that day - attached to Daddy's life jacket!

 

Mucky, mucky snow!

 

The lichen was just amazing.

 

Beautiful trees.

 

The glacier!

The zodiak boats at night, covered in snow.

 

Our little home for 4 days.

Comments

[Corinne]

WOW!! You go on such cool trips!! It looks amazing!