Cruising the south Atlantic

From February 14 to 28 Mark and I cruised the south Atlantic. We left Buenos Aires and had ports of call in Montevideo (where we intentionally spent two days prior to departure in order to see more of the city), then visited Stanley in the Falkland Islands. We circumnavigated Cape Horn, then went to Ushuaia (Argentina), Punta Arenas (Chile), Puerto Madryn (Argentina), Punta del Este (Uruguay), then returned to Buenos Aires.

We sailed on the Celebrity ship Equinox and were assigned cabin 6283 on the sixth deck port side. As it was the lowest deck with balconies we were at risk of having an obstructed view, which we knew about beforehand. The obstruction was merely a lifeboat, #22 at that, which was perched outside our balcony. I liked having the lowest deck because on my experience cruising last year, in spite of the rules, people used their balconies to smoke instead of doing so in designated areas. While I was reading on the balcony during last year’s cruise I was irritated by so much drifting smoke. At least by being on the bottom deck this time, cigarette smoke would drift upward. I am pleased to say that if anyone on the port side smoked, I smelt none of it, ever, while sitting on the balcony.

Returning to the ship after the port of call in Montevideo

Looking into our cabin from the front door

Looking back into our cabin from the balcony

We celebrated Valentine’s Day in Buenos Aires and exchanged cards and chocolates that morning. We brought our cards to our cabin and set them up on a narrow ledge above the TV. From left to right: a card from Mark’s sister Patsy to us; my card to Mark; a tiny stuffed bear that I had given to Mark a few years ago which he touchingly takes with him on vacation; and Mark’s card to me.

As we approached more southern latitudes it got too chilly to sit on the balcony and I read inside the cabin. We chose to eat every meal at the Oceanview Café on the fourteenth deck. I was impressed by the selection of different fish dishes every lunch and dinner. I always had a couple different flavours of ice cream or sorbet after my afternoon and evening meal. At our Buenos Aires and Montevideo hotels I had watermelon at every breakfast. I was able to extend the tradition when watermelon was available throughout the cruise. And when we went to Brasília, I had watermelon as well, this time with the rinds trimmed off. So I enjoyed watermelon every single day of this holiday.

Now on a less glamorous note… I enjoy pineapple and during our breakfasts before the cruise I ate plenty of it. Sometimes I react adversely to fresh pineapple (never canned pineapple) by developing a rash around my mouth and swollen lips. Is this caused by the natural acids in the fruit? Nevertheless, it’s not an incentive never to eat it, and the swelling soon disappears. Yet on the first morning during the cruise (February 15) I woke up with hives on my back, neck and arms. I wondered at first if these welts were caused by bedbugs. What a horrible way to start a cruise and what a stain on the company’s reputation if it was true. Mark however was not affected so I quickly dismissed this bloodsucking pest as the reason. I wondered about it for a few days. All the while I was still eating pineapple for breakfast. After a few days the welts turned into larger itchy blotches, which I resisted scratching. I then had the idea to stop eating pineapple, because I knew I suffered adverse reactions from it in the past. After I went cold turkey the itchy blotches disappeared, and fast. All signs of red welts were gone within a couple days. I cannot say with certainty if going off pineapple caused my skin to clear, or, if the natural progression of welts to larger itchy blotches to clear skin was just a natural cycle of whatever affected me, but I was happy that it was all over.

This picture was taken during the afternoon of February 14 while we were still in Buenos Aires. I had already eaten breakfast, but was unaware that the welts had already started to show. I was only aware of them the next morning on the ship:

We played Scrabble in the iLounge during the day and early evening. This was a room with about ten Internet terminals conveniently located on our deck but with almost all passengers now having the Internet on their personal devices the computers here were rarely used. We often ran into passengers conducting business in this room. One man who met our amusement was a certain Mike Anderson, who made frequent cold calls soliciting his janitorial business. He gave a phone number with a 416 area code so I could tell he was from Toronto. I wondered why he and some others chose not to use their own private cabins to have these business conversations. The only explanation I could think of was that there was so much table space in the iLounge. Even after shifting the computer terminals and keyboards around, one had a huge surface to work on (or to play Scrabble). After dinner we moved gameplay to the Oceanview Café as the lights in the iLounge were tuned to an automatic dimmer at 9 p.m. and although we figured out how to brighten the room a bit, we could never restore it to the luminosity I require in order to play comfortably. We could also have juice and coffee (and desserts) if we moved to the café.

Speaking of dark playing spaces, the ship had a card-playing area and it was on an exposed deck like the library, below. Large tables were provided, perfect for cards, Scrabble or doing puzzles. However, the place was as dark as a cave. I often joked about this with other passengers as we passed the card deck on the ship’s elevators. How could anyone play cards or do puzzles while sitting in the dark? I expect others voiced the same opinions and about a week into the cruise the light was turned up a few notches during the evening, but Mark and I only played Scrabble there once.

The beautiful library was on the tenth deck. I explored all the shelves, at least those within reach. Look at how high the stacks go, up to the top of the eleventh deck. Most of the books were donated by past passengers, and I saw only a few with the ship’s labelling on them. One could borrow books on the honour system. I left two paperbacks onboard, and dropped off the Rolling Stones book on my first night. My hand is next to where I slotted it on the shelf. I frequently returned to check if there were any new additions and noticed one week later that the Stones book had been taken. The topmost shelves, as far as I could tell, were filled with ancient encyclopedias and other old books. Mark enjoyed pulling out an old encyclopedia and reading about the places we’d be visiting.

The ship offered plenty of entertainment and events and on our first night I was excited to see that there was a Beatles trivia contest coming up. I felt I could certainly win it. I only wanted to win bragging rights. When I won the Speed Trivia contest on last year’s cruise I was gifted with cruise ship swag, so I expected that if there was any prize at all, it would be ship merchandise. Twenty questions were asked yet no rule was stated prohibiting the use of cellphones. Now I know that in writing this I am taking this fun contest way too seriously, but Beatles knowledge is my forte and I don’t need to cheat to find out the answers, but after the first two questions, a man at a neighbouring table was showing us the answers on his phone! Did he think he was being kind in offering me the information? The first question, by the way, was “Who was the Beatle leading the way across Abbey Road?”. And the second question was “What was the make of vehicle prominently seen on the Abbey Road album cover?”. The quizmaster would not accept Volkswagen as the answer, as he specifically asked which make of vehicle (Volkswagen Beetle), so at least there was a serious adjudication involved in assessing the correct answer. I got nineteen questions correct, missing out only on “What was the Beatles’ best-selling single?”. This was a multiple-choice question, with three possible answers: “Hey Jude”, “She Loves You” or “Can’t Buy Me Love”. To show you how much I overthought that question, I wondered: the best-selling single where, in the US, in the UK or internationally? Or did the question only mean the best-selling single among the three possible answers given? I definitely got it wrong when I wrote “Can’t Buy Me Love” as the answer. I was confusing that particular song, the Beatles’ fastest-selling million-seller as their best-selling single. But even then, the Beatles’ best-selling single internationally is none of the above. That answer is “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. Their best-selling single in the UK is “She Loves You”, which was ruled the correct answer. The winning team got all twenty correct, and the players received Celebrity Cruises baseball caps.

Prior to arrival at every port of call the ship featured lectures about the places we’d be visiting. The lecturer was Leeanne Fiedler, during whose talks I never managed to stay awake. She was knowledgeable about places such as Stanley, Ushuaia and Puerto Madryn, but often belittled herself by admitting she didn’t know how to pronounce certain words or places correctly. If I was preparing a lecture and didn’t know how to pronounce any words I’d be talking about, I’d find out how beforehand. She was also amusing because she always had a “toilet talk”, informing the passengers which facilities at the port provided comfort areas. Since the demographic on this ship was older travellers, I am sure this information about these facilities was welcome. Leeanne was also blunt about some ports, informing us that there wasn’t anything interesting to do in town. I felt that these remarks might have served as a shill to hype the ship’s pricy shore excursions. Mark and I didn’t like to hear that certain ports offered nothing for visitors. We enjoyed walking around every port and discovering the places for ourselves.

Which reminds me…I was surprised during our entire trip throughout South America, whether we were in Argentina, Uruguay, the Falklands, Chile or Brazil, that all the public facilities were free and well-maintained. Not a pay toilet to be seen anywhere.

The ship hosted two sing-along nights. We gathered in the atrium as Abba lyrics one night, and Queen lyrics on another, were projected onto a screen. The crowd sang in a mass karaoke and there was dancing afterward. The ship had a gym which fortunately had the exact same equipment at my YMCA, so I didn’t have to learn how to adjust the settings on anything. I just moved to a machine and already knew where to position the seat and so on. I have worked out with weights on a ship before and the rocking motion can set me off balance. I’d be doing dumbbell curls, for example, and suddenly find myself stepping forward in order to stay firmly rooted. And why did this ship have weights with round plates? I saw them roll around the gym floor. Ships should have hexagonal weights that won’t roll all over the place.

Our cabin was tended to at least twice per day and the evening visit was enhanced by the addition of two small chocolates on our bed. We had a few TV stations and I enjoyed following the ship’s journey on the navigation map, which also informed us of total distance travelled (in nautical miles) and the distance to the next destination.