Today we traveled the remainder of the way across the Drake Passage. Seas were relatively calm and we get to relax for most of the day. Sea birds take up most of our sightseeing until dinner. They serve us an early dinner and announce an evening excursion to visit a place called “Bailey Head”. Everyone is intrigued to see our first land excursion of the trip.
I have to wonder about what we will get to see, after all it is evening after dinner and we probably won’t have daylight much longer. It hasn’t set in yet that it is Summer in the Antarctic and it doesn’t get dark until almost midnight in this part of the world. If we had come a couple months earlier, it wouldn’t get dark at all! It is the end of Summer down here heading into their Fall.
We all suit up in the excursion coats and boots they supplied us with and line up in cues as they prompt us over the ships intercom. We are assigned different groups for Land Excursions to streamline the loading and unloading of the Zodiacs. There are no Ports of Call in Antarctica and every day the itinerary changes with the weather. So all land excursions begin in the zodiac boats. They can be very fast (or slow, depending on whether they are taking you somewhere or trying not to scare the wildlife) and are quite efficient in getting you from the ship to land. We are instructed to step into a tray of disinfectant to make sure our boots are sanitized so we don’t bring anything onto land that shouldn’t be there!
The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) does not allow more than 100 people to land from a single ship at any location, so the 187 passengers on the ship have to split up into different groups. That means that about half of us can go on land and the other half takes a zodiac tour of the area. Then the land group gets back in the zodiacs and takes a tour while the other half goes on land. A very nice way of doing it so everybody gets 2-3 hours off the ship at a time.
So off we go in zodiacs and we find groups of “Porpoising Penguins” as they are referred to for the interesting way they swim. For such chubby little creatures that waddle on land and are seemingly ungainly, they are graceful and speedy in the water!
When we finally make it to land, we are greeted by Fur Seals galore. Once the whole group is ashore, we walk inland among tens of thousands of “Chinstrap Penguins”, named for the coloration of their feathers that that make it appear they have a “Strap” under their chin.
We walk among them, amazed at their numbers and marvel at the antics and the cuteness they exhibit. As far as the eye can see, they cover the hills. And for the most part, they appear to be walking on snow and ice, but it is Summer here. Even though there is snow and ice on all the mountains, the white stuff they are walking on is a mix of their Guano and their molting feathers!
The circle of life is also evident as we walk by the not so uncommon penguin that met its demise!
We chat amicably with our ship’s Naturalist who is knowledgeable in all things living! Before we know it, the sun is beginning to set, a process that takes hours and bathes everything in magical hues of yellow and orange that makes all it touches glow as if painted.
Even though we have been off the ship for many hours, too soon comes the message to get back in the zodiacs for the trip back to the ship. When we board, we are led through an area where we have to step into disinfectant again to make sure we don’t bring something foreign back onto the ship and our boots are clean for the next excursion!
Back on the ship, we head for the lounge and happily swap critter stories with our shipmates. Then it’s off to bed to see what tomorrow will bring!
1st full day on the ship. Fun people, fun times. Halfway across the ‘Drake’ now. We walk about and mingle with other guests as we check out the ship and get used to the location of everything. We see random sea birds and the occasional whale in the distance. Walking around today is easier than we thought it would be and the seas are not horrible like we were told this passage could be. We’re told we will step on land in Antarctica tomorrow. We go to our scheduled meeting with the Kayak Group and meet everyone, including our two Kiwi Kayak Guides that are fun and playful, yet all business when it comes to safety. We get our Dry Suits for Kayaking and all the gear necessary for that. Then we go to the meeting for our Land Excursion Group and get our Land Excursion gear including boots and Life Vests. We walk around the ship and familiarize ourselves with the layout of the Ship and look out at the lonely Southern Ocean as we continue to cross the Drake Passage. The seas are moderate and we wonder what is really in store for us over the next two weeks. But we know where the food is served and where the bar is! We visit with other shipmates and start to get to know them. Some music plays in the lounge and drinks are poured to calm any nerves that may still be on edge.
We discuss the opportunities to send Postcards from Port Lockroy, the British Post Office Base, where ships like ours pick up and deliver mail every time they arrive and depart. Sometimes, we’re told, it takes up to 6 months to receive a Postcard and sometimes it takes as little as a month. Imagine that, a Postcard that takes a month to 6 months or more! Sounds like the 50’s! What an archaic system! But this is Antarctica! Nothing modern down here! Can’t wait to see this place!
But we know where the food is served and where the bar is! Progress on the ship is being made! We visit with other shipmates and start to get to know them. More music plays in the lounge and more nerve calming medicine is acquired from the bar. It is time to go to sleep. We will wake and see what tomorrow has in store for us!
With Just The Clothes On Our Back! (And our Fin del Mundo purchases)
DAY FIVE (Feb 20)
We wake and have breakfast and go over our lists of things we still need. We turn our luggage in to the hotel where the Expedition instructed us to. Hopefully, these bags make it onto the ship! It’s 9:30AM and we don’t board the ship until 5:00PM. Another glance out at our Ship awaiting us and we get our day started!
So off we go into town with our one last bag to try and get the final items. We check out of our hotel and stroll into town. We successfully find enough items to make us sure we can board the ship. A steady drizzle greets us but not so bad that we can’t make our way around town to finish our shopping spree. We find the last few items we need for the trip and we consign ourselves to the idea that our shopping is done. Never found hand warmers though, it seems they are not welcome products here because they are not discarded properly and are claimed to be toxic to the environment. Oh well, got to move on. We did find the sock liners and other items. Not as fully stocked as we had hoped, but it seems we CAN do this!
It is noon and we stop into “Bodegon Fueguino” Restaurant that has been closed when we have passed it several times in the last couple days. It was recommended to us by more than one local person. We get seated and I ask the waitress what dish she would eat if she were ordering and she points out a lamb dish and I order it. Elee gets Empanadas and Sopas. Delicious food that again does not disappoint! Bellies full once again, we head back to our hotel in the steady drizzly rain covered in sweatshirts and newly acquired rain gear. It seems the longer we stay in Ushuaia, the worse the weather gets. The rain in town is snow in the local mountains and the views, when we get one, are gorgeous!
On a side note, Ushuaia is the first place in South America that
has decent plumbing and you can actually flush toilet paper instead of having
to put it in a trash can! Not the case
in Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Central America, Cuba and more. A pleasant change from what we expected!
We show up at the docks and board the ‘dock bus’ to take us to the gangplank and we walk on. A bit nervous and queasy about not having the exact things we worked so hard to acquire, we settle into the ships lounge with the other 185 Passengers and 144 Crew Members for the introductory meeting and orientation. At least they open the bar and we all have intro drinks in hand. Ah, now things improve! The Crew tells us what to expect for the next 14 days and everybody is put at ease. Our Expedition Leader, Lori, introduces us to the crew and each Crew Member tells us a little bit about themselves. Jokes are shared and the mood is light as each Crew Member has fun at their own expense!
We learn that this trip differs from a normal Cruise in several
aspects. This is an Expedition Ship, not
a Cruise Ship. A Cruise Ship has a set
Itinerary and Ports of Call are scheduled and pretty much “Set in Stone”, so to
speak. Also, most Excursions on a Cruise
Ship are additional and participation usually costs extra. An Expedition Ship has an “Expedition Leader”
(as opposed to a Cruise Director) that works with the Captain and the trip and
Ports are designed Day by Day and are affected by Weather, Wind & Ocean
Currents, among other factors.
Excursions are included and no extra expense is incurred to participate. So our adventure begins and we will be
informed as we go of what we will experience!
This Expedition Ship has what is referred to as an “Open Bridge”. This means that passengers can go into the Bridge at almost any time they wish to. We are requested to be quiet on the Bridge so as to disturb the Captain and Crew and their navigation of the ship.
We are sailing through the “Beagle Channel”, at the southern tip of Tierra Del Fuego, Patagonia, Argentina. A Lifeboat Drill is in our immediate future and we are given instructions for this. Anyone who has ever been on a ship, be it a Cruise Ship or an Excursion Ship, has to attend the Lifeboat Drill where we learn what to do in an emergency and we find our “Muster Stations”. We are told where to Smoke if we choose to. Unfortunately, Smoking is allowed on the ship, but only in one place. I find it interesting that the Smoking location is next to the Fuel Cabinets, what’s up with that???
At dinner, we sit with a group of other passengers that we will
get to know better as the trip progresses.
Camera discussions ensue along with anticipated wildlife sightings and
life stories are shared.
Okay, so we’re on the ship and still have an internet connection. Slow, but it’s there. So maybe I’ll be able to make random posts. We’re crossing the ominous “Drake Passage”, one of our Bucket List items. So far, it is much calmer than we anticipated and they are predicting relatively calm seas. At the moment we’re about 75 nautical miles south of South America with about 500 more to get to Antarctica. Seas are moderate and care is placed as we walk around the ship. This is nothing we haven’t experienced before and is milder than we anticipated. We should finish the Crossing tomorrow night. We’re seeing random sea birds at the moment. I’ll post a photo or two if I can.
We awake and have a full day to walk around and check out this sleepy city but most of our concerns are focused on what do we do if our luggage does not show up. Breakfast at the hotel is simple, pastries, a couple slices of ham and drinks of your choosing. I’d do something creative for some eggs but it seems that is a difficult commodity to find at the End of the World. But the views from the breakfast room are really good and we can see the Port and even the sun is making an attempt to break through the clouds, alas unsuccessfully so. So with bellies full once again and our stress levels high with the prospect of having no luggage, we head off into town and find a grocery store that sells different aspects of clothing.
The day shines bright, not!
Overcast and drizzly, but not terrible.
The airlines has assured us they will replace anything we need so we
seek out some of the basics, underwear and socks. The sizes are all based on European sizes and
they run different than US sizes. This
is our first time having to replace these items in a foreign country and it is
more than a little daunting to find the right items and I wonder if I will
become a soprano before this trip is over.
We carry our latest acquisitions back to the hotel and contact the airlines again. But their understanding of our plight seems to be lacking. There aren’t many flights that come in to this part of the world from the US and we continually plead with them to get our luggage delivered. We inform them of our guidelines that we have to turn our luggage in to the ship the following morning and our hopes are dwindled once again. One person on the airlines end, upon hearing that we are getting on a ship, even suggested that they can deliver our luggage to our first Port. We quizzically told them, “Yeah, you do that!”. Since there are no “Ports” in Antarctica (except Port Lockroy, the little British Post Office), it showed us the mentality we were working with. But we are told our luggage is scheduled to arrive today by 1:00PM!
We make our way down to the Port and buy tickets for the City Tour bus but we discover that acquiring Argentinean Pesos will be to our advantage. It seems that the few chances we have had to spend money in Argentina, everyone takes US Dollars and is happy to do so. I’ve discovered why, it’s because the exchange rate that small vendors charge is much higher than the actual value. So after we get our Tour Tickets, we seek out a Cambio (Money Exchange) and we find one a couple blocks away and we arm ourselves with Pesos. We walk back to the Tour Bus with the pipe dream of getting a front row seat but it is not to be had because we were not willing to sit in the bus for an hour and we needed time to get Pesos anyway. We watch a small plane make its way lazily into the local airport and take a scant few photos of town, even getting a glimpse of our Expedition Ship that has arrived in Port!
So here we are, in the middle of the bus, top row (A double-decker) waiting for the bus to fill up and the Tour to start. It seems I have developed an issue with a toenail as I haven’t been able to properly cleanse, groom and take care of personal hygiene because all my toiletries are in my lost luggage, so being tucked back in a seat out of prying eyes has it’s advantages. I get to fuss with my sore toe somewhat privately. Our luggage is supposed to arrive by 1:00PM this afternoon. We’re hoping that is does because that will take a great weight off our shoulders and I will be able to take care of my toe and we can keep moving on. So now for the City Tour to begin!
This town has a local University, restaurants that catch our eye, we see soccer practice in the rain and the local Rugby Club! A local park with its own lake, views of the rugged Patagonian Andes standing tall above the city assaults our senses and shows us the amazing place Ushuaia is!
The City Tour commences and we get an overview of this fun little city down at the End of the World. It is picturesque and quaint with quiet streets and scenic overviews. They take us up into the hills and down to the port and tell us all about this place that started as a Penal Colony. After all, it is a perfect place to put the dregs of society with little hope of them escaping anywhere. They instead turned the place into a thriving city with a bustling economy! Flag displays and a local shipyard where the bus stops for 15 minutes so we can get photos of this magical place. We pass by the local marina and look over the town and mountains that seem fresh out of a post card. There’s even a casino in town! A beached boat museum and street art catch the camera’s eye and the bus arrives back at the Port and we get off. I have to notice as I do everywhere we travel, telephone poles and wire configurations that would drive an electrical engineer crazy!
We commence walking around town, checking out the streets and views, coming across the Maritime Museum and prison. Looking back at the Port through the streets, we see our Expedition ship is sitting there patiently waiting for us. The local Naval Hospital and a set of Navy Ships that look different from any we’ve seen before are interesting sights.
Different buildings and street views capture our attention as well as a local bus decorated as a Prison Train and our eyes and cameras are entertained. The small storm has dropped snow in the mountains and give them a totally different look from what we saw from the plane as we arrived here!
The Tour completed, we walk into town and find lunch. Elee gets a ‘Hermone Queso Sandwich’ that doesn’t impress. I order ‘King Crab Ravioli’ that does impress! This town is known for its King Crab so I guess that was the better choice. We actually put Elee’s sandwich bread to good use to ‘mop up’ the sauce from the ravioli!
Now back to our hotel in hopes our luggage is there! If our bags don’t arrive, maybe we’ll come home equipped with name brand stuff!. Found a North Face Store that wants $200.00 for their cheapest shoes! Fleece Lined Pants, only $250.00. In our luggage, we have all of these things in multiples and we didn’t spend much more than 10-20% of those prices! Well, you guessed it. Our luggage is not at the hotel as promised. Devastation sets in. Not sure if we are experiencing anger, depression or a bit of both. How can we get on an Expedition Ship to Antarctica tomorrow without all the clothing and other supplies we spent 6 plus months acquiring?
So we spend a couple hours in our hotel trying to
relax. We both take a short nap. But, unable to sleep, I sit at my laptop and
edit some of my pictures that I took this morning on the City Tour. Anyone who knows me will understand that is
one way I relax, editing my photos. I
get to block out the real world and play in my world of Color, Contrast and
Composition, my 3-C’s. I rarely can get
enough of this when I travel. I can do
this somewhat mindlessly and think about what I need to do as the pictures fly
by my eyes and travel through my brain.
Ok, the worst case scenario has occurred regarding our lost luggage. Our luggage is nowhere to be found! We decide to grab a cab to the local airport to see if the luggage maybe arrived and got stalled in the airport. So Elee, bless her heart, gets on the phone to the airlines, both in the USA and the Argentinean airlines that we traveled on. USA airlines says the luggage is in Ushuaia and Argentinean airlines says it never left the USA. Who to believe? Probably Argentina because the luggage is not in sight. Not only don’t they have it, but it turns out the US Airlines is or has lied to us and it seems that no one has a clue of their whereabouts. The airlines says it was delivered to the local airport down here in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and Ushuaia Airport says it has not left Miami. We can’t understand why it even went to Miami for it should have gone from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. One person even found something that says it was loaded onto Air France to Buenos Aires. Go figure. Bottom line is IT’S NOT HERE!!! It is now 4:00PM and we have to turn our luggage in at 9:30AM tomorrow to be loaded on our ship.
So we spot a steward holding up a sign in the airport identifying our Expedition Ship. We approach her and ask who we should speak to about not boarding the ship as we don’t feel we could do that without luggage. She assures us we can make it work and she puts us on a bus that is heading for our hotel anyway for a late afternoon safety briefing. They all assure us that we can get what we need in town. We attend the briefing and they assure us we have the info we need so we leave and off we go into town to start buying replacement stuff. We have weighed our options and realized that our chances of ever making this trip again, considering the logistics and complexities of arranging it, even paid for by the airlines or someone else, are slim to none. We have so much planned to do in the next 5 years that it likely won’t happen again. (This should give all you Blog Followers something to look forward to, LOL)
So off to shop.
In the rain. Not drench you rain,
but keep you damp rain. We find an Adventure/Trekking store named “The
Scandinavian” and buy 2 new suitcases and start filling the cases with new
clothing and gear made by “Columbia” The North Face” etc. High
end stuff that we would never buy at home because of the cost, but it sure
seems like some nice stuff. But we have to get everything from underwear on up.
I have to admit, when the sales people tried to inform us of the price of some things, it was kind of fun to tell them “We don’t care! We’re not the ones paying for it!” We just went through the store and they had two employees catering on each of us. “Here, this fits, I’ll take it!” or “Give me one of each color, I’m going to be there 14 days!”. The store closed at 8:00PM and we kept them busy until almost 9:00PM. But we were their biggest customers in months and they treated us like royalty and even gave us 20% off, but that still gave them a great profit!
So 92,000 Argentine Pesos later (approximately $3000 US), we have two suitcases full of clothing and it still doesn’t satisfy our needs for the trip so there will be more shopping tomorrow! But we are exhausted so we wheel our new suitcases down the streets of this quaint little town at 9 o’clock at night amidst onlookers that gawk and stare at us, likely thinking, “Who are these Newbie Tourists coming down the road?” But they are friendly as all people we meet and no one questions us. Probably have 20-40,000 Pesos left to spend. For those of you that are currency challenged (like us), we have spent over $3000.00 US Dollars already and likely have $500-1000 left to spend.
So we ask the clerk in the clothing store for a restaurant recommendation and he tells us about a place down the street, “Ramos Generales” and gives us directions. We find the restaurant where the greeters tell us to put our bags in the front, next to the front door and they usher us to a back room, out of sight of our bags (Oh, the horror!) It turns out this was a General Store of sorts with a very homey feel and we are impressed. The place is filled with customers and live music is playing! But we are exhausted and out of sight of our $92,000 Pesos worth of new gear and we both sigh and resign ourselves to whatever fate shall meet us. So we look at each other and grin. It will be what it will be. Elee orders Rabbit and I order Lamb. Absolutely delicious food and friendly staff abounds around us. Live music plays in the next room and is clearly heard by all. Even bits and pieces of Peruvian Pipe Music plays (which we fell in love with several years ago in Peru) and all is good for the moment.
And we know there will be compromises because we already spent 6 months at home acquiring the right items for us. And we find ourselves making lists while sitting in a restaurant after shopping to see what we don’t have yet. We will turn in 3 out of 4 bags for the boat in the morning and shop to fill the last. We have been given a deadline of 5 PM to show up at the boat with the final bag.
Ohlala! There’s a Sale! I wonder if it will help us? Oh well, it was a fun thought (And Storefront for that matter!)
Gotta love this town though! So much so that we’ll throw it a kiss! MUAA! And a store threw one back! LOL
Who can tell us where to buy handwarmers in Ushuaia! That and sock liners, etc, it’s proving a challenge but one we have to take on. The Airlines claims they will reimburse us for our losses. Let’s hope they’re ready for the bill! Oh wait, we have a retired lawyer in the family with extra time on her hands! But that story has yet to be written.
So off we go to back to our hotel. Our bags are still sitting undisturbed by the front door of the restaurant, much to our delight. We ask the restaurant staff to call a taxi for us and we sit on our bags in front of the restaurant and wait for the taxi to arrive. A few minutes later and 203 Argentinian Pesos poorer ($4.53 US), we are en route to the hotel, exhausted yet excited and thrilled that our trip is not a total failure. If we had paid the taxi in US Dollars, it probably would have been $10.00, so our move to acquire Pesos was a smart one! We bed down and set our alarms to get up early to finish our shopping.
Okay, so many of you have been bugging us for photos, and they start today! So sharpen up your eyeballs and get ready!
We take off from Buenos Aires around 11:00AM and soon we make a stop in a small town called Telew, Argentina. Most of the passengers on the plane depart and a few board. So with a half full plane, something you rarely see anymore, we take off again and land in Ushuaia, Argentina. Also known as “Tierra del Fuego” (“Land of Fire”) and in an area known as “Patagonia”, this town (city?) is nicknamed, “Fin del Mundo” (“End of the World”)
(Etymology: The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón, which was used by Magellan in 1520 to describe the native tribes of the region, whom his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed that the people he called the Patagons were Tehuelches, who tended to be taller than Europeans of the time. This might explain some phenomenon we encountered on our trip to Machu Picchu several years ago)
Our luggage nowhere in sight, we have another uneventful flight to Tierra del Fuego. We check on a whim, but our luggage did not make the plane. So off we go to our hotel in Ushuaia. This is a quaint little city, the southernmost in the world. It is cool and a crisp 35 degrees Fahrenheit here even though it is summer in this part of the world. Sure glad I bought a sweatshirt in Miami, knowing the chances of having luggage upon arrival was slim to none.
The views out of the Commercial Airliner windows were Stunning!
It is now day 3, our flight to Buenos Aires using up one night and we have nothing to do but check out this little city built on a hill that once used to be a penal colony. Contact with the airlines still assures us that we will get our luggage soon. We hope so because we are in day 3 with the same clothes on. We acquired some underwear and sweatshirts in Miami just in case and we are at least glad for that. We now have a day and a half before we need to turn that luggage in to the ship for our Expedition even further south.
Ushuaia turns out to be quite the bustling place with a circuit of one way streets lined with restaurants, stores and shops that open around 10 AM and close from 1 to 4 PM for siesta and open again until around 8 PM. We spy some Patagonian Adventure Gear Stores and make note of their locations in case we need them. We even find a “Hard Rock Café” in Ushuaia of all places! We stop in and have a drink just because when are you ever going to be in a Hard Rock Café in Ushuaia? So the end of Day 3 comes and we find ourselves having dinner in a fabulous lamb restaurant. The chef tells me he cooks 10-12 full animals each DAY! And he cooks them on a revolving smoker/cooker and what you order is a ‘chunk’ of lamb and that is what you get! Lamb, skin and any offal that happens to come along with it. Not being a fan of offal, (I believe that whomever named it ‘Offal’, knew what he was doing!) but the lamb was perfectly seasoned and cooked to perfection!
After dinner, we strolled back to the hotel and ended up getting lost at night (It was after 11 PM so it was dark) and wandered this way and that until we eventually found our hotel. Never felt worried at all for our safety. Passed many people and everybody greeted everybody as friends! We have another chat with the airlines in an unfruitful attempt to acquire our lost luggage. So we turn in for a night’s rest in a hotel bed.
Around the World in 80 Trips (Or Less) 