Antarctica - smithantarctica

Antartica 2010

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In Miami all bundled up because it 40 degrees and there's no heat in the airport.

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3 plane rides and a 40 hour boat ride before we reach our final destination.

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Brrrr

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Buenos Airies, population 15 million!

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Our first of many steak dinners in Buenos Aires

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Dinner

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Ave. 9 de Julio. The widest blvd. in the world.

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Walking mall

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Carney's next relocation.

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Casa Rosada: the president works here. She doesn't live here, she takes a helicopter in every day. This is where Evita made her famous speech when she said "Don't cry for me Argentina".

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This is the obelisk in the center of the city. It was built in 1936 to commemerate the 400 anniversary of the city.

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May 25, 1810 is when Argentina declared independence from Spain.

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Casa Rosada again. Right before we took this picture the helicpoter came to deliver the President.

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Pretty tame pigeons

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Holy dog-walker

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Eva Peron's grave (aka Evita). Her husband was president and the Argentinian people loved her so much they wanted her to run for VP, but she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and died at a young age.

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Her grave is protected by many aboveground and underground sensors

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Another hurricane glass for the collection.

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The most famous opera house in Buenos Aires. It's undergoing a facelift for the bicentennial celebration this year.

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The solarium at our hotel. We spent a lot of time relaxing up here. Great 280 degree views of the city!

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Little baby police car. I don't know what they'd do if they came across a criminal, they couldn't fit them in there.

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Brian's new favorite beer, Quilmes.

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Unfortunately, soccer season was over, but we got to see the stadium. This was a mural on the outside.

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And this is the bum who resides outside of the stadium. He even has a recliner!

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El Caminito is a famous and colorful section of Buenos Aires. The Italian immigrants settled here and used scraps of corrugated metal and leftover paint to build shelters.

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We took a turn at the infamous tango......

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.....not really, we just posed for the photo.

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Colorful Caminito

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A view from the solarium

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Although there are lanes painted on the street, they appear to be invisible to drivers here. They drive wherever they want, crazy!

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Our last night in Buenos Aires we went to a tango show......

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.....with Joyce and Maury.

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Tango show

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Tango orchestra

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Ushuaia, Argentina. The southernmost city in the world.

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The black, white and red ship to the right behind Brian's head is our ship, MSFram. We'll be embarking in a few hours :)

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King crab for lunch with MSFram in the background.

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The flowers in this city are incredible!

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The end of the world.

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Rainbow! It rains off and on here all the time. One minute will be bright sunshine, and the next downpouring.

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This pic shows the beautiful flowers and the ever changing weather in Ushuaia. It's bright sun when I'm taking the picture, but a few minutes later those dark clouds are drenching us.

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The beautiful Lupino. I brought some seeds back to plant. I'm sure mine will never look like this though.

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Lupinos and poppies.

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Mary Beth's lovely picture of MSFram in port.

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Anchors away! The ship actually never anchored while we were on it. It has a very sophisticated jet propulsion system that allows it to stay in one place. This system also turns the boat.

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MSFram is Norwegian.

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Cabin 655. Home sweet home for 9 days.

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We spent a lot of time up here. This is at the front of the ship and has windows on 3 sides. It's also where the bar was.

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We spent many hours having drinks here with our new friends from all over the world.

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Here begins the 40 hour ride thru the Drake Passage onboard MSFram.

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Finally we see land and icebergs....

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....and swimming penguins.....we must be getting close!

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So here's the process of how we get to shore.......On the left is where the Zodiac boats are lowered into the water. On the right is the dock that folds out from the ship where we board the Zodiacs.

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The dockhands are in harnesses attached to the ship in case they go overboard.

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The Zodiacs move smaller icebergs out of the way so we have a clear path to shore.

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The expedition crew goes to shore first to check things out. After them goes a boat full of emergency equipment (food, water, tents, etc.) in case the weather changes and we can't get back to the ship. Thankfully that never happened.

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For each landing we get all of our gear on and then wait for our group number to be called. We have to wait outside so we dont' melt with all these clothes on. It was usually about 40 degrees, but the weather can change on a dime, so we always dressed for the worst. We were usually sweating while on shore.

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Puttin' on our Wellies. Good for keeping your feet dry, not so good for walking on slippery rocks and snow or keeping your feet warm.

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Fairly sophisticated boot-drying system. Each boot has an air hose going into it so you never have to put on wet boots.

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Every time we got on and off the ship they scanned our cruise card to make sure no one got left behind.

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Before getting in the Zodiac, we had to step in this giant sponge to clean our boots. It's really important not to bring any foreign species, seeds, pods, etc. to land. We had to have our backpacks and jackets vacuumed too.

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When we got back to the ship we'd scrub our boots on these brushes to get the penguin poo off.

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Our first trip to shore in Antarctica!

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Our first landing, Half Moon Island.

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Lazy Weddell seal.

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Chinstrap penguins. They always look like they're smiling:)

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Baby Chinstrap twins

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It's hard to capture how many penguins there are. There were rookeries(groups) like this one everywhere you look.

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Most of the penguins on this island are chinstraps, but we found this 1 lonely gentoo.

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I think this is my favorite picture of the whole trip.

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We're going swimming!

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Brian had to carry me in or I never would've done it.

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Can't even put into words how cold it was.

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Why did I do that?

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Straight to the hot tub after our swimming adventure.

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Day 2: we saw our first whale.

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Day 2, landing #1: Neko Harbor.

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Gentoo penguins.

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They use their hard tails feathers as a tripod to help them balance.

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This is part of their mating ritual. The male carries a rock to the female as a sign of affection.

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The female then takes it and adds it to the nest.

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A blurry shot pirated from the ship's blog, but you get the idea. Can you say missile!

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Seeing penguins goes like this.....first you smell them (previous photo), then you hear them, then you see them.

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Neko Harbor

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Mary Beth's photo contest entry.

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Day 2, landing #2: Port Lockroy. We had to wait all day for the wind to die down so we could make this landing. It was about 9pm before we got to go ashore.

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This building was a souvenir shop where we could buy a few momentos. The penguins live all around, up to, and under the building.

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This is a British station that is only occupied for 4 months in the summer. There were 4 girls living here for this season. This is their bedroom, kitchen and dining room. They have no hot water so when the cruiseships come, they get to go aboard for a shower and a meal.

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Feeding time.

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Snuggling babies.

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It's 11pm and still light out!

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My favorite zodiac "Heidi".

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Day 3, landing #1: Vernadsky Station.

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A LOOOONG ways from anywhere.

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The hole in the ozone was discovered here at this station and continues to be a research project here.

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Since this station is occupied year round, they have to have resources for heating/cooking/showering.

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The bar at Vernadsky Station, where they make their own vodka.

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If you give them your bra, you get a free shot. Hmmmm, a $3 shot for a $50 bra? Doesn't seem like a good trade to me. We would've bought a shot had we not changed all of our money to pesos. Who knew the accepted currency in Antarctica would be American dollars???

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After visiting Vernadsky Station, we got to go for a Zodiac ride where we came across these lazy crab-eater seals.

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I think he's smiling at us :)

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The mighty Fram.

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Amazing icebergs. The pictures don't do justice to the brilliant blues and greens that show thru them.

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Day 3, landing #2: Peterman Island.

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We're supposed to stay 15ft. away, but you can't always do that because they come so close.

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Most of the babies had already hatched, but we did see a few eggs.

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The brown bird is a Skua and they are a penguin predator. They get right up in the mama/papa penguin's face and wait for them to make a move, and then they snatch the baby :(

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I was just walking along and all of a sudden Mr. Penguin merged in. I stopped to keep my 15 ft. distance.

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"Iceberg Alley" is behind us. There were 2 kayakers down there.

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Iceberg Alley. Would be magnificent on a clear day! It looked like a huge glass of water with floating ice cubes.

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Adelie penguin

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Adelie adults and babies.

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These Adelie babies are starting to shed their baby feathers.

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Baby Adelie having a tantrum?

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This is a "penguin highway". They pack down these paths of snow to get around. The snow outside the path is very deep and if they were to fall in they wouldn't be able to get out.

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The rarely seen headless penguin.

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We didn't realize how mountainous Antarctica is. We never saw flat land.

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This is in the Lemaire Channel. We're surrounded on both sides by tall mountains and floating icebergs. Beautiful!

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Lemaire Channel

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Mary Beth got this beautiful shot.

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Day 4 was a good say for finding whales (great shot by Mary Beth)......

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....penguins.....

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....and seals.

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Day 4: Paradise Bay. Our last Antarctic landing :(

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Barefoot run anyone?

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We climbed up this tall hill and then got to slide down on our butts! So much fun that Brian did it twice!

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Views from the top.....magnificent!

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Beautiful Fram

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This was 1 of a couple sailboats we saw while there. We actually took a few people from their boat back to Ushuaia with us. I think it was prearranged, not sure though. They looked awfully scruffy. Would that make them shiphikers?

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Penguins stand like this to cool off. It was 40-45 degrees the whole time we were here. Very comfortable for us, too warm for these guys.

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The calls they make are very distinct. Watch the videos to get the full effect.

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I wanted to sneak 1 of these babies in my pocket SO bad.

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Our last Zodiac ride.

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This is the hill we climbed from a different viewpoint.

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Crabeater seal

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Another pirated photo.

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Leopard seal, these guys eat up to 15 penguins a day!

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Our friends Joyce and Maury, from Seattle.

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This was a typical night........ hanging out in the bar with our friends from Australia, Wyoming, Florida, Seattle, and Atlanta. We had so much fun with them!