Antarctica: Homeward Bound

Once we got back to the ship after our last landing, it was time for everyone to put their patches behind their ears again. Of course, we were all a bit nervous about crossing the Drake Passage again, after hearing the story about the other ship having faced hurricane-force winds.

Somehow, though, we lucked out again and had a relatively easy crossing. On a side note, I guess I actually used the phrase “lucked out” a few times during the trip and Jeremy—the guy from England who now lives in Australia—told me I kept confusing him. Apparently where he comes from, the expression is a negative one, meaning “out of luck.” So he was wondering why I kept saying things were going badly, when clearly I was having such a great time!

Antarctica: King of the Hill

We had another early wake-up call today. We were scheduled to arrive at Deception Island around 6:00 a.m. The island is a volcano with a large caldera (depression filled with water) in the center. There's a tiny opening into this bay called Neptune's Bellows, which is only 230m wide, so the s captain needs to steer the ship with extreme precision. At recap the night before, Brandon suggested we go up to the bridge or out on deck as we entered the opening, because the view of the walls of the caldera from that vantage point are apparentlly quite spectacular. Except...

Antarctica: A Day on the Water

This post is going to be a short one. (Thank goodness, because tomorrow's is going to be a doozy!)

There also won't be many pictures in this one. I had a few cameras with me on the trip—my good digital SLR, a decent point-and-shoot, and a waterproof camera—and I mostly used the latter when kayaking. It was so convenient because I could clip it to me PFD and let it sit on my spray skirt without worrying that it was covered in water. I would also bring my point-and-shoot in my dry bag, but it's a bit of a hassle hauling that out and putting it back in so I only used it when I saw something I wanted a higher quality picture of. (I never took my digital SLR in the kayaks because I was too paranoid about dropping it in the water.)

Antarctica: Indescribable (But I'll Give It My Best Shot)

Before I begin recounting Wednesday's activities, I want to mention something I forgot yesterday. Before dinner each day, we would all gather in the bar for a recap of that day's adventures and a briefing about what would be happening the next day. At Tuesday's recap, Brandon had a little story to share. His fiancee was working on another ship in the area and it had left Ushuaia two days after we had. He had received an e-mail from her that day about their experience crossing the Drake. It seems that they had slightly different conditions than we had—namely, 90-knot winds! That's actually categorized as a hurricane. Yikes! And while we all finally realized that we really had had a pretty easy crossing ourselves, we were also well aware that we still had to cross the passage again on the way home...

Okay, on to Wednesday.

Antarctica: Christmas in Paradise

We were able to sleep in on Tuesday. Until 7:00 a.m. :)

Earlier that morning, the ship had lifted anchor and headed down the Neumayer Channel, and then anchored again off of Useful Island. The kayakers were going to paddle around the island and then land to join the rest of the group.

We actually took a zodiac to the island first to get into the kayaks, and when we got there, we were treated to the sight of a Weddell seal basking on the rocks.

Antarctica: Finally There!

Even though the trip I booked advertises itself as a 12-day expedition, that includes the arrival and departure days in Ushuaia, the day touring Tierra del Fuego, and the four days crossing the Drake Passage in both directions. So, in reality, you actually end up spending only five days doing what you went all the way there to do! (And knowing this, you don't want to do the math on what the cost of the trip was on a per-day basis. Trust me. :)

But I'll tell you one thing—they really pack those five days full! I've decided I'm going to attempt to write one post each day this week to represent one day's worth of activities. I say “attempt,” because it's taken me a couple of hours today already simply to prepare the photos I want to use for the first days' post. But I'll give it my best shot.

Antarctica: The Drake Passage

One of the main topics of conversation among the passengers even before we boarded the ship was what kind of motion sickness medication we had brought and when should we take it?

You see, the first two and last two days of our trip would involve crossing the Drake Passage, which is renowned for having the roughest seas in the world. However, it's also extremely unpredictable, to the point that Brandon, our expedition leader, told us that we could experience either the Drake Shake or the Drake Lake. And although the forecast as we were heading out was for not-too-bad conditions, he did emphasize that it could change at any time.

Antarctica: On Our Way

Friday morning we had to bring bags to the hotel lobby, where Quark staff would pick them up to transfer them to the ship. Then, after breakfast, we boarded buses for a tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have enjoyed this tour a lot more, but I was really chomping at the bit to start the “real” portion of the trip. They needed the day, however, to clean the ship and get everything set for our arrival, since they only arrived back from their previous voyage that morning! (The crew gets a whole four hours of free time in Ushuaia between sailings!)

Adventure in the News

This article caught my eye today. Scary. Makes me even gladder I went when I did!

> Antarctica Ice Loss Faster Than Ten Years Ago

Antarctica: Ushuaia

Man, was I happy to get off that plane! Unfortunately, it still took about 30 minutes to get through Immigration and Customs, but I was just happy to see my luggage coming on the carousel. (Even though I had been told that my bags were checked all the way through, I was a little concerned that maybe I was supposed to have picked them up in Santiago after I went through Immigration there.)

I wasn't expecting anyone to meet me at the airport, since I was arriving on the day before our official day, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a woman holding a Quark Expeditions sign in the public area. Turns out they had another ship leaving the next day, so she was actually waiting for those passengers, but of course she was happy to steer me in the right direction as well.

I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel. The pre-departure information I had received had mentioned that most places take U.S. dollars there, so I hadn't bothered changing any money. It had also said that the taxi ride should be around $6.00. So I was a little surprised when the fare turned out to be $13+ (not that that was a problem at all). I made a mental note to tell my booking agent to update their info and gave the driver $16, and he gave me a really big smile in return. I found out why his smile was so big a little later. If I had done the proper research before I left the States, I would have discovered that the symbol for the Argentine peso is exactly the same as the dollar sign. So my fare was really 13 pesos, which is around $4 U.S. Which means I had had actually just given my driver a 300% tip... Merry Christmas to him! :) I just counted my blessings that I had made the mistake for a relatively small sum of money.

Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest (accompanied by his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay), passed away today at the age of 88.

Now, even though I'm always saying you don't have to climb mountains to be an adventurer, I'm definitely in complete awe of the passion and commitment he must have had to achieve such a momentous goal. (And I really gotta love the first words he said to the first person he met on his way back down: “Well George, we finally knocked the bastard off.” :)

Here's a link to Hillary's Wikipedia entry if you want to learn more about the life of this extraordinary man who truly exemplified the concept of an adventurous spirit.

Antarctica: Getting There

I'm sorry for the delay in posting more about my trip, but the day after I arrived home I came down with THE worst cold I've ever had in my life and I could barely think straight (let alone sit up straight during my seemingly endless coughing fits...). Today is the first day that I feel like I might actually be turning the corner on this bug, so I thought I'd better begin posting again before I forget everything. (Yeah, like THAT could happen! :) So here goes...

The jumping off point for the boat trip is Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. The mandatory day of arrival was Thursday, December 20th (the ship sailed on the 21st), but I had planned my itinerary to arrive on the 19th to give myself a buffer in case of a major delay with the flights. While that didn't happen, I did have one close call...

Antarctica: A First Look

Happy New Year!

I arrived home yesterday morning after spending more than 30 hours on planes and in airports. Needless to say, I'm still a little zonked. So I'm just posting a few pics for now, and I'll start writing about the experience in the next couple of days.

Oh... and it was AMAZING! :)