Given what we achieved in 30 days very little, all the Hotels were to our tastes and comfortable. If we could have found some extra time, we would recommend at least one extra day on Easter Island, an additional full day in Buenos Aires and maybe to break the return journey and spend another day in Santiago. It really was a lot of flying packed into two days. Unfortunately we couldn’t spare the time and as things turned out at home, we needed to be back.

Wonderful to have a lay-in, a leisurely breakfast, all the others at the Claridge have been before dawn, just time for a wander along Florida, the pedestrian zone, changed surplus Chilean money into Argentinian and after a good walk (wise before a long flight) it was time to head back to the hotel and pay our dues.

Sandra arrived and we were off to the International airport, saying our mental good byes to a City we enjoy and where we feel comfortable. All too soon it was a heartfelt thankyou and goodbye to Sandra, she really had been superb, and it was time to board BA244 back to Heathrow T5 and winter in England.

A leisurely breakfast, check out and our guide is in the lobby ready to take us to the airport, unfortunately we are missing the driver! Not a problem as he arrives and we are away, this time above ground so we get a chance to see more of this lively city.

Easter Island is about 3,800 km from and two behind ahead of Santiago, so it is late afternoon by the time we touch down. As we land I realise the runway stretches completely across one end of the island, it really is a small dot in a big ocean.

Sightseeing in Santiago. The Metro proves to be just round the corner from the hotel (we discover later) but we miss the entrance and walk on to the next station. However, on the way we notice an Italian Restaurant and earmark it for dinner this evening, we both fancy a Pizza!

Tours by Rapa Nui Travel – arranged by Travelux with Sunvil Traveller

Sally wanted to go somewhere warm following Antarctica, Sunvil suggested Easter Island, so yet again we are leaving the Claridge at an unearthly hour for the relatively short flight to Santiago. The flight might be at 10.20 but it is from the International Airport, which is a fair way out of Buenos Aires, and being an international flight it is a lengthy check-in. Sandra gets us sorted and we say au revoir again.

We found her an excellent vessel, she was ideal for this cruise. The Naturalists were of a high standard and although German was the first language for several of them they made every effort to provide information in English as well. The Japanese group tended to stay together. They had their own interpreters who worked extremely hard translating and shepherding their charges.

Now in open sea the ship took on a slow, gentle roll from a swell coming from the northwest, not too uncomfortable but it was definitely ‘one hand for yourself and one for the ship’. During the afternoon the lecturers hosted a science fair – Heike Fries displayed an explained the rock and fossil samples from her collection; Sylvia Stevens the mammal samples from her collection, at last I understood the Baleen from whales (whale bone as it was in corsets long before I was born, well not all that long to be honest) and Sean Todd talked us through an archive film of whalers at work in the inter war years, fortunately it was black and white footage.

South Orkneys a wonderfully remote and impressive series of islands but although we had been sheltered for the night the winds were such that the planned landing on Laurie Island at the Argentine Orkadas Research Station had to be cancelled. The sight, through binoculars, of the waves breaking on the shore was enough to convince the Expedition Leader that this landing wasn’t practical. Instead we moved slowly into the Normanna Channel between Coronation Island (named after the Coronation of King George IV) and Signey Island and the sun shone. Remarkable, as anecdotally, the sun hardly ever shines on the spectacular ice sheets and glaciers of these two islands. We sailed out through an iceberg graveyard, bizarre shaped bergs stranded in shallows to melt slowly away. In deeper water we met the first of the tabular icebergs, standing 30+ meters out of the water and kilometres long and wide. My mind raced, if it was only a kilometre square and, for simplicity, a hundred meters from top to bottom, then that floating chunk of ice must weigh about 100 million tonnes and we are a mere 8,400 tonnes – no wonder the captain keeps a very respectful distance!

Cruise on Tauck’s Swiss Sapphire, calling at: Bratislava, Vienna, Durnstein, Linz (for Salzburg), Passau and Regensburg

Our very first river cruise with a full crew doing all the work for us was on the River Nile aboard Swan Hellenic’s Nile Star in 1990. It had been a very different cruise for us from the viewpoints of atmosphere, heat, architecture and the fact that I was working as the Ship’s Surgeon. We’ve also done several self-drive cruises on the Norfolk Broads and in France on the River Saône, the Canal du Midi and the River Rhône /Canal du Rhône à Seté. In June 2010 we set off on our second fully crewed river cruise on the Swiss Sapphire along with 116 fellow passengers, mostly Americans.

At sea. An impromptu talk by the captain briefed us on the low-pressure weather systems close to the vessel. The good news, we were making good time to be in the lee of the South Orkney before the worst of the weather broke. Plenty of time for talks to help keep our minds off the weather outside. Silvia Stevens gave us a talk on “Sir Ernest Shackleton – The Boss”, fascinating to hear the details of his voyage with three of his companions in the tiny James Caird (preserved in Dulwich College his old school) to seek help to rescue the rest of the crew of the Endeavour marooned on Elephant Island. Silvia was born in Glasgow but has lived all her life in San Diego and has spent the past 23 years as Lecturer (fluent in German and French) on board ships in the Artic and Antarctic. Her conversion is so complete she had to turn to us, every now and then, to find the right English word!