Stanley, Falkland Islands

2.23.2015

Today is Monday and we are at sea.  We were in Montevideo, Uruguay Sunday.

Going back to the paint scam in Buenos Aires, we were not the only ones from the ship to have this happen to.  We did see another couple with black paint on their backs, ours was beige.  Who knows how many more?  The good news is that the paint was water soluble and washed off our clothes easily.

Back to Uruguay, to Montevideo.  We walked another 5.5 miles but it was a pleasant and cool day.  The days are getting longer and cooler as we head south.  We will be close to Antarctica in a couple of days.  We stayed in the old town and since it was a Sunday, many stores were not open or were only open from 10-1.  We found the Cathedral and went to Mass at 11.  It was presided by a new Cardinal, this was his first Mass as a Cardinal.

There was a great market across from the terminal with local crafts and we love walking through those kinds of shops.  It was also full of restaurants cooking all kinds of meats on wood fired stoves.  They have a unique manner of stove top that is at an angle, not flat.  Smelled great!

Close to the cruise terminal were two pieces of the Graf Spee, the German WW2 battleship that was sunk there in the first big sea battle of that war.  There was an anchor and the range finder.

Our friend from two other cruises, Zoey from Serbia, returned to work yesterday for a six month contract, as we had heard she would.  We had a great reunion and got caught up last night.  She has applied for a US green card but won't hear for several more months.  This ship will do the Alaska cruises from Seattle this summer so we hope to see her again then.

Today is full of lectures and workshops.  There was a great talk this morning about the Falkland Islands where we will be on Wednesday.

Colleen and John

2.25.2015

Halfway through the cruise by number of days!  Internet quality is getting worse by the day.  We have tried to post the above entry for several days.  Sometimes we can get online but cannot get the blog to post.  We have found that we can see emails and text messages on our phones easier.

We are anchored at Stanley in the Falkland Islands where we will be going out to a penguin rookery.  We hope to post this before we go ashore and while many of the other passengers are gone, not using the internet.

John & Colleen