A Long Blog That Has Been Waiting (Trip Catch Up)

Saturday, February 4, 2006 (6:00pm)

I am sitting in front of our hotel window that overlooks a large swimming pool. The pool has a second level filled with lounge chairs that overhangs the pool and is complete with a waterfall. In the background, the Andes Mountains jut into the blue summer sky.

We had planned to leave home to get to Toronto by 9:00, but that didn’t happen. I wanted to spend the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning up my apartment before I left (I hate returning to a filthy house). We had so much running around to do though that we didn’t end up leaving until 2:00. By the time we arrived in Toronto, it was 6:00 and I still needed to pack.

My brother-in-law’s mother was arriving in Toronto at 5:30 so he was going to drive us to the airport and then pick his Mom up. He still managed to do that, but she had to wait for an hour before we arrived.

My Dad’s friends found us in the check in line and told us that they had allowed us to be admitted to the First Class lounge. That was sweet. It was very civilized. My Dad and his friends had wine, but I managed to down three pints of Guinness before we had to board the plane.

We immediately had a meal and I had a couple glasses of wine. I was surprised to find out that alcohol was free of charge on the plane. I thought that Air Canada changed that policy with their financial difficulties, but after a few gins and tonic, I was happy that this little perk was still in effect.

The flight was 10 and a half hours. The in-flight movies were The Corpse Bride and Shakespeare in Love both of which looked alright, but I wasn’t interested. I tried to sleep instead so I listened to my iPod and dozed off. I think that I probably had about 90 minutes of sleep on the flight. I was quite grumpy when we arrived and after waiting in line for an hour at reciprocity tax, immigration, and customs, I was looking forward to sleeping for a while.

At the hotel, I immediately took a shower. We were given 45 minutes to relax before our tour. I considered skipping it and lazing out by the pool for the afternoon, but I figured that that would be a supreme waste since there was a tour and I have never been to Chile before. The tour was about as nice as any guided tour in any city in the world. You end up looking at old buildings, but they really don’t mean that much to you. The gratuitous pictures here and there, but nothing too terribly earth shattering. Of course, it was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing the city, but you can’t judge a city by the bus tour.

When we returned to the hotel. I met my Dad who had decided to skip the tour. He spent the afternoon sipping pisco sours beside the pool and relaxing. I figure that if anyone deserves to sit and relax, he does.

I headed up to the hotel room at about 3:30pm, and I couldn’t undress fast enough to jump into the big cushy bed and get some sleep. I slept like a log until 5:45 and then I got up and got dressed for dinner and started writing this blog entry. My Dad took a shower and we headed out to the restaurant at 6:30.

(Pause)

I’m back from dinner. We jumped in our little van and headed up a mountain to a stature for the virgin Mary. The statue wasn’t anything amazing; statues are statues the world over. What impressed me the most is that the city of Santiago is built up all around the mountain. It stretched out in all directions almost as far as you could see and was quite breathtaking.

The city of Santiago really surprised me. It is a modern city. It is cleaner than Toronto from what I can tell. The buildings are have a heavy European influence and the city feels very European (certainly more Paris than New York). Of course we see the nice areas with the fancy buildings, but I feel very safe here, and the people all seem very very nice.

The wine has been incredible here. With dinner tonight, we had about a bottle a person, and it was great fun. After the stress of last week, a long flight, and one day in South America, it was a great day experiencing new things and escaping the everyday. There are only a few countries that I would like to return to and visit again, but Chile would definitely be one of them.

It’s only 10:00 now, but I’m going to bed. We have to repack and be ready to have our free breakfast and then catch our van to the ocean for 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Sunday, February 5, 2006 (9:00am)

Right now I am sitting in a van driving from Santiago to Valpariso. It’s about an hour and a half by car. Valpariso is on the coast and we are taking a bit of a tour and then having lunch at a restaurant.

My Dad woke up at 5am and he immediately booted up the computer. He clicked on the light and periodically cursed under his breath at the computer and I would have to get up and rescue him. I wasn’t able to get back to sleep.

At 6:30 I was hungry and thought that I would head down for breakfast before things got really busy. There was a ton of pastries and fresh fruit and was a nice treat since fruit in Toronto these days tastes more like Styrofoam than food.

I headed back upstairs for a shower and to pack up everything that I had strewn throughout the room. I watched a terrible documentary on Brad Pitt and some golf highlights.

My Dad had a panic attack when he realized that we didn’t have our tickets to get onto the boat. In this day and age a real life physical ticket is all but extinct and I told him that all we’ll have to do is show them our passports and they’ll type a little on the computer and we’ll be organized.

Monday, February 6, 2006

Before arriving in Valpairso we stopped at a town called Vino A la Mare. It had a nice beach and we did a quick driving tour of the town. Then we headed into Valpariso.

We took a short funicular ride and then went to a rotating restaurant for lunch. We insisted, however, that we stop at a supermarket to get some wine. Our guide couldn’t believe it, but we knew that they would charge about $30US per bottle on the ship. So we stopped at a grocery store, and we bought all kinds of wine. It was quite amazing. Even though it was a grocery store and not very fancy, we managed to score some great wines. The vin ordinaire that was packaged in a tetra pack cost a grand total of $2.25 CDN and was entirely drinkable; great even. In total we bought 10 bottles of Chilean wine, 18 bottles of beer, and a bag of chips for $65CDN. I expect that the “worst” bottle of wine would be comparable to about a $20 wine from the LCBO. Sadly, we are only allowed to bring back to Canada a paltry 2 bottles per person.

After dinner, we were dropped off at the harbour and, exactly as I predicted, after a few clicks of a mouse our reservations came up and we were registered. We took a short bus ride to the ship and we boarded.

Greeted with a flute of champagne we were escorted to our stateroom. It’s not huge but it is comfortable. We have a balcony with a table and a couple of chairs so that we can sit out and watch the waves as we float along. It really is quite lovely, and reminds me a lot of Saskatchewan as you can see the horizon bends in all directions.

I had a really bad headache so I took a nap while my Dad reconnoitered the ship. I’ve had a headache since my mother’s death and am on a constant ibuprofen regimen. I daresay that it might be a migrane, but that strictly a self diagnosis. I’m using alcohol to dull some of the pain.

I slept for 2 and a half hours and got up at 6:00. I wandered around the ship for a while and searched for anyone that might be in their twenties, but to no avail. Most people on this cruise could be my grandparents, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but is a little uncomfortable. As a result, most ship events are not really my style. For example, there is almost constant Bingo, shuffleboard is huge, and the after dinner show was a tango performance. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I managed to watch a little of the Superbowl. I headed to the Cosmos bar where they had a big screen set up. I was hoping that there would be some younger people there, but it was mainly just a conglomeration of grey haired Americans. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I internetted a little before bed and printed up a bunch of documents for my course. I sent a few emails and then crashed at 12:15.

This morning, I woke up at ten after nine. I showered and got dressed and then grabbed a quick breakfast. I had a mushroom and bacon omelet, two sausages, a fruit salad, croissant, and a cup of yogurt. It was tasty but really rushed because we had our ship safety drill at 10:00.

We all had to be in our rooms where we were to put on our lifejackets and then walk to the muster station and then to our lifeboat stations. It went off without a hitch but I expect in a non-drill situation, there would be significant trampling.

When that ended, my Dad and I went to the tuxedo shop and I bought a tuxedo shirt. Tonight is a formal night and since I managed to dig up a tuxedo (minus the shirt) from my Dad’s closet, I’m dressing up in a monkey suit tonight. It should be fun since I’ve never worn one before.

My Dad headed off for a haircut, and I wandered around looking for a 110 volt North American plus at a quiet place on the ship, but I couldn’t find one. I asked Guest Sevices if they could help me out and they’ve opened up one of the conference rooms for me. I’m sitting in a room with two circular windows that look out upon the rolling waves and a clear blue sky. The ship is rocking slightly from left to right, but nothing that would cause any discomfort.

Right now blogging is my means of procrastinating. I have to get started on my course work now. I finished unit one on the 26th, but haven’t done anything since. Unit 2 is due on the 9th which gives me three days to finish. I’m not at all worried, but I just have to put in the time. I’d much rather be up in a lounge chair beside the swimming pool, but I can take comfort in knowing that my no charge all I can eat lunch is about 37 minutes away.

7:30 pm

I spent the morning and afternoon working on my course. I got a huge amount finished, so I’m sitting pretty. I sucked that I had to work, but it wasn’t that bad. The only problem that was when I was in the computer lab, everyone thought that I worked there. They would come up to me and ask me all kinds of questions. “I don’t work here. I don’t work here” was all that I could say. I suppose that it’s understandable since I am one of the few under 55.

I decided to have lunch at the sit down restaurant. You end up getting seated with strangers so I sat with a merchant captain and his teacher wife from Miami, FL, a Spanish writer and his painter wife, and a tax accountant and his teacher wife from Cleveland, OH. They were all very nice, but I had to make mindless chitchat for an hour. All I wanted was the pad thai, but it really wasn’t any kind of hardship. It was a nice break from my work.

After lunch I headed back and did more work. All these people came in to see if the room I was working in was where the AA meeting was happening. I said no, but I felt badly for them. It must be hard to be on a cruise and not be able to drink. I hope that no one fell off the wagon because I was hogging the room.

I returned to the room and relaxed a bit by writing some postcards. When I headed down to the postbox, I ran into Guy Lafleur. That was pretty cool. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for him later on. When I went to the bank to mail my letters I got chatting with the cashier and he said he was from Vancouver. I asked him frankly how a 29 year old has fun on a cruise with so many seniors and he said that most of the staff will be in the nightclub in the evenings. The only problem, he said, was that in the early stages of a cruise they all have such a huge amount of work and don’t do much partying until things calm down a bit. He said that he worked for 22 hours yesterday. Most of the staff is my age or a little younger so rather than trying to meet the one set of newlyweds on the cruise, I will try to have a few drinks with some of the staff. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Tonight is the formal dinner with the captain, so I’m planning to head down to the casino later on whilst wearing my fancy duds. Maybe a little roulette or some three card poker.

My Dad’s in the shower now and I’m at the desk in the stateroom. I’m having a Cristal and trying to get a buzz on before dinner. For a day of school work, I couldn’t imagine anything better.

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Last night’s dinner was a lot of fun but everyone had a great laugh at my expense when on the way down to the restaurant a gentleman asked me, “le theatro?” I shook my head and said, “I don’t work here.”

The meal was fantastic, as I am coming to expect. After dinner, we went to the theatre to have a free drink and to meet the captain and his crew. It was fine, but the problem was that following the introductions was the Celebrity Cruises’ Tribute to Broadway. I headed out after my wine was finished and hit the casino. I watched people play three card poker for a while, sent some email, and then went to bed.

The wake up call came at 7:20. I got up and took a shower and then went for breakfast. I had a made to order strawberry pancake with whipped cream, two sausages, bacon, and watermelon slices.

After breakfast I rushed back up to the room in order to get packed. Sometime during the night we arrived in the city of Puerto Montt, Chile, and our excursion for the day was a white water rafting trip. I packed up a bathing suit, sunscreen, towels, and a change of clothes. We headed down to the “Rendez Vous Lounge” to meet the rest of our group.

We sat around for about a half an hour before we disembarked and boarded a bus to the Kokayak Rafting Tours.

When we arrived we immediately began a lesson on rafting safety and were told what to do in case we fell out of the boat. I think that everyone, including me, was very nervous about it, but we continued on. We got our wet suits and helmets, changed, and took a short van ride to the river.

I was seated at the front of the boat because I am “a strong man”. We did a brief practice run in calmer waters and headed down the river.

We were all, I think, quite unsure about what we were getting ourselves into but after the first set of rapids (our first soaking) we were all laughing and having a great time. We listened to our guide who told us what to do, and we swished down the 14 kilometre trek down the river beneath the Andes mountain range and the Oronos Volcano. It was quite spectacular and an incredible experience.

When we arrived back at the base camp (for lack of a better term), we changed as quickly as we possibly could since the wet wetsuits were beginning to chafe and were heliuncomfortable. There was food set out for us, and I ate like crazy. We were all very very hungry. They served us what are called pisco sours, which is the national drink of Chile. It’s a very strong lemon based 20% alcoholic drink.

I had no idea that dentists partied so hard. Each one in the group downed 7 glasses. To be honest, I could hardly finish my three glasses, but these dentists were the life of the party. Making jokes (actually funny ones) and laughing like crazy we were certainly the trouble makers. I couldn’t believe it. I bunch of mild mannered Canadian dentists getting smashed after a day of white water rafting. What’s going on here?

We stumbled back to the bus and immediately passed out. We boarded a tender and headed back to the ship. I busted open a beverage and took a shower. My Dad hit the bed and hasn’t moved since.

I’m sitting now on our balcony. I’m listening to my iPod and writing this entry. We are about a half a kilometer from shore. Puetro Montt is a port city with heavy German influences nestled into the hills. Houses are piled around the bay. There are a few high rises, but not many. It is 5:55 local time and the sun is beating down upon me from the West. The sun will set at 9:15 and we will head to dinner at 8:30.

I can’t believe that this is only day three. I could catch a flight right now and be supremely happy with my vacation. To think that there is 11 more days of this is a pleasure that leaves me not only feeling guilty but I can’t express how privileged and lucky I am to be here. It really is a beautiful world and I’m embarrassed at just how little of it I have seen. I just can’t describe the beauty that surrounds me right now.

Wednesday, February 8, 2006
12:36pm

After blogging last night I was very proud of myself for getting to work on my course. I worked like crazy for a couple of hours and got a shockingly large amount finished. I couldn’t get out of the computer lab because so many people asked me questions. They thought that I worked there, but I tried to help them anyway. I helped a few people send emails and simple stuff like that. Everyone was really nice and appreciated that I was doing this to help.

I returned to the room and had to wake my Dad up. He was still feeling it from the afternoon as we headed down to dinner. He ordered a G&T for some hair of the dog action, and he seemed to perk up. We had a nice dinner with his friends who were remarkable quiet and reserved. There were a lot of jokes about the mass consumption of alcohol, and I got a real kick out of it.

When I found out that the show last night was a pianist rocking out to oldies, I decided to head to bed. I watched “National Treasure” and its preview predictable plotline and conclusion.

I woke up at 8:20 and took a shower. I headed to breakfast and ate scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and fresh fruit. It sounds like a lot but the quantity was small. I headed back to the room and got my laptop.

I wasn’t allowed to work in the conference room until 3:00 so I grabbed my iPod and headed to the computer lab. Luckily a staff member was working and I could focus on my own work. That guy was being run off his feet helping people do the simplest things. It really is amazing how little people know about computers. I judge myself to be rather hopeless, but I’m sure he’s seen much worse.

I worked for three hours and got a lot accomplished. I’m finished almost everything. I have to figure out how to transfer the work on my laptop to the internet. It’s going to be a little tricky. The laptop doesn’t have a CD burner so that’s out. It does have a dial up internet connection which might work. I could buy a wireless modem and then connect to the internet directly, but the adapter is $45US and the fee for wireless is $10 a day. I could also buy a USB jumpdrive to transfer the files. I might try to explore the possibility of transferring the files via my iPod, but since I’ve never done that before it’s a real long shot.

I’m heading off to lunch and maybe I’ll see about some exercise or some other activity. It’s a day at sea today and since I’ve been working in all my spare time, it would be nice to do something fun.

7:00pm

After finishing my work and blogging at noon, I wandered around the ship to try to find something to do. I thought that I might play some basketball, but with 45 minutes before it began I returned to the room. I fell asleep until 3:20 and missed it.

I thought that I should get off my butt and do some work to try to get the work on my Dad’s laptop onto the Internet. The tech guys were teaching an Adode Elements class until 5:00 so I decided to go the sports centre to learn how to play paddle tennis at 4:00.

When I arrived people were already playing. I decided to do some running, so I hit the track that is on the upper deck of the ship. I ran two kilometres as the ship sped through the Chilean Fjords. With the Andes on one side and a series of rocky tree covered islands was quite extraordinary. It is intensely beautiful here and it seems that no matter what I’m doing, I seem to be enjoying myself.

I didn’t want to push myself too hard on the first day so I decided to watch some people play paddle tennis. It’s really much like tennis, but is played with a paddle instead of a racket. I suppose that this accomplishes two things: one, it eliminates broken strings; and two, it reduces the velocity of the ball making the game a little slower and much simpler to play. I’ll play one of these days, but for today I was content to watch.

I returned to the room to take a quick shower before meeting with the tech guys at 5:00. I watched some of the Fat Albert movie, and then headed to the lab. As I was changing the maid brought some hors d’ouevres.

When in the lab I presented my problem. How can I transfer my files to the computers in the lab. Here are the options:

1. Floppy disk: No drive on my computer or on the lab computers.
2. CD: No CD burner on my laptop for some insane reason.
3. Wireless Adapter: No wireless on my laptop.
4. Jumpdrive: A good option. In fact I managed to borrow a woman’s jumpdrive and when I plugged it into my USB port the computer wasn’t able to install it. The OS on the laptop is Windows 98 and it doesn’t come with the drivers built in. Since I didn’t have the drivers of CD I couldn’t install.
5. Purchase Jumpstick: As with number 4, but with the added problem of shelling out $117US.
6. Use iPod to transfer files: Again similar problem to 4. I don’t have the iPod drivers.
7. Purchase wireless adaptor: I could have purchased a wireless adaptor but it cost $45US and seemed like a waste.
8. Steal a high speed connection: I found a plug in the conference room but I couldn’t figure out how to connect it. There was probably a way but I wasn’t sure how, and I was afraid of getting caught.
9. Connect via dialup. This was the option that ended up working. I purchased a dial-up kit and hooked it up to the telephone in my stateroom. After some initial problems, one of the tech guys jiggled the cords just right and it worked. This cost $10 for a one day rental of the equipment.

I transferred the files to my Webct course and it appears as though I have finished the unit. I’m waiting to see what will happen when the instructor reads it. I’m worried that I’ve missed something. It is a very odd taking a course from a cruise ship in another hemisphere. I am constantly afraid of being online since the Internet costs 75 cents per minute. Can you imagine having to take an online course in a place that charges $45US an hour for the Internet! It’s insane, but I have to do it if I don’t want to fail the course, lose my $865, and then have to retake it this summer and repay another $865. Despite the cost the alternatives are much more costly.

While connected, I managed to also transfer my blog. I’m hoping to post it sometime soon, but I’m not sure when.

With that taken care of, I typed an email and then began this entry. We are having dinner at the Olympic restaurant which is made out of materials that we on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic. It’s supposed to be fancy and my Dad says that it is really nice. That starts at 8:30. I’m heading back to my room now to have a beer(s) and watch the scenery go by.

Thursday, February 9, 2006

We arrived at dinner at 8:30. The restaurant was really fancy and we decided to have the exclusive menu with butterfly service. Each of the 6 courses had a specially selected glass of wine to complement the food.

The meal began with a salmon pate with caviar. The soup was a roasted pepper and mozzarella bisque. One of the highlights of the meal was a goats cheese soufflé. After that we cleansed our palates with a mango and pomegranate sorbet. My entrée of rack of lamb en croute melted in my mouth. (My Dad said that his beef was the best steak he had ever had and after 61 years of eating steak that’s saying something). After the main course we had a selection of cheeses with a glass of port. For desert, I had the Grand Marnier soufflé.

We stumbled back to our rooms at 12:35 and crashed until 8:00.

Today is another day at sea. We are at the Skua glacier right now. I had a quick shower and breakfast and headed up to the 14th deck to see the glacier. The crowds were insane up there. People were all lined up trying to get a picture. It was a little claustrophobic and there must have been about 6000 photographs taken up there. After getting rained on a little, I headed to the computer room to escape the craziness and to type this. I can see the glacier over the top of my computer screen.

There isn’t much to it, but it is quite beautiful. There is a large mountain in the back ground and two smaller mountains in the foreground that come all the way down to the water on the left and right side. In the middle is a large swell of ice that comes all the way down to the surface of the water. The ice is jagged and has a bluish hue with some dirt near the mountains. The water is specked with large chunks of ice that seem to sit much like ice cubes in a glass.

1:30pm

I wandered around the ship for a while this morning. I sent a Valentine’s Day card but sadly I don’t think that it’s going to arrive for another 2 weeks. I tried, though. I was all set to join a Bridge class, but I found out that it was for intermediate players and since I have never played Bridge in my life I didn’t want to join an intermediate class with a bunch of fanatics.

So I instead headed back to the room to watch a movie. It is a cold, overcast, and rainy day out. We are almost at the southern tip of South America and even though it is summer here, it’s comparable to the Canadian Arctic in the summertime. It’s pleasant, but you still need to wear a sweater and with it pissing rain, most people are staying indoors.

I feel asleep watching TV and woke up at about a quarter to 1. I headed up for lunch. I was really disappointed with the food today. It was very salty and all the seats were taken so rather than sitting with anyone, I decided to eat standing up at a bar. I ended up having a salad and some fruit.

So now I’m here typing again. I checked in on my course and it looks like I’ve successfully completed Unit 2. The next one is due on the 23rd. I will try to poke around and do some during the cruise, but I’m not going to panic as I have this week. This last unit was very hard, because with my mother’s death I wasn’t able to work and I fell far behind and had to do it all in a couple of days. A good lesson to avoid procrastination.

I’m not sure what the afternoon will hold. I’m planning to take an “Abs Blast” lesson/workout at 6:00 but until then, who knows?