Michael O’Leary, CEO of budget airline, Ryanair, stated standing passengers could be safely strapped to stools or railings. And, reports are circulating that Ryanair has already applied to the Irish Air Authority to allow the “seats”.

Now, a stand up roller coaster is fun, but standing on a flight? On the one hand, this is the airline that is considering charging to use the toilet onboard and already is in process of eliminating all ticket agent positions (use the kiosk or forget it), so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. On the other hand, what’s next – charging for oxygen?

Found a great roundtrip fare to New York. Armed with a couple of good books, several bottles of water (this was prior to the latest “how will that make us safe?” edict from TSA) and my laptop, I boarded a plane in San Jose in the morning, flew to JFK, deplaned for about 30 minutes, re-boarded the same plane and flew back to San Jose that night.

I was embarrassed to tell anyone what I was doing; it seemed such a crazy thing to do! It was a long day, but it put me over the miles required to continue my premium status for another year.

Would I do it again? Probably, given the right set of circumstances. It was a different way to spend a day – but not bad overall.

Do you have a mileage run story? Would love to hear it. And go to SevenWondersSolo and vote on the mileage run poll

We’re not staying over in Valparaiso or Santiago and our flight doesn’t leave until midnight tonight, so we signed up for shore excursions. I went for a wine tasting tour (naturally!). The excursion includes a drop off at the airport later today and they are managing the luggage, so that is handy.

This was a really fun excursion. Saw a lot of sights in Santiago, including a trip on the funicular to the top of San Cristobal Hill. Great view of the city and the mountains, but unfortunately rather smoggy.

After our city tour, we headed to a local family restaurant for lunch. Guess what was pre-lunch? Of course – Pisco Sour! Great lunch – grilled salmon or steak with plenty of sides and wine.

Next stop was Concha y Toro Winery. We toured the grounds and caves and tasted as we went. The guide was great, the wine good, the weather spectacular. And, we got souvenir glasses – just what I need something else to try and schlep back home!

By the time we headed back to Santiago, it was a struggle to stay awake. All the food and wine at lunch, plus a couple of hours touring and drinking. I didn’t want to nap because I really wanted to sleep on the plane.

The flight back was uneventful – I was in coach this time as I’d only upgraded one way. Our return was to LAX and we connected there back to San Jose. No jet lag, since the time difference was only four hours, but boy was I tired.

Overall, this was one of my most memorable vacations. The one regret I have is not spending more time in Buenos Aires at the beginning. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to go back!

Last day. Sigh. Glad today is a sea day; lot’s of packing to do (if I can find everything). It’s funny how spread out one gets in a little space over a period of time!

Our get together this evening was a little bittersweet. Many new friendships were born and we’re not sure when we’ll see each other again. Many promises to keep in touch and an exchange of emails and phone numbers. We’ll see.

Puerto Montt. Today was a really busy day. I wanted to go rafting at Petrohue Falls, but all of the excursions were booked. So, I went with plan B and went with a sightseeing tour. The “Lakes Region” is beautiful and a popular destination year round. First we went to Petrohue Falls (at least I got to see them!) and spent some time hiking around the national park and falls. The water is very blue – something in the mountains causes the runoff to be blue. Then we went to Mount Osorno, a still active volcano that is a popular ski resort. We were here in summer, so no skiing. But, the lift was open if you wanted to go to the top (of course I did) and the mountain is a popular hiking destination. Saw lots of hikers around. I hope to come back and ski soon. How many times do you get to say you skied a volcano?

Stopped for lunch at a family restaurant on Lake Llanquihue. Pisco Sours before lunch! Then headed into Puerto Varas for some shopping. I found some beautiful Alpaca cape/ponchos that I picked up for Christmas presents. At the rate I’m going I’ll have all my Christmas shopping done by the end of this trip! Still not sure how I’m going to get it all home.

Wandered into an internet café and checked email before heading back to the ship. There was some minor chaos trying to get back on board. Hundreds of passengers all trying to get back to the ship at the same time. This was a tender port and we all showed up at the same time (last minute!) to tender back to the ship. The crew handled everything very well – can’t say the same for some of the passengers who didn’t want to wait. I didn’t get the fuss – I mean they aren’t going to leave us there. Although, there were a couple of people I wouldn’t have minded being left behind. Of course, we all made it back, albeit a little late. Tomorrow is a sea day so I’m sure we’ll catch up to schedule.

So I haven’t updated the status of the solo group. We’ve been growing. We are now up to about 20, more or less. We represent many countries – US, Jamaica, Israel, Spain, Great Britain, Brazil, Australia. As I mentioned in my profile, we are a very loose group. Not everyone shows up every evening and that’s okay. And, it seems we add one or two more each evening. 

There is a core group of us that usually meet for dinner. We try to get Anya each evening as our server. She’s great and never seems surprised at any of our requests. One night we had escargot as one of the appetizer selections. Well, Anita apparently loves escargot. She ordered about 10! (no entrée, just 10 appetizers). One of the members of our group who shall remain nameless (for now) emailed me yesterday and reminded me that I was the dessert queen and that I always got two desserts. He’s being kind – I usually got three! I mean they all sounded so good and I couldn’t make up my mind. So, I compromised – I ordered all that appealed!

Saturday - Punta Arenas. The southernmost city of Chile and the largest in this part of South America, Punta Arenas was a major shipping port until the Panama Canal was completed and is still the main city of Patagonia. I took a shore excursion to a working estancia. At the sheep ranch we saw a sheep shearing, herding demonstration, and had a great lunch of barbecued lamb, trimmings, and Chilean wine. Prior to lunch we had Pisco Sours with empanadas. Empanadas were not new to me, but Pisco Sours were! The best way I can describe is a South American version of a Margarita (Pisco, lemon, egg white, syrup, and bitters). Yummy! After lunch we had several liqueurs. And then they let us get on horses! So, Pisco Sours, wine, and after dinner liquers and a little food thrown in. We were primed . Great time.

After we returned to Punta Arenas, I hit the central park where a crafts fair was in progress. Picked up several Alpaca scarves for relatives and myself. Alpaca wool is sooo soft. Then I stopped in a grocery store to pick up some Chilean wine (hey, I have to be equitable to the wine industries!) before heading back to the ship.

The captain reported that it wasn’t safe to try and dock the ship, so we cruised the Straits of Magellan and the Beagle Channel and enjoyed the fjords and glaciers. Another very cold, windy day on deck and it even snowed for a period of time! The glaciers were spectacular and the waterfalls beautiful.

Today was the main event! Cape Horn. The weather today started off pretty dismal. Rainy, cold and very windy. Actually, quite typical for this time of year! But, Mary and I manifested beautiful sunshine just as we pulled into sight of Cape Horn. I stayed up on deck for several hours. All bundled up. I was wearing long underwear, wool socks, two shirts, a sweater, a fleece jacket, and an all-weather jacket. It was cold and it is the middle of summer! Part of the cold is the wind. Between the actual wind and the movement of the ship it sometimes is hard to stay upright.

The ship literally glided around the Horn. She sailed all the way around it. We moved back and forth on deck to get views. Side note – The Star Princess has an enclosed deck that they can close the roof on so if you want to avoid the elements you can still get a great view. The onboard naturalist was on the speaker system narrating our voyage and the different points to see. This was such a cool experience. I am certainly in awe of the early explorers. I mean, we have engines, radar, maps, and heat. They had sails, hope, and prayer. I can’t believe those guys even attempted to sail these treacherous waters unchartered.

Wednesday.

OK – I have to confess. When I saw Falkland Islands on the ship’s itinerary I was very much “who cares?” But, whatever - it’ll be a place not many people go to that I can say I’ve been. Prior to leaving home, I had been pleasantly surprised to find out they have penguins on the islands, so I figured that would be a cool excursion and honestly, there wasn’t much else to do except walk around Port Stanley (capital). So, I booked before I left. Good thing. All the penguin excursions were completely sold out before we even boarded in Buenos Aires.

They picked us up in small boats (held 12 passengers) and took us to Sparrow Cove. There we boarded jeeps for a cross-country expedition to the rookeries. This was fun! Basically, we just took off across the fields, bumping and skidding through the countryside. Took about 30 minutes and I banged my head really good twice. There were five of us to a jeep. 

When we arrived, the rangers instructed us where we could go (anyplace outside the rope) and not to touch, feed, etc. There were hundreds of penguins. It was end of nesting season (we were there late January), so most of the juveniles were close to adult size, but easy to spot because they still had down. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around and between two rookeries. The penguins were as curious about us as we were about them and they crossed the ropes to check us out. Guess the rangers didn’t tell them they had to stay inside!!! 

It was fabulous. 

A couple more people joined our solo group last evening. Jim (the guy Mary and I had dinner with the first evening) was on same shore excursion as I was, so I told him where to meet us before dinner and someone invited Anita. We are growing.