Dear Friends,

We got back from our four-week cruise in early February and both had just recovered from our cold.  What a fabulous trip full of engineering miracle (Panama Canal), ancient artifacts (Peru), beautiful wildlife (Patagonia) and fabulous sights (Chile and Argentina).

The cruse started in Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal, down the Pacific coast of South America, through the Chilean inside passage (channels and fjords and glaciers) including the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and around the Horn (Cape Horn), ending the cruise in Buenos Aires. On the way we saw dolphins, porpoises, elephant seals, sea lions, magellanic penguins, pet llamas, a pet alpaca (I think), guanacos (another South American camel), lesser rheas, condors, albatrosses, frigate birds, a fox, and an infestation of very persistent and huge horseflies, as well as some inactive volcanoes, some Andes (from far away), some cities, some museums, etc.

Volcano Orsono from a Nat'l Park in Chile with Rio Petrohue and its falls cascading through lava flows	As close as we were allowed to the elephant seals on Peninsula Valdes in the Patagonia region of Argentina

Happy Chinese New Year,

Kuei-mei & Neil in Florida