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World Cruise 2020

January - May 2020
Jeff and I are about to embark on a cruise that will visit all 7 continents. Right now we are mainly interested in escaping winter! Read more
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  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    1
    Day 1

    Continent One

    January 24, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 21 °F

    Leaving Atlanta airport for Buenos Aires where we will spend a couple of days before boarding the Silver Whisper. This is our North America touchpoint for our 7 continent journey.
    It was a bit of a shock to get off the plane into 93 degree temperatures. We’ve come to the right climate!Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    2
    Day 3

    Buenos Aires, Argentina

    January 26, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ 🌙 79 °F

    We spent a fabulous day with tour guide Brenda Diaz who we found on the “Tours by Locals” website. She was extremely enthusiastic about her city and shared a unique viewpoint from an artists perspective when she learned of our interest in the arts.
    We saw many parts of the city, each with it’s own personality. The vibrant colors and richness of textures seemed to stand out to us.
    Also, the varied historical events and political upheavals lend much interest to the city.    Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    Day 5

    Montevideo, Uruguay

    January 28, 2020 in Uruguay ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Montevideo, Uruguay is a colorful city with some interesting highlights. There are new buildings juxtaposed with beautifully ornate old buildings that are almost all deteriorating. We didn’t get a good answer as to why this is, but we found the disrepair to be consistent throughout the city.

    Another interesting thing about this area as well as several other South American cities is they share a love of a drink called “mate”. It is a bundle of herbs (you buy these pre-assembled in various flavors and properties) and a heavy hit of caffeine turned into a drink. There is a special mate cup with an attached straw (see below). It is almost a ceremonial drink that is often shared with close friends. People will often consume 1-2 liters of mate every day.    Read more

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  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    Day 8

    Puerto Madryn, Argentina

    January 31, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Puerto Madryn is a coastal city in northern Patagonia. It is located on a large, quiet bay.
    This is a nice respite before heading out to sea on our way to the Falkland Islands.
    It is a pleasant city of about 70,000. Empanadas are still the food of choice here as has been since we arrived in Argentina. Just an observation-the empanadas we’ve had in the past were deep fat fried and not always our favorite as they seemed greasy. The empanadas in this part of the world are beautifully baked to a light golden color and very delicious.
    We received our parkas yesterday for our stop in Antarctica next week. It is difficult to imagine wearing that since it is 87 right now.    Read more

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  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    Day 9

    Cruising in the Southern Atlantic.

    February 1, 2020, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 55 °F

    We are in the southern Atlantic Ocean and we were headed for the Falkland Islands. Our captain called a ship-wide meeting and said we were going to by-pass the Falklands due to weather, which sounds like it is not unusual.
    This means we are headed directly to Antarctica which will give us an extra day there.
    As you can see on the map below, the dotted line is our current route. The small group of islands on the right of the map are the Falklands.
    So we are leaving our second continent of the adventure, but will return next week.
    We are now headed to the Drake Passage crossing to Antarctica which is notably the roughest sea in the world. Stay tuned......    Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    Day 11

    Cruising the Drake Passage

    February 3, 2020, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 39 °F

    When I was a young girl, I was always attracted to adventure travel books from the library. This attraction has continued into my adult life, primarily focusing on travels that included mountain climbing, jungle hikes and sailing/boating adventures. When Jeff and I got married, he questioned this literary interest of mine. He asked, “do you want to do these things or do you just like to read about them?”. I assured him that it was the latter.
    So, here we are today crossing the Drake Passage on our way to Antarctica. Now, it is correct that we are on a very nice cruise ship, but doesn’t matter what kind of vessel you’re traveling on, you are still rolling and pitching enough that you have hold on when you move anywhere and those movements are not always your choice (taking a shower is particularly challenging).
    The Drake Passage is the waterway between the tip of South America/Cape Horn and the Antarctic peninsula. It is the convergence of 3 oceans with no land mass to impede the Antarctica circumpolar current. It is 690 miles wide and 11,000 feet deep and is the roughest ocean in the world. Ships that are too big for the Panama Canal have to make the arduous journey around Cape Horn to access either the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. Looking for the safest area of passage, the latitudes are referred to as the “roaring forties”, the “furious fifties” and the “screaming sixties”.
    Having said all that, we’re told that this particular passage wasn’t too bad. Since the wind has been howling and we’ve been bouncing off some walls, I’m not sure that I want to know what a “bad” passage is. We’ll head back north in a few days-hopefully we’ll be as lucky.    Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    1
    Day 12

    Antarctica

    February 4, 2020, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 36 °F

    We woke up in Antarctica this morning-the third continent of our 7 continent adventure.
    It is impossible to describe or photographically capture the incredible beauty here.
    It is a spectacularly sunny day, 38 degrees and a light breeze. We made a landing today and saw hundreds of penguins, whales are everywhere and seals are sunbathing on icebergs. It is a surreal world.
    It is incomprehensible in it’s vastness. The air is as pure and clear as we’ve ever seen. The water is so clear that we can see penguins racing under water.
    It is pure magic.    Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    2
    Day 13

    Antarctica-close up

    February 5, 2020, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 32 °F

    Day 2 in the midst of glaciers, ice floes and icebergs. The scenery is breathtaking. The day is cloudy, so the intense blues of the ice seem to shine even brighter than they did in the sunlight.
    The current rules in Antarctica are that each person is only allowed to spend 1 hour per day on land. Our expedition crew decided today that our time would be best spent in small groups on zodiacs. That decision was a good one because we were able to get quite close to some icebergs and floated through huge areas of brash ice, which are small pieces of ice that are free-floating. The most interesting thing about the brash ice is the popping sounds that occur constantly.
    Our zodiac trip yielded much wildlife activity.
    Aside from the penguins which zip around underwater in groups that occasionally all shoot out of the water for air, we encountered a very relaxed crab-eating seal that was napping on an iceberg. He seemed completely unaware of our presence and continued his lazy day without even bothering to acknowledge us.
    Another highlight was seeing a mother humpback whale and her baby feeding quite close to our zodiac. It is always impressive how large they really are. We have had over 100 whale sightings in the past 2 days, but this was special in that it was such a gentle and intimate encounter.
    In true Silversea fashion, there was the “cafe iceberg” floating around near the ship providing hot chocolate with Bailey’s to keep us warm. Remember, I said this adventure wasn’t a hardship!    Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    3
    2
    Day 15

    South Shetland Islands

    February 7, 2020 in Antarctica ⋅ ⛅ 36 °F

    Our last day in Antarctica is being spent in the South Shetland Islands before we head north through the Drake Passage. After a little rain yesterday, the weather has turned gorgeous again with mild temperatures and sparkling sunshine.
    It’s incomprehensible that all the water we are sailing through will be completely frozen in a couple of months.
    Today we saw chinstrap penguins and fur seals.
    When walking about on land, occasionally we would hear a huge sound like cannon-fire. That sound is ice breaking-we have never been able to see the occurrence, but the sound is thrilling enough.
    It’s awe-inspiring to see so much earth that has never been touched and is so pristine. What we have seen seems enormous, but in actuality, it is the very top of the peninsula of Antarctica.
    The continent of Antarctica is about 1/3 larger then the land mass of the continental United States.
    So today we will give up our boots and heavy clothes as we move north to warmer areas (sounds backwards, doesn’t it?).    Read more

  • Ali and Jeff CarithersWorld Cruise 2020
    2
    Day 15

    The Drake Passage

    February 7, 2020, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 45 °F

    We are sailing north on the Drake Passage and are experiencing something that’s a little unusual called the “Drake Lake”. This often turbulent sea is quite calm today so we are making a run for the protected port of Ushuaia in Argentina.
    We will enter the Beagle Channel this evening and make our way to dock for the night. It has been several days since we have been docked where we can get on and off the ship at will-it has all been by Zodiac, so it will be a nice experience.
    Tomorrow is our day to tour Tierra del Fuego which is a territory south of Patagonia. Often referred to as “the end of the world”, it is the southernmost city in South America.    Read more

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