Don's Travel Blog
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MacMania11 - Day 7
Three awesome things to report from yesterday!
Pulled into Ushuaia as planned and set off on a planned excursion. We’re not the most adventurous of people so rather than wander off into the town, or make independent travel arrangements, we opted for the excursions offered by the Cruise line at all of the ports. They offer a choice of up to a dozen or so excursions at some ports, so it’s fairly easy to find something (albeit, expensive in some instances).
The first awesome thing was a Trekking expedition into the foothills of the Andes mountains close to Ushuaia. After a short coach ride, we ended up in some truly spectacular (you’d best get used to that word as I may use it again in this blog post) scenery, with mountains and glaciers surrounding us. We’d been advised to wrap up warm, have plenty of layers and a prepare to be a bit chilly. The only problem was that today was the hottest day of the Summer in Ushuaia, I think it even took the locals by surprise.
We ended up at a lodge at the start of the trek to change from our normal shoes to Wellington Boots! The first part of the Trek was via some marshland and we needed to walk through some quite wet and boggy ground. Suffice to say, the walk was amazing, with fantastic scenery and breathtaking views. I will post some photos when I get back home. I just wish it was a bit cooler! One wake up call about this trip is that I’ve learned that I need to get into shape, and pronto!
The second awesome thing was that I finally got to say hello to Steve Wozniak. Although he’s on the MacMania trip, I felt like I wanted to respect his privacy and wait until a suitable and appropriate moment occurred to say hello. Well that moment happened in the afternoon, after the trek, when I discovered he was in the front row for my “LaunchBar MasterClass” session.
Front row and centre.
For one of my sessions….
No pressure!
Anyhow, he was very chatty and personable before the session when I went up to say Hi, and he didn’t walk out when I started - result!
After the session, he came over and said some nice things about the presentation and gave me one of his famous metal business cards.
Absolutely awesome!
The final awesome thing was the passage from Ushuaia.
Insight Cruises and Macworld had sponsored a party immediately following my session, in a room called the Crows Nest on the ship. This is a huge room on the top deck of the ship, at the front (bow?). It has huge windows with a full panoramic view of the area in front of the ship as it moves forward. Well, at the time of the party (6:30pm) it was still light and we passed slowly past some huge Glaciers on the Starboard side of the ship.
Spectacular (see, I told you)
Holding my video camera in one hand and my iPhone in the other (using ProHDR) I managed to take some great shots of the Glaciers. I’ll post one with this blog post and the others when I get back home. Apparently we’ll be passing more spectacular scenery in the next few days as we make out way up to Santiago.
Today is a day off, free from MacMania sessions. Today is also the day when an intrepid bunch set off to fly to Antarctica, including Leo. Wish we were going with them, but it wasn’t to be. We’ll be on a much more sedate tour of Punta Arenas.
Will report back tomorrow.
