Dori’s Travel Adventures

This morning we went by zodiac to Mikkelsen Harbor and got off on the southern side of Trinity Island. There was a breeding colony of Gentoo penguins and an Argentine refuge hut which is used by researchers for overnight stays.

Whale bones were scattered on the shore and there were the remains of a old wooden boat left over from the whaling days. There were also a lot of seals lying on the beach.

The Gentoo penguins lay two eggs and sit on them for about a month. After the chicks hatch, both Mom an Dad take turns bringing back food while one stays with them. Many of the penguins were molting. That means they shed all of their old feathers for new ones. You can tell because their back looks shaggy. This takes about three weeks.

Once summer is over all of the colony will go back to the ocean where they will winter. Mating, nesting and raising the chicks takes place in the warmer summer months.

After lunch we went out again in small groups for a zodiac tour of Ciera Cove on the Dansco Coast. We went close to a huge iceberg that recently calved.  We went by a research base and of course we saw penguins and seals too!

After dinner we were treated to a whale feeding.  Several humpback whales made a circle out of bubbles.   This circle traps the krill and then the whales can gulp mouthfuls of them.   They put on a feeding show for us for about 20 minutes.

Every night when we come back from dinner our cabin steward, Tito, has a surprise for us.   The first night I was very  shocked that I let out a scream when I opened the door.

Tonight was a prettier scene.

This morning the boat was rocking from one side to the other. Yes, we were now in the famous Drake Passage.  This body of water is between South America’s Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands just  off the Antarctica Peninsula.   It is where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet, the currents cross and is noted for its rough seas.

Since we were traveling the cruise director encouraged everyone to go on deck to look for wildlife.  Two albatrosses followed our boat most of the day.  This bird has a wing span of  12 feet!  Sorry, I didn’t get a picture.

 

While I went with Frank to the dining room for our meals, I tried to stick with bland items.   I was feeling slightly nauseated.    Diet Coke and  crackers seemed like safe choices.    Frank on the other hand had no problems and enjoyed the breakfast and lunch buffet items, especially the desserts.

When we walked on the ship we looked like drunken sailors!  The waves were about 14-16 feet and caused the boat to  rock and sway. We tried to hold onto railings whenever we could.   Walking with our feet wide apart like a duck seemed to help.   All of the other passengers were having the same problem.   Often in the dining room the waiters would put our their arms and help me to  a table or carry my food.  The crew all were very sure footed.  They must have  earned their sea legs from previous crossings.  We are told that on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the roughest crossing, we were experiencing a moderate crossing at about a 4.  I was certainly glad it wasn’t any higher!

During the day there were several different presentations in the lounge.  I went to one on photo tips.  Another program was about whales and dolphins.  These programs were very informative, at least the parts I heard when I wasn’t sleeping! I kept nodding off!

By Sunday morning the waves were calming down and by afternoon we had reached the South Shetland Islands and had our first shore excursion. We landed on Aticho Island. We had to put on our long underwear, our regular clothes, our water proof pants and parkas. After getting on our boots, we boarded a zodiac raft. They hold about 10 passengers. As we traveled in the rafts, there were penguins swimming on either side. It is awesome to watch them arcing out of the water and diving back again. This behavior is called porpoising.

I don’t think I can describe in words what landing on the island was like. There were penguins everywhere! Penguins congregate together in a nesting area called a rockery. At this point, the babies are almost the size of their parent but because of the gray plumage, they are easy to distinguish. While we aren’t allowed to get closer than 15 feet, if you just stay still, the penguins come to you. They are not afraid of people since this is a nature preserve. We must look like large red penguins to them!

Hey, everybody!   Listen  up!

I got a picture of an adult feeding his/her fledgling. Both parents gather krill from the ocean. When the chick pokes his beak at the adult, the parent regurgitates the food into the chick’s beak. Sound appetizing, doesn’t it!

An elephant seal was conked out on the ground. The naturalist explained that the seal probably swam all the way from South Georgia Island and was exhausted. The mother seal abandons her pups at three weeks. This seal was a young one. When full grown, they can weigh up to a ton!

I am sure I will never forget the sights I saw on our first landing. It was truly amazing!

Neko Harbor was our first destination today. The weather was sunny, 38 degrees and no wind. I didn’t even need to wear gloves. There were two rookeries of Gentoo Penguins. One colony was near the beach while the second one was on top of a snow covered hill. The overlook provided a great view of the penguins.  From the hill you could just sit and take in the beauty of the mountains and the bay. No wonder they call Antarctica the White Wilderness.

For many on our tour, this was their 7th continent. In talking to other passenger we found out that for lots of them this was the 10-15th trip or more with Grand Circle /Overseas Adventure Travels. It was fascinating to hear them talk about their previous trips. As they shared their adventures, Frank got a very troubled look on his face. At one point, he covered my ears in an effort to prevent me from catching the travel bug for some of their trips. We are one of the least traveled folks on the cruise.

All in all, the sites we saw today were fantastic. What an amazing place! And to think that it was 38 degrees and sunny! Summer in Antarctica can be quite welcoming indeed!

The excursion this morning was to Half Moon Island. It is an old volcanic caldera. There were remains so an old whaling water boat on the beach. There were fur seals and a colony of chinstrap penguins that were on a  hill.

After a while, Gonza told us that we were invited to the Argentine base on the island called Camara. On our way to the station, one of the naturalist spotted an Emperor Penquin of the beach. This was a rare occurance since Emperor are normally found much further south. I tried to get a good picute of him. I am hoping someone else in our group got a better one.

Reboarding  the Corinthian we headed further north to Deception Island. This too was made by volcanic activity. In fact the volcano erupted in 1967 and 1969 so that the base was abandoned at that time. Whalers Bay was the site of a big operation to extract whale oil. Huge oil drums are still on the island. Whaling was big here up until about 1930. At that point, whaling ships had the machinery to process the whale on the boat thus ending the operations here on the island.

This is also the traditional place to take the polar plunge. I brought my swimsuit but choose to be a spectator rather than a participant. (Frank didn’t even bring a swimsuit. He refused to even consider the option.) It looked mighty cold and I just didn’t want to travel back to our ship on the Zodiac soaked.

What great memories were made today! Tonight our ship begins the journey back to Ushuaia.   Time to put on another patch!

Seeing the snow covered mountains and glaciers from the water level is amazing. The bay was full of ice chips and icebergs. We even saw an iceberg flip upside down. As you can see the icebergs and glaciers give off a blue hue because that is the color that is reflected from the ice. Getting close to the icebergs, they are clear ice at spots.

Our zodiac driver was Ken. He is one of the naturalist on board the Corinthian. He was able to stop when he saw things to point out. At one point he saw a jelly fish.

At another spot he pointed out a nesting area of commorants on one of the cliffs. The fledglings in the nest were almost as big as the adults but their feathers are brown instead of the black and white.

We saw a small sailing ship in the bay and a big cruise liner. Ken explained that the big cruise ship had a thousand or more passengers and no zodiacs. That meant their passengers would never get to set foot on land or cruise the bays like we were doing.

After each excursion getting back on board has certain procedures. A crew member hoses your boots off and you have to step in disinfectant. Then their our folks that help you to get off your boots. It is quite a process. Most days we are having two excursions, so you can see this can take a while.

In the afternoon we headed by zodiac to Fort Lockroy. This was a British research station from 1944-1962. After being abandoned for thirty some years, the British government decided to reopen it up as a historical museum. One of the building was restored just like it had been during that time. There was also a gift shop. And as always there were lots and lots of penguins. It is the only place we were able to buy anything in Antarctica.

All in all, we had a very interesting day. Only one more day in Antartica before we head back north through the Drake Passage. But more about that tomorrow. I am considering taking the Polor Plunge at Deception Island. If not, it will be fun to watch the others!!!

We left the hotel at 8 am  and headed to Tierra del Fuego National Park.   In Spanish, this means Land of Fire.   Early explorers saw smoke coming up from the trees (from fires of the native people) and gave the area this name.   Indians called Yamuna lived here for  about 6,000 years ago, but their numbers dwindled to extinction due to disease and problems with the explorers.

We stopped by a beautiful lake area and took a hike along the water.  Believe it or not, there was a post office here.   You could get your passport stamped  with Tierra del Fuego by the postmaster for $3.00.   I got mine stamped.   After all, when would I ever be back here again.    

Lunch today was at a restaurant outside of Ushuaia.   Almost every meal starts with an empanadas  which is a half moon sized deep fried pastry with beef inside.   Another favorite is roasted lamb.   I didn’t care much for either one so I filled up on salad.

After lunch we had time to walk around the town and harbor before boarding our ship, the Corinthian.  To our surprise, out cabin is quite spacious with a sitting area, a vanity  table, and a bathroom area.

We set sail around 8 pm.   I put on my motion sickness patch as soon as we got into our cabins.  Our ship entered the Drake Passage in the middle of the night.  I could feel the waves rocking us quite a bit.  In our briefing, they told us the waves were about 12-14 ft high and that this was moderate.    The patch seemed to be doing the trick.   I felt slightly nauseated but I didn’t get sick. So far so good!  So once we get through the Drake Passage we will start our exploring of Antarctica. Penguins here we come!

 

We took a flight this morning on Argentina Airlines to Ushuaia which is about 1100 miles south of Buenos Aires. It took about 3 1/2 hours.

Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. It is often called “The End of the World”. In 1869 it was first settled an Angelican mission. Then in 1884 the Argentinian Navy came here. A prison was built and opened in 1896.

Ushuaia is on the southern tip of Tierra Del Fuego Island and is adjacent to the Beagle Channel. 90% of the expedition ships to Antarctica start here. The weather  is very windy, rainy, and is usually about 50 F this time of year.

We toured the prison which is now a museum. The cells were dismal and made Alcatraz look good.

We ate dinner tonight at La Contina del Freddie which features King Crab which is a local speciality. I tried a Cape Horn Patagonia Beer made locally!

When we looked out over the bay we could see our ship at the dock.

The  wind is howling outside as I write.  I guess it is warning me that we are getting close to the Drake Passage!   Soon time for the patch!   But I’ll worry about that tomorrow! Time for bed!

After a briefing this morning from our program director Gonza we were off on a city tour with our local guide Carla. We went to the old part of the city by the harbor where the a great many immigrants came to Argentina between 1900 and 1930. Many of the people built homes of sheets of tin and you can still see that on the sides of some of the buildings there. The houses are painted bright colors as well.  The streets are cobble stone. It is called  La Boca which means “the mouth” because this is where the people entered Buenos Aires. In 1900 there were about 60,000 people in the city and by 1930 there where a million. Many of the immigrants came from Spain and Italy.

While we were at La Boca, we were treated to with a performance of tango dancers and an accordion player to illustrate the birthplace of tango. With this melting pot of immigrants, different styles of music came together and the tango was born, first among the poor immigrants and then it caught on by the 1940’s with the more prestigious. We even went to a typical courtyard area which was typical of how the poor lived in the Boca and our group got to try learning the tango.  Frank even got some private tutoring!

Our next stop was a park where a famous sculpture was given to the city in 2001 called Flower Genericus. It is supposed to open during the daytime and closed at night. It seemed to be only partially open when we saw it. Carla explained that sometimes in is broken.

Our final stop was the Ricolete Cemetery where Evita Peron is entombed. The cemetery has rows and rows of oranate mausoleums. Wealthy Argentinians buy them for their whole family and furnish them. There are even basements in them. It all seemed like a very pretentious custom to me.

We stopped at Evita Peron’s crypt.
She is entombed with her sister’s husbands family. There were a lot of flowers because she is still beloved by Argentinians.

After our city tour, we had lunch with some of our group at a pizza place. We shopped a bit and then took a break since we were going to a Tango Show in the evening. I did not take any pictures there because I followed the rules. (Should have took one on the sly!) There was a live orchestra, a great tango singer and super tango dancers.
While Frank and I will never conquer this dance, it was fun to try on and experience this unique style of music and dance. Frank loved the scenery!

We had a flight to Atlanta and then a 9 and a half hour flight overnight to Buenos Aires.    Our flight left Atlanta around 9:15 pm and we arrived this morning around 9am.   Time here is a 2 hours ahead our EST.  After we went through customs and a second bag screening, we met a tour guide from Grand Circle.    She took us to an awaiting van which took us to our hotel.

The  Panarmerican Hotel is located on the Boulevard of July 9th.   July 9th is Argentina’s Independence Day.    We were supposed to meet our guide for a brief walking tour around the hotel.   We had trouble with our room keys and until that got straightened out, we missed our small group tour.   Since we were pretty tired, we opted for lunch, walked around a little on our own, and took showers and rested a bit.

The obelisk commemorates where the first Argentinian flag flew after they gained their independence from Spain.

We met our tour guide Gonza, a native Argentinian at 5 and took a walking tour of some of the government areas. We went to May Square which is where the major political events of Argentina have taken place. We saw the Cabildo, which was the former Spanish seat of government. On one side of the square was The Pink House where the President of Argentina works and is well know for the Evita balcony where she spoke to the people. There is also a catherdral on the square which is the hometown for Pope Francis.

We then went by bus to a modern section of the city called Puerto Madero. We saw the Women’s Bridege which is a rotating footbridge over the canal. We ate supper in this area at an Argentinian Steak House. Argentina is well know for it’s beef and we were not disappointed.

By the time we returned to our hotel, we were ready to call it a day. It was fascinating to learn about the Buenos Aires history from Gonza’s perspective.  I’m sure we’ll learn even more tomorrow!

Yes, you read correctly.   Frank and I are taking a flight out of Philadelphia this afternoon and heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina, then to Ushuaia, Patagonia with our  final destination of Antarctica.  Why you may be asking?  That is exactly what Frank is wondering himself.   However I look it as a great adventure.   I can’t wait to meet the penguins!  I know I will be doing my best to get some great photos!   This will probably be one of our most memorable trips yet!   I can’t wait!!!

If I have trouble with wifi connections,  my posts will be delayed and I may have to finish them on our return.   Being flexible will be a big part of this trip and I am ready for the challenge.   Stayed tuned!