January 2, 2018

 Today the ship cruised through the Gulfo Neuvo and arrived at Puerto Madryn to dock at 8 a.m. The temperature, when we docked, was 14°C, there was blue sky but clouds were building, the wind was 15 km per hour.  By 9 a.m., when we left the ship the temperature was already 18°C and the clouds were dark gray. As we docked we noticed two sea lions at the end of the pier.

    Attached to our cabin slot this morning was a nice Thank You note from Jan & Doug.

    Docked on the same pier was a small ship, GC 28 Prefectura, but we were not sure what kind of ship. Less than two hours after we docked, the Europa 2 docked on the other side of the pier from Zaandam. We watched as the ship was tied up and the gangway was maneuvered into position so passengers could get off the ship.  The pier is about 800 meters long (1,000 steps) and a shuttle bus was available for passengers from both ships to use, although there was a good sidewalk to walk to shore.  When we visited here on February 21, 2012 the ship docked at the aluminum company dock at the north end of the town about 2 kilometers from the dock used today which was much more convenient being right downtown.

   There were no tours for seeing the city of 60,000 but at the Information Center they had maps which highlighted the old town plaza and the old town section, which was about five square blocks and there is eight miles of beaches. The Canadian dollar is equivalent to a little less than 15 Argentine pesos.  Puerto Madryn was founded in 1865 by Welsh immigrants, who named it Porth Madryn.  There is a town that still has a Welsh flavour not far from Puerto Madryn. The main industry is the manufacturing of aluminum.

   People taking excursions today could choose from:

  1 -  travelled for 2.5 hours each way to see Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo to enjoy the antics of the penguins for about two hours. They also saw several herds of guanacos, a cousin of the llama. The scenery is desert like with scrub bush which Jan said reminded her of Arizona.

  or 2 - travel out to Valdes Peninsula Natural Reserve which is a wildlife reserve to see colonies of elephant seals and sea lions in their natural habitat and the bird sanctuary. It is a UNESCO Word Heritage site.

  or 3 - travel only nine miles away from Puerto Madryn to the Sea Lion Reserve at Punta Loma and a chance to see some whales, then go to Estania San Guillermo for a sheep shearing demonstration and traditional Argentine snack of maté and typical cookies.

   Our next stop after the Information Centre was to the mall next door, to connect to their Wi-Fi and update the blog for December 23, 2017 to January 1, 2018. We tested the speed of loading photos and it took over five minutes to load the three January 1st photos.  It would take hours to load close to 200 photos taken in the last days of December so they will have to wait for better internet.      Steps 5,307

    We used the exit to the main street Julio A. Roca and walked through several streets of the old Town to the main plaza.  There were several monuments in the plaza. One was a memorial to the volunteer firefighters. Like in Chile, the firefighters are trained volunteers.  Across from the plaza was the church Parroqua Sagrado Corazon de Jesus.  We walked along the broad one-way streets which had very little traffic for a weekday around noon. We strolled along the beach on the road side walkway for a few streets and then returned to the main street through a residential area of single family homes and made our way back to the pier.  There were many different trees including one that had purplish leaves.  Near the beach by the pier, there were a number of two-meter high tree stumps, which had been carved into sculptures or are waiting for an artist. We returned to the ship for a late lunch. The temperature had risen to 22°C but the wind was blowing at 52 km per hour.  There was still clouds around, but the sun found places to shine through.  The afternoon was spent reading inside on Deck 5 by the windows or outside on Deck 3 in the shade.  While we were reading on Deck 3, Jerry & Violet came strolling by and handed me the mitten that I had lost on the Sea Day from Antarctica to Port Stanley.  They found it on a bench near the front of the ship on deck 3.  We had looked for it the day it was lost and each day after when we were walking around the deck. We had not seen it this morning before breakfast when we walked a few circuits of the deck – it will remain a mystery!

   The highest temperature that we saw today, on the ship’s information channel, was 26°C.  There were about 270 passengers that visited the penguins at Punta Tombo. The seven buses were the last excursions to return about 45 minutes after the scheduled all aboard. The ship was underway before 5 p.m. To cover more than 700 nautical miles to get to Montevideo, the ship was travelling at 22 knots once it left Gulfo Neuvo and reached the Atlantic Ocean. The temperature out in the gulf dropped to 18°C quite quickly.

    The whole table was there for dinner.  Jan & Doug and Shin & Joyce had seen the penguins at Punta Tombo while Jerry and Violet had taken in the Sea Lion Reserve at Punta Loma.  The chosen items for tonight’s dinner were Salmon Sashimi & Quinoa, Salmon Corn Chowder and Lemon Turkey Spinach Barley Soup.  The main course was Coq au Vin with mashed potatoes and asparagus.  The dessert choices were Cherry Pavlova with Black Cherry Frozen Yogurt and Chocolate Éclair.

   The show this evening was a second performance by the opera couple X-Over Duo, which we skipped.  They sang songs from Evita and Phantom of the Opera, that people enjoyed. We spent the evening reading trying to finish the books in time to turn them into the ship’s library on Friday. The gingerbread house village on Deck 4 by the Front Desk was taken down and the gingerbread houses in the Lido buffet and dig rooms, a few days ago. 

   We saw in the edition of the Canadian newsletter that Toronto and Montréal airports are either cancelling flights or there are days of four or five hours due to the extreme cold weather of the past few days.  We hope it warms a bit in four days when we fly home via Toronto.

   Steps 17,412 (12 km)