Colonia del Sacramento and the way home

As I wrote in the previous post the plane from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was delayed by about 5 hours, for me this didn't mean much more than less sleep thankfully.
I got to my hotel about midnight, booked the taxi to the airport for last night and got to sleep as soon as I could - after connecting everything I needed to charge during the night.
Got up the next morning at 6:15, packed, checked out and headed for the port where the boat to Uruguay was docked.
Short queue and no real problems, quite amazing how much you are able to do and get through without really knowing the language. I do know the important words like "frog" and "goat" in spanish, but none of these had been very usefully so far.
The boat wasn't very impressive, it was more or less like a large buss on water, but as it would only take an hour I didn't need anything else than a seat.

Colonia del Sacramento was one of these cozy and lazy, small cities by the sea where life runs slowly and nothing is really important. I was probably still a bit off after the impression overload from  Antarctica and some days of travel without much sleep.
I booked a ticket on a hop on/off buss so i would be able to get to all the places that might hold something interesting and was shipped to the centre of the city. As it was sunday and the breakfast at the hotel hadn't opened when i left, breakfast was a priority.
The meny was in spanish, everyone spoke spanish, and as i didn't want to eat either frog or goat i just picked something that have the word "huevos" (egg) in it, and what i got was ok.

A small walk around the bricklaid streets in the centre led me to some souvenirshops, a church, a small fortress and some local fishers as well as a yatchclub. I later took the bus to the bull-fighting arena which was abandoned a long time ago, but could still be seen from the outside as well as a nice walk around in the neighbourhood area where I actually saw lot of dead frogs on the ground. A bit strange, and haven't figured out why there were so many yet.
At the pier to get back home I got in touch with an english traveller who was also unsure if we were at the right place as everyone else had a different ticket than us.
Back in Buenos Aires we arrived a few minutes later than scheduled, thankfully I'd taken a seat in the boat so I was first one off, and thus first in the taxi-queue.


Back at the hotel at 20mins prior to pick-up, my ride to the airport came in the doors at the same time as I did, so instead of reading some news/mails I just changed quickly and went with him.
Having arrived late last night, I'd not been able to check in on my plane, and thus not being informed that the terminal was A and not C, so I asked to be dropped off at C where KLM has their flights, but soon found out that I had to change terminals.

Back on the ship from Antarctica, we left early in the morning and of course there were some I'd not been able to say goodbye to. One in particular, but here's where fate gave me a nice surprise. At the exact same time as I passed by terminal B on my way to terminal A. A place I really shouldn't have needed to be at all, she came out three steps in front of me, on her way to Terminal A to look for a charging-station for her cellphone.
After checking in my luggage we sat down for some time before it was time to leave for the plane. Having 1hour 40mins to get through security I though I had more than enough time - I was wrong.
About 20-25mins to get through security and then well over an hour for passport control. At the time I was through the screens were already screaming "last call" for me, of course the gate was at the farthest end of the terminal, but as I ran past some others with KLM-stickers on their carry-ons I felt quite sure I would get there in time, and I did. The plane was thankfully just about 20mins delayed, but this meant that my plane for Oslo had already started boarding before I was off the first plane in Amsterdam. A LOT more efficient airport and passport control made it fully doable eventhough I ran most of the way here as well.
Touching down at Gardermoen just about 15 hours after I left Buenos Aires is however quite remarkable, although a bit too close for comfort espessially in BA.

The cold never bothered me anyway

One of Cierva Cove's massive icebergs

For our last day of expeditions we weren't told where we would go the day before, the schedule had always been posted on the main screens the evening before, but not this time. My gut feeling told me we would have one zodiac cruise and one landing, most likely with some gentoo penguins to round it off with our fellows who had been there for us the whole journey.



We got up and had breakfast at 7:30 as usual before the first zodiacs were ready to take us on the, not so surprising, zodiac cruises.
This was mostly to look at icebergs in Cierva Cove, but there were also several whales and of course some penguins around. I was a bit unlucky with the guide for this cruise as I got one that doesn't say much, but she was probably a bit under the weather with the cold half of us had been hit by as well.
One of the other boats actually had a humpback whale swimming towards them, going up for air, then going beneth their boat and then coming up on the other side for air again. Would have been cool, but that's not really something you can plan in advance. And for the record, the argentine navy was still following us....

The day's second stop was a Mikkelson Harbour where there were to everyones surprise gentoo penguins. I was the first one in the zodiacs and on the last boat back to the main ship. There really wasn't anything groundbreaking on this island compared to some of the other stops, but penguins are and will always be cool.
There was also one chinstrap penguin on this island, I suspect him to have been a spy from a close by colony to see it there were some good pebbles there, or the more probable reason - he was just lost.

Icebergs in our way at Spert Island

The surprise trip of the day was that we got a third trip with another zodiac cruise. A lot of people didn't care to go on this as they thought it would be similar to some of the other cruises we've been on - they were horribly mistaken.
We drove around these amazing cliffs, not too different from Ha Long Bay if you picture them as Antarctic, but with massive, rogue, icebergs floating around. Large openings in the mountains we could drive through, lots of birds, and the trip's first fur seal.
An great last trip on maybe the most amazing journey I've even been on.

Mikkelson Harbour and our last footsteps in Antarctica

Weddell seal at Mikkelson Harbour

The emergency lobster suits did as they were
supposed to, so we couldn't stand the heat for too long

We now had about two days and three nights before we would see land again, the first night most were quite tired after a long day. The first day was my birthday, so there was cake and later drinks in the bar. The next day was a bit more difficult, the sea did not behave a nicely as it had done the earlier sea-days and more than half of the passengers just stayed in their room, this included myself who was ok if I lay down on my bed, but not if I started walking around. We did however finally get to squeeze in the lobster-party I had been craving since the first day of travelling.
3rd day we arrived early in the morning, but were screwed by our flight out from Ushuaia being 5 hours delayed. For me this only meant less sleep in Buenos Aires as I had taken an extra day there just in case something like this would happen, as well as not having the time to check-in on my flight home the next day. For lots of others it meant that they missed their connection, but from what I've heard from them later it did work our the next day. Very annoying at the time, but in retroperspective not really anything more.

More penguins, more spectacular views and a very quick bath in the southern icy sea

Pléneau Island

Lemaire Channel, spectacular view

Well, it kind of had to happen. After a few days with a cold brewing where I had been on all  activities, gone camping outdoors etc, it came out in full bloom overnight.
The fact that one of my cabinmates moves the
temperature to the highest temperature all the time as well probably doesn't help either.

An early zodiac cruise around the icebergs at Pléneau Island was what I had to skip, but a few pills and a (maybe not so) healthy appetite for adventure was all I needed to be ready for our trip to Palmer Station. Before that I did get to see the Lemaire Channel with it's spectacular view from the boat, the channel had actually been froozen just a few days earlier, so that was another
nice bonus.

Palmer Station is an american research facility where there are room for 44 persons, usually full in the summerseason and about half during winter. They let on about 10 ships every season, so we were quite lucky to be one of the few choosen few. We took one of them with us on the way back, so that was probably the reason why we were choosen. We were however never told if he was a POW, a deserter or just a guy who was going home.


The facility in itself was partly selfmaintained, but they did of course bring supplies like food and diesel from the mainland.
It was interesting to hear from our guide, the onsite mechanic, that he himself couldn't phantom a life where you had to commute to the same workplace every day and then just get a few weeks off every year, when he now worked for 6 months and then got 6 months off. Personally I couldn't stand having 6 months off every year, usually the two weekend days are enough for me before I feel I need to get back to work and do something.

On Torgersen Island on the other side of the bay of Palmer Station there was an adelie penguin colony, these are smaller and a bit more  agressive than the chinstraps and gentoos we've seen a lot of earlier.
The chicks here was almost fully grown, or maybe not fully grown, but at least enough for the parents to leave them. The parents was clearly making them ready as they pushed them into clusters with the other chicks so they should understand that they should be dependent of each
other and not the parents any more.
The parents will most likely move to sea in a few days leaving the chicks to themselves, they will then wander around without any real clue to what they should be doing, but after a while when they get too hungry they will move to the water. This is usually the same time as the seals will move to the shores to pick off the easiest prays who hasn't understood how this works yet.
In some ways I'm glad I don't get to see that.

Polar Plunge, just do it

Back on the boat we were informed that they would give us the opportunity to do the "polar plunge" later that day. In short this is were you jump off the boat into the freezing water and get back up as fast as you can, mostly to be able to brag that you've done it. For me it was a bad day they'd picked for it as my fever was still lurking, so I did it anyway and have absolutely no regrets that I did it. Woke up the next morning without a voice, but it loosened up untill midday - worth it!


After the plunge there was yet another amazing dinner, the food on the boat was maybe one of the biggest positive surprises, being at sea for 1,5 weeks without any fresh supplies and creating 5-stars dinners day after day is highly impressive. I will however not continue the 5000kcal-a-day diet when I get home.
Desert being topped this day with a chocolate buffet.



At night we were visited by some humpback wahles moving in very close to the ship, one of my fellow travellers took the short movie shown below. Probably better to watch the short clip than whatever I can write about it.

Awesome Adélie Penguin not really ready to swap places with his/her mate after a few days of feeding

Adélie Penguins

Camping in Antarctica and the (in)continental landing

Camping in Antarctica, not something everyone can say they've done

The weather held and the outdoor camping was on.
We were shipped to land on a small island at 21:00 and could start dig our grave to sleep in/on the snow for the night.
I guessed I would be the one with the least experience with camping, but thenagain I might be one with the most experience with snow. I found a nice place close to a small hill and dug about a meter so I would have nice coverage for the wind - which it prooved to be none of.
Most just wandered off and sat down in the middle of the plain, stepped a few times on the ground and placed their gear down. A lot looked a bit confused and didn't seem to know what they were supposed to be doing, kind of like the penguins we'd gotten to know very well these last days.

Finally got the chance to do something other than eating and
going where I was supposed to, so I dug tunnels all over the place

The sunset was beautiful, eventhough it doesn't not really set, it sun just hides behind a mountain for a short while before it returns, it still gave a beautiful view.
More or less as expected I had a hard time sleeping, but managed to steal a few hours of on-and-off sleep.

Next morning we were picked up at 6:30 for a swift return to the ship, an even swifter shower and a tad slower breakfast before the first continental landing at Neko Harbour.

As the greatest surprise of the trip there were gentoo penguins waiting for us on the shore, more nesting close to the beach and even a weddell seal a bit further down the beach.
There was also a small hike up the mountain ridge to a viewpoint were we could get some pictures of ourselves with the Antarctica flag.
Most likely there will be more interesting sights on the islands than on the mainland, but of course to actualy set foot on the continent is an important part of the trip for most of us and now that goal has been reached. For me this means that Oceania is the sole remaining continent to set foot on, and for surprisingly many of us traveling here either Oceania or Africa is still missing to get all seven.

Before every landing there was, of course, an announcement that we should get ready to disembark at 9:00 or whatever time the first zodiacs would leave the mothership. There were also some other announcements, as e.g. dinner, lectures, the store is open etc.
From time to time during these announcements there would magically appear a jar with some strange words, if this was to appear the announcer had to pick a word from the jar and find a way to get it into their announcement. This is why we were told there would be an "incontinental" landing and not the ordinary continental. We did get a bit wet, but I think the worst problems are gone by now.

More Gentoo Penguins

It didn't feel like it was much of a hike when I was there, but the picture kind of proves otherwise

Most made it to the end of our hike at Neko Harbour

Another gentoo colony and the first zodiac cruise

Also here the view was spectacular

Gentoo penguin on the move

Marcella and an apparently sad penguin

The penguin in the background kept falling over time and time
again when walking on the snow

Day three started with a visit to the continents largest nesting area for gentoo penguins - Cuvert Island. These were later in the season than the ones we had seen earlier and there were some very young chick there, we were even lucky enough to see some hatching.
The penguins who were hatching also had to make sure their annoying neighbour wasn't stealing their pebbles for their own spouces nest. There were of course some skuas around as well, but they didn't seem too interested in the penguins so far either. Give it a few weeks and they'll probably be all over the penguin chicks.

The second stop of the day was supposed to be our first real landing on the continent itself and not just the surrounding islands, but the Argentine base denied us access.
The plan was originaly to let off about half of us and have the other half on a "zodiac cruise" were we could go around looking at the amazing scenery in Paradise Bay, being denied access the plan was (of course) changed to having all of us going on this cruise.
With about 100 passengers and 10 on each zodiac there will be some logistics towards it, but Quark is experienced and we barely noticed any problems here either. We were lucky enouogh to land in Damiens boat, very knowledgeable, easy to understand and interesting to listen to.
Paradise Bay is one of these places were it's easy to say that you have to experience it, but this isn't really a place many people would ever be able to visit so I'll give it a shot, but still the pictures would probably say more than my words.
Huge glaciers moving towards the bay with lots of activity, small avalances higher up in the surrounding mountains that were up to 1700 meters high. Some penguins and birds along the cliffs, an elephantseal sleeping on an iceflake in the middle of the bay, the larger icebergs that had earlier been part of the glacier and was now floating around in the bay, and of course the beautiful silence that broken (ir)regulary by an avalance, a bird or some other wildlife sound.
I didn't really know what to expect from the cruises, but the first one was highly enjoyable.

Tonight the plan is to go camping outdoors, if the weather holds.

Laura tastes the iceberg, it tasted like ice

The scenery wasn't too bad here either

A lone weddell seal didn't care much about us and just enjoyed his time on his new found iceflake

The blue eyed shag didn't care about us either, but when the boat slid into
his iceflake he stood up, and after a few more minutes he decided to leave

The size of these glaciers were impressive

First sights of land at Half Moon Island

Spectacular scenery at Half Moon Island

Half Moon Island

Elephant seal and gentoo penguins at Hannah Point

Whaler's Bay

As written our crossing was surprisingly smooth, and we were actually the fist ship who were able to cross the Drake quickly enough to do a landing already on day 2, and what a landing it was.
Half Moon Island being part of the Southern Shetlands was spectacular. The view was great, there were (of course) penguins waiting for us on the beach and more (and more and more...) all over the island.
On this island there were chinstrap penguins who has already had their chicks a few weeks ago.
They were mostly uninterested in us, which is a great sign as they've not been exposed enough to humans to understand that they are dangerous.
About 5 degrees, mostly sun and some skies which really just made the pictures more interesting.
All landings were done by zodiac, as they will be for the entire journey. Quick and efficient way of getting to shore where there are no harbour, which there are none of down here.
In addition to the penguins there were also an elephantseal and a leopardseal having a relaxing day on the beach.

For the morninglanding of day two we got to Hannah Point as this seasons first travelers who were allowed to go on shore.

Action Penguin at Hannah Point

What a wildlife that met us, as always there were some rouge penguins on the beach, but just a few meters up there were thousands who had had their chicks some weeks ago. The chicks were now close to being selfsustained, and they more or less just walking around thinking they were probably supposed to do something, but still really without a clue what they should do or how to do it.
A pack of younger elephantseals were also moulting on the beach, they saw us but as we were not allowed to go to close they really didn't seem to bother much.
The area was also mostly free of snow and there were quite a bit of grass around, so to be Antarctia this must be what they would refer to as lush and fruitfull although all the fruit was still onboard the ship.
The surrounding landscape wasn't as impressive, but the wildlife was spectacular.

Second stop of the day was Whaler's bay on Deception Island, an old whaling station where Norwegians had had their base in the beginning of the century untill it was abandoned and later fought about between the Argentins and British.
A massive beach where there were still remnants of the golden olden whaling days, which in short means some bones of some whales, some rusten parts of some barrels and a few buildings that could fall over if you farted high enough.
We held our flatulence for the visit and left the place as we found it.
The island itself is an active vulkano that had it's last eruption in 1971

Elephantseals moulting at Hannah Point

Chinstrap penguins with chicks at Hannah Point

End of the World and the Drake

Arrival in Ushuaia was slightly delayed due to some problems, or just something they messed up which is quite usual here in Argentina from what I am stating to understand.
The boat was to leave the day after they asked us to come to the Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city, and this could easily be because they know there will be delays comming down here quite often.
Small airport and a small city, usually means that there's not much to do, and this was no exception.

The foxes didn't say much though...

The ship was flagged from Nassau, not the most seen flag

Getting the missing pieces of your travelling gear, or even getting a full new gear if you had none with you or your luggage got lost would be easy here, but expensive.

I quickly befriended a Canadian couple and we decided to go to the nationalpark on a halfday trip the next day, with the boat(s) leaving approx 16-17, these trips was probably set up to match the Antartica travelers perfectly.
We were very lucky and got a great guide which made a trip that could've been a bit boring very interesting and fun.

At about 13-14 we were delivered in the city (or we could be sent to the hotel), but as written earlier there wasn't really much to do here. The street closest to the canal was mostly seafood resturants, and the secondary street was mostly travel gear and a few resturants.
After some checkin we got our cabin and headed out the Beagle canal and then off to cross the dreaded Drake.
Our crossing went surprisingly smooth, we were followed by a few albatrosses and there were some whale- and dolphin sightings, but nothing compared to what's to come.
Time was mostly spent listening to lectures about the birds, animals, rock, ice formations and other things we might see when we get there, well this and eating...

Mellomlanding i noen dager i Buenos Aires

2,5 timer til Paris og deretter litt over 13 til Buenos Aires, lang tur med lengre perioder med turbulens enn jeg har opplevd før, men fram kom jeg da. Kan også nevne at jeg hadde et eldre par ved siden av meg hvor hun var en aktiv prateboks, da hun forsvant på do snudde mannen som satt ved meg seg til meg og sa "parla, parla, parla" så han var klar over det selv også.

Awwa Suites & Spa hvor jeg tok inn ligger i Palermo området, hyggelig og trendy område, men nok ikke hvor jeg hadde tatt inn hvis jeg hadde kjent byen bedre, tok dog rådene jeg fant på internet og denne gangen var jeg altså ikke enig med de kommentarene jeg fant.
Zoo ligger derimot her, og ble et lett første stoppested. Fin zoo med gode innhengninger hvor dyrene så ut til å ha det ok. De vil nok aldri ha det direkte bra som innestengt, men de venner seg nok til det på samme måte som mennesker og andre vanedyr.

 Bildet viser fire skildpadder i et vann, nedfallet fra trærne dekket vannet fullstendig, så var nesten ikke mulig å se at det var vann der.

Dagen gikk videre til å se meg rundt i området jeg bor i, og selvsagt få en biff. Den var bra, men jeg håper å finne fantastisk her i Argentina.

 Dag to hadde jeg booket opp guidet sykkeltur med Urban Biking for å se nordre delen av byen. Til denne turen hadde ingen andre meldt seg på, så det ble kun jeg og guiden i fire timers tid. Frederico viste seg å være både meget hyggelig, kunnskapsrik og snakket bra engelsk. Mer kan man virkelig ikke vente seg, så det er noe jeg sterkt vil anbefale andre som drar hit. Ikke var han for opphengt i å alltid snakke politisk korrekt eller alltid være enig med turistene heller, noe jeg fant oppfriskende.

 Av perlene Frederico viste meg var en skrap-utstilling like ved jernbanemuseet, meget overraskende og flott utstilling som egentlig bare så ut til å være slengt fra deg i veikanten. Merkelig og uventet stopp som kanskje er høydepunktet på ferien så langt.

 Særlig denne øgla var imponerende. Zoomer man inn på bildet kan man se hva som har blitt brukt av deler, meget fascinerende.

Recoleta gravplass står også i alle guidebøker som et sted å oppleve, og det stemmer. Nærmest et lite borettslag av flotte mausoleum, bygd av byens rikere mennesker for å vise hvor viktige og rike de er. Også Evita / Eva Peron ligger begravet her under sin gamle familie; Duarte. Det tok dog sin tid å få liket fraktet hit hovedsaklig som følge av politisk spill kom hun ikke hit før 24år (!!) etter sin død.

Og for å avslutte, byens navn Buenos Aires er meget korrekt gitt, det er full sommer her, men det er jevnlig behagelige vinder rundt omkring som gir en avkjølende effekt