More Penguins!!!
I wanted to see penguins on this trip. My early research was not looking very optimistic. There was something from Puerto Montt that required a boat, in Punta Arenas, one place that was a shorter bus drive had closed down, they had another that required a rough 30-60 minute boat with some feedback that the boats were not in good shape, Falklands could be a missed port due to weather and rough seas, and Puerto Tombo was a 3 hour drive from Puerto Madryn. I decided on Puerto Tombo and to book the cruise ship excursion to be sure to get there. A few on our role call drove with no issue and faster than the bus drive.
I booked on myncl early. When you book online now, you cannot just reserve and use onboard credit to pay later; you have to pay then with a credit card. After I booked, they changed the Latitudes program to offering a discount on shore excursions. We read about people getting money back. When we were boarded (we had a long list of to-dos right after boarding and boarded late), we asked about a refund for the discount and also had planned to book a tour on the last day in Buenos Aires with tour, luggage storage, and drop off at the airport after. They gave us onboard credit for the discount, and we got the second excursion booked.
The excursion was at the crack of dawn. We took entertainment for the bus.
Large dinosaur. Our tour guide mentioned it coming up, so we got our cameras ready.
We saw several Guanaco.
I guess the sun was in my eyes. We stopped to visit the restroom here, while our tour guide got our tickets. We had great weather here too! Warming up -- short sleeves. The tour guide noted it was normally windy.
We found penguins. Penguin nest; they nest in holes in the ground.
Lots of nests. They liked hanging out under this bridge for the shade.
With molting, he looked like he had a long neck. The babies were hatched and molting to turn into adults. Molting from the side.
Birds; I don't remember what kind.
Aww and more shade.
Pretty surf; the penguins are enjoying a day at the beach.
So many! Puerto Tombo has around 1 million penguins; about 75% were still there when we visited.
This penguin was here for a while letting people pose for pictures. I was afraid to get too close since penguins have right away.
Do you see the armadillo?
Hawk on the root ball or branch pile.
More animals posing by their sign.
Details about the penguins. We saw Magellanic penguins here and at the Falklands. On the Falklands, they have other types of penguin at Volunteer Point. I heard that those who went really enjoyed it. We decided not to try the 4x4, long drive.
After our time in the penguin reserve, we had time for a restroom break and to grab our lunch from the bus rider. I believe that they had a gift shop too. We went back to our seats to eat. The box lunch had a sandwich, chips, apple, and a dulce de leche brownie and a bottled water. We left while still eating and had to find a place to hold our lunch box when done. Our tour guide / bus driver stopped at a rest stop for a restroom break on the way there but drove straight the almost 3 hours back. It was quieter on the way back; I read a full Reader's Digest. When back in Puerto Madryn, they offered to either drop us off still in town at the beginning of the pier or at the ship. We were ready to go back to the ship, so stayed on. Quite a few people did get off. View of Puerto Madryn from the ship; it was a long pier.
Sea Day
March 21, 2017
Today was the crew talent show with the famous fountains segment. We made bead lizards key chains with the cruise director's staff; they were hard. We collected participation signatures for prizes at the end of the cruise. Our prize at the end was a deck of cards. On a 7 night cruise, we got 2 pens, a flashlight, and a deck of cards. We must have a participated less, and "prices" must have gone up. We also played their golf putting game.
We had dinner at Four Seasons (where the tables are close together). The couple next to us was showing each waiter that came by certificates in an envelope. I read about people on another cruise line getting a rounding the Horn certificate, so I wondered. After they showed it to someone else, I politely (I was nosy) ask what they had. They showed it, and they had rounding Horn certificates. They were very nice certificates. I asked where they got them. They noted Guest Services, and that they were platinum plus. We figured it was worth a shot, so we stopped by after dinner. He looked something up on the computer, said he had to check something in the back, and then told us they would deliver them to our room. Yay!
Let me also take this light day chance to review the TV. It is flat screen now, but not too much bigger than the previous box one. We had 2 movie channels in English and one in Spanish. On the English ones, there were Spanish subtitles. This drove my husband crazy. He kept trying to read and translate them. I guess when we normally watch movies with subtitles, we are supposed to be reading them, or we don't understand the movie. He could not make himself ignore them. It did not bother me. I watched Sully; I had not seen it. I also watched part of Jack Reacher. The Spanish channel did not have English subtitles, unfortunately. We got a TV schedule from guest services at the beginning of the cruise; this included a channel guide and movie schedule (which was not completely accurate). We also had two sitcom channels that had only 2 episodes of each series -- eek! I watched the first Friends three times. The barn-dium Chip and Joanna episode, and Mike and Molly - Molly gets a hat. They need more than 2 episodes. We always go to the Not So Newly Wed game show, but missed it for some reading this time. I caught it on TV later.
Also today, there was a time slot to pick up our passports. I remembered our passport claim form this time (vs when we took it to Ushuaia). Others did not and were filling out the form there. The process was slower and had a longer line than I expected. I went while my husband went to the trivia. I expected to be back in time to join him, but did not get back until they were done. The other odd thing was that we had not been stamped into Uruguay yet. I guess they do not required it...; we found out potentially more about that later.