An Antarctica Journey |
Lila and I left for our journey to Antarctica by first
visiting Buenos Aires, Argentina for a few days, which in fact became
even fewer when we could not get out of our home because of the snow and
the fact that the airlines stopped flying.
But no big matter since we had insurance to cover our trip
interruption. The insurance
would have come into play if the snow was twenty feet deep and the
airlines could not operate for seven days…only kidding, but they were
not.
Anyway, one day later than planned we were on our way.
Buenos Aires was very hot and humid, just the way I like it.
Reminded me of summer in Washington, D. C., except no one spoke
English…. you know it really was not that different.
Great hotel on the main street, their Champs-Elysees, except that
it is much wider. We did a
lot of walking through the many neighborhoods and visited the site where
Eva Peron is buried. Not
with her husband, who is buried outside of town with his third wife, and
not really recognized with any great monuments.
There are many streets with many stores for shopping and malls
that look just like ours, but the people do not speak English, well not
much difference than here.
The city is old, but has a character reminiscent of Europe with many
restaurants. We went to a
Tango club, but when reading the Fodor’s guide we
From Buenos Aires we flew to Ushuaia, which is in the southern most
portion of Argentina at Tierra del Fuego…not a sophisticated town, but
growing because of the increasing cruise ships stopping there.
In Ushuaia we boarded the Marco Polo setting sail for
twenty-three days without ever stopping at a port where we could buy a
t-shirt. Well not
exactly…will explain later. In
fact, the ship had provisions to feed us for that whole time, but we
were asked to conserve water as they could run short.
This was because they can desalinize less water when the going
slower…so they said.
The Marco Polo is not a big ship by today’s standards and old by
today’s standards. It has
a loyal following of those who traveled aboard her in a time when it
often traveled to exotic ports, when others did not visit these ports.
It is 23,000 tons and could hold 850 passengers.
I am certainly happy that we only had 400 passengers and the
supporting personnel, because the communal areas are not that large.
The ship was built in East Germany in 1965 by the Russians as a
cruise ship, this gives you a good feeling already, right.
In 1992 it was
Beside the 450 old farts on board (I swear if the senior citizens ever
stop cruising, the whole industry would sink…forgive the pun), there
was an expedition team that lectured on the whole of Antarctica and went
ashore with us, a Zodiac boat team that operated seven Zodiacs.
You ask what is a Zodiac…well it is an inflatable boat with an
outboard motor and we sit on the rubber sides about six inches from the
freezing water with our feet in the boat..
When it comes up to the water’s edge we must rotate our feet
over the edge and step into the shallow water and get upon to the shore
or ice, which ever is there. That
seems easy, but not for the old farts who are riding the Zodiacs.
Just try to lift your feet up over the level of your fanny, while
balancing your body on the rubber boat and you are wearing waterproof
boots.
We also had a helicopter and crew on board, which routinely flies ahead
of the ship to search out the ice conditions.
The ice could very rapidly freeze over making us unable to get
out without an icebreaker. That would be both expensive and timely.
Additionally we had an ice master on board in the bridge, who
helped the Captain steer clear of the ice…oops, I wonder where he was
when we hit the iceberg. More
on that later. There was
also a beach master who controlled how the Zodiacs moved people to shore
and how we, as guests, in Antarctica would conduct ourselves.
I was very impressed with the overall team, their professionalism
and dedication. While I
would have loved more time on the ice, they ensured that all of the
guests got ashore safely and orderly.
The lectures were exceptionally comprehensive and I would have
remembered much more if I did not fall asleep so much.
But then that is what old farts do so well after a great
breakfast and/or lunch.
Additionally, we had the regular staff that you would find on a cruise
ship, stewards, restaurant waiters and chefs, casino and entertainment.
Well…we needed that after a tough day on the ice.
The food was really wonderful, great choices, presentation
perfect and the wait staff superb.
The whole ship was primarily Filipino, a pleasant and very gentle
people who worked very hard to keep us happy, full of food and
comfortable in our staterooms. The
weather was not conducive to sunbathing, eating on deck or swimming in
the pool. On good days it
was about 32-35 degrees F and on bad days with the wind chill factor it
could be minus 20 degrees F. Sitting
in the Zodiacs with the wind blowing, the boat bouncing and the water
freezing as it touches anything cold
(that would include everything) it was truly a sight to behold.
So we set out across the Drake Passage, where the Pacific Ocean,
the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean meet and the water is
notoriously rough…high sea states and the big ships rock like corks in
a bathtub with a pair of children.
Everybody was ready with patches, bracelets and Dramamine.
The people were in a semi conscious state.
Well, for us it was really easy…they knew we were coming.
The water was not rough until the next day when we saw swells of
about 20 feet. The boat did
bounce a little, some got sick, but I just continued to eat.
It took us about two days to get to the Antarctica peninsula. Our
first visit on Half Moon Island at the Bransfield Strait to see a
rookery…oh, that is where the penguins are waiting for their newly
born chicks to get old enough to enter the water and learn to do what
penguins do. A rookery
smells...it smells from the guano (I think I spelled it correctly) and
there is a lot of it there because there is a lot of penguins there.
I should point out at this juncture that the cruise company issued each
passenger a parka…each of us had a red parka, the American color for
Antarctica. I often thought
how funny we must have looked to the penguins, when four hundred of us
humans all dressed alike in red parkas came ashore.
If they had cameras they would have taken at least the same
number of pictures
We passed the Antarctic convergence zone (where the water temperature
drops precipitously and we are then in Antarctica waters) without too
much turbulence. During the night we did hit a big snowstorm and
the boat was rocking very heavily for about two hours.
However, the weather did improve dramatically and we went ashore
in the Shetland Islands at Half Moon Island. There we were greeted
by an array of about 3000 penguins that are identified by a line around
their neck that looks like a collar, these
The people on board were very pleasant and we spent quite some time with
a young couple that was staying in the cabin adjacent to ours.
They were very interesting and should be considered old world
romantics living in the present time.
They were married in August after Doug proposed to Jennifer at a
Chicago Cubs game by hiring a plane to trail a banner expressing his
proposal of marriage. Well,
obviously she accepted and now they have been on a
The waterproof clothes and boots we brought along for the landings
worked out very well. The boots were great, but they did get dirty
when we walked in the guano among the penguins, but the ship’s crew
cleaned our boots before we got into the Zodiac boats.
Fortunately, they are more anal than I am so the boot
cleaning worked out real well. These Zodiac or pontoon boats are a real
kick and they do get us ashore quite well, if not with a little
refreshing spray.
When we left the Antarctica Peninsular and we set sail for the Ross Sea
heading further South to about latitude 78 South degrees. Daylight
started getting longer…as we left the peninsular it was dark at just
past midnight and
Each day we would attend lectures on ice breaking, research expeditions,
the animal life and they would tell much about experiences in
Antarctica. We had lunch with Peter Hillary, whose father, Sir
Edmund Hillary climbed Mt Everest.
During the transit to the Ross Sea, we traveled close to icebergs
and eventually
Next we
had two wonderful days...first to McMurdo Station, the research arm of
the US and today at the Scott Hut at Cape Evans. We had a tour of
the McMurdo Station, visiting the McCrary Research Institute and
received some briefings. We also visited the general store and purchased some
souvenirs (….there is always a place to shop).
We actually tried to reach McMurdo Station the day before but
could not make it because of ice and high winds. The channel from
McMurdo Sound had been cut through just two weeks ago and the ice pack
had cleared. We were about 200 feet from the ice shore of McMurdo
base, but the winds were quite high and it was cold, real cold. So
we waited until the next day to get ashore. It was very exciting
and everyone was anxious. In
fact, this was the second time in six years that this ship was able to
reach McMurdo Station. Ice
was forming on the Zodiac boats as we were heading into shore.
Yesterday the sun never set. At midnight we were taking
pictures of Mt Erebus about 100 miles away...it was alight from the sun.
Great scene. Each day we turned the clocks back one hour as we headed west around the South Pole. We had done this for about eight days, gaining an hour each night and then we crossed the International Date Line on February 9th, 2000 and lost February 10th, 2000, a whole day. Bummer! I want a days cost of this trip refunded to me…I just lost three meals…. maybe more. The next day we went to Terra Nova, the Italian base...rather small and not too developed. The Italian personnel stay there about two or three months with about a100 person staff. There were just great. They served us cappuccino and chocolate and gave us a tour of the base. It was very cold and they were getting ready to leave (leaving the next day). They did wait for us to arrive and had to delay their departure one day. The next morning we went on to cruise Cape Hallett and Cape Adare very early about 6am to see the Glacier and probably the last ice floe and icebergs we will see. We start getting more darkness and nighttime from here on out. It was very beautiful, but at 6:00am…you have to be kidding. But every one was up there freezing their arse off. The ship staff is serving hot chocolate to keep us warm, but it does not help. As I take my gloves off to use the camera my fingers start paining real bad from the cold so on go the gloves and I wait to take another picture. . At this point we are rapidly closing on the end of this journey and it was splendid. We cross north of the Arctic Circle which truly marks or return to a reality that we did not see of live in Antarctica. Last night for dinner they recreated Scott's last dinner before he left on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole. That dinner had been given to him in Britain in 1910 at the British Antarctica Society. Later that evening we went to a reading of the diaries of the members of that last expedition by Scott. It covered the period approaching the end just before their death knowing that the diaries and letters to love ones would be found someday and given to the families. On the trip to Christchurch, we attended a lecture by Peter Hillary about the experiences of climbing of Mt Everest by both him and his father, Sir Edward Hillary. We have had the pleasure of spending much time with Hillary and his wife aboard the ship. As I mentioned earlier, the ship readied itself for this journey by having the following on board...an ice master to guide them through the ice floes, a set of eight zodiac boats and drivers to take us ashore, a beach master who regulates how we land and get off the ice landings, an expedition team of lecturers and guides, a helicopter team who regularly go ahead to look for breaks in the ice...all this in addition to the normal cruise staff to operate the ship, take care of the cabins and feed us. Considering that they could not provision the ship during the cruise, the meals have been nothing less than amazing. The shows each night have been wonderful with performances by singers, dancers, and magician. Even had Mimes performing some really neat routines. They ship and the accompanying staffs were extremely professional and dedicated. They did a great job keeping us educated, entertained and happy. On the trip to Christchurch, the Captain had time available for us to cruise the Auckland Islands, which are just south of New Zealand. These islands are a wildlife refuge and the New Zealand government only permits about 2000 visitors a year. We were told that they were truly something special and that not too many people ever get the opportunity to be on the island. Can you imagine if they let the five hundred of us old farts show up on short notice. After we arrived in Christchurch, we readied ourselves to return home. Did the packing …the suitcases shrunk. Before boarding the plane in Christchurch, we did visit the Antarctica Exhibit Hall just adjacent to the airport. We had a opportunity to experience some of the elements of Terra Incognita (Antarctica, for the uninformed) that only New Zealand locals get to see. And the long journey home began and ended without incident. Great to go and even more wonderful to return home. It was great seeing Greg, Deborah, Kevin, Larry and Jan (who I have not seen yet since she is away).
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A trip of a lifetime...the scenes that Lila and Alan have seen in Antarctica cannot be seen any other place on this planet. |