Day One - Flying Day

What a perfect send off. The morning was very crisp when I woke up – 37 degrees. I should have known, the weekend before Christmas, security check at the airport would be a nightmare. People had been in line for over an hour waiting to clear. Thank goodness for the Medallion miles!! That special program let me cut not only those that had a flight earlier than mine but also go right to the security guy checking tickets and IDs. No waiting for me :) Today’s ticket got me into the Crown room. Pull up a chair, face the planes all lined up, ready for the day’s activities, and watch the sunrise and fill the club room. It was so cool, as the sun came up over East County it got so bright that the club had to lower the shades. Now, they didn’t lower the shades all the way to the bottom, they left a 5 foot section so everyone could keep looking out onto the tarmac. Boarding was as usual. Several overhead announcements about Christmas packages filling up the oversold flight. Because the flight was so full and the plane so heavy, we did something I don’t remember doing in a long time – that being having to taxi to the very end of the runway before takeoff. Without a cloud in the sky the plane breezed down the runway. Whenever I fly I look at the cruise ship terminal to help me determine if it’s going to be an amazing trip, an ok trip, or a bummer of a trip. As luck would have it, there as we are zipping down the concrete path, a Celebrity cruise ship. It’s going to be a good trip. Pilot pulls up on the stick and up we go. Typically, when you are going to Atlanta (which is where the connection was for Buenos Aires), you spin to the north before going east. Not today. He spun to the south. It was so clear and the ocean so calm I witnessed a land shelf in the ocean off of Point Loma. It’s so pronounced that the water goes from light blue, to white where the surf is, a dark royal blue. Turn more, now south west facing and there’s downtown SD. Beautiful. Plane rolls a little more level and up pops all the snow capped mountains. Big Bear, Laguna, Alpine; there’s so much snow everywhere. Pilot just came on, there is a 149 mph wind pushing us to Atlanta. Now we’re due in almost 40 minutes early. This is a fantastic start to the trip. Now if the guy next to me will just stop coughing on me. Thank goodness I did an Airborne before starting off this morning.

A quick plug for American Express. I have a Delta credit card with Amex and thanks to 5 years of purchases (my car, cell phone, etc etc) I was able to earn enough to get my entire flight free!! Yes, free. Ok, I paid $23 for Fed security blah blah blah. But I'm ok with that :)

From Pre-Antarctica

Day Two - In Ushuaia

Done with the first set of flights. Buenos Aires is 5 hours ahead of home. The flight was fun actually. 10 hours in the air went fairly fast. I was able to sit to a lady that, while she started off as a total beating, after waking up from her overnight sleep, was very nice. She had done Antarctica twice. The last time they did it, Drake passage was so bad that the boat crew had to strap in all the passengers (literally) for 24 hours until they could get through the swells. She wished me well.

9am in Argentina, flight landed after taking a delay due to a slow cleaning crew in Atlanta. It’s 3am at home and I’m on my way to the domestic airport. While I write this I’m in the back of a Grey Line car and can appreciate the city a little more. Flying into the international terminal (EZE) you see hundreds and hundreds of acres of spread out farm land. It reminds me a lot of Montana. While lush in product there are huge trees framing each person’s lot. Downtown is a whole different story. If you’ve ever been to Acapulco you’ll instantly feel like you’ve been here. What struck me as odd was going past a 20 story concrete high rise. On the outside it’s really bad. Yes, the roof’s are not finished here either. Rebar extends out of the tops of each building so they won’t have to pay taxes on their dwelling. What made this building stand out was even though the outside was really really run down, cracks through walls, white calk sealing the entries to each point, the front doors were beautiful and new and freshly painted. I’d imagine the insides are also really well done. So far, I’ve never really seen that kind of contrast.

The drive is fun. My driver speaks very little English and I speak an ok amount of Spanish. Now, there is Spanish and there is Argentinean Spanish. I’d best describe Argentinean Spanish like I’d explain New Jersey English to someone. It’s fast, it’s slurred, and you really have to lax your ear to really understand what they’re asking or talking about. Thank goodness I still remember those three semesters of Spanish from high schools and catch a few works here and there to communicate to people at the airport and my driver. Traffic is a bitch here. Toll roads kill any kind of flow. They range in size from 16 lanes to 3 within a few kilometers. Never try to drive this town. For anyone reading this from a web search, the Gray Line driver, in a standard four door car is costing me roughly $45. I’ll give the guy an additional 20pounds (right now that’s approximately $5US. The average person makes $500US a month to give you an idea). OH! Big hint I learned before leaving Atlanta, if you get Argentinean Pesos, sell them before you return home! The country is almost ready to go totally bankrupt and no one in the States will buy your currency. Just a little reminder.

Aerolineas is a crappy airline, in my opinion. Flying Aerolineas (and from what I hear flying in general in S. America) is unlike the States or Europe. It mirrors their way of life here. Service is poor compared to Western standards but is just reflective of the culture here - expect the difference and go with it. The planes are in varying degrees of service conditions. Seat covers are a bit torn. When we were flying and landing a cover fell off the right engine. I had to laugh so as not to cry. However, when we landed in Ushuaia there was a beautiful 747. We're so spoiled in the States.

From Pre-Antarctica

I’ve learned a big lesson today. When you attempt to go standby for an earlier flight, those that run the baggage department just don’t know if you won the lotto and got on an earlier flight. They just figure at some point your bag will get to where you are – and that’s true – as long as you’re expecting a day or two to catch up with you. And that’s exactly what happened to me. I’m going to bed now hoping and praying my two bags both happen to find the first plane out to Ushuaia so I can have gear in Antarctica.

From Pre-Antarctica

From Pre-Antarctica

Day Three - Send off

There was a nice storm last night that left tons of snow in the mountains around the hotel. For the middle of their summer its amazing to see the peaks resemble the Swiss Alps.

From Pre-Antarctica

My bags finally showed up on the first flight this morning (10am). I’m so happy to see them in the hotel. You don’t appreciate having a change of clothing until you just don’t have the opportunity to change into something fresh. Big kudos go out to our contact in Ushuaia. After filling out a lost bag claim last night and giving it to our contact who met us at the hotel, he made calls, they made calls, and the airline delivered both my bags bags. There was a casuality. Today we left with one lady missing all her bags (they never made the Buenos Aires / Ushuaia connect). Though, to be fair, she didn't give her claim info to our contact. I’ve also befriended two new people. Yesterday I met Ginger at Buenos Aires and then again after her bags too went missing (and she too went standby on the same flight I did - bags also showed up this morning with mine). She is doing this trip, like many others, with her girlfriend, Doris. Thank goodness I ran into them or this trip would be very depressing to not be able to talk about what I’m seeing.

From Pre-Antarctica

Rather quiet morning today around the hotel. 10am check out, walk around downtown, eat some good food, board at 4pm, push away from the pier at 5pm, first dinner at 8:30.

From Pre-Antarctica

Ocean Nova in the front left. Holland America Rotterdam on right

The captain is expecting the dreaded Drake Channel to be a 5 or 6 out of 10 on rough seas. What’s cool is that it’s sunset right now, really just dusk, but its 11pm. Tonight is the Summer Solstice down here and I wonder if the sun really will fully disappear tonight. So, I’m in my room trying to get bundled up to go on the bow to check out the Begal Channel as we leave Ushuaia bound for the dredded Drake but for the life of me I couldn’t find the video camera. No big deal. Then, as luck would have it, I couldn’t the key to the front door. There are moments when I get frustrated because of somewhat insignificant road bumps that I ask myself if there are reasons I’m delayed doing things. Finally, magically, key and camcorder appear to my left on the floor by my bed and off I go to the bow. There, right as I’m grasping the railing of the bow, a group of dolphins show up and begin surfing the waves the bow is creating. Every single time I’ve gone on cruises and seen dolphins, they signify good luck for my trip. They’ve never let me down. Tomorrow we shall know for sure if the luck continues in Antarctica.

From Antarctica

Day Four - Bored at sea

At sea. We are very fortunate. On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is fear the boat may flip and sink from the swells, today was 2-3. The trip on this boat before us ranged from a 6-8 due to storms. We learned that while it is the middle of summer that usually means that there is more energy in the water. Mix warmer water with a subterranean ocean pattern and there are usually violent explosions in the water and storm tracks. But we just have rolling left to right, no dive bombings in the bow to add to the fun. What to do in a sea day? You can sleep, eat (just remember this is not dining like on a mega-liner), attend a lecture about something geographical, or sleep… Personally I’m choosing sleep or reading since the rolling and rocking of the boat puts me to sleep. There are no tv’s in the rooms, no room to room phone system, nothing and that's ok. I like the quiet, disconnected time. If I wanted some entertainment I could go up top to the lecture / dance hall OR put on a dvd movie on my laptop. And that was my day. Imagine how much more fun it would have been if I had been being pitched up and down, in and out of my bed. Bless you Sea Gods for the semi-calm sea.


Lecture hall / Disco

From Antarctica

Day Five - Another day at sea

We should expect to see land tonight after dinner (probably around 8:30pm). Seas have kicked up a bit. There are now 5-10’ sets on a fairly regular basis. There were some at dinner last night but they were the exception to the norm. After breakfast was the mandatory lecture of how to get in and out of zodiac’s, learn about how to tread lightly in Antarctica, and everyone got to pick out a pair of rubber loaner boots.

I'm bored and this little boat is getting to me. Thankfully the Drake is going so well we're actually 8 hours ahead of where we should be. Even the program that was printed last night for today is off today because we're further south than they were expecting.

After dinner we do finally see land! AMEN!! Livingston Island. This island is split into two halfs (in my mind). The bay side has penguins just lined up as far as you can see caring for chicks. It's a site if you've never seen it before.

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

Due to the vegetation we're confined to where we can walk which is no big deal. Walking up the middle of a stream is actually kind of nice considering when you're walking to the stream from the beach you're stomping through penguin guano. And let me tell you, there's TONS of it. So the stream water helps to clean your boots.

Travel up the stream and to the peak, face the very strong winds, look down, and you see the ocean side to this island. If hell had an ocean, this is what I expect it to look like.

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

Day Six - LAND!!!!

The boat is alive again. The last few days have been a bit of a ghost town around the ship. This morning, with the announcement of land in the horizon, everyone was up, awake, and ready to do something! Mind you, we’re only going to do a quick half day in one harbor but we’ll all take it. This will also be our first attempt to do some kayaking. Shame that it was horrible. 30 knot winds, strong tidal surge. Needless to say we didn’t stay out for long. For as hard as my kayak companion, Melody, and I tried, we couldn’t get the darn thing deep into the harbor nor far from shore. That’s ok because it allowed us to check the rest of Deception Island. What an odd site this landing is. There are a few old buildings left over from when people use to bring tons of whales here to be stripped for their fat and turned into oil. Antarctica is drier than the Sahara Desert. This actually is a good thing because that means wood and metal don’t break down. Items left here from the 1900s are still in very good condition. The beach really is a living museum to a time long since gone.

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

Polar plunge day! I was expecting that the plunge would take place out the side of the boat some day later in the trip but nope. Right before we are done with this landing everyone is given the chance to strip down, run into the surf and feel the nice warm waters of this area. Final count was 19 I believe. Some people didn't get their head wet so they had to do it again! Poor people. And no, if you're wearing a drysuit and jump in, you don't count. Weak ;)

From Antarctica

Day Seven - Christmas

Orcas, penguins, and seals, oh my! What an unreal Christmas. When I woke up this morning we were in this sheltered bay, sunny skies, no chop on the sea, no wind at all. Kayaking time! We spent close to two hours going all around the bay, in and out of orphaned glaciers.

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

Sadly, since we did spend the two hours (really 2.5 after you get everyone setup and in the water) we were left with no time to explore the rest of the land. But that ok because there is another excursion later this afternoon. Not to mention the views and the weather conditions on this outing was steller! Back on the boat – time to move a little more south. While we moved from the first stop to the next we come across a dozen grey dolphins. So much fun.



Next stop – the actual Antarctic peninsula. Second outing scared me actually. You see, there is a clip on youtube of this bay with some glacier calfing happening and almost sinking everyone in the channel. Thankfully our guide chose to take it in the opposite direction of the active glaciers. When we started out it was slightly overcast with very little wind.

From Antarctica

1.5 hours later things have change. Actually, things in Antarctica change nearly every 5 minutes. What we saw kind of scared us. After again going next to and under a few floating glaciers (don't go under glaciers - we were dumb) snow squalls were about to come in to where the boat was. This really bummed me and my kayak companion since the rest of the people were treated to a 300’ snow slide down the hill.


What we went through that you shouldn't

Oh well, we did get to see some glaciers with neon blue in the shades and they were so perfect. Well worth the total exhaustion both me and my new friend felt when we finally got back to the ship.

From Antarctica

Dinner was cute tonight. Duck. Yeah, not a fan it turns out. And no, it’s nothing like chicken – its dry it dark and lacking a lot of flavor. But it was the thought that counts. After dinner is served some of the crew sang three Christmas songs for everyone in the dinning room. It’s always fun to hear people from Asian countries trying to pronounce Christian holiday songs – but they did really well. Now, the dessert to this day. As we’re getting ready to have dessert served the captain comes over the PA: “Orcas 11 o’clock”. Not just one or two but 5. They’re jumping, they’re eating something and they look amazing. They come so close that they actually swim directly under the bow of the boat! The pictures are amazing. Seeing orcas that close is pretty rare for this company, let alone the parents and baby orcas. Oh, and the snow flurries, each flake the size of a nickel, isn’t a horrible way to end a day. Merry Christmas to the boat.

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica

From Antarctica