From the southernmost city in the world,
 To the Antarctic continent

Sometime early in the morning we docked in Ushuaia, Argentina, that bills itself as "the southernmost city in the world", where we were greeted by a magnificent sunrise. The title is disputed, however, by Puerto William which is the southernmost "human settlement" in the world, according to our travel literature. 

 

When we looked out of our cabin window, we were excited to see the Antarctic Dream, a revamped old Chilean navy Antarctic supply ship, docked directly across from us.  It was the ship that would transport us on the next leg of our adventure to points south.

Later we would see the Antarctic Dream docked at one end of a cruise ship and the National Geographic Explorer at the other end, giving us a clear idea of how tiny our ship was.  There were only 62 passengers, 18 officers, crew, and expedition staff, along with waiters and other personnel, and 17 nationalities aboard our 253 foot vessel. This was perfect for our preferred kind of traveling.

Before continuing our trip, we had an opportunity to explore the city of Ushuaia.

It is a booming town of about 40,000 people. It began as an Argentinean Military prison but later evolved into a penal colony about 100 years ago. The prisoners built a railroad, logged and, over time, constructed the streets and buildings of the early town. Today, its deep harbor makes it an ideal terminus for ships cruising in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego and going to Antarctica. The main streets are lined with restaurants, leather shops, candy stores (try the chocolate!) and gift shops specializing in stuffed penguins of all sizes.

 

We enjoyed lunch at Bodegon Fueguino on San Martin Street. The food was delightful and the owner even more delightful.  He told us that it originally was the home of his grandparents who opened their home to ship wrecked passengers in 1930. He decided to open the restaurant on the site in their memory.  If you are in the area we highly recommend it.

 

 

 

 

 

The prison museum effectively shows how the prisoners lived and how the prison was operated. The prison housed hardened criminals as well as an occasional political prisoner. At one time Argentina's most famous tango singer was confined at the prison -- it was unclear why. The exhibits were compelling. We were told that the museum cafeteria features "prison food". We weren't there at lunch time so missed the opportunity to try a meal.

This is a map of our route.  Each day our route would be drawn on maps in the ship's corridors so that we could follow where we had been. The route had to be planned each day according to the weather conditions. It gave us the impression that no two trips to Antarctica would ever be exactly the same, making it even more of an adventure.

It was 600 miles from Ushuaia to Antarctica across, what is considered the roughest stretch of water on earth -- Drake's Passage. The rough seas are caused when the western flowing current that circles the continent is forced between its narrowest point (South America and Antarctica) A 25 mile wide portion of the passage is referred to as the "Antarctic Convergence". This is where the cold southern waters meet the warm northern waters and creates an especially rough region. This turmoil brings much food to the surface and is an important feeding ground for birds and mammals.

We were fortunate not to get seasick, but there were many vacant seats for meals during this part of the voyage.

We had been forewarned that we would be in rough seas for 36 to 48 hours.

For this trip it was 48 hours.

This is a picture of the waves outside of the window of our Shackleton cabin. Until we got our sea legs we spent a lot of time in the cabin, watching the ocean and being bounced around on the bed as it tilted to one side and then the other and pitched from front to back and back to front.  The first morning we missed breakfast only because we weren't hungry and we had granola bars with us.  We were a little concerned about climbing the steps to the dining room.  However, after that we went to each meal and pitched and rolled along with the ship -- down the corridors, up the steps and across the dining room to a table.  (Often, with steadying help from the staff we must admit!) It was amazing to watch the sure-footed waiters carrying their trays at all sorts of angles to keep the drinks from spilling, the dishes from falling, and everything in place. As best we could during these two days we explored the ship, finding the library, shop, old bar that now was a computer room, the large dining/meeting room --- with comfy couches in the middle and each table situated around the perimeter of the room so that every diner could have a window view ---  gym, sauna and conference room.  The lectures were all held in the conference room which was deep in the ship's belly and rather tough navigating down the stairs. We had a geographer. a marine biologist and an ornithologist who gave lectures and accompanied us on expeditions, making this a very educational trip. Since many of the lectures were given during our rough days at sea, we missed most of them.  However, we didn't feel too bad about that as we had been exposed to most of the same information on our trip around the Horn.  We were grateful for the information.  Between the two trips we learned a great deal about Shackleton and his ill-fated journey to Antarctica in 1914, with 28 mean aboard. In advertising for the trip he stated:

MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY.

SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD,

LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS,

CONSTANT DANGER,

SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL.
 

HONOR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS.

 

                                          

Our first sighting of an iceberg.

Icebergs can be considered beautiful sculptures. Each is different and demonstrates many hues of blue. Some travel more than a thousand miles. The picture shows a tabular iceberg, so named because of its flat surface. This iceberg was about 60 feet high and had a circumference of over 2700 feet. Julio, our expedition leader, announced that it was "just a baby" compared to others and that it probably had come from the Weddell Sea 1400 miles away.  (A few weeks after we returned home, an tabular iceberg 6 times the area of Manhattan broke off from Wilkins Ice Shelf just south of where we had traveled. )

We learned that small icebergs are called ice chunks and we saw many of them, also

This picture of an ice chunk shows that about 75 percent of an iceberg is below water.

Before each excursion  a crew member took a zodiac to shore to check landing conditions. They needed to find a suitable beach area and check water and wind conditions. Our first three trips, in the South Shetland Islands, were cancelled because the wind was blowing more than 50 knots per hour. This is our good friend, Carlos, checking to see if it would be possible to go ashore in the Southern Shetland Islands. It wasn't and so we headed to points south where we hoped for better weather and better landing conditions.

Meanwhile we were excited to see 10 humpback whales and schools of dolphins, cavorting around the ship.  Landings or not, this was spectacular.

Our first successful landing

We were told that we should be prepared for wet landings with water coming up over our boots, and wet slippery rocks at our landing sites.  Therefore, we needed to wear waterproof pants over our boots.  The boots and jackets were provided for us, as well as special life jackets just for the expeditions.  Later we realized that the wet landings were a good thing as it gave us an opportunity to wash the penguin excrement from our boots before getting in the zodiac and heading back to our ship.  In all the travelogues we had seen and cute movies about penguins, no one had talked about the overwhelming smell or mess that penguins leave behind.

 

"Who would believer in penguins unless he had seen them."  Connor O'Brien

Our first successful landing was at Danco Island where we met a colony of penguins. Most of the penguins we saw on our expedition were Gentoo penguins. Of course, they were delightful to watch and photograph. Environmental regulations say that you cannot approach a penguin. However, it is okay if one approaches you (which they do, because they have no fear of humans).  One tried to eat one of Tom's crutches and others came up to practically sit on people's laps.

The summer molting season lasts for two to four weeks and the penguins spend most of their time on land.

After molting they return to the sea where they stay 5-7 years, until they become sexually mature, when they return to the shore to the same area they left.

At Danco Island one King penguin also was sighted.  Thanks to Rodrigo Moraga Z we are able to share these two pictures. Note the difference in the markings on the head and that the beak. It is very rare to see a king penguin in Antarctica since it is a penguin which breeds at places like South Georgia and Falkland islands.  We didn't see any Emperor penguins, as hoped, because their breeding season was ended and they were long gone.

Because Tom found it difficult to walk very far on the rocky beaches, we were usually the first passengers to return to the ship. The advantage of this was that we were the only people in the zodiac and often got special tours from the drivers, Rene and Carlos. One tour took us among a number of icebergs when we could study them up close. On another trip we were followed by a leopard seal, who checked us out for about 15 minutes. (Rodrigo Moraga Z, the marine biologist on our expedition, was kind enough to let us use the three pictures above. In addition, he was a great help in educating us when our fellow travelers went to places we couldn't go.)

Rodrigo Z was very helpful in educating us about marine life, while Rodrigo Tapia, the ornithologist on our trip was the consummate expert in birds. Raphael Sane was the geographer with our trip. All were extremely knowledgeable and added a great deal to the educational nature of the trip.  During our special "guided tours" we also found Rene and Carlos to be quite expert.

 

All along the way we saw magnificent views of glaciers, icebergs, and ice chunks, each a Rorschach of its own.

In addition we saw many whales, sea birds, dancing dolphins, seals and hundreds of swimming penguins.

 

 

Here is a picture of a leopard seal floating by our cabin window on an ice chunk.

The views were much too spectacular to begin to capture them with photos.

More excursions and on to the next leg of the trip.

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