As we wake up we immediately get the feeling that is going to be a special day.
The Ushuaia has sailed while we were asleep and set anchor in the Andvord Bay.
After the Dali desert in Bolivia this is the second time in this trip that we get the feeling to be standing in a surrealist painting.
The colour of the water, almost black, and the grey sky are the perfect canvass for the floating iridescent Icebergs.
Most importantly after days of heavy currents , storms, strong waves and winds, today everything is silent and nothing moves. A chilly majestic peace surrounds us.
We jump on the zodiac full of expectations.
Far in the distance on a flat floating table of ice a small black dot stands still.
As we get close we recognise the features of an Adele Penguin.
After yesterday’s visit at the Gentoo colony what’s interesting in this encounter is the fact that this little fellow is there alone.
We get quite close with our zodiac and the Penguin keeps doing his morning toilet without caring about us.
It bends so much on one side that the black and white of his feathers almost resemble the yin and yang sign.
Penguins produce a protective oil from their tail that they spread over their bodies with their beaks.
Suddenly the Adele penguin strands up straight and looks at us with his blue intense eyes showing all his beauty (it is by far our favourite).
I manage to catch it just on time before it dives and disappears in the dark waters.
Not far from our first encounter we also make a second encounter, this time with a seal (probably a crab eater seal)
The seal is taking a nap on the snow. His body is all covered in scars.
We are told that it could have been the work of another seal, the Leopard seal.
The seal rolls over to check us out and goes back to sleep as we do not represent a threat (nor a treat)
It is quite interesting how reality never matches expectations.
Somehow in our minds we expected to see a huge amount of animals, whales, orcas, seals and penguins swimming around us, almost on top of each other.
So far we have made only few encounters and yet we are not disappointed.
Every encounter becomes almost special as it is a rare thing.
That aside we never get tired of admiring the surrounding sceneries.
If Elena has come here to see the penguins I must confess I came primarily to see the orcas, possibly in action while capturing and devouring a leopard seal.
On the way back I ask the question to our skipper: “do you think we will see the orcas”?
The answer is not what I was hoping for: “in 8 years I have never seen one”.
Is that true or is he only managing our expectations?
And yet sometimes dreams come true.
As we board ship and get ready for a hot shower the captain announces again “there is a flock of orcas at 1 o clock”.
This time it us who run half naked out with the camera hanging around the neck.
3 killer orcas are swimming far in the distance almost forming a line.
The zoom on the camera is just enough to capture their elegant shapes.
Finally the moment I was hoping for is approaching.
There are 3 penguins trapped on a small iceberg watching death coming towards them.
Elena is clinging on my arm, feeling and cheering for the penguins.
I am thorn between hoping for the penguins to escape but at the same time I would like to see the Orcas in action.
As the Orcas swim behind the small iceberg the penguins lay on the ground and we almost lose sight of them.
Finally one of the orcas rises the head above water. It is very quick and at the same time so exciting that everyone shouts simulteniously.
It is not a deadly attack however, it is more to glance at the penguins out of curiosity.
The orca carries on swimming and after 1 minute, as danger has now gone away, the penguins lift their heads again. They are safe and Elena cheers.
Now that the excitement is over I think that only half hr ago we were in the same waters on our small zodiac where orcas are swimming.......
The afternoon goes on with another landing on the Antarctic soil.
We visit another Gencoo colony and Elena and I are immediately captured by a very hard working little fellow.
This is the time when the females lay their egg and the male helps in building the nest.
They do that by either gathering small stones in the surrounding area or by steeling the stones of their neighbours.
This couple built their nest on top of a very steep rock so that the poor fellow had to constantly climb up and down risking to fall at every step and yet managing to keep the balance all the time.
He must have gone up and down at least 30 times in the space of 10 minutes....we were laughing so much that we were almost in tears.
The day ended with the sight of an Elephant seal "puppy"catching the last rays of sun.
After a nice night sleep this morning we are ready to begin our exploration of the Antarctic peninsula.
We begin with a zodiac tour.
The sceneries around us are from another world
so we don’t mind too much to get wet when big waves hit the Zodiac.
This morning we are going to see the wreckage of the ship Governoren
The history of the Antarctic continent is filled with heroic stories and disasters.
Exploration of this inhospitable continent started in the 19th century when boats were made of wood and men were made of iron.
People like Nordenskjold, Gerlache and Shackleton made history with their tales of courage strength and ability to survive.
The “heroic era” culminated at the beginning of the 20th century with the race to the South Pole between Amundsen and Scott in 1911.
The Norwegian in the end won the race getting fame and glory back at home while the English explorer not only faced the disappointment to reach the pole few days later to find a Norwegian tent and flag but him and his men died of exhaustion on the way back.
It is not easy to navigate in these waters, even with a small zodiac.
Icebergs of all size and shape are constantly appearing around the corner and our driver is doing the best to avoid them while we are doing our best to capture them.
Our first encounter with animal life is with a kelpgull making a dive, probably to catch a krill, the small shrimp that pretty much represents the base of the diet of most animals in the Antarctic.
We come back to the Ushuaia after 2 exhilarating hours.
We don’t even have the time to get changed that the captain announces on the speakers that there is a humpback whale far in the distance at 10 o clock.
We all rush out from our cabins, some people half naked (probably from Scandinavia) or wearing flip flops, so that we can admire this 15 meters whale making few passages and diving showing off the tale......no jumps or splash this time I am afraid.
The program for the afternoon is to visit a colony of Gentoo penguins in our first landing on the continent at Puerto Neko and do a little bit of climbing to take some areal pictures of the bay.
It is too early to spot any chicks of penguins as the Gentoos have just begun to lay their eggs.
These penguins are seriously monogamist. They raise their chicks together, taking turns to go fishing walking in line in the snow using tracks called “the penguin highway”.
The highway can be easily recognised as it is bright orange, due to the excrements left behind by the penguins on strict krill diet.
We climb for 30 minutes, sometimes sinking in 80 cms of snow.
The wind is strong and blinding but for once we don’t feel too cold as the climbing keeps us warm and in the end we are rewarded with great views of the bay.
What a start! Back at the ship for dinner we are already looking forward to tomorrow.
Our arrival to “the end of the world” as they call it is very different from how we had imagined it.
In our plans we always thought to get here after an epic journey on the bike with dirt roads, strong winds, rain and cold and finally take a picture at the town sign next to the bike.
Instead we got to our B & B on a 10 minutes drive on a taxi from the airport to the city centre.
We arrive on the 9th of December in a sunny evening.
The following day however we wake up with a dark sky and rain.
In 5 months of travelling this is probably the only cold and rainy day we got.....we can’t really complain!
We hire some water proof trousers and gloves and head to the port where the Ushuaia, the boat that will take us on a 10 days journey to Antarctica, is waiting for us.
The wind is so strong that we can barely stand still while we are waiting to board the ship.
In our mind we know that the next 48 hrs will be seriously tough.
The Drake passage, the 1000 kms of sea that divides South America from the Antarctic peninsula has been dreaded by all sailors over the centuries.
When the sea is rough there are waves as high as 15 meters and gusts of wind travelling at 50 knots.
As we check in the crew tells us that we expect “medium” conditions.
We don’t know exactly what they mean with medium but the signs on the boat are not exactly reassuring.
There are emergency bags everywhere and in our room one of the handles in the bathroom door is missing. We are told that during the previous journey the boat was shaking so much that the door slammed against the wall and the handle broke.
The boat leaves on time at 6pm and we begin our cruise through the beagle channel.
The first 6 hrs will be fine as we are still sailing in the Beagle channel.
The crew take advantage of this “calm” to brief us on the emergency procedures. We even do a full on exercise on how to abandon ship!!!
Only 2 years ago a similar trip ended up with the boat sinking in the Antarctic sea after hitting an iceberg. Luckily all people on board were rescued.
During dinner we begin to meet the other 84 passengers that will be our companions for the next 10 days.
The majority of the people on board are Europeans, North Americans and Chinese.
In particular we jell immediately with a Dutch couple and an Austrian couples.
At midnight exactly we get to open sea.
We pop our sea sickness pills and run for cover
We spend the following 48 hrs in bed unable to move or in actual fact rolling from one side of the bed to the other following the movements of the ship.
Sometimes the boat leans so heavily on one side that we find ourselves squashed against the wall or against the ever so useful metal bar that prevents us from falling out of bed.
It is impossible to stand and yet after 24 hrs we force ourselves to leave the cabin in search of food.
It is literally a 2 minutes incursion in the almost empty restaurant to grab some bread, water and green apples.
Our heads are exploding, we are shivering and sweating. I even hear someone saying that I look extremely green! Then we rush back to our bed in what looks like a ghost boat.
Almost everybody is locked in their cabin feeling sick. All bags have disappeared from the corridors.
Finally, after 48 hrs in hell we hear the announcement we were waiting for: Land!
We have reached the Shetland Islands where the boat can finally anchor and our heads and stomachs can find peace.
The 84 passengers come out from their rooms in search of food and comfort.
Our Antarctic exploration can finally begin and we can proudly say “yes, we have survived the Drake passage”.
It takes around 1 hr by bus on a good road to reach the Perito Moreno glacier from El Calafate.
The name Perito Moreno comes from the explorer that was appointed by the Argentinean government to explore the area in order to define the borders between Chile and Argentina.
Originally the border line was defined by the direction of the water in the rivers (i.e. if the water goes towards the Pacific then it is Chile, if it flows towards the Atlantic it is Argentina).
Moreno was the first to highlight that rivers and glaciers were in constant movement and so were the borders (causing major problems).
His major contribution was to suggest the current way of defining borders which is by using the picks of the mountains.
His methodology was finally adopted and Argentina and Chile never had a war.
Moreno never saw the glacier that carries his name. In his diaries he wrote that “huge icebergs were floating in the area and therefore he assumed that there was a glacier at the end of the valley”.
So, what’s so special about the Perito Moreno glacier? At the end of the day South Patagonia has a front of ice long 350 kms with plenty of glaciers, often much bigger than the Moreno.
There are few reasons why the Moreno glacier has established itself as a huge tourist attraction:
First of all the surrounding area it is not covered in snow or ice which makes the glacier to stand out from the rest.
The Moreno (unlike many glaciers that are receding) is a stable glacier, it does not move location, which makes the life of the tour providers much easier (they can set up view points and facilities which can be left in the same place indefinitely)
The northern front of the glacier provides plenty of breakings during the day which is a stunning show both in terms of view and sound.
Due to its stability the glacier is safe to walk on. As the tour agency says all you need is to be fit and between 18 and 65 years old to do the mini trekking (90 minutes). For the big ice tour (4 hrs) the age limit is 45.
Boats can also approach the glacier very closely.
Last but not least the glacier offers once in a while a majestic breaking.
The advancing ice often creates a natural dam blocking one side of the lake.
As torrents keep filling the newly formed mini lake, the level of the water keeps growing and so the pressure on the dam made of ice.
Eventually, when the pressure is too big, the trapped water carves a tunnel under the ice which gets wider and wider until the outstanding arch of ice collapses in a thundering wave.
We are told that back in the 60’ the level of the lake rose by 20 meters.
When the water finally broke through the tunnel it only took 24 hrs for the collapse to take place.
The tour can only be organised by one agency in El Calafate called Hielo y Aventura. They have the monopoly.
We have to say that they do a very good job with plenty of explanations during the tour and always putting safety first.
The cost of the tour is around £90 per person and includes bus transfer from and to the hotel, boat tour, 90 minutes ice trekking, and even a free drink at the improvised ice bar in the glacier!
