Chilean Seabass

Feb 22 and 23

Valparaiso,Chile.

So we had two days to explore this charming city, unfortunately, our time was limited because of rehearsals and such. We had a show the 2^nd night of the overnight, so we could not go out to the biggest music festival in South America happening right in the town next to us L Sting was there to play in a few days too, just to give you an idea of the size of it.

But, even without that, my time in Valparaiso was splendid! In the morning of the first day, I was lucky to get picked to be an escort of a passenger tour so I could go explore the best of Valparaiso for free! They all had to pay 80 bucks; I just had to count them. Despite a few setbacks (1 missing old person) haha the tour was a cool way to see the city. I spoke some French to some of the passengers and they were all pretty nice. Some were grumpy, but hey, it was hot on the bus haha. After that I came back to the ship and met some of my cast mates to go out for a few hours before our rehearsal at midnight. We asked someone in the terminal what the best place would be to go get a glass of wine (which btw Chilean wine is amazing!) he recommended a place called conception. It was such an artist colony. It was a place where all of the backpackers from all around the world go to relax. There were huge murals all around the city walls and several packed restaurants.  We stumbled into a pizza place right by a hostel that looked cozy. It was painted so colorful inside and there were pillows everywhere and classic rock playing. Turns out, the place was owned by a British man. He told us his story of how he fell in love with a Chilean woman and he moved here and had kids with her, but it’s over now and he has to stay here cause he has a business and kids here. He really didn’t have many nice things to say about Chile, but he told us he enjoyed complaining so it made him happy just to be able to complain. He was funny. I enjoyed the whole night, but it just wasn’t long enough! The next day, I had just an hour to walk around town. It was uneventful, but great to be on land! Next, onto to Peru!

Life is Beautiful

Feb 20^th

Puerto Montt, Chile

Today was perfect. I went white water rafting in one of the most epic places I have ever been. Puerto Montt is so much like Idaho, Montana, Colorado….etc….you name it, but on steroids. Everywhere there are fields and cottages and in the distance, an active volcano with snow on top. The weather was crisp and what I would call an ideal day for water sport activity. At first, we thought we would not be able to go because several of the crew bailed on us at the last minute, but our amazing Human Resources manager, Mike, helped us get there no matter what. The van ride alone, which took an hour and a half, was really taking me back to my childhood. It was so scenic and serene. I just opened the window of the van and let the breeze hit my face. We popped open some snacks, and others some beer (haha in the states, not so legal) and we enjoyed our trip there. When we got there, it looked like an American campsite, only in Spanish. We all put on our wonder woman wet suits and were told the safety instructions by our very handsome Chilean guide ;) haa Jessica and I made sure to go with him because he knew how to save us in case of an emergency haha. We ended up splitting into 2 teams of 6 and one of 5. Of course, I was in the boat with 5. 3 tiny girls and 2 guys…..we were small, but we were mighty! We named our team Pisco Sours and shouted that every time we passed a rapid. We were the only raft with a team name (nerds I know haha) The first time the water hit my face, all I could do was giggle. I was so amazed by how the water felt. It really wasn’t that cold. I was surprised because 2 days ago we were in Antarctica! What? I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of this place. It really took me back to all those rafting trips I did with my family as a child. Of course, when I was young, I didn’t have to use a paddle ;)

As we were floating down the river peacefully, I had a real heart to heart with everyone in our raft including our guide. We were in one of the most incredible places in the world, doing something adventurous and getting paid for the day. The opportunities that I have been given in the past month and the places I have seen would take most people a lifetime to acquire. As we were looking at the painted, picturesque views, I really took it in. I was with people from every culture, in a new place. There is no excuse in life not to do what you love. Our raft guide does this for a living….and only that. If you love to travel, then so be it! Travel! It’s just too short of a life not to love it. I know I don’t really have much room to speak, since I have always loved my work, but having this job in particular has made me realize that I don’t want to spend one day of my life not fully engaged in the people around me and my surroundings. I also thought about how in America, I was stuck in my phone, and on facebook. Here, I have had little to no time to be anywhere else but where I am. Does that make sense? I can’t hide behind my phone. I can’t make relationships solely on facebook. Every single person I have met here is a true relationship. I have not been hiding in my cabin; instead I have been meeting new people every day. Because of this experience right now in my life, I have learned that you should always do what you love and you should always embrace the people you are with in the moment.  I know it’s not anything new, but it’s truly a blessing to be able to experientially understand something I have always known and felt. And if I can be so bold to say it, I hope that you do what you love and maybe take some time to be adventurous. There is ALWAYS time to let go. Don’t let a day pass by without letting someone know that you love them or without truly embracing life. Ok, that is all J I’m off the wagon now haha  JBlessings to everyone at home

Chile Cheese

Feb 17

Punta Arenas, Chile

So today, the 18^th, we are cruising through the Chilean fjords, which are incredible, but too bad it is really rainy and cold. It has its own mysterious beauty. The sky is dark, the mountains are dark and the only light you can see is the crisp white water flowing off of the mountain in a waterfall. Gorgeous. The next port, I have signed up to go white water rafting J oh I can’t wait…..it takes me back to family vacations for sure!

So, back tracking to yesterday. Eli and I got up bright and early to see the town of Punta Arenas before we went on the crew tour to see penguins. Even though we had our show, Avalon, the night before, we decided we had to see everything!   (The show went incredibly well by the way. Passengers loved it! I am so happy about that!) The ship was there from 8 am to 8 pm so we had to take advantage of the time there J So, we took the free shuttle into town and came across some an adorable flea market where everyone was selling hand knit scarves and hats and gloves and really random things that you didn’t think could be knit. There are a lot of sheep in this town, so people clearly knew what would sell to tourists. The town was clean, quaint, and the people were just adorable! But Eli and I could only spend a few hours exploring since we needed to get back to go on the penguin tour.

We got back just in time to get on the next bus to go see some penguins with the crew. The bus ride was about an hour away from the boat, and it was incredibly scenic. I would say the ride over was worth the money for the whole tour. On the way we saw open fields full of wild flowers, sheep and cows everywhere, and condors eating a dying sheep. Ok, the last one was gross but kinda fascinating haha. The tour guide was telling us how lamb is amazing in Punta Arenas, and all I could think was yummm. Haha I am far from being a vegetarian these days! So we get to the actual place where the penguins are and we walk about a mile to see a grand total of (drum roll please) 20 penguins! Hahaha Not very many! Apparently noon is not the right time to see them chillin. They are pretty busy hunting at that time! But anywho, it was just gorgeous and I really did some thinking while looking at the scenery. It was so serene and it made me really think about how truly blessed I am to be alive and seeing this beautiful world all over.

After the crew tour, a bunch of us wanted to go get food in town. So we took the free shuttle back into town to search for the best restaurant. Every local we saw told us about this really tiny restaurant on the corner. We were skeptical about it since it looked like a regular old town café (a little dirty and gross)….but sometimes those are the best! We just smiled and said we may be regretting this is two hours, but let’s do this. The food was great and so was the company! We then went right back to the boat so we wouldn’t miss it J Twas a wonderful day in Punta Arenas Chile J

 

It's the end of the world and we know it...and I feel FINE

Ok so I am in love with Antarctica. It has to be one of the MOST beautiful and serene places in the world. Every day was just phenomenal. There was nothing to do on the ship, but explore the beauty all around. I feel so lucky that I am 22 years old and seeing Antarctica. It’s unreal. I saw penguins of course J jumping around and swimming in groups. Today we were in Ushuaia, Argentina. Supposedly it’s the southernmost part of the world. The end of the world oh my gosh! We didn’t have much time there, so there really isn’t much to say. But I will say it was a resort area with skiing and a lake and it was just gorgeous. The people were friendly, and I would have loved to have had more time here to actually travel. So, yepp, that’s a little update on my life. I am currently learning Spanish cause we are in a Spanish area right now ;) haha I am in LOVE with life J

what's new Buenos Aires????

Feb 6^th and 7^th

Buenos Aires. Sorry I took so long to blog about this magnificent time here in gorgeous Argentina….I guess I am still trying to wrap my brain around how much fun I had shopping and dancing here. One thing I know after this weekend is not to spend my whole paycheck once again. Where the heck am I going to put all of this Argentinean leather?? Haha Ok, so day 1 in Buenos Aires I had IPM (had to stay on the boat) so I did some laundry and called the fam and slept…..which it turns out I needed to do that to rev up for the fun filled night. I had switched my night of IPM with one of the older musicians who didn’t want to get off. Thankfully! So I got ready to go see the crew tour which was reasonably priced for dinner and a tango show. Little did I know that wine was included! Haha The show was gorgeous and the food was such soul food. I felt so good eating it. The show was such a production. Actually, very much like one of our shows. Flashy costumes, big production numbers and a male and female lead singer. They also sang and danced to songs that were clearly tourist attractions. What tourists think tango should be. Pink panther song, Hernando’s hideaway and of course, Evita. It was a great show, even though it was a produced tango show. The dancers and singers seemed to love what they were doing and it was very pretty. After the show, we caught a cab to go to a night club. Thankfully we had two Spanish speakers with us because I would have been so lost! We get to the fist club and no one is there, so we end up trying to find another one. We were determined to find something fun on a Sunday night. So we get to another club, and it looks pretty packed. The thing is, it was a ton of locals, but most of them looked really young. I would say they were in their teens and twenties. There was this one girl who looked like Kesha and danced like a dancer in a Jay- Z video….I tried to battle her epic dance moves with some hair flips, but failed of course J The whole night was very fun and I hung out with some great people who worked in all different areas of the ship.

The second day, I got up so early, with only 2 hours of sleep cause I wanted to soak in the city as much as possible during the day. I was exhausted, but nothing a shot of espresso couldn’t fix. I was up and ready to go J I met a few of my friends, who didn’t go out the night before at 9 am to go explore. We right away started to shop. This may not have been the best time to make huge purchases when I was totally disoriented! But, I did find the MOST amazing authentic leather brown jacket I have ever seen and I had to get it. The people were so nice selling it to me, I just had to J haha. And after that, the shopping bug hit me. I thought, if I’ve already done this damage, why not make a bigger dent???? Haha well, those of you who know me well, I don’t shop that often for myself, so I think I made up for some lost time J haha Also, the jacket in the states would have been 3 times the amount, so I thought, why not? After that we wandered around forever trying to find this place called La Boca, because everyone said it was gorgeous. We walked and walked, but just could not find anything remotely quaint. In fact, it looked like we were getting into the ghetto of Argentina, so we gave up to go back shopping. Right as we did that, we ran into another crew member who said, that we had to see it, so we took a cab all the way back there. But this time, we tried so hard to explain to the cab driver that we wanted to see the pretty colorful town. He didn’t speak any English and it was quite the comedic show watching all 4 of us women trying to use descriptive Spanish words to get there. We even made some up like (colorfulo and muy bonito) which we thought, if you just add an O or an E to the end of a word it would work. Finally he understood what we were saying and we got to the picturesque town of La Boca. Totally worth it. It was a town full of colors and paper Mache people in the windows. People were dancing in the streets and selling their artwork for the cheapest prices in dollars. I wish I could had bought more because everyone of the artists were so friendly and charging a dime for their work. But after that, we went back to the ship for another boat drill. It was humorous trying to get back to the street we needed to be at. We said to the taxi driver, Florida Street please. He said “che?” and we repeated ourselves several times until I finally said Florrrrrida Street (with a rolled r) and he was like OOOOOH! We laughed so hard about that because he really didn’t understand our American accents. Just roll your r’s enough to sound like you can speak Spanish, and it will work just fine J

Montevideo

Feb 5^th

Uraguay rules. Today we were in Montevideo and we got off as soon as rehearsal ended. We are done with changeover ps! Yay, rehearsals are done…..now all we have is 3 more shows to do! Freedom! Tomorrow we are in Buenes Aires  and I have IPM in the morning, but luckily I can get off the boat for a tango dinner tomorrow night J that’s all that matters really because we have the night here and I have the nest day off to explore and shop Jhaha….back to Uraguay. We started the day with a marvelous meal off the ship. The whole town was on siesta, so it was pretty calm. It was incredibly relaxing. The weather was perfect and the town, though closed at the time, was so quaint.  After about an hour, some of the shops opened up. Oh my gosh everything was gorgeous and hand crafted. I was blown away by the colors! It was like anthropologie all over the town. There were also little vendors everywhere trying to sell their goods. I really wanted to buy everything, but I walked away with only a few trinkets. I really almost spent my paycheck in a store similar to Urban Outfitters, with the most handsome man named Frederico. He was so charming and he winked at me and he looked kind of like Steve Carrell. Haha. I know, of ALL of the celebs that are handsome, he looked like the comedian haha. I thought he looked like a tanner, Latin infused Steve Carrell. Trust me, he was worth shopping around in his store for a while Anywho, I am sure you are all getting tired of my googly eyes here in South America…..you better watch out Argentina J haha

RIO!

Jan 31 and Feb 1

Rio baby! This was quite an amazing weekend in Rio de Janeiro J I was not expecting to spend this much, but every penny was worth it! Day 1 in Rio, we were told if we get up at 6 am we can see sail in, and it would be the most incredible sight ever….unfortunately, the weather had other plans! I got up at 6, after getting home from rehearsal at 3 am and went to sky deck, and it was pure fog everywhere. Haha early bird gets the worm???? Not in this case Jbut I was able to get back to sleep for a few hours after. Then Eli and David woke me up to do some shopping and I kid you not, I have never seen so many beautiful men. Like, GORGEOUS!!!!!  (Sorry dad or brothers if you are reading this) haha. But it was eye candy every step….kind of obnoxious. After that, I took a crew tour to the Christ redeemer statue…..which is one of the modern wonders of the world…..and man, was it wonderful! Got some great pictures of the monument and had a wonderful time on the trip. We had street performers entertain us on the way up and the way out. Our tour guide was hilarious and offered to make reservations for me and friends at a Brazilian barbeque for the night. He was so kind…..and I was so thankful he did that because the only thing I can say in Portuguese is thank you! After that, we went home to freshen up for a night out. And Jess and I were really close to not going to our reservations for the night at the steak house and just settling for a free barbeque on the ship….but we decided, what the hey, we are only in Rio tonight….let’s do it. I mean, I am not much of a red meat eater, but this was the most incredible food I have ever had! I am sorry again dad. But this was just insane good. I probably ate an entire cow. It was so expensive, but again, it was so worth it. So after dinner, of course I had to work some of that food off. The whole group decided to go to the most popular street called Lapa and have a look see at what might be hoppin J The Street was really cute. It kind of reminded me of Venice beach because it was right by the water. We first went in to a club where there was a Brazilian rock band…..not gonna lie, Brazilians should stick to samba. But, after that, a few of us paid a pretty penny to get into the most popular club on the street which had live samba music. It was worth every penny again. The music of Brazil is so unpredictable and Samba is so difficult. These women and men who dance Samba must have learned at a very young age. My Chilean friend Pablo (who is the guitarist on the ship) was saying that in Chile, it is much slower and easier. I def worked off my meal attempting to dance the samba. The live band was amazing and the people were all local. I looked around and thought to myself “this is the greatest job in the world” J

Day 2 in Rio……drum roll please. I went Han gliding……off of the mountain in Rio! I was unsure if I wanted to do something this risky with such a language barrier, but again…..you live once right???? And if not, it was worth the risk J haha jk mom I’m so safe! We first got onto this taxi which was like a jeep with no seatbelts. I could stand up and hang on while going 65 mph J kind of awesome. The ride up to the mountain was scenic and we saw both of the iconic beaches; Ipanema and Copacabana.  Again, mucho eye candy haha. We then get to the mountain…and we all have to go individually with our flight coach in a car further up the road. While waiting for the first group to fly down, I drank some young coconut and prayed J We then get up to the top and it was bing bang boom fast. Before I knew it, I was holding on for dear life running off a cliff and on to view the scenic incredible Rio. The air was crisp and I was so thankful to be alive. I have pictures that were included in the package…and my smile is ridiculously huge J I feel bad for some of the people who live on the mountain, cause I saw right into their yards! It was one of those things I will remember for the rest of my life. Worth the money….but I better save some of it or I may spend my whole paycheck haha. After that, I came back home and took Eli out with me to Ipanema to get some sun. It was really nice for about 20 minutes and then the rain came. Not just light sprinkles….i’m talkin Rainforest storm. I was laughing walking down the street and I almost fell into the sewer. Wouldn’t that have been nice? Haha Then we went shopping and I bought an adorable pair of tan pumps ( I know…just what I need, to spend more money ) haha but again, I never spend that much and I thought to myself….I have these next two days off and I still am getting paid! Haha. So, after that, Eli and I went to a café and I had a glass of wine and we decided we should get home. This is where it got scary. Neither of us remembered the name of our port and NONE of the taxi drivers spoke English. We got in about 5 taxis and continued to say words like porto and ship and cruise and Holland America. Now I know what it feels like to be an outsider and speak a language that no one knows. Well, we finally ended up communicating well enough to say PORTO please and they took us back. Phew! I thought maybe we would have been stuck in Rio….eh, would that have been that bad ? ;) haha