Antarctica
We have just returned from Antarctica and it was amazing. If you go, we highly recommend the company we went with, Quark Expeditions. We also recommend taking the boat we took, the Sarpik Ittuk. The boat was fairly modern and better than the converted Russian ships, which make up most of the Antartic boats. The food on board was excellent and it seems like we never stopped eating. Plus there were only 72 passengers on board. Having less than 100 passengers is important as that allows more shore landings and more time on shore. There are some ships that go to Antarctica carrying 300 or more passengers. That is simply impractical.
Coincidentally, thanks to a trip home to Boston at the end of March 2006 and a trip to Morocco in April 2006, we have now managed to hit all 7 continents in the past 12 months. Three of the continents were new for me (Australia, South America, Antarctica) on this trip (Karen had been to Australia previously).
Needless to say, we took tons of pics in Antarctica. We won´t even attempt to show them all. But we´ll show a few here to give you a taste and then load some more up on Kodak. Enjoy!
At the pier in Ushuaia, Argentina, there was some tight security. I was worried they wouldn´t let us board but they deemed my luggage to only contain ¨stuff radiation¨ rather than ¨sttuf¨. Lucky me.
Over 90% of the visitors to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia. There are a few trips leaving from Tasmania or New Zealand and even a few from South Africa. The main advantage of sailing from Ushuaia is that you usually have less than 48 hours on the dreaded Drake Passage to cross the Southern Ocean. From the other places, you´re on there for 5 days or more. The Drake is the longest 2 days of your life - and you have to do it twice, down and back. It´s like you´re riding every ride at Disney World non-stop for 2 days - and you can´t get off. Sleeping is tricky indeed in that you are being crunched into the fetal position and then stretched out like on a rack, all night. Fun times. But once you get to the Peninsula, it´s all worth it.
And who said Antarctica was too cold to grow anything? Some lichen on a rock:
Amazing icy landscapes:
(and you people in Boston thought you had a lot of snow to shovel!)
Here´s a landscape picture with our boat, the Sarpik Ittuk, in the middle and a Zodiac landing craft in front of the boat. The Zodiacs are inflatable motorized rafts carrying up to 15 people that we used to go ashore.
Beautiful wildlife:
Oh, yeah, you can say we saw a ¨few¨ penguins on the trip - like a few hundred to a few thousand everywhere we went. We saw two main types, chinstraps and gentoos. The chinstraps literally have a small black strap around the chin of their white faces. The gentoos have a white area around both eyes and over the top of their head. Finally we saw adelies, but most had already left the area. The adelies have all black heads with blue around their eyes. We did not see any king or emperor penguins, which are the bigger ones and the ¨stars¨ of ¨March of the Penguins¨. They are located elsewhere in Antarctica.
And when you come to Antarctica you´ll see a type of penguin that you´ve never seen at the zoo before - dead penguins! I won´t gross you out with all the pictures of dead penguins I took, but I will share this one of a skua eating the entrails of one.
One of the stops we made was to a small station run by the British. It is now a museum. After six years in the UK, I don´t remember ever seeing a British flag surrounded by penguins before.
At the base, Karen even managed to find the kitchen. I think she´s desperate for a home cooked meal.
And, ahem, it will come as no surprise to most that Karen managed to find one of the few stores to go shopping! A trip to the icy continent won´t deter a dedicated shopper like Karen. Actually, the base/museum was closing down for the season so Karen even managed to bargain them down - almost 40% of the sticker price. Way to go, K! Here´s Karen modeling the latest in Antartic fashion - a fleece from Port Lockroy.
The Kodak upload is going a bit too slowly right now, so I´ll add the link to that later.
Coincidentally, thanks to a trip home to Boston at the end of March 2006 and a trip to Morocco in April 2006, we have now managed to hit all 7 continents in the past 12 months. Three of the continents were new for me (Australia, South America, Antarctica) on this trip (Karen had been to Australia previously).
Needless to say, we took tons of pics in Antarctica. We won´t even attempt to show them all. But we´ll show a few here to give you a taste and then load some more up on Kodak. Enjoy!
At the pier in Ushuaia, Argentina, there was some tight security. I was worried they wouldn´t let us board but they deemed my luggage to only contain ¨stuff radiation¨ rather than ¨sttuf¨. Lucky me.
Over 90% of the visitors to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia. There are a few trips leaving from Tasmania or New Zealand and even a few from South Africa. The main advantage of sailing from Ushuaia is that you usually have less than 48 hours on the dreaded Drake Passage to cross the Southern Ocean. From the other places, you´re on there for 5 days or more. The Drake is the longest 2 days of your life - and you have to do it twice, down and back. It´s like you´re riding every ride at Disney World non-stop for 2 days - and you can´t get off. Sleeping is tricky indeed in that you are being crunched into the fetal position and then stretched out like on a rack, all night. Fun times. But once you get to the Peninsula, it´s all worth it.
And who said Antarctica was too cold to grow anything? Some lichen on a rock:
Amazing icy landscapes:
(and you people in Boston thought you had a lot of snow to shovel!)
Here´s a landscape picture with our boat, the Sarpik Ittuk, in the middle and a Zodiac landing craft in front of the boat. The Zodiacs are inflatable motorized rafts carrying up to 15 people that we used to go ashore.
Beautiful wildlife:
Oh, yeah, you can say we saw a ¨few¨ penguins on the trip - like a few hundred to a few thousand everywhere we went. We saw two main types, chinstraps and gentoos. The chinstraps literally have a small black strap around the chin of their white faces. The gentoos have a white area around both eyes and over the top of their head. Finally we saw adelies, but most had already left the area. The adelies have all black heads with blue around their eyes. We did not see any king or emperor penguins, which are the bigger ones and the ¨stars¨ of ¨March of the Penguins¨. They are located elsewhere in Antarctica.
And when you come to Antarctica you´ll see a type of penguin that you´ve never seen at the zoo before - dead penguins! I won´t gross you out with all the pictures of dead penguins I took, but I will share this one of a skua eating the entrails of one.
One of the stops we made was to a small station run by the British. It is now a museum. After six years in the UK, I don´t remember ever seeing a British flag surrounded by penguins before.
At the base, Karen even managed to find the kitchen. I think she´s desperate for a home cooked meal.
And, ahem, it will come as no surprise to most that Karen managed to find one of the few stores to go shopping! A trip to the icy continent won´t deter a dedicated shopper like Karen. Actually, the base/museum was closing down for the season so Karen even managed to bargain them down - almost 40% of the sticker price. Way to go, K! Here´s Karen modeling the latest in Antartic fashion - a fleece from Port Lockroy.
The Kodak upload is going a bit too slowly right now, so I´ll add the link to that later.
posted by Kevin at 3/08/2007 08:04:00 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Karin and Kevin,
Nice to see you have your Antarctica photos up on your site.
He he seems you made it to Puerto Natales so should you have taken a flight instead of a nice 16 hour bus ride?
Cheers Erin
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