We made it home!

We made all of the connecting flights and made it to Salt Lake right on time. We landed and went directly to Instacare to make sure Quent didn't have a nasty South American virus. Luckly for us it was just a nasty head cold. He slept most of Sunday and was a trooper on the six hour drive home. He's been in bed most of the week and is hoping to get back to work on Monday.

Pictures of the trip are coming soon...

Hurry up and Wait!!!

We made it to the airport in Santiago, Chile this morning at 10:45 a.m. this morning and found out that the Delta counter doesn't open until 6:40 p.m. and our flight doesn't take off until 9:40 p.m. We knew our flight wasn't until later but we were hoping to check in and then take a cab to take a tour of the city, however this plan was slightly altered once we got to the airport and realized we were stuck with our four large bags. So we decided to end the trip the way we started it and camp out in the airport. Free wireless is the best!

We hope to have a photo gallery posted early next week of all the amazing sites of South America.

Here's hoping our flights are on time and that we make our connection in Atlanta!

Cindy & Quent.

We found the end of the world!

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind at the end of the world. Cindy started to get sick on Wednesday and ended up visiting the ship’s doctor on Friday morning, not to worry, three days on antibiotics and I’m back up and running.

Friday we sailed around Cape Horn, an island at the southern tip of South America.

On Saturday we went to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most city in the world. Quent and I went on a tour of the Tierra Del Fuego National Park which was simply amazing. The national park is over run with Canadian beavers which were introduced in the early 1940’s and is the only animal in the park that is not protected by law. The only animals we saw on the tour were a few rabbits and some birds. The scenery of the national park rivaled that of the mirror lake highway in Utah. The tour was about four hours. We travelled down the Pan-American Highway to the end of the world which ended at a lake in the park. After the tour we walked through the town and picked up a few souvenirs. Saturday night we cruised through the Beagle Channel and saw some amazing glaciers which Quent is now referring to as the Chilean Glacier Fields. We took over 300 pictures on Saturday.

On Sunday our day started a bit earlier than expected as the ship wake up call didn’t adjust with the time change so we got a wake up call at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m. Following the early rise we took a two hour ferry ride to see the penguins at the Natural Penguin Reserve on Magdelena Island. There were over 140,000 penguins on the island and it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat. They burrow into the ground and create caves to protect their eggs. They were in the process of molting and preparing for the winter months up north. Following the penguin reserve we toured the town of Punta Arenas, Chile on a Sunday afternoon. Most of the shops were closed but they did have a small flea market set up in the town square and we were able to pick up a few things. We enjoyed a show on the cruise Sunday night, it was acrobatic impressionist dancers that are much more flexible than Quent and I.

Monday and Tuesday we will be “at sea” and Wednesday we will be Puerto Montt, Chile. Thursday will be at sea and Friday we visit La Serena, Chile. Saturday we dock at Valparaiso, Chile and fly out Saturday night from Santiago, Chile. We’ll be home Sunday morning providing all of our connections are made.

We hope you’re enjoying the pictures so far. We will be creating a photo gallery once we are home.

This is a view of Ushuaia, Argentina from the ship

Tierra Del Fuego National Park

Tierra Del Fuego National Park

One of the really cool glaciers!

Cindy in front of one of the glaciers. The wind was really blowing.

The black dots on the picture are all of the penguins we saw at the National Reserve

A view of the lighthouse we hiked to

A molting penguin

Quent in front of the Magellan statue in Punta Arenas

Not finding any diet coke on this trip, it's all Coke Zero!

Greetings from Argentina!

Greetings from South America! It was quite an adventure getting to the cruise but now that we’re three days into our vacation, the time spent in Atlanta was well worth it.

We were so excited when we landed in Buenos Aries, unfortunately we were unable to see any of the city. We grabbed our luggage (part of it anyway) and we were off to a shuttle to take us to the cruise port. The cruise port was just a regular shipping yard with old buildings, not the lush terminal we had used in Florida 18 months ago.

Unfortunately not all of luggage made the airplane out of Atlanta, when we boarded the plane we knew that it would be an issue as we had changed our flight twice that day but felt we’d rather fly direct on Delta (the friendly skies) rather than connect to a Brazilian airline in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We did get one of our bags with clothes in it and the other had our shoes, our toiletry bags (everything but Cindy’s makeup that is) and other necessary items. The ship was very accommodating and gave us some laundry vouchers and some t-shirts to wear, we’re lucky we did get some of our clothes because I don’t think anyone needs to see either one of us in a size Large t-shirt. Our lost bags caught up to us today (Wednesday) and we’re good to go.

On Monday, our first stop on the cruise, we were in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. We decided not to take one of the tours offered on the ship and to do our own thing. Once we crossed the ocean on a very bumpy tender ride we were approached by some locals to take a city tour, and so we did. We waited about 45 minutes for an English speaking guide and five of us went on a tour of the area, which was a lot of fun. We were able to get up close and personal to see some sea lions and we took a tour of a house of a famous painter of Uruguay that looked a lot like a Dr. Seuss house.

Tuesday was a day at sea, we slept in and had room service and just lounged around the pool for most of the afternoon. The water was a bit choppy on Tuesday and the wind was a bit cool but overall a great day.

Today we were in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, a small coastal town about halfway down the country on the Atlantic. We got off the ship this morning and walked around the shops and Quent spent sometime walking along the shore line collecting sea shells. We didn’t take an excursion offered by the cruise line today as they were not very enticing and we had such a great time in Uruguay that we figured we could do our own thing again today. We stopped in a grocery story to pick up some bottled water and I was amazed at all of the products they were selling that were the same in the states, the only difference, the labels were in Spanish not English.

We will update again sometime during the trip, not sure when but hopefully after the Chilean Fjords.

Thursday – At Sea

Friday – Cape Horn, Chile

Saturday – Ushuaia, Argentina

Sunday – Punta Arenas, Chile

Monday – Strait of Magellan

Tuesday – Chilean Fjords

All Aboard! We now know where to go in case of an emergency.

Sunset picture, day 2

Sea Lions posing for a picture.

Museum in Uruguay, looks like a Dr. Seuss house to me.

Quent playing shuffle board.

The wind was blowing....

Stuck in Atlanta

Quent and I have now been in Atlanta for 12 hours and we'll be here another 11 before we take off. Our flight from Salt Lake yesterday was delayed due to a mechanical issue, we were supposed to take off at 1:55 p.m. and we didn't take off until 6 p.m. We knew when we left we were going to miss our connection but we were told it was better to be "stuck" in Atlanta, and that Delta would get us a hotel room. Well that isn't exactly the case, Atlanta is hosting Nascar this weekend and the city is packed.

After we landed in Atlanta at about 11 p.m. we stood in line for three hours waiting to get to the counter to get our flight rescheduled. Once we got to the front of the line it took us 45 minutes to get a flight that would get us to Buenos Aries before noon on Sunday. We ended up with a Delta flight that connects in Sao Paulo Brazil and then we switch to Tam Airlines (a Brazilian airline).

We'll keep everyone posted to our location, keep your fingers crossed that all connections work out and that our luggage makes it. Right now we should have landed in Argentina and should be in customs about now.

While we were waiting to board our flight in Salt Lake, Quent posed for a picture.

Quent's midmorning nap.

Bags are packed.

Quent and I are leaving tomorrow for Salt Lake as we leave from Salt Lake on Friday for our cruise of South America. We're really excited and can't wait to find some warm weather. We've packed and packed and packed, it's amazing how much you have to take for a 14 day excursion. I think we've packed everything including the kitchen sink.

We'll be posting pictures from the cruise when we get back!

Not so white anymore

When my cousin Earleen was in town the first thing she mentioned about our house is how white it is. At that time we had planned to paint our dining room navy but since then we decided to go with brick red. After all of our trips to Salt Lake in January and February we finally were able to take a weekend and get the room painted. After two coats of primer (three in some areas) and two coats of paint (three in some areas) the room is done. Check out the pictures below.

Before (we forgot to take pictures of the room without tape on them)

Quent did a great job taping.

Cindy in action

After one coat of primer

Quent did a great job of painting. He used the brush and I used the roller.

On Saturday afternoon we watched the paint dry (literally)
the power was off for about four hours.

The dining room finished. The spots are from the glare on the wall and not a bad paint job.
After all my paint technique is almost as good as a professional!