Drake Lake

The entire day was spent at sea – and fortunately for us, the seas were great – we crossed the Drake Passage, the roughest seas in the world and did not encounter any problems.  Those who have crossed the Drake numerous times call it the Drake Lake when it is calm and the Drake Shake when it is rough.  While the ship was still rocking and rolling and popping and cracking it was considered by the staff as a smooth – Drake Lake – crossing.  We are hoping for the same conditions on our return to Ushuaia.

The Ocean Diamond excursion staff kept us busy all day with educational lectures (whales, sea birds, photography, Yoga, stand-up-paddle boarding and security/safety.)  The birds flying along side the ship were beautiful.  The Petrels had wings with designs that looked like Indian art.

From one of the lectures we learned that there is a very specific ring around Antarctica called the Polar Front.  The water temperature before you reach the polar front is 6 degrees Celsius. It takes two hours after crossing the polar front to reduce the water temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. When we entered a lecture we were just crossing the polar front and the water temperature was 6 degrees Celsius.  Fifteen minutes later it had already dropped to 5 degrees Celsius. As soon as you cross the Polar Front and the temperature drops, marine life changes.

We are looking forward to starting 2015 on a new continent!

Leaving Ushuaia

Today we woke up, went to breakfast, put on our seasickness patches (which caused dry mouth and cold-like symptoms)  and while our luggage was being transferred to the ship, we shopped in Ushuaia, went to the Maritime and prison museums, ate lunch and continued to be frustrated by spotty internet service.  While it never truly gets warm in Ushuaia, today was particularly cold and rainy.  Ushuaia is a colorful town and is particularly pretty from the ship where the colors are easily seen.  

 

We boarded the Ocean Diamond around 4:00 p.m. and were pleasantly surprised by our rooms – nicer than any we have had on any ship as we had upgraded to a suite.  The Ocean Diamond is an expedition ship as opposed to a cruise ship.  Instead of tenders to get passengers ashore, the ship uses 18 Zodiacs.  It is also equipped with kayaks, camping equipment, skis, snow shoes, trekking poles and paddle boards. There are 185 passengers, 26 Quark Excursion Crew and 92 Hoteling and operational staff.  Only those ships with less than 200 passengers are allowed to let their passengers set foot on Antarctica.

 

We had a short introductory briefing, a nice dinner and received our bright yellow Quark Parkas that will be our best friends over the next 9 days.  After dinner we awaited “The Bump” – the moment there is no more land on the starboard or port side or the ship – the moment we leave the Beagle Channel and officially enter the Drake Passage.    As we entered the Drake the ship started creaking and popping even though there were only seven-foot swells.  When we went to bed a little before midnight and it was still light outside. 

 

 

Ushuaia

Ushuaia is a city on an island named The Grand Island, one of 200 islands in the archipelago off the tip of South America.  Ushuaia is in the Patagonia region (which encompasses part of Chile) and the Tierra Del Fuego province of Argentina.

 We awoke early this morning to take a train ride to the "End of the World" - the southernmost tip of South America.   In the early 1900s Argentina needed a presence in Patagonia.  Since no one wanted to settle and develop the area, they created a penal colony. The original train was built and used by prisoners to extract wood for building and heating purposes.  The penal colony was closed in 1947 and the landscape is littered with tree stumps (left by the prisoners) that take up to 100 years to decompose due to the harsh environment.

The average temperature in the winter is 32° and the average temperature in summer is 48°.  The snowcapped mountains are stunning and could make one believe that they may be in Switzerland.
 
As with all countries, there were original inhabitants before European settlers came.  The tribal group that occupied what is now the national park Tierra Del Fuego were named Yamanas. They survived mostly on sea-lions and mollusks.  These peoples have all disappeared mostly through disease and being exploited for their access to sea lion colonies.  There is one 82 year old woman left who is full blooded Yamana and she lives in Chile.

Tomorrow we leave for Antarctica.  Internet service is spotty at best but we will keep a daily blog of our activities and post them as soon as possible.

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia -

We started our day with a breakfast at Loi Suites and the calm atmosphere of the atrium.

We visited La Boca, a neighborhood in  Buenos Aires named for its position at "the mouth" of the Riachuelo and the home to thousands of immigrants from Italy, Spain, and other European countries.  La Boca is the domain of the working class and is known for their brightly painted buildings.

We continued on to the Sunday San Telmo market and on to the airport for our flight to Ushuaia in Patagonia - the southernmost city in the world.

We arrived in Ushuaia around 7:00 p.m. and it appeared to be mid-afternoon.  The sun finally went down around 11:00.  We checked in to our hotel, the Albatross, and then, after 9:00, went for a wonderful dinner with Ralph and Donna to Casimiro Bigua, a great beef restaurant, and dined until almost midnight. We had a wonderful time and our waiter, Lucas, was the perfect match of service and personality.  The four of us wined, dined and laughed for hours.

We are already experiencing wifi outages.

Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires this afternoon after an overnight flight from Houston in time to have a late outdoor lunch and walk around the Recoleta Craft Fair. It is summer in Buenos Aires and a steamy 85 degrees.

We had a wonderful dinner full of lively conversation, camaraderie and lots of laughter with Ralph and Donna at our favorite Recoleta restaurant, La Pecora Nera.  The homemade ravioli stuffed with deer meat and cooked in a Malbec rosemary sauce was to die for. We were able to pay with American dollars which resulted in a savings of 1/3 of the cost of our meal!

Tomorrow we continue our journey south by flying to Ushuaia, the Capitol of Tierra del Fuego, a Province of Argentina. It is considered the southernmost city in the world. Their motto is "End of the World, Beginning of Everything ".

And so it begins....

Our Journey Begins

Our Journey Begins

 

 

We are off to explore Antarctica!.   We cannot wait to return for just one night to Buenos Aires, Argentina to eat at our favorite restaurant (La Pecora Nera) and stay at our favorite hotel in Recoleta (Loi Suites).  Next, we go to Ushuaia, Argentina (tip of South America) for a few days before joining a Quark Expedition to Antarctica for 11 days.  

We will take a polar plunge into freezing Antarctic waters, camp for one night on the ice, walk among the penguins, seals and other native aquatic wildlife and hopefully see numerous whales.   

Getting to Antarctica requires crossing the Drake Passage, the body of water between the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The 500 miles wide passage between South America and the Antarctica Peninsula is the shortest crossing from Antarctica to the rest of the world's land. There is no significant land anywhere around the world at the latitudes of the Drake Passage.  This creates an unimpeded flow of current which carries a huge volume of water (about 600 times the flow of the Amazon) through the Passage and around Antarctica.  Our crossing, which will take 2 days each way, will either be named "The Drake Lake" if it is calm or "The Drake Shake" if it is choppy.  Either way it will be an adventure and we believe we are prepared with the appropriate seasickness remedies. We will end this wonderful vacation by thawing out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for four days before returning home.

But, we are getting ahead of ourselves.  First, we cannot wait to get to Buenos Aires and meet up with our great friends and travel companions, Ralph and Donna Ainger.   We are meeting them for dinner tomorrow evening at La Pecora Nera.

Last year, we were in Argentina for two weeks and enjoyed keeping a Blog each day.  We plan to do that again this year with Antarctica but we may not have quite the level of access to the Internet that we did on the mainland.  We plan to try!

And away we go!