Moving toward parity in the sickness department (@ sea) - 31 January - 2 February

If you've followed the blog then you know that I've had some unpleasant experiences along the way (usually not where you'd expect).  You also know that the Drake Passage is typically where the rough part of the Antarctic trip occurs.

What you don't know is that neither Jen nor I have a history of motion sickness.  Granted we haven't spent a lot of time on boats, but the week in Palau didn't cause any problems.  I was a little surprised when Jen wasn't feeling well earlier during the trip, so it didn't come as a surprise when it happened again.  It did come as a surprise when she threw up into the trash can, though.

While I tried to be a supportive spouse I get sick around the smell of vomit, so I did have to leave the cabin briefly.  Only to come back and have to get her a sickness bag.  Let's just say that the use of dramamine increased significantly...

They tried to keep us occupied during the days at sea with presentations from the naturalists and films.  In a historical context we've moved on from tracing the path of Jean-Baptiste Charcot to following in the footsteps of Ernest Shackleton.  I'm not going to go into all the details here, but this t-shirt probably conveys it best.  In life Shackleton was at a loose end but in his expeditions he was a real leader.

Shouldn't Megatron be here? (Deception Island) - 26 January 2009

Antarctica was _probably_ discovered by whalers or sealers.  In their never ending quest for more of precious whale oil they pushed ever southward and onward.  Deception Island proved to be an ideal base because of its relatively safe harbor, and according to wikipedia there were 13 different factory ships based here at one point.  Factory ships being a euphemism for boats that hunt, kill, and process whales.

The island fell into disuse during the great depression because whaling was no longer economically viable, but was pressed back into use during WWII by the British.  Unfortunately, the island has an active volcano and there have been a number of spectacular eruptions over the year.

For our first landing of the day we visited the abandoned whaling station and then walked along the beach up to a notch (or window) in the island where erosion will eventually open up another entrance to the sea.

Here's a penguin making its way from the rookery to the sea through the abandoned station:

And here's our group, walking toward the window:

One of the ladies on the trip described us as "looking like smurfs."

And here's a fur seal, sticking his tongue out:

After the window walk we returned to the boat and then moved to go on our next landing.  Here we walked up to the crater left from the last volcanic explosion in 1969.  Here's the edge of the crater:

Part of our group decided to circle the entire crater, a route that took them the better part of an hour to complete.

After the crater walk we got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to go swimming in Antarctica - or at least close to Antarctica.  Deception Island is geothermally active and if conditions are right the water is sometimes heated by fumaroles.  About 35 of us took the expedition leader up on the offer and went "swimming," and one of the guests really went swimming.

To explain:  In our case there was a band of about 2-3 feet at the edge of the water where it was bearable.  Once you got more than 3 feet from the edge the water was freezing cold (38 degrees Fahrenheit, or thereabouts).  After some goading I actually dove into the cold water, only to beat a hasty retreat.  One of the guests, however, just swam out into the water as though it were a refreshing break.  She went so far we thought she was swimming for the boat.

Another thing on the list of things I'm glad we've done, but probably won't repeat.

Rockin' the Paradise (Paradise Harbor & Port Lockroy) - 29 January 2009

Two landings today, plus a special guest appearance.

The first landing was billed as Paradise Harbor which is technically accurate.  The interesting thing, though, is that you walk through an Argentinian base (Almirante Brown) to climb the hill for the view.  I might blog about the different nations with claims to Antarctica later on (instead of discussing a day at sea).  In the meanwhile here's a crazy fact - the Argentinians flew a pregnant woman down so that she could give birth in Antarctica, thereby boosting their claims.  Joe Bob says check it out...

Once we got to the top of the hill we were given a choice - we could either walk back down, or we could slide.  Please ignore the giggling *please*:

After the landing we went back to the boat and out for a zodiac cruise.  One thing you may not know about penguins is that the porpoise.  They'll actually leap out of the water, whether to avoid predators or to help feed, I'm not sure, but here's evidence:

Also, on that topic - they showed this YouTube clip on the boat. NOTE: THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN ON OUR TRIP:

After lunch we visited Port Lockroy, the British base. Interesting fact, it was originally named Port LaCroix by Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who according to Rick Atkinson had the temerity to "name everything in French."  Rick runs the Port Lockroy base, and has written a book about the use of Dogs on the Antarctic peninsula.  After we visited the Port Lockroy gift shop the folks manning the base came on board for dinner.

BTW, Here's an interesting article from NPR about tourism and Antarctica.  Maybe someday I'll be comfortable with a simile comparing mountains to "the fist of Zeus."  Enjoy.

Some people are crazy (LeMaire Channel, Petermann Island and Booth island) - 28 January 2009

I came to Antarctica without any preconceptions.  Truthfully I came because Jennifer really, really, really wanted to come here.  I'm in the minority, though.  We were told about a passenger on a previous trip who pitched a hissy because (Edited) she didn't get to see the LeMaire Channel and "if you haven't seen the LeMaire Channel, you haven't seen Antarctica!"  Evidently she spent the rest of the trip in her cabin because she was so upset.

Personally, I didn't even know what the LeMaire Channel was, but it turns out to be a very scenic part of the trip.  Unfortunately I'm not all that happy with my pictures from it, so you'll have to settle for my word and another glacier shot:

The morning's landing was Petermann Island, where we saw yet another species of penguin, the Adelie.  My favorite part?  They slide on their bellies:



And, perhaps my favorite photo from Antarctica, the Vulture Penguin:

I mentioned previously how curious the penguin chicks are, and here's an example:

This little fellow worked his way through the line checking each of us out as we waited to board the zodiac back to the boat.

After Petermann Island, we moved on to Booth Island. The Gentoos here walk the same paths over and over, and have worn trails into the snow that are deeper than they are tall. You'll just get a glance of their little penguin heads as they trundle along. Here's several of them walking one of the trails:

Too bad Jen didn't take me up on my offer to be on YouTube.

Don't eat yellow snow (Damoy Point & Neko Harbor) - 27 January 2009

Life on the boat is developing into a rhythm, namely:

• Eat
• Land (and take about 200 photographs)
• Eat
• Land
• Eat
• Sleep

Today's landings were Damoy Point & Neko Harbor.  Damoy Point had a number of Gentoo colonies, plus a hill we could climb.  I would guess about 1 out of 4 guests climbed it, and the view was spectacular - until you looked down and could see two other cruise ships.  So much for the image of Antarctica as an isolated place.  You can however, create the illusion of isolation with your photographs.  Here's a Gentoo all by himself:

And here's another one, walking in front of the mountains:





In discussing our photographs the point was made that the pictures you take say more about you than what you're photographing. Evidently I like single animals.

Blonde Assassinator asked about how cold it was - at Damoy Point it was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. People were shedding layers left and right.

After our landing we also got to kayak. Jen and I both took several pictures of this iceberg:





The afternoon was spent at Neko Harbor where we hiked up to get a view of a glacier:





I've got a much better understanding of how people fall into crevasses now.

Lest you tire of icebergs and lone animals, here are a couple of familiar ones:







And yes, Jen did check the snow before lying down in it.

Lindblad Cove and Mikkelson Harbor - 26 January 2009

Today found us in Lindblad Cove, where we took a zodiac cruise. If you're curious, here's a picture of a zodiac:

All of the naturalists were going crazy over how much krill was in the water. Yesterday I briefly mentioned that the penguins feed on krill, but really krill is the basis for the entire ecosystem. They're shrimp-like, but not actually related to shrimp. Here's a krill in the palm of our expedition leader's hand:

The Zodiac cruise was a lot of fun. We saw several interesting icebergs, and even saw a leopard seal:

Here's my favorite iceberg, 'cause I think it looks like a bird's head:

During the afternoon we explored Mikkelson Harbor, making our second landing. As you might expect there were more penguins and also seals. In addition to the feeding chase, penguins also have a compulsion to build nests, so we spent some time watching this Gentoo gather up rocks and stack them:

The funny part is that he'd try to steal rocks from other penguins that were already on their nests. Every time he made a move to grab some other penguin's rock he'd get snapped at.

Here's a Wedell Seal:

Another full day...

Ghoti (Aitcho Island) - 25 January 2009

We made our first landing today. As you'd probably expect you bundle up before going ashore. There's a locker (or "mud") room on the boat where you change before loading into a zodiac.

Changing is a hassle, and I didn't really get a system figured out. Basically you put on your muck boots, waterproof pants, parka, and life vest before you get in the boat. You're supposed to do this while all the other folks in your group (we're divided into 4 equal sized groups, so there are about 40 of us) are doing likewise.

All of that was forgotten, though, once we landed. There were penguins everywhere, and they weren't afraid of us in the slightest. Some folks sat down and the little penguin chicks walked right up. One person had a penguin chick jump in her lap.

We saw two different types of penguins today. Chinstraps (which Jennifer refers to as "Mr. Chin") and Gentoos. Now I know that Linux uses a penguin as its mascot, and I know that there is a Linux distribution named Gentoo, but I didn't know there was a real Gentoo penguin.

Here's a picture of some of the Chinstraps:

And here's a good picture of a Gentoo penguin feeding its chick:

The parent penguins go out all day gathering food and then come back to feed their chicks. The chicks, though, will try to get food from any available adult, which leads to a behavior called a "feeding chase." It's not just a witty nickname, as the below shows (NOTE: I recommend watching the high-quality version in its original size):

As for the name of the Aitcho Island, well, where would you guess it came from?

Give up? It's the transliteration of H.O, which stands for Hydrographic Office. I don't know whether to laugh about that or feel ripped off...

Drake Passage - 24 January 2009

We spent today at sea, crossing the Drake Passage.  I hadn't realized it, but evidently this is typically one of the hardest parts of an Antarctic voyage - the sea can get quite choppy.  It wasn't a surprise then when we woke up being bounced around as the ship cut through the waves.

I didn't enjoy it, but I wasn't really feeling sick.  Jennifer, however, was not as lucky.  She didn't have any unplanned expulsions (foreshadowing) but she didn't feel good for most of the day.  We ended up hanging out in the lounge, which is at the back of the boat.  Over the coming weeks we'll actually carve out a little space where we typically sit and mess around on  the computer or read.

I was surprised, though, that this was an easy passage.  All of the crew described it as Drake Lake.  I shudder to think what a bad passage is like.

To keep us occupied two of the professional photographers on board gave a lecture on how to take good pictures.  I took copious notes, but they didn't cover how to stop taking pictures of my thumb.  Oh well...

Tomorrow we make our first landing, and we're really looking forward to it.

Interstitial (From Santiago to Ushaia) - 21 - 23 January 2009

After Easter Island we spent a couple more days in Santiago.  I bought some more work out clothes (for sporadic use only) and we dropped off a lot of laundry.

We left our point-provided hotel to meet up at the Hyatt to join our tour.  We're carrying so much luggage at this point that every taxi ride involves filling the truck and then putting one of the big backpacks in the passenger seat, while we've got our carry-on backpacks in the back seat with us.  Every time the taxi driver takes a curve he has to reach out to steady the big backpack so it doesn't fall over on top of him.

The Hyatt's nicer than our last hotel, but we don't really get to enjoy it.  The room itself isn't ready until a couple hours after we get there and we have a 4:45 am wake-up call the next morning to head to the airport for our "charter" flight.

I put "charter" in quotations not just because of a tendency to overuse quotes but because to me charter conjures up an image of pulling up on the tarmac and climbing directly onto the plane where you are offered champagne and a selection of snacks.  Not quite Tony Stark in Iron Man, but still, something pretty posh.  This turned out to be a charter operated by LAN airlines, and was essentially a normal flight - except all 150 people on the flight showed up to check in at the exact same time.  It really gummed up the airport with all of us blocking the walkways with our luggage trolleys.

After the normal check-in process, we went through the normal customs process, and the normal security process.  It really was just like a normal flight.

Jen and I are attracting some attention, though.  Evidently we're a little younger than the average traveller.  Jen gets told (jokingly) that there's a minimum age of 55 for the trip, while I get asked "You're too young to be one of us; are you part of the crew?"

The flight lands in Ushuaia, which claims to be the southernmost city in the world.  We're hustled onto buses for a land tour, and then board a catamaran for a sailing of the Beagle Channel.  This is our first view of the wildlife, including birds and seals. Here's a picture I really like of a droopy-eyed seal:

After the cruise we made our way to the boat itself.  I was concerned about the quality of the room, since we chose the cheapest room on the boat, but it was very nice.  I'm sure I'll get used to the porthole.

Wheel of Morality, turn, turn, turn (Santiago/Easter Island) - 13 - 22 January 2009

To the Batplane!  We flew from Auckland to Santiago, Chile.  Crossing the international date line once again (a day so nice, we had it twice).  We ended up both jet lagged and on opposite schedules, so we spent the first day or so with one of us napping while the other watched TV.

On the 16th we boarded a plane for Easter Island.  The Chileans call is Isla de Pascua, while the natives refer to it as Rapa Nui (obligatory wikipedia link, natch).  Easter Island is often used as a cautionary tale for rampant development without ecological consideration.  It is believed (although contested) that the native islanders deforested the island, leading to the downfall of their civilization.  There's actually a Rapa Nui movie, starring Jason Scott Lee and produced by Kevin Costner, set during the civil war that occurred.

If you have an interest in archaeology, then it's a great place to visit.  There are all sorts of theories and counter theories about how the Moai (giant stone heads) were constructed, how the island got deforested, what the (now lost) written language means, etc.

If you're just a curious tourist in South America then it's worth a quick visit.  Jen and I both think it's worth 2 days.

We spent 4.

The moai are spectacular, especially the incomplete ones at the quarry.  There are roughly 1000 of them on the island, of which roughly 800 are incomplete and near the quarry.  If you have a mental image of Easter Island, it's probably based on the moai in the quarry.

Here's a couple of pics:

There were some surprises though, at least to me:

If you see a standing moai it's been raised in modern times.  When the first Europeans landed on the island all of the moai had been toppled.  The iconic images are mostly reconstructions and based on guesses.  (NOTE:  Wikipedia says that the statues were standing until 1838, and it's probably correct)

The moai actually have full bodies, including arms and legs.  It's not easy to see in the pictures, and in the quarry the legs have been buried by sediment over the centuries, but they are complete representations.

The moai are effigies.  They represent actual historical people and were constructed on the coastline facing inward.  They were put in place to protect the villages.  They began small and over time increased in size, to the point that one of the unfinished moai in the quarry is 22 meters tall.

The moai in the quarry were never consecrated and therefore had no power.  Consecrated moai were given eyes.  I'd never seen a picture of a moai with eyes before, and it just didn't look right to me.  My mental image was of these grave, silent heads standing guard.  Here's an example:

Image filched from Jennifer :)

And here's the requisite man-ox picture:

After the civil war the moai were toppled and a different religion arose.  Called the cult of the birdman it was based on an annual ritual where competitors would climb down a cliff, swim to a remote island, and then try to return first with the sooty tern egg from the islet of Motu Nui.

Here's a shot from Orongo looking out to Motu Nui. I've got to believe winning was overrated:




Comments about the island in general:

It's hot. By 10 am all of the clouds are gone and there's no shade (funny thing about deforestation). Our hotel didn't have air conditioning, and heat rage was a big player.  I also got to kill several HUGE cockroaches in our room.  We could have closed all the windows, but that would have been unbearable.

Credit cards have limited acceptance. The ATM on the island doesn't work with foreign cards other than to do cash advances from MasterCard or Visa. There's a shop that will do a cash advance for you, for a 10% fee. We know this all from painful experience. If you're going, take cash!

The native Rapa Nui believe that they should be a sovereign nation, not under Chilean rule. As we'll learn later (in the Falklands) there are plenty of these types of disputes going on.

If you're going to dive, make sure you ask lots of questions. Don't count on a dive briefing or any sort of instruction. We though we were going to see an underwater moai on a shallow dive. Instead we dropped down to about 100 feet, listening to the divemaster's computer go crazy. Not our favorite dive.

Oh, and don't get excited about the underwater moai, it's fake. We were told it was put there for a TV show, although other sources say it was for the Rapa Nui movie.

Tell me Doctor, where are we going this time? - 11 - 13 January 2009

Welcome to the wayback machine.  After finishing at Mt. Cook, we loaded up the trusty Toyota Camry and drove our happy way to Christchurch.  We only spent the night there, and left bright and early the next morning.  So early, in fact, that the gas stations weren't open and we got charged a fee for returning the car without filling the tank.

We flew from Christchurch to Auckland, and used some more points to stay at the Hilton there.  Of course we had to do (yet another) repacking exercise.

Since one of the most common questions is about how you pack for a trip like this, I thought the following photo might be interesting:

These are my toiletries.  Packed, this all fits into two 1-gallon zip-locks and 2 1-quart zip-locks, excluding the water bottle, of course.

We really enjoyed New Zealand - one of the continuing jokes is that we'll move here someday.  It's relatively unpopulated, with gorgeous scenery and lots of activities.  Mountains, oceans, glaciers - really most of the stuff we really enjoy.

One other thing about NZ - they've got lots of interesting commercials.  From the campaign to prevent driving while tired, to the campaign to stop drinking, it's obvious they've got a different outlook on what's acceptable on TV than we do.

My favorite commercial, though, is the one below.  Mostly because it reminds me of playing basketball with one of my friends from college back in the day.  Enjoy! Or be grossed out - your choice.

Housekeeping

Just a quick note - I had to correct the New Zealand post where I said that Keas are flightless parrots.  They can, in fact, fly.  I just think it would be a lot cooler if they couldn't.  Anyway I apologize for the error and would like to thank my trusty editor/travel companion for catching it...

Fixed at last - 16 February 2009

Yeah, I know. The previous post spent the last two weeks with a broken picture link.

I shouldn't have even tried to post from the boat, but it seemed too good to pass up. When it takes 15 minutes to load GMail, though, you should probably just give up.

It's fixed now (we're in Buenos Aires), and there should be more updates over the coming days.

Um, yeah, that's not my picture - 1 February 2009

We're on the boat, cruising from Antarctica to South Georgia. Since it's a day at sea the National Geographic photographer on board suggested that we could pick our 20 favorite pictures and put them into a slide show. We all set up our laptops and at 4:30 pm people came around to take a look.

Afterwards, the NG photographer was complimenting all of us, and took the opportunity to call out one photo as an example of something special. He said that he thought it was mine - so of course I was pleased. Then he described the photo, and it wasn't one of mine - it was Jen's. From elation to defeat in 2.5 seconds.

Oh, and if you're curious, here's the photo.



Jen wishes to point out that the above was taken using a stock Canon Digital Rebel SLR with the included 35mm lens from a kayak.