Puerto Madryn

23 January 2008

Puerto Madryn, Patagonia (Argentina)


Had another busy day; this morning I had lots of crew training due to many new crew members getting onboard in the last few ports (since I didn’t get on in a major port, they had me wait till now) I have one more training session tomorrow morning at 0945. This morning they were long, boring and bleh. All about safety and being a “star service member” Yeah yeah .. I know it is important, but it was loooong. Then after that we had an IAATO conference. Basically explaining about how going to Antartica is venturing into unspoiled land and how we have to keep it that way, etc. Again, boring – but necessary.

Once that was over, spent a little time in the café getting some work done and then I zipped out and back to Deck 1 for some lunch before I headed off to my tour at 1330. I had a great group; most of the pax I knew even since they are frequent users of my café. Even my Nan and Pop were on my bus (IE: The Moore’s; they are the pax I told you I had met up with in Rio on the top of Sugarloaf; since then, they check on me everyday to see how I am “getting on”. So I call them Nan and Pop LOL)

So I took roll-call and we got underway. Our first stop was to be in Punta Loma to see the sea lions on their beach. They were so funny! Laying around, sunning, swimming; like they were tourists on the local beaches in town! Got some cute pics and tried to shoot some video but having an issue with the auto-focus. Will in the Photo Lab is going to try to help me out tomorrow with it. (Whoever is thinking it; No he is taken .. LMAO) We spent about 30 mins or so at Punta Loma then headed off to Estancia San Guillermo. The ride was bumpy as hell; it is all desert and there are no actual paved roads! “Route 1” is actually nothing more than a gravel road they widened; yikes! Got some good laughs with the pax about it though.

The Estancia is a small working ranch where they shear sheep for the wool to sell to manufacturers. We got to see them do 2 sheep ~ it was pretty neat and once they got it all off (they do it in one big piece) they laid it out on tables for us to see, then balled it up to sell. We were then able to wander about the ranch; I took to the dogs they were so hot the poor things! They just laid around; the owner said they help to keep animals away from the area around the ranch (not all the land, but around the outbuildings) There was this adorable puppy ~ it made me miss Mugsy so much!! :( :( I got a cute pic with the pup which made me smile. But, I miss snuggling with Mugs in bed. Sigh. I try not to think about the people and things I miss. I truly am loving it out here and I am living my dream to travel full time and being on a cruise ship as well.

We got back to the ship around 5 and I wasn't due to meet Cat till 6.30 for dinner, so I laid down for a nap. I am a napping queen these days! I am pooped ~ the officers have told me they havent seen an internet manager work this much or as hard. LOL So I have no idea what the previous ones have been doing! When I was getting dressed for dinner and then work, I noticed we still hadn't left port (we should have left at 6) Turns out the wind was blowing pretty strong and in the direction of pushing us against the pier. So if we let our lines go, we could have crashed into the dock. So we waited it out and finally got going around 9.45 or so. (It was still so light out at that time ~ like it was 4 in the afternoon! Craziness!) By the time we left I was almost done here in the cafe, so I put my pics up on Kodak Gallery and let them upload:


http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bf232dhz.61p5ggof&x=0&y=4t9d82


The pics above are: a Llama who wanted his pic taken, the Sea Lion beach and the views around it, self pic of me (so the Mom's can see I am not turning blue or anything) the Estancia and the shearing machine, the cute pup, shearing a sheep, sheep to be sheared, the shearing guy, me and the pup, some neat modern homes in the city of Puerto Madryn and the beach. (notice where the water is, where you can see where it was at high tide and how wide it is at low tide)