A bit of a catch-up

Very sorry that I have not provided any more details of our trip. However, here is a link to the complete photobook we have made showing everywhere we viited.

Photobook of all South Ameriica and Antarctica holiday

Antarctica

Leaving the South Shetland Islands behind us, we are now within the Antarctic peninsula. On our starboard are the receding Islands and to port is Antarctica itself. The air has taken on a distinct chill, the sea has become very flat and dark, an inky blackness. It reminds me of the lake outside the gates to Moria when Gandalf was trying to conjure up the password to enter.
There is a silence around us, just the humming of the ships engines and the water parting gently across the bow. We are looking out at a land that is pure white reaching up to the mountain peaks and down to the murky sea. Ice is beginning to appear in the waters, chunks getting bigger and bigger from a small car to house in size. The engines slow as we begin to weave our way through an ice field. There is a loud thud, and the ship judders. Five minutes later the captain annouces "we hit an iceberg, but have checked and there is no damage". That's comforting! WE continue to weave our way through. Time becomes irelevant as the daylight remains for all but a couple of twilight hours in the middle of the night. All else is daytime.
We are heading for one of the many small research bases that are dotted around the continent. We will be visiting an Argentinian base, a Chilean base and a British base before we leave. These are the only inhabitations on the continent and are usually only occupied for the short summer months before the endless night of winter returns.
There is so much to say about Antarctica which would take pages and pages for me to describe.  I shall just say that we have seen humback whales & orcas, chinstrap, gentoo and adelie penguins, crabeater, weddell and leopard seals as well as the many birds here including the magnificent wandering albatross that can stay on the wing for up to 3 years as it takes its gentle glide circumnavigating the whole continent.
We have been ashore and sat beside penguin rookeries as they go about their business, building nests, heading off to the sea for food and returning. Sometimes the inquisitive ones stop, wander over and look a us wondering who or what we are. There is a 5 metre rule for approaching wildlife, but if you stand still and they are interested in you, then you just enjoy the close encounter that they countenance themselves.
They make a lot of noise as they prepare the nests made out of the pebbles they find. They also steal pebbles from each others nests and you can spend ages watching the crafty ones waiting for their moment to steal a pebble and waddle off at full speed with their prize firmly held in their beaks.
The whales are majestic and beautiful to watch but the penguins truly are the stars of Antarctica and are everything you think they will be from the many wildlife programmes we have all seen. The waddling, sliding, jumping; it is all there in real life. The only thing you don't know until you get here is the smell. A penguin rookery stinks of rotten fish and everything is coloured pink, the colour of penguin poo. They really are prolific in the toilet department. They also make "penguin highways" to get to and from the shore. These are the trampled down routes that they take back and forth. It is so funny to see jut their heads as they tramp towards their goal in the gulley of the highway. Then another comes the other way. There are no passing places an a penguin version of a Mexican Standoff ensues. Eventually one turns round and goes back the way it came followed on their tail by the winner of the standoff.
Seeing orca and humpbacks so close to the ship as they breach, their water spout first, followed by their backs and then, if you are lucky, the tail breaks out into the air makes you hold your breath in anticipation.
We have kayaked with penguins swimming around us in glorious sunshine and then through ice fields in a snowstorm with the snow freezing on the dark inky water causing it to turn to a frozen slush as we paddled, looking for a way back to the safety boat after the weather closed in suddenly. We have launched our kayaks from the sea ice standing on the ice at first and sliding into the sea. (Curiously, in the shallows the sea is transparent and you can see the bottom easily, but it goes deep very quickly and takes on the eerie inkiness of the deep ocean).
We have cruised around huge icebergs in the inflatable zodiac boats and seen seals and penguins resting on the ice floes before going back into the sea. We have watched a mother and baby humpbck swim alongside our ship and a group of 6 Orca out hunting.
In all it is truly a magical experice. I have attached some photos. We are currently in the Atacama Desert and uploading anything is difficult and videos are impossible. Photos are at link below.
Oh yes, and we had a small, initimate performuance from Joss Stone for around 30 of us in the ship's bar on the final night to round things off.
Enjoy.






Antarctica pics

The South Shetland Islands

 After 2 days at sea, we finally sight land and, to be honest, it is a little disappointing.

These are the South Shetland Islands. The islands that are just north of the Antarctic peninsula. They are tall craggy mountainus islands with snow covered peaks, but not the great white continent we had hoped for. That is still to come.

These islands are steeped in late 19th/early 20th century history when the whalers sought refuge in the natural harbours and bays. Here the whale and seal processing plants were built and these hardy folk made their homes. The early exploration of the area was all about exploitation with the whales and seals being almost wiped out by the industry that sprang up. The remains of the old factories are preserved by the cold here as a memorial to the errors of the past and to remind us how not to continue in the future.

Antartica and it's flora and fauna are now protected, we are allowed to leave no trace of our visit other than footprints. Even going to toilet is not allowed and you have to return to the ship. Whenever you go ashore you walk through disinfectant footbaths to ensure we take no seeds or spores ashore to disrupt the delicate balance of life here.

Our first ports of call are Half Moon Bay and Whalers Bay on Deception Island. This is a volcanic caldura (much like Santorini) although it last erupted as recently as the 1980's. We get into the zodiacs and head ashore. Due to the volcano, there is a hint of the smell of sulphur and the water at the edge is steaming, although it is barely above freezing. While on Deception Island we hike to the top of the highest peak for some incredible photos. We tramp up the mountain and the snow gets deeper as we get higher. The view from the top is spectacular and in the distance we can see our goal. Antartica, the continent. It is a great white land of mountains and peaks. We return to the shore, where some have elected to take a polar plunge. They strip off down to their swimmies and run headlong into the freezing waters, only to turn turtle and run straight back out. A few brave it out and actually swim a few strokes before running ashore into the waiting towels to dry and warm up. They are whisked back to the ship for a warming shower and drink.

Crossing the Drake

When you stand at the Albatross Monument and face south you are looking at the Antarctic Ocean . Turn your head to the left and this is the Atlantic Ocean, turn your head right and you are now looking at the Pacific Ocean.

This small spot is where these 3 mighty oceans  meet with their different temperatures and wave patterns. This creates a bubbling convergence of water. (Now a quick meteorlogical lesson). The wind around Antarctica has "infinite fetch". Fetch is the distance wind travels without hitting land. The land slows and disrupts the wind. Hence the fetch of the wind crossing the Atlantic and hitting Cornwall is the width of the Atlantic. The wind around Antarctica just keeps going round and round these three oceans without landfall. Add this wind to the sea convergence and it can create a cauldron of waves that are huge and moving in many and varied directions. Ships are tossed, turned and thrown around this bubbling mass. Those of a certain age will remember morning assembly at school. There was a hymn that included the line "for those in peril on the sea". This was going round and round in my head as we left the shelter of the coast and begun the 48 hour race across the Drake Passage.

There are two extreme versions of the Drake, the Drake Lake - complete calm and the the Drake Shake - chaos.
Incredibly, our crossing was pretty close to the Lake. We powered our way across through a sea that was relatively calm and made up the time lost refuelling and visiting Cape Horn.

After 2 days we saw land and would soon have our first encounter with Antarcitica. Firstly, at the Islands just north of the continent, The South Shetland Islands, and then onto the continent itself.


My dear reader, you have waded through pages of rambling. Next, I will finally tell you about the Frozen Continent at the base of the globe.

No pictures of the Sea , so here is your first penguin pic.

Cape Horn

The Island Sky is a small (only 50 cabins) cruise ship. The decor is "old school" with lots of brass and wood panelling. Our cabin is on the lowest deck (deck 2), right in the middle between the hospital and the restaurant. This will prove to be a godsend later in the voyage!

The Polar Latitudes team that will be our guides throughout the journey, all are Eurpoean and the language of the ship is English. The catering crew are Philipino and all are under the tutelage of our Finnish Captain. The cabin is big, with a large double bed, a seating area with sofa, coffee table and TV and a shower room. It looks big now, but will soon be filled with all manner of coats, boots, drysuits, survival suits and an assortment of life vests for different activities.

The whole ship has tannoys everywhere including in the cabin and we are soon receiving our first "happy campers" message. Cocktails with the Captain followed by dinner on the aft deck outdoor dining area on deck 5. At the meeting we are told there was no fuel in Ushuaia and we only have enough to get us to Antarctica, but not back. However, they have radioed a Chilean tanker that will rendevous with  us in the Beagle Channel just off the Chilean town of Port William ("the most southerly town in the world"). We are already finding out that Antarctic cruises, rarely go to plan!

As we cruise down the Beagle Channel sitting on the aft deck eating a sumptuous dinner, the sun is now shining, the temperature is back up to jumper weather and the sea is calm. It is idyllic. The catering staff rush from table to table topping up glasses, plates of food coming and going and the chatter of the passengers as we begin to get to know the people we will be sharing the experience with. All are speaking English but with various accents from around the world. We hear Indian, German, American, Argentinian, a touch of Aussie and a smattering of Chinese to name but a few. All is peace, all is calm. Surely, this cannot last.

There is a bonus to buying your fuel from the Chileans. The Expedition Team have become extremely excited as the Chilean Navy has granted us permission to land at Cape Horn itself and go onto this fabled rock that has such notoriety and is such a legend amongst sailors. Only one member of the team has set foot upon it before and so expectations are high. However, there is still the small problem of the sea being calm enough to allow us to get the zodiacs onto this rocky outcrop.

We are in luck and are able to land close enough to wade ashore in our boots and waterproof trousers to climb the 163 steps up the cliff face to the plateau. Up there is a walkway ("stay on the walkway, there are still landmines here") that takes you to the graceful Albatross memorial. A beautiful sculpture dedicated to all the sailors that have perished in these trecherous seas. There is also  a lighthouse, small chapel and family home. The light house is manned by a Chilean Naval Officer and his family (wife and 3 small children) are here with him for his one year tour of duty.

They are pleased to see visitors and greet us heartily. We tour the lighthouse and sign the visitors book before returning to the ship.

The City at the end of the world.

We have arrived at the most southerly city in the world, Ushuaia. The airport and, more importantly, the runway lies on a narrow strip of flat land between the Beagle Channel and the mountains of Tierra del Fuego. A landing that feels rather tight as you look sideways out of the window!
As befitting such a southerly location, it is cold and windy outside. The mountains are snow capped with a thick forest up to the tree line. Below, overlooking the Beagle Channel lies Ushuaia. The water of the Beagle Channel is dark and foreboding. To us, it looks choppy but this is only relative. It is actually a safe haven from the nototiously stormy seas of Cape Horn and the Drake Passage.
The town itself is pretty much how you would expect such an outpost to be. Think of a wild west town from a cowboy film, maybe Dodge City. Now replace the horses with cars and the dirt roads with tarmac and you have Ushuaia.
It is a port, mainly for the cruise ships that ply their trade to Antarctica, but also the home of an Argentinian Naval Base and the merchant ships that bring the goods to this harsh land.
Tierra del Fuega is a massive National Park at the very southern tip of Argentina which includes many hiking trails in the forests as well as a small winter ski resort. But it really does feel like "The End of the World".
Our hotel sits on a hill overlooking the city and the Beagle Channel with magnificent views of both with an infinity pool overlooking the bay.
There are a couple of forest trails from the hotel that we use to pass the time walking in the mountains and the forest.
On our last night there is a live band in the bar playing "Argentine Tango" style music. We sit back in one of the plush sofas at the back of the room to listen and a charmimg elderly Argentinian couple begin to dance a tango right in front of us. The kicks and flicks may have lost some of their sharpness but you can see the memories of their younger days flicker across the smiles as they look into each other eyes and play out the drama of the dance. We warmly applaud them at the end as they bow to their appreciative audience.
After this a young English pair, a tall woman with streaked blue hair and a bearded man attempt their version. It goes crazily wrong, but we all appreciate the effort and laugh along with them as they keep trying. Afterwards I tell her jokingly "Your dancing is rubbish, don't give up your day job". This will come back to haunt me. Stick with me,  she will appear again later in this story.
Tomorrow we board our ship, the Island Sky, and head off on the big adventure - Antarctica.

Video

Back on dry land

We have arrived safely back from our cruise to the Antarctic and are back in Argentina. Tomorrow we fly to Chile and hopefully will have a web link that enables me to start catching up on the news from Antarctica. There is so much to say about the frozen continent. It is beautiful. We saw Humpback Whales, Orcas, Albatross, seals of various kinds and, of course, the stars of the show: The Penguins. So many stories and pictures to share.

In the meantime for those of you who do not believe we were treated to a private session in the ships bar with Joss Stone, here is a video and picture to prove it.  You may notice she struggles to keep in the same key as me, but she is young and will get  the hang of it!!!!! 

Photo

Video

The City at the End of the World

We have headed south to Ushuaia, the self-styled "City at the end of the World". It is the most southerly city on the planet and serves as the main port for Tierra Del Fuego, sitting on the Beagle Channel. A safe haven for shipping from Cape Horn.

We have been here since yesterday morning and have had a couple of visits into town and then a couple of walks along the forest trails. Nothing particular to report. The city is small, based around the harbour and the only words I can think of to describe it is that it remnds me of one of those wild west frontier towns in cowboy films, but with tarmaced street and cars instead of dirt and horses. The forest and the mountains behind us are quite typical of a Alpine scene with rugged, snow capped peaks and a treeline that stops abruptly half way up.

My apologies, but I am unable to upload any photos at the moment.

We are sitting in the bar having a sandwich and looking down on the harbour from our lofty perch. (The hotel is 280ft above the port). Our ship, the Island Sky, sits in the port below, waiting for us to go aboard in an hours time. It seems really small, about half the size of a cross channel ferry. Lets hope looks are deceptive and she is a sturdy girl when it comes to ploughing our way across to Antarctica.

Iguazu Falls (Part2)

Oh My God. These three little words perfectly describe the Iguazu Falls, (one of the seven natural wonders of the world). They are the three words you utter when you see them for the first time and you will repeat frequently during your visit. Ok, we are a bit long in the tooth to use that phrase, but words like awesome, wondrous and spectacular are more our style. I'm sure you get my drift. 

The Falls are shared by Argentina on the East Bank and Brazil on the West Bank, both countries have a national park surrounding them and you can view them from both sides, however, the Argentinian side has much more to see and do.

As you prepare to land at Iguazu, below you is a beautiful green blanket of sub-tropical rainforest trees. For miles all around is the wonderful green carpet that looks uninterrupted as it spreads out below you. But as you get closer you notice, what appears to be, a small area where white smoke is gently rising up from the forest and dispersing in the breeze. This, you will realise  later is a cloud of spray forced up into the air by the tremendous power of the Falls as the water tumbles over the cliff edge and pummels into the river below.

We stayed on the Argentinian side in a hotel in the park giving us easy access to the forest and falls and allowing us to be early before the crowds in the morning and later after the crowds have dispersed in the evening. The Argentinian side, along with the terrifying boat ride mentioned in Part 1 has three walks. The lower walk takes you around the bottom of the falls, the upper walk along the top and the Devils Throat Walk that takes you to the fearsome Garagantuam Del Diablo.

The walkways meander through the forest under the capony of green, guiding you from fall to fall and are a delight in themselves. We preferred the Lower Walk  as this takes you along the bottom of the falls where you feel the power of the water as it passes by you and thunders into the basalt rock below. The noise and spray are a wondrous sight which asail the senses.

The upper walk is completely different as you stand on the walkways overlooking the water as it approaches the falls. It looks like any river you may sit beside enjoying a summer's picnic shaded under the trees, but as it approaches the precipice it begins to speed up, slowly at first and only in the last few yards does the approaching frenzy become apparent. The surface now changes from ripples to small foam topped waves as the speed increases until suddenly it simply disappears over the edge. The only clue to it's fate being the plume of spray rising up in a shower like a low lying cloud and the roar from below.

Each of these walks are easliy accesible from the hotel and are only an hour to two hours in length depending upon how long you stare in awe at each site. Some of the walkways on the lower walk are really close to the falls, almost touching distance. As you approach you know you are safe, but that plume of spray is so, so near. As Sarah posed, reluctantly, in front of Eva Fall and I retreated to take the photo, the wind changed direction and she simply disappeared inside the enveloping cloud, only to emerge spluttering and soaked as I, and the assembled throng, stood back and enjoyed the moment.

The Devils Throat is the piece de resistance, the Big One and the main attraction. There is a little train that takes you around the park and the final stop is here. The walkway takes you out to the very top and it really is something to behold. Here the water flow is at it's fastest, the drop the deepest and the resulting tumult the greatest. Nature's fury at it's peak. A swirling cauldron to top all the other sights in the park that mesmerisingly draws you towards it and tugs at you to step forward into it's flow. Thank goodness for the railings!
We also took a day trip to Brazil (as you do) to see the falls from the other side and to visit the bottom of the Devils Throat. Seemed rather fun to get stamped out of Argentina and into Brazil, only to be stamped back out of Brazil and into Argentina 3 hours later at the border control.

Just a few words on the hotel. It was right inside the park with a magnifiecent view of the jungle and falls. Everything was remarkably reasonably priced with the Mojitos, made with freshly squeezed fruit juices, at £4 a go partiularly appreciated. Sitting on the edge of the 50m infinity pool with the falls in the background was pretty spectacular. The visit was even topped off with a display of Argentine Tango dancing in the bar one night.
Iguazu is on the northern border of Argentina, a sub-tropical rainforest. It has been hot (36C) and humid. Next stop is Ushuaia. The very southern tip of Argentina, five and a half hours flying time away. We need to put away the t-shirt and shorts and dig out the coats and jumpers, temperatures are about to fall - a lot.

The link below will take you to some pictures and videos of Iguazu. Enjoy.

Iguaza Falls 2 

At the Iguazu Falls (part 1)

Sitting here waiting for lunch on the hotel balcony, passing the time until our taxi comes to whisk us back to the airport. Buenos Aires this evening and on to the South tomorrow morning. Ushuaia and Antarctica grows ever closer.

It is our third day in Iguazu and we have done so much. The fFalls are awesome, wondrous, amazing, scary, terrifyingly powerful and beautful.

We have seen them from the Argentine side, taken a taxi to Brazil and seen them from the other side of the river and taken a boat ride right up to them, and I mean right up to them.  Take a look at the video link below. All  pretty humdrum until you get to around 7 minutes. We can see the waterfall ahead and the boat just keeps going closer and closer, into the misty, steaming cauldron of spray. The roar of the waterfall gets louder and louder until it is deafening, the spray is impeneterable, all is mist, the boat rocks from side to side in the waves. Finally as we pull away, you can just see how close the waterfall is to the boat and we alll breathe again.



Iguaza Falls

Part 2 will cover the walks we have taken, some notes on the hotel and a link to a photo album.