Still alive

We're still plugging along, but about to get on an (internet-free) boat.  Just in case you're curious...

No, they didn't change it to Mal Aires just because I'm here (Buenos Aires) - 15 - 19 February 2009

To the ever expanding list of things I didn't expect add the look of Buenos Aires.  It's like being in a European city.  We took a walking tour of the city and for all I could tell we could have been in Italy.

Another surprise was La Recoleta cemetery. We were both reminded of New Orleans by the above-ground tombs.

Of course, the most famous person buried in La Recoleta is Eva Peron, better known as Evita.

And speaking of Evita, here's the Casa Rosada where Eva Peron rallied the descamisados. Later, Madonna was filmed here for the movie Evita:
We had a nice, relaxing time in Buenos Aires. We ate lots of very good Italian food and even took in a tango show at El Querandi. They showcased tango through the years, and put on an impressive and exhilarating show. It's especially hard to believe they cram a band and six dancers onto the tiny stage without everything degenerating into chaos.

Oh, and on a personal note, if you've ever accused me of using earnest singing face, I'd like to show you true use of earnest singing face:

I have no idea what this guy was singing (no hablamos espanol), but he was definitely going for it (and hamming it up the whole way).

Isn't it romantic? (Santiago) - 13 - 15 February 2009

And so we returned to Santiago to regroup, to plan our next stops, and celebrate Valentine's day.

Key to any regrouping is the mad dash to the laundry.  We cut it a little close this time, having to pay for the rush service since the laundry is closed on Sunday and closes at 1 pm on Saturday.  Thankfully they were able to turn it around even though we dropped it off a little after 9 am on Saturday.

We also mailed another pile of *ahem* stuff back home, shedding more than 20 pounds from our burden.  Turns out the Antarctic muck boots weigh quite a bit.

As for Valentine's day - well, we ended up at McDonald's.  I know, I know, I should have put something special together, but we both actually wanted Mickey D's.  We also hit the Starbucks several times.

Yep, we're typical Americans.

Tomorrow we're off to Buenos Aires, home of the Tango.

Wow, we've got a winner - 12 February 2009

There was a running gag at my job that I wouldn't be able to take a year off without going crazy.  I assume it was a joke that they were going to start a pool to bet on when I'd start going crazy.  On the off chance it wasn't a joke, though, February 12th is the winner.

It's not so much being stir crazy as it is being homesick for the first time.  I mentioned it to Jen and she admitted that her first bout of homesickness happened before we got on the boat during a phone call with her mom.

There are several factors making me wish I could be home right now:

• All the people on the boat are gearing up to go back to their jobs and lives.  They're talking about their blackberries and all of the stuff that's piled up while they've been gone.  We're not really part of that.
• Due to popular demand the chef on the boat gave a cooking demonstration today.  I expected that we'd tour the kitchen and see how they've managed to feed 200 people for nearly 3 weeks.  Instead, he made gnocchi and gave out the recipe.  Of course I don't have a kitchen (and won't for several months) and watching him cook brought home our absence of a home in a very real way.
• The whole Antarctic experience has been incredibly intense.  It's hard not to gush about it, and there's a definite let-down to realize I won't be landing on an island tomorrow and walking around with penguins and seals.

Oh well, I'm sure it will pass soon enough.  If anyone did win, congratulations!

Don't Let It End (New Island) - 11 February 2009

Our last two landings are today, both on New Island. In the morning we walked up to an area teaming with birds. Blue-eyed shags, rockhopper penguins, and albatrosses all crowded together building their nests and caring for their young.

Here's a pretty good explanation for why they're called rockhopper penguins:


Jen and I both spent the morning sitting near a mixed colony of shags and rockhoppers. At first the juvenile shags were curious about us, nipping at our boots and pants. After awhile they decided to ignore us and just go about their business, even cutting between us occasionally.

Because of their disinterest I finally managed to get a picture I've been trying to get for weeks. They aren't named blue-eyed shags for no reason, but with my camera (an Olympus 820) I haven't been able to zoom in enough to show the blue eyes. Today though:

For the afternoon landing we had a dolphin escort:



We were all so transfixed by the experience that we had to be encouraged to move on from the beach. It was tempting to sit there and watch the dolphins follow the zodiacs back and forth from the ship. After a little convincing, though, we took a nice walking tour.

We came across a large colony of gentoo penguins, some of them trying to get into the water while avoiding a seal:

This guy did eventually get a penguin, but I didn't manage to get any pictures of that.

After the gentoo colony we ended up overlooking an albatross colony where we sat for awhile reflecting on the trip and the grace of these birds.

On the walk back to the zodiacs we stopped to look over a large canyon, and then it was back to the ship to head to South America.

A cookie is just a cookie, but a Newton is fruit and cake (Carcass and Westpoint Islands) - 10 February 2009

There are a number of private islands near the Falklands, and today we got to visit two of them. On the first, Carcass Island, we took a nice walk visiting a couple of beaches and trying to avoid Magellanic Penguin burrows:






Unlike the Gentoo, Adelie, and King penguins we've seen so far the Magellanics keep their distance.  They're not curious about us, and would just as soon that we left them alone.  After our walk we were treated to a traditional tea, complete with a lot of baked treats.  Of course I gorged myself.

Which I regretted during the second tea of the day on Westpoint Island. Here we got our first view of Rockhopper penguins, sharing a rookery with Albatrosses. The Rockhoppers are funny to watch, since they really do hop all over the place, but their red eyes lend them an air of menace:



The Albatrosses are truly spectacular, swooping overhead so close that you hear the wind whistle through their feathers. The image of grace is shattered, though, when they come in for a clumsy landing. Here are three of them in flight:

Maybe we could start a crazy prospector's society (The Falkland Islands) - 9 February 2009

We're both prone to sunburns, so the must-have fashion accessory for this journey is the sun hat.  While it is theoretically possible to have a stylish sun hat, we're both sporting the practical variety, meaning that we look goofy under the best circumstances.  When it's windy, though, there's a tendency for the front of the hat to flip up, giving us the "crazy prospector" look.

I've just spent the last 30 minutes online trying to understand why we immediately associate this look with crazy prospector, but all I've come up with is the character of Stinky Pete from Toy Story II.

All of this preamble to lead up to a picture of our tour guide for the Stanley on the Falkland Islands:

All of a sudden I'm not sure we really do look like crazy prospectors.

Stanley is basically a little slice of England, off the coast of Argentina.  



I knew that the Falklands war happened in my lifetime, but didn't really know much about it.  What surprises me most is how raw the emotions about it still are 27 years later.  There are several anti-argentine banners in town, and later when we visit Argentina we'll see bumper stickers proclaiming that the Falklands (which the Argentines call Isla Malvinas) are, always have been, and always will be part of Argentina.  All of the hubub can be traced back to the age of colonial Spain, which makes for a nice lesson on how the past effects the present.

We toured the town of Stanley, including the museum, and ate lunch at a little cafe in town.  During our lunch some of the locals were sitting nearby discussing Futurama and other geek culture.  It felt like a little slice of home - except for the English accents of course.

One picture from the museum - evidently they had night vision goggles during the Falklands war - very Silence of the Lambs:

"Your money is no good here. Orders from the house." (Days at Sea) - 6 - 8 February 2009

The editor wishes to point out that we were not, in fact, at sea all three days.  Originally we were going to do another landing on South Georgia on February 6th but the return of the dread "hurricane-force winds" prevented that from happening.

So we stayed on the boat with the crew doing their best to distract us.  There were lectures, movies, and a National Geographic Bee (Jen came in 2nd, I came in somewhat lower).  There was also lots of time to kill without a viable Internet connection, during which I found that the copy of Wizard's Crown I downloaded before getting on the boat was missing the Emerald Key that is critical to completing the game.

It's enough to make a person stir crazy.

At least Jen's starting using the Dramamine in a preventative manner, so there are no more entries in the illness competition.

We did see a couple of impressive icebergs, shown below:

We're on our way to the Falkland Islands, which I'll talk about in the next post.

Special Bonus Post (with guest) - 15 March 2009

You may remember our friend Jeremy, creator of the Man-Ox shirt.

Well, during one of our google chats we strung together the idea that he'd meet us in Peru and we'd do the Inca Trail together.

Yesterday he met up with us, and we start the trek tomorrow.

Here's a picture of Jeremy in the Plaza de Armas in Cusco:

And here's a painting from the museum we visited today:

Wish us luck!

New slideshows

I just put up two slide shows on the right-hand side.  During some of the "at sea" days the guests on the boat put together 20 or so of their favorite pictures and had them loop on their laptops in the lounge.

These slide shows include both my pictures and Jennifer's.  There's a title slide separating mine from hers.

Enjoy!

He followed me home, can I keep him? (Fortuna Bay, Stromness Harbor & Jason Harbor) - 5 February 2009

Today we were supposed to retrace part of Shackleton's epic journey by trekking a couple of miles across South Georgia - basically recreating the easiest part of the crossing he managed. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate - something about "hurricane-force winds." Instead, we did three landings and a zodiac cruise, so it's hard to be disappointed.

At Fortuna bay we saw more king penguins and seals, and this time I plopped down and let the penguins come to me. Ironically the only one posing for this picture is the penguin:


And this guy has lost interest in me:

After Fortuna Bay we moved onto Stromness Harbor and took an abbreviated hike that led us up to a waterfall that Shackleton and his men repelled down on their quest for civilization.

I've mentioned the fur seals before but they're everywhere, and they're aggressive. It's amusing, actually. You'll be walking along and this little seal will come barking at you insisting you leave its territory. You shoo it away and keep on walking, only to have it come after you again once your back is turned. Really, they're too cute at this size - if they didn't grow up they'd make good pets:

The full grown bulls are another matter entirely. They've mostly gone to sea this time of year, but the naturalists are all carrying poles to discourage any overly aggressive ones.

I mentioned previously how gross (and amusing) the elephant seals are, but since I've got a fascination with gross things I thought another picture would help prove the point:

Yep, the one in the center has what I can only assume is drool pooled around its mouth.

‘I hold that a man should strive to the uttermost for his life’s set prize.’ (Grytviken) - 4 Februrary 2009

The quote in the title is from Robert Browning, and was a favorite of Ernest Shackleton's.  Not coincidentally, the quote is found on the back of Shackleton's tombstone, which we visited today.

Located in the Grytviken Cemetery, we gathered around the tombstone for an impromptu toast.  After a nice speech in which our expedition leader professed his hero worship of Shackleton we each had a swig of rum and then poured the remainder onto the grave.  If I were more creative (and more rap literate) I'd put together a video motage referencing "one for my homies."

The cemetery was surrounded by Elephant seals, perhaps the most foul creatures on the planet.  They're covered in snot and make rude belching noises at regular intervals.  If you're immature it's great entertainment.

After the toast we toured the old town of Grytviken and the museum.  The exhibit I found most interesting was a sign for the movies shown during the Christmas season of 1959-1960:

Mentally I've always thought of whaling as belonging to the late 19th century, but I've actually seen some of these movies.  It was startling to realize how recent the whole enterprise was still going on.  In related news, it's time to try and read Moby Dick again (only $.80 on the kindle).

I also enjoyed the South Georgia version of the Ten Commandments:

Watch out for the "Home Brew."

Sensory Overload (St. Andrew's Bay & Ocean Harbor, South Georgia) - 3 February 2009

Over a month later and looking through the pictures still excites me.  Today was our first landing on South Georgia.  Several times during the other landings the folks who've been here before looked at our excitement and said "Just wait until South Georgia."  Now I understand why.

There was an optional landing this morning (around 6:30) I skipped, but Jennifer went on.  I think it was her favorite landing of the entire trip, and I'm kicking myself for not going.  The two landings I did, though, were spectacular.

We started off at St. Andrew's Bay, where we were immediately greeted by throngs of king penguins and baby fur seals.  You're supposed to keep a distance of 5 meters from the wildlife, but it's just impossible here.  It's also difficult to get a picture of a single penguin.

I like to think that this penguin harbors dreams of flying away from the hustle and bustle:

After the landing we climbed over a ridge to see the penguin colony proper, a breathtaking sight that demanded a panoramic picture:

There are a couple of researchers on the boat from Oceanites, an organization that tracks penguin populations.  The people on our boat weren't responsible for counting on South Georgia, but one of the researchers gave it a go anyway.  She stopped counting at 160,000 penguins.

It's not all penguins, though.  The Norwegian settlers brought reindeer with them.  Now, a hundred or so years later, the reindeer are part of a debate.  They're not indigenous, so there's one faction that would like to see them removed.  On the other hand, they're cute so getting rid of them isn't politically palatable.  Either way, it's still neat to see penguins and reindeer together:

If you're particularly sharp-eyed, like Jeremy, you may pick out brown-looking penguins.  Called "Oakum Boys,"  these are juvenile King Penguins.  The early explorers thought they were actually a separate species of penguin, but they're just waiting to molt.  Here's an "Oakum Boy" who was particularly curious:

I guess if this were Southern Georgia they'd be the Oak Ridge Boys... (You had to know it was coming)

The afternoon's landing was at Ocean Harbor.  We got to kayak around the wreck of the Bayard, an early iron-clad vessel, and also got a taste of the vicissitudes of Antarctic weather.  It went from sunny to blizzard to sunny, all in the course of a couple of hours.  Here's the snow:

And here's a picture of a seal modeling kelp as a hat:

In addition to the "normal" looking fur seals, there are also the occasional blond fur seals:

I'm not sure how many different times we asked the naturalists if the blond fur seals were at risk because they weren't camouflaged, but I'm sure they grew tired of answering.  Basically the seals are at the top of the food chain, so it doesn't matter what color they are.

One last picture of Ocean Harbor at Sunset, and then it was time to return to the ship for Dinner:

Alive and well, just without internet

We're still out here venturing through the wilds of Patagonia - I'll queue up more updates once we've got reliable (and speedy) internet.