May 8, 2025
COSTA RICA - PUNTA ARENAS
Last time I was in Punta Arenas, I swore I would not come back, as it was the hottest freaking country I had ever been too! I sweated so much that a cyst formed on my scalp and ruptured. So I was not excited at all to return. But we had a mandatory day for every residents and crew member to get off the Ship from 9 to 4 pm, for preliminary USCG testing and inspection. I spent the day poolside at a nice quiet hotel in the Punta Arenas Marina area with my good friend Bosco.
In Port with us was a historic Coast Guard Schooner Ship, which was in South America for the first time in some 88 years. It was a gorgeous ship and they had a big dignitary party that evening where local performers did a show for both Ships.
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck!
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.