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.
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