LOCATION: Cruising along the Beagle Channel which cuts through the southern tip of South America
WEATHER: Mostly sunny (for great views!). High 52
We left Ushuaia at 10:00 and started meandering through the Beagle Channel. This was the “shortcut” around South America that Darwin sailed through. The channel is highlighted in red on this map….

The entire day was spent oohing and aahing over the scenery on both sides of the ship. The jagged mountains seemed to rise from the water.
We passed hundreds of glaciers.


Waterfalls from high up seemed to flow straight down to the water.

In the afternoon, the captain announced that we would detour from the regular route and nose ourselves into a narrow fjord. We started seeing big chunks of ice floating in the water.

And then…….it was right in front of us – a glacier sitting right on the water. Just breathtaking!


We had to make a 3-point turn to turn around in the narrow fjord. We were really close to this rock!

Later in the afternoon, I did some laundry. This Azamara ship offers a small, free laundry, even with laundry detergent. (Most cruise lines don’t offer this and you have to pay $$$ to get your clothes washed.) It is a tiny place and today was packed with women trying to figure out how to operate the machines and decide whose clothes were where in several languages. I spoke Spanish to one lady, showing her how to operate the washer, and heard French and Portuguese-speaking women trying to communicate with one another. Then a lady from Fiji joined the crowd in broken English. Finally a prim and proper Englishman came in, clueless about how to do laundry. I helped him sort things out.
DINNER: We ate again in the main dining room. George had Chilean bass which he said was excellent, and I had an ahi poke’ bowl.
George had a beautiful dessert….

After that, we had to go out to open water (the Pacific) to skirt around the channels. The waves were really high. While we were eating, a particularly big wave rolled into us, causing an ice bucket full of wine to fall over and crash on the floor.
The entertainment was very good again tonight, a magician/comedian. I almost didn’t go to the performance, as I don’t particularly like magic shows, but he was quite good.
We behaved ourselves tonight, going to bed right after the show. We’ll dance again another night.