Everyone who wants to take a kayak trip must do the year of how to move from the zodiac to the kayak
Our kayak test!
Our first Penguins
We are finally on the way. Heading down the Beagle Channel. As we passed these islands. we saw our first penguins. Magellanic penguins
Dining on Polaris
There are many venues for food, all excellent!
Most often we grab breakfast and lunch, sometimes dinner here in the World Cafe
The Grill has huge steaks, including tomahawk. Swordfish lobster, etc!
Opposite the Grill is the Sushi bar
The restaurant is the main venue for dinner, with an area for a private party
Manfredi’s is the Italian restaurant. Dinner last night
Around Viking Polaris
Just afew of the corners, shelters. Lounges and spaces on the new Vikings Polaris
There are many lovely spots and I will add pictures as we discover them. First is the Explorers Lounge, 2 decks at the bow
This is the area called expedition central
The HIDE , a hidden spot at deck 1 in the bow. We will post pictures of the view when we hit the Drake a well.
The lab overlooks the hanger
Ushuaia excursions
Viking has organized bus tours for us as we wait “patiently ” for good weather too cross the Drake
Our first excursion, Thursday, Dec. 29. was to cross the mountains at Garibaldi pass viewing Lago Escondido.
Then we drove on to Lago Fagnano.
Lunch of roast lamb at a place with great gaucho entertainment
There is also a camp for about 180 sled dogs
Returning, the weather lifted a little for better view
Ushuaia
After several hours delay due to baggage handler issues, we made it to Ushuaia and onto the Viking Polaris
Unfortunately , already we know we won’t be leaving for 2 days as the passage is too rough. Our captain, Capt Maggie has decided to stay here in the calm waters. We will get to visit a little of Ushuaia in the meantime and have some of the expedition staff and experts talk to us about the science happening on board
As of right now, we are moving the ship off the pier into the harbor area so other ships can dock to load and unload. The Celebrity Infinity, Quark expeditions, World Traveler, and Aurora of Greg Mortimer are also stuck in the harbor along with several commercial ships. Hurtegruten expedition ship Fridtjof Nansen just joined us
Back to Buenas Aires
2 days of travel are next, iguazu to BA on the 27th, then BA to Ushuaia on the 28th, to the Polaris at last! Here are a few last views of the big city as well as our flight
Our visit to Iguazu is Complete
We were able to arrange with our tour guide to visit the Brazilian National Park! What a great treat! Because we were with a tour, we breezed right thru immigration! The international Bridge over the iguazu River is painted for each National color
The views of the falls were spectacular from this perspective!
The jungle and river
Today was a true adventure. About half an hour walk thru the Atlantic rainforest jungle in Misiones province of Argentina, along the Parana River and the Urugua-ì stream. Across the river, we could see cattle grazing in Paraguay.
We had to hike down the steep embankment to river to the kayaks and at the end, back up a steeper one.
Our kayak trip was about an hour and a half on the water. The hike was quite steep to get out of the canyon and our hike about 45 minutes back to the house of our hosts, La Lorenza. Our host, it turns out, was Emelio White and his wife Pica.
After our adventure they fed us a wonderful lunch, and we learned about Emelio’s work on his photography book of the rain first wildlife, a book we enjoyed in our hotel room!
Our great guides, Juan Paulo and Andres
The Gran Adventure
A flatbed truck ride thru the jungle and then a fast boat ride over the rapids, to and under the spray of the Waterfalls! Guaranteed to get wet!
