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From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:37am
Sunset: 8:58pm

The nature writer Carl Safina once said, “An albatross is bone, feathers, muscle, and the wind.”  One can truly appreciate this statement after watching albatrosses intheir element, the wind-swept Southern Ocean.  The wandering albatross is the largest of the albatrosses and the longest-winged flying bird on earth with a wingspan that can reach up to 11.5ft.  They glide for hundreds of miles at a time, rarely flapping their wings but instead using the wind to travel the featureless ocean in search of patches of food.  Researchers estimate that 93% of a wandering albatross’s time in flight is spent gliding, and spending some time watching them soar behind a ship makes this quite easy to believe!  They live for over 60 years, and it is estimated that a 50-year-old wandering albatross has traveled at least 3.7 million miles during its lifetime.  Wandering albatrosses spend as much as 90% of their lives at sea, being nearly as marine a creature as any fish or whale.  They do, however, have to return to land to raise their young, a characteristic that they share with sea turtles.  Wandering albatrosses lay a single egg during the nesting season, and due to the large amount of time required to raise the chick, they only nest every two years.

Not much to say about today… we’ve exited the Antarctic Convergence and should be entering the Drake Passage within the next few hours.  Mom is getting the cold that I’ve been fighting for the past few days while I’m finally starting to feel better.  The skies are blue, the sun is out, and the ocean is a shade of blue I have never seen before.  Seriously – when you see the pictures that I took of the ocean today you’ll think they’ve been photo-shopped.  Someone commented that they had only seen waters this blue in the Aegean Sea.  Having never seen the Aegean I can’t comment, but I add it here in case it means something to someone reading this.

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:22am
Sunset: 9:02pm

Deception Island is one of the most incredible islands on the planet.  It is an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands, off the Antarctic Peninsula.  Its unique landscape comprises barren volcanic slopes, steaming beaches and ash-layered glaciers.  It has a distinctive horse-shoe shape with a large, flooded caldera.  This opens to the sea through a narrow channel at Neptune’s bellows, forming a natural sheltered harbour.  It is one of the only places in the world where vessels can sail directly into the centre of a restless volcano.  Deception Island was first sailed into by American sealer Nathanael Palmer in 1820 and has since been home to several scientific bases, including an English one, a Chilean one and a Spanish one.

In the early 1900s, whaling companies used Port Foster as a mooring site for floating factory ships.  The shore whaling station was in use between 1911 and 1931.  During the 1940s and 50s, the British, Argentines and Chileans all built bases at the island.  In 1967 a sizable volcanic eruption destroyed the Chilean Base, and in 1969 another eruption badly damaged a British base and partly buried the old whaling station in ash and cinders.  A third eruption in 1970 produced a series of craters which are still visible today.

The ship first stopped at Baily Head, also known as Rancho Point, which is a conspicuous rock marking the southeastern point of Deception Island.  At 5:30am about 50 people, passengers and naturalists, disembarked at Baily Head to begin a 3 mile hike across the mountains of Deception Island that would end at Whaler’s Bay, the bay inside the caldera where the ship would pick them up.

The rest of us got off the ship at Whaler’s Bay, inside Deception Island’s caldera.  The first things you notice about the island are the steam and the smell.  The water close to the shore is hot – we could feel it through our rubber boots – but the air is still cold (around 30 degrees), so steam billowed off of the water, giving the island a particularly eerie feel.  The smell was not as unique as that of the penguin guano we would encounter later that afternoon, but was equally as noxious.  It was the distinctive rotten-egg smell of sulfur coming up out of the ground and the volcano below us.  Despite my stuffy nose, I could still smell the odiferousness of it all.

Deception Island was supposed to be the place of the mud bath/hot springs, but apparently that’s part of the deception.  Several years ago there was a kid of lake in the caldera that held the warm water and people could and did swim in it.  A few pictures surfaced of those excursions and have haunted tour guides ever since.  Volcanic activity after the fact changed the landscape of the land in the caldera and there is no more hot spring to be found.

Before mom and I got back on the ship we caught sight of a thin red line growing larger through the mountains – it was the hikers whom we had abandoned several hours earlier.  We spoke with a few people on our tour group who did the hike, namely our guides Stacie and Susan, and they said they had a great time and that the views were spectacular.  Next time I come to Deception Island I’ll be sure to make that trek.

In the afternoon, we made our final Antarctic expedition, cruising by Zodiac to Aitcho island.  The island was covered in green mosses and yellow lichens, a huge colony of Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins, a healthy helping of fur and elephant seals, and lots and lots of poo.

Mom and I were joined by a couple from Leesburg, VA, Marta and Wally, for the mile-long trek across the island to get a glimpse of the elephant seals.  We got to walk through the entire penguin colony – I honestly can’t get enough of these adorable penguins! – through ankle-deep muck and mud, past a fur seal carcass, up quite the steep hill, and then down again.  Once we made it down the hill, we were lucky enough to see three adolescent elephant seals curled up together between some rocks, and one adult elephant seal lounging lazily on the beach.

Aitcho Island was really the perfect landing to end our trip – mom got to see her Chinstrap penguins and I got to see my elephant seals.  We got some more up close and personal interaction with Gentoo penguins and got another great video of the penguins frolicking in the ocean barely offshore of where we were standing.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:10am
Sunset: 9:15pm

Penguin Mating: Penguins are monogamous birds.  That is, one male and one female cooperate to raise a family each year.  If one parent dies during the breeding season, the penguin chick(s) will perish.  The idea that penguins mate for life is a popular notion but the truth is much more complicated.  King and emperor penguins show the least fidelity to former mates; only 29% of kings pair up again and just 15% of emperors do.  Adelies, gentoos and chinstraps reunite with last year’s mate at a much higher rate.  Penguin pairs may fail to re-mate for a number of reasons.  One of the partners may die during winter or be killed by a leopard seal or orca whale.  A partner may simply not show up.  If one arrives too late to the colony, its former partner may have already chosen a new mate.  If a mate proves beneath the task (through inexperience or incompetence) and fails to perform its duties, it will likely not be chosen again.

Brown Bluff is a tuya, which is a type of distinctive, flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet.  They are somewhat rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were formerly covered by continental ice sheets and also had active volcanism during the same time period.  It formed in the past one million years, which erupted subglacially within an englacial lake.  The volcano’s original diameter is thought to have been about 12-15km, and probably formed by a single vent.

There was no morning Antarctic landing or Zodiac cruising for us today, just cruising the Antarctic Sound.  What this did mean though was that we saw a million and five tabular icebergs.  You might think that if you’ve seen one tabular iceberg that you’ve seen them all, but you would be wrong.  They obviously all share similar characteristics, but each one is completely unique.  Some have little caves and caverns carved into their sides, some have what look like little beaches on their sides, some are short, some are tall, and some even have little water features, but they’re all incredible.

That morning we were also lucky enough to catch a sighting of a pair of humpback whales just off the bow of the ship.  I so wish I had a high speed camera with a ridiculous telephoto lens so I could have captured these marvelous creatures in all their glory.  Next time I come down here I’ll be better prepared.

In the afternoon we suited up again and got into the Zodiacs for a trip to Brown Bluff – so named because it’s a bluff and it happens to be brown.  Here we came across even more Gentoo penguins and finally spotted our first Adelies!  We also encountered quite a few fur seals, many of which were disguised as rocks so that we didn’t know they were near until they woke up and started moving!

It was colder and rainier on Brown Bluff than any day we experienced so far.  Of course, this was also the day that I dropped one of my gloves directly in a pile of penguin poo and was then stuck wearing only my glove liners which are great, but not waterproof.

We got some fabulous up-close-and-personal experience with a Gentoo when mom sat down on a rock for a few minutes and one came up to her to inspect.  He got so comfortable with her that he even started pecking at the sleeve of her jacket.  She must have smelled like food because the next thing we knew his little face went all the way up her sleeve and he started pecking at her hand!  Her cries of pain must have startled him and he withdrew, fortunately not breaking skin or drawing blood.

After that we got back on the Zodiacs and cruised around the bay, getting close to a couple icebergs that were playing home to a couple of seals and a group of penguins.  Our Zodiac driver told us we just had one more stop to make so we all expected to be taken to another iceberg or landing or something to see something else spectacular.  When we pulled up to another Zodiac and I recognized our bartender Jerome, I was a little confused.  But apparently the cruise director (also named Jerome) had organized a little champagne toast for all of the guests while we cruised in the Zodiacs.  Let me tell you, it was quite the special toast to be drinking champagne while surrounded by seals and penguins and icebergs.  Delicious.

Happy Birthday Aunt Karen!!!  We toasted to you and your birth today, I hope you heard us!

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:13am
Sunset: 9:24pm

Neko Harbour is a small bay indenting the eastern shore of Andvord Bay along the west coast of Graham Lane.  It was first seen and roughly chartered by Gerlache during the Belgica Expedition of 1897-99.  In 1921 Neko Harbour was named after Christian Salvesen’s floating whaling factory, Neko, which operated in the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula area for many seasons between 1911-24.

Neko Harbour was our second opportunity to set foot on the Antarctic continent.  The harbor was scattered with icebergs and we were surrounded by glacier-covered mountains.  It was a regular occurrence to hear the glaciers popping and cracking and while we were in the harbor I was lucky enough to see three calvings of glaciers.

Today was also the day that I learned – thankfully second-hand – the purpose and benefit of the knee-high boots and waterproof pants.  We were disembarking from our Zodiac on both sides and after I had gotten up onto the shore I turned and saw a woman slo-mo fall forward onto her hands and knees into the 6-inch deep water.  Her gloves got soaked, so consequently her hands were freezing, but the boots and pants protected the rest of her from getting wet at all.

Just up the shore from us was a sleeping Weddell seal who was nice enough to do a little stretching while we watched him so that our photos could be just a little more interesting.  From there mom decided to go with the climbers and hike to the observation point atop one of the shorter peaks of the mountain.  I was/am still fighting a cold and therefore the ability to breathe, so I opted for the shorter hike across a muddy, poo-and-rock-covered hill to the beach.

Mom’s response when I asked if she had anything to say about the hike up the mountain at Neko Harbor: “It was spectacular.”  The pictures from her time atop the mountain speak for themselves.

It was probably the most bizarre beach I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting.  Parts were covered in snow and rocks, the sandy beach was littered with huge ice boulders, and there were penguins everywhere.  The naturalists told us at one point that the rule for penguins was that we needed to stay 15 feet away from them.  However, if we stood or sat in one place and they came to us that was absolutely fine – the penguins didn’t know the rules.  So Aunt Wendy and I planted ourselves just alongside the path that the humans were taking to cross to the beach or to the hike, and just a few short minutes later we had penguins coming to visit us!

Neko Harbor was one of our favorite places of all that we visited in Antarctica.  It was calm and quiet, the ice and the sky were bright blue, it was nice and secluded and just absolutely beautiful.

The evening was spent cruising through the Gerlache Strait.

Gerlache Strait was discovered and explored by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of Adrien de Gerlache in 1898-99.  Sailing along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, Gerlache uncovered the existence of a string of archipelagoes protecting an ice-free strait which he first called “Belgica Strait” and which later became Gerlache Strait.  Gerlache pushed on southwards and Belgica was caught in the ice of the Bellingshausen Sea where the crew completed the first overwintering in Antarctica.  Amongst the crew were other famous polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Frederick Cook.

It probably should have been an uneventful cruise, and might have been if not for the 15-20 foot swells we encountered.  Due to the potential presence of icebergs, the captain couldn’t turn on the ship’s stabilizers (I guess they affect his ability to change course and direction quickly enough), so we were rocking and rolling until well past midnight.  Many people had more trouble with sea-sickness during this part of the cruise than they had while crossing the Drake Passage.

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:14am
Sunset: 9:46pm

Before commercial whaling decimated their populations, Antarctic whales comprised the largest stocks in sheer weight of mammals ever to have existed on earth.  The harvesting of whales provided the impetus for many early expeditions to Antarctic waters; notably Scottish expeditions in 1892-93, two led by Carl Larsen between 1892-94, and the 1894-95 Norwegian expeditions that included Henryk Bull.  Since the 1970s, the commercial exploitation of whales has become one of the most controversial conservation issues and is today controlled by the International Whaling Commission.  Whales belong to the mammalian order of Cetacean, and are further divided into baleen whales (mysticete) and toothed whales (odontocete).  The five species of mysticete whales that occur in Antarctic waters are the blue, fin, sei, humpback and Antarctic minke.  The Antarctic species of odontocete include members of four families: sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and spectacled porpoise.

First thing this morning, we cruised through the Lemaire Channel heading towards Port Charcot.  The Lemaire Channel is approximately 7 miles long and on average only a mile wide.  It was first discovered during the 1873-74 German expedition under Dallman, named by the Belgian explorer Gerlache for the Belgian explorer of the Congo, Charles Lemaire.

Cruising through the Lemaire Channel towards Port Charcot we sailed through an iceberg graveyard.  Since the channel and bay before the port are so shallow, frequently when icebergs pass through here they get grounded and stuck where they are.  We got into our Zodiacs and got to cruise around the bay around and in between all of these icebergs.  There were dozens of them as far as the eye could see, in all different shapes and sizes and colors, some more blue than others.  It’s another one of those moments where neither words nor pictures can do any justice to the sights that were before us.

Also on the way from the ship to shore in the Zodiacs we passed several schools (pods? no clue) of penguins porpoising in the water – they jump out and dive right back in to get air as they swim through the water.  They’re adorable when they porpoise and they’re on their own, but then when there’s a big group of them porpoising together it looks like utter chaos.  I tried to take a video of them, but between the movement of the Zodiac and their distance from us it didn’t turn out great.  We also got to see a few fur seals sunning themselves and napping on little icebergs right off of Port Charcot.

Port Charcot is the site of Jean-Baptiste Charcot’s first wintering in Antarctica during his 1903-04 expedition.  Bits and pieces of the presence of the 20 officers and crew still remain at Port Charcot – a rock cairn and an observation cabin.  We were allowed to hike up to either the cairn or the observation cabin, but both mom and I were a little sore and tired from the previous day’s hike, and I started coming down with a cold which made it a bit difficult to breathe, so we decided to stay down off the mountains and play with the penguins instead.

There were three adorable penguins trying to toboggan up the hill from the water to the rest of their colony.  Frankly though I’m not sure if they were truly tobogganing up or falling up as they waddled their way up the hill.  We only had one type of penguin at Port Charcot – the Gentoos.  There were a few who were a little late in the breeding season and still had very young chicks, but for the most part all of the penguins here were adults.  It was always really fun to see a seal laying on the beach or the rocks and a little penguin just hopping around it.  They weren’t afraid of the seals on land, but in the water they’re natural enemies.

We did a bit more cruising in the big ship through the afternoon until we reached Port Lockroy.  Apparently it’s actually called Port “Lacroix” but because it’s a British Base, the name has been anglicized to Lockroy.  Port Lockroy was established in 1944 and remained occupied almost continually until 1962.  Port Lockroy is now a historic site and museum whose repair and conservation began in 1996.  The station is staffed for the summer season only, and right now it is just four girls who are working there.  We learned that it is a volunteer position for four months at a time, and they’re responsible for the upkeep of the buildings as well as trash and waste disposal (including human), and research on the penguins.

There’s also a Post Office at Port Lockroy, though it’s not the speediest method of communication… the next time the mail will be picked up is on 2/26, where it will be picked up by cruise ship and taken to the Faulkland Islands.  From there it will be taken by the Royal British Navy to England, and from there it will be mailed to its final destination, a process that is estimated to take 6 weeks.  So we’ll be well into spring by the time Buddy and Gram receive the one post card mom chose to send.  (And they’re the one only because they’re the only people whose addresses either mom or I could remember off the tops of our heads!)

All that history aside, the most awesome part of Port Lockroy was the penguins.  There isn’t a lot of space for them to occupy, so tons of them were directly on the path that we’d be walking on.  Not only that, but there were dozens of babies!  They were only about 8 inches tall and big balls of grey and white fluff – absolutely adorable!  Mom and I managed to take almost 300 pictures today, and about half of them were the baby penguins.

Once we were done at the Port, we got to do a little Zodiac cruising through Peltier Bay.  Apparently because of weather conditions and fog and ice and all that it is incredibly rare for people to actually venture into Peltier Bay, but we were lucky enough to have fairly clear conditions.  At the edge of Peltier Bay are the Seven Sisters – a grouping of mountains that really is just two mountains, the second of which appears to have 6 peaks.  The most memorable part of this little cruise was getting an idea of the scale of what we were seeing… at the entrance to the bay we could see the main Sister and another Zodiac at her base.  It looked like they were a hundred yards away or so, but apparently it was more like half a mile.  This is another one of those things that I don’t feel like I can adequately explain but was absolutely marvelous.

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:08am
Sunset: 9:48pm

Icebergs originate at the terminus of glacier tongues which rest on the ocean surface: large pieces break off (“calving”) from the glacier in various shapes and sizes, and then drift away on the ocean as icebergs.  The largest icebergs calve from immense plateaus of ice called ice shelves.  Of very regular shapes and displaying flat tops, these “tabular icebergs” are typical of the Southern Ocean, where they can reach impressive sizes.  Icebergs being made of freshwater, their melting is slower than that of sea ice.  As a result, they survive longer at the surface where they are subject to active erosion by waves.  They then take surprising shapes which make them look like they are crafted by the hands of the most inspired of sculptors.

We caught an early Zodiac to make our first steps onto the Antarctic Continent at Admiralty Brown Station, an Argentine Base, located within Paradise Bay.  We had the opportunity to climb all the way up to the top of the mountain at Brown Station and mom and I were among those who made the trek.  The views from up atop the mountain were absolutely spectacular, and honestly the photos do not do it justice.  Then again, none of the photographs really accurately depict anything that we’ve seen on this trip.  I could describe it to you until I was blue in the face, but you wouldn’t be able to picture it or understand the beauty and the sheer vastness of the environment here unless you saw it for yourself.

Anyway, the best part of climbing to the top of the mountain at Brown Station was that we could hop in the human-toboggan tracks and slide down the mountain on our backs!  I wish I had thought to take a video of the view as I shot down the mountain, but at least I got a video of mom coming down behind me.  The snow was icy, but not hard packed, so it was easily moldable and the perfect snowball snow.  It made for a very fast toboggan ride!

After Admiralty Brown, we got to take a short Zodiac cruise with Sue as our guide through Paradise Bay.  Sue (the naturalist who is a geologist by trade) explained the reasons for the different colors of the rocks as well as the shapes.  It was all very interesting at the time though the only thing I remember of it now is that there was a bluish-greenish stain on a section of rock that almost looked like paint splatter – apparently that stain was an indication that there was a copper vein running through the rock, leeching out onto the cliff-side.

We saw a few Crab-eater seals “sunning” themselves on top of some of the smaller icebergs, though there was little sun, and were lucky enough to catch a small piece of glacier calving off of its parent glacier.

That afternoon, our dear Captain took us through Wilhelmina Bay towards Foyn Harbor.  Wilhelmina Bay is a bay about 15 miles wide between Recluse Peninsula and Cape Anna along the west coast of Graham Land.  It was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expeditian under Adrien de Gerlache (who also has a Strait named after him) between 1897-99.  The bay is named for Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands.

During the morning and early afternoon cruise through Wilhelmina Bay, we were lucky enough to see several Orca whales all around the ship.  Our dear Captain’s enthusiasm really shone through whenever we saw wildlife from the cruise ship.  “They’re on the port side! They’re on the starboard side!  They’re everywhere!!!”

We got to go out cruising again in the Zodiacs that afternoon in Foyn Harbor, which is an anchorage between Nansen and Enterprise Islands in Wilhelmina Bay which was named by whalers in the area after s whaling factory which was moored in the area in 1921-22.  Apparently as part of the enterprise of Foyn Harbor there was an oil refinery ship.  It caught on fire at some point and the solution to putting out the fire was to sink the ship.  It ended up just as unusable sunk as it was on fire, and remains in the harbor today.

Anchored next to the burnt out shell of the refinery ship was a sailboat – a sailboat! – called the Golden Fleece which we later learned was occupied by a group of about 10 documentarians who were/are in the area to study and film humpback whales.  Their passage across the Drake took four days (ours took two).  I honestly can’t imagine the rocking and rolling that tiny ship must have endured as it crossed the Drake Passage.

Finally, later that night, during Tauck’s daily cocktail hour and right before dinner, our dear Captain came over the PA system and announced, with great excitement, that there was a mother humpback whale and her baby off of our port side.  He slowed the ship to almost a stop so that we wouldn’t disturb the whales and so that they would hopefully come closer to us.  However, before he did so, we passed a group of at least a dozen fur seals who had been frolicking on and around a nearby iceberg.  Apparently the wake of our mega-yacht was more fun than the iceberg, and a group of about ten of them came to swim and play in our wake!  I couldn’t believe how close they were – it was absolutely incredible!  This is another one of those things that I don’t think photos (or the video I took) will adequately describe.

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:19am
Sunset: 9:45pm

Some time today Le Boreal will be crossing the Antarctic Convergence and entering the Southern Ocean for real. The Antarctic Convergence, or Southern Polar Front, is the location where cold waters of the Antarctic dive underneath the warmer waters of lower latitudes. South of the Antarctic Convergence, the waters are cold, dense and rich in plankton, sustaining large populations of whales, seals, penguins and other seabirds. At the Antarctic Convergence, the sea water temperature will drop sharply over a relatively short distance and thus Le Boreal will enter the Antarctic in a matter of hours. Although occasionally a fog bank may indicate the location of the Antarctic Convergence, it generally passes unnoticed until the temperature drop becomes obvious.

Thursday was our second day cruising through the Drake Passage. It was much calmer today than yesterday, though we still had some pretty impressive swells at time. First thing in the morning, we had our briefing on Zodiac safety. Since there are obviously no docks or true ports in Antarctica, our dear Captain sill either anchor or just drift near wherever our shore excursions are and we get to the islands or the mainland by Zodiac. Penguin Patty, as she has affectionately been named, gave us a quick lecture on the types of penguins we will be seeing on our trip.

The family of penguins are the Brushtails, and the three different species we can hope to see are the Adele (pronounced “a deli”), Chinstrap, and Gentoo (“Jen too”). The Gentoos have bright orange beaks, the Chinstraps have what looks like a think chinstrap under their beaks, and the Adeles are the penguins that look most like your stereotypical penguin – little guys who are all black and white with black beaks, looking like they’re in little penguin tuxedos. Out of the three, the Gentoos are the largest at 12-13 pounds, then the Adele’s come in at 10-12 pounds, and then the Chinstraps are the smallest of the Brushtails at 9-10 pounds. (Note: It’s now Monday the 14th and we’ve seen tons of Gentoos. Hopefully we’ll see some Adele’s today, and then there’s a rumor that our dear Captain will take us to some of the South Shetland islands so that we can catch a glimpse of some Chinnies.)

Our dear Captain has an “open bridge” policy, the only caveat being that if he has to concentrate to navigate through lots of ice he might tell all of the tourists to leave, so we took the opportunity to walk 20 feet from our room to the bridge. (Our room is on the same floor as the bridge, and is only separated from the bridge by one other stateroom.)

We met Simon the naturalist up there and he told us about the albatrosses and petrels we had seen and would be seeing, and where we’d be likely to see whales and seals and all that. We were lucky enough later to have Simon join us for lunch and tell us even more about it. It was over lunch when our dear Captain came over the PA system to tell us that he had made such good time through the Drake Passage that we would get a special surprise Zodiac cruise that afternoon!

Around 2 that afternoon, we suited up – long underwear, knee socks, long-sleeved shirt, t-shirt, fleece, waterproof pants, neck gaiter, glove liners, gloves, hat, parka, life jacket. I was sweating by the time we walked across the ship to the disembarkation area. We loaded ourselves into the Zodiacs in a surprisingly orderly fashion – 10 guests and one crew per boat – and were off to sail between the Melchior Islands.

The Melchior Islands are a group of many low, ice-covered islands lying near the center of Dallmann Bay in the Palmer Archipelago. They were first seen, but left unnamed, by a German expedition under Dallman in 1873-74. The bay was rediscovered and roughly charted by the French Antarctic expedition under Charcot some years later.

Cruising the Dallmann Bay we got our first penguin and seal sightings! Gentoo penguins, weddell seals and fur seals all up close! If you’re looking at pictures and see red and green bits on the snow, it’s not blood or anything terrible, they’re actually different types of algae. The green is usually algae but can also frequently be poo, and there’s no point in trying to avoid it because you’ll step in it eventually.

When we came back from the surprise Zodiac cruise we learned a new tradition – to be greeted with a kettle of some sort of hot beverage. After this first expedition it was hot wine. In following days it would be beef bullion, beef or chicken consumme, and hot chocolate. Yum!

You may have noticed that I haven’t said a lot about the meals as of yet… well, they’re not spectacular. There is bread and cheese at breakfast and lunch (among other things, of course), but honestly the rest is nothing to write home about. The best part of mealtimes is the never-ending wine and cocktails, thankyouverymuch.

From our daily cruise newsletter:

Sunrise: 5:54am
Sunset: 9:28pm

Most visitors to Antarctica must cross the Drake Passage, the narrow stretch of water separating South America from the Antarctic Peninsula. Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and buccaneer, discovered this stretch of water in September 1578. Drake went to sea at age 13 and sailed around the world in 1577-1580. During this time, sailing on board the Golden Hind and having passed through the Straight of Magellan into the Pacific, they ran into a storm and got blown far to the south. You may hear about the ‘Roaring Forties,’ but Tierra del Fuego is at about 55°S, so in fact you’ll be passing through only half of the ‘Furious Fifties’ and part of the so-called ‘Screaming Sixties’. Generally the passage takes about two days and if you are fortunate, you’ll experience the quiet waters known as the ‘Drake Lake.’ Otherwise, prepare yourself for a ‘Drake Shake,’ also known as paying the ‘Drake Tax.’

Wednesday was our first day cruising through the Drake Passage, occasionally known as the “Drake Shake” for how active and choppy the seas can be. Mom and I planned to get up around 8 and make a quick stop at the gym before meeting everyone else for breakfast. It was only after we were showered and dressed after going to the gym that I looked at the clock to realize that it was 7:45 and I had set the alarm for 6am out of habit, instead of 8.

The boat was rocking and swaying with the active swells – 12-15ft according to our dear Captain – and I experienced a few brief moments of seasickness during which time I did lose my stomach contents but after which I was absolutely fine.

We headed down to breakfast after that and sat by one of the many windows. The “swells” didn’t look quite so much like swells from this vantage point as they did like “waves.” There were several times where the waves crashed up over the windows, blocking our view from the outside world and making it look very much as though we were inside a fish-tank looking out.

At 9:30 that morning we got our All-Weather Parkas. These things are awesome! The parkas are lined with thick fleece, have a multitude of internal and external pockets, and protect from wind and rain like no other jacket I have ever had the pleasure of owning. The parkas are also incredibly warm, and I can say from personal experience now that this is not the type of jacket that you put on in the house long before you go outside.

We also met our Naturalist team that morning, and it’s quite a diverse group of people. I should make a note here to let you all know that our ship, Le Boreal, is a French ship and as such, the Captain and crew are all French. A significant number of the passengers are also French. I was doing really well with my Spanish when we were in Argentina, to the point that any time I tried to think of anything in French it would all come out in Spanish. I am glad that I took the two semesters of French that I did in college, because it meant that I was at least able to understand bits and pieces of the French being spoken by the Naturalists or Captain, and even some of the passengers.

Our Naturalist team is made up of French, Brits, and a couple of Americans. Generally, Jerome (our cruise director) splits up the passengers into Anglophones and Francophones so that whoever is presenting only has to do it in one language, but occasionally we will have lectures as a group. On such occasions, we have bilingual lectures alternating between French and English. So, our Naturalist team is lead by Nicolas, a French guy whose background I honestly don’t remember. He’s been to Antarctica over 100 times over the last 20 years, and takes his job very seriously.

Next we have Simon, a Brit who worked in a bank for 19 years before visiting Antarctica for the first time and getting bitten by what everyone calls the “Antarctic bug.” He has since been to Antarctica 80-some-odd times over the last 17 years. Sue is another Brit and a geologist, and she has the sweetest voice and disposition of anyone I have ever met. I usually find geology incredibly boring, but she makes it fascinating. The two Americans on the team are Tim and Patty, a married couple. Tim is a Social Psychologist by education and a historian by hobby, and Patty is a penguin expert. We also have Alain, Louis, and a couple of others whose names I don’t really remember. We mostly hang out with the English-speaking guides, and I imagine the French passengers mostly interact with the French-speaking guides.

The other interesting activity that day was our cleaning and decontamination. The IAATO (International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators) and the Antarctic Treaty governing bodies are extremely concerned with the introduction of non-native species to the Antarctic continent. As such, we had to vacuum all of our external gear, especially around hemlines, zippers and Velcro to make sure that we weren’t accidentally bringing any seeds or bugs or anything like that onto the continent. Additionally, any time we get off of the ship we have to step through a cleansing bucket to ensure that our boots and pant-legs are decontaminated. Then, if we’ve been on land, when we get back to the ship, we have to step into a bucket of water with wire brushes and brush off any dirt or rocks or penguin poo that might still be on us, before walking through the decontaminant bucket once again.

The final event Wednesday night was the Captain’s welcome. There was a brief reception in the theater where we met our captain – Etienne Garcia (he’s French, not Italian as his surname might suggest) – and many of the crew. Our dear Captain is one of the most adorable people I have ever met and he makes everything on this cruise more entertaining and exciting. He does all of his announcements over the PA in French and English and we are addressed as his “Dear Passengers” with every announcement. This is apparently a very French thing to do, but I just think it’s adorable. His enthusiasm and excitement about everything we see and do comes through even through the microphone and this cruise would not be the same without him.

Despite the fact that 4am is a terrible time for breakfast, we managed to scarf some of the mediocre hotel breakfast before getting on the bus to the Argentina Domestic airport. We had no problems getting through security or to our gate, but then had to wait until about 30 minutes after we were supposed to depart before we were even bussed from the terminal to our plane. Though honestly, I wish that had been the extent of our waiting that day.

The flight crew loaded everyone on the plane, shut the doors, did not turn on the air, and then we sat. We sat there in front of the terminal with no air circulating in the hot Buenos Aires morning for at least an hour. We sat there sweating and panting and dying of thirst and lack of oxygen and curiosity – we had not one single word from the captain – for over an hour. At one point several of the passengers got up and walked to the back of the plane to get water from the flight attendants who would not bring it to us directly. I think the whole experience wouldn’t have been quite as awful if we knew why or how long we would be sitting on the tarmac, but I’m not joking when I say that the captain did not come on to tell us what was going on even one time while we sat and waited. So if you’re ever flying in Argentina, I suggest avoiding LAN airlines. Seriously, it was horrendous.

Three and a half hours later (an hour and a half late) we landed in Ushuaia. The sun shone brightly upon us, and the temperature had dropped from the mid 80s in BA to a much more comfortable mid 50s.

The bus tour through Ushuaia National Park that followed was absolutely incredible. We drove through the park in a huge coach bus on what should probably have been a one lane road, but was used for cars going in both directions; we crossed over rickety bridges that looked like they should have buckled under the weight of the bus; and we careened around cliff-sides and I’m fairly certain I saw my life flash before my eyes several times.

Our first stop on the bust tour was Bahia Ensenada (Ensenada Bay) which is located in the Tierra del Fuego on the Beagle Channel. Incidentally, on this tour we learned that Tierra del Fuego is not named for the abundance of volcanoes in the area, but or the smoke and fires of the Yamana people by the explorers who “discovered” the land. Almost everywhere in Ushuaia, there are signs for “The [Fill-in-the-Blank] at the End of the World” and Bahia Ensenada is no exception. Here we saw the Post Office at the End of the World – a tiny little aluminum “building” on a tiny wooden pier surrounded only by bright blue skies and clean, salty seas.

From Bahia Ensenada, we drove further into the National Park all the way down to the end of Route 3, the road that begins (or ends) the Pan-American road system that goes from Ushuaia all the way up to Fairbanks, Alaska. And so we found ourselves at the end of the road.

Eventually, only shortly before a hunger-driven-tourist mutiny, we were taken to a little hotel by the sea where we had easily one of the best meals I have ever had. A small salad bar, endless bottles of fantastic red wine, and fresh chicken, beef sausage, and lamb. The chefs brought out little mini grills, one for every four people, piled high with sizzling meats. It was moist and incredibly flavorful, and we could not get enough of it – my mother especially.

Our last stop before boarding our mega yacht for our expedition cruise to Antarctica was “downtown” Ushuaia. It seemed mostly like a tourist trap, with souvenir shops and camera shops and Irish pubs, but it was a quaint little town. It is also considered to be the southern-most city in the world.

Once on the ship we went quickly through life boat and emergency drills, met our cruise director Jerome, and then forced a little more food into our systems at dinner before passing out once again after an incredibly long day.

Monday was a relatively early morning. We met with our Tauck folks right after breakfast and were off on a bus tour of northern Buenos Aires by 9am. We first stopped in the city square where they have their house of government (which is pink), a bizarre Greco-style cathedral that didn’t look at all like a cathedral from the outside, and then the new and old City Hall buildings. The City Hall buildings were also a bit deceptive, as the old City Hall looked newer than the new City Hall.

After the city square (which I should probably write more about but won’t because it’s already Friday the 11th and I’m trying to play a little catch-up), we drove into the tiny-seaside district of La Boca. La Boca in Spanish means “the mouth,” and is so named because the city of La Boca sits at the mouth of the river running through BA. It seemed to me to be stuck between a really poor part of town and a tourist trap, but was visually very interesting.
Just about all of the houses and buildings were made of brightly colored/painted corrugated metal – bright reds, yellows, blues, greens. And apparently the houses are styled after convents, where two or three homes will share a kitchen and bathrooms, making for a very communal environment. There wasn’t a lot to do in the safe/touristy area of La Boca, so we didn’t stay long.

Our tour next took us on a bit of a driving tour through northern BA. We drove through the business district and the newer areas of BA where the half-million dollar apartments are. Also on this tour we drove by the downtown pedestrian bridge that crosses the main river running through BA. It’s supposedly inspired by and designed to look like tango dancers. I didn’t really see it, but maybe that’s why I’m not an architect.

After that, the bus dropped us off in the Recoleta district once again for lunch. The six of us ate at Café Lola, a delicious little restaurant just a block from Recoleta cemetery. Three courses and two and a half hours later we were all completely stuffed, but also quite happy.

We didn’t have time for much else that afternoon, so we just explored the little mall across the street from our hotel, packed up our suitcases, and then went back to the mall for a small dinner. None of us were particularly hungry, plus we knew that the following morning was a 4am wake up and breakfast, so we decided to try the Argentinean delicacy helado. For those of you who don’t know what that is… we had ice cream for dinner. 23 pesos (about $5.75) for three giant scoops of delicious chocolate, mint chocolate and vanilla ice cream. It was very different from American ice cream, likely due to the strong Italian influence in VA, but soooo yummy.

Due to that pesky 4am wake up call and breakfast I mentioned a moment ago, we pretty much just passed out in the hotel room after that.