Jay Stalking: Failing the Background Check

I was excited yesterday, because I saw a second male jay in the yard (word must be getting around about the treasure trove of peanuts to be found here! :). I even heard the two squawking at each other. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get outside in time to try to get some pics of them together, but hopefully they'll both be back again. I only saw the one today, though, so we'll see...

In the meantime, here are some shots I captured over the last couple of days. This first one isn't in flight, but I think it could make a great textbook shot of the Western Scrub Jay. (You can click on the image to see a larger version.

And I got this rather cool shot of him with his beak open (sans peanut for a change!):

Now for some of the flying shots. This first one's not too bad, although you don't get to see his face at all:

And this is certainly a different position than most of the shots I've gotten:

But most of my problems over the last couple of days have been uncooperative backgrounds:

And I figure, as long as I'm hanging out in the back waiting for Mr. Jay to appear, I might as well work on improving my technique at capturing hummingbirds in flight as well. This is the best so far:

Jay Stalking

I have a male scrub jay hanging around my backyard, and one of my obsessions this summer will be to try to get a decent photo of him—in flight.

These are just gorgeous birds. I've had one visit in past years, but usually he would only make an appearance a couple of times over a couple of days, and then he'd be gone. But last year I learned they REALLY like peanuts, which I found out after I discovered one swooping in to steal them out of the food mix I would put out for the squirrels I'd released after rehabilitating them. So I think I'll be able to keep this guy around for a while and even have some control of where he arrives using strategic peanut placement. :)

He was here several times this weekend, so I've been keeping my camera handy and managed to get a few half-decent shots (out of DOZENS taken!). Unfortunately, even when I get a pretty good shot of the bird, half the time it's against a background that doesn't do it justice, like this one of him running along my roof:

Or, they're not positioned the best:

Or, there's something random in the way:

Fortunately, nowadays the latter can be dealt with quite effectively using graphics software:

But I also got a few shots in that aren't TOO bad (or, at the very least, they have something interesting about them):

Of course, you may have already noticed that all of these shots were taken when the bird was standing still. And as tough as those were to get, catching one in flight was a WHOLE different ballgame!

My goal is to end up with one similar to the one taken by NaturesDisplay that's at the top of this post (which was the ONLY flying pic at either of the stock photo sites I use, so that was somewhat reassuring...).

One thing to remember about birds, though, is they're freakin' fast! Which is why many of my attempts at catching this guy on the wing ended up along the lines of these (yes, there really IS a bit of the bird in the second one...):

So far, these are the best of the bunch:

But this is just the beginning. I'm determined to get a good shot of this guy in flight before the summer is over!

Stay tuned...

Shibaraku Desu

The title above is a Japanese expression that means, "It's been a long time," and is the standard greeting when friends reunite after a lengthy separation. Since it's been almost 3 months since I last posted, I thought it was (sadly) appropriate. (For those who didn't know, I lived in Japan for two years half a lifetime ago, which is why I even know this. And in case you're interested, here's an earlier post about one of my experiences there.)

Let's just say life got in the way this year. But May seems like a great time to get back in the game, what with spring in full force and all. And I had the added incentive of a challenge that one of my writing colleagues, Michelle Rafter, has issued: A Post a Day for the Month of May!

That's definitely going to be a challenge, but one thing I'd like to do with this blog (to try to avoid any more long absences) is to write shorter posts more frequently, so this will be good practice for that.

For this post, I'll just list a few adventures I've had since the last one:

• Had an article about exercise-induced asthma (which I suffer from) published in Women's Adventure magazine
• Raised another set of orphaned squirrels for the Wildlife Center
• Attended a writer's conference in New York, where I was thrilled to meet a lot of the people I “know” from Freelance Success, my favourite community of professional writers
• Saw Paul Simon in concert with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, David Byrne, and other guests, who were performing songs from Paul's brilliant Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints albums—FANTASTIC!
• Rushed my cat Willow to the vet when I discovered a huge swelling on her face, which fortunately turned out to be simply an abscessed tooth (not all adventures are good ones...)
• Went to a seminar on nature photography that was awe-inspiring—and a little intimidating
• Entered some of my Antarctica pics in a photography contest (winners haven't been announced yet, so fingers remain crossed!)

And as usual, I'm always interested in hearing about YOUR adventures. So if you have any stories you'd like to share, just fill out this form or shoot me an e-mail and I'll be thrilled to post it for you.

Blog of the Day

As part of the May Blogathon, I'm going to call out one blog that I like each day. And since Michelle inspired this effort, I'll start with hers: WordCount.

Michelle blogs about freelance writing, but a lot of her posts can also benefit other types of business owners, especially with regards to promoting their products and services. For example, she writes a lot about Web 2.0 topics like search engine optimization and marketing (SEO/SEM) and social networking.

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!

We had more lectures scheduled on the way home, but most people spent their time in the bar socializing and sharing pictures. The ship had a laptop on board that we could use to load our pics on, and then others could take the ones they wanted.

We got to the entrance of the Beagle Channel on Sunday afternoon, and we anchored there for a few hours until a pilot boat would come out to meet us and guide us back into the harbour at Ushuaia. So we had nice calm seas for our farewell party.

All the staff took turns sharing their thoughts with us and they all said we were one of the best groups they'd ever had. We joked that they probably said that to all the groups, but I have to say, this was definitely one of the ways we “lucked out” on the trip. The people really were terrific. Our ages ranged from 17 to 60-something, and there was a mix of families and couples and solo travellers. But everyone got along really well and I know I spent time with almost everybody at meals, in the bar, kayaking, and on landings, and I think everyone else pretty much did as well. No cliques to be found!

As much as I've written about in these posts, there's so much more that I couldn't; otherwise, I'd be writing about the trip until June! And even all the pictures I've posted couldn't do justice to just how spectactular Antarctica is. So if you've ever even had a passing thought that you might like to go there some day, I heartily encourage you to do so. And you might want to do it sooner rather than later. The frozen continent is becoming a much more popular destination (I think March of the Penguins may have had something to do with that!). So apparently the companies are reducing the number of trips on the smaller ships—which in my opinion is the only way to go—since they can obviously make more money on the larger ones.

And even though I just said that the pictures can't possibly give you a complete sense of what the experience is like, I thought I'd post a few of my favourites that you've already seen before, but with links to larger versions to at least get a better idea. (Note: The larger images will open in a new tab or window.)

As I prepared for my adventure, and was spending money on things like a new lens for my digital SLR and extra thermal underwear, “just in case I need them,” I kept telling myself that this would be my one and only trip to Antarctica, so I didn't want to diminish the experience by regretting that I hadn't brought something with me. But now that I've been there, I know it won't be my last time after all. I don't know when I'll go back again, but I have no doubt I will.

Thank you all for reading my stories (and allowing me to relive them all over again!). And now, I'll just leave you with one last image—my favourite one, the one I'll cherish forever. But you'll have to click on the grey box below to see it. Can you guess what it is?

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...

When we arrived at the island, it was shrouded in a very thick fog. (And, yes, Brandon told us that this was the first time he'd ever seen this!) The picture below was actually taken on the way back out.

Because of the fog and poor visibility, Louise told us we wouldn't be able to kayak there as planned. We also knew we weren't going to be able to paddle at that afternoon's location, so it turned out that the previous afternoon was our last outing in the boats. We were all a little disappointed, not just because we couldn't kayak, but also because since we had been expecting that we would be paddling today, a couple of people hadn't come out with us the day before. It would have been nice to have everybody all together one more time (the only time it was all ten of us was the first day).

After anchoring, we all did a landing at Telefon Bay, which is covered in black ash. The volcano is still considered active and its last eruption was in 1969, totally destroying some research stations. While we were there, we did a short walk up a path to another caldera in the island's walls. (Is it my imagination, or does the area in the background, with the dark ash against the ice and snow, kind of look like the Canadian flag?)

Here's a picture of Chelsea that does a good job of depicting how a lot of us were feeling by that point.

But we still had some interesting adventures ahead. Our next stop was Pendulum Cove, an ashy beach where the more daring (or crazy) of us were planning to do the polar plunge, which is exactly what it sounds like—a swim in the frigid waters of Antarctica! (And to get the prized certificate proving our insanity, we were told it only counted if we fully immersed our heads.)

The reason they use this location for the plunge is because there's geothermic activity along the beach that creates what is jokingly referred to as a “hot spring.” In reality, there was a little strip of water bubbling through the ash whose temperature can sometimes go as high as 50-degrees celcius.

Now, most people just stripped down to their bathing suits, ran into the water, and immediately ran back out to the large, thick beach towels provided by the crew. A few of us had a slightly different experience, however.

The day before, when we were kayaking, Sarah had mentioned to me that she would really have liked to do a wet exit while we were there, just to see what it was like. I said that there was no way that they'd allow that. Well. At our afternoon meeting, she mentioned this again and Louise thought it was a great idea (no one had ever done this before), but she had to run it by Brandon. When she said it was a real possibility, Chelsea and I both said we wanted to do it as well. And we realized this could be our way of doing the plunge (since our heads would DEFINITELY be submerged!)

Brandon approved the plan with one exception. He didn't want us actually using our spray skirts because he thought it was one additional untried variable that could cause problems. So we didn't do what would normally be considered a wet exit. Instead, it was really just a capsize (thus breaking their perfect record. :) Because we'd be wearing our PFDs (personal flotation devices), we'd pop right back up to the surface. And, of course, we would be doing this in shallow water with Louise standing right beside us, ready to step in if there were any problems.

Sarah went first (of course!), followed by Chelsea. After she exited, I began to run into the water to get into the kayak, so Louise wouldn't have to stay standing in the cold water any longer than necessary, but she yelled at me to wait while she dumped the water out of it. My feet were almost numb just from that, but I stood in the little trench and warmed them up again. Then Louise was ready for me. And if you're thinking it must have taken a lot of guts to do this, I think it takes a lot more guts to post a video of myself in a bathing suit! :)

By the way, before I went over, Louise had just finished telling me that the plan was for me to capsize away from her, towards the shore. As you saw, however, the kayak—which was Louise's single, and therefore less stable boat—had other plans.

And just in case you missed my expression after coming up from the plunge, someone (I think Gustavo) managed to capture it for posterity.

When I got back on shore, I was so pumped up from the adrenaline rush that I didn't even think to bask in the warm water, so here's a pic of some of the others enjoying the spa.

Instead, I just pulled on the special flannel pajamas I had brought with me—the ones with the penguins and candy canes all over them. I'd say they were pretty appropriate for this trip.

I had mentioned earlier that Brandon had changed the direction of this trip from the usual itinerary, i.e. we started further south and worked our way north. So on those other trips, the passengers do the polar plunge on the first day of arriving at the continent. I'm much happier we did it this way, because by this point, we all knew each other a lot better and really cheered each other on. I don't think it would have been so much fun if we hadn't already shared so many great experiences together.

And as much of a blast as the capsize was for Sarah, Chelsea, and I, I think Louise got more of a kick out of it than we did. She told us that our group as a whole was by far the most enthusiastic kayakers she'd ever led in Antarctica. I was a little surprised, since only three people had actually gone out all six times—Sarah, Chelsea, and Calvin.” But she told us that on most trips, after the first paddle, she practically has to beg people to go out again. So Team Leopard Seal (as we had christened ourselves) were feeling pretty darn good about that!

After lunch, we headed to Aitcho Island, which is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the mosses and lichens growing there (which meant we were absolutely forbidden from going off any marked tracks).

We also knew there was a good possibility of seeing hauled-out elephant seals, and we did. We have elephant seals in northern California as well, but apparently they're a different species and the ones in Antarctica are much larger. At one point, this guy woke up and pushed over one of the penguins, but it happened so fast no one got a picture of it.

But there was something even more exciting awaiting us. Brandon had told us at recap the night before that there was a rumour floating around via e-mail between the ships that there had been recent sightings on the island of a single macaroni penguin and a single king penguin—neither of which belonged anywere near there.

We never found the macaroni but the king penguin was right there on the beach. We had a good laugh because Snowy, our ornithologist, had walked right by him without seeing him. He claimed it was because he had been told it was up higher on the island. But how on earth could anybody miss this gorgeous creature?

Once we spotted him (it could have been a her), we all began furiously clicking our camera shutters. Brandon reminded us to keep our distance so as not to frighten him (we especially didn't want to scare him into going back out to sea), but he didn't seem the least bit disturbed by us. In fact, he walked all around us, seeming quite proud of himself.

Every few feet, he would stop and reach his head up as far as it would go and let out the most beautiful call. (I also found it heartbreaking, because I knew he was doing it to try to find a mate, or at least another penguin that looked like him.)

I so wish I had brought my video camera with me so you could hear it for yourselves. Instead, I'll just have to settle for posting more pictures. There are plenty to enjoy, because it was so hard to choose among them!

This next picture would have been so great to give to Brandon, but of course it's the one that had to be out of focus!

The next one is one of my favourites. I love the way Louise and the penguin seem to be checking each other out.

And this was how we spent our last time on land in Antarctica. I couldn't have imagined a better way to end it!

Next installment: My final thoughts.

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.)

So the reason for the fewer pictures is because when we were kayaking, we were paddling most of the time. We didn't usually stop to take pictures unless we wanted a bit of a break or we saw something really special. The other reason is because my waterproof camera doesn't have an optical viewfinder, and it was REALLY hard to see the image in the LCD because of the glare, so I'd often just point the camera in the general direction of what I was trying to capture. As a result, a rather high proportion of the shots I did take were completely unusable (not straight, missing half of the main subject, etc.)

Anyway, after we had a bit of a chance to rest up from our night of camping, we met with Jamie and Louise to discuss the plan for the morning. We had arrived at Cierva Cove and the weather looked promising for another nice paddle. Even still, a few of us were hesitating, so Sarah told Louise to “sell it.” (There was never any question whether Sarah was going paddling at any of the locations!

So Louise told us that there was a possibility (she emphasized that she couldn't guarantee anything) that we might see whales in this area. And, as she said, “If you see it from the zodiac, you'll just be thinking to yourselves that you could have seen it from your kayak.” I was definitely in at that point!

The conditions were really nice again and while it wasn't as spectacular as the day before at Neko Harbor, it was a close second.

We probably saw more icebergs here than we had seen anywhere else, and the slight swell in the water had them really bobbing up and down, looking like they could capsize at any moment. So we took extra care to stay a safe distance from them.

Alas, we didn't see any whales, but we did find one leopard seal.

So I was pretty happy when we got back to the ship—until we found out that the zodiac cruisers had actually come across a leopard seal feeding its pup! Again, Brandon told us this was the first time he'd ever seen that, which only added to my regret that we had missed it. (It was a bit ironic, too, after Louise's earlier sales job.) This was the only real disappointment I had during the trip, though, and everything else was so much better than I could ever have imagined that I really can't complain.

In the afternoon we went kayaking again, this time at Mikkelson Harbor. It's a small sheltered bay, so we were expecting a fairly easy paddle. It actually turned out to be a bit windier than we had expected and we had to work a little, but the cool thing about this trip was that we were able to park ourselves near a glacier that was really rumbling from internal movements. Normally we wouldn't have been able to get that close, because if it calved into the water, it could cause a tidal wave that would be really dangerous for us. But this particular glacier had a rocky outcrapping in front of it that provided us with protection. And it paid off. Just as we were about to head back, there was a fairly sizable calving and we could see the snow tumbling into the sea. And there was, in fact, a small tidal wave, but we were completely sheltered by the rocks.

When we got back to shore, we had to walk a short distance to the zodiacs that would take us back to the ship. There were lots of gentoos around, and we also saw a skua above them keeping an eye out for an opportunity. Then, as we were walking back, we actually came across an egg that must have already been stolen, because it had a hole in it. Louise picked it up and turned it over, and this bright red liquid came pouring out of it. None of us had known that was the colour of their contents. This was another one of those gross/cool moments. (The picture below came from Sarah.)

That evening we had a long way to travel to make it to the South Shetland Islands for the next day's activities, so we all just stayed onboard the ship, relaxing, socializing, and reviewing our photos.

Since this post is notably lacking in pictures, I decided to put together a short video that has clips from a few different places we'd been during the week, most of which you'll recognize from earlier posts. (The last two clips Jamie shot on my behalf, which is probably why they're a lot less shaky... :) The video runs about three and a half minutes. Enjoy!

Next installment: Taking the plunge.

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.

In the morning, the kayakers were scheduled to paddle Neko Harbor. I had woken up with the beginnings of a cold, so I was seriously considering skipping this particular trip. But then we looked at the water and it was pretty glass-like, so I decided to go ahead after all. Thank God I did!

We were going to launch the kayaks from shore this time.

While we were getting ready, we were pleased, though very surprised, to see an Adelie penguin come over to check us out. This region is not at all where you would expect to find Adelies, because it's too far north. (Sadly, it's probably related to global warming.) The Adelie was clearly confused by the kayaks, so he decided to jump on one of them for a closer look. (Note: I wasn't able to get a good picture of this, so the next two are from Sarah's collection that she shared with us.)

We all stayed back to give him some space and not frighten him. But then he went to jump onto the next kayak and he slipped between the two. He flapped his wings a lot, but managed to extricate himself, and then went off running down the beach faster than I'd seen any penguing move on land.

I felt so bad for him. Not just because he was obviously really scared from what had just happened, but also because I knew he would be trying to find a group he belonged with, but all he was going to find there were hundreds of gentoos.

As we started our paddling, it was obvious that this was going to be a different kind of paddle from the previous two days. The sun had already broken through the clouds and the water was completely calm.

And just as we started paddling, a seal swam right in front of us, even bumping into one of the kayaks! We were all so surprised by it, and it moved so quickly, that none of us were able to get our cameras out in time. Oh, well... We certainly won't need a photograph to remember such a special encounter!

One of the highlights of this particular location was that there large areas of brash ice, which are the small bits of ice that are floating all around you (like in the header picture for these posts). And we were going to be kayaking right through it! Louise said that we needed to designate one boat to lead a path through the ice that the rest of us could follow. Sarah (who was my partner that day) had kayaked through brash ice in the Arctic before, so we designated her the Brash Leader (although someone suggested Brash Kicker might be a better name!). I was in the front of the kayak, so it was my job to let her know if we were headed directly into a piece that might be too big to go over, although she didn't really think there was such a thing!

This was just a total blast. We would paddle as hard as we could to go over the ice (sometimes we had to hold the paddles completely vertically to push us through). The crunching noises sounded like we could put a hole in the hull at any point, but the boats were more than sturdy enough to handle the collisions.

One of the most important considerations we had to take into account as we blazed our trail was that we had to keep a reasonable distance from the icebergs that we were kayaking around. They can be very unstable and roll over at any time without warning and, like the Titanic learned, the bulk of the berg is under water. So if we were too close to one and it collapsed, it could easily cause us to capsize.

As we were making our way through the ice, we were all regretting that we had worn extra layers under our dry suits that day, and most of us took off our hats and gloves to try to cool off.

When we got past the densest part of the brash ice, we reached a much more open area of water, with fewer bits floating around. At this point, Louise called for us to have a moment of silence, where we would hold our paddles quietly across our laps and not speak or take pictures or make any kind of noise at all. When we started, Jamie was in the zodiac a ways away and didn't realize we were doing this so we could hear the hum of the engine, which was distracting. But then he saw us and cut the motor and there were no more man-made sounds. And our moment of silence turned into about ten minutes, where we simply drifted where the water took us and the only sounds we heard were of the boats bumping into ice and an occasional glacier calving (large amounts of snow and ice falling into the sea). It was without a doubt one of the most magical and spiritual experiences of my life and one that I will never forget.

When we started paddling again, we heard a sound echoing around us. It turns out it was a leopard seal's call. We couldn't see it, so we decided to go hunting for him. We split off in different directions, trying to follow the haunting cries. Chelsea and her brother Chris were the first to find him basking on an ice floe.

By this point, we'd actually been out longer than we had planned, so we had to hurry back to the zodiac to take us back to the ship so we could move on to our next destination. As we were on our way, we all agreed that even if we couldn't have done any other paddling on the trip, this morning's outing would have been worth the full cost of the option. Even our highly experienced kayak master, Louise, was raving about how this had been one of the best paddles she'd led since she'd been begun working in Antarctica.

When we got back to the ship, Brandon and Jamie called the campers together to let us know that we were going to try again that night. We wouldn't know for sure until we got to our evening destination, Enterprise Island, because they had never camped in that area before (another first!), so they'd have to scout around to see if there was a suitable location.

In the afternoon, we moved on to Danco Island, where we were going to do another paddle. But since my cold was starting to get worse (I was coughing more) and I didn't want to risk missing out on the camping, I decided to forego the kayaking. Besides, after the morning's amazing experience, I thought it could only be a disappointment.

I did watch the group get started on their paddle, but before they launched their boats, we had a little visit from a leopard seal right at shore.

And here's a pic of Ike and Calvin getting ready to head off. I have to admit, I was feeling a little pang of regret as I watched them head off without me.

Danco Island had yet ANOTHER huge uphill climb. I decided to actually give it a try this time, but I didn't make it very far. (To be fair, several others only made it partway as well, so I didn't feel like quite as bit a wimp this time...) So, of course, here are some more penguin pics. :)

This first shot is of a “penguin highway,” which are the trails they create to climb up and down the mountain.

And here are a few penguins using them.

We had been told that we should never step on a penguin highway, so I thought it was funny when I found these two guys eyeing the “people highway” as if they were wondering whether or not they could walk on it.

I loved watching the penguins on land. They were so slow and awkward compared to how fast and graceful they were in the water. One of my favourite things would be when they'd be walking along and then, plop!, they'd fall over onto their bellies and start “tobogganing” along the snow.

I went back down to the shore to just sit and enjoy the views.

And then it happened again. Another Adelie showed up, well away from his natural territory.

During the landings, the zodiac would take people back to the ship at different times, so I decided to go back a little early to rest up for the evening's adventures. Unfortunately, that decision caused me to miss yet another first (although I have mixed feelings about having missed it). Just as the kayakers were returning, and the last zodiacs were about to head back to the ship, another leopard seal showed up and proceeded to kill and eat a penguin! From the pictures I've seen, it was quite an amazing (and somewhat disturbing) sight, as he tossed the poor gentoo into the air several times as he enjoyed fresh bites of it. Everybody who did see it, including Brandon, was really pumped about it. Snowy actually made a funny comment at recap about how upset everyone would get when they'd see skuas hanging around the penguin colonies, ready to steal an egg, but how thrilled they were to see a leopard seal tearing one apart!

As we sailed to the next destination, I went up to the bridge to watch for wildlife and was rewarded with my first sighting of a humpback whale.

Between the speed of the ship moving ahead and the whale moving in the other direction, it was out of sight again in less than a minute, but it was still amazing to see.

I also got a nice shot of a tabular iceberg.

During dinner, Jamie and Mariano went to scout a location for camping and they found one! It was a small island in the bay that had a flat top and was just big enough for the group. Before the camping, though, we went for a zodiac cruise of the area. First we went by the island so we could see where we would be spending the night (Jamie had planted a red flag in the middle of it and claimed it in the name of Canada! :) We did have a neighbour already.

Then we toured over to a spot where there was the remains of an old whaling ship where Antarctic terns had made their nests.

We also saw the remains of a whaling hut.

And we came across a couple of Weddell seals sleeping on an iceberg (at least they were sleeping before we got there... :)

Finally it was time to set up camp.

There was virtually no wind, so no worry of a repeat of the previous night. As soon as we landed, our friend the seal took off. But we had some new visitors—two chinstrap penguins.

This next picture makes it clear how these guys got their name. With their little black heads and that line underneath their chins, I thought they looked just like two little sentries who had come to watch over us for the night.

This picture of me shivering by the tent was purely for effect. It was actually a very mild evening (for Antarctica, that is).

The cardboard cutout beside the tent in the next photo is Flat Stanley. Apparently there's a whole story around him and people online track him around the world. Brian, the teacher from Ontario, had been asked by another teacher to bring him along and snap pics of him throughout the trip. And then Brian would use the pictures for a lesson on Antarctica for his friend's Grade 5 class. Stanley had a LOT of fun on this trip!

The next picture shows the view from our tent site. Remember, this was taken around 10:00 at night.

We ended up going to bed sometime within the next hour. Since the air temperature was so comfortable, we were expecting to be fine through the night. Um, no. The sleeping mats we had were pretty thin and the sleeping bags weren't as warm as we were expecting (although they claimed to be rated to -15 degrees). So the cold from the ground really worked its way up and I pretty much shivered through the night. And I wasn't just being a wimp. Even Sarah, who has done multiday kayak camping trips in the Arctic, and who had planned to only wear one set of thermals for the night, was so frozen she ended up putting on both her down jacket that she had brought with her and her Quark parka!

The other problem I had was that I had to go to the bathroom twice during the five or so hours we were trying to sleep. I don't have to go that often during a full night's sleep! We had brought a special eco-potty with us, so that wasn't a problem, but I had to haul on my boots and parka each time I went. So I figured if I was going to make all that effort, I was going to take my camera with me! This is the “view from the loo” at about 1:40 a.m.

At least our little chinstrap friends didn't seem to be having any trouble sleeping.

By the time 5:00 a.m. rolled around and Jamie went around to wake everyone up, Sarah and I had already gotten fully dressed and had begun tearing down our tent. The others weren't far behind us.

Our chinstraps got up as well and watched as we loaded the zodiac to head back to the ship. Is it my imagination, or does the one on the left look a little dejected? I think he was really going to miss us! :)

Next installment: A two-paddle day.

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.

By the time we were all finally in our boats and on the water, the other passengers had begun a trek uphill to get what were supposedly amazing views of the area. (It's hard to tell in the picture below because of the size, but each little yellow dot is a Quark parka.)

As we started paddling, the sun was out and the conditions were reasonably calm.

Louise told us that after a short distance, we'd be rounding a corner of the island and then we'd hit water that was like glass for most of the time, but that at the very end we'd hit some headwinds and the water would be a little rougher. Then we rounded the corner...

And that was the GOOD section! As we continued on, we actually hit some pretty heavy swells to the point we had to make sure we were hitting them head on. By that point, even the penguins had disappeared—they were too smart to try to navigate through this stuff! :)

But we pushed through it and, when we got back to the island, we were rewarded with the sight of yet another seal.

We then headed back to the ship for lunch. In case you're wondering what happened to the kayaks when we were shuttled back, this was one of Jamie's many jobs—rounding them all up, loading them onto a zodiac, and transporting them back to the ship (where they'd be lifted by crane back onto the stern).

The catering staff had prepared a special Christmas lunch for us that had something like eight separate courses. I don't remember what all they were, except for a very tasty glass of vodka (nicely rimmed with crushed candy canes) with a scoop of lemon sherbet in it!

After lunch, we had a kayaking meeting to discuss the afternoon's plans. A lot of us were thinking about passing on paddling after the morning's adventure, but Jamie and Louise told us that Paradise Bay is always THE nicest, and easiest, paddle of the whole trip, so we all decided to (dry)suit up again!

However, before kayaking, we were going to go with everyone else to Almirante Brown, an Argentinean research station that's actually ON the Antarctic content. Up to that point, all our landings had been on islands, so this was one of the big highlights of the trip.

As you can see in the first shot, there was another long, uphill climb that we could do for a great vista, but I didn't have the energy to do it, plus I figured I'd totally kill my knees on the downhill. I didn't mind staying down with our fearless leaders.

And I got to use the time to take some more penguin pics (I just NEVER got bored of them!), like these of a gentoo with two eggs in his/her pouch.

By this point, the wind had picked up quite a bit and the water was much too rough for us to go kayaking in it. (Jamie and Louise told us this was the FIRST time that they had seen bad conditions at Paradise Bay! :) So instead we joined the other passengers to do a zodiac cruise around the bay.

THAT was a bit of a mistake. Once we knew we weren't going to be kayaking, we should have gone back to the ship to change into our parkas before heading out, because the dry suits are not at all insulated. They're fine for kayaking, because the paddling keeps you warm, but they're not made for cruising around the bay in windy conditions. We were all freezing by the end, which made it a little harder to enjoy the experience, although we still managed to be awed by such amazing sights as the Petzval Glacier.

And there were some other gorgeous icebergs along the way, and a rather cool/gross dead jellyfish floating in the water.

After the cruise, we headed back to the ship for dinner. After that, the campers were scheduled to head back to Almirante Brown to spend the night on the ice.

Now, before I arrived in Ushuaia, I had thought I had signed up for the camping option. In fact, I could have sworn my contact had told me that, unlike with the kayaking, there was no limit to the number of people who could camp (although I can't find any evidence of that now!). So I didn't know until I was there that I wasn't on the list. I was pretty disappointed, but I certainly wasn't going to let it ruin my trip. And, to be honest, after that zodiac cruise, I wasn't quite so disappointed anymore... :)

But then... A few of the scheduled campers had a change of heart because of the weather. Sarah (who had signed up for the trip too late to get a spot) and I asked Jamie, who was the camp master, if we could have their spots. At first he said no, because we hadn't been to the briefings, and it would be a problem collecting the tents and sleeping bags that had already been distributed, etc. etc. But we happened to be in the hall just as one of the couples was handing their equipment back to Jamie. We had both proven ourselves to be really enthusiastic throughout the trip so far (fortunately he knew us well because of the kayaking), so Jamie looked at us and asked if we could be ready in 15 minutes. Hell, yeah!

We raced back to our cabins and I think I packed just about every item of clothing in my backpack because I wasn't really sure how much I would need, and we joined the rest of the group at the top of the gangway. I was so psyched! (The whole cold/wind concern had completely fallen by the wayside by that point.)

This was some time between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., and we were going to be picked up again at 5:00, so it wasn't like this was going to be a lengthy overnight stay, but we were definitely in it for the bragging rights! We headed back over to the continent and walked up to the spot where we would be pitching our tents.

The first thing we had to do was stamp down a 6-square-foot area of snow so we would have a flat spot to set up. Then we started pitching. Even though tents these days are designed to be practically idiot-proof to assemble, there were several strong gusts of wind that made it a challenge to get in one stake before another one would be pulled right up again. But we finally got it set up. (I thought I had taken a picture of us standing beside it, but I can't find one, so we must have just taken one with Sarah's camera.)

At that point, we went to pick up our sleeping bags when another huge gust of wind came up that immediately uprooted several people's tents. At that point, Jamie realized there was no point continuing, and he called back to the ship to have a Zodiac come pick us up. :(

Jamie told us that we wouldn't have another chance to camp, because it would mean changing the itinerary, which would affect the other passengers. We were pretty disappointed, of course, but in Antarctica, the weather rules! We went back to the ship and, while Jamie put the gear away, the rest of us convened back in the bar, at least knowing that we had been prepared to do it. But when Jamie joined us, he told us that Brandon was going to see if there was any way we'd be able to camp the next night, since he really didn't want us to miss the opportunity. So stay tuned...

One other cool thing happened while we were trying to set up the tents. We looked across the bay, and we could see two of the passengers on another piece of land by themselves. It was Boon and Alycia, who were a really nice couple from Singapore. Turns out that Boon had arranged to have Mariano drop them off there so he could propose to Alycia! And she said yes!! Nice.

Next installment: Some brash moments.

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.

One of the themes you'll read over the next few posts is that there were a lot of things on this trip that were quite unusual. Even Brandon, our expedition leader, said “This is the first time I've ever seen XYZ” on several occasions. Maybe that's because he set a different itinerary than he'd ever done before. Usually the first stop on this trip would be in the South Shetland Islands, north of the Antarctic peninsula, and each day we'd travel south until it was time to head back to Ushuaia. But Brandon decided to shake things up a bit this time, so we were going to start our explorations further south and work our way north during the week.

Our first landing was planned for Petermann Island, and the wake-up call was scheduled for 5:00 a.m.! Of course, no one minded at all, because we were all so excited to finally be leaving the ship, and a lot of people had trouble sleeping anyway, because it was so light out all night (wasn't a problem for me).

We travelled from the ship to the island via a Zodiac, a large inflatable boat with an outboard motor. We had received very precise instructions the day before as to how to get in and out of them, both from the ship, and on land. It was a bit awkward the first couple of times, but by the end of the week, we were all pretty expert at the whole procedure.

When we arrived on the island, we ran into one of our first “firsts”—a major snowstorm! Antarctica gets very little precipitation in general (the continent itself is actually a desert). The wind was pretty strong, but fortunately I had packed very well for the trip, and my Canadian blood seemed to kick in as well, because I didn't find it particularly cold at all.

Petermann Island is home to a colony of Adelie penguins, which live in the southern, colder areas of the region. If I'm remembering correctly, this is actually the furthest north you're likely to find the Adelies. (NOTE: The name of the penguin is actually Adélie, but it's a nuisance to keep coding the accented e, so I'm going to leave it off for other references. They're named after the wife of the man who first discovered them.)

WARNING: If you don't like penguins, you might want to scroll down several screens right about now...

You can identify Adelies because their faces are completely black.

They nest on piles of pebbles (which other penguins steal from them!)

Here's one where you can see the chick in the opening at the bottom of its body (you can't tell if it's a male or female from this distance, and they alternate caring for their young with going out to sea to gather food for feeding it).

Even the penguins struggled with the snow!

The bird nesting behind the penguins is an Antarctic shag. I guess the penguins don't mind having them there because, unlike some birds (like the dreaded skuas), shags don't prey on penguin eggs. Here's a closer look at the shag.

There were also nesting gentoo penguins on the island, and we would be seeing a lot more of them over the course of the week. You can tell them apart from the Adelies because the gentoos have white patches around their eyes and a bright orange beak. Here's one with his/her chick.

Here are a few more general shots of the penguins. (Hey, I warned you!)

And here's a little gentoo who seemed to be mimicking Brandon at first, and then went over to say hi to him.

And that takes us up to about 8:00 a.m.! We headed back to the ship for breakfast and then we split into two groups. The main group headed out for a zodiac cruise around the icebergs, while us kayakers first went and got fitted into our kayaks. Once we had done that, though, we went out cruising as well.

By the end of the trip, I'm not sure whether I ended up with more pictures of penguins or of icebergs. Here are some of the latter. (The ice is blue because it's so dense, it absorbs all the other colours of the spectrum.)

We also had our first seal sighting of the trip. In fact, there were two crabeater seals on the same iceberg.

When the zodiacs were idling, we were allowed to stand in them to get better pictures.

And, of course, a few more penguins...

After the cruise, we returned to the ship for lunch, while it lifted anchor and set sail through the Lemaire Channel. We were assured that this would have been one of the most scenic parts of the trip—if it wasn't for all the, you know, clouds and snow and stuff!

The staff had some fun with the snow on the ship, though.

After lunch was going to be our first kayak trip. The rest of the passengers were going to land at Port Lockroy, a historic British outpost—now a museum—and we were going to kayak there to meet up with them.

Even though I have kayaked a half a dozen times before, and I took a safety skills class to prepare for the trip, I was really nervous about going out the first time. Part of it was, of course, that the water would be mighty chilly if we happened to take a dip in it (although Louise had told us that capsizes were not allowed! :). But the other reason was because we were going to be getting into our kayaks from a zodiac, which isn't exactly the easiest—or most graceful—way to do it. (Below, you can see Louise and Jamie splayed across the zodiac as they held onto the kayaks with all their might as we loaded ourselves into them.)

Lisa, who was going to be my partner for the first trip, told me as we were sitting in the zodiac that I had absolutely no colour in my face. But once we actually did get in them (and it wasn't that difficult), and got our spray skirts attached, I was fine.The kayaks were extremely stable and, in fact, you'd really have to make a concerted effort to tip one over.

Once we started going, I was so happy that I had chosen this option. (I felt a little guilty though, after I discovered that several passengers had had their names on wait lists for kayaking months before I even signed up for the trip, but somehow I got a spot. Oh well...) This was absolutely the best way to see Antarctica! Gliding quietly among the icebergs, searching for wildlife, and listening to glaciers calving all around us, was an experience I'll never forget.

Because this was our first outing, it was supposed to be an easy paddle. But about halfway through, we hit heavy headwinds and really had to fight our way through. At one point, when we could see where we were headed, but it was still a ways off, we were all getting really tired, when suddenly about 30 or 40 penguins began porpoising (leaping through the water like dolphins) all around our kayaks. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures of the pengies, but my fellow kayaker Chelsea did and kindly shared it with us. She's also the one who took the pic of me kayaking that's the header for all these posts. (You can click the smaller version below to see a larger one and get a better sense of what it was like.)

After that amazing encounter (and, again, Louise said this was the first time she'd ever seen penguins coming so close to the kayaks), our energy zoomed right back up and we landed at Port Lockroy with huge smiles on our faces.

Port Lockroy had a little souvenir shop, so I bought a few little things. It was also the one place we could send postcards with Antarctic stamps on them, so a few of you lucky readers may get one eventually. They have to go from Port Lockroy, to the Falkland Islands, and then to ENGLAND, before heading to their final destination. So it could be another few weeks yet before they arrive...

This was where we were going to be anchoring for the night as well, and another ship actually showed up in the same area.

Apparently, this was actually a big no-no. The expedition leaders of all the ships plan out their itineraries to deliberately avoid each other, so each group of passengers can really feel they have a particular area to themselves for that time period. That's how it was for the rest of the trip and, I have to say, it did really add to the experience, in that we never felt like we part of the tourist hordes like in so many other destinations.

Afterwards, we took Zodiacs to a spot called Jougla Point, where we were able to see some more gentoos, as well as the giant remains of whales that had been killed by whalers in the early 1900s.

That was our final outing of the day, so we headed back to the ship where the catering staff had prepared a special Christmas Eve barbecue for us on the bow of the ship. They'd been worried earlier in the day that they would have to change the plans because of the snowstorm, but by then the sun was beaming down on us and it was a glorious evening!

And that was our first day in Antarctica. Whew!

Next installment: Brrr...

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.

Now, I've suffered from motion sickness my whole life, so I came prepared. I brought a prescription patch that you place behind your ear so it administers the drug gradually over a three-day period. I put that on as soon as we boarded the ship, because it needs to get into your system before you actually start feeling in. In addition, I had my Dramamine tablets and wristbands that have a little button on them that supposedly works on an accupressure point on the inside of your wrists to prevent nausea.

The first night wasn't a concern at all, as we navigated through the Beagle Channel (which was good, because it meant we could enjoy our glass of champagne and welcoming dinner without worry). But we all knew that the real test would be when we woke up the next morning.

I don't remember what time I woke up, but I was definitely aware of the increased motion of the ship. What was weird was that our beds were perpendicular to the direction of travel, so instead of rolling side to side like the ship was, I was rolling head to toe, almost like I was on an inversion table.

I had to go to the bathroom, which was down the hall, so that was my first attempt at walking against the motion. One of the rules for rough seas is to “keep one hand for yourself and one for the ship,” which was excellent advice, as I clutched the handrails the entire way.

Of course, Brandon made an announcement over the P.A. system on Saturday morning telling us all how “lucky” we were, because this was actually the best conditions he'd experienced in a while. Spoken like someone who spends a lot of time at sea!

In truth, though, over the next two days I definitely was seasick at times, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. I never actually threw up and when I felt a little queasy, I would go lie down for half an hour or so, and that would make a big difference and hold me over for a couple more hours. Going out on deck with the fresh air helped a lot as well.

There were a few people who didn't seem to be affected at all, but the meals and other group activities were definitely sparsely attended throughout the trip. (I only missed one lunch, but didn't eat a heckuva lot at the other times.)

So what did we do during those days? The main activities were presentations by the Quark staff on a variety of topics, and briefings on what to expect when we actually got to Antarctica. So this is a good time to introduce our Quark team, who were just wonderful. (The picture below was actually taken at the farewell dinner, but it's the only good one I have of them all—click on the image for a larger version.)

From left to right, they are:

• Gustavo, geologist, who gave lectures on the various rock and ice formations that created the continent
• Louise, the kayak master, who led all the kayaking trips
• Mariano, historian, whose presentations focused mainly on the early explorers
• Jamie, naturalist (from Canada!), who also accompanied the kayakers in a zodiac
• Brandon, expedition leader (also Canadian!!), who was pretty much responsible for everything related to the trip
• Graeme (or “Snowy,” because his last name is Snow), ornithologist, who taught us all about the penguins and other seabirds we'd be encountering on the trip
• Cath, our doctor, who liked to walk around the bar with a baggie full of pills, announcing “free drugs... get your free drugs here”

I wish I could say I attended all the presentations in full but, for some reason, the lecture room seemed to be the worst place on the ship for triggering our seasickness (which was weird, because it was in the middle of the ship on a low deck, so theoretically should have been one of the best locations). But the ones (and partial ones) I attended were really interesting—all the lecturers had great senses of humour as well as tons of knowledge on their subjects—and they really added to the whole experience.

One of the really nice aspects of the trip was that the ship had an open-bridge policy most of the time. That meant that we could go up to the bridge whenever we wanted to watch the crew in action or look for wildlife.

There's not really a lot to see during the Drake portion of the voyage other than some seabirds circling around. I took a LOT of pictures, but I didn't manage to get any that I was really happy with. But here are a couple of examples of what we were seeing.

The wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of any bird, at around 10 ft. [UPDATE: While this fact is accurate, reader Geoff informs me that the picture below is not, in fact, a wandering albatross, but a black-browed albatross. Gorgeous nonetheless!]

The cape petrel has these gorgeous black and white markings on its wings that reminded me of paintings of birds by Canadian native artists.

While the lectures were interesting, and it was nice to have a chance to get to know our fellow passengers, by the time we all went to bed on Sunday night, everyone was really psyched for the next day's activities, when we'd finally be leaving the ship and discovering Antarctica up close at last!

Next installment: Iceberg ahead!

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!)

I don't remember a lot about the park tour, but here are a few random pictures from it.

The sign in the last photo illustrates the farthest point south that you can drive on the Trans-America Highway, which begins in Alaska.

The one thing I do remember from the tour concerns, of all things, the Canadian beaver. At one point in history, somebody introduced 25 breeding pairs of beavers into the park—today there are more than 100,000! And even though they're an ecological pest, they've also become somewhat of a tourist symbol for the area, which explains this encounter I had had while shopping in Ushuaia:

After the tour, we went for a typical Argentinian asada or barbecue. The most popular fare is the lamb, although they also served steak and chicken. It was at the lunch that I really realized how small our group was. There were only 46 of us going on the trip (the ship can take 48 passengers, but there were a couple of last-minute cancellations). So we all fit on two long table setups.

After lunch, we were taken back to Ushuaia's main street for any last-minute purchases, and at 4:00 we reboarded the bus to take us to the ship, our home for the next ten days.

Our ship was the Akademik Shokalskiy, originally a Russian research vessel. It had five decks—Julie's and my cabin was on the third.

There we found our expedition parkas (with a removable fleece layer inside), which we would be keeping after the trip, and our gumboots, which were being lent to us for the duration (making it a lot easier to pack, I must say!).

Almost immediately, we were called down to the lecture room to be introduced to some of the staff and be briefed on the mandatory lifeboat drill that would be happening shortly.

My guess is that until a couple of months ago, passengers didn't take the drill too seriously, but after the Explorer sank, they paid a lot more attention to it! (Funny side note: When that ship hit an iceberg, I told people I thought it was a good sign for my trip, because the odds of it happening twice in one season had to be infinitesimal. Turns out, though, that another ship did collide with some ice while we were down there. They only sustained minor damage, and I hadn't even heard about it until I got home, but still... weird.

The drill went totally smoothly. It was really cramped inside our enclosed lifeboat, but I figured that had to be better than what the Explorer survivors had gone through in their open boats, so I wasn't complaining!

Once the drill was over, we all headed to the bar for a welcome reception as the ship prepared to leave dock. At long last, we were ready to start our exciting voyage to the frozen continent. Yay!

Next installment: The dreaded Drake.

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.

I was staying at the Hotel Los Nires, which had a gorgeous view of the mountains and the Beagle Channel.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I had in my head that the hotel would be more like a hostel, but it was actually a regular hotel room.

There are two beds because on Thursday night I would be getting a roommate, the same person I would be sharing a cabin with on the ship.

Surprisingly, I wasn't all that tired, so I decided to take the hotel's free shuttle into town and see if there were any interesting day trips I could go on the next day. In the van, I met a Dutch guy who was leaving on Thursday, but he had already done the trip three years earlier—and had already reserved a spot for next year on the much more expensive trip to see the Emperor penguins (the ones that were featured in the documentary, March of the Penguins). It was nice getting a little first-hand info from him about what to expect.

The town of Ushuaia was actually a little bigger than I expected. Apparently it's grown a lot over the last few years as more people have been taking trips to Antarctica. Even still, there was really just one main shopping street.

This was one of the side streets going down to the marina that had a really colourful mural painted on it.

Of course, even at the “end of the world,” you can't really get entirely away from home... (At least they didn't have a McDonalds!)

I found out about a couple of day trips I could take on Thursday, including a catamaran trip to see some sea lions and Magellanic penguins (which is one type we wouldn't be seeing in Antarctica), but I decided against them. And since I had a good long sleep-in the next morning, I was happy I'd made that decision.

So on Thursday, I went back into Ushuaia for lunch and I finally got to meet someone who was going on the same trip as me. Sarah is from the U.K., but she's lived in Calgary for several years (she works in the oil and gas business). Then later that afternoon, the Quark rep came to the hotel again to answer any questions we had. That was another time I was glad I hadn't signed up for any excursions, because I got to meet a lot more of my shipmates there as well.

There was Ike from Montreal, Brian from southern Ontario (I forget which city exactly), Lisa and her mother Karen from southern California, Jeremy from Australia (originally from the U.K.), and a few more. One of the really cool things about this trip was that everyone who was on it had already travelled extensively—after all, not many people are going to choose Antarctica for their first vacation. :) In fact, I think this was going to be continent #7 for most of the passengers, including me. So there were LOTS of great adventure stories going around.

Sarah, Ike, Jeremy, and I decided to go back into Ushuaia for dinner. As we were waiting for the shuttle, I saw a woman checking in, who turned out to be my roommate, Julie. I found out later that she was 23, from Toronto, had recently graduated with a degree in architecture, and was going to be travelling for 8 months (3 on her own, then 5 with her boyfriend) while she waited to hear if she would get accepted into a master's program.

Our dinner in town was great, and we did a little last-minute shopping (mainly booze to bring on board), and then we headed back to the hotel a nightcap, followed by our final night's sleep before leaving for Antarctica!

The pics below are of Ike and Sarah (top) and Jeremy.

Next installment: All aboard!

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...

My itinerary was San Jose -> Los Angeles (1 hour) -> Santiago, Chile (11 hours) -> Ushuaia (3 hours with one stop en route), so I was prepared for a long, uncomfortable trip. My first flight was at 11:15 a.m. and I made a point of getting to the airport REALLY early, since the last time I flew American Airlines during the holiday season, they were so understaffed that I ended up missing my scheduled flight and spent the entire day at San Jose airport. That would have been the last thing I needed!

Fortunately, that wasn't a problem. I got through check-in and security within about 20 minutes and then had an almost 2-hour wait at the gate for my flight. At one point, they announced that our flight would be delayed because LAX had been shut down due to a problem on one of the runways (I LOVED hearing that, of course...), but we actually ended up leaving pretty much on time.

I don't actually remember anything about the time spent at LAX, and we left there on time as well, a couple of hours later. I was now flying on LAN Chile, an AA codeshare partner, and the flight was uneventful. Because of the time difference (Chile was 5 hours ahead), we ended up flying through the night. One nice thing was that each seat had its own video console, so we could pick and choose our own entertainment during the flight. The choices were somewhat random (two options were Ratatouille and Die Hard, for example), and I ended up watching I, Robot (so-so, but it killed a couple of hours). Then, as we got closer to the end of the flight, I decided to watch The Bourne Ultimatum. I hadn't seen the first two films in the series, but I found it easy enough to follow and I was really enjoying it. Unfortunately, just when it got to the climax, the pilot announced that we were beginning our descent and the screens were being shut off! I could only hope that I'd be able to watch the end of it on my return trip.

We landed in Santiago at around 6:30 a.m. and I had around 3 hours before my final flight to Ushuaia. So I was just hanging around the terminal, trying to get some rest, and waiting for the Internet cafe to open up so I could send my folks a note that I had made it that far safe and sound. After an hour and a half or so, I noticed that my next flight was not coming up on the Departures board, even though later flights were already listed. So I headed to the Information Desk. That's when I found out that, because my flight would be making a stop in Punta Arenas, Chile, it was considered a domestic flight, so I would have to go to the domestic terminal AFTER going through Immigration to enter the country!

That wouldn't have been so bad, except everyone I asked about where I was supposed to go kept giving me different information, pointing me to elevators that didn't exist, etc. I finally made it to the Immigration area where I got my next lovely surprise... Because I was “entering” the country, as a Canadian national I would have to pay a “reciprocity fee” (apparently the equivalent of what Canada charges Chilean visitors) of—get this—$132! Thank goodness for credit cards...

By the time I paid the fee, went through Immigration and Customs, and re-entered through security, I got to my gate with about 10 minutes to spare before boarding. Whew! The only other incident was that when we landed in Punta Arenas, I had to disembark the plane to go through Passport Control again to get my exit stamp... Sigh.

It was in the airport there that I ended up chatting with another couple who were headed to Antarctica as well. They were going on a different ship than me, but this was the first time that it really hit me that I was really on my way, and my energy level started to pick up again.We reboarded the plane after half an hour for the last leg of the flight. And less than an hour after that, we were descending into Ushuaia. Here's a first view from the above:

Next installment: The city at the end of the world!

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! :)

A Walk on the Wilder Side

A couple of years ago, I joined the Bay Area Outdoor Adventure Club and did some great trips with them—kayaking, rock climbing, trapeze flying... However, last year when it was time to renew, I just never got around to it, nor did I do any one-off trips with them either (you don't have to be a member to participate). And then I ended up getting out of shape again (partly because of my lack of OAC-ing), which made me even less inclined to sign up for any new activities. A bit of a vicious circle to say the least...

But I was looking at their calendar earlier this week and noticed that the club had added a new category of trips: Get Fit! These are hikes that are designed for those of us who aren't as advanced or as athletic as some of the other members of the club (although anyone is welcome to go along), and today was their inaugural trip—a hike at Wilder Ranch State Park, along the coast, a little north of Santa Cruz.

Well, this seemed like the ideal solution to my not-in-very-good-shape dilemma, so I signed myself up. The planned route was about six miles out and back, on basically flat terrain the whole way. The great thing about an out-and-back route is that if you happen to get tired along the way, you can feel free to stop and wait for the rest of the group to pick you up on the way back, unlike a loop where you pretty much have to finish it or risk having Jon Krakauer write a book about you... :)

There were nine of us on the trip, plus two guides. I didn't know any of them from my earlier time with the club, but everyone was really friendly so it was easy to start up conversations. (I have to say, this has been my experience on all OAC trips—they really attract a great group of people!)

We couldn't have ordered better weather for the hike. It was one of those “This is why I live in California” days. The sky was bright blue and the temp was in the mid-70s—warm enough to walk in short sleeves but not too hot that you end up drained by the end. The total trip took around four hours, including a picnic lunch at one of the little beach coves along the way. A few people wanted to continue on after lunch (we hadn't gone the full planned distance by this point), while the rest of us wanted to head back, but this wasn't a problem because one guide went with each group. Afterwards, we went over to the Bonny Doon wine tasting room, which was only a few miles away, and had a nice sampling of local wines.

This turned out to be a perfect reintroduction to the club for me. I've renewed my membership and I'm already looking at some upcoming kayaking trips, which will be great preparation for my Christmas trip to Antarctica. I definitely think Richard, the club's owner, has done a smart thing by adding this type of trip to their mix of already terrific activities. I think they'll be able to attract more new members and also keep on some of us who may just prefer this more relaxed style of adventure. So thank you Richard!

I also figured this would be a great chance for me to get some photography practice in as well, since I knew I wouldn't be huffing and puffing the entire way. :) Here's a selection of pics from the trip. Unfortunately, I didn't take any good ones of the people I was with (D'oh!) so that will be a goal for me next time... The skeleton is the remains of a sea lion we came across on one of the beaches. It was quite interesting in a somewhat gruesome sort of way...

Road to the Emmys

So here's the story of my night at the Emmys. At least, it's the beginning of it. There's so much to tell, I'll never get through it all in one post!

Note: In case you missed it, I posted some pics earlier from the evening.

The first question I'm sure you're asking is, How did that happen? Well, I went to L.A. for a course on TV writing through Sherwood Oaks College. The program is run by Gary Shusett, who has been running these classes for years. He's also produced some projects himself and his brother is Ron Shusett, a very successful screenwriter and producer (Alien, Total Recall, Minority Report, etc.). So he has lots of connections in “the industry,” and he arranged for tickets to the award show for the first eight students who wanted them. And since I had taken another one of Gary's courses in the spring, I knew this was coming up, so I signed up the day registration opened and snagged one of the tickets. And, man, am I glad I did!

Fortunately I already had a dress (and, even more fortunately, it still fit!). Before I headed to L.A., I treated myself to some highlights, a facial (first one in years), a pedicure and, yes, even a spray tan (my first and, probably, last). I mean, if you're going to go to the Emmys, you have to do it up right, right?

Sunday was the big day. (The first two days in L.A. were spent in classes with tons of interesting speakers, including directors, producers, writers, and writers' assistants—the ones with the real power! :) At 2:00, we all met in front of the hotel to take the limo to the Shrine Auditorium.

Here's me, looking not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

And here I am trying out the “Paris pose.” Yeah, I need to work on that one... :)

There were ten of us going to the awards altogether—five students, three guests of the students, Gary, and Christine, who coordinates the program with him. Here are a few pics of my co-partiers. The last one is of Christine and Gary.

The ride to the event was fine. There was surprisingly little traffic until we got close to the venue, which suddenly became a giant parking lot for stretch limos.

It actually didn't take that long from there to the actual arrival area.

As soon as I got out of the car, Kate Walsh (Addison from Grey's Anatomy) walked right by me. She looked absolutely stunning in a form-fitting red dress with her hair swept to one side. And thus began the celebrity sightings...

Next installment: The trip up the red carpet!

Long Time No Blog

So it turns out that blogging is a lot like exercising. Once you take a break from it, it's really hard to get motivated again! But, I am determined to get back on track. (I'm talking about blogging here. Please don't ask me about my current exercise efforts...)

Here are a few adventures I've embraced (or which have embraced me) while I've been AWOL.

• A few weeks ago, a friend invited a bunch of us up to her timeshare in Windsor, which is in the Sonoma wine region, to celebrate her birthday weekend. Since I rarely travel farther than my grocery store these days, this was a huge treat for me. One morning a few of us went hiking in a redwood forest—those trees are really something! We ate a lot of good food and drank a lot of good wine and had a really fun evening playing Mexican Train. (It's a dominoes game, in case you're wondering.)


• I started volunteering at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, an organization that rehabilitates sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife. On my first day, I hand-fed baby hummingbirds. On my next shift, I fed squirrels (some with their eyes still closed), a sparrow, and more hummingbirds. AND, I got to see a baby bobcat. Apparently it's very rare for these gorgeous animals to be brought in, so it was a really special experience. Now I just have to hope she's going to be okay. (They'll be moving her to another center that specializes in bobcats). Eventually I'll join the squirrel home-care program, which is exactly what it sounds like—you take care of baby squirrels in your home until they're old enough to be released back into the wild. I need to work at the center for a certain number of hours before I'm eligible, but that should be by the end of the month.


• I went to Opening Day for the SF Giants against the San Diego Padres. I've never been to a Giants game, so I decided it was about time. The ballpark is in a really stunning location, with a view directly out into the San Francisco Bay, and the weather was perfect for the game. They had a great pre-game show with a lot of old Giants players, including Willie Mays who, I didn't know, happens to be Barry Bonds' godfather. It was also Barry Zito's first game with the team but he had a rather inauspicious start, getting pulled from the mound in the fifth inning. The final score was 7-0 for San Diego, but I had a good time anyway.


• I entered some photos in a contest sponsored by the Queen's University alumni association. The deadline was April 1st, so I figured it would be a while before the results were announced, but I got a call from the editor of the alumni mag on Thursday morning... and I came in second! There were 1,300+ entries altogether and 300+ in the category that I won (Flora and Fauna), so I was pretty excited. It was a picture from my Africa trip last year. I'll post it here after they publish it in the next issue of the alumni mag, which will be in a few weeks.


• I started prepping my garden for the season. I added some nice, rich compost to my vegetable beds, planted some colourful annuals, and even managed to remember how to program my automatic watering system so my strawberries, which are starting to flower, won't die of thirst!

How about you guys? What kind of adventures have you been up to lately? Do tell!

Dear Deer

One of my absolute favourite things about hiking in this area is that there's always a chance I might come across a deer or two along the way. On one hike last year, a doe and her fawn bounded across the trail about twenty feet in front of me—gorgeous! Unfortunately, I had no such luck last Sunday when I did a short hike at Hidden Villa, although I did discover some tracks (see above). So I know they're out there, which means I'll be heading up that way again before too long. Fingers crossed!

I did, however, have one “wild”life sighting on this last outing, although I'm not entirely sure what it is:

I assume it's some kind of slug, since it's a rather sluggy looking creature, but it's a lot bigger than the ones that take such pleasure in defoliating my flowerbeds every spring. Whatever it is, it's kind of gross, although still cool in an “as long as I don't have to touch it” sort of way. Ahhh, the vagaries of nature. :)

There are also some animals I'm more than happy to miss:

Now that would be an adventure!

(I love the way they advise you to speak in a loud voice if one of these beauties actually happens to cross your path. Uh, yeah, that's not gonna be a problem. They'll be hearing me in Russia!)

Calla/Camellia

One of the best things about living in California is that flowers that were relegated to houseplant status when I lived in Ottawa grow into hearty shrubs here, with many of them at their peak in the middle of winter. I'm fortunate to have two of my favourites growing right in my own yard—the calla and the camellia.

I took my camera outside today to take a few shots and, considering I don't have a macro lens, I'm really pleased with how well some of them turned out.

I have this huge calla plant that produces the most glorious white flowers. Unfortunately, it's on the side of the house where no one ever goes. Last year I had the gardeners take pieces from it to replant in a more conspicuous area of the backyard, but the original plant has already grown back to its pre-split size. Here are a couple of close-ups of one of the stunning blooms, taken from different angles.

The camellia bushes line the front of my house. One variety is adorned with fuschia-pink blossoms and another bears flowers that are a deeper red hue.

The downside of living in California is that I never get to experience anymore the incomparable joy that comes from the first sighting of spring flowers peeking up through the snow—a welcome sign that winter may finally be on its way out. I miss that feeling. I really do. Somehow, though, I've learned to live with the disappointment. :)

Winter Walk

NOTE: Before I begin, I'd like to apologize to all my Ottawa friends for the following sentence.

The weather forecast for today was calling for a high temp of 70 degrees. So I thought it would be the perfect day to do a hike that I've been wanting to do for a while. It's a short 2.2-mile loop at San Pedro Park in Pacifica, a little south of San Francisco. One of my New Year's resolutions was to do more hiking this year, but I wasn't able to do any in January because of a cold that lasted two weeks, followed by a busy work schedule the rest of the month.

The photo at the top of the post is a view of Pacifica from the trail, with the Pacific Ocean behind it. One of my other resolutions was to improve my photography skills and, while I hope to take some sort of workshop this year, I think photography is one of those things that you simply need to do a lot to actually get any better. So, here are a few pics of plant life I took along the way. Please don't ask me what they are. :)

I had hoped to take some photos of Brooks Falls, but I guess the unusually dry winter we've been having has dried them up for now. Oh, well, I guess that'll give me a good reason to go back in the spring!