Day 32, 07.11.2018, Ushuaia, Argentina, Ushuaia is a former penal colony for Argentina on the Beagle Channel and is a place about as remote and desolate as it gets. This trip includes a few former people-dumping grounds. Madeira and Cape Verde (Portugal), New Caledonia (France) and Australia (UK) also share this fabulous honour. Arguably Robinson …
Day 29, 04.11.2018, Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina, Puerto Madryn is mainly an aluminium smelting town. We didn’t go downtown but it didn’t look too attractive from a distance. The town though is not the main reason for visiting here. We had a bus trip today to see some wildlife on the huge Valdes Peninsular. This is …
Continue reading “Elephante Marino on the Valdes Peninsular”
Day 26, 01.11.2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina, H was busy so in the morning I went out on the streets of Buenos Aires by myself with bike. Mostly around the Casco Historico with its excellent neoclassical, art-nouveau and art-deco buildings and also around Puerto Madero with its derelict docklands turned entertainment/business centre. There were several demonstrations …
Day 25, 31.10.2018, Montevideo, Uruguay, We were last in Montevideo four years ago and that time we rented a car to look at the coast and countryside but it was not the most inspiring of trips. This time we stuck to the city on foot. Montevideo , at least the old part of city, is, …
Day 21, 27.10.2018, Rio de Janeiro, A great day out. H had arranged a driver and guide to speed things up. First stop was the train going up Corcovado to see the iconic Cristo Redentor. We had a celebratory caiprinha at the top. As it was getting dark we dashed on to the Sugarloaf mountain …
Day 19, 25.10.2018, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, Arrived in warm and sunny Salvador de Bahia. We decided against a bike ride as time was short but the topography of this town is unforgiving so it was for the best. We walked through the big tourist tat market near the port called Mercado Modelo. As usual …
Day 11, 17.10.2018, Mindelo, Cape Verde, Arrived in Mindelo but expect to be staying here longer than anticipated while some ship repairs are worked on. I took my bike around the streets of Mindelo until it got dark. The island of Sao Vincente looks a bit like one of the drier Canary islands but with …
Day 8, 14.10.2018, Funchal, Madeira, For those of you following the weather and this blog, you will know that we have crossed just ahead of the track of Hurricane Leslie and have been running down its southern flank. It’s been a bit rough but nobody has had to be tied to the wheel in soaking …
Day 6, 12.10.2018, Atlantic off Portugal, Leixoes, Porto has had to be abandoned as a destination. The port is closed. There was a nasty storm last night as we came around Finisterre. 60 knot winds at times, maybe Beaufort 10 or even 11. It shook up the beer in the fridge let me tell you. …
Day 5, 11.10.2018, La Coruña, Spain, My third time to La Coruña. The first time was with Dan and Ian after a rough Biscay crossing early September 2007. We didn’t do much. Just wandered the streets a little and rested up. The second time was in August of 2017 with Heike on the AIDAbella enroute from …
Day 2, 08.10.2018, North Sea, Heike has been on the Baltic Sea run with AIDAaura for the past few weeks. For the last 10 days, Roland, Heike’s father, and Freddie, Retha’s daughter, have been along for the ride but their trip was over so I collected them from the ship drove them to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof …
Day 1, 07.10.2018, Hamburg-Altona, I rented a big Audi today at Schönefeld Airport in Berlin for a one-way trip to Hamburg to join the AIDAaura. This car had a head-up display with data projected on to the windscreen like a fighter plane. Streaking along no-speed-limit Autobahns at nearly 200 km/hour, or Mach 0.2 as we …