Alaska cruise August 2023

Left Montreal for Vancouver to board the Sapphire Princess on the 23rd.

Sapphire Princess

We had a cabin with a balcony (smaller than expected) on the 12th beck. Princess is recognized for the quality of food but have not been impressed.

The boat made 3 stops; Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, in addition to entering Glacier Bay (only 3 companies have permission to navigate there).

Itinéraire

We did some searches before departure to know what to wear and what to see and we chose our excursions accordingly. Unfortunately, we have not seen bears, wild goats, or eagles, but we have seen many marine animals including whales. I took 2 cameras: The Sony Cybershot for landscapes and the Nikon Z6ii with the 100-400 zoom for animals.

Before our departure, we expected to have cold and rainy weather, but the weather was gorgeous during our trip!

On the 25th in Ketchikan, we attended a Lumberjack show and then visited the Bight Totem Park and made a city tour during which we could see the salmon swimming up the rivers.

On the 26th in Juneau, we went to see the Mendenhall glacier and, in the afternoon, took a boat excursion to see the whales. The weather was ideal and we were spoiled by the show the whales put up.

On the 27th in Skagway, we took the White Pass Train at an altitude of more than a thousand meters, a good part of the road to reach the train was in the clouds, at certain times we did not see 5 meters ahead. After that went to a ranch to do the panning followed by a barbecue (not good). In the afternoon we went for a walk in town (tiny).

On the 28th at sea, the boat entered the Glacier Bay, The weather was superb, and we were treated to a wonderful glacier show. At the front of the boat, it was extremely cold, we had to wear winter clothes, tuque, scarf, gloves … We also saw some seals, otters, and orcas.

On the 29th College Fjord in the mist

On the 30th Anchorage, the ship docked very early in the morning in Wittier, disembarked and took a bus to Anchorage for the flight to Vancouver.
The 31st back to Montreal.

Cape Horn Cruise

23 day trip, started in Buenos Aires, where we spent 5 days, followed by a 14 day cruise on the Norvegian Star, 2,300 passengers, which took us around Cape Horn to the port of San Antonio at Chile, from there transfer to Santiago to take the plane back.

Our cruise

We really liked Buenos Aires, a very beautiful city that reminded us a lot of Paris. Very beautiful avenues, buildings with architecture from the beginning of the 20th century, very beautiful parks, beautiful statues everywhere.

Our hotel was in a great location, opposite the obelisk, very close to the Colon Theater and near a superb park, Lavalle. We have adopted a charming bistro a stone’s throw from the hotel “Le Petit Colon” for our coffee breaks.

Took a city tour, visit the famous Recoleta cemetery, the La Boca district and a superb 3 De Febrero garden. Went to  a Tango dinner show

One day, we went to see the Iguazu Falls, 2 hours by plane, very impressive. A tiring day, we walked for almost 4 hours under a blazing sun.

Iguazu Falls

We really enjoyed the cruise, the boat was very good, food, in general excellent, courteous and kind services, high quality shows, lots of activities every day to keep you busy if you wanted. We had a cabin with balcony on deck number nine, very comfortable and well designed.

Norvegian Star

The boat made 6 stops, Montevideo in Uruguay, Puerto Madryn in Argentina, Stantley in the Falkland Islands, Ushuaia in Argentina and Punta Arenas, Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Montt in Chile. We took 6 excursions, 4 were excellent, one was OK and one bad.

In Montevideo we did not take an excursion but went down for a walk, we ended up on a corniche which reminded us a lot of that of Alexandria.

In Puerto Madryn and the In Puerto Madryn and the Falklands we visited penguin colonies, saw an albino penguin, something very rare.

Pingouins

At the Falklands

In Punta Arenas we went to a sheep farm, where we were treated to demonstrations; shepherd dog, swimming and shearing sheep.  We were welcomed with Pisco Sour cocktail and an excellent meal of braised mutton was served with Chiliean wines.

Shearing of a sheep

Berger avec chien

In Ushuaia and Puerto Montt we are we went on catamaran trips and visited national parks, perfect weather (incredible! We were told to dress warmly, but it was not really necessary) and breathtaking landscapes

Volcan

Magda and I were a great team taking  a lot of photos.

The weather was ideal during the whole trip, which is remarkable because it is often windy, the sea is rough and it rains in this corner of the world. At Cape Horn, where the weather was superb, the captain, who was Greek, said “This is what happens when the captain speaks the language of Poseidon“.

At the Cape Horn

In 2 places, at Cape Horn and in front of the Chilean fjords the captain had the boat made a 360 degrees so that everyone could admire the view.

Taken nearly 2,000 photos, we had 2 cameras, the Nikon D750 with 2 lenses, including the 200-500, The CyberShot and my Galaxy phone.

In Santiago again the hotel was very well located. Took a city tour and then stroll a bit to the Plaza de Armas. We witnessed a shoplifting theft in a pharmacy, where the security guard caught the thieves. ”

Santiago is a beautiful city unfortunately disfigured by graffiti, the result of violent demonstrations that took place in the fall.

Quelques photos du voyage

20200208 - Comptoir postal du bout du monde au parc national de la Terre de Feux

DSC2200 Canal Beagle

DSC6581 - Glacier Chilien

DSC6593 Glacier Chilien

DSC6561 - Baptême du cap Horn

DSC6598 - Glacier Chilien

DSC6629 Levé du lune dans le détroit de Magellan

DSC6668 - Coucher de soleil

DSC6695 - Berger

DSC6707 - Estanca Fitz Roy

DSC6786 - Estanca Fitz Roy

DSC6857 - Glacier Chilien

DSC6768 - Berger Chilien Estanca Fitz Roy

DSC6865 Sur notre Balcon

DSC2244 - Sur notre Balcon

DSC6926 Au prc National Simpson, Chili

DSC6955 - Ciel, détroit de Magellan

DSC6962 - Coucher de soleil

DSC6963 - Tender

DSC6989 - Sur le lac Esmeralda

DSC2284 - Lac Esmeralda

DSC2326 - Cake Challenge

DSC7007 - Volcan Osomo - Chili

DSC2296 - Volcan Osomo - Chili

20200214 104709

DSC7082 - Saint François d'Assises

20200215 À Santiago

20200216 Café à la Plza des Armas, Santiago

DSC1718 Buenos Aires, La Copa

DSC1648 Bunos Aires l'Obelisque

DSC6287 Bébé Pingouin aux Malouines

20200206 - Le Bateau l'atrium

20200206 Au café, Bluff Cove Lagoon, Malouines

20200201 - Café, le petit Colon

DSC2044 - À Stanley au Malouines

20200213 - Sur le lac Esméralda à Puerto Varas

DSC2289 - Lac Esmeralda

DSC6315 Pingouin Royal aux Malouines

20200216 - À Santiago

DSC7147 - Photograph de rue à Santiagp

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Trip to Peru

Machu Pichu

In a nutshell:

Beautiful trip, but tiring (more than the brochure led to believe). 18 days including travel days.

Our favorites: visit the Uros on Lake Titicaca, the condors, the breathtaking landscapes, the Machu Pichu, the Nazca lines.

The disappointments: the lodge in Amazonia (Tours Chanteclerc changed the original lodge, and the one chosen was of a lower category). Parrots that we did not see. Missing theThe Ballestas Islands due to rough seas.

Sur l’île de Taquile

Very good guide from Arequipa to Cusco. The local guides were, generally good.

We were a group of twelve people.  The rest of the group took American Airlines and had a lot of problems (the flights to and from Lima were canceled!). We decided to take Air Canada which forced us to stay an extra, very pleasant, day in Lima at the end. The flights were Montreal – Toronto – Lima / Lima – Toronto – Montreal.

We absolutely wanted to see Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca, Nazca lines, and the Ballestas Islands.

Ligne de Nasca

Alpaga

Condor

Au Marché

The tour in Peru was: Lima – Arequipa – Chivay –Puno – Cusco – Puerto Maldonado – Lima – Paracas – Lima. See the map. We spent more than a week above 3,800 meters and crossed a pass at 4,900 meters!

As far as I am concerned, photography was one of the main goals of the trip. I thought a lot about the gear to take. Finally I decided to take 2 cameras, a zoom, a flash and a portable tripod, I did not use the flash.  Here is the equipment I took: Nikon D750 Camera with Nikon 24-85 mm lens  and a 200-500 f5.6 Nikon Zoom, Sony RX100 Camera, Nikon SB 600 flash, Trident TaI456 tripod.

Pélican

Flamand Rose

Tissage

I wanted 2 camera bodies, not to have to change lenses when the zoom was mounted on the D750. I chose the Sony camera because it takes photos in RAW at 21 Megapixels and I do not need a powerful zoom with it. I was very pleasantly surprised by the photos it took. The tripod allowed me to take (for the first time) photos of stars

More details are in my daily log (to come later).

The slide shows