Back to Ushaia

Today has been another day at sea.  We seemed to have outrun the bad weather by this morning, and the Captain slowed the ship right down, so we had a very calm crossing for the day. 

There were huge number of birds following the ship throughout the day.  I spent a lot of time out on deck trying to get decent photos of some of them.  They are huge birds (a wandering albatross can have a wingspan of 13 feet).  I've attended some fascinating lectures while on board, and learned some unbelievable facts about these ocean birds.  A newly fledged albatross will spend around 6 years out of sight of land before it finally finds some remote island and mates.  They can switch off one side of their brain at a time in order to "sleep" while flying.  They drink sea water and have a special gland in the head that filters out the salt, the remaining very salty solution then runs out of their nose and drops off the end of their beak.  And I have been lucky enough to see several of these amazing birds on this trip.

A black-browed albatross alongside the ship

 

 

 

Today has been largely taken up with winding things up.  I had to return my rented boots, settle my ship board account, pack, etc.  Tonight we are anchored in the tBeagle channel, waiting for the Ushuaia harbor pilot to guide us in.  We should dock in Ushuaia at about 2am, and will disembark and head to the airport at about 9am tomorrow morning.

Naturally it's sad that the experience is drawing to a close.  So this is  a good time to reflect on this journey and how it's changed me.  Many people have tried and failed to describe Antarctica to someone who's never been there.  Of course it's vast, and the photographs you take cannot depict the scale of the mountains and ice bergs.  But actually what I found most striking was the absence of any evidence of people.  Every day when we go out in the street there is a constant background noise of humanity: traffic, machinery, other people talking.  But apart from my fellow passengers (and the odd seal belching) it was silent.  There was no background noise.  Nor was there any rubbish.  I've seen TV shows where people are taken out into the "wilds" of Northern Canada to survive on their own for a week.  The participants always seem to find plastic bottles or bits of rope, etc washed ashore on the beach even in these remote areas.  But there was no rubbish anywhere where we went.  I won't say it was clean, because there was plenty of seal and penguin poop around in most of the areas we landed, but that is natural - not man made.
One of the other amazing things was the quantity of wildlife that I encountered.  I imagined that we would be lucky to see a seal, or a whale.  Instead we saw seals everywhere, it was hard to keep from treading on them on some shore excursions.  We spotted whales in 3 or 4 locations, and sea birds (especially penguins) galore.  I'm not against zoos as I realise they have a role to play in preserving some species that are threatened in the wild,  but seeing the penguins and seals in their natural environment I had this deep feeling that this was how they were meant to be seen, not in a man-made environment in a zoo.   It was astounding how trusting these animals were too.  They were totally free and could swim away from us at any time, but they seemed to have no fear of us, in fact they seemed curious and were happy to swim right up to us when we were in the zodiac, or walk right up to us when we were ashore. Seeing them like this just felt "right".  This was their world not ours, and I'm left with a feeling of having been blessed that they were willing to accept my presence there. 
Antarctica was so different I'm left with the feeling that I've been to another planet rather than somewhere on this earth.   There will never be anywhere else I can go that will ever be like it.

During the vacation Denise asked one of our lecturers what proportion of the world's population had ever visited Antarctica and after much discussion the experts came up with a figure of probably about 0.01 %..    I  have had the good fortune to be within that 0.01%  and I will never forget it.

Running from the storm

Silver Explorer is heading back across the Drake passage to Ushuaia, so we have a full day at sea today.  The swells are slightly bigger than they were on the way out, and more people seem to be affected by it.  I'm feeling fine though, so I've been attending all the lectures and activities that have been put on for us. Apparently there is a large storm now battering the South Shetland Islands (where we were yesterday morning), but we have out run the worst of that weather by turning for Ushuaia at lunchtime yesterday.

Sadly tomorrow is the last day of this cruise and I will have to start packing.

Tomorrow I will probably post some reflections on what this vacation has meant to me, but today is an opportunity to talk about the people - both my fellow passengers and the crew.

I anticipated that the passengers on this cruise would be outgoing and interesting people, and I was not wrong. On Silver Explorer there are no set table assignments, so we sat with different sets of people at almost every meal.  As expected most of my fellow passengers were well traveled and had plenty of interesting experiences to relate.  I suppose it's not surprising, given that this is an expensive cruise, that most of the passengers were on the older side. However, there were several sets of  passengers where an older passenger was being accompanied by a younger relation.  I met 2 Father/Daughter pairs, a Mother/Son pair and even a Nephew/Aunt pair.  The vast majority of passengers are American of course, and I would say that the second largest group was the Brits. However there was a reasonable sized Australian contingent, some Canadians, French, Swiss and German. There was even a moderate sized group of Russians, although they tended to keep to themselves and required the services of one of our lecturers (Dimitri) for translation.  But apart from the Russians I was very impressed with the English skills of the others on board, especially the Germans.   By and large I liked everyone I met, although there was one American guy who went around with a sour expression the whole time and seemed to be in a permanently grumpy mood. Fortunately I never ended up at a table with him during the entire voyage.  Later on in the voyage Denise had to keep to the cabin for a while due to a bout of vertigo, but I found I had no qualms about roaming the ship by myself and sitting down and chatting with the other passengers that I'd previously met in the dining room.  We really were a little society of our own.  It was a completely different experience to that of a large cruise ship.

Let me also say a little about the staff. Generally the staff were divided up into 3 roles:  The sailors, the "service" personnel, and the expedition staff.   I honestly didn't see much of the Captain or his officers. The "service" personnel included our butler, Ashish, the various waiting staff in the dining room and bars, the cleaners, hair dresser, ladies at reception, etc.  They were all excellent at their jobs. When we first boarded Silver Explorer we had to have our photos taken. I didn't really understand why at first - since my photo did not turn up on my ship card, but later on I discovered that the staff take the trouble to view all the photos at the beginning of the trip and associate the passenger names with the faces so that they can greet you personally from day 1.  Some of the staff fill dual roles. The hair-dresser accompanied us on several shore excursions to help Denise get in and out of the zodiacs.  The group I had most interaction with were the expedition staff.  These are all experts in their fields of ornithology, marine biology, etc.  For example, one of our ornithologists (Dr Danae Sheehan) had worked for the RSPB for many years before joining Silversea, and one of the science "experts" Sherri  Bluestein had worked at the US Antarctic base McMurdo for 8 years before becoming joining the expedition staff. Being an expert in your field is not enough though. You have to be personable in order to deal one on one with passengers, you even have to be able to drive a zodiac.  Perhaps the most notable thing about the expedition staff was their near obsession with Antarctica.  Whilst I enjoyed my holiday here, I can't imagine living here on a more permanent basis (even with the facilities of a luxury ship).

Well that rounds out my entry for today.  I don't have any interesting photos because the only thing we can see is sea.  When I reach land I will probably post a few albums of photos on Facebook.

Tomorrow we should dock in Ushuaia.

Deception Island

A fur seal lies in front of whale bones on the beach

 

Last night we headed north from the Antarctic peninsula toward the South Shetland Islands. 

This morning we arrived at Deception Island. This is a volcanic island, where an explosion blew a hole in the wall and sea water came through the hole and filled the caldera.  The result is an island that looks like a letter O with a tiny chunk taken out of it. The passage into the middle is called Neptune's Bellows and is very narrow indeed.  When I awoke this morning the ship was rolling a bit, so I went up on deck both to get some fresh air and to watch the ship navigate the narrow channel.

Within the caldera the water is quite calm, and some of it is even heated by the volcanic activity, so steam rises off it. Deception Island has seen plenty of whaling activity and the beach is littered with whale bones and old whaling buildings (many of which have been partially destroyed by ash from subsequent volcanic eruptions). I took a walk with our expedition guide to the gap at the top of a ridge, which is called Neptune's Window. There were fur seals everywhere and it was difficult to thread our way across the beach without disturbing them too much.

The polar plunge

This location was also chosen as the venue for the "polar plunge".  Once during every voyage the crew organize this activity where passengers have the opportunity to change into their swim suits and jump into the polar waters. If you submerge your entire body, including your head, you get a certificate.  I can't swim, so there was no way I was going to attempt this, but 48 passengers did. Despite the volanic activity heating the water to some extent (hence the steam rising off it) this only
 occurs with about the top 2 inches of water, and water below that is just as cold as you'd expect.

Uli models his lederhosen

Deception Island was our last shore excursion of this voyage.  The weather forecast shows bad weather approaching in the Drake passage, so the ship has turned back towards Ushuaia hoping to make it back before the weather gets too bad. The Captain's farewell dinner has been rescheduled to happen tonight, as the staff think that the conditions will be too turbulent to hold it after that time.

Another Day in Paradise

Today we went to Paradise Bay. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was unbelievable. It's no surprise that they called this place paradise. We took a zodiac cruise around the bay and got up close to a colony of blue eyed shags. The weather was so calm and clear that the surface of the water was like a mirror and reflected the mountains around it.

Half way through the zodiac cruise our guide Shelley noticed another craft on the other side of the bay that was apparently in trouble. As we got close we could see it was full of crew members. They said they had taken a zodiac out for a little sight seeing of their own and had run out of petrol.  However, when we drew up along side we discovered that it was all a brilliant surprise. The crew members in the "stranded" zodiac were all the restaurant staff - and they had brought us champagne and snacks. I had a mimosa.

We left Paradise Bay at lunchtime. The weather was so beautiful that Denise and I decided this was the day to try out the hot tubs.

The afternoon was a bit of a departure from our usual shore excursions that focus on wildlife and scenery.  We visited Port Lockroy, on Goudier Island. Port Lockroy is a historic site and operates as a museum, post office and gift shop.  The original UK base here was opened during WWII. It was abandoned in the 60s. At the time there were no penguins on Goudier Island, but apparently at some point some penguins came along and thought "look at all these nice abandoned buildings" and moved in.  In 1994 a decision was made to clean up abandoned UK bases in the Antarctic, and Port Lockroy was restored and re-opened in its current form. The base is "manned" (currently by 4 women) in the Summer months only.  It has no fresh water supply and the staff rely on the visiting cruise ships for their water.  Apparently the staff really like Silver Explorer as it is the only Antarctic cruise ship that has baths as well as showers.  The women come on-board to take baths/showers.  The cruise ships also deliver supplies to the gift shop and take away the mail (dropping it off at Stanley in the Falklands).  From the Falklands the mail is all sent to the UK, and from there to the rest of the world, so delivery can take some time.  That said, this is the only place in the Antarctic that we could possibly send a post card from, so Denise and I sent 28 between us.  I also did all my present buying for the trip in the gift shop. The proceeds from the gift shop go to the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, which maintains the Port Lockroy museum and other UK heritage sites in the Antarctic.

Port Lockroy was totally overrun with penguins. The usual rule of staying 15 ft away from them was a non-starter, as they were literally everywhere, including all over the path up to the museum/gift shop building. It was quite warm today (maybe 2-3 degrees) and the penguins were all too hot. When this happens they lie down on the stone to try and lose some of their body heat.

They are not dead. Their just "resting"

This evening we had a special asado dinner, followed by the crew talent show up in the Panorama lounge. The first performer was good, the second was reasonably good, but after that I could tell that the quality was going downhill and decided to give the rest a miss and go to bed, since we have another early landing tomorrow.

The ice berg grave yard

This morning's shore excursion was at Petermann Island.  Denise opted to stay on the ship as the landing site was quite difficult and it was a reasonably long hike to get to where the brds were. I managed to spot my third penguin species (Adelie) and some blue eyed shags.

After this I hiked up a small mountain to get a view of the bay from the top.  Going up wasn't so bad, but coming down was a bit slippery, I was very glad I had my walking poles with me.

After lunch we made our way to Pleneau, otherwise known as the ice berg graveyard. Apparently prevailing winds tend to drive icebergs into this area where they become trapped.  We had a 90 minute zodiac cruise around the area to admire the ice bergs. It was actually snowing this afternoon and colder than it has been, so although the ice bergs were fascinating, we were glad to be back on the ship.

At 5.30pm the ship began making its way down the Lemaire channel. There was a lot of ice in the channel and we all went up on deck to watch as the Captain threaded the ship through.

This evening Denise and I stayed in our room and ordered room service rather than going to the restaurant as we had a number of post cards to write.  Tomorrow afternoon we will be docking at Port Lockroy, which has the only post office in the Antarctic, so we need to have our post cards ready.

On the mainland - 20th Feb

My apologies that this post is a day late. We were in Neko Harbour yesterday evening and the mountains there are quite high, so the internet signal got cut off.

One of the interesting things about taking an expedition cruise to Antarctica is that there is no fixed itinerary. Every evening we go to the theatre for the resident experts to answer questions about what we saw that day, and for Kara (the expedition leader) to give us a run down about what is planned for the next day.  But as Kara is fond of telling us - that is just plan A.  By the time we get up in the morning we might already be on plan D.  The cruise ships within the area have to co-ordinate with each other as only one ship is allowed to be at a particular location on a particular day. Also weather conditions may make landing impossible.

The plan for the morning was to go ashore at Orne Harbour. However, when the scout zodiacs went out they discovered that there was a lot of ice and landing conditions were treacherous. Instead the ship sailed on for 30 minutes to another landing spot at Cuverville Island. Here there was an option of going on shore for a hike, or just taking a zodiac cruise around the bay itself. The hike sounded quite strenuous and Denise would not have been able to manage it, so we opted for the zodiac cruise.

It may sound strange, but I find the zodiac cruises are much better in terms of getting a good range of sights and animal encounters, than being stuck in the one place if you go ashore.

Yesterday I saw fur seals at Mikkelsen Harbour and then later in the day several leopard seals at Cierva Cove.  This morning I added crab eater seals to the list. Crab eater seals are the most common seals on the planet. They certainly seemed to be everywhere  around Cuverville Island. Several were playing in the water and swam right up to the zodiac.

During lunch time the ship sailed on  to Neko Harbour, giving us some truly spectacular views out of the dining room windows as we were eating lunch.

We dropped anchor in Neko Harbour around 1.30pm and Denise and I took a zodiac to shore where there was another Gentoo penguin colony.  The parents were busy feeding the chicks and a brown skua was taking a bath in a small pond of snow melt. This was actually our first landing on mainland Antarctica (yesterday morning's landing at Mikkelsen Harbour was on an island).

This evening we attended another cocktail party for first time Silversea cruisers.

Cierva Cove

So this morning we got up close and personal with the penguins at Mikkelsen Harbour.
This afternoon we were at Cierva Cove, but rather than landing anywhere we were taken on a 90 minute cruise around the cove in a zodiac, which allowed us to get a really good view of some of the ice bergs, and we also encountered lots of animals.

First we pulled up near a couple of humpback whales. As we were waiting for the whales to re-surface a number of penguins porpoised past. They are too fast to take a decent photo of, but I did get a short video, which I will probably edit and post on Facebook when I get home.

Spot the bird that isn't a penguin

In fact penguins were swimming all over the place, and we were able to pull up next to a cliff where there was a colony of chinstrap penguins (slightly smaller than the Gentoo penguins we met this morning), complete with one black and white bird that was having an identity crisis - because it definitely wasn't a penguin.





We saw a number of ice floes with leopard seals on them, and got up close to 2 of them.  Leopard seals sometimes like to bite the zodiacs, but these guys seemed too lazy to get up off their stomachs and enter the water, so we were safe enough.



Of course, whilst all these animals were lovely to see, they are the sort of animals that you anticipate encountering in Antarctica.  But our zodiac driver, Luke, popped his hand into the water and came out with this:

It's called a salp, and although it looks like a piece of red something caught in a chip of ice, that is actually not ice - it has a gelatinous body similar to a jelly fish.  Once Luke had pointed one out we could see them in the water all around us.

We also saw some amazing ice-bergs.  Take a good look at the tiny black blob at the bottom of the ice berg in the photo below - that's a bunch of people in a zodiac.  Hopefully that gives you an idea of just how big these ice-bergs were.

It's hard to imagine how what the expedition staff will come up with tomorrow can  possibly top today's experiences.  Tomorrow though we have 2 landings on the mainland (Today's landing at Mikkelsen was on an island off the coast of Antarctica).

Pick up a Penguin

This morning we arrived in Mikkelsen Harbour, and had our first expedition on shore.

Denise and I enjoyed an early breakfast at 7am with the most unbelievable views out of the dining room window.  Just how lucky are we to have that sort of view at breakfast.  

Getting into the zodiacs was an interesting experience. You're supposed to put everything in your backpack and keep your hands free, but I couldn't fit my Nordic walking poles into my back pack so I was trying to get in one-handed, while the other hand held both poles.  I made it in one piece at least.

On the zodiac ride towards the shore a leopard seal came up and circled the boat a few times. Tim, our expedition leader, stopped the craft so we got some good views.  Unfortunately, my camera was in my back pack, so I didn't get a photo.  I think the leopard seal thought we looked tasty, but eventually he left us alone.

Who are you and why are you on MY rock

After a bit of a wet landing (probably 12-18 inches of water) I waded onto land. The small island has a colony of Gentoo Penguins.  At this time of the year the baby penguins are very large - almost the same size as the adults, but still covered in a grey fuzz rather than the classic black and white feathers. Most of the adults are moulting. And when they're moulting they're pretty revolting. No - honestly, they are still cute, even when they are moulting..
We were told to stay at least 15 feet away from the penguins, but the penguins themselves don't obey the rule.  A young one came to inspect us and got up in Denise's face.

 There were also several fur seals on shore.

While we were on the island we heard a loud crash and we could see that part of the glacier across the bay had fallen away.  

The weather was bright and sunny (-1 degree) and I was able to manage well with no gloves in order to take photos.

Later this afternoon we will be going on a zodiac cruise around the ice bergs and glaciers in Cierva Cove

On board the zodiac, returning to Silver Explorer

Land Ho!

This morning it was quite fresh up on deck. We are being followed by a whole flock of what I think are cape petrels.

We had our Zodiac training in the theatre at 10am and went through our bio-check (they go through all the velcro fastenings and pockets on our outer clothing to ensure that we don't accidentally take any seeds or contaminants ashore with us).

This afternoon I attended a fascinating lecture about whales. Just as the lecturer was finishing up we were told there were some humpback whales out front of the ship. The captain "pulled over" so that we could get up on deck and watch.

As I came outside I had my first glimpse of land.

There were several groups of humpbacks around the ship, each with about 2-3 individuals in the group, then later on a larger group of about 12 appeared. The were very obliging with photo ops.  There were also fur seals and an elephant seal, but it's much harder to get a photo of seals in the water as they move too fast.

I also saw my first penguin. It was dead. Something (probably a leopard seal) had taken a bite out of it and then left the body floating around. Right now we're heading into Dallmann Bay, which is supposed to be a prime spot for whales.

Captain's Cocktail Party

So what else have I been up to today?

I attended the 9.45am lecture on "Ocean Wanderers" given by our resident ornithologist, Will Wagstaff (from Wales!), learning all about the sea birds that often follow the ship. Later on in the morning I went up to the rear of the ship at deck 6 and had a look at the many giant petrels and occasional wandering albatrosses that were following the ship. Unfortunately most of them were too far back to get a decent photo.

After a buffet lunch in the restaurant we went to get our waterproof boots checked out and tagged. Then I attended an afternoon lecture about penguins given by Dr Danae Sheehan (from York). I did learn the fascinating fact that the word penguin comes from the Welsh words "pen" and "gwyn" meaning "white head".  It is mentioned in the logs from the Golden Hind (it's the Drake passage remember!)  that the Welsh sailors aboard the ship had caught several of these birds for eating and had called them Pen Gwyn.

This evening we went to the Captain's cocktail party and Welcome dinner. Another evening of having glasses of champagne thrust at me.  I have tried to be more circumspect about my alcohol intake today though.

The Captain says that this is the calmest crossing of the Drake they have had all season. Based on the map on channel 1 of the TV (which tracks where the ship is right now) we look to be making excellent progress.  Tomorrow morning we have to attend Zodiac training, so they can show us how to get in/out of the landing craft.

Drake Lake or the Drake Shake?

The Drake Passage (named after Sir Francis) is the stretch of ocean between the southern tip of South America and the northenmost point of Antarctica. There is no significant land  anywhere around the globe at this latitude, which makes for a huge volume of water, and the Drake Passage is the narrowest gap all that water must squeeze through. This results in one of the most turbulent areas of sea in the world. That said, at times it can be very calm and then it's called the Drake "Lake". 

There was a bit of a rolling motion overnight, but nothing too bad. I got up at 7am for the early risers breakfast in the Panorama lounge, only to find I was the only one there, so I bailed. I wasn't feeling 100%, but to be honest that may have had more to do with the number of glasses of champagne I drank yesterday rather than sea sickness. By 8am I was feeling well enough to go to the restaurant for a proper breakfast, while Denise opted to have a room service breakfast in the cabin. I sat with 3 Italian guys. One of them was really not doing to well on the sea-sickness front. I felt so sorry for the guy as it was his birthday.

Despite the fact that we will be spending the whole day at sea there's plenty to do on board. The first thing on the schedule for me was to spend some time exploring the ship and making sure I knew where everything was.

So let me give you a run down of the ship:  Silver Explorer is a purpose built expedition vessel with a 1A class ice rating (that's the strongest there is other than an ice breaker). Maximum guest capacity is 132, but many of the cabins only have a single occupant so there are only 123 passengers on this sailing. Crew is 120 - so it's virtually a 1:1 ratio of passengers to crew.
Despite the ship being compact, there are plenty of facilities on board. There are 5 passenger decks (decks 3 to 7). Our suite is midship on deck 3. Also on deck 3 is the reception area, the medical centre and the mud room (for getting in and out of those waterproof wellies and what not). On deck 4 is the boutique, where I already bought a stuffed penguin. Also on deck 4 is a small fitness centre with a sauna, the beauty salon, the launderette and the restaurant. I won't need to use the launderette directly though - as our butler comes to pick up our laundry bags every morning and delivers our cleaned stuff back to the room before 6pm. On deck 5 is the bridge. Denise and I will be trying to get a visit there sometime this week - the crew are very accommodating and visits to the bridge can be arranged at reception.  Also on deck 5 is the library and internet cafe (though there's no coffee on offer). There is wifi throughout the ship (free in our class of suite), so having brought my own laptop with me I'm probably not going to hang out in the library/internet cafe too much, unless I develop a sudden desire to read all the books about Shackleton. Deck 5 is rounded out with smokers' corner and the panorama lounge, where afternoon tea, evening cocktails and tapas is served. Deck 6 houses the theatre, where the various experts will be giving us presentations on the flora, fauna and history of Antarctica. The observation lounge is also on deck 6 - this is a good place to watch the view if you don't want to go out on deck and risk being blown away.  There is also a small outside deck area with the outdoor grill and 2 hot tubs. This area won't come into use until we reach calmer waters, but Denise and I definitely plan to check out those hot tubs!
Deck 7 is the view deck - all outside. Won't be going up there today though!

All Aboard

Our first sight of Silver Explorer

This afternoon, after lunch, our coach took us straight to the ship. As we arrived to check-in we were handed a glass of champagne. Check-in was simple, and then we were escorted to our suite. It was decorated with Happy Birthday balloons for Denise's birthday and a bottle of champagne awaited us in an ice bucket. Our butler, Ashish (yes we have a butler) came and took note of our preferences for stocking our mini bar. There was a minor panic when one of Denise's suitcases appeared to have gone missing, but it was found soon enough. Originally we'd booked a view suite, but 4 weeks before sailing we were contacted by our Silversea rep and told that this bigger suite was still unsold, and they would offer us an upgrade for $1600 (instead of the $13600 more it would normally have cost us).  Well we couldn't turn down a bargain like that could we?

sailing away from Ushuaia

At 5pm we had to attend the emergency life boat training.

cocktails at the lecture theatre

Then at 6pm we were up on deck for the leaving party - where we were handed another glass of champagne. It was quite cold up on deck for the sail away celebration, so we didn't stay too long. At 7pm we made our way to the theatre on deck 6 for the introductory talk, as we arrived we were handed the cocktail of the day - a cosmopolitan.  They certainly like to keep handing you drinks on this ship...

At 7.30 we went for dinner. We elected to sit at a table with other passengers and met a lovely couple from Florida. As our desserts turned up the waiters brought a special cake for Denise. Now we are back in our rooms drinking the rest of our bottle of champagne and trying to unpack.




Tonight as we traverse the Beagle channel, the ship is not moving much, but tomorrow we will be in the Drake Passage.  I have my sea-sickness remedies to hand. Let's hope I don't need them....

The Last City at the End of the World

We were up at 4am this morning to get our cases ready and outside the room by 5.15am. Then we headed down for the special breakfast that had been provided in the lobby. We met up with several other Silversea guests at breakfast and wasted no time getting to know one another.
As expected our fellow guests came from all over the world. One couple was even from a really exotic place called Ottawa, and lived within sight of a place called Ralph's Diner on Carling Avenue. At 6am we our bags were loaded on the bus and we were off to the airport for our 8.55am flight to Ushuaia.

I had expected a small charter flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, but we ended up on a honking great commercial plane. I was not impressed with the check-in procedure. People checking in together seemed to end up in random seats not near each other. Denise was 3 rows back from me, and I ended up initially sitting next to lady from Arizona whose husband was in the row behind on the other side of the plane. After take off it transpired that none of the other seats in the row her husband was sitting in were even occupied. So I swapped seats with him - and spent the rest of the flight with a whole row to myself.

At 12.30pm we touched down in Ushuaia, and were met by the Silversea rep and loaded onto a coach for a trip to a hotel at the top of a mountain for lunch.

Ushuaia (population approx 60,000) is the captial of Tierra Del Fuego and is also the Southernmost city in the world. It is from here that most of the Antarctic cruise ships depart. Tierra Del Fuego is a smaller territory within a larger region called Patagonia, which is shared by Chile and Argentina.
Many many years ago, I once had an argument with a University friend about whether being able to speak Welsh was any use at all. "Where can you speak Welsh other than in Wales?"he asked.  "Patagonia" I replied.  It turned out that he'd never heard of Patagonia, and when I told him that there were Welsh settlements there he refused to believe that a place called Patagonia even existed, let alone that there were Welsh settlements there. All those years ago, I never imagined that one day I would actually be here in Patagonia.
To be honest the Welsh settlements here are in the Chubut Valley, which is a long way north of where we are.  Shame really as I was hoping to show off my exotic language skills in front of my fellow travelers by saying "Bore Da" to all the locals.

I have just got my first sight of Silver Explorer down in the channel below us. Soon we will be getting back on the coach and heading to the ship.

Feb 15th

Today was our only full day in Buenos Aires - and we made the most of it.
We began by taking a cab to the Cafe Tortoni for breakfast. Apparently, Buenos Aires has a century old tradition of coffee houses; places where writers and artists used to gather to talk. The oldest of these, founded in 1858, is Cafe Tortoni. The period decor is still in place, with beautiful stained glass and polished wood. The local special is the hot chocolate and churros, but I had an iced coffee with dulce de leche with my churros instead. It was called dulce cabrales and it was the best iced coffee I've ever had. Starbucks has nothing like it.




After breakfast we made our way to the nearby Plaza De Mayo, which is pretty much the centre of the city.  We wandered around the Metropolitan Cathedral (where Pope Francis used to hang out before he was Pope).  This looks more like a Greek temple than a cathedral, but is very beautiful all the same. Also in the square is the Casa Rosada (presidential palace).


Around lunchtime we headed to the Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo, where the locals do Tango in the park.

Our last "tourist" stop of the day was the cementario La Recolleta. Like New Orleans, the water table here is too high to bury people underground, so instead it consists of mausoleums. Some of these places are the size of houses. It must be a case of macho patriarchs wanting to say "My mausoleum is bigger than yours" even after they are dead and gone. After a quick snack for supper (neither of us is very hungry in the heat and humidity of Buenos Aires) we headed back to the hotel for an early night. We have to have our cases outside the room by 5.15am tomorrow morning.

We've had an amazing time in Buenos Aires, but really this was just the precursor to our real vacation. This time tomorrow evening we will be aboard Silver Explorer and heading towards Antarctica.

A Night on the Town

I have a colleague at work, who has Argentine parents. So I asked him what eating establishments I should try while in Buenos Aires. He said that I had to eat in a Parilla (pronounced pareesha).  This seems to be some sort of barbecue/steakhouse. Pablo said that Argentine beef was the best in the world. His manager, Claudio (who is from Brazil), overheard us and insisted that Argentine beef was only the second best beef in the world, after Brazilian beef. Since I will only have the opportunity to try Argentine beef on this vacation, I won't be able to settle their argument for them.
After some research, Denise and I had agreed on a place called Don Julio. Unfortunately, we totally forgot that it was Valentine's day and all the restaurants were likely to be fully booked this evening. The concierge at the desk did his best, but Don Julio had no tables available. After some more research we settled on a place called Cabanas Las Lilas, which could fit us in as long as we ate early (6.30pm).  It's worth noting that most Argentines don't eat until 9-10pm. Several restaurants don't seem to open until 7 or 7.30, and stay open until the early hours of the morning.

We started off with a plate of cured meats and fish, with various breads. The waitress recommended the special which was a huge cut of rib eye for 2 people to share. I had spent some time swotting up on the various Spanish words for how I wanted my meat cooked, but before I could impress anyone by ordering it "Jugoso", the waitress (who didn't really speak English that well) offered it "pink", so I just nodded my head.  The first thing I noticed was that there was no salt on the table. Dariel wouldn't like it - but you don't adulterate meat like we had by putting salt on it. I'd been told that Argentines were big on meat, not salads, and their idea of a salad was to take some lettuce and throw a lot of oil and salt on it to make it taste as much like meat as possible. Since I'm not a big salad person to start with, and my doctor had advised against eating any uncooked vegetables anyway, this didn't bother me.  I was quite happy to have my meat accompanied by a fine bottle of Malbec.

 For dessert there were many choices with dulce de leche. In the end we both settled on the dulce de leche crepes. They were exquisite.

Some restaurants bring you mints with the cheque, but here at Cabanas Las Lilas they bring you a tray with limoncello and grappa. So we did limoncello shots to finish the meal off.

After all that Denise and I staggered back to the hotel room with very full stomachs. I do hope we'll be able to get up in the morning as we have a full day's sight seeing ahead of us.

On the other side

After what seemed like a loooooooong flight, we arrived in Buenos Aires this morning. We were met at the airport by Cintia, the Silversea rep, and driven to our hotel, the Park Tower. It's a posh hotel with a capital P. 

It boasts both an indoor and outdoor pool, and a restaurant (the St Regis) that ranks in the top 5 in the city according to Trip Advisor.  We will not be eating there today though, as we have special plans for tonight.
Denise and I were pretty exhausted after the journey, and treated ourselves to a brief nap, then it was time to go out and look for an ATM. I had been unable to acquire any pesos before coming, so we walked across the road to the Banco Patagonia and I was able to use my bank card to withdraw some pesos. It was pretty expensive though - It cost nearly 100 pesos to withdraw the money, and then warned me that this didn't include any charges from my own bank. 
With cash in our pockets we are now ready to go out and hit the town.

Buenos Aires or Bust

Buenos Aires or Bust isn't just a fun title.  It shouldn't come as a big surprise to people that a vacation to Antarctica is not cheap. So not being there on time when the ship sails would be a very expensive mistake. Unlike cruises to more popular destinations you can't just hop on a plane and catch up with the ship at the next port of call. There aren't any commercial airstrips in Antarctica, so if you're not on board when the ship leaves Ushuaia that's the end of it.

When I was looking at flight options I noticed that direct flights from New York to Buenos Aires were pretty thin on the ground. There seems to be one direct flight daily, which leaves JFK late at night and arrives in Buenos Aires mid-morning on the following day. The original itinerary had us flying from Montreal to JFK on Feb 14th, taking the flight to Buenos Aires on the evening of the 14th and arriving mid-morning on the 15th.  Then on the 16th we had an 8.55am flight to Ushuaia, which would get us there with a couple of hours to spare before boarding the ship.  I realized that if our flight out of Montreal was delayed for some reason and we missed our connection then we would have to wait 24 hours for the next fight to Buenos Aires. That flight wouldn't get us in until mid morning on the 16th - after the plane to Ushuaia had left! Even if there were alternative non-direct flights to get us to Buenos Aires, the additional travel time involved in making the extra connections might still not get us in on time. With this in mind, Denise and I decided to travel on the 13th instead and spend an extra day in Buenos Aires. This would allow us to see a bit more of the city, and set our minds at rest that even if we missed one connection we still had an extra 24 hours travel time in hand to make it to Ushuaia on time.

I am so glad we made that decision, because traveling today has not gone as planned. I can't imagine how stressed out I would have been if we had not had an extra 24 hours in hand. We got to Montreal airport nice and early, only to find that our 5pm flight from to JFK had been cancelled. Being early was a blessing, as the check-in attendant was able to rebook us on an earlier flight to JFK. The earlier flight was supposed to leave at 1pm, but was running late and was now scheduled to leave at 3.45pm.  It seemed to take ages for our flights to get re-organized. Then the 3.45 flight was delayed again, and we only finally left Montreal at 5pm (the original time our cancelled flight was due to leave). At least the flight to Buenos Aires left JFK on time, and I don't have any other connections to worry about.
The flight from JFK to Buenos Aires is a long one: 10 and 3/4 hours. It may very well be the longest flight I've ever been on, the previous record being held by a direct flight from London to San Francisco 20 years ago. I meant to write a blog entry part way through our plane journey, but we really didn't have much luck with the wifi connections along the way. JFK had no wifi at all. There is wifi available on this flight, but they want to charge you money for it, so I'm sitting here composing this entry in Notepad, and I shall post it when we land - assuming the hotel has working wifi that is! For now I'm off to try and catch a few zzzs.

Pondering the "trip of a lifetime"

A lot of people have asked me how did I even decide to go to Antarctica? So here's the background to my Antarctic trip:
12th February 2017 is my friend Denise's 60th birthday.  Denise has always loved to travel. When she was a child she decided she wanted to visit every country in the world. As she grew up she realized that this was not practical, so her subsequent resolution was that she would at least visit every continent. In the first 59 years of her life she did pretty well at this, visiting South America on a cruise, going on safari in Africa, taking vacations in Australia and China, and traveling extensively in both Europe and North America. But the 7th and most remote continent, Antarctica, was still missing from her list. As Denise had recently sold her Mother's house and now had the funds to afford it, her thoughts turned towards the vacation of a lifetime for her 60th birthday. 
I'm not as extensive a traveler as Denise.  Yes, I've done the whole European tour bit, and I've covered a fair amount of Canada and the US. I like the idea of travel, but I'm also quite keen on my own comfort and safety.  Much as I'd love an African safari I'm not willing to undertake the risks of traveling to areas of the world that I consider dangerous, not to mention the fact that I'm not interested in "roughing it" at my age.  That said, I've always had a fascination with really remote places.  So when Denise tabled the idea of my accompanying her on a vacation to Antarctica I was enthusiastic, despite the cost.

So how does one visit Antarctica? Well unless you're Ranulph Fiennes or a member of a scientific research team, pretty much the only way to visit is on a cruise ship.  
Tourism companies are required by the International Antarctic Treaty Organization (IATO) to have a permit to visit Antarctica. Large cruise vessels are banned from operating in Antarctic waters, and the maximum number of people that are allowed to go ashore at one time is 100. This means that the companies that offer trips to Antarctica operate very small cruise ships (200 guests or less).

After agreeing to go with Denise I did a bit of research on the various companies that operated Antarctic cruises. Suprisingly they differ quite a bit in terms of the type of traveler they are aimed at.  At one end of the range are the "cheap and cheerful" (although even these are relatively expensive) type ships, usually converted research vessels, where you share a room with 4 bunk beds. These are probably aimed at the younger traveler with less money who doesn't mind "roughing it". Then there are the National Geographic type cruises for the people who are really into an enriched educational experience, and so on.  After much investigation Denise and I plumped for Silversea, an up-market cruise company that specialized in smaller cruises to less mainstream destinations.
We booked a year in advance, and I must admit that after paying my deposit I had one of those "OMG what have I done" moments.  It's quite a monumental undertaking to commit to a trip of this nature, or at least it seemed that way to me.

One of the things that attracted us to Silversea in the first place was that there was a lot of support offered up front for the apprehensive traveler. Silversea offer a package, from certain North American airports (including Montreal), that includes flights to Buenos Aires, an overnight stay in a hotel, airport/hotel transfers, and a flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia with a bus from Ushuaia aiport direct to the ship.  Despite being forced to watch 100s of episodes of "Dora the Explorer" when my daughter was a toddler, I am unable to speak a word of Spanish, so this kind of door to door hand-holding was very attractive to me.  The company also provide a set sail guide with advice on what clothing and equipment to pack, and provide options to rent boots, waterproof trousers, walking poles, etc. This is very useful, as a lot of the equipment and clothing needed for an Antarctic trip is heavy, and baggage weight allowances on internal Argentinian flights between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia can be quite restrictive.

For any North American contemplating an Antarctic cruise sailing from South America (there are some that sail from New Zealand) be aware that there is a "reciprocity" fee required for North Americans entering Argentina. A form must be completed, and the payment made ahead of time. A print out of the completed transaction will be required before you are allowed to board the flight to Argentina.  The fee does not apply to UK citizens. I must admit that I found it a bit strange that Canadians (who must be one of the least offensive nationalities out there) have to pay this fee, but UK citizens like Denise do not, despite Argentina's long term disagreement with the UK over the Falkland Islands.

For those of you who followed my blog during my Hawaiian cruise last October you can probably guess by the length and nature of this post, that on this trip I'll be making more detailed entries than the kind of "we did this today" posts I made on my Hawaiian vacation.  If you don't want this level of detail just watch my Facebook page for some one-liners and photos instead. (Assuming Facebook doesn't lock me out of my account again like it did when I tried to log in from Hawaii!).

So here I am, all ready (I hope) to set out on my "trip of a lifetime". Wish me luck!

Ice ice baby

I have today off work and took my friend Denise downtown to see the ice sculptures.  Some nice ones this year. 

A limo ride

Back in 2013 when Dariel was only 12 we went for ride to a hotel in a stretch limousine as part of the celebrations for my parents' Diamond Wedding Anniversary.  Dariel was so impressed by the car that she decided that she wanted to do something similar for her 16th birthday.
So last week (a week after her actual birthday) I hired a limo for her and her friends to go driving about town in as her 16th birthday present.  I think all the girls had a good time!