Posts by Mike Mikus

For the last two days, we have been visiting the lovely town of Ushuaia (pronounced oo-swhy-uh). It is not only the southernmost city in Argentina, but also the southernmost city in the world!  Ushuaia is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Province, Argentina. (Tierra del Fuego translates to “Land of Fire”. This name was given by by Ferdinand Magellan, who (in…

The day before yesterday, we were scheduled to visit Stanley (a.k.a Port Stanley) the capital of the Falkland Islands. However, this is a tender port, and the winds were 40 knots, so we were unable to get off of the boat. The Falkland Islands are a remote South Atlantic archipelago. After much dispute, its ~3,800 residents (known as “kelpers”) are…

Note: In response to your questions, over the years, I’ve strived to learn the native pronunciation for the places we visit. Hence my intros to all of our destinations in my posts… —————————————————— Hello! Today we are visiting the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo (pronounced mawn-te-vee-the-aw, oo-roo-gwahy).  The population of this capital city is 1.3 million, which…

Last night, we saw a show with the best acrobats we’ve ever seen. It was the Gold Art Duo from Ukrainian (You might have seen them on Americas Got Talent.) If you get a chance, I highly recommend seeing them. They are incredible! I especially enjoyed their balloon performance.  Today we visited Recife (pronounced ruh·see·fee), Brazil. Recife means “reef” in…

Today, we are in Fortaleza (pronounced “for·ta·le·zuh”) Brazil. With regards to crime, this is the most dangerous city that we will be visiting. Now, I’m not one to judge, but I have to tell you a story. It turns out that Brazil has a long-standing tradition of letting many prisoners out of prison for the…

After an ominous day at sea, today we were scheduled to visit French Guiana Unfortunately, this port is a “tendered port” (meaning the ship does not dock, and guests are brought ashore on dinghies, which are small boats that shuttle ~50 or so folks at a time). At any rate, the poor weather conditions prevented…

Today we are visiting the beautiful country of Grenada (pronounced “gruh · naa · duh”, and not to be confused with Granada, a city in Spain). Grenada is a Caribbean island and home of the Spice Isle. It is the southernmost island of the Lesser Antilles, lying 100 miles north of Venezuela, and is known for its beautiful beaches, spectacular…

Aargh mateys! (Sorry. By popular demand, I’m not going to tell any pirate jokes…)  After a pleasant day at sea, today we are in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, a port city on the island’s southwest coast. Barbados is a small island country in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea. It is 170 square miles, and has 270,000 inhabitants, who refer…

We’re island-hopping mon! Today we are in Curaçao (pronounced Cure-ah-souw). Curaçao is 17 miles north of Venezuela, and is a part of the Dutch Kingdom. It consists of two islands and has a population of 158,000. Karen and I enjoyed the rich culture of its capital, the charming Willemstad.  We also really liked the Chichi doll statues found throughout the town. Don’t worry! Chichi means…