We had a fun dinner at Casa de los Mariscos in Ushuaia on our last night there, then a catamaran ride around the Beagle Channel before we boarded the Greg Mortimer on Monday afternoon to begin our Antarctic adventure 2.0 – this time with the goal of crossing the Antarctic Circle. We did that on Friday, getting to 66°51 degrees!
To be honest, I’ve lost track of time a bit. The Drake Passage on day one was quite rough and lots of folks stuck to their rooms, me included. I started feeling better the second day of the Passage, thanks to a bit of medication and slightly calmer seas.
We’ve seen lots and lots of whales – and penguins (Adelie and gentoo), crabeater seals, and leopard seals. We had our first shore excursion on Thursday, plus an afternoon Zodiac ride. Friday we went through a lot of ice and the weather was gorgeous – and again, a lot of whales seen from the observation deck. Yesterday, our trusty Zodiac popped us up on a floating bit of sea ice so we could walk around on it – fun!
Today, though, was just magical – while in the Zodiacs, we were in a bay with five or six humpbacks plus a Minke – they were just slowly making their way around the bay, eating, blowing, diving and showing off their flukes. This afternoon, John and I opted for another Zodiac ride rather than walking among the gentoo penguins on shore. The ice is just incredible – as are the mountains and glaciers. It’s hard to know what direction to look, it’s all so beautiful.
I’ll do better later about the islands and bays where we’ve been – it’s just too overwhelming at the moment to think straight!