Final Weigh-in

It looks like all of our hard work on the promenade deck doing 5km power walks or in the gym doing the same on the treadmills has paid off. After all the fantastic food we have eaten, we didn't gain anything.  Here are the results:

Gary - 192.6 lb - up 0.1 lbs
Brian - 188.6 lb - up 0.6 lbs
Charlotte - to be determined
Jan - to be determined

Onward to the feast of Buenos Aries!

Montevideo, Uruguay

On Saturday, Feb 27th, we docked in Montevideo, Uruguay. This city has a lot of history from WWII where the British sank the German super-battleship, the Graf Spee.  My father also visited this place just before war broke out while he was in the Merchant Marines, so it was very interesting to visit the old town and relate back to that time. There are a lot of artists here and we ended up buying a painting from a local artist, Rosario Baro.

The range finder from the Grafs Spee was at the harbour entrance.

Montevideo was a very old city with lots of history

The old town had lots of charm

There were many beautiful parks with large statues to political heros

This is part of the old city wall

Even IBM had a presence in the city

This building was built as a tourist hotel in the early 1930s 

just before the great depression and went bankrupt. Bad timing. It's now condos.

This is the monument to José Gervasio Artigas, the leader 

who freed the country from Spanish rule in 1810

Of course, there was a beautiful opera house

And like the Argentineans, the Uruguayans also like to 

dance the tango and eat BBQ meat

This is the painting by Rosario Baro.  It's a street scene in an old country town.

Puerto Madryn

On Thursday, Feb 25th, we stopped at Puerto Madryn. It was a very plain and boring city. Most of the sites were at least a 2 hour drive away, so we just went ashore and walked around the town. We discovered a couple in a local mall who were demonstrating the tango dance. It was very beautiful to watch.  

We returned to the ship early and sat around the pool for the afternoon.  Charlotte and Jan then went to the spa for a full body massage and came back very relaxed, looking beautiful. Gary and I entered the longest drive golf challenge and I ended up winning it.  I hope that is a sign of good things to come for my 2016 golf season.

The Star Princess an port

They love their tango in Argentina.  It's a national passion. They dance everywhere.

The Penguins

In the afternoon, we had the highlight of our cruise when we went out to the Bluff Cove farm to see Penguins, both Gentoo and King. We took a bus to the farm entrance, then 4x4 Range Rovers over some very rough terrain to get to the beach where the Penguin colony was located. There were over 1,000 penguins there, mostly just standing around. Some were sitting on eggs or babies to keep them warm.  It was an amazing experience. They were very friendly and didn't seem too concerned that we were there.

We needed these 4X4 vehicles to get over some deep ditches 

and across some streams to get to the beach. It was quite the ride.

There were Penguins on the beach for as far as we could see.  

They basically live here year round

The Gentoos are a smaller Penguin with a white patch over their eyes.
The Kings have a bright orange marking on their breast and head.
Most of the Penguins in the colony were Gentoos.

The Kings were sitting on eggs and keeping babies warm

The young Gentoos were also learning to swim and were frolicking down at the beach

They also liked to sun themselves

This Penguin was very friendly and came right up to us

Many of the young Gentoos were also molting, losing their baby feathers

Being with the Penguins was a special experience for us

Stanley, Falkland Islands

Today, Tuesday Feb 23rd, we arrived at Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm (15 degrees C). We spent the morning site seeing in the town, visiting the museum and war memorial.  It is very British and a quaint place to visit. The island is very flat with no trees and mostly rock. The people were very friendly however, and loved their life there. 

There were no trees on the island, only rock and peat

 The village was very British looking

Christchurch Cathedral with it's whale jawbone  memorial

 The Falklands War memorial was a very visible part of the island

The Iron Lady is revered by the local population for saving the 

Falklands in the war with Argentina

Zumba Fitness

With extra days at sea, we (Gary, Charlotte & Jan) decided to join a Zumba class to work off some of the fabulous food we have been eating.  I sat and watched and took photos.