I'm not in a narrative mood, so here are some lists to fill you in on our adventures so far:
Wildlife Spottings:
One whale spout
One mosquito in our room
Two sightings of Abe (more on that to come)
Current location: Asea, Mid way between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia.
Highlights:
Being with Emily -- for sure!
Doing night time swimming in the Solarium
The beautiful concert featuring a performer who played the piano, flute, accordian and sang with a full band behind him, with pre-show music of soul versions of Guns 'N Roses. And then realizing he is a neighbor and has a room a few doors down from our room.
Seeing the moon from our balcony.
The Ecoscientist talk -- he is hilarious and an amazing educator. Had a show on NPR about science. Thankfully he's doing a ton more lectures during the cruise.
Traditions:
Playing "Where's Abe" -- This couple keeps popping up on this trip. They were on my flight, in our hotel, we saw them around Buenos Aires and around the ship. So I call this game "Where's Abe" and seeing how many times I get to spot them.
"Elton John" sightings: AKA anyone who is throwing a temper tantrum or being a full-on ass. So far: the only "EJ" we found was our original one, as explained in the Tango story below.
Best quotes:
"Emily, you are going to Antarctica? Why? You are too young!" - Tour Guide, Tango show
"Your generation's music is terrible. Today's music just ain't got the same soul"
"Our generation's music has staying power because the artists led a clean lifestyle with no drugs and can keep doing concerts."
"You are no longer tourists. You are explorers."
"You are going to the most remote place on this planet. People back home are going to Costco."
"It doesn't get dark at night until....next month".
"There is always that couple on board where the wife is like, 'Honey, get the camera for the sunset.' Then an hour passes and the sunset is still as beautiful as it was before and the wife panics and shouts that the sun is broken."
"It's freaking hot inside the ship. That's what I get for coming on a cruise with a high percentage of oldies".
Life lessons learned:
My packing selections sucked balls. I did NOT bright the right clothing.
Check for mosquito warnings before travel. Apparently there were mosquito swarms covering Buenos Aires last week, and with Dengue Fever down here, that could have been a gnarly beast for us to experience. I should have packed Off.
I like Argentinian q-tips but not their flossers.
If you piss off a fellow tourist, that can reflect badly on the tour guide's reviews.
I need to calm my brain, put down my phone, and just settle into being in the moment.
Unexpected:
Back in late December, there was a big storm in Buenos Aires that made the cruise terminal's roof collapse. The result is that they created a roundabout way of onboarding passengers in a method of what I like to call "systematic chaos". It took about 2 1/2 hours of long lines, waiting rooms, and multiple shuttle bus trips to get on board. I won't bore you with the details, but let's say that the system, while wonkadoo, was very systematic.
The scariest adventure so far on this trip was walking up the gangplank. It was narrow, minimal guardrails and shook back and forth significantly during the ascent up several stories. I'm surprised all the oldies were able to manage this but I heard of no broken hips so there's that. It's a rugged generation.
Most Interesting things learned:
Seals are most closely related to dogs. That's why they like to fetch and play games.
Sea lion are most closely related to cats. That's why they don't.
Manatees are closely related to elephants. Look at the toenails on their flippers.
Penguins poop pink because they eat a lot of krill.
There are three kinds of penguins we will be seeing: Adelie, Chinstrap and Gentoo.
Albatrosses are fascinating and giantic.
There is a floating organism (dagnammit -- I can't remember its name) that can eat jellyfish and their stingers without being hurt with the stingers. The jellyfish stingers, once ingested, are transported to the ends of their "legs" and can be used to sting their enemies. So the predator not only gets a great lunch but also get built in armor. Pretty cool.
Jellyfish are considered "Plankton". Colossal squid start out classified as plankton when they are babies.
Games and Books
Unstable Unicorns (Beth 1, Emily 1)
Scrabble (Beth 1)
Phase 10 (Beth 1)
Pub Quiz: 12 out of 20. Dagnammit -- We didn't know what Angela Landsbury's character's name was on Murder She Wrote.
The Best Laid Plans (Sidney Sheldon trash book from ship library): Done!
Suicide Med (Frieda Macfadden e-book): Done
Tango show story:
Oh my head...this will never stop being hilarious.
We decided to hit a tango show and dinner event the last night in Argentina. We were picked up at our hotel by Franco and our fellow shuttle passengers were whisked off to an undisclosed location for an evening of wine, beef, and dancing. On our way, Franco came around and talked to everyone. When he got to us, he looked at Emily and said, "Why are you going to Antarctica. You are too young to go. It will be all old people." (He was right, of course, but that's been part of the fun. Those are my people!!!). Franco had this biting wit that made you laugh but also made you wonder if he was silently making fun of you.
We were dropped off in front of a restaurant and were ushered inside to sit at long tables. We got seated with a quartet of single women from London who quickly got liquored up, and with Joan and Norman.
Truth be told, I simply can't remember their names so I'll refer to them as Joan and Norman. What a lovely couple!
Within 2 minutes, we found incredible things in common, including the result of this conversation:
Joan: You went to Cornell?
Emily: Yes.
Joan: I know someone who went there. What are the chances you know her?
Emily: Probably none. It's a big school.
Joan: Well my best friend's daughter went there. Her name is XXXXXXXXX.
Emily: You are kidding me! Of course I know her. She was my year and was in marching band with me.
Not only did we have that in common but they are hockey parents, lived in Miami, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, and have New Zealand as their favorite travel spot too.
The tango show was lovely. The band consisted of a guitar player, an accordian player, a pianist and a bass player. There were tango duets, group dances, solo singers, and an extremely exciting "Gaucho" dance where there was syncronized dancing, drum playing, poncho swinging and bolo spinning punctuated with yells of "Gaucho!!!!". Hard to describe -- but amazing to watch.
Joan and Norman had mentioned during dinner that they were so glad they were sitting with us and had refused to sit at the table they were originally ushered to "because there is no way we are going to sit next to the people on the shuttle with us. We couldn't stand being with them any longer than we had to and certainly not through an entire dinner". We didn't hear more details but found out what they were talking about on the ride back home.
Let's call her "Karen".
Karen was very loud and opinionated. Just because we were in the back of the shuttle didn't mean that we couldn't hear every word of th discussion she was having with Franco.
Every time Franco tried to bring her to be positive about something, she snarked back with a nasty reply. They finally settled on discussing music:
Karen: Your generation's music is absolutely horrible.
Franco: Well, everyone likes different things.
Karen: Today's music ain't got the same soul. (Like for real, she said this non-ironically) And our music has staying power.
Franco: Why do you think that is?
Karen: Because. Today's performers have issues. Our performers have the endurance to keep doing concerts for years and years to their fans can see them for a long time. They are not into the bad stuff that Taylor Swift and all the rest are into now a days.
Franco: Are you saying that older bands last longer? For what reason?
Karen: Drugs. Older bands never got into that stuff like the young people do these days. They led clean lives and that's why their music is so good and why they can keep performing now.
(It was such a bizarre conversation that everyone on the shuttle was dead quiet. Emily and I were riveted. I'm not doing a great job of replaying the conversation but just know it was riviting in a "watching a car accident" way.)
Franco: Can you give me an example of a band that you are talking about?
Karen: Elton John is one.
At this point, the bus erupted in laughter. Emily and I were belly laughing so hard. What an example to pick of an artist who has led a drug-free lifestyle throughout his career!!!! We both love Elton John, but drug-free career does not even come close to defining him.
Emily couldn't stop laughing and blurted out, "Did you even see the movie about him? The drugs were the whole second act of the movie".
Karen started getting even more riled up and started loudly proclaiming that "Now I'm really getting pissed off with all the giggling going on, especially by those two in the back." (meaning Emily and me). I'm wacking Emily in the leg telling her to be quiet, but that made her giggle even harder and she just couldn't stop. Thankfully, we reached Karen's hotel. She stomped off the bus and when the doors closed, the bus erupted again. Franco had to sit down he was laughing so hard. But he did mention that he's "going to get hosed for this because she'll write a terrible review about him." He didn't seem to mind that much though and we wrote him an excellent one to hopefully counterbalance any that she writes.
So now, our code term for anyone being "Karenish" is "Elton John". If I get cranky, Emily tells me I am being an Elton John and I should go take a nap.
I've taken exactly one nap so far. I think I'm doing ok. :)
Upcoming:
Today and tomorrow at sea. Then Ushuaia for a hiking trip with Siberian Huskies. I can't wait!
Favorite Photos:
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