Antarctica . . .and so it ends

We survived Drake Passage and Cape Horn. On Tues night (Jan 30), the ship's passengers , the expedition team and ship's crew shared mutual congratulations and we saw a wonderful slide show commemorating our 10 day trip.

The captain shared that we would get to Ushuaia by 2AM Wed (Jan 31) morning which would give us plenty of time to make our 9:50AM flight. Tuesday night we had a wonderful final dinner with the Ansari's and Nazem's and then set about our final packing.

We awoke Wed morning and were not docked in Ushuaia! It seems there was a Ugandan military ship in our way. That made for an exciting morning whereby we (along with other passengers) got taxi'd from The World to Ushuaia via the ship's life boat. We barely made our flight to Buenos Aires, but did make it. We had an authentic lunch at an Argentinian steakhouse in Buenos Aires and then made our way to the international airport for our redeye flight back to Atlanta. Needless to say today (Thur Feb 1) is a recovery day.

What a trip. We landed on the most remote of Earth's continents. We saw animals in their natural habitats and vistas (water, glaciers, icebergs, mountains, etc) that were just incredible. We made new friends from all over the U.S. All in all, it was a great vacation and an even better experience.

Drake Passage and Cape Horn

Just trying to catch up on our last few days. On Sunday (Jan 28), soon after seeing the humpback whales we lost sight of Antarctica as we made our way to the Drake Passage. We had had such good success (ie not rough water) on the way there and we were hoping for a similar experience on the way back. Well, we woke on Monday (Jan 29) to not the worst the Drake Passage had to offer, but we did have 20 foot swells which was plenty to drain the energy of many folks on board the ship. However, Dad did happen to see an exciting sight out our window. Three killer whales were feeding off the port side of the ship around 10AM on Monday morning. It was a quick sighting but very fun.

The rest of the day Mom and Dad spent in lectures on the history of whaling and global warming and Courtney, Lauren, Abby and Dallas caught up on journals and watched movies.

On Tuesday (Jan 30) we arrived at Cape Horn. Cape Horn is at the bottom of Chile in Tierra del Fuego. Many, many sailors have lost their lives trying to make the trek from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. The weather was iffy (wind and rain) but they did let us make a landing.

Picture of the lighthouse at Cape Horn.

An Albatross memorial to commemorate the lost sailors.
Courtney and Lauren made the landing. They're sitting on the memorial with Cape Horn in the background.
It was very windy. Guessing that we had 70 mph gusts.

Humpback Whales

Paradise Bay was a lot of fun. We pulled anchor and started our way back through the Gerlache Strait. While there we found 2 Humpback Whales (a Mom and her baby). They were feeding. Humpback's grow to 50 feet and can weigh as much as 40 tons.

Paradise Bay

Sunday (Jan 28) we arrived to Paradise Bay via the Lemaire Channel. Our hope was to see a Leopard seal but that didn’t happen. We did zodiac around in a beautiful iceberg filled bay.

A couple of crabeater seals. They weren't too concerned about their new visitors.
Close up.
The icebergs in Paradise Bay had a very deep blue.
We got to climb up on another glacier. We remembered that this was the first time Dallas had ever seen snow.
Another snowball fight ensued!

Penguin Party

Been having some internet difficulties.

Saturday night (Jan 27)after our excursion to Neko Harbour, The World had a special screening of March of the Penguins. Everyone got dressed up in their Black and White. Abby and Dallas got a little crazy.

Glacier and Polar Plunge

Ther're telling us that today is our last Zodiac ride and landing on the continent of Antarctica. Very sad. We've had such a good time in this beautiful place. Yesterday, the big event was the Polar Plunge . . . and yes four members of the family made the team. Courtney led the way, followed by Abby, then Lauren and then Dad. The temperature was 33 degrees. Very cold. We then went on Zodiac ride and landed in Andvord Bay.
Picture during our cruise through Lemaire Channel.

Gentoo penguins at Neko Harbour. The vistas just keep getting better.
We're really enjoying ourselves.
We got to climb up a glacier and slide down. Lauren didn't like it at all!!

Relative Size

Just in case you can't tell the relative size of these mountains, mountains of snow, icebergs, etc here are some pictures that show our boats.

This is the scout boat showing the way for The World so as to insure we have safe passge.
Here are pictures of our Zodics in and amongst the icebergs.
Another picture of a Zodiac against the mountain background.
A picture of The World wrapped in snow!!