Out Of Antarctica

I had intended to post from Antarctica itself, but time somehow gets away from you wile in a place like this. So, I'm posting instead from the Scotia Sea en route to the Falklands.

You might have heard of the Drake Passage between Ushuaia and the Antarctic. It is often windy and treacherous, and has become known to those with weak stomachs (such as yours truly) as the Drake Shake. Fortunately, we had one of the quieter rides, and so we refer to this area alternatively as the Drake Lake. (We've had some rough seas here and there anyway, and I'm trying to keep my meals from repatriating themselves to the outside world with an Australian drug called TravaCalm. So far, so good.) And believe it or not, there were a number of other cruise and expedition ships down there with us. Antarctica is becoming a major eco-tourist attraction.

Our week in the REALLY Deep South included four trips out to land, twice to islands, and twice to the mainland peninsula itself. Given the latter, I have officially joined the 7 Continents club, having now set foot on all seven continents. (Naturally, some academic types have just now come up with a possible eighth continent, Zealandia, but it's mostly under the ocean, so in my book, it doesn't count.) There were two days with weather rough enough to keep us away from shore, so we got to steam around and see the incredible territory instead. That's a reasonable consolation prize.

Photos do not do this area justice. At all. At least mine don't. Of course, my photo equipment includes a Sony RX100 M3, a GoPro with stabilizer gimbal grip, and my iPhone. I'm thinking the iPhone is probably the best of the lot. I've had some terrible cases of lens-envy when observing the setups some of the other passengers have with them. I attempted to ask someone who was showing off a few really incredible whale pics about his set-up. "It's a Canon 5D Mark II..do you know cameras?" When I said I did know something about them, but was not in possession of this $5K setup, the gentleman then made it a point to ignore me. See my comments about class in the previous entry.

But I do have hundreds of photos, and I'm proud of them. When I get back home, and have something to process them beyond Mrs. Dalai's old MacBook Air, I'll try to compile the best of them. In the meantime, here are a few random pics:

You'll notice white lines in some of the images of the penguins. I don't have to tell you what they are, do I? But where there's grant money, there will be someone to claim it. The image below is from an honest-to-gosh scientific paper about...penguin defecation:

Yes, this was the topic of an on-board lecture. No guano. 

And finally, it wouldn't be Valentine's Day in Antarctica without a dip in the hot tub! It wasn't too bad getting in...

We were to get one last penguin visit in the Falklands, but gale-force winds forced us to carry on toward Uruguay. So w are now officially in penguin withdrawal, if there is such a thing. Oh well...one must be flexible when traveling in this part of the world.

Politicians and Penguins

My level of love for animals is mostly restricted to our two little fluff-balls at home, whose vet and kibble bills top the GDP of several small nations. Mrs. Dalai, however, LOVES animals, especially penguins. And so, when deciding where to go for our next big trip, she was quite clear on where she wanted to go. Antarctica!

When Mrs. Dalai speaks, I listen. And so, we are presently on a ship traversing the Drake Passage, and will indeed reach Antarctica by tomorrow morning.

Yes, it's getting colder...Supposedly the temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula itself will be in the low 30's Fahrenheit, not quite as bad as I expected. 

We started the cruise in Valparaiso, Chile, heading down the west coast of South America, stopping at various ports in Chile, and then Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern-most city in the world. 

From Puerto Montt, we bussed to the Pertohue Falls:

On the island of Chiloe', we visited a number of wooden churches, designated UNESCO World Heritage sites, and these palafitos, houses on stilts, in the city of Castro.  

From Punta Arenas, we took a speedboat to Magdalena Island, and finally saw penguins! There are a number of penguin species, and these are Magellenic, also known as Jack Ass Penguins. 

There are a number of glaciers this far south, including this one in the Chilean Fjords:

And tomorrow, we reach our first adventure stop, Half Moon Island, in the South Shetlands just off the coast of Antarctica. We'll be here for a week, with an hour out on the ice each day. We've brought enough winter gear, including hand and foot warmers, to last a lifetime. Weather-wise, at least, I prefer my version of the South to this version of the South, but I must admit that the scenery here is much more dramatic.

You might wonder who would undertake such a trip; I certainly did. As you would guess, the passengers are by and large older, almost all are older than we are. Who else is going to take almost 4 weeks to make this trip? (The cruise goes on to the Brazilian Amazon and then to Florida for those who can take two MONTHS off.)  The average is somewhere south of dead, but on its last run through this area, the ship had to leave the Antarctic on an emergency basis as two passengers took ill. There is NO way to evacuate someone whilst here. One of the two did not survive, I'm told, but was content to leave this Earth doing what he loved best. If I ran the cruise line, I would require medical certification before ever allowing anyone on this sort of cruise, but that's just me.

Part of the fun of this trip, however, is indeed the folks we meet. We've come to know the retired CEO of a large aircraft company, several self-made men (and women), the retired head of the Social Security equivalent of a major Scandinavian nation, and while I've not tried to disturb his privacy, a former presidential candidate and his perfectly-coiffured wife are on the trip as well. And there are the usual complement of folks we try to avoid. "You're from the SOUTH? We don't know anyone from the SOUTH. They don't think like WE do." "Morris!!!!!! They're all out of cucumbers at the salad bar! DO SOMETHING!" "We only get a few weeks off. Not like Jewish people who always have extra holidays..." Money doesn't buy class, it seems...

Anyway, we are on the first group to hit the land tomorrow, so off to bed. Stay tuned for the Penguin Report, coming to these pages very soon.