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LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99060 01/27/10 08:38 AM
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After trying all morning, I have finally been able to publish the blog. The Internet was not co-operating.

The blog is set up with text entries by date and corresponding sets of photos with captions. The beginning of the blog is at the end of the Blog Archive (click at the bottom of the introductory page to go to the Archive). I don’t know if there is a way to flip the order. At present, the blog is through Pisco, our last port. The entries above it are just placeholders.

To read a blog entry, just click on that date and place. To see a corresponding set of photos, click on the appropriate Photos group above.

I did the photos separately because if I put the photos within the text one cannot see enlarged versions or view the photos as a slideshow.

As I said, there are placeholders for future entries. I will send an e-mail each time I update the blog. Now that I have essentially caught up, I hope to keep the blog fairly up-to-date. We’ll see. Please, if you see an error or a mis-identification of a photo, feel free to let me know. It really is easier than it sounds, I hope. Here's the link Eugene\'s LLAMA Blog .

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Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99061 01/27/10 08:45 AM
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Eugene,why is it all in Spanish? Am I able to switch over to English?


Pat and Ray
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99062 01/27/10 08:46 AM
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OOOOOOOOps,It is in English...dah! Did I mention I'm blonde?


Pat and Ray
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99063 01/27/10 09:46 AM
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I actually think the placeholders are in Italian, which is how the Mac was set up for blank pages. Maybe later, I'll delete them all.

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Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99064 01/28/10 11:01 AM
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Enjoying your blog very much. Brings back a lot of memories of our land trip to Peru.
You didn't miss much by skipping the alpaca for dinner. I thought it was pretty tough. However, my son really liked cuy.

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99065 01/28/10 12:11 PM
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Rachel, Thanks for the encouragement. Unfortunately, for those of us on the ship, it turns out that it is fairly difficult to read the blog because it has been taking considerable time for it to load. I hope that improves, but at least it should be much quicker for those on land.

I didn't realize what cuy is until I Googled it. Yes, we were often asked whether we wanted to try guinea pig, but none of us was brave enough.

-------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99066 01/29/10 01:39 AM
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Hi all, I've updated the blog through yesterday, when we were in Coquimbo, Chile. We arrived in Valparaiso this morning, and we're off to a morning excursion. We opted not to take one involving the long drive to and from Santiago. We may go to Vina del Mar this afternoon.

----------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99067 01/29/10 10:39 AM
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Hope you have a great day in Chile. We met a young lady on our recent trip who is a nursing student in Vina del Mar. Very nice girl--if you get sick there, you would be in good hands. We really loved the Chilean people, and the wine is, of course, outstanding.

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99068 01/29/10 11:22 AM
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We had a great excursion of Valparaiso in Depth this morning, which I will write-up in the blog. This afternoon, we did, in fact, go to Vina del Mar and did some damage at a shop that was recommended for lapis lazuli. The shop was Faba, and they had some beautiful items. The weather is absolutely gorgeous today. We strolled along the beach of Vina del Mar after we put our wallets away.

Time to think about getting ready for dinner.

-------------

Eugene (and Gail)

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99069 01/29/10 02:48 PM
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Jim B Online
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Currently there is a video on MSNBC
talking about the problems with getting tourists
out of Machu Pichu.
Try this and see if it works.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35149345


Jim

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99070 01/29/10 03:19 PM
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It will be interesting to hear, third or fourth hand, no doubt, the experience people had on this adventure or MISadventure, I guess - always interesting to me how people handle those "lemons" ... we had a few minor mishaps, Alaska (Mush) and return from Lamb to LA but Regent made it all just fine (always going to be a complainer) - guessing this is a different event -


Joanna
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99071 01/30/10 04:26 AM
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Just added Valparaiso to the blog. We had a wonderful day yesterday.

At breakfast this morning, we spoke to a couple who just returned from Machu Picchu. They were fortunate in that at least they were able to see it. Apparently, it was even sunny when they were there. An military helicopter took them to Cusco, where I think they spent a couple of days at the Monasterio. Then they were taken to Lima by chartered plane (I think) and spent a couple of more nights. The trouble was in co-ordinating another charter to meet the ship. Apparently, the Peruvians and Chileans still don't get along, so that slowed things down. They couldn't get to Coquimbo, so they finally were able to fly to Santiago, where they took buses down to Valparaiso to meet the ship.

They mentioned that some of the people who still weren't able to leave Machu Picchu were getting pretty frustrated.

Have to get ready for a Terry Breen lecture on the Chilean fjords; Gail is at a bridge lesson.

-----------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99072 01/30/10 06:25 AM
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Oh Joanna. Don't forget "MINT"
The cruise from hell which we made absolutely
a wonderful cruise.


Jim

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99073 01/30/10 04:11 PM
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Loved MINT!

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99074 02/01/10 05:27 AM
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Hi everyone, I've just updated our blog through yesterday when we were in Puerto Montt. We had an unusually beautiful day there. It's Monday at 11:00 AM, and we have just arrived in Puerto Chacabuco a little ahead of schedule. It's much cooler and cloudy. I think it is about 50 degrees right now and raining. It seems pretty cold on our balcony.

We're meeting Chris in Linda in about an hour for our "Full day in Patagonia" excursion that I think begins with lunch. We almost couldn't book this one, but although we were at the top of the wait list, a space only opened up in the last minute. As this was an excursion with a fee, the Destination Desk wasn't very hopeful that we'd clear at this late date.

I hope to report on today's experience tomorrow. The whole ship is invited to go on the Laguna San Rafael catamaran excursion, which is supposed to be really something.

------------

Eugene (and Gail)

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99075 02/01/10 06:44 AM
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Enjoying the blog and photos very much! Thanks, Eugene, for taking the time to keep us updated.

Dena

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99076 02/02/10 02:14 AM
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Enjoying your blog very much, Eugene! Cheers, Anne

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99077 02/02/10 03:57 AM
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Thanks Anne. I've just updated it with yesterday's long, wet, activities in Puerto Chacabuco. I don't do well when we have lunch at 5:00 PM after hiking in a rainforest for more than 2 hours!

Lunch, itself, was great--whole lambs--and entertainment.

We're in Laguna San Rafael this morning, where everyone on the ship has the option to explore the area on catamarans that are running throughout the day.

---------------

Eugene
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Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99078 02/02/10 01:23 PM
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Great blog and photos, as usual Eugene!

Tonight on PBS on Nova is a show entitled: "Ghosts of Machu Picchu - Why did the Incas abandon their city in the clouds"

click here for a preview.


Leslie

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99079 02/02/10 03:26 PM
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Thank you Eugene! I've read every blog entry (and photo) as you go along.

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99080 02/03/10 05:06 AM
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Finally have the time to look at your blog, Eugene. Excellent! Great photos and commentary. Your itinerary is awesome. Looking forward to more reports.


Donna

I write about active travel for baby boomers: www.myitchytravelfeet.com
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99081 02/03/10 06:20 AM
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Thanks Donna. I've just updated the blog to cover yesterday's stop in the area near Laguna San Rafael. It was a relatively quiet day that ended with an excellent and very enjoyable dinner. The main event during the day was a catamaran ride to the San Valentin Glacier.

During the night when we left the fjords, the captain told us that 65 knots were waiting for us, which really caused some rocking and rolling. Now (noon time Wednesday), we've re-entered the fjords and things have calmed down considerably. It's 51 degrees outside. The captain has worked out a special itinerary with the pilot aboard, so we should see our first glacier from the ship at tea time today, when we are cruising the iceberg sound fjord.

Gail had a bridge lecture, and I heard another lecture by Terry Waite about this hostage experiences.

More later.

-------------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99082 02/04/10 04:56 AM
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Photos from Eugene at the Tempano Glacier Feb.03, 2010:

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99083 02/06/10 04:27 AM
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More Photos From Eugene - Punta Arenas, Chile Feb.05,2010:

[Linked Image]
Duet.

[Linked Image]
Holding Hands.

[Linked Image]
White Llama.

[Linked Image]
King Crab With Mayo - Sotito Restaurant Punta Arenas, Chile.

More photos by Eugene - Sailing down the Beagle Channel on our way to Ushuaia, Argentina - We are to arrive at 2:00pm today Feb.06,2010:

[Linked Image]
Amazing Waterfall.

[Linked Image]
Italian Glacier with rescue boat in search of glacial ice.

[Linked Image]
Rescue boat with glacial ice onboard.

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99084 02/06/10 04:58 AM
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Thanks Ken for posting these.

I’ve updated the blog through yesterday, Friday, February 5th, when we were in Punta Arenas. There are quite a few more pictures there.

We’re headed for the world’s southernmost city—Ushuaia, Argentina and Tierra del Fuego, where we’re scheduled to arrive at 2:00 PM.

This morning, we've been cruising the Beagle Channel under partly cloudy skies by green-covered hills and mountains that are capped by considerable amounts of snow. Every so often, small floes of ice float by. Then we came down “glacier alley” and stopped at the Italian Glacier. (Our captain is Italian, so he made the most of it.) The weather was spectacular.

Glad we're not in the DC blizzard, but we sympathize with our friends--it looks like a real mess. Big family news is that Gail's daughter and son-in-law bought a house in Wellesley, MA. They should be moving a couple of weeks before Beth's second boy is due. Meanwhile, David, Gail's son reports that all seems well with the twins in Seattle--"officially" about 3 weeks to go--but we doubt it will be that long.

More later,

---------------


Eugene (and Gail)

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99085 02/06/10 08:23 AM
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Loving reports and pictures -


Joanna
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99086 02/06/10 10:59 AM
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What great photos! Thanks! Enjoying reports and pix!
cheer


Betty

[Linked Image from i4.photobucket.com]
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99087 02/08/10 01:15 AM
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Hi all,

(Some of this was mentioned in Seamail.) I’ve updated the blog through the wild day that we had yesterday. It began with a 1:30 AM call from Gail’s son, David, that the twins were born at about 7:45 PM Seattle time. Everyone was doing well.

Meanwhile, onboard we were subject to howling winds over 80 mph and 30-foot seas. On top of that, we later lost heat in our cabin.

Things are much calmer this morning as we head toward Deception Island.

I didn’t take any special pictures yesterday, though I think if anyone took my photo, you would probably have noticed a green tint to my skin!

-------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99088 02/09/10 10:48 AM
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Congratulations on the twins.

I am glad to see my penguins are doing well. We were at Punta Arenas 1 month ago. Did you see the baby penguins?

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99089 02/10/10 04:12 PM
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I’ve just updated the blog through yesterday, when we went to Elephant Island because of conditions in our other planned stops in Antarctica. Unfortunately, the weather has not co-operated very much. We’re now heading for the Falkland Islands, and we very much hope that we’ll be able to tender at Port Stanley. It is like pea soup outside, and we are actually using the fog horn continuously—that may make for an interesting night’s sleep.

We did have an interesting afternoon of seeing Elephant Island yesterday and many more icebergs. We’ve seen very little wildlife.

Yesterday was Gail’s birthday, and we had a special dinner that was excellent. All is discussed in the blog. We just Skyped kids on both coasts, including seeing the new twins. However, the signal was not great, and we’ve had Internet problems throughout the day.

If I have a chance, I’ll try to post some pictures on LCT tomorrow, though I see that Ken has beat me to some of the icebergs I also photographed.

--------------

Good night,

Eugene (and Gail)

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99090 02/13/10 09:56 AM
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I've updated the blog through yesterday's great day in The Falklands. We had an interesting dinner with the Baileys, Byrnes, and Gibsons (as in Charlie Gibson) last night.

Gail is at bridge at the moment, I just won in Pooch--for a change--and now it's time for Trivia. The menu for dinner looks especially good tonight with Chateaubriand, Falklands lamb shank, and Seafood Newburgh as three of the possibilities.

------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99091 02/13/10 12:22 PM
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Great photos! Now that's a plate of crab!
I just read Terry Waite is onboard. I read his book about his ordeal and it was a fascinating read and really well written. Sounds like a great cruise.


Julie
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99092 02/16/10 01:15 AM
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I've updated the blog through our stop in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. We should be arriving in Montevideo in about an hour. Several of us, including Ngaire and Ken, are taking a LONG excursion to Colonia del Sacramento--a UNESCO World Heritage Site over 100 miles from the city.

We've just gone through some rain, but I think it is clearing. More later.

--------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99093 02/16/10 12:40 PM
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We have a good friend who used to go to Puerto Madryn as a consultant at the aluminum company. He would go down every month or so. Interesting to hear you tell about it.

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99094 02/21/10 04:11 AM
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Hi everyone,

This may be my last blog update before we leave Rio. It includes Montevideo and our first busy day in Buenos Aires. The weather in BA was gorgeous for both days, and the first day was jam-packed with activities. I think it is probably the longest post of the trip with the most pictures.

The second day was much quieter; we did our own thing window shopping with Chris and Linda Bailey in the morning, and taking more pictures around town. The next day was a stop in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which as you may know is a fancy resort that goes from 11,000 in winter to 300,000 in summer—mostly well-to-do Brazilians and Argentinians. We took a tour that included stops at two very interesting, but different museums.

Now we are on our second of two sea days before we arrive in Rio tomorrow morning. We have a jam-packed day with a private guide tomorrow, and we disembark on Tuesday morning and have another busy day with the guide that will include a trip to Petropolis before departing for Washington on our late plane Tuesday evening. (The Baileys will be with us Monday, and the Byrnes will be with us Tuesday.)

Now I need to start getting clothes ready to be packed. If I get a chance, I’ll post again, but I doubt there will be time.

Ciao,

Eugene

P.S. We had another dinner with the Baileys, Brynes, and Gibsons last night, and it was both fun and very interesting. The food was good, too.

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99095 03/03/10 08:58 AM
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Great photo of you and Gail and the glaciers...fun to read about our trip after experiencing it with you......great blog....learning how to use Iweb for our next trip to Egypt on the 14th,,,,thanks for the company, fun and tips!


Mary Elaine and David
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99096 03/03/10 11:49 AM
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Eugene, I am moving this post to the blog forum so we can easily find it!


Karen

Live long and prosper
Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99097 03/13/10 07:03 AM
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This morning I completed my LLAMA Blog (the link is shown below). Entries for parts of Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, Rio, and Petropolis have not appeared before. I will say that I took more pictures toward the end of the cruise because we had terrific weather at the last ports, and there was so much to see, especially in BA and Rio/Petropolis. I also want to add that a day trip to Petropolis is highly recommended if you’ve got the time and been to Rio before. It was wonderful, and I really think that Regent should offer such a trip, given that Regent had excursions that were longer day trips at other ports to destinations that were far less interesting.

I went to Apple today, and I think we “fixed” a few of the glitches that appeared. I think that a major reason that some of you encountered problems with missing entries, etc., was that when pieces were “published” from the ship, the intermittent connection caused entries to only partially “publish.” I now think that they are all there. (Please let me know if you still have a problem.)

As I’ve mentioned before, the Blog is set up with text entries by date and corresponding sets of photos with captions. The last entry is at the “top.” (There does not appear to be a way to change that, which makes some sense, because ongoing blogs are usually constantly being updated.) To see the list of entries click on “Go to archive” (in small letters under the last picture at the bottom of the opening page). That will take you to the Blog Archive with the list of text entries; just click on the date and place to read the entry. All the photo pages are shown at the top in a header that appears on each page. To see a corresponding set of photos for the entry, just click on the appropriate Photos group. (I did the photos separately because if one puts the photos within the text, the viewer cannot see enlarged versions or view the photos as a slideshow.) Eugene\'s LLAMA Blog .

---------------

Eugene

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99098 03/13/10 09:30 AM
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Great blog, Eugene! I really enjoyed it.

Dena

Re: LLAMA Blog by Eugene #99099 03/14/10 07:28 AM
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Beautiful Eugene - wish my pictures turned out as good as your! Thanks for sharing.


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