The Vacation of a Lifetime

As I've mentioned before, the Christmas season didn't feel quite right this year. I'm attributing that to the fact that I spent my entire Christmas vacation on a cruise in South America. Starting in Valparaíso, Chile, which is about two hours northwest of Santiago, and ending in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Everything about the cruise ship itself was new and different; living on a giant boat for two weeks takes some getting used to. As much as I liked being able to relax and have no worries whatsoever, my favorite part of the cruise experience was definitely the shore excursions and touring cities. 

We visited Santiago, Valparaíso, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, Stanley, Puerto Madryn, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires; it's easier to just say that we went to Chile, sailed around Cape Horn to Argentina, and stopped in the Falkland Islands and Uruguay as well. It is truly incredible to think about how far we travelled in such a short amount of time. I absolutely loved this vacation and everywhere we visited. Each city had something unique that defined it. I simply couldn't take enough pictures to capture the unique beauty of each city, but here are some pictures I took that basically show what we did in each port.

Santiago, Chile

The first city we toured was Santiago. Although we did many things, including visiting old churches and squares, the thing I enjoyed the most was viewing the city from the helicopter pad on top of the tallest building in Santiago. A friend of ours works in this building and took us on top.

Valparaíso, Chile

Valparaíso, Chile

The next city was Valparaíso, it was also where we boarded the cruise ship. The views in Valparaíso were breathtaking. My favorite things about this city were the colors, shapes, and alignments of the buildings. Most walls had graffiti, but it was more like art than what we see most of the time. We didn't have much time there, but it was really enjoyable to walk through the streets and learn about the city from our tour guide. Valparaíso was the first city in Chile.

Emerald Lake
Puerto Montt, Chile

Puerto Montt, Chile

Our first shore excursion was in Puerto Montt. We traveled by bus to Emerald Lake, named for its emerald-colored water, and went around the lake on a catamaran. The water is so blue because it is glacier water. The Andes mountains are rich with copper, so when the glaciers slide down the mountainside and cut into it, some of the copper is deposited into the water. Thus giving it its beautiful color.

Punta Arenas, Chile

Next we went to Punta Arenas, were we saw the Magellanic Penguins.

Ushuaia, Argentina

One of my favorite cities we visited was Ushuaia, also known as The End of the World because it is so far south. We took another catamaran and saw sea lions. This was really interesting and fun, but my favorite part about it was how beautiful the mountains looked from the water.

Stanley, The Falkland Islands

Since it was Sunday, we went to church while we were in Stanley. This was a really interesting experience because there are only about four active members of the LDS faith on the entire island, so our meeting was held in the branch president's house. We spent most of the day with his family because it was rainy outside and there wasn't much we could do.

Sea Kayaking
Puerto Madryn, Argentina

On New Year's Day, we went sea kayaking and saw sea lions again. It was really cool because they are very curious and will swim very close to your kayak.

Montevideo, Uruguay

Almost all the cities we went to had markets on the streets. I really enjoyed looking through the various markets in Montevideo.

Buenos Aires,  Argentina

We went to a cemetery while in Buenos Aires that was fascinating to walk through. All of the tombs were huge and cost thousands of dollars to construct. Cemeteries in South America are typically quite different from those in the United States.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation in South America trying new things, I was extremely happy to finally be back in the United States, getting back to a familiar lifestyle.