South American & Chilean Fjords – on to the New Year

Happy Hogmanay Day!
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with celebrating the year in true Scottish style. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party is famous around the world, with visitors traveling from around Scotland and beyond to soak up the Scottish celebrations. Nobody knows for sure where the word ‘Hogmanay’ came from. It may have originated from Gaelic or from Norman-French. What we do know, is that in Scotland, it means a good time surrounded by friends, ceilidh dancing and laughter. Famous Scottish poet Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne is sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight, not just in Scotland but in many countries around the world.

So, Happy Hogmanay Day to all!

It’s hard to believe that we have been on the ship for THIRTEEN days and have another five before we disembark in Buenos Aires!

Little bits of information: I have received questions about the weather down here. Everyone thinks it is always warm, but as we found out, that is not true, even though this is South America’s summer (the seasons are reversed from North America). And the days are much longer.

.                       Temp  Sunrise   Sunset
18 December   68      6:33         8:53
19 December   65      6:34         8:54
20 December   64     6:30         9:17
21 December   72      6:14          9:25
22 December   48     6:05         9:57
23 December   47     5:44       10:16 (Amalia Glacier – avg temp 0)
24 December   60     5:14       10:12
25 December   61      4:54      10:14
26 December   40     4:42      10:10 (Cape Horn – water temp 46)
27 December   44     4:14         9:30
28 December   51     4:34         9:12
29 December   51     5:04         9:07
30 December   80    5:44         9:01
31 December   64     5:41         8:44

Between Amalia Glacier and Cape Horn are lots of glaciers and pretty hefty winds. Cape Horn is just a little over 400 miles from Antarctica, where the temperature ranges from -76 to 14 degrees.

Sorry, but more beautiful sunrises!

Thursday was a day at sea so there isn’t much to report.

PUERTO MADRYN, ARGENTINA
Puerto Madryn is Argentina’s second-largest fishing port, nestled in a cove protected by mountains. In the 19th century, Argentina encouraged emigration from European countries to come to this remote Patagonian area. Welsh immigrants arrived and settled along the Chubut River. They came to be able to perpetuate their Welsh traditions and language, which Britain had banned.
 

GAIMAN, ARGENTINA
As we drove (for over an hour) to the Welsh town of Gaiman, the landscape was desolate and the most uninhabitable desert with scrub bushes. You could understand why the Welsh kept moving and settled in a more hospitable place. However, there were several wind turbine farms along the way. What was interesting is that all the power and telephone poles are poured concrete – there is almost no trees so they had to use something else.

Welsh tea is a Welsh family custom. It is part of the culture of Gaiman and tourists find it to be entertained in different “Tea Houses”: Tea with its typical Welsh black cake, cream cake, walnut cake, apple pie,  chocolate cake with cream, and cakes with fruits, sweets and regional butter, scones and homemade bread. We had  tea at Ty Gwyn Casa del Té.

The schools in Gaiman teach both Gaelic/Welsh and Spanish so all children area bilingual. During our tea a choir sang to us in Welsh.

This was a surprise and enjoyable, but driving one hour to-and-fro to have tea and hear them sing made this one of the worse excursions so far. Instead of commenting about what we were seeing, the guide slept most of the way. Unfortunately for her, she asked me to fill out a comment card and she wasn’t very happy about my polite, but accurate assessment. When we leave the ship we will make sure and note that on the comments.

Gaiman is a cultural and demographic centre of the main region of the Welsh settlement in Argentina, known in Welsh as Y Wladfa Gymreig. Settled 1885, they have preserved the first house built; they have intentional built in the Welsh manner to preserve their heritag. The town’s name originates in an indigenous Tehuelche place-name meaning “rocky point.” The school looks more like a church.

This was an interesting structure in a flat field – never didn’t find out what it was.
 
 
 
 
 
NEW YEAR’S EVE
New Year’s Eve was quite an event onboard. Everyone got a hat or tiara and noisemaker, and there were balloons all over the ship. It was fun watching the crew try to create balloon arches when the boat was rocking and the winds blowing.

Twenty-two of the LGBTQIA+ cruisers met before dinner for ‘special’ drinks – I can forego rainbow-colored sparkling wine for a long time. However, I discovered that lavender liqueur in it is really good. They had reserved an area in the restaurant for us.

Almost all of us had crispy soft-shelled crab, lobster thermador, and Grand Marnier souffles. In place of the crab, I had a Russian salad made with beef tongue (ok, Alison, you can gag!), which I hadn’t had in a long, long time. The wine flowed and no one was feeling any pain. This was the only meal served, and can’t imagine how many people it took to make perfect souffles for all these people!

We have met a couple women from Ithaca NY and can see that we will become fast friends. We have several meals with them. Ithaca is a good stopping point from the northeast, so they may be seeing us again.

Viking had removed the partitions between the pool deck and Wintergarten, making a huge area for the celebration. Entertainment started at 9:30 and ran continuously until after midnight. We were talking to Edward, the Cruise Director, and he had many burner phones around the area all calibrated on the same time so they wouldn’t miss midnight. The ship operates on GPS time, which can be as much as 1 minute off in either direction.

Karen went up to the party, but I came back down fairly soon because there really wasn’t anyone we knew; most of the guys in our group had done the same. I went back to the room where they were livestreaming the whole thing so I could get off my leg.

The requisite midnight kiss was delivered and I fell asleep. Karen stayed awake to listen to the OSU-Georgia football game until the final field goal that sealed OSU’s fate.

Here’s to 2023, which, surely, will be better than 2022.