Cruise Thoughts

I had a pretty good time on the cruise. I really appreciated the luxury of a cabin with clean sheets and a private bath, especially since the day before Simon and I got on the boat, we did a three day backpacking trip through mud, rain and hail in the mountains of Ushuaia (but I must say the two days of rain, were definitely worth it for the third day, when we walked out along the side of this amazing valley). So after sleeping in a wet sleeping bag, I was really psyched to be on the Aloha Deck.

My parents are huge fans of of cruises, but I always poo pooed them. While I had a pretty good time on our trip, it was mainly because we traveled with other backpackers we had met before, not because of the buffets, dinner shows and casino. In fact, we skipped the dinner shows and casino, leaving us plenty of time to goof off on the boat, whale watch, and drink in our cabins. There were also a bunch of lectures so you could be edjumacated on Antarctica properly. Simon and I fell asleep at all of them.

Other Passengers

The demographic of the rest of boat was very much old and white. And while our fellow passengers were really friendly and sweet (one man, Wayne, even paid for our wine at dinner because he took pity on the poor backpackers and admired what we were doing), it wasn´t exactly the crowd who´d get down to Usher at the "Charleston Club."

The Scandal of the Cheap Tickets (this entry is now hijacked by Simon)

During the cruise, a rumor got out among the other passengers that a bunch of young people had scored $680 tickets. This sparked a minor uprising at the reception desk, where people insisted on room upgrades. A sign saying "No upgrades are possible due to a full ship" appeared at the desk the next morning. Clearly something was going around. During a landing, one of the ship´s naturalists turned away from the penguins, sidled up to Alan and whispered, "So how much did you get the tickets for?"

The rumor continues to evolve throughout the cruise - an older woman approached Alix, one of our group, and asked her if she was one of those "Australian backpackers who had traveled to Ushuaia on a truck." Being neither Australian nor a trucker, and knowing nobody on board who fit that description, Alix had to say no. "Oh. You know they´re the young people with smiles on their faces," the lady said.

To add to the intrigue, we later learned that the Miami Lady who sold us the tickets no longer worked at Norwegian Cruise Lines. We have no idea why, but you have to wonder. She did sell a whole bunch of them at the last minute.

Our crew of backpackers, all of whom bought tickets from Miami Lady, included:

Alan and Janine - our friends from the Inca Trail. Alan went on to win two Marco Polo ping pong championships, taking home a duffel bag and insulated beer bag as prizes. He beat up on an old Japanese woman and a 60-year old American man in the finals. Janine suffered from seasickness both coming and going across the Drake Passage, but managed to recover and have a great time. She turned 33 on board.

Holger - the German guy who started it all when he told Alan about the 1000 euro online deal. When he saw our price he called Miami Lady and got another ticket. He just had to find one more person to share the cabin with him - they wouldn´t sell him a private room at that price. After reviewing applications from eager backpackers, he found Alix (see below). Holger meticulously recorded every aspect of the cruise on his three cameras, including penguins, whales, and waiters parading around the Baked Alaska at dinner to the tune of "In the Navy." (This was one of the more gay moments of the cruise, followed closely by all the waiters singing "So Long, Farewell" on the last night. Another campy bit was the nightly announcement for dinner playing "Don´t Cry for Me Argentina" on a xylophone.)

Alix - we spent New Years with Alix in Buenos Aires. We got along really well with her (an exception when it comes to other travellers) and were plesantly suprised to see Holger had chosen her as a cabin mate. We didn´t even know she was in Ushuaia. Being able to do the cruise with her was an unexpected benefit of missing the ship the previous week. Alix´s drive to see wildlife was unparalleled. She got up at 6am every morning to stand in the cold on the bow, hoping to catch a glimpse of a humpback, orca, or minke whale.

Yossi - a young Israeli who heard about the tickets through the grapevine and scored the last berth on the ship. In fact, he bought the ticket so close to the deadline that the crew was still using his cabin as a storage room when he got on board. When we got back to Ushuaia, Yossi found that he had become quite famous among the Israeli backpacker network (which is enormous, by the way). Other Israelis would spot his complimentary Marco Polo expedition jacket and say, "So you´re the guy who went to Antarctica for $680!"

Marcus and Alexandra - A Swiss father-daughter team traveling through Argentina together. Marcus was the only one of us who actually had a proper suit to wear to the formal dinners on board. He arrived in Ushuaia from Switzerland after Alexandra bought the tickets, so was able to bring clothes from home. The rest of us guys borrowed navy blue blazers and shiny polyester black pants from the crew and wore hiking boots as our formal shoes. My blazer smelled like an armpit.

(blog unhijacked, back to Louie)

The Food? - eh

As for the provisions, I must say I was terribly disappointed. Maybe food on other cruise lines is better, but the Marco Polo served mass produced conference fare that had been overcooked so that it was barely edible. No need to publish any food porn here. (One exception - For afternoon tea, they made these great meringue cookies with a chocolate ganache of some kind.) Despite the unremarkable food, we still managed to stuff ourselves sick. It was hard to turn down free eats after watching our budget for the last couple of months.

Penguins and Their Poo

I was thrilled by my first step onto Antarctica and first penguin sighting. I got greedier as the time went by and I found myself wanting more and more. I LOVED the penguins. I could watch them for hours, even though they´re pretty filthy animals and their colonies stunk of penguin poo. (At every landing, before getting back on board, a team of men would scrub the guano off our boots. I´m not sure who was more humiliated, them or us.) Sadly, our landings were very limited in scope. We were always fenced into an area that was just a couple of city blocks long. While I was glad to see that they were limiting the environmental impact on the continent, it was frustrating to see such a small bit of it. I definitely wouldn´t consider Antartica "done."

okay, now after seven days of luxury, we´re heading to bariloche to do more camping!