April 17, 2015: Scheduling Our First Cruise

Dominica was up at eleven this morning.  I was awake earlier but Liesl sneaked downstairs and climbed into bed and snuggled for a while.  So I stayed in bed until she got up too.

The sun is actually out today, first time we have seen it since we were in Sevilla and we only saw it some of the time while we were there.  It has been a rather cold and cloudy week (with us in the clouds much of the time.)  This meant that it was finally time to do the laundry because there is a real chance that it will actually dry now.

Liesl’s school went alright today.  Not as good as yesterday but overall, pretty well.  We have learned that some of the stuff that she does, like the word testing, she and Dominica can just not handle doing together.  But Liesl likes doing it with me and she likes doing it outside in the sun which I am willing to do.  So we started school today by the two of us going up to the terraza and laying out on the sun chairs and going through her word tests together which she did a great job on, did not get frustrated and actually had some fun doing.

I worked in the lower level again today.  It keeps me out of the way.  It was still either too bright or, later, too chilly, to be outside.

This evening, Dominica and I worked out the details of taking our first cruise together and my first cruise ever.  We have been planning on using a cruise in 2016 as part of our travel itinerary to do our relocation between countries but getting it scheduled and paid for is something that we have to do now in order to have it all set.  Otherwise the cost will go up and the ability to take the cruise at the right time will be tough.  So we worked out the details for our winter and spring locations (roughly) and now our plans are firm.  It is rather amazing that we are making our relocation plans a full year in advance now.  But to deal with the visas and travel arrangements we really have to, which is crazy.

So we are now confirmed that we are heading to Argentina immediately after Christmas.  Whether we will be in Buenos Aires or Cordoba or some combination of the two has yet to be determined.  Almost certainly we will be in Buenos Aires at least some of the time.  But we are considering splitting our time in half and doing half of it in the capital and half of it in Cordoba.  But we might just do a weekend trip to Cordoba.  Cost will be a big factor, I am sure.

On February 27th, we are embarking from Buenos Aires, Argentina on Norwegian Cruise Lines for a two week trip around the entirety of South America.  This is the huge, epic cruise that we have been talking about doing for a couple of years now.  It is one of the rare cruises that goes to places that we cannot get to in any other way and serves as a very useful transfer between countries so it is very useful in ways that normal cruises are not.  It is not taking to sea jut for the sake of sitting on a boat but it is actually using a boat for travel.

We will stop in Montevideo, Uruguay which has been one of my top “must see” cities since I was in high school.  I have always felt that Montevideo seemed like one of the best places to live and Dominica and I even looked into renting an apartment there about a decade ago.  We don’t know if we will have a chance to visit Uruguay prior to the cruise but this guarantees that we will have a chance to go there on our trip to South America so I am very happy about that.  I anticipate that at some point we will do a three month tour in Uruguay but in case that does not work out at least we will get to see the country and the city briefly in March.

The cruise hits some more sites in Argentina along the coast and then heads out to sea and goes to the Falkland Islands, which is super cool.  That is a place that there is really no other reasonable way to visit and you would not likely want to make a point of visiting but it very interesting and special.  That is a major “win” of this particular cruise.

Then through the Straights of Magellan and up the Chilean coast which includes the fjords there which will be very cool.  And finally up to Valparaiso and Santiago where we will be getting off and staying for three months!  So the cruise is a very important part of our scheduling as we are using it as our “home” for a fortnight and it replaces our flights between Argentina and Chile.

Had kind of a stressful day with work.  Did not get to bed until very late.