Antarctic final days

Eventually our good luck run out and our last 2 days in the Antarctic peninsula were characterised by some very poor weather.

The way south was shut by a thick wall of icebergs and a couple of zodiac excursions were cancelled due to the strong winds.

We still managed to take few decent pictures like an heart shaped iceberg or a leopard seal.

A big disappointment was not to be able to set foot on Deception island, famous for its hot volcanic springs.
It would have been nice to end our trip here swimming in the Antarctic sea!
The Ushuaia still managed to sail in this 15 kms volcanic crater filled with sea water and with a small entrance of only 500 meters!

Our last days in Antarctica also marked the end of our Canon camera.
The 12 months old device could no longer cope with the rain, snow and wind of this unwelcoming land and died on us making one last final shot to this white bird on ice. R.I.P.

When eventually the wind ceased to blow we managed to make a couple of final excursions.

The first one was to Paradise bay.

The views of the glacier both from the zodiac and from the top of the hill were absolutely astonishing.

We also enjoyed coming down from the hill sliding down at some serious speed.

The last expedition was at Half Moon Island.

The undisturbed inhabitants of this small island are a big colony of chinstrap penguins renowned for being extremely noisy.

As they say what goes around comes around.

In return of all that bad weather the sun came out on these snowy valleys for a final goodbye.

Most importantly stayed with us during the entire crossing of the Drake passage on the way back to Ushuaia.

It is not very heroic but this will probably go down in history as the easiest and least painful crossing of the Drake!

The sea was so flat that we even threw a party that lasted almost all night....

The following morning there were as many green faces as in the previous crossing, this time due to the level of alcohol in the blood.