Looks like he posted some more last night in the wee hours while I was asleep! (I really want to know how he found so many totally clean penguins. All the ones I saw were covered in mud.)
Showing posts with label Antarctica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Antarctica. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
More of Chris's photos rolling in
I will remind everyone that the link to check out the photos on Chris's Flickr site is over there --> on your right at the top of the side bar. Same for me.
Looks like he posted some more last night in the wee hours while I was asleep! (I really want to know how he found so many totally clean penguins. All the ones I saw were covered in mud.)
Looks like he posted some more last night in the wee hours while I was asleep! (I really want to know how he found so many totally clean penguins. All the ones I saw were covered in mud.)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
For those of you still following...
Chris is starting to process some of his pictures. It's a slow process because he actually cares what they look like and does some work to make them the best that they can be (unlike me who uploads whatever comes out of the camera) (ok, actually, I filter out all the photos of my pocket and the ones that look exactly the same and give you sort of the best ones, i just don't do any processing or correction on them.), and he's very choosy about which ones he displays, so keep your eye out for them. He posts them to his Flickr site, and I will try and alert you when they show up in batches and post some of them here.
Here's what we got recently:
Hope you enjoy!
Here's what we got recently:
Hope you enjoy!
Monday, February 14, 2011
The highlights reel
Finally. I get to show you. Pictures are up here, but if you are short on time and don't want to see 200ish pictures, here's the highlights reel of my favorites from the trip. Trust me, these do not do the place justice. It is impossible to capture the scale and grandeur of what we saw. The landscapes are so huge that it's impossible for me to express through my pictures. Maybe Chris has something better. time will tell. Until then, enjoy theses and know that they are a pale expression of what is actually there.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Day 9: Drake Day 2, last full day aboard
A sad day indeed.
In the morning we went to some lectures. One was a movie called "Round the horn" which was film taken in 1929 by a sailor who was going on a hip to round Cape Horn which he showed in lectures for over 50 years before he finally decided to just do a voice over for it. It was amazing to see these men sailing these hugely masted ships in crazy crazy seas with no engines, just masts. We also had a lecture on "the thrill of krill" where we learned all about Krill and how it is the bases for most of the life in the Antarctic.
After lunch, we had good enough seas that we came up on the Pacific Ocean side of South America just so we could turn to the east and round cape horn ourselves, which is evidently a huge deal to maritime people. Now, I need to round the cape of Good Hope in Africa. :-) While we were doing this some Dolphins came up and were bow riding our wake, which was just perfect as a last awesome thing to happen on this trip. Nearly everyone of the passengers came out to see this and we all stood looking down over the bow to watch the dolphins play.
After that we got a ship tour of the arts of the ship that we have not as of yet been allowed to go into - the engine room, science center, more detail on the bridge, and the control room. Then up to the bar where we had a recap of the trip, and all of the places that we stopped and we watched a slide show of some of the best pictures that were taken by passengers on the trip. Quite a few of Chris and my pictures got into the slide show so that was really cool. Lastly, we had the Captains dinner and everyone got really sad when we realized that this was the next to last time that we'd all eat together. We went up to the bar for a little bit to visit with people and said some thank yous to the crew. Tomorrow we have to get up early, have some breakfast and then we are off to our hotel in Ushuaia, where we will stay for a few more days while exploring this area. A bunch of us from the ship are going to meet up and have dinner together mostly because we are not ready to say goodbye yet.
I sure hope that the rest of our trip (we have 3 more weeks!!!) is as awesome as this has been.
In the morning we went to some lectures. One was a movie called "Round the horn" which was film taken in 1929 by a sailor who was going on a hip to round Cape Horn which he showed in lectures for over 50 years before he finally decided to just do a voice over for it. It was amazing to see these men sailing these hugely masted ships in crazy crazy seas with no engines, just masts. We also had a lecture on "the thrill of krill" where we learned all about Krill and how it is the bases for most of the life in the Antarctic.
After lunch, we had good enough seas that we came up on the Pacific Ocean side of South America just so we could turn to the east and round cape horn ourselves, which is evidently a huge deal to maritime people. Now, I need to round the cape of Good Hope in Africa. :-) While we were doing this some Dolphins came up and were bow riding our wake, which was just perfect as a last awesome thing to happen on this trip. Nearly everyone of the passengers came out to see this and we all stood looking down over the bow to watch the dolphins play.
After that we got a ship tour of the arts of the ship that we have not as of yet been allowed to go into - the engine room, science center, more detail on the bridge, and the control room. Then up to the bar where we had a recap of the trip, and all of the places that we stopped and we watched a slide show of some of the best pictures that were taken by passengers on the trip. Quite a few of Chris and my pictures got into the slide show so that was really cool. Lastly, we had the Captains dinner and everyone got really sad when we realized that this was the next to last time that we'd all eat together. We went up to the bar for a little bit to visit with people and said some thank yous to the crew. Tomorrow we have to get up early, have some breakfast and then we are off to our hotel in Ushuaia, where we will stay for a few more days while exploring this area. A bunch of us from the ship are going to meet up and have dinner together mostly because we are not ready to say goodbye yet.
I sure hope that the rest of our trip (we have 3 more weeks!!!) is as awesome as this has been.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Day 8: the Drake Passage Home
Today was an open sea day, while crossing the Drake. We started out with a rolling swell that merely made us all walk like we were drunk, but by the evening, has turned into quite a ride. We keep crashing down really hard on the bow of the ship, and we're pretty lucky that everyone has some sort of medicine. My patch makes me really sleepy. I took a total of 7 naps yesterday and 5 today.
In between naps, We had more on board education. We had a seminar on whales and how to identify them from the surface based on what their fins and back look like when they come up to breathe, and there was also a talk on Antarctic explorers. In the afternoon, we had a lecture on albatross and how different Antarctic fishing practices are really harmful to the birds. Lastly, we heard from Woody, our Expedition leader, about the trips that they have in the Arctic region (this crew frequently rides this ship up north to do different tours of the Arctic as well. I totally want to go.)
In the evening we had a Champagne toast and the they held an auction of really cool stuff to raise money for the albatross foundation. They sold off the log book from our trip, the navigational charts that the Russion crew was keeping while we were out, some bottled glacier water from one of our landings, etc. It was great fun and they ended up raising over $5k.
In between naps, We had more on board education. We had a seminar on whales and how to identify them from the surface based on what their fins and back look like when they come up to breathe, and there was also a talk on Antarctic explorers. In the afternoon, we had a lecture on albatross and how different Antarctic fishing practices are really harmful to the birds. Lastly, we heard from Woody, our Expedition leader, about the trips that they have in the Arctic region (this crew frequently rides this ship up north to do different tours of the Arctic as well. I totally want to go.)
In the evening we had a Champagne toast and the they held an auction of really cool stuff to raise money for the albatross foundation. They sold off the log book from our trip, the navigational charts that the Russion crew was keeping while we were out, some bottled glacier water from one of our landings, etc. It was great fun and they ended up raising over $5k.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Day 7: Last day in Antarctica
Woke up this morning for our final continent shore landing. It was a hike up a really steep hill with views over a beautiful bay. I got about 2/3 of the way up and then was retarded and looked down. I promptly chickened out at that point. :-) The incline to come back down was so steep that I got a little bit of vertigo looking down it and trying to figure out how to get back down. So I did the only sensible thing: i sat down an watched all the senior citizens file past me. I hung out there, velcroed to the side of a steep mountain and contemplated Antarctica for about an hour. Chris hoofed it to the top, so I bet she has awesome pictures, which we may someday get to see. There were fir seals all over the place there so I finally went back down the hill and took some pictures of them. Fortunately, I do not feel like too much of a schmuck because a whole bunch of people didn't even try - they got there, took one look at that hill and then got back on the boat to come back to the ship.
When we rolled into our last stop, where we were supposed to go on one last zodiac cruise, the water was really choppy. Woody, our expedition leader dropped down in a zodiac to assess the gangway conditions. Between him and Annie (the second in command) they decided that the water was too choppy to get us all out onto the zodiacs safely, so we scrubbed that mission. Instead, we all took what we have deemed "polar naps" and then met up in the bar to have some spiked Hot chocolate & to take our group photo for the end of the tour DVD.
Speaking of the DVD: part of what you get with this tour is a DVD with pictures that all of the passengers have contributed, as well as maps of where we went, a recap of the expedition and other assorted goodies as a keepsake. Everyone has had their laptops out in the bar, going through all of the pictures that they have taken to add to the pile. I bet we are going to get some spectacular shots. The Chinese contingent has been out with 500 millimeter lenses that are the length of my arm, so I am eager to see what they took.
The next 2 days are the Drake Passage again on the way home - cross your fingers for an easy crossing - and we are going to attempt to come up in the Pacific Ocean so that we may actually turn east and round Cape Horn in it's entirety. This is a right of passage as these seas are usually really really rough, and old time sailors would measure their worth in how many times they have rounded the cape.
When we rolled into our last stop, where we were supposed to go on one last zodiac cruise, the water was really choppy. Woody, our expedition leader dropped down in a zodiac to assess the gangway conditions. Between him and Annie (the second in command) they decided that the water was too choppy to get us all out onto the zodiacs safely, so we scrubbed that mission. Instead, we all took what we have deemed "polar naps" and then met up in the bar to have some spiked Hot chocolate & to take our group photo for the end of the tour DVD.
Speaking of the DVD: part of what you get with this tour is a DVD with pictures that all of the passengers have contributed, as well as maps of where we went, a recap of the expedition and other assorted goodies as a keepsake. Everyone has had their laptops out in the bar, going through all of the pictures that they have taken to add to the pile. I bet we are going to get some spectacular shots. The Chinese contingent has been out with 500 millimeter lenses that are the length of my arm, so I am eager to see what they took.
The next 2 days are the Drake Passage again on the way home - cross your fingers for an easy crossing - and we are going to attempt to come up in the Pacific Ocean so that we may actually turn east and round Cape Horn in it's entirety. This is a right of passage as these seas are usually really really rough, and old time sailors would measure their worth in how many times they have rounded the cape.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Day 6: An odd one
Today was a bit of an odd one. We started out by going to some really low lying islands to have a cruise to see some Adelli penguins, which we had not yet seen. However, the water was really choppy and the skies were a bit darker than usual (there's always gray clouds everywhere here, we rarely see the sun). We got on the zodiacs anyway, but the guides all were noticeably more concerned looking. Our guide for that trip said that they go out in worse conditions though so I was not worried. However, about all they could do was pull the zodiacs up to the islands and try and hold them against the currents while we tried to take pictures of penguins. I only got a few that I think are ok, but the experience was fun (for me, not for a lot of the passengers - it was cold and choppy and they were visibly anxious to get back to the ship).
As soon as I got back to the ship, I noticed that it was rocking a bit harder than normal so I immediately popped a sea-sick pill and laid down for a nap. I ended up sleeping through lunch as the ship started going more and more crazy. About half of the ship got sick while I was passed out. Chris was really not feeling well, but he managed to not get sick from it. I decided to go ahead and put my patch back on tonight as we have about 3 days left anyway.
This afternoon we all suited up and went to port Lockroy, which was a British outpost that they have turned into a museum so you can see how people lived through the winter here, as well as a gift shop and a post office. We mailed a postcard to ourselves from there and it should take 4-7 weeks to get to us, depending on the weather. There was, as usual, penguins all over the place at the port, and the station is partly being used to see what the effects of tourism is on the penguin colonies. Surprisingly, our on-board bird expert says that penguin colonies that have regular visitors actually do the same or slightly better, because the predators tend to stay away from places that humans are.
Then the carted us on the zodiacs to another close-by point where they used to process whales back in the day. There were tons of whale bones around and they reconstructed a skeleton of a whale on the beach. Sadly, this was also a place where it is getting colder already, so some of the penguins have started molting before their chicks are big enough. Molting takes all their energy and they basically just stand there for 2 weeks while it happens, without moving or eating. This means that they can no longer feed their chicks, so if they are not big enough yet, they tend not to make it. There was a lot of evidence of chicks not making it on that beach. It was sad. The circle of life and all that...
The bar was really awesome tonight. Dan and Collin, who are two of our guides got out guitars and did a concert/sing-a-long for a couple of hours. The asked us to make stuff up about what happened on this trip and then they improved a couple of songs about our tall tales. A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow is our last day in Antarctica. I hope it is less odd than today!
As soon as I got back to the ship, I noticed that it was rocking a bit harder than normal so I immediately popped a sea-sick pill and laid down for a nap. I ended up sleeping through lunch as the ship started going more and more crazy. About half of the ship got sick while I was passed out. Chris was really not feeling well, but he managed to not get sick from it. I decided to go ahead and put my patch back on tonight as we have about 3 days left anyway.
This afternoon we all suited up and went to port Lockroy, which was a British outpost that they have turned into a museum so you can see how people lived through the winter here, as well as a gift shop and a post office. We mailed a postcard to ourselves from there and it should take 4-7 weeks to get to us, depending on the weather. There was, as usual, penguins all over the place at the port, and the station is partly being used to see what the effects of tourism is on the penguin colonies. Surprisingly, our on-board bird expert says that penguin colonies that have regular visitors actually do the same or slightly better, because the predators tend to stay away from places that humans are.
Then the carted us on the zodiacs to another close-by point where they used to process whales back in the day. There were tons of whale bones around and they reconstructed a skeleton of a whale on the beach. Sadly, this was also a place where it is getting colder already, so some of the penguins have started molting before their chicks are big enough. Molting takes all their energy and they basically just stand there for 2 weeks while it happens, without moving or eating. This means that they can no longer feed their chicks, so if they are not big enough yet, they tend not to make it. There was a lot of evidence of chicks not making it on that beach. It was sad. The circle of life and all that...
The bar was really awesome tonight. Dan and Collin, who are two of our guides got out guitars and did a concert/sing-a-long for a couple of hours. The asked us to make stuff up about what happened on this trip and then they improved a couple of songs about our tall tales. A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow is our last day in Antarctica. I hope it is less odd than today!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Day 5: Neko and Paradise Harbors
I have to say, one of the awesomest things about this excursion is the people on this ship. I have already said that the staff is amazing, and they totally are, but the passengers are pretty awesome as well. Since I have been sick, everyone constantly stops and inquires as to my health and asks if they can do anything. Everyone is so very nice and interesting and so very, very happy to be here that you can ask anyone how their day was and they will light up and say that it was simply amazing and that they are so lucky to be here. We don't really have any people on board that are unkind or rude and while there's about 30 Chinese people on the boat as a group that do not speak English and we can't really communicate with, they are all really happy and excited too and let us all look at their amazing camera equipment. They even occasionally go up to Chris and point at some doo-dad that he has for his camera and they have some non-verbal exchange of camera envy and checking each other's gear out. All the English speakers are super friendly and we all switch around who we sit with at meals and talk to different people and get to know them. There's a lot of Australian, English, and Canadians on this ship. We have made particular friends with a family of Canadians who are really cool. Anyway, not to gush about it all too much, but I did want to call out that they are right when they say "there's a certain type of person that takes this trip". I don't know if we just got lucky or not, but it really makes a difference in the experience.
On to the trip report! Today we started the day in Niko Harbor were we did a cruise and a shore landing. We started with about an hour and a half on the zodiacs puttering around ice bergs, watching Minke whales come up for air, checking out Crab-eater, fir, and Weddell seals and, of course, penguins a plenty. Cruising around harbors here is a crazy magical experience. Our guides know exactly where to go, and how long to stay so we all get good pictures of really beautiful scenery and wildlife. After the boat ride, we got off at a Gentoo penguin colony where there was also a nice title hike up to a high point to have a good look at the bay. I can't even describe it. It looks fake. It is so pristine and overwhelming and large and everywhere you look is so beautiful that you are speechless. You stop trying to photograph things in a grand scale because you are constatly dissapointed that the pictures simply do not do what you see justice.
Anyway, back to the trip report: We also saw calving happen twice here. That is when he ice avalanches off some random high point, either to a lower point or to the water. It's really cool when it hits the water because it makes all the icebergs bob up and down and sometimes it convinces them to flip over. It makes this cracking sound like thunder and lightning and then the deepest of rumbles as it all rolls down the hill. Every time the crack happens, everyone immediately shuts up and starts scanning around to see where it is coming from.
In the afternoon we also had a cruise and landing experience. We started with the landing this time at brown station, which is a non-working, but still occupied Argentinian research station. It actually would cost them more to dismantle it than to man it, and they are talking about turning it into a small museum, so they leave it there with four Argentinian dudes who just sort of hang out there. We checked that out for a bit and then boarded the zodiacs for a cruise around that harbor. I can't even try and explain how awesome that was. The most amazing ice bergs were there, including one with a tunnel through it. Our guide on this ride was kind of a dare-devil and he took us all the way around it, which actually put us really close to it and in between two of them, which were both about 100 feet tall. The boats are really fast, though, so in an emergency he could have moved us easily to safety. We also saw a leopard seal, which are the hardest of the seals to find just laying around (the other seals are simply everywhere - if there's a piece of ice floating around, there's probably a seal on it). Leopard seals are truly freaky looking animals. They look almost like snakes (or Lord Voldemort for those of you in the know - now every time I see one, i think of Ralph Finnes). They are also the only species that can dislocate their jaw if they need to, just like a snake. Their heads don't look right on their bodies. Anyway, they are are weird, and they eat penguins and other seals, so I am not on team leopard seal.
Both of these landings were on mainland Antarctica so I am officially a member of the 7 continent club! I guess i need to think of a new goal now...
Health report: I am on the mend. Still coughing a lot when I lay down, but for sure getting better. Yay. However Chris is not feeling 100% now. I hope that this is simply because he camped outside last night. He had some pretty funny visitors to his camp so hopefully he'll write a report about what happened there!
At the risk of repeating myself, you should come here. I have been to many many magical and beautiful places all over the world, but this is simply the coolest thing that I have ever done. And the thing is, that every day they take us somewhere that is even better, more awesome than the last, and we keep having really great experiences here. We can only hope that our luck holds with the weather, but so far, everyone is really grateful that we have been blessed with fantastic conditions to keep visiting really neat places.
Tomorrow we have a cruise in the morning and then a station that has been turned into a museum and gift shop. Too bad we have full capacity on our luggage! Here's hoping that tomorrow is as cool as today!
On to the trip report! Today we started the day in Niko Harbor were we did a cruise and a shore landing. We started with about an hour and a half on the zodiacs puttering around ice bergs, watching Minke whales come up for air, checking out Crab-eater, fir, and Weddell seals and, of course, penguins a plenty. Cruising around harbors here is a crazy magical experience. Our guides know exactly where to go, and how long to stay so we all get good pictures of really beautiful scenery and wildlife. After the boat ride, we got off at a Gentoo penguin colony where there was also a nice title hike up to a high point to have a good look at the bay. I can't even describe it. It looks fake. It is so pristine and overwhelming and large and everywhere you look is so beautiful that you are speechless. You stop trying to photograph things in a grand scale because you are constatly dissapointed that the pictures simply do not do what you see justice.
Anyway, back to the trip report: We also saw calving happen twice here. That is when he ice avalanches off some random high point, either to a lower point or to the water. It's really cool when it hits the water because it makes all the icebergs bob up and down and sometimes it convinces them to flip over. It makes this cracking sound like thunder and lightning and then the deepest of rumbles as it all rolls down the hill. Every time the crack happens, everyone immediately shuts up and starts scanning around to see where it is coming from.
In the afternoon we also had a cruise and landing experience. We started with the landing this time at brown station, which is a non-working, but still occupied Argentinian research station. It actually would cost them more to dismantle it than to man it, and they are talking about turning it into a small museum, so they leave it there with four Argentinian dudes who just sort of hang out there. We checked that out for a bit and then boarded the zodiacs for a cruise around that harbor. I can't even try and explain how awesome that was. The most amazing ice bergs were there, including one with a tunnel through it. Our guide on this ride was kind of a dare-devil and he took us all the way around it, which actually put us really close to it and in between two of them, which were both about 100 feet tall. The boats are really fast, though, so in an emergency he could have moved us easily to safety. We also saw a leopard seal, which are the hardest of the seals to find just laying around (the other seals are simply everywhere - if there's a piece of ice floating around, there's probably a seal on it). Leopard seals are truly freaky looking animals. They look almost like snakes (or Lord Voldemort for those of you in the know - now every time I see one, i think of Ralph Finnes). They are also the only species that can dislocate their jaw if they need to, just like a snake. Their heads don't look right on their bodies. Anyway, they are are weird, and they eat penguins and other seals, so I am not on team leopard seal.
Both of these landings were on mainland Antarctica so I am officially a member of the 7 continent club! I guess i need to think of a new goal now...
Health report: I am on the mend. Still coughing a lot when I lay down, but for sure getting better. Yay. However Chris is not feeling 100% now. I hope that this is simply because he camped outside last night. He had some pretty funny visitors to his camp so hopefully he'll write a report about what happened there!
At the risk of repeating myself, you should come here. I have been to many many magical and beautiful places all over the world, but this is simply the coolest thing that I have ever done. And the thing is, that every day they take us somewhere that is even better, more awesome than the last, and we keep having really great experiences here. We can only hope that our luck holds with the weather, but so far, everyone is really grateful that we have been blessed with fantastic conditions to keep visiting really neat places.
Tomorrow we have a cruise in the morning and then a station that has been turned into a museum and gift shop. Too bad we have full capacity on our luggage! Here's hoping that tomorrow is as cool as today!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Day 4: The most amazing boat ride ever.
This morning we were woken up and told to get extra warmed up because we were going cruising through one of the straights that separates mainland Antarctica from it's hundreds of islands. We were also told that we had a big pod of humpbacks along side of us, and some people on the boat saw some distant breaching. I was sadly in my room at the time coughing my lungs out, but did see a spout out of my window at one point.
We got all suited up (it's 0 degrees C outside so this means 4 layers of clothing, the top layer being waterproof) and headed out on the zodiacs for a cruise. They brought us up to a bunch of really beautiful, super blue icebergs, floating ice with penguins, crab-eater seals and fir seals getting some sun (through the clouds, it's perpetually gray here), and lots of really cool birds. There also was a sunken whaling vessel to check out as well as small wooden landing boats that have been sitting on the shore for about a hundred years. I got to hold some glacial ice that looked like it was made by a golf ball maker, and we got to witness an iceberg drop some snow and then roll over, which is accompanied by a really crazy sound. It's a fairly amazing thing to watch. I have to say, this particular cruise, so far is possibly the awesomest thing that I have ever done.
At lunch time we were given a PA announcement that there were orcas off the port side, so I ran up to the ship's helm room to take a look and indeed did see at least 3 orcas porpoising (which is when they roll out and back into the water - like what dolphins do next to ships) (oddly, penguins also do this, and they fly right next to the ship sometimes just like dolphins would.). That was pretty amazing to see them in the wild.
In the afternoon we landed on an island to check out the largest Gentoo penguin colony around. As was the case yesterday, it smelled like penguin, so now the ship does too, despite the crazy sanitation procedure you have to go through to get back on board. This colony had some late-bloomer chicks in nests with their parents. Yesterday's chicks were almost as big as their parents, but these were much smaller, and only about 3 weeks old. SUPER cute.
On the health front, my voice is a little better, and i feel much much better internally. I still cough in fits, but they are much less harsh and I don't feel like they are sucking my soul. However, there is some bad news. The camping expedition is tonight. I have made the decision to give up my spot and stay on board tonight. It's snowing, its really cold, and they are coming back at 6:00 in the morning to get hot showers before breakfast, so I strongly suspect that I would just lay there all night freezing, being really uncomfortable and wishing that I was not making myself worse. If it was the last night of excursions, I would totally go and just sleep through the two day return trip back to Ushuaia, but I don't want to loose a night of sleep, set back the improvements that I have made to my health and be too exhausted to do the excursions tomorrow. Chris offered to stay on board with me, but I told him to go live the dream for me, so he is currently setting up camp out there somewhere as I look out of our window. I hope that he has a really great time.
Speaking of excursions, this trip has FAR exceeded expectations so far on every front. I was expecting to only go to shore a couple of times and to be pretty bored the rest of the time, but it is not so. We go out 2x daily for 5 days, and I have to say that so far, cruising around in the zodiacs is totally my favorite part. The staff at Quark are amazing and unless it's strictly forbidden, we can request to go pretty much anywhere within bounds to go look at anything we are interested in. They are all really fun and knowledgeable and bend over backwards to make sure that we get the very most amount of awesome out of this trip.
Speaking of awesome, tomorrow we are going to go to land on Antarctica proper. We are hoping to go to Neko Harbor to see more penguins. Then on for a landing near an Argentinian station *and* another cruising opportunity around Paradise harbor in the afternoon. This sounds fantastic.
Reflections on this trip near the 1/2 way mark: The pictures don't even do it justice. As I was walking around today, I tried to think of how I can explain how completely amazing this place is. I have decided that I cannot. There aren't any words to describe the scenic beauty, the feeling of seeing 6,000 penguins, whales, seals, birds and icebergs all in their natural habitat. We have the privileged of being the only ship where ever we go as well, so there no other distractions. It's breathtaking, unbelievable and humbling. I highly recommend that people take this trip. You will not regret it. Before I came, I thought that the price was steep, but hey, it's the price you pay if you want to get to go. Now, I think it is worth every single penny and more. I'd pay twice as much to come here and have the honor of seeing what we are seeing. It is truly a priceless experience and we are so fortunate to have the means to come and do this. When i say that it is a privileged and an honor to be here, I really mean it.
I am really grateful to Chris for making this happen. It's really amazing.
If you can manage it in any way, come. It will change the way you see the world.
We got all suited up (it's 0 degrees C outside so this means 4 layers of clothing, the top layer being waterproof) and headed out on the zodiacs for a cruise. They brought us up to a bunch of really beautiful, super blue icebergs, floating ice with penguins, crab-eater seals and fir seals getting some sun (through the clouds, it's perpetually gray here), and lots of really cool birds. There also was a sunken whaling vessel to check out as well as small wooden landing boats that have been sitting on the shore for about a hundred years. I got to hold some glacial ice that looked like it was made by a golf ball maker, and we got to witness an iceberg drop some snow and then roll over, which is accompanied by a really crazy sound. It's a fairly amazing thing to watch. I have to say, this particular cruise, so far is possibly the awesomest thing that I have ever done.
At lunch time we were given a PA announcement that there were orcas off the port side, so I ran up to the ship's helm room to take a look and indeed did see at least 3 orcas porpoising (which is when they roll out and back into the water - like what dolphins do next to ships) (oddly, penguins also do this, and they fly right next to the ship sometimes just like dolphins would.). That was pretty amazing to see them in the wild.
In the afternoon we landed on an island to check out the largest Gentoo penguin colony around. As was the case yesterday, it smelled like penguin, so now the ship does too, despite the crazy sanitation procedure you have to go through to get back on board. This colony had some late-bloomer chicks in nests with their parents. Yesterday's chicks were almost as big as their parents, but these were much smaller, and only about 3 weeks old. SUPER cute.
On the health front, my voice is a little better, and i feel much much better internally. I still cough in fits, but they are much less harsh and I don't feel like they are sucking my soul. However, there is some bad news. The camping expedition is tonight. I have made the decision to give up my spot and stay on board tonight. It's snowing, its really cold, and they are coming back at 6:00 in the morning to get hot showers before breakfast, so I strongly suspect that I would just lay there all night freezing, being really uncomfortable and wishing that I was not making myself worse. If it was the last night of excursions, I would totally go and just sleep through the two day return trip back to Ushuaia, but I don't want to loose a night of sleep, set back the improvements that I have made to my health and be too exhausted to do the excursions tomorrow. Chris offered to stay on board with me, but I told him to go live the dream for me, so he is currently setting up camp out there somewhere as I look out of our window. I hope that he has a really great time.
Speaking of excursions, this trip has FAR exceeded expectations so far on every front. I was expecting to only go to shore a couple of times and to be pretty bored the rest of the time, but it is not so. We go out 2x daily for 5 days, and I have to say that so far, cruising around in the zodiacs is totally my favorite part. The staff at Quark are amazing and unless it's strictly forbidden, we can request to go pretty much anywhere within bounds to go look at anything we are interested in. They are all really fun and knowledgeable and bend over backwards to make sure that we get the very most amount of awesome out of this trip.
Speaking of awesome, tomorrow we are going to go to land on Antarctica proper. We are hoping to go to Neko Harbor to see more penguins. Then on for a landing near an Argentinian station *and* another cruising opportunity around Paradise harbor in the afternoon. This sounds fantastic.
Reflections on this trip near the 1/2 way mark: The pictures don't even do it justice. As I was walking around today, I tried to think of how I can explain how completely amazing this place is. I have decided that I cannot. There aren't any words to describe the scenic beauty, the feeling of seeing 6,000 penguins, whales, seals, birds and icebergs all in their natural habitat. We have the privileged of being the only ship where ever we go as well, so there no other distractions. It's breathtaking, unbelievable and humbling. I highly recommend that people take this trip. You will not regret it. Before I came, I thought that the price was steep, but hey, it's the price you pay if you want to get to go. Now, I think it is worth every single penny and more. I'd pay twice as much to come here and have the honor of seeing what we are seeing. It is truly a priceless experience and we are so fortunate to have the means to come and do this. When i say that it is a privileged and an honor to be here, I really mean it.
I am really grateful to Chris for making this happen. It's really amazing.
If you can manage it in any way, come. It will change the way you see the world.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Day 3: South Shetland Islands
Things I have learned about penguins:
1. They smell. Bad. I am sitting in my cabin and the whole ship smells like penguin Guano. Its really disgusting. If you have ever smelled bat guano, you know what I am talking about. It's pretty similar.
2. They are like cockroaches here. When they tell you that you will get to see penguins on this trip, they are really, really serious. Like tens of thousands.
3. Penguins are in no way afraid of humans. Like they stop if they are crossing your path, in your way and give you the stink eye before moving on.
4. Penguin chicks are slave drivers. The find their moms, eat all they can and then chase their moms, squawking, back into the ocean in so they can go get them more food.
5. Penguins smell really badly.
6. They are really cute and funny and they smell.
7. Penguins are really photogenic and they will stop and stand still for you so that you may get an awesome picture of them. Also, they smell.
We ended u doing both of the landings on the South Shetland islands that I mentioned in my last post. We saw thousands and thousands of penguins at these two colonies. We saw Gentoo and chin straps. The Gentoo are the ones with the white band across the tops of their heads, and the chinstraps are easily recognized by the obvious strip on their chins that looks like a chinstrap. I now have 785 thousand pictures of penguins. One even had the nerve to walk right up to me and gently peck at me before cocking his head, and then walking off. No, I am not your mommy and no, I do not have any pre-chewed fish. Sorry about that. We are told to give them 5 meters clearance, but if they walk up to you, you are allowed to let them, so most of us do. The second stop also brought us some fir seals and even a Weddell seal on the beach. Both sites were totally amazing, and we even got a close look at our first small icebergs. While traveling between the sites, we even spotted humpback whales. No breaching, but we did see spouting and some people saw the cresting as well.
On the health front, I felt really bad this morning and didn't get much sleep thanks to crazy rampant coughing. I went to the doctor again this morning and I have been give a course of antibiotics to make sure that pneumonia does not happen. The doctor says whichever thing it is, I should be well again in a couple of days and she is still not super worried about it, so I will not be either. I went out, obviously, even though I feel lousy, and I have completely lost my voice. Ugh. However, I a not letting anything stop me from getting everything I can out of this experience.
1. They smell. Bad. I am sitting in my cabin and the whole ship smells like penguin Guano. Its really disgusting. If you have ever smelled bat guano, you know what I am talking about. It's pretty similar.
2. They are like cockroaches here. When they tell you that you will get to see penguins on this trip, they are really, really serious. Like tens of thousands.
3. Penguins are in no way afraid of humans. Like they stop if they are crossing your path, in your way and give you the stink eye before moving on.
4. Penguin chicks are slave drivers. The find their moms, eat all they can and then chase their moms, squawking, back into the ocean in so they can go get them more food.
5. Penguins smell really badly.
6. They are really cute and funny and they smell.
7. Penguins are really photogenic and they will stop and stand still for you so that you may get an awesome picture of them. Also, they smell.
We ended u doing both of the landings on the South Shetland islands that I mentioned in my last post. We saw thousands and thousands of penguins at these two colonies. We saw Gentoo and chin straps. The Gentoo are the ones with the white band across the tops of their heads, and the chinstraps are easily recognized by the obvious strip on their chins that looks like a chinstrap. I now have 785 thousand pictures of penguins. One even had the nerve to walk right up to me and gently peck at me before cocking his head, and then walking off. No, I am not your mommy and no, I do not have any pre-chewed fish. Sorry about that. We are told to give them 5 meters clearance, but if they walk up to you, you are allowed to let them, so most of us do. The second stop also brought us some fir seals and even a Weddell seal on the beach. Both sites were totally amazing, and we even got a close look at our first small icebergs. While traveling between the sites, we even spotted humpback whales. No breaching, but we did see spouting and some people saw the cresting as well.
On the health front, I felt really bad this morning and didn't get much sleep thanks to crazy rampant coughing. I went to the doctor again this morning and I have been give a course of antibiotics to make sure that pneumonia does not happen. The doctor says whichever thing it is, I should be well again in a couple of days and she is still not super worried about it, so I will not be either. I went out, obviously, even though I feel lousy, and I have completely lost my voice. Ugh. However, I a not letting anything stop me from getting everything I can out of this experience.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Day 2: Drake Passage
We passed the 60 degrees latitude markers early this morning and then passed through the antarctic convergence, where the waters that flow around Antarctica meet the southern ocean and the temperature suddenly drops. So we are told that we are officially in the territory of Antarctica. We passed some of the islands that are associated with the sub-antarctic chains and are in the midst of the south Shetland islands at the moment.
The water was fairly calm today, which was good. I have not yet gotten seasick, but I have felt a little nauseous a few times and had to lay down. Truth be told, we have been blessed with the calm seas on the way here and I am at the point where I don't feel the ship moving much unless we hit a particularly big swell. The seasick medicine does work, but it also makes you have dry mouth, pee a lot, and makes you really, really sleepy. I try and come to my room and lay down at least a couple times a day for short naps to make things easier.
The really lame thing that has happened is that I have developed some upper respiratory sickness that the doctor says could either be Bronchitis of hooping cough, however, we have a respiratory therapist on board who says my symptoms don't match either of those things and she thinks it's just a severe cold with laryngitis. I have had a cough for like a month now from a cold I had near Christmas time, which I did not think anything of, but the day before we left on the boat, I was having pain in my left lung when I breathed in really hard or when i sneezed or coughed, and after a night on the boat my cough became really painful and way more frequent. My lung did stop hurting, but I went to the doctor on board anyway and she listened to my chest and is not worried. She gave me cough syrup which tastes horrible, but seems to at least tone it down a little.*sigh* I am powering through it all, but feel kind of lousy. Lame.
On to the good news. We saw whales and penguins and some really awesome sea birds today. Chris saw some fur seals chasing the ship as well. The ship's sonar also detected the first iceberg of the trip this morning. Our lectures were informative and the fod has all been surprisingly good. Tomorrow we are going to assess the landing sites on some of the south Shetland islands and attempt for a morning and afternoon zodiac landing. The morning prospect is Aitcho island which should have rookeries of chinstrap and Gentoo penguins and fur seals. The afternoon site that we are trying for is called half moon island which has 3,300 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins as well as seals on it.
I sure do hope that I feel better tomorrow because it sounds like a really exciting day!
The water was fairly calm today, which was good. I have not yet gotten seasick, but I have felt a little nauseous a few times and had to lay down. Truth be told, we have been blessed with the calm seas on the way here and I am at the point where I don't feel the ship moving much unless we hit a particularly big swell. The seasick medicine does work, but it also makes you have dry mouth, pee a lot, and makes you really, really sleepy. I try and come to my room and lay down at least a couple times a day for short naps to make things easier.
The really lame thing that has happened is that I have developed some upper respiratory sickness that the doctor says could either be Bronchitis of hooping cough, however, we have a respiratory therapist on board who says my symptoms don't match either of those things and she thinks it's just a severe cold with laryngitis. I have had a cough for like a month now from a cold I had near Christmas time, which I did not think anything of, but the day before we left on the boat, I was having pain in my left lung when I breathed in really hard or when i sneezed or coughed, and after a night on the boat my cough became really painful and way more frequent. My lung did stop hurting, but I went to the doctor on board anyway and she listened to my chest and is not worried. She gave me cough syrup which tastes horrible, but seems to at least tone it down a little.*sigh* I am powering through it all, but feel kind of lousy. Lame.
On to the good news. We saw whales and penguins and some really awesome sea birds today. Chris saw some fur seals chasing the ship as well. The ship's sonar also detected the first iceberg of the trip this morning. Our lectures were informative and the fod has all been surprisingly good. Tomorrow we are going to assess the landing sites on some of the south Shetland islands and attempt for a morning and afternoon zodiac landing. The morning prospect is Aitcho island which should have rookeries of chinstrap and Gentoo penguins and fur seals. The afternoon site that we are trying for is called half moon island which has 3,300 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins as well as seals on it.
I sure do hope that I feel better tomorrow because it sounds like a really exciting day!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Day 1: Drake Passage
I started out yesterday, really panicked and stressed out about bunch of health things that have happened while I was here (I had a bit of lung pain, combined wit a mildly sprained/twisted ankle) and the fact that we stayed at the most horrible hotel ever for 2 nights. That is kind of a long and lame story, but suffice it to say that I got the issue fixed by going to the lobby in my pajamas dripping with tears and telling the attendant in front of 30 people how horrible the hotel was when she was totally rude to me. Needless to say, I was kind of stressed out about getting on the boat with all of that and the threat of the Drake Passage lying ahead.
2 Xanex later and the knot in my stomach dissipated and I was much calmer. The ship is really very cool, the beds are actually significantly more comfortable than the hotel from hell was, the food is delish, the crew is amazing and patient and really cool people, and, so far, knock on wood, the Drake has been kind to us. They call it this particular calmness "the Drake Lake".
Evidently, though, we are supposed to encounter rougher seas tomorrow as the winds are picking up. I hope that we all have our sea legs by then and will not have too many casualties to seasickness. My medicine appears to work, although it gives me dry mouth and makes me pee a lot (Chris too). I was a tiny bit uncomfortable in my belly this morning, but i think i just should avoid greasy foods like the 1/2 slice of bacon I ate.
We had a very informative day today - we went to 4 different briefings. The two mandatory ones were about Antarctica itself and what we want to do to help keep it pristine ad beautiful and what we can expect generally from the wildlife, and one about the Zodiacs and what we will be doing in them and how to board and de-board and what is appropriate to bring aboard them. The crew seems really flexible to help us make god decisions while letting us get out of it what we all want.
The second set of lectures were optional, but we went to them anyway. One was on sea birds (mostly about albatross) and then one on ice (including land ice like glaciers, fern and snow) and then sea ice like flows and other different formations. She also covered some about ice bergs. These were just overview classes and we will learn much more when we actually go out and start exploring.
I learned today that we will try and do 2 stops a day for 5 days down there. Some will be landings and some will be just cruising around in the Zodiacs taking pictures of ice flows and ice bergs and leopard seals and penguins on them. If we have ok seas on the way back, we are going to approach Ushuaia from the other direction (we left via the Beagle Channel), and try and round Cape Horn. Apparently, it's a rite of passage (get it? it *is* a passage! I'm so funny!)
One of the very cool things about the ship is that there's not a lot of us. Maybe 100. The dining room has one seating per meal and we have been able to sit and eat with a large variety of people and learn about where they come from and why they are here. There's also a bar/lounge place where people go to hang out and drink and tell stories and play cards and everyone just kind of sits down and starts talking to everyone else. so far, no complaints on personalities, everyone seems cool.
Also, we got our room upgraded for free. We were supposed to have 2 bunks and then have to use public bathrooms and showers. Now we have bunks, but the couch flips over and is a bed, so I am sleeping there so no one has to go to the top bunk. We also share a bathroom with the room next door only which is awesome, except that the shower is practically right over the toilet, so we are all nervous to see how that works out when the first person decides to take a shower. Our room is very small, but it is totally big enough for us and our stuff and just to catch some catnaps in during the day.
They ave a PA system here that announces where everyone should be, if there's some cool wildlife to go look at and meals, so it's really easy just to wander around and talk to people until the intercom tells you that you may go somewhere.
We got to go on the bridge today, which was pretty cool since this is a Russian ship and everything in there looked like soviet era equipment, and yesterday we had our lifeboat drill. The lifeboats are crazy. They look just like submarines - they are full enclosed, self-righting tubes that i am totally confident will keep us warm and dry if we have to get in them.
There's a happy hour at the bar with cheap drinks and at 9 every night the crew tells us short stories about random things that have happened to them or about sea lore. For example, we got told all about maritime superstitions by our expedition leader, Woody.
Tomorrow we have for more optional lectures: There's one on Penguins, on about geo-politics called Who owns Antarctica, one on the seals that can e found in this region and one called "discovery of a new continent". I bet that we will go to all of them.
So far the trip is much better than expected! More when i have it to share!
2 Xanex later and the knot in my stomach dissipated and I was much calmer. The ship is really very cool, the beds are actually significantly more comfortable than the hotel from hell was, the food is delish, the crew is amazing and patient and really cool people, and, so far, knock on wood, the Drake has been kind to us. They call it this particular calmness "the Drake Lake".
Evidently, though, we are supposed to encounter rougher seas tomorrow as the winds are picking up. I hope that we all have our sea legs by then and will not have too many casualties to seasickness. My medicine appears to work, although it gives me dry mouth and makes me pee a lot (Chris too). I was a tiny bit uncomfortable in my belly this morning, but i think i just should avoid greasy foods like the 1/2 slice of bacon I ate.
We had a very informative day today - we went to 4 different briefings. The two mandatory ones were about Antarctica itself and what we want to do to help keep it pristine ad beautiful and what we can expect generally from the wildlife, and one about the Zodiacs and what we will be doing in them and how to board and de-board and what is appropriate to bring aboard them. The crew seems really flexible to help us make god decisions while letting us get out of it what we all want.
The second set of lectures were optional, but we went to them anyway. One was on sea birds (mostly about albatross) and then one on ice (including land ice like glaciers, fern and snow) and then sea ice like flows and other different formations. She also covered some about ice bergs. These were just overview classes and we will learn much more when we actually go out and start exploring.
I learned today that we will try and do 2 stops a day for 5 days down there. Some will be landings and some will be just cruising around in the Zodiacs taking pictures of ice flows and ice bergs and leopard seals and penguins on them. If we have ok seas on the way back, we are going to approach Ushuaia from the other direction (we left via the Beagle Channel), and try and round Cape Horn. Apparently, it's a rite of passage (get it? it *is* a passage! I'm so funny!)
One of the very cool things about the ship is that there's not a lot of us. Maybe 100. The dining room has one seating per meal and we have been able to sit and eat with a large variety of people and learn about where they come from and why they are here. There's also a bar/lounge place where people go to hang out and drink and tell stories and play cards and everyone just kind of sits down and starts talking to everyone else. so far, no complaints on personalities, everyone seems cool.
Also, we got our room upgraded for free. We were supposed to have 2 bunks and then have to use public bathrooms and showers. Now we have bunks, but the couch flips over and is a bed, so I am sleeping there so no one has to go to the top bunk. We also share a bathroom with the room next door only which is awesome, except that the shower is practically right over the toilet, so we are all nervous to see how that works out when the first person decides to take a shower. Our room is very small, but it is totally big enough for us and our stuff and just to catch some catnaps in during the day.
They ave a PA system here that announces where everyone should be, if there's some cool wildlife to go look at and meals, so it's really easy just to wander around and talk to people until the intercom tells you that you may go somewhere.
We got to go on the bridge today, which was pretty cool since this is a Russian ship and everything in there looked like soviet era equipment, and yesterday we had our lifeboat drill. The lifeboats are crazy. They look just like submarines - they are full enclosed, self-righting tubes that i am totally confident will keep us warm and dry if we have to get in them.
There's a happy hour at the bar with cheap drinks and at 9 every night the crew tells us short stories about random things that have happened to them or about sea lore. For example, we got told all about maritime superstitions by our expedition leader, Woody.
Tomorrow we have for more optional lectures: There's one on Penguins, on about geo-politics called Who owns Antarctica, one on the seals that can e found in this region and one called "discovery of a new continent". I bet that we will go to all of them.
So far the trip is much better than expected! More when i have it to share!
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