28 December 2006

Resume Posting


Esperanza
Originally uploaded by missmaria.
Monday, November 28
12:20 PM
Antarctic Sound, heading to the Weddell Sea

I talked to Jesse today! For less than the price of a payphone call in the States... Nuts!

First stop: Esperanza! It's actually an Argentinian military/research base on the eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. Basically, Argentina is setting up camp (school, hospital, church, etc) and positioning itself to make a claim for Antarctica, or least a decent portion of it, should it ever come down to that. Currently, Antarctica is governed by a treaty signed by 43 nations. However, with the earth's oil and fresh water supplies running down in the face of ridiculous demand, it's only a matter of time before some boisterous Texan steams his way South with an oil drill and a blow dryer.

Anyway.

There were also a few colonies of adelie penguins mingling with the people, who live there year-round for one or two-year appointments. Babies have even been born here, though the last was in the mid-1990s. (Some speculate that Argentina purposely brought a pregnant woman down to the ice so it would be born there. The kids are even given Antarctic passports.)

The nice folks on the base welcomed us into their "casino" and fed us fried dough cookies (of which I had about seven. no joke) and juice. They had a pool table and foosball table. I forgot to mention that among the expert photographers and mountain climbers, we had a world foosball champion aboard the ship. I also got my "Argentina Antartica" patch for my absentee suitcase and made the aforementioned phone call via their worldwide phonebooth. Must be a military subsidy for the phone bill...

We're back on the ship now, where we just saw an enormous, as in like two square miles enormous, tabular iceberg.


20 December 2006

Evidence! I was there!

As of today, we are not down with O.P.P. in my posts — I finally finished editing my own photos. Check it out:

Antarctica (and some Argentina)
Falkland Islands
Santiago + Andes-by-Air

The rest of the journal entries are a-coming... There are these little, nagging things called grad school applications getting in my way.

17 December 2006

Trying to Keep Up

Sunday, November 27
12:20 PM
Deception Island



Now 12:25.... OK, let's do this later.

4:00 PM ("later")
At sea, en route to the Antarctic Sound

Adventurous day at Deception Island! (And beyond, which is why this journal entry has been put off several times today.) The island is an active volcano, with a steep and craggy shoreline and very choppy waves. As we approached, small rock formations jutted out from the sea, just off shore (think Goonies rock), dubbed "sewing machine needles" by one map.

Now we had to get on land. A zodiac jaunt worthy of a big-bang wham-bam amusement park thrill ride slammed us up onto the pebble and pumice beach of Baily Head. This is a huge, as in hundreds-of-thousands huge chinstrap penguin colony, and our landing site was actually an on-ramp to the penguin highway. Access to the sea is limited because of the aforementioned steep shoreline, so there is literally a thoroughfare of penguins marching in line to get there. They appear to abide by conventional rules of the road, one lane heading to the sea, one lane heading back. It was a very orderly operation — no fenderbenders so far as I could tell.

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island

We merged onto the highway when there was a gap in traffic (with the odd chinstrap here or there stopping to let us pass). Initially I thought the chinstraps weren't as cute as the gentoos or adelies. However, their little stout, old-man waddle-waddle-hop routine won me over. But jeez, these guys littered every single melted surface of the mountain, hundreds of feet above sea level some of them. I think there are about 100,000 nesting pairs at this site. PAIRS.

antarctica // deception island

After mingling with the birds for an hour or so, we got to the main event: a four-mile hike from Baily Head to Whaler's Bay. (We had the option of getting back on the ship and sailing around to the next landing, or walking there. I needed the exercise.) Vanessa and I signed on, and Mr. Mount Everest came along, too. I hiked with Mount Everest! He and I were the only ones to slip on the loose earth at the beginning. Many of the folks along were seriously experienced hikers, and then there was me. The first icy, sleek, slick, steep, loose incline had me thinking I made the wrong choice in hiking it, but about halfway up, when we hit the snow, I hit my stride. Even with my nose running like a faucet.

antarctica // deception island

Our maximum elevation was about 1,000 feet above sea level. The "Survivial of the Fittest" walk took us over snow, ice, dirt, volcanic ash, streams, guano, mud, fog, and sand. I got a little lonely and desperate along the way, mostly because of my stupid snotting nose. Nothing worse than being sickish 15,000 miles from home in friggin' Antarctica. But I pressed on! (Oh yeah, and saw a leopard seal chasing some penguins from up above. Think he got one.)

antarctica // deception island

Kevin our hiking leader (and resident Ice Guy) is a fun/ny dude. Geoff the Geologist was along for the walk, too, as were George, JD, and Karen. The staff here is really excellent, if I haven't said that yet. Googling all of them when I get home. I need to get brilliant at something. I want to do this and get paid.

Back to the story... We made it through the cold and fog and wind to the pinnacle, the crater of the volcano, really. With timing that couldn't be more perfect, we made our descent down into Whaler's Bay just as the ship bearing all the non-hikers sailed through Neptune's Bellows.

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island
vanessa and the hiking crew

After peeking at some nesting sheathbills through Neptune's Window, I headed down to the beach. Whale bones strewn all about. Abandoned hangars, warehouses, and equipment sat rusting away. An eruption in the late 60s (or maybe early 70s) wiped out the station and extended the coastline, so all the buildings sit oddly inland.

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island

I got real tired, real fast, and needed to blow my nose a lot, so I came back to the ship, warmed up, and ate lunch. And two slices of key lime pie.

Just upon getting settled in (and warmed), it was Antarctic swim time at Pendulum Cove. Being a volcanic island, Deception has some hot springs. The water was boiling at the edge, but barely above freezing five feet out. I had no desire to join the polar swimmer's club, so I snapped pics of the swimmers from shore. Thirty-four in total took the plunge. On the zodiac ride back to the ship, we spied a snoozing crabeater seal.

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island

antarctica // deception island

Now we're on the ship, headed... somewhere. There's a talk in about ten minutes, the historian. He's a great storyteller. We all sit transfixed as he tells the tales of Antarctic expeditions past. After his talk, there's a photography presentation that I've been looking forward to hearing/seeing.

Lonnnnnnng day.

Shopping in Antarctica

Saturday, November 26
11:00 AM
Port Lockeroy, approx. 64º S

Just got back on board. it's only 11 and already I'm exhausted from four hours of activity. Dressing in all that gear saps up a lot of energy. First landing spot was Dorian Bay / Wiencke Island. More gentoo penguins (and the associated stink), a few skuas, and an old hut used by the British Antarctic Survey now maintained and stocked for use as an emergency refuge. Geoff the Geologist worked here back in the 1960s and 70s, and his photo is still on the wall!

Beyond the hut, there was a 250-foot hill, the top of which is actually several hundred yards of an ice flat that is the runway / landing strip for planes bringing supplies. The intrepid and adventurous among us (which usually I am, but once again I was afflicted with frozen toes and a sniffly nose) made the long trek halfway up the mountain ridge that began its ascent at the end of the airstrip. The view was marvelous in all directions, at all heights, so I don't feel like I missed out on too much.



The swiftly shifting clouds exposed and concealed the electric sun, making for constant set changes in the landscape below. Think Monet and Rouen, then take all of his paintings of the cathedral, at all those times of day and year, put them in a flip book and fan it out. That's about how rapidly and drastically the scenery changed. Who knew static mountains could be so dynamic? In a matter of an hour, there were dozens of shutter-tickling views, mountaintops poking in and out through the clouds. The color of the water also morphed from a steely gray, to indigo, to navy.

When I couldn't take the cold anymore, I hopped in a zodiac for a nice, wet, bumpy, freezing ride over to Port Lockeroy, a smaller island around the corner from the Bay. It's a British station still in use, though primarily as a tourist trap. Tourist trap! In Antarctica! But they do have a post office, so I sent off about two dozen postcards via the British P.O. (Once ashore, we learned that the ship marks up postage 150%...)



The landing dropped us right in the heart of a gentoo rookery. Closest I've been to a penguin yet, I think. (Can't help breaking the fifteen-feet rule if it's physically not possible.)

The island is rather small, so after a bit of shopping (more postcards) and shooting (more penguins) I came back to the boat. I'm feeling a little sickly and tired, not to mention hungry, so I haven't been very vocal or fun or sociable today. Antarctica's kicking my ass a bit. One hour to lunch.

10 December 2006

Death of a Dictator

let me interrupt the slow-but-steady uploading of my journal entries from the trip for a real-time post: HOLY CRAP, am i glad that i left santiago last sunday instead of this sunday, or that señor pinochet was gracious enough to hang on for a week before dying. some of the news clips i've seen show riots and fires right outside my hotel.

while the photos would have been amazing, and it would for sure make for an unbelievable travel story, being in the midst of an out-and-out riot, on top of the lost luggage/bandit taxi fiasco upon my arrival, just might have hit that final nail into santiago's coffin for me...

First Landing

Friday, November 24
around 9:00 PM
Lemaire Channel, Antarctica

antarctica // neko harbour

I can barely remember this morning, or rather, the fact that I am still in the same day as this morning. I am exhausted, but this blasted twenty-hours-of-daylight routine lures me awake all the time. The sun never quite sets, just sort of dips below the horizon, dimming the sky. No stars for me.

We began today with a(nother) 4:45 wake-up call, Buffet breakfast. Oh wait, breakfast was put on hold. Scratch that. 4:45 wake-up call to get us up and out and on land by 5:30. Neko Harbour was the site of our very first Antarctic landing, right on the continent, not an island.

A welcoming committee of little birds in tuxedos greeted us at the shore, but not before we were hit with their... er... excremental aroma. Curious little buggers, the Gentoo penguins. Exquisitely ridiculous when ambulatory, not just their waddling walk, but the little hops and adorable stumbles. But in the water, they are some smooth operators.

gentoo penguin!

neko harbour

An equally photogenic and entertaining critter napped along the shore: a blubber slug (sometimes known as a Weddell seal, but on this trip: blubber slug). He delighted our camera lenses with a head roll here or a tummy scratch there.

snoozing weddell seal

Next, we witnessed a small calving of a glacier, like a giant ice cube breaking off from a gianter ice block and dropping into a completely gigantic glass of water. (Or, like a cow giving birth to a calf, just lettin' it drop. Hence the term, "calving".)

neko harbour glacier

Oh oh, back up.

We were brought to shore not by the Clipper (our ship), but by her fleet of Zodiacs — inflatable rafts (like a solid, no BS white-water rafting raft) with motors. Rather terrifying, completely exhiliarating ride. And effin' cold.

Now back to land.

neko harbour

We climbed a short distance up to the nearest peak/lookout point. Our feet punctured the soft, melting snow, dropping us as deep as our knees in some spots. After a bit, you just learned to step in other peoples sinkholes. After reaching the top and snapping some pics, I was feeling a bit tired and not in the mood to high-step it back down the way we came up, so Vanessa and I made like penguins and slid down the face of the mountain on our tushes.

(Let me clarify: I scooted, then slid, then ate shit and somersaulted head over ass down the face of the mountain.... I hear there are photos, which I will try to procure.)

First Antarctic landing? Brilliant! Excellent! (Our South African friends are already influencing my vocabulary.)

Now... Back at the ship for breakfast and a nap, out again shortly thereafter for a Zodiac cruise around Paradise Bay. All I have to say is ice, ice baby. George was our Zodiac driver, he's great. And fun, with giant crazy 'chops. Geoff the geoloist was aboard for color commentary. We poked our boat in and out of little coves until all my extremities were numb to the core. Saw another Weddell Seal (the aforementioned snoozing blubber slug). Also napping. Saw a dead, rather icky jellyfish, some Antarctic shags (nothin' like a good shag in the morning......), and some badass icebergs and glacier formations. Those li'l rafts can haul ass, too.

antarctica // paradise bay

Back to the ship once more, for lunch and hopefully some relaxation, only to be summoned shortly thereafter for an extra bonus landing at Petermann Island. The weather was absolutely phenomenal, and Mike our Expedition Leader wanted to take full advantage of that, which, while exhausting, was really awesome and exceptional that they are so flexible with the itineraries. When else are we going to be here?? (Though, for some of the passengers, this is their 6th or 7th trip...)

Petermann Island has this neat, "natural" dock, basically a ramp of rocks. The island is populated by about 5,000 gentoo penguins, and maybe 1,500 adelies. (I'm learning to distinguish the species..) They are kind enough to share their island with some humans, too. An American research team is camped out there for a few weeks studying the birds' breeding patterns. Person and penguin seem to co-exist in peace.

antarctica // petermann island

There is no love lost between the pengies and the brown skuas, however. We watched as a male pengy sitting on his nest, protecting his egg was ambushed and double-teamed by two brutish brown skuas. The flying birds used their aviator's edge to harass the poor Gentoo from above, tugging and biting his tail, but to the little stationary pengy's credit, he snapped back pretty fiercely and held his ground without leaving the nest. The skuas gave up and moved on to pester another pengy. Nature in action! More fun with the black-n-white birdies ensued, then it was back to the ship again.

Dinner tonight was to be a BBQ out on deck, but it was moved indoors because of the bitterass wind. I definitely have a a sun/windburn already.

And that was today, in a very small nutshell.

Holiday at Sea

Thursday, November 23
4:12 PM

I just realized that today is Thanksgiving. Turkey dinner with the usual fixins is on the menu tonight. I think I'll have pasta.

It's hard to imagine the complete chaos that is unfolding in airports and dining rooms and football fields back home right now, as we're floating through the most remote, isolated, and pristine place on the planet. A most unholidayish holiday. I'm into it.

Closer

Thursday, November 23
2:00 PM

Land in sight! Land in sight! We're officially in Antarctic waters, passing through the South Shetland Islands en route to the Peninsula. (I think we just cut between Snow and Smith Islands.)

Water and sky are melting into a continuous palette of gray with only the white surf cast off from the ship breaking the monochromaticism. Lumps of snow-drenched rock can be seen in the far distance, and yet already, after only two days at sea, the sight of land seems strange. We're pressing further south, in what feels to me like an epic quest... Shackleton and Scott and Amundsen-esque. (Granted, they didn't have breakfast buffets and a gift shop on board.)

This morning we were treated to a watershow by a few humpback whales, with an accompanying airshow by several Antarctic birds, some quite rare as we were told. The tiniest taste of what is yet to come...

humpback fin

06 December 2006

First Impressions

Wednesday, November 22, 2006
15:39, Drake Passage
12:39, Chicago

np: Leonard Cohen, “Songs of Love and Hate”

Finally, stable power and some time to sit. Stomach mildly settled, though it could blow at any moment. Currently sailing the eerily calm Drake Passage en route to the Antarctic Peninsula.



This notoriously rough sea is treating us well this day, but of course I’ve just jinxed our fortune by saying that. It is still another day to reach our destination. Who knows what the waters have in store for us as the horizon bobs in and out of view from my stateroom. Kind of ironic that the only “smooth sailing” thus far has been on the sea itself. Now that I’m in better spirits, I won’t go too much into my disastrous arrival, as it’s pretty indelibly etched in my memory.

The first 24 hours featured lost luggage (concern…fear… panic… desperation…); swindling taxi drivers (anger… fear… stupidity… surrender…); exorbitant long distance phone call charges; extended-family feuds; emergency shopping in a Santiago department store for replacement clothing; shoddy completion of a Princeton application; and a 4:45 wake-up call.

The 24 hours since then have been sublime, even given the 4:45 wake-up call to fly down to Tierra del Fuego. There was a slight delay in deplaning in Ushuaia due to some international miscommunication, but despite being held captive on an Airbus for over an hour, the group remained in generally good spirits. Our time in Ushuaia began with Argentinian barbeque. (Completely wasted on me…) Lunch was followed by a performance, featuring our adorable servers. Just as in Libya, the boys are the featured dancers. Girls are at least allowed to dance, but they served as little more than window dressing, cheerleaders to the boys boot-tapping antics. I try not to judge.

meat

gaucho dancers

During the course of lunch, the skies poured rain, but we intrepid folks (or perhaps the ones who know we’ll probably never be here again) embarked upon a misty tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park. By the time we reached our destination, the sun prevailed and lit up a Patagonian paradise. It’s a pity we didn’t have a day or two to hike around the mountains.

After too brief a tour, the bus wound its way back to Ushuaia and to the docks where we would board the Clipper Adventurer. Ushuaia is surprisingly populated (60,000) and developed (Honda & Mercedes dealers, shopping districts, mines, golf courses, etc). We arrived at the docks, and after weaving through colorful blocks of freighter boxes awaiting shipment, we climbed the gangway stairs to our floating hotel, and were greeted with warm chocolate chip cookies. Always a good sign.

clipper adventurer

Our stateroom is cozy. I feel like I’m camping. Between my mom and Vanessa and Falabella department store, I’ve been able to scrape together enough clothing. I think. The travel company tracked down some waterproof boots and pants for me. Amazing. Of all the trips to lose your luggage on… If one can make it through ANTARCTICA with this little amount of “stuff” (albeit mostly borrowed), one can certainly make it anywhere else in the world on a backpack. I’m curious to see how I will pack for my next trip.

The crew of the ship is fantastic. Zegrahm certainly draws the heavy hitters: the first American to climb Mount Everest, and the first human to summit K2; one of the best nature and wildlife photographers in the world; a world-class geologist who spent years conducting research for the British Antarctic Survey; a top ornithologist; and so on. We've made friends with a lot of the staff, already. Jonny is best bros with Jonathan, The Bird Guy, and another birder himself. Sitting next to him in the National Park, I got my own private ornithology lesson. Gretchen is very nice, down-to-earth and reminds me so much of Rachel. She and I are literally and figuratively in the same boat: she lost her luggage, too.

Woke up around 8:30 today just in time to grab a bagel and some fruit for breakfast before Jonathan’s lecture. He spoke on albatrosses, a talk that looked rather dry on paper, a talk I considered skipping because we all know my feeling on birds, but a talk that in the end, I felt I should go to given that this is what I’m here to do. It was brilliant! He is an excellent speaker and very clearly engaged the group into his passion. After the talk, I immediately went up on deck to watch the birds trailing the ship. Then there was a talk on ice by Kevin, which was very fun. He’s a little hokey and a little corny, but it works. Reminds me of someone, but I can’t quite place it.

Now, I’ve just woken from a nap and I’m currently skipping a talk by the guy from the Audobon Society. But lucky for the lazy and sick, lectures are broadcast over the ship’s PA system. I am very happy that my laptop is working because I do not have a paper travel journal. It is charging well, although slowly and hotly.

That’s about it for now. I’ll wax poetic later. Just wanted to get some of this out.

clipper adventurer

Gone South for the Winter

South. The Ice. The White Continent. Antarctica.

Call it what you will, I'm now back from down below — and let me tell you, it's colder in Chicago than it was at 66 degrees S latitude. Also, the Coreolis Effect is still very much in effect. I'm now working diligently to edit my photos and post some stories... Stay tuned.