Travel, Photography, Life.
Antarctic Cruise
I took a cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, Montevideo, Uraguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Antarctic Cruise Day 14
Feb 23rd
February 19, 2006
Day 144
Antarctic Cruise Day 14
The Plan: Get kicked off the ship and thrown back into the real world.
I had to get up early to pack my stuff for the first time in two weeks. Not constantly reorganizing my pack meant that I needed over an hour to get everything in order. I had breakfast, made sure I didn’t forget anything, and thought about my cruise.
In many ways I was sad to leave the ship. Everything I wanted was handed to me for the last two weeks. I ate more food than I normally would in months. I never had to worry about finding a place to stay, finding something to do, or my stuff getting stolen. With all of those daily inconveniences out of the way, I had plenty of time to learn about the places I was visiting and have fun.
On the other hand, two weeks was long enough for me. After the second day, I barely met any new people. The food I was eating, while plentiful, was horrible for me. The activities were fun, but I was always on a strict schedule. But most importantly, I think being on a cruise gives one a diluted view of the world. How much can you really learn about a big city in 8 hours? And how many local people are you going to meet when you’re being bussed around in a guided tour all day? The people I meet while traveling usually don’t have a lot of money, but they are usually friendly and more than willing to show me what living in their country is all about. On a cruise, when your hand is constantly held by a tour guide, you never really leave your own country. When that happens, it’s tough to learn about somebody else’s country, which is what I value most in traveling.
Still, this cruise has been one of the highlights of my entire life. Seeing the glaciers, the wildlife, the endless miles of desolate land of Antarctica, is something not many people are privileged enough to experience. In fact, only about 300,000 people have ever set foot on the white continent, and now I’m lucky enough to be one of them. The cruise had its share of pitfalls, but it still will be an experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Antarctic Cruise Day 13
Feb 23rd
February 18, 2006
Day 143
Antarctic Cruise Day 13
The Plan: Relax in Buenos Aires for the last full day of the cruise.
We reached Buenos Aires, our final destination, this morning. Not much was happening on the ship today, but I noticed that a lot of the backpackers, myself included, didn’t go into town for very long. My excuse was that I could hang out in Buenos Aires as long as I wanted, but this was my last full day on the cruise. I wanted to eat a few more huge meals and live in general luxury for one more day before permanently returning to the backpacker world.
Eventually, Craig and I went into town for a walk. We found a pedestrian street called Florida with lots of shopping and weird people, which probably served as a good introduction to the city. Craig wasted no time in buying a plane ticket for Ushuaia in two days. He wanted to do as much trekking in southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego as possible before the end of the short summer season in a month.
When we got back to the ship, I began working on my blog for the first time since leaving. I had a lot of work to do, but I am obviously almost caught up now.
Not many people were left on the ship tonight. The “full-pricers” were all out on tours of the city, and most of the backpackers decided to go to a tango show. I didn’t feel like leaving the cruise ship until I got kicked off, so I stayed in and ate one last dinner with the few of us who remained aboard. After a quiet day, I got to bed early.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 12
Feb 22nd
February 17, 2006
Day 142
Antarctic Cruise Day 12
The Plan: Explore Montevideo, Uruguay
We got to Montevideo today at sunrise. With 1.5 million inhabitants, it was the biggest city I had visited since Santiago two months ago. For the first time of the cruise, we could actually dock in the jetty and walk directly onto the land below. It was a nice feeling.
After breakfast, I walked around the city with Craig, from Australia, and Fred and Alex, from the United States. The city had the same parks and monuments typical of every city in Latin America, but it also had some nice beaches and colonial buildings. After walking for a few hours, we took the long way back to the ship and noticed the pleasant lack of tourists in the city. I’m sure I will get back to Montevideo at some point.
Today was my first reintroduction into society in twelve days. The ship was a fantasyland where I could have whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it. Walking around the city, I felt like a normal member of society again. When I got back on the ship, I was right back in Disneyland. The good thing about walking around today was that I began getting used to backpacking again slowly instead of being thrown right back into the fire.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 11
Feb 22nd
February 16, 2006
Day 141
Antarctic Cruise Day 11
The Plan: Another day at sea.
This morning, we had our second lifeboat drill of the cruise. It was pretty boring, but required for all passengers. We had to put on our life jackets and stand outside the lifeboats as if it were a real emergency.
As soon as the drill ended, the scavenger hunt began. My team sung “American Pie” with pianist Bobby Reynolds, made a dance video at the Charleston, dressed up the statue in the back of the ship, got the captain’s signature, and got the artist to draw us a picture, among other things. In lieu of the recent complaints about “us,” we had to change the questionable items to be more agreeable with all potential observers. It has been fun, but several of the teams have fizzled out as interest weaned from the original exasperation when the idea was originally proposed.
Once again, it was a very relaxed day on the ship. I ate several huge meals, played some ping pong, and got somewhat caught up on sleep. The weather outside continued to get warmer.
Today’s lectures:
Edward Wilson of The Antarctic with Chris Wilson — Chris’ great uncle Edward was part of Scott’s expedition that reached the south pole a few weeks after Amundsen and tragically died 11 miles from their supply depot after being unable to move due to a terrible storm. Edward was a very interesting man well before the expedition with Scott. As a child, he would disappear all day to observe and draw nature. As an adult, he became an ornithologist and an expedition artist. He was the last of the great artists employed to document expeditions before photography became mainstream. Chris is a very intelligent man who seems to know everything about birds, and it appears that Edward shared a lot of the same personality traits.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 10
Feb 22nd
February 15, 2006
Day 140
Antarctic Cruise Day 10
The Plan: A day at sea on our way to Montevideo, Uruguay.
With no landings scheduled for today, the time for rumors and complaints had come. Apparently, a lot of the passengers who paid full price for their tickets began complaining about the backpackers, to the point of starting a petition against the tour company. Some of the complaints were about passengers breaking the dress code and behaving rudely, but I didn’t see any of it. The only time there was an official a dress code other than “no shorts inside at night” was during formal night, where people wore fancy dresses and tuxedos. The backpacker crowd avoided that night, so the complaint had no merit. As far as rude behavior is concerned, I haven’t seen any of it. A few people have gotten drunk, but only within the confines of the bar late at night, and even then, they weren’t loud when walking around the ship.
The real complaint was about money. Even though most passengers had no problem forking over big bucks when they signed up for the cruise a year ago, they suddenly became offended that young people who happened to be in the right place at the right time could go on the same ship as them for thousands of dollars less. The number of complainers was probably small, but there voices were heard loudly. I really don’t understand their complaints. I signed up for the cruise at the last minute and waited around Ushuaia for over a week before leaving. I don’t have much money, but I do have plenty of time, which was my leverage. If you have money but no time, then you couldn’t afford to wait around for a good deal to pop up anyway, so why bother complaining about others who could?
Today was rather relaxing compared to the previous days on the trip. The weather had gotten much warmer, and people started hanging out on the deck in much greater numbers and with much less winter clothing. The entire atmosphere of the cruise changed overnight. The main purpose had been to learn about Antarctica and the Falklands, but today it turned into basking in the sun and having fun.
Todays lectures:
Wildlife & Nature Photography Around The World with Rich Kirchner — Rich is a professional freelance nature photographer. He showed us around eighty of his favorite pictures from around the world. He also gave us some pointers on composing a photograph properly. It was interesting that he has never sold his favorite picture, yet another picture of his continues to sell over and over.
Preserving Icons of Antarctica with David Harrowfield — This lecture talked about the techniques used to preserve some of the historical sites on Antarctica from the expeditions of Scott, Shackleton, and other pioneers. Sadly, some of these sites will cost too much money to preserve and will likely fall apart within the next fifty years. David also read some interesting diary entries from Scott and Shackleton that didn’t appear in any of the books published about them.
Antarctic Cruise Day 9
Feb 21st
February 14, 2006
Day 139
Antarctic Cruise Day 9
The Plan: Explore Stanley, the gigantic capital of the Falkland Islands.
We got to Stanley this morning after steaming around the island chain in the Marco Polo overnight. For the first time of the trip, we were allowed to disembark from the ship for more than an hour. Today, we had nine hours to explore the city, and were even given an included bus tour.
Stanley isn’t big enough to have a cruise ship jetty, so we had to take a tender to shore once again. This time, the ocean was a little rougher than yesterday, so water constantly splashed inside the lifeboat as we road toward the shore. Everyone inside freaked out and will no doubt complain about the poor service to the cruise line.
When Craig and I arrived on shore, the first thing we did was take our free tour. We were loaded onto a bus and driven to the outside of the city. We saw what seemed like 100 wrecked ships as we drove away from shore. We also went past a minefield, which was left by the Argentine troops when they invaded in 1982. Luckily, no civilians on the Falklands have been injured because at school, kids are shown gruesome images of what mines can do to people.
On the way back into town, we passed several houses whose owners have dedicated to protests against whaling. These houses had whale skeletons, harpoons, and signs telling everyone to save the whales. Next to the skeletons was a pile of pete, which the locals collect to make bricks for their houses because it costs way too much to ship bricks in from overseas.
The tour ended with a trip to the museum, which was really big and gave a lot of info about the war that occurred on the islands. We only had twenty minutes to look around before being herded back onto the bus, though. Overall, the tour was informative, but it was pretty annoying that we kept stopping, unloading, and reloading the bus every few minutes to take pictures instead of walking around town. Stanley only has 2000 inhabitants, after all!
After we got dropped off where we started the tour, Craig and I slowly made our way through town and back to the museum. We stopped for a look at the governor’s mansion, a few souvenir shops, and the war memorial on the way. It took us another hour to get through the museum. On the way back to the tender, we saw a crazy gnome lady’s house, a cathedral with a blue wale jawbone structure outside, and the town’s cemetery.
Stanley was a nice, quiet town. Even though I was near South America, it felt like I was in England. The only bad thing was that everything was three times more expensive than I was used to paying. Maybe someday when I’m rich I’ll return and explore the islands more thoroughly for a month or so.
Tonight, the Filipino crew of the Marco Polo put on a show. They danced in traditional costumes and sang songs in Filipino and English. At the end of the show, they pulled audience members onto the stage to dance along with them. It was an interesting and colorful show.
With the highlights of the trip already behind us, the atmosphere of the ship has gotten a lot more festive.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 8
Feb 21st
February 13, 2006
Day 138
Antarctic Cruise Day 8
The Plan: Visit A rookery of penguins and albatrosses at West Point, Falkland Islands.
We got to the Falkland Islands at sunrise. Somehow, I managed to drag myself out of bed just as the sun was coming up and got a good look at the islands. After observing and taking some pictures for an hour or so, I went right back to bed.
I got a decent amount of sleep because we were delayed for 2.5 hours as the crew tried to get the ship anchored and the tenders prepared. There weren’t any lectures planned for today, so I was able to take a rare breather after being constantly on the go during the last week.
My turn to go to West Point finally came early in the afternoon. I had to ride a tender for thirty minutes to reach the shore. When I got to the shore, the first thing I noticed was how little there was to see. As far as I could tell, there was only one house on the entire island, and the rest was full of open fields.
I watched a few birds go about their business and began the twenty minute walk to the other end of the island. When I got there, I saw the rookery located near the jagged cliffs overlooking the ocean. The main animals that I saw were rockhopper penguins and albatrosses, although the occasional striated caracara flew overhead, too. The caracara can be found all over the Falklands, but it is almost extinct in the rest of the world.
On the way back to the ship, we saw an ugly vulture and a large egg of some sort. There were also a few horses and a beautiful empty beach. Before boarding the ship, we were “invited” for tea and biscuits by the owner of the only house I had seen. He asked if there were any Argentines in our group. “Here we go,” I thought, even though he only had good intentions.
Back in 1982, Argentina invaded the Falklands and declared the islands as their own. There were only 3000 people on the islands, so they called Britain, their mother country for help. Britain slowly gathered and dispatched its troops to the islands while the Argentine troops dug themselves into the ground to prepare for battle. Britain forced Argentina’s surrender after 8 weeks, and there still is a lot of bitterness between the two countries. On every map in Argentina, the Falklands are still called “Las Islas Malvinas,” and are claimed by Argentina. To this day, it still isn’t possible for people to fly from Argentina to the Falklands. The sad thing is that the Falklands are just a small chain of islands in the middle of nowhere, and the local people have had to deal with large amounts of hostility over their homeland for decades.
Tonight I “double-dipped” on supper. First I had a large meal with Patrick, Libby, Craig, and John on the ship’s deck at sunset. It was actually warm enough to eat outside for the first time of the trip. Later I ate again at the Seven Seas. I admit, it wasn’t the first time I ate two suppers, either. Every day, each meal takes an hour or more. It’s nice to sit back and relax instead of hurrying off somewhere immediately after eating.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 7
Feb 21st
February 12, 2006
Day 137
Antarctic Cruise Day 7
The Plan: Riding through the open waters on our way to the Falkland Islands.
Today we began making the long journey north that would finish in Buenos Aires. In between, however, we would be making a stop for two days at the Falkland Islands, an archipelago located far from anywhere important off the coast of Argentina in the Atlantic.
It was another rough day at sea. The ship’s public areas seemed emptier than normal, so I’m guessing that a lot of people stayed in their rooms to avoid the dreaded sea sickness. It’s really funny to watch people navigate around a shaky ship. They tend to walk very slowly when the ship is going over a large swell, then make a mad dash to a location where they can brace themselves when the swell ends. I happen to love sea force 7. The ship rocks me to sleep like a baby in its cradle every night. Even though I only sleep for a few hours per night on the ship, I’m out like a light until the sun comes up.
Considering that we didn’t see any land today, and conditions weren’t exactly great for basking in the sun, it was a good day to try some indoor activities. First was carpet bowling. It didn’t work out very well because the ship seemed to be permanently slanted toward the port side. We were rolling toward the stern, so no matter how far left people tried to roll the balls, they always ended up against the wall on the right side. We tried to compensate by playing a game from port to starboard, but then the balls just rolled right back to us. It must have been amusing to watch as none of us came within ten feet of the target ball.
We also had a ping pong tournament today. I had been playing Craig pretty regularly, so my game had improved, but he consistently beat me. Unfortunately, I had to play a previously unknown player in the first round, and he made quick work of me. Fred almost beat Craig, but Craig still won the title match. I’m sure someday, he will lose at some activity, but not for now.
The food had gotten ridiculous after being on the ship for a week. The ship’s crew is relentless in stuffing us. The meals are gigantic, and there always seem to be snacks lying around for us between meals. I haven’t felt unfull since starting the cruise. In fact, before I even begin each meal, I’m already full. I don’t know how much longer I can take it.
This afternoon, we had a short meeting about our Falkland Islands visit. There isn’t a big enough jetty for our ship, so we will have to anchor far away and ride in a tender (lifeboat) to shore. Tomorrow, we will walk to the other side of the island and watch birds. It seemed like a simple plan, but people were still full of stupid questions. “Are there any bathrooms?” “What’s guano?” “If I can’t walk and I don’t like looking at birds, then what is there for me to do?” It’s sad, really. Over 100 passengers on the Marco Polo have been to all seven continents, yet half of them have never even met a local person who wasn’t being paid by the cruise line.
After the meeting, some of the backpackers got together and decided to do a scavenger hunt on the ship. Looking at some of the items like “Steal a food sculpture from Raffles,” “Moon the ship’s camera and get a picture of it,” and “Make a sexually suggestive popup card,” I think the trip is about to get even more interesting. My team’s name is “Captain Dick and the Whalers,” named after one of the expedition leaders on the ship. The hunt begins after the visit to the Falklands when we have two more days at sea.
I went to see Jeff Bradley, a comedian/juggler, tonight. It was pretty funny when he tried to juggle a bunch of axes, knives, and sickles and accidentally chopped off his arm. Later in the show, he brought out a member of the audience and made it look like she could juggle by putting his arms through hers. He finished by recreating a cigar box juggling act by a famous vaudeville performer, for which he said, “Some of the audience members may have seen the original act live.”
Today’s lectures:
Ships in Ice with Dick Taylor — Dick used to work on icebreakers in the Great Lakes and Antarctica. He told us many stories about the techniques used to cut open large canals in the ice to reach research facilities and ships that were stuck. Icebreaking in theory is a much simpler process than I had imagined. The ships are designed with extremely strong hulls and lots of weight in the bow. They bow has a narrow angle, so when the ship hits the ice, it slides on top of it and breaks through with its weight. My favorite story was when Dick tried to push a gigantic iceberg out of the way so a cargo ship could get through. He failed, but had a lot of fun trying. They ended up having to wait until the winds changed direction and blew the iceberg out of the way naturally.
Introduction to Nature in The Falklands with Chris Wilson — This presentation was a slideshow of the animals living on the Falklands. The most likely ones we will see are rockhopper penguins, albatrosses, and striated caracaras, the rarest birds of prey on Earth. The only place they are found in abundance is the Falklands.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 6
Feb 20th
February 11, 2006
Day 136
Antarctic Cruise Day 6
Once again, we were steaming all night. We anchored at Elephant Island early today. The island is of import historical significance because it is where Shackleton finally touched land for the first time in nearly 500 days. Most of his Shackleton’s men stayed behind on the island while he went for help. He returned over four months later to find that his entire crew had survived the winter.
Yesterday I had been warned that while the expedition team does all it can to get everyone on a zodiac ride around Elephant Island, it hasn’t happened at all this season because the waters have always been too rough. Still, when I saw the first zodiacs get loaded into the somewhat calm waters, I thought we’d get our chance to go. Sure enough, the first group went for the first zodiac cruise around Elephant Island of the year. Luck would not be on my side, however, as the rest of the expedition had to be canceled before anyone else could get to go. Fred, an American who sat at the table next to ours at dinner, was one of the lucky few who actually did get to go, and he was gracious enough to give me his photos of the experience.
This afternoon, we left Antarctica behind. We’ll be at sea for a full day before reaching the Falklands tomorrow. At some point in the night, we will pass through the Antarctic Convergence, the point at which the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet the Southern Ocean. The Convergence is marked by a sharp climb in the water’s temperature as we move back into water that can merely be classified as sub-antarctic.
As the ship sailed away, the water became rough. It was tough for me to walk around the ship, but I enjoyed it. A lot of other passengers were not as lucky. Lots of seasickness was going around the ship, and the Seven Seas Restaurant seemed to be only half full tonight as a lot of people lost their appetite along with their lunch.
Tonight was amateur joke night at the Charleston. Anyone who had a joke was encouraged to tell it to the crowd. Most of the jokes were clean, but not all of them. There is nothing funnier than an old man telling a dirty joke to a bunch of rich people on a shaky ship.
Today’s Lectures:
Art and Science in Antarctica with Lucia deLeiris — Lucia has spent multiple winters on antarctic scientific bases as an artist. She has also taken a lot of photographs of Antarctica. In addition to drawing the present, she also had paintings depicting Antarctica’s tropical past when dinosaurs roamed the continent.
Management of Antarctica with Dr. Neville Jones — This lecture mainly concerned the antarctic treaty. It was first created about fifty years ago in order to protect the natural beauty of the white continent. Today, 45 countries are members of the treaty, which is reviewed every 30 years. Nev just gave the facts about the treaty, but it soon turned into a discussion about preserving the environment. I think it’s fine to care about the environment, but the people asking the questions didn’t seem to understand that they were at least partially responsible for destroying it. Someone asked, “What are the people living in Antarctica doing to reduce the hole in the ozone layer?” When that person was explained that the hole in the ozone layer has been caused by the pollutants pumped into the atmosphere by the industrialized countries of the world, and in fact had almost nothing to do with scientists’ presence in Antarctica, it didn’t seem to be a good enough answer. People love to complain about the environment being destroyed until they realized that they’ll have to put some effort into saving it.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Antarctic Cruise Day 5
Feb 20th
February 10, 2006
Day 135
Antarctic Cruise Day 5
The Plan: View penguins and tour a Chilean research facility in Paradise Harbor.
After steaming all night, we pulled into Paradise Harbor this morning. When we anchored, it was raining, so I thought it would be a bad day, especially since my group was set to go to shore early again. Indeed, when I got onto the zodiac, I got poured on. I thought Antarctica was supposed to be the driest continent in the world.
After I got to the harbor, the weather quickly changed for the better. The sun came out, and the rain finally stopped. The penguins we saw were gentoos once again, but today they were extremely muddy from the rain. Still, they didn’t seem to care much as they went about their business waddling around and molting.
Also at the harbor was a Chilean research base. I took a walk through the house that the military personnel spend their winters in, and it didn’t look so bad. They had comfy couches, a big TV set, and a large stockpile of food and booze.
Once again, the area was very beautiful, and once again we had to leave too soon. It seemed like it was time to go almost as soon as we got there. This cruise has been so luxurious, yet we’ve been made to hurry the entire time. Over the last several months, I had gotten used to a simple-yet-thorough style of travel, so it was tough to leave so quickly. I reluctantly boarded the zodiac knowing that it would be the last time I would set foot on antarctic territory.
This afternoon, after leaving Paradise Harbor, I went to the stern of the ship for some whale watching. I only saw a few humpbacks from far away, so it was a little disappointing. I had heard that during previous trips, the whales came a lot closer to the ship. I guess the whales just aren’t very active this time of year.
Later in the afternoon, I watched the second half of the Shackleton movie. I was really impressed that he was able to save his entire crew. The sad thing is that half the people on my ship probably think they are like Shackleton because they are going to Antarctica. While he went through more trials and tribulations than most could even imagine, we went to the continent in the utmost luxury.
The photo album for this entry is here.