The volcano Hualālai is directly to the east of Kona and as the sun rises over it, it illuminates the clouds over the ocean to our west and reflects on the sea this golden color. The birds wake us up as the sun rises. Most days we don’t miss we sunrise or Sunset!

There are clouds in the horizon every night so far, so no spectacular green flashes, but still lovely evenings.

We are off again! Can you guess where we will be tonight? Here is a hint

And good afternoon from Maui, a short stopover for lunch

And we are home at the Royal Sea Cliff on Kona!

Our unit right now has this view!

We seldom post while we are here in Kona, because we aren’t doing the tourist things…. we’ve done them before. And this stay we have no company joining us, unfortunately! So pictures will probably be only when we get chances to view whales or dolphins. Enjoy the view with us!

You may get a sunset or 2 from here, but there is rain in the forecast for a few days and in the evenings, clouds obscured the view of the sun setting.

We have had a few days to sort and review images and here are a few we consider the best reminders of this great experience!

I posted a gallery of them at our Smugmug account.

Thanks for following us! Stay tuned for the next adventure

What is so incredible about Antarctica is you can go on the same or sister ships 10 times and see totally different bays or islands!  You won’t have the same trip twice!  Weather is KING and FLEXIBILITY is required!  We are so thankful we got to go experience it and grateful to the crew and expedition teams for all we did and saw!  And we thank God for returning safely after seeing His amazing creation! 

We are home now.   Feel free to comment with any  questions about our trip, or the  Extensions in Iguazu and Patagonia.
We had a wonderful trip!  
Polaris, Dec.28

We did come home to the Atmospheric River in So Cal!   Pouring all night and day!  Rain flooded patio!  but all is well.

Our last day of sightseeing…. Viking reserved the Ritz Carlton for us!

We walked Around our hotel in the new section of Santiago.

Great lunch of Empanadas

City tour by bus

Centennial Park with black neck swans and cignets

Lunch and relaxing before our flight home

We left the Torres Del Paine National Park for a bus trip down to Punta Arena for our flight to Santiago for one last night and afternoon city tour sightseeing.

On the way we saw a couple Gauchos, Chileans cowboys, herding cattle. Going into Chile we saw them herding sheep, from a distance. Today one Gaucho was friendly, waved to us, as our guide Georgina explained his equipment and clothing

Again, we have a travel day, but a most interesting one! The scenery was evolving from the Patagonian step, (similar to our US Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah) semi-arid area around Argentina Lake and El Calafate to the Andes, glaciers, and forests of Torres del Paine National Park. The name, pronounced “Pie nay” , means Towers of Blue in the tongue of the native people, the mountains that look blue.

I was delighted to see all the animals

But our favorite by far! We were so fortunate to catch sight of 2 young pumas, sunning themselves, then mother called them to come along on a walk! We were absolutely thrilled!

We had a very full day of sightseeing in this beautiful national park, with views of the mountains And Waterfalls

We spent a little time in the evening Sterling the El Calafate city main street

We shopped a little, looking at the Mate! This is a typical South American special herb, made into a tea like drink in a cup carved of pumpkin or gourd, called a mate as well.

The cup is packed with the herb on a bit of an angle. In the low part is poured just a little bit water at 80°C. Not boiling! Their tea Kettles actually have a mate setting! Then a special straw with a strainer on the bottoms

The Mate is an herb you can buy by the kilo, and you carry it on a pouch

The hot water is kept in a thermos and carried in the large carrying case

It’s a very social thing. Everyone shares the Mate! 1 person is the “filler” who makes the Mate and passes it to 1 person at a time, who sips it all, then passes it back to be refilled for the next person. Even during COVID, mate was shared!

Today we visit in the Glaciers National Park in the state of Santa Cruz Argentina. The most prominent glacier of the 16,000 glaciers in Argentina is Perito Moreno Glacier.

It is the most accessible and most unique, as it flows across a lake and into a landmass at the rate of 2 meters / day and it is the only glacier in the world known to do this. Despite calving and washing away, it periodically piles up, forming a dam on part of the Lake to the right on this aerial photo in the poster. When the water is at least 8 meters higher on that side of the lake, the weight of the water forms a small stream at the base of this glacier dam, which widens into a Tunnel, then a bridge, until it finally collapses. This rupture happens 2,3,8, years apart, no one knows and it is the only glacier in the world known to do this

We were able to hear many cracks and see a few calvings in the very active center part of the glacier

It was a very unique experience!