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