Antarctica: The ice. The animals

So, maybe it is because I have just returned and haven´t put enough distance behind it, but it is possible that Antarctica is the most amazing place that I have ever visited. The ice is so beautiful. It is all over the place, giant icebergs, just floating about, all over, and at the base, the blue glacial-colored water all around it contrasting with the deep, dark ocean color. We had a lot of snow so there was fresh snow on everything. Again, I will try to add links to someone else´s pictures as mine could not even try to capture it all. The mountains, hills, ice, it is all incredibly beautiful. On the boat, there are smaller zodiacs (strong, rubber motorized launches) that we would take for landings. The landings were the best part. You just walk around and there are hundreds or thousands of penguins. They don´t fear humans at all so they walk right up to you and all around you. In fact, you have to be careful not to step on them. My favorite were the gentoo penguins but they were all so cute and so funny. You just watch them and laugh as they waddle around. We also saw a number of seals...both on land, swimming, or a couple of times lounging on a small ice floe that we passed by in the ship. One of the highlights was the first day that we saw the Orca whales...we were in the zodiacs and they surfaced right next to us...about 4 of them and swam around for awhile, it was so exciting. We had additional sightings of them a number of other times as well. We also saw a Minke whale that swam past our ship...just inches away. There were really beautiful birds as well...albatrosses, petrels, etc. My favorites might have been the Antarctic Terns and the Arctic Terns that migrate all the way from the Arctic circle. And even when we didn´t see animals, just motoring along in the zodiacs, meandering around the beautiful bays, or around the icebergs, was really incredible...even on the cold, snowy days. But we had many days with hours of beautiful sunlight which made the ice just glisten. And the sunsets...they lasted for hours. Really gorgeous. We also did landings at a volcanic beach which is reportedly warm water but it was really about one degree warmer than the actual sea. But you could dig your hands into the volcanic sand and it was very warm. We visited an old whaling station and Port Lockroy, a British station created during WWII which now houses a small musuem. I am so glad that I decided to go and only regret that the trip wasn´t two or three days longer. I miss it desperately and I imagine in a few days I will return to enjoying visiting new places but as of now, I´m still missing the ice...and the penguins...all of it really.

Antarctica

Antarctica is possibly the most amazing place I have ever been. I loved it tremendously and miss it already. It´s not at all dreary like it looks in the pictures. It is bright, and crisp and beautiful. I kind of gave up on photos as you just can´t capture it. Although, some of my new friends with their giant and expensive cameras will undoubtedly share some of their good pictures which I will try to add later. I´ll try to post some comments over the next few days but am exhausted now.

Ushuaia

I´m still at the very tip of South America, here in Ushuaia. Before coming here, several other travelers that I met told me that in Ushuaia, I must stay at the Antarctica Hostel and that this guy who works here, Gabriel, is just great. Well, I found this out yesterday. I walked way to the other side of town to the shoe repair shop to get my boots glued/fixed only to find the shop had gone out of business. So, I asked young Gabriel what he thought I should do. He produced some Argentine version of Crazy glue and glued the tread down on my boots. This morning, I planned to have another pretty lazy day but he assured me that I should go to Tierra del Fuego national park with a bunch of other people who are staying here. I did go. I walked on a very lovely trail by the mountains and many beautiful lakes with little islands, and peat bogs, and generally very pretty scenery and my boots worked great. I came back to the hostel and assured Gabriel that he is the greatest shoe repairman in all of Argentina. Surely the boots will last me the remaining month here.
Ahh, Argentinian Spanish... yes, they say, "zhu, zhu, zhu" alot when they talk. Yes, it sounds like they are singing when they talk. And, yes, sometimes it sounds like they are speaking Italian when they talk, but, well, I seem to understand them. At least better than I did in Chile. So, it is okay. Good actually. Ushuaia is a fun but odd town here at the end of the world. Tonight I went to an all you can eat grilled meat place with a young American guy and a young Japanese/Brazilian guy and it was very tasty. The people staying here are pretty interesting. By far, the most impressive, is young Matthew, who bought an old motorcycle and drove here from Connecticut. Although Ushuaia was his goal, he didn´t really think he would make it this far. So, he said, while crossing the U.S. he would tell people he was going to Panama. When he made it as far as Panama, he told people he was going as far as Colombia and from there, he threw caution to the wind and said that he was going to Ushuaia. Now, I am very sleepy and will turn in for a few hours. I have another fairly lazy day planned for tomorrow but perhaps, young Gabriel, has another agenda for me. Who knows. I leave Sunday for Antarctica and I believe I will not have internet access so possibly no more reports until after visiting the ice.

Tierra del Fuego

After a couple of wonderful weeks in Patagonia, I took a short flight to Tierra del Fuego and am now at the very bottom tip of Argentina in the city of Ushuaia. Before leaving Patagonia, I had several more glorious days of hiking in the glacier national park. The weather was amazing...blue skies, sunny, warm...probably in the 70s. Oddly, a lot of the other hikers don´t seem to appreciate the fine weather. As I walked in a dry weave, super wicking, light-weight shirt and wafer thin pants with my various layers of jackets, raincoats, etc. tied around my waist, I would pass many a trekker decked out in wool hat, fleece jacket, waterproof pants, rainwear. I was baffled as I was sweating a bit, I can´t imagine how they must have felt. I kind of got the impression that they had bought all of the gear and by golly, they were going to use it. El Chalten was a nice, albeit brand new, little town and the hiking was so accessible. I met a few nice people and the girls running the hostel were great.
Sadly, I had a bout with bedbugs back in El Calafate (the town before El Chaltén. Because I dress from the neck down, completely covered, at night and put Deep Woods Off 95% DEET bug spray on my face and hands, in order to prevent the bed bug bites, I only got bites in the areas that I missed...evidently my hairline and just under my chin. The thing is, when I get bit, the bites swell up to the size of a nickel, or in some cases a quarter so when I check into a new place, I always feel that they are sizing me up as some sort of leper. Sadly still, while I was carefully examining the inflated neck bites in the mirror, I noticed something more alarming still. It seems that at some point, and completely unaware to me, I have developed a turkey neck. I am horrified. I suspect you all are thinking, "you´ve just noticed that? you´ve had a turkey neck for years." Well, I remained blissfully unaware of this wattle until just a few days ago and now I´m rather distraught. I have had grey hair and wrinkles since elementary school so those haven´t really been so upsetting to me, but the turkey neck? I´m horrified as I think there is really nothing to do about that. Unless, say, someone gave me a free voucher for plastic surgery because Argentina is certainly the place to be if you are looking to go under the knife for cosmetic reasons. I guess, at least, I won´t have to make a clever costume for Thanksgiving this year.
I have a few days here in town before embarking on the "Antarctic Dream", my boat for Antarctica. Today, I will do some chores such as doing the paperwork for my trip, loading up on motion sickness tablets, getting my boots repaired, etc. My hiking boots, were pretty worn out but I figured they would last me for this one last trip with them. Evidently I was wrong. They are in flithers. The tread on the bottom, on both boots has worked itself loose and flips and flaps as I walk. I had one small piece glued down some weeks ago back in Chile by a really surly cobbler (the only unfriendly person that I met in all of Chile). I´m hoping they can do they same here...just to get a few more weeks use out of them and then I will leave them behind as I tend to do when I travel...discarding old and unwanted items across the continent.

More Amazing Scenery

I took a 2-3 hour bus ride up to the tiny tourist town of El Chaltén at the North entrance of the Glacier National Park. Today was the best weather to date. Perfectly clear, blue sky with lots of sun. The drive around the lake with the mountains in the back was incredible. I was going to go on a short walk but did abotu a 5 1/2 hour hike in order to see one of the more scenic areas that is usually shrouded in clouds...it was so clear...again beautiful spiky mountain, snow covered mountains, glacier, glacial lake (I even picked up a chunk of the glacial ice and had a gnaw on it). It´s so beautiful. The Austrians gave me some really good tips on which trails to walk, where to stay, etc. I half expected to run into some of the Torres del Paine crowd here but have not thusfar. I will stay here for the next couple of days and do some more hikes. It will be great, especially if the weather holds. The views are somewhat similar to Torres del Paine, across the border, but not quite as dramatic. The trail today was thankfully, flatter, and less muddy than at Torres.
I am gearing up for the Antarctica trip...by this I mean, I´m getting excited, I´m not actually making any preparations although I will be sure to get some sea sick tablets. The travel agency in Ushuaia will provide a parka, boots, etc. I´m thinking of actually flying down there in order to avoid overpriced 19 hour bus trip including annoying re-entry and exit into Chile with long waits at the border.
Things are grand.

Anti-freeze, Argentina, Avians, Austrians, Antarctica

So, I kind of decided I would go to Antarctica so I changed my plans a bit and took the bus back from Punta Arenas to my now, base town, of Puerto Natales (where Sang Kyoung and I stayed pre and post Torres del Paine). Sadly, when I arrived in the evening, there had been some sort of mishap on the bus where a liquid leaked into the luggage hold. My duffel bag was soaked. I was assured it was just water but as I got to the hostel I realized in neither smelled nor felt like water. So, I brought some damp items to the tiny bus office and started to complain. They didn seem so concerned. At first I just wanted to find out what was the liquid. Was it water? an automotive chemical? urine and disinfectant from the on board bathroom? (I have some expertise in this area what with college friend, Gil Pearman, and I inadvertently dropped an empty bottle of Blue Nun wine into the chartered LUV bus toilet in 1985 enroute back to Charlottesville from a football game at Georgia Tech--sadly we had to foot the bill for the costly repairs). So, they found out it was antifreeze, mixed with water. I demanded some compensation and I started getting worked up...ranting in my bad spanish. They kindly asked me to calm down, which I did. I then noticed the "smile, youŕe on camera" sign and noticed the security video camera. I can only imagine that the entire bus office crew now gathers to watch the video of the hysterical foreign woman muttering in crappy spanish. I am horrified that this video will get into the hands of the producers of Chiles funniest home videos. In any case, they took me to the laundry and had my damaged goods washed...all the time involved though kept me from going to the really good chocolate cake place.
The following morning I took a bus to El Calafate, in Argentina. The best part was the view--loads of fields of cows and sheep grazing with snow capped mountains in the background, every so often there was a small pond, full of flamingos. I was surprised, amazed and delighted.
I then arrived to El Calafate and within minutes ran into one of the Austrian duo. I do not know if I have previously mentioned them...Sang Kyoung and I met a guy and his dad traveling together from Austria. They were so sweet, and funny, and were our favorite pair (mainly we liked that this guy and his dad were traveling together) so after Torres del Paine, we trawled the streets of Puerto Natales for the better part of two hours hoping to run into them but alas, no. And we regreted that we didn t even have a picture. So, I was delighted to run into Johannes, the younger, and saw him and his dad yesterday afternoon on a walk to the nearby lagoon full of flamingos. I cannot get enough of these pink birds. There were tons of really great birds at the lagoon.
Today, I ran into father and son again at the super amazing Perito Moreno glacier which is the most amazing thing ever...HUGE. Again, my pictures won be good enough so look it up on the internet. Huge, beautiful, amazing.
And on the Antarctica front...Iǘe just handed over my credit card number so it looks like Iḿ in for a trip leaving on NOvember 7th for 11 days. Yikes!