Buenos Aires & Antarctica Jan/Feb 2023

The blustery weather at Elephant Island was a harbinger of what was next to come.  At the evening announcement, the Captain advised us that there were two (2) very strong storms coming, one of which would encompass Port Stanley, Falkland Islands and the port authorities there had determined they would close the port – not just to us, but to all traffic – between noon Sunday and sometime late Monday.  This was due in part to the forecast for 75 mph winds and 15 ft. waves.  As a consequence of this, our schedule was changing and we would not be going to the Falkland’s after all.  This was somewhat disappointing, as there are a number of penguin rookeries that are supposed to be a sight to behold.   So now we are redirected to head to the next scheduled stop, Puerto Madryn, Argentina, by going BETWEEN the two storm systems, and it was somewhat obvious that the Captain was wasting no time heading that direction where we are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, February...

Cruises have the advantage of being consistent.  You have a schedule, know when and where you’re going to stop, when meals are available (not quite 24 hours, but pretty darned close) and how much effort it is going to take to participate in the various activities.   Except when something changes.   So let’s back up to leaving Ushuaia.  We were supposed to cross “Drake’s Passage”, which takes somewhere between 24 and 36 hours.  The important thing to note here is that we aren’t traveling with it, but rather crossing it as one would do for a major highway.   Once you cross it, you are heading toward Schollaert’s Channel.  Think of this as the sidewalk that parallels the major highway, with maybe a bike lane or small median (which happen to be islands, in this case) in between.  We crossed Drake’s Passage, then entered Schollaert’s channel at Paradise Bay, where we first saw Antarctica.   Once we were in Schollaert’s channel we made a left (roug...

It is easy to fail to grasp the size of Antarctica.  If you were to overlay it on the US, you would have California hanging off there on the west coast, while Florida and New England are touching the East.  There’s also a part that goes up that would come close to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.   Oh, and if you want to go to the South Pole – you’re roughly walking from Seattle to Kansas City (more or less, based on my extremely scientific calculation done while sitting at one of the bars on board the ship).   The islands are where we are at, since it is the closest thing to South America.  Schollaert Channel goes long these islands so once we crossed the Drake Passage we entered this and made a left to go along the string of islands.  Our goal was “Paradise Bay”, which is basically a big cul-de-sac.  We got to the end, saw some amazing scenery and then turned around and came back into the Channel.   Celia, the Naturalist, said that the weather we...

So Friday, we technically reached Antarctica when the ship was over the continental shelf.  We still had to travel the Schollaert Channel, which would go between various islands (or maybe icebergs -- we weren't sure) and which we would follow to Paradise Bay.   The first thing you notice about the approach is that there are no beaches.  Instead, rocks just jump out of the sea (covered in snow) without any preamble.  It was getting colder, although the temps were still in the mid-30’s to low 40’s (F).  The wind, though, was absolutely wicked!   We got our initial look at the Southern Continent from our balcony, and that’s also where we got our first wildlife sighting.  We hadn’t been in the channel much more than 10 minutes when suddenly a whale popped up about 40 feet off the starboard (right hand) side RIGHT UNDER OUR BALCONY and exhaled loudly.  Other than a glimpse of his/her back as they dove again, we didn’t see much and it was over in less t...

Ushuaia was essentially our “jumping off” point to Antarctica.  From there we began the trek truly southward, where we anticipated “The Drake Passage”.  This is the area between Cape Horn, Chili (or Argentina, depending on your political leanings) and Antarctica where the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans meet.  It can make for some really rough waters.   So the question comes up about “how rough is the ‘Drake Shake’”?  Turns out there is a scale against which to measure the roughness of seas called the Beaufort Scale, which the National Weather Service has adopted to eliminate just these types of arguments.  It looks at wind and weather conditions and comes up with a number for the severity of the situation.   During the day, the sea was a little rough, but honestly nothing that we had not experienced on other ships before.  On Thursday night, though, things did get a bit bumpy as we were into the depths of Drake’s Passage, and we were told t...

There is a significant housing shortage here, and there are two answers to that.  The first is subsidized housing, which seems to comprise a significant part of the housing supply here.      The other is that people clear out a tract of land and build an illegal house on it.  If they can stick it out 10 years, then it becomes theirs.   The problem with this is that there are no services to these, at least at first.  No electricity, no gas, no water or sewer.  Electricity is usually the first to go in, and they can use propane and buy water, but sanitation relies on pit toilets – which have got to be difficult to create, given that there’s only about 6 inches of topsoil before you seem to get to some very hard bedrock!   A lot of the rest of the city is as one would expect in a place where cruise ships routinely dock.  There are tons of souvenir shops, galleries, as well as restaurants, ice cream places, etc. – basically, downtown Blowing...

We went across the city and up a mountain to get a view of the bay and while we were there a young grey fox came out of the woods and was focused on something – but wasn’t quite sure enough to pounce.  We never did see if he got his dinner or not.  

Ushuaia started as a mission to convert the indigenous people.  A British missionary showed up and was going to bring the local population to the way of righteousness.  After all, this worked so well in other countries, why shouldn’t it work here?   The first thing you have to know about the indigenous people is that they lived naked.  Yup, no clothes, but they coated themselves in seal grease which provided a protective layer.  As soon as the missionaries insisted they wear clothes, though, they stopped with the seal grease.  Then they got opportunistic infections (which the missionaries also happened to bring along) like TB and measles.  The last full-blooded indigenous person died last year, and they are no more.   The second source of a starting population for the City was modeled after France and Australia.  Specifically, criminals were transported from other places, presumably to somewhere that they wouldn’t be as much trouble.  Af...

The first stop we made was at the National Forest.  Gaby pointed out that there are really only a few types of plants here.  The trees that grow up the mountains tend to be relatively short (10-15 ft. tall), and they all lean uphill because the wind is always blowing.   Always blowing, and strong enough to knock you off your feet at times. Many of the trees have lumps of Lichen on them which is called “Old Man Beard” because it resembles that whenever they open to pollenate in the spring.   The other is a shrub she called a Califata Plant (? Spelling phonetically here, bear with me!) that she likened to a blueberry, but the plant and fruit looked more like currant bushes we would see in the US.  

So, we looked at the possible excursions in Ushuaia and decided to go on our own.  Turns out, that was probably the best option.  We talked to some folks who rode the southernmost railroad – we’d talked about that – but when they got to the end, it was all fogged in and you really couldn’t see anything.   Instead, we booked Gaby (pronounced “Gabby”) who took us all around in her car – added advantage over exploring on our own, because Ushuaia is largely mountainous, coming up from the bay that was carved out by glaciers.     That means everything is uphill. Both ways.   The weather, however, was incredible.  Usually, it is cold and rainy here.  Think Seattle in the winter.  Today we had broken clouds and temperatures in the mid-fifties.  The first thing we figured out was that we dressed a bit warmer than was necessary.   The first thing to notice is that the roads here are much like they are in other extreme climates; specifically,...

Norwegian Roald Amundson always wanted to be the first person to the North Pole.  He was planning an expedition in 1908 – 1909 when he got word that American Robert Peary beat him to it, kind of taking away his enthusiasm for the trip.  Not to be dissuaded, though, he looked around and realized that he had a crew and ship assembled, 52 Husky’s to pull sleds (12 actually made it back alive) and four tons of food (for perspective, they say we started with more potatoes than that for our cruise) so he took off on his expedition.  He didn’t want to give anyone an advantage to tell them where he was actually going, though, so even the crew didn’t know they were going South until they sailed off and it was too late for anyone to follow them.   Imagine thinking you are leaving on week-long trip for Disney World in Florida and once you hit the interstate the driver says, “Change of plans.  We’re going to Disneyland in California, and are going to be gone for a month ins...