South American Adventure: Part 4: Days 7 & 8
Day 7 – Friday, February 3rd –Aboard the Crown Princess – Punta Del Este, Uruguay
We slept in a bit this morning, and had brunch in the Horizon Court Buffet (a/k/a “the Trough”). The ship had arrived at Punta Del Este, Uruguay, anchored about three miles off shore (this is one of our many ports where we have to take a tender in). Two other ships, the MSC Musica and the Boudicca, were already anchored in the picturesque bay. Because the Crown Princess was the last to arrive, we were further from the port than they expected and therefore the tender times were increased to almost thirty minutes each way. That made for delayed logistics that rippled through the day.
Given that the ship is at capacity, the public spaces are fairly buzzing with activity and are Babel in microcosm. There is English (in American, English, Canadian, and Australian accents), Spanish (Argentinean mostly – it’s very distinctive), Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, along with smatterings of French, German, and some languages I just can’t identify (they sound Slavic, but for all I know could be Swedish). According to a show’s Master of Ceremonies that Our new friends Danny and David, a.k.a. The Brisbane Boys, heard on the ship the prior night, there are over 1100 Americans, which is about a third. There are a lot of families, but given the time of year, they seem to be South American (remember: it’s summertime down here).
Americans tend to be easier to spot on international cruises like this because when you speak to them (as we do at breakfast) the wife is friendly/chatty and the husband is taciturn. We’ve found that English couples tend to be pleasanter overall. Some of the older kids from the South American families try their English on us, which is always far better than our Spanish. - All quite true. - AFK
According to the write-up in the Princess Patter, Punta Del Este is, “one of South America’s most famous resorts…playground for the international jet set”. Geographically it’s funnel-shaped, with one side being the Atlantic Ocean, and the other the Rio de la Plata (which goes west toward Buenos Aires). There are many modern apartment/condo towers (none more than a dozen stories high) along both sets of beaches, but few private homes that we could see. At the narrowest point of the funnel is a peninsula that contains some nice shopping streets, many restaurants, and the yacht club. And that last one was where the tenders were dropping people off.
The ship has six large, self-powered lifeboats that are used for tender service. Each one seats about 125 people. If you do the math, it took most of the morning to debark the 3,000 passengers. Some additional tender boats were provided by companies in Punta del Este.
To take a tender, you must take a number, just like in a deli. We had numbers 1749 through 1752, and didn’t get called to board until 12:25PM. The ride over was fine and we finally got on land just before 1:00PM. Officially, the ship said that the last tender would be at 4:00PM, giving us a very focused afternoon of sightseeing.
The local tourist authority was on hand to give out walking tour maps, and we used this as our guide. The walk along the yacht club harbor was reminiscent of Monte Carlo, without the hills or density. Warm sunshine finally broke through the clouds, and we enjoyed the walk. At some point we moved a few blocks inland to walk along the main shopping street, the Avenida Gorlero. From that vantage point (the highest part of the peninsula), if you looked in one direction three blocks downhill, you saw the harbor where our ship was anchored. If you looked the other direction three blocks downhill, the waves of the Atlantic were pounding the beach. It was quite unusual and unique.
For a “playground of the jet-set”, the shops and restaurants were very middle of the road. Yes, there were some swankier restaurants along the yacht-club harbor, but on the Ave. Gorlero it was more akin to Broadway in Seattle (including many vacant storefronts). Given that this is the peak time for this resort, I expected it to be much busier. There was both moderate pedestrian traffic as well as auto traffic.
Allan popped into one men’s clothing store and bought a t-shirt to accompany his newly purchased Buenos Aires shorts. And like any seaside resort, there were plenty of t-shirt and souvenir shops.
Our goal was to walk to a sculpture on the Playa Brava (Brava Beach) called “Il Mano” (“The Hand”), which depicts giant fingertips reaching up through the sand. It was designed by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal in 1982 to commemorate the lives of drowned local sailors. And it’s a very popular site for many visitors. So much so that it’s become the landmark of Punta Del Este.
We took many pictures at the sculpture, and Chuck even ran into the Atlantic to dip his toes. He said the water wasn’t as warm as Hawaii, but was pleasant. The beaches had plenty of sun worshippers, and it was easy to see why this town would be such a great place to enjoy a summer holiday. Given the number of large yachts and expensive-looking condo towers, the jet-set must agree. We watched the MSC Musica sail away in the Atlantic, heading north to Santos, Brazil. It’s something to watch a large, modern ocean liner in the sea at full power!
At this point in the afternoon low blood sugar was rearing its ugly head, and we sought out some food. We stopped at a restaurant where we enjoyed some sandwiches and cold drinks. Mike and Chuck wanted to try a Uruguayan wine variety: Tannat. I enjoyed a glass as well, but found it somewhat bland after the outstanding Argentine Malbecs that we had enjoyed earlier in the week.
After lunch we had to make our way back to the tender pier, with a stop for groceries (cold drinks to put in our stateroom’s fridge). The sun was much stronger now, which eventually gave all of a sunburn (yes, I was wearing a hat!). In the morning it didn’t seem as if it would be sunny, so no one used sunscreen. Our mistake.
We got to the pier around 3:30PM and there was quite a long line of passengers to return to the Crown Princess. It was slow-moving, as one would expect, but Princess was nice enough to send out crew members with trays of cold water and cold towels among the crowd. We didn’t board the tender until after 4:00PM, with plenty of people in line behind us. Mike chatted up and English couple behind him – he’s a natural, friendly talker.
We got back to the ship at about 4:30 and promptly napped for the next few hours, during which time the ship lifted its anchor and headed south in the Atlantic. Allan also got a haircut on board, and he was very pleased with the results. - Yes I was. My barber's name was Lela, a very nice woman from Serbia who's been in the business for over twenty years. She did a terrific job cutting my hair, which is no small feat, and we had a lovely chat about travel. I asked what her favorite "run" was, and she said Alaska. She loves the people and finds the language barriers in the Spanish-heavy routes more of a challenge. I really found her to be charming and would highly recommend her. - AFK
We shared dinner tonight with a gay couple from Australia: David and Danny. We had met them on the first day, and found that we all clicked. They live in Brisbane, and were doing a six-week South America adventure to celebrate Danny’s 50th birthday later this month (which they’ll celebrate in Rio during Carnaval). We were seated at a table in a smaller space off the dining room, and it was warm. Very warm. Our waiter was from Thailand, and his assistant from South Africa, and they were both delightful. - When Danny and David went to the LGBT event the first night on the ship no one else showed up :-( . It would seem that we're the "only gays in the village", but we have seen a few clandestine couples since which we've found to be very common. We were a bit disappointed though, certainly. Danny and David are a hoot and we do hope we'll spend more time with them on this trip. - AFK
Less delightful was my dinner: for the second night in a row I ordered the wrong main dish (this time lentil cakes) and it left a great deal to be desired (lack of flavor, for one). But the six of us enjoyed our time together and shared our various histories. And two bottles of Willamette Valley Pino Gris.
After dinner, Allan, Chuck and I had a nice walk around the Promenade deck, trying to discern the stars in the southern hemisphere sky. And then it was off to dreamland. – “Bye, bye, baby… time to hit the road to Dreamland… Don’t cry, baby – time to hit the – time to hit the road!” - AFK
Day 8 – Saturday, February 4th –Aboard the Crown Princess – At Sea
We were both up by 8:00 and had breakfast in the Boticelli Dining Room. Despite the room not being full, the service in our area was a little…off.
It’s unusual that I would be up before Steve, but it has been known to happen – on occasion. I’ve been having quite a few strange dreams on this trip. This morning I woke up feeling very sad and could find no reason for it. I was able to shake that off fairly quickly and get started with our day – our first “at sea” day. These are the days that Steve enjoys most I think. I am not as fond, but there are usually enough things to do/people to see/ food to eat to keep the day moving along.
We didn’t catch up with Mike and Chuck till a bit after breakfast and decided to go up and find the ping pong tables and have a go. It turned out they had been shunted off into a corner of Deck 16, aft. Not a bad spot really, as they were shielded fairly well from the wind. After that we had a bit of business to attend to at the excursion desk but found the line too long and decided to go back up to the Lido deck.
On the way upstairs we stopped in the Facets jewelry shop so I could check out the display of KORITE ammolite jewelry. I discovered this beautiful and unique gemstone on my very first cruise – to Alaska on the Norwegian Sky in Sept. 2001. I knew at that time that someday I would own a specimen or piece of jewelry with ammolite if it were at all possible.
The pieces they had on display in the shop here onboard were an interesting mix of men’s and women’s pieces – the women’s being the most beautiful and colorful, of course. Women really do get the best jewelry designed for them. The sales clerk, Philip, that we had spoken with briefly before came over to assist me. I asked to see the rings. He started explaining what ammolite was and where it is mined and how rare and unique each specimen is. I told him I was no stranger to this beautiful, iridescent gemstone that shimmers magically in the sunlight like mother of pearl, but with stunning blazes of bright blue, green, red, orange, and yellow color. I showed him a picture of the KORITE pendant I purchased in Grand Cayman last year (a beautiful top quality piece with four distinct color bands from deep blue at the top to bright green, then yellow, and finally a rusty orange at the bottom). He agreed it was a very beautiful specimen. He then showed me the four rings they had for sale and I was aghast at the prices they were asking. I said thank you very much and we left to come upstairs and find the boys.
We had burgers at the Trident Grill and Chuck had a slice of pizza for dessert ☺. After that we meandered back downstairs and headed into the Princess Theater to watch THE ACCOUNTANT: a film with Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, John Lithgow, and Jean Smart (!!!) about a man with Autism who grew up with a very strict father who forced his sons to undergo very intensive martial arts training who both grew up to be quite adept killers. Ben’s character was the accountant in the title. It was a very engaging film that was quite difficult to hear in the theater and the Spanish subtitles were very distracting. We will be seeing that film again at home for sure.
After the movie, it was back to our rooms to get warm (it was chilly in the theater) and have a nice long nap.
We woke up around 6:00PM and puttered around the room till it was time to dress for dinner. Tonight was the first formal night. Steve wore his tux and I wore my new grey sharkskin suit I purchased when Steve got his new tux a few months ago. The ship was swaying quite a bit by this time as the seas had been getting rougher slowly all afternoon; not uncommon for this part of South America in the Atlantic.
We met the boys in the Michaelangelo dining room at a little after 8:00PM and had a lovely dinner at table 204 in the right-hand corner of the room by the window so we could watch the sea tumble and occasionally spray the window behind us. All of our dinners were very good this evening – which we were thankful for, and our wait staff were perfectly charming. We even had a short visit from the Maitre d’Hôtel Neville Saldanha, who Mike and Chuck had met previously on another Princess cruise.
After dinner we beat a hasty exit and got back to our rooms to get out of our very warm formal wear and get some sleep to prepare for our next day in port: Puerto Madryn, Argentina. - AFK
We slept in a bit this morning, and had brunch in the Horizon Court Buffet (a/k/a “the Trough”). The ship had arrived at Punta Del Este, Uruguay, anchored about three miles off shore (this is one of our many ports where we have to take a tender in). Two other ships, the MSC Musica and the Boudicca, were already anchored in the picturesque bay. Because the Crown Princess was the last to arrive, we were further from the port than they expected and therefore the tender times were increased to almost thirty minutes each way. That made for delayed logistics that rippled through the day.
Given that the ship is at capacity, the public spaces are fairly buzzing with activity and are Babel in microcosm. There is English (in American, English, Canadian, and Australian accents), Spanish (Argentinean mostly – it’s very distinctive), Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, along with smatterings of French, German, and some languages I just can’t identify (they sound Slavic, but for all I know could be Swedish). According to a show’s Master of Ceremonies that Our new friends Danny and David, a.k.a. The Brisbane Boys, heard on the ship the prior night, there are over 1100 Americans, which is about a third. There are a lot of families, but given the time of year, they seem to be South American (remember: it’s summertime down here).
Americans tend to be easier to spot on international cruises like this because when you speak to them (as we do at breakfast) the wife is friendly/chatty and the husband is taciturn. We’ve found that English couples tend to be pleasanter overall. Some of the older kids from the South American families try their English on us, which is always far better than our Spanish. - All quite true. - AFK
According to the write-up in the Princess Patter, Punta Del Este is, “one of South America’s most famous resorts…playground for the international jet set”. Geographically it’s funnel-shaped, with one side being the Atlantic Ocean, and the other the Rio de la Plata (which goes west toward Buenos Aires). There are many modern apartment/condo towers (none more than a dozen stories high) along both sets of beaches, but few private homes that we could see. At the narrowest point of the funnel is a peninsula that contains some nice shopping streets, many restaurants, and the yacht club. And that last one was where the tenders were dropping people off.
The ship has six large, self-powered lifeboats that are used for tender service. Each one seats about 125 people. If you do the math, it took most of the morning to debark the 3,000 passengers. Some additional tender boats were provided by companies in Punta del Este.
To take a tender, you must take a number, just like in a deli. We had numbers 1749 through 1752, and didn’t get called to board until 12:25PM. The ride over was fine and we finally got on land just before 1:00PM. Officially, the ship said that the last tender would be at 4:00PM, giving us a very focused afternoon of sightseeing.
The local tourist authority was on hand to give out walking tour maps, and we used this as our guide. The walk along the yacht club harbor was reminiscent of Monte Carlo, without the hills or density. Warm sunshine finally broke through the clouds, and we enjoyed the walk. At some point we moved a few blocks inland to walk along the main shopping street, the Avenida Gorlero. From that vantage point (the highest part of the peninsula), if you looked in one direction three blocks downhill, you saw the harbor where our ship was anchored. If you looked the other direction three blocks downhill, the waves of the Atlantic were pounding the beach. It was quite unusual and unique.
For a “playground of the jet-set”, the shops and restaurants were very middle of the road. Yes, there were some swankier restaurants along the yacht-club harbor, but on the Ave. Gorlero it was more akin to Broadway in Seattle (including many vacant storefronts). Given that this is the peak time for this resort, I expected it to be much busier. There was both moderate pedestrian traffic as well as auto traffic.
Allan popped into one men’s clothing store and bought a t-shirt to accompany his newly purchased Buenos Aires shorts. And like any seaside resort, there were plenty of t-shirt and souvenir shops.
Our goal was to walk to a sculpture on the Playa Brava (Brava Beach) called “Il Mano” (“The Hand”), which depicts giant fingertips reaching up through the sand. It was designed by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal in 1982 to commemorate the lives of drowned local sailors. And it’s a very popular site for many visitors. So much so that it’s become the landmark of Punta Del Este.
We took many pictures at the sculpture, and Chuck even ran into the Atlantic to dip his toes. He said the water wasn’t as warm as Hawaii, but was pleasant. The beaches had plenty of sun worshippers, and it was easy to see why this town would be such a great place to enjoy a summer holiday. Given the number of large yachts and expensive-looking condo towers, the jet-set must agree. We watched the MSC Musica sail away in the Atlantic, heading north to Santos, Brazil. It’s something to watch a large, modern ocean liner in the sea at full power!
At this point in the afternoon low blood sugar was rearing its ugly head, and we sought out some food. We stopped at a restaurant where we enjoyed some sandwiches and cold drinks. Mike and Chuck wanted to try a Uruguayan wine variety: Tannat. I enjoyed a glass as well, but found it somewhat bland after the outstanding Argentine Malbecs that we had enjoyed earlier in the week.
After lunch we had to make our way back to the tender pier, with a stop for groceries (cold drinks to put in our stateroom’s fridge). The sun was much stronger now, which eventually gave all of a sunburn (yes, I was wearing a hat!). In the morning it didn’t seem as if it would be sunny, so no one used sunscreen. Our mistake.
We got to the pier around 3:30PM and there was quite a long line of passengers to return to the Crown Princess. It was slow-moving, as one would expect, but Princess was nice enough to send out crew members with trays of cold water and cold towels among the crowd. We didn’t board the tender until after 4:00PM, with plenty of people in line behind us. Mike chatted up and English couple behind him – he’s a natural, friendly talker.
We got back to the ship at about 4:30 and promptly napped for the next few hours, during which time the ship lifted its anchor and headed south in the Atlantic. Allan also got a haircut on board, and he was very pleased with the results. - Yes I was. My barber's name was Lela, a very nice woman from Serbia who's been in the business for over twenty years. She did a terrific job cutting my hair, which is no small feat, and we had a lovely chat about travel. I asked what her favorite "run" was, and she said Alaska. She loves the people and finds the language barriers in the Spanish-heavy routes more of a challenge. I really found her to be charming and would highly recommend her. - AFK
We shared dinner tonight with a gay couple from Australia: David and Danny. We had met them on the first day, and found that we all clicked. They live in Brisbane, and were doing a six-week South America adventure to celebrate Danny’s 50th birthday later this month (which they’ll celebrate in Rio during Carnaval). We were seated at a table in a smaller space off the dining room, and it was warm. Very warm. Our waiter was from Thailand, and his assistant from South Africa, and they were both delightful. - When Danny and David went to the LGBT event the first night on the ship no one else showed up :-( . It would seem that we're the "only gays in the village", but we have seen a few clandestine couples since which we've found to be very common. We were a bit disappointed though, certainly. Danny and David are a hoot and we do hope we'll spend more time with them on this trip. - AFK
Less delightful was my dinner: for the second night in a row I ordered the wrong main dish (this time lentil cakes) and it left a great deal to be desired (lack of flavor, for one). But the six of us enjoyed our time together and shared our various histories. And two bottles of Willamette Valley Pino Gris.
After dinner, Allan, Chuck and I had a nice walk around the Promenade deck, trying to discern the stars in the southern hemisphere sky. And then it was off to dreamland. – “Bye, bye, baby… time to hit the road to Dreamland… Don’t cry, baby – time to hit the – time to hit the road!” - AFK
Day 8 – Saturday, February 4th –Aboard the Crown Princess – At Sea
We were both up by 8:00 and had breakfast in the Boticelli Dining Room. Despite the room not being full, the service in our area was a little…off.
It’s unusual that I would be up before Steve, but it has been known to happen – on occasion. I’ve been having quite a few strange dreams on this trip. This morning I woke up feeling very sad and could find no reason for it. I was able to shake that off fairly quickly and get started with our day – our first “at sea” day. These are the days that Steve enjoys most I think. I am not as fond, but there are usually enough things to do/people to see/ food to eat to keep the day moving along.
We didn’t catch up with Mike and Chuck till a bit after breakfast and decided to go up and find the ping pong tables and have a go. It turned out they had been shunted off into a corner of Deck 16, aft. Not a bad spot really, as they were shielded fairly well from the wind. After that we had a bit of business to attend to at the excursion desk but found the line too long and decided to go back up to the Lido deck.
On the way upstairs we stopped in the Facets jewelry shop so I could check out the display of KORITE ammolite jewelry. I discovered this beautiful and unique gemstone on my very first cruise – to Alaska on the Norwegian Sky in Sept. 2001. I knew at that time that someday I would own a specimen or piece of jewelry with ammolite if it were at all possible.
The pieces they had on display in the shop here onboard were an interesting mix of men’s and women’s pieces – the women’s being the most beautiful and colorful, of course. Women really do get the best jewelry designed for them. The sales clerk, Philip, that we had spoken with briefly before came over to assist me. I asked to see the rings. He started explaining what ammolite was and where it is mined and how rare and unique each specimen is. I told him I was no stranger to this beautiful, iridescent gemstone that shimmers magically in the sunlight like mother of pearl, but with stunning blazes of bright blue, green, red, orange, and yellow color. I showed him a picture of the KORITE pendant I purchased in Grand Cayman last year (a beautiful top quality piece with four distinct color bands from deep blue at the top to bright green, then yellow, and finally a rusty orange at the bottom). He agreed it was a very beautiful specimen. He then showed me the four rings they had for sale and I was aghast at the prices they were asking. I said thank you very much and we left to come upstairs and find the boys.
We had burgers at the Trident Grill and Chuck had a slice of pizza for dessert ☺. After that we meandered back downstairs and headed into the Princess Theater to watch THE ACCOUNTANT: a film with Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, John Lithgow, and Jean Smart (!!!) about a man with Autism who grew up with a very strict father who forced his sons to undergo very intensive martial arts training who both grew up to be quite adept killers. Ben’s character was the accountant in the title. It was a very engaging film that was quite difficult to hear in the theater and the Spanish subtitles were very distracting. We will be seeing that film again at home for sure.
After the movie, it was back to our rooms to get warm (it was chilly in the theater) and have a nice long nap.
We woke up around 6:00PM and puttered around the room till it was time to dress for dinner. Tonight was the first formal night. Steve wore his tux and I wore my new grey sharkskin suit I purchased when Steve got his new tux a few months ago. The ship was swaying quite a bit by this time as the seas had been getting rougher slowly all afternoon; not uncommon for this part of South America in the Atlantic.
We met the boys in the Michaelangelo dining room at a little after 8:00PM and had a lovely dinner at table 204 in the right-hand corner of the room by the window so we could watch the sea tumble and occasionally spray the window behind us. All of our dinners were very good this evening – which we were thankful for, and our wait staff were perfectly charming. We even had a short visit from the Maitre d’Hôtel Neville Saldanha, who Mike and Chuck had met previously on another Princess cruise.
After dinner we beat a hasty exit and got back to our rooms to get out of our very warm formal wear and get some sleep to prepare for our next day in port: Puerto Madryn, Argentina. - AFK
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