odds and ends

This is likely to be my last blog post while traveling. We’re at sea today, tomorrow is a shore day at Montevideo, Uruguay. Then we return to Buenos Aires, where we’ll have a day and a half with my good friend Martin (a college friend I’ve known forever, who lives there) before starting the long journey home. So, most likely my next post will be from home, around March 3rd. Actually I’m pretty amazed that I’ve been able to use the internet as much as I have on this trip. The satellite connection on the ship has worked most days, not all, but most, even in Antarctica. Some days it was so pathetically slow, that I’d say it wasn’t really working then either. You buy a package of minutes, and then try not to be sensitive to the fact it takes 5 minutes to see if you even have email, let alone read any of it, at a price of X per minute. For the blog I’d write it first then cut and paste it in. And it’s been good. Except for the time I somehow didn’t bookmark the logoff page for the cruise network, and so when I closed my internet window the ship system kept open, and it took me half an hour to figure out how to shut it off! Just $20 of internet time down the tubes.

It’s surprised me how much I’ve enjoyed writing this blog. I hope that some people have read it, but even if no one did, or if they read about the travel but aren’t interested in the disability stuff, I’d still keep writing. I signed up for a writing workshop next October created by The Sun magazine, and located at the Esalen Institute in Monterey, and I’m really excited about it. It’s something I need to do for myself.

But enough about writing – more about the trip!

Yesterday we were in Puerto Madryn, a city in Patagonia. It’s a very dry desert like place, drier even than San Diego because all the wind blows toward the sea, so even though they are on the ocean, there’s no sea breeze or moisture in the air. The private excursion we lined up worked out well. It was a sedan car as arranged, the tour guide was knowledgeable, driver was crazy fast but seemed to be following prevailing driving practices (note that I do not say laws!) It was not a particularly exciting place, but worth a stop. We went to a beach where there were seals, playing and sleeping. Then we visited a dinosaur museum. A lot of dinosaur bones have been found in Argentina and Brazil, and this group does excavations and creates models. It was a small collection, and I admit to being spoiled by grand museums in the US, but still it was admirable. Lastly we went to a town called Gaiman, a welsh town created about 150 years ago. Without all the boring history, a group of welsh people founded this town and brought a lot of stuff from Wales and until recently have preserved a lot of their culture and customs. Things are breaking down now somewhat, but it was curious to see all these old stone buildings in Argentina. I admit I’m more taken by how people live now than looking at historical places. I note things like the tiny size of the front yards of houses – perhaps only 3 feet deep and the width of the house, since the houses are very close together. And yet, everyone will put up fences or low walls around these tiny gardens, some even with locked gates. It looks very different from what we are used to. In Buenos Aires there are really tall apartment buildings, with 2 sides of the building totally flat, windows only on the front and back sides. That’s because at any time someone could build an apartment building right next to them – sort of like apartment row houses. But often no other buildings are erected, so these skinny towers of flat sided apartment buildings are all over.

In Gaiman, we had lunch at a local parilla, and I have come to the conclusion that despite my efforts to be open minded, I don’t really like the Argentine traditional meal. It’s fatty meat, fried potatoes and salad (which is lettuce, tomato and oil and vinegar only). My biggest problem is the meat – except for the high end places like Cabana las lilas in BA, it’s uniformly tough, fatty and salty. Give me fish! Which of course was a big industry in Puerto Madryn, but no one eats it there, it’s all exported to Europe.

Pulling out of Puerto Madryn we had a group of perhaps a dozen dolphins along side the ship, they are so graceful – natural aquatic dancing, they turn and leap as a group, dark shapes against a bright blue sea. Finally we had weather warm enough for a sail away party. And later last night we had a good look at the sky again. We’ve definitely seen the Southern Cross on 2 nights – it’s a group of 4 stars, and really easy to spot. So, we sat on our veranda with glasses of port and looked at the Milky Way. So romantic.

Odds and ends – written before Puerto Madryn, 2 days ago.

The albatross are so cool. Yesterday as we pulled out of Ushuaia, it was windy, and they like the wind – so there were several of them following the ship, and we got a great look at them. The naturalist on board is also a birder, and he gave one lecture on sea birds, mostly about the albatross because it is a favorite of his (and I can see why), so now I’m an expert too! The ones we saw were black-browed albatross – white bodies with black wings that turn more white as the birds age. They live to be about 30, and when they mate around age 10 they mate for life. They fly around and around Antarctica in the Drake passage and seem to be able to fly almost indefinitely, because they are gliders and use little energy, but only if there is wind. Their wing spans are about 6 to 7 feet, not the largest of albatross, which can get up to 17 feet, but pretty impressive anyway. The wing size to body size ratio is high. They have tendons in their wings that they can lock, so that their wings stay stiff. They can drink sea water, by filtering it in their beaks and the salt leaks out these tubes along their beaks, which enables them to stay over the sea for long times. They can dive down 10 feet into the water to look for food. And they have a very good sense of smell, so can smell a dead seal from miles away, and probably that’s what draws them to the ship as well. But what’s so beautiful is watching them fly. I gather that when it’s not windy they just sit on the water and wait till the wind comes back, which isn’t long around the Drake passage. Then they lift up those big wings and let the wind catch them, and they just glide and swoop – back and forth, dipping and diving, up over around and back.

For some reason they like the back of the ship. So, once again this cabin veranda has been a pleasure. When the naturalist has his bird watching sessions he goes to Deck 10, back of the ship. We’re just 2 decks below him, so we’re seeing the same show. Today it was Giant Southern Petrels, also fun to watch. These are black birds, also with a tubular beak, but smaller. The fun thing about them though is that they come closer to the ship, and fly in groups instead of solo. At this moment I think there are about 20 of them out there playing around. It looks like playing, no way we’ll know what goes on in their little brains. The naturalist says these birds eat at night. They aren’t as impressive as the albatross – not as large, and I don’t know if their wings lock stiff, it doesn’t seem so to look at them, for they wobble more and dip and dive more. But whatever bird is flying out there is welcome, especially when I’ve been doing my stretches for my neck – it has given me something interesting to focus on, something that makes me not want to rush through to finish.

We’ve seen some other interesting birds too. I liked the blue eyed cormorant. It looks a lot like a penguin when it’s just sitting there. While on the catamaran in Ushuaia we pulled up to a rock island, and everyone got all excited – penguins! Then we noticed that some of them were taking off and flying – these were cormorants. Same rounded bodies, glossy, black backs, white fronts as penguins, but not related at all.

Food – I haven’t talked much about food, which I only realized today, and this is not like me at all. But mostly it’s because we’ve had a lot of cruise ship food, and honestly the stuff on this ship is just ok. Our excursions force us back on the ship before dinner. The food was great in Buenos Aires, not bad in Iguazu. The ship food unfortunately varies in quality from day to day. They have one little bistro of South American flavors, which we’ve been to twice. One was a Brazilian barbeque, another a small eclectic menu. But their menu doesn’t change daily, and I’m not inclined to go again. We went to the specialty restaurant twice , which is better and more like a real restaurant, but there is an extra charge, and you don’t want to eat that rich daily anyway.

But even with my complaints, I like the main dining hall more than the cafeteria upstairs. I find it hard to negotiate this cafeteria when it’s crowded. I don’t want to get others sick by handling anything that’s self serve (luckily most things are served by staff, but not all), nor do I want to catch any new bugs – which is possible when your immune system is already down. There is staff to help me, to carry my tray etc, but I don’t know what I want, need to circle around, and hate having this personal attendant following me like a shadow, in general. And then there’s the problem of getting a table, or finding Jim who’s gone to look for a table. The tables are not set up so that a wheelchair can get to all of them, not that this matters much, for usually they are full. They just don’t have enough seating at lunch time, or they don’t have enough for lunchtime when in a cold climate and no one wants to eat outside. On cold days people camp out at the window tables, often 2 people to a large table, and then they don’t leave, all day. On the Azamara ship the staff would kick people out who weren’t eating, but not on this one. On the Holland America ship the tables were set with small ones by windows, larger ones further away, and all in rows so a wheelchair can get through.

So, we’ve had dinners at the dining room and lunches at a variety of spots. Tried the dining hall for lunch one day, but it took so long. Today was warm enough they opened the pool grill. My favorite spot is the Aqua Spa buffet. It’s all cold food, supposedly healthy food – small portions of some fish or chicken or mushroom sandwich, salad bar (no dressing), fruit bar. The best dessert I’ve had was there – a panna cotta made with yogurt and mango. Another good spot to eat is the coffee café. I don’t like coffee, but in the morning they have a variety of pastries and croissants, and in the mid afternoon small sandwiches. I’m not losing weight here!

We were told that Patagonia (includes Usuaia and Puerto Madryn) has the best chocolate, so we went in search of chocolate in Ushuaia. At Laguna Negra we got some yummy hot chocolate – not sweet and milky, like most of us are used to, but a real chocolate flavor. And we bought a sampling of chocolates from their case. Most of the chocolates are layered – like a sandwich of chocolate filled with some flavoring. We picked up orange (lots of peel), mint (again think strong), raspberry and one that was white chocolate with a dulce de leche filling. They also had nut barks, so we got some hazelnut bark. Different, not overly sweet, and very yummy. My guess is that the very best food we’ll have on our trip, will be our last night in Buenos Aires, when Martin takes us out to dinner. The last time we were in BA they took us to several amazing restaurants, including one Basque one that was truly outstanding.

So the food is not great, but food isn’t the reason you take a cruise, well, it isn’t for me. Overall, I’d say this has been our best cruise- because of the itinerary. I loved Alaska, enough to do it twice, and I could even see going again. It’s more affordable, accessible, and truly beautiful. The Panama Canal I enjoyed quite a bit, the only reason I probably wouldn’t do it again, is that it’s a long trip and I’m not as crazy about all the Mexican stops. The Canal itself I’d love to go through again, can it be moved a little closer to home?

Seriously, I think this Antarctic cruise is something special. I sort of wish I could take one of the Expedition ships that go down there. These are smaller cruise ships, usually for about 200 people, and they run round trip out of Ushuaia in Argentina, or Punta Arenas in Chile. They are able to get closer to Antarctica itself. We saw a few docked in Ushuaia,and later 2 were positioned closer to Cape Horn than we could go. The big ships will round Cape Horn if that is their itinerary, but we didn’t get close because we didn’t have to. The smaller expedition cruises will dock at Antarctica so people can get out, and they carry several zodiac boats for people to get even closer to the water and icebergs. We saw several of these in Paradise Bay, and honestly it was so cold I thought those guys were crazy. No chance a playful little orca will come knock them out of the boat, right? But I think the Expedition ships could be fun, and I’m sure they get amazing views up close. I don’t think they have wheelchair accessible cabins though. But if any of you able-bodied folk are thinking about Antarctica, consider an Expedition ship. I think you’d find the experience amazing. Actually, I’d recommend anyone considering a large ship like this one too, it has been amazing. The ship isn’t perfect (food, entertainment other than the lectures, service is mixed) but the itinerary has made up for any other flaws.


Cruise notes on disability topics

I’m having a problem with my right wheel. I have a set of puncture proof wheels that I use only for travellng. They are interchangable with my regular wheel assembly, actually a set of wheels from an older chair made puncture proof. Usually I have mag wheels with grey tires and inner tubes inside filled to 50 lb pressure. I had used them the last time I was in Argentina and worried every time I went out on their sidewalks that I’d get a flat. So we are using the puncture proofs now. This is a set of spoke wheels, same type of grey tires, with thick solid rubber inserts.

I switched the 2 sets the evening before travel, and wished I had done so early enough to have a mechanic adjust my brakes and inspect them as well. I’m not sure he would have predicted the problem I’m having now, but at least he could have adjusted the brakes. My brakes work well enough unless I’m on a slope, or if the ship is rolling, but I’ll get to that in a minute. The reason I didn’t switch the 2 sets of tires earlier though, is that from experience I know that the puncture proofs don’t fit well into the chair topper over my car. So, once they are on I’m stuck at home, which makes going to the mechanic hard anyway. But mostly, I just assumed they would be fine, and didn’t worry about it.

For some reason, my right wheel is behaving as if there’s a rock or some other lump in there. Every time it goes around it has a little hump at one point. It’s really hard to put the insert into a tire, and I know that when that one was put on a little air had gotten trapped inside as well. It’s always made a squishy sort of noise. I’m not 100% sure, because on carpet it’s hard to hear, but I think the squishy noise is gone. It’s as if all the air moved to one spot and has made a lump. I don’t think I’m in any danger. It’s not like I can have a blow out with these puncture proofs. I suppose somehow it could pop out of the wheel somehow, but it still looks locked in tight. So, I’m keeping my eyes on it, and looking forward to being back on my familiar tires at home!

The brakes are another story. That was just stupidity on my part, to assume they would work fine with the puncture proofs. They don’t exert enough pressure to pinch the tire well. I don’t use the brakes much, except for during transfers, or if I’m trying to stay still on a slope while waiting for a street light to change. Jim is holding my chair steady for a lot of my transfers, so it’s not been a big deal. I get on and off the bed easy without help because there’s carpet there. The carpet adds just enough friction that these brakes are fine as they are. He helps steady the chair most in the bathroom which has a slick floor.

What’s comic though, and the time that my bad brakes are most apparent, is when I start moving when I don’t want to! The ship has been rolling ever since we left Ushuaia, about 48 hours now. It isn’t rough, pitching and turning like it was going south last week, just rolling. I think the captain called them 10 – 12 foot swells. The sea looks calm, not a lot of waves or white caps. But if you sit at the bar on Deck 5, where you can see out the windows on both sides of the ship, you’ll see out to starboard – all ocean, while at the same time out to port – all sky. Then several seconds later it’ll be the opposite. Oh, sometimes it’s less, sometimes more – once in a while we’re really down low. And if my wheels are sitting just right, I roll with the ship. My brakes aren’t doing a thing, I just scoot back and forth. I noticed it at dinner 2 nights ago, when for some reason all of a sudden the table was further away. I pushed back up to the table, set thebrakes, and a few minutes later off I went. Last night I sat more perpendicular to the table, much better. But there are a few places where I don’t have muc h choice of how to set my position – the bathroom sink for example, and of course the slick floor doesn’t help. I went to a Rosetta Stone presentation (anyone tried their programs?) and a man near me, laughing, offered me his shoes for “door stops” because I was bobbing about.

I’m sure there are a whole bunch of nautical words for different types of ocean motion, but I haven’t yet learned them. Using my own words – today the sea is rolling, calm and easy and pleasant. Yesterday in the catamaran it was pitching – the boat rocked front to back, with a bit of slam in the front each time and spray. Also, not too bad, in a roller coaster kind of way, would be tiresome for days on end. And as I mentioned earlier, people got sick. Last week, we had rolling and pitching, and on top of it the rocking was unpredictable. Luckily our waves weren’t so high, but I found it annoying, and those were the days it was scary to take a shower.

I did a body check this morning, and am in good shape! I have some small bruises on my right hip that are mostly healing from the first days on the ship, getting used to the toilet seat. There’s one on the back of my right calf turning yellow, from a car transfer in BA. Some prickly heat rash on my left ankle from wearing my UGGs when my feet were swollen. And one little bruise that I have no idea how I got, on the place on top of your foot where your foot becomes your leg – not really ankle, it’s on top. It’s the most blue, so probably recent, but I don’t know what I did. Even so, it’s not bad. The skin on my face is healing from using rough (cheap) tissues that the ship provides with my cold this past week. All in all, I’d say this trip has given me fewer injuries than usual!

My wrist is doing well. If it starts to hurt again after I get back then something I do regularly at home is the culprit – could be transfers, pushing myself, driving, cooking. At least I know it isn’t typing! I’ll just have to puzzle it out, like figuring out a tough food allergy (not the life threatening type).But maybe I’ll be lucky and the wrist pain is gone for good. My vertigo has been long gone now, though I am not so sure of this that I’d stop my stretches. It’s come and gone before.

And one more comment for anyone out there who uses catheters – anyone who is a bit squeamish, well, just quit reading. I firmly believe that we need to share info, and support each other. And I’m beginning to feel we (this is a rather grand assumption – using the word WE to mean us folks with disabilities, as if anyone else would see me as a spokesperson) need to talk more about our experiences for others to read too. We all have disabilities, we all have weaknesses, and most of us choose to keep all this stuff to ourselves. But the problem with this is that it doesn’t help get rid of squeamishness, or to broaden someone’s understanding. It’s possible that I have a reader who already thinks I’ve been open about rather personal things, maybe I have. But this next comment is one that actually feels personal to me, risky. So, here is some advice for fellow catheter users. Make sure you bring extra supplies! This morning, getting into the shower I was sitting on a chuck. Of course as I slid onto the shower seat the chuck stuck to me, not to my chair, and it was not so easy to get it out from under me. The shower seat works, but I didn’t feel terribly stable on it, still, a soggy wet chuck under you is a bad idea, so it had to go. Jim tried to pull it out from one side as I sort of lifted myself up, but it wasn’t going. So I leaned to one side, to push it towards the middle. Then I leaned to the other side, pushed it towards the middle also. Now this big ole chuck is bunched up under me in the middle, ok, asked Jim to pull it out from between my legs, as I lifted myself up. Success! He got it loose, except that somehow he also got a hold of my legbag, and pulled my catheter out too, inflated bulb and all. Oops. I should have seen that this was possible, but didn’t. And the chuck was more or less fighting us already, and so Jim just tugged harder.

Now, this isn’t as bad as it sounds. However anyone who doesn’t use catheters might be wincing with sympathetic pain. I’m sure it would hurt if I could feel pain there, but I can’t. And it’s a suprapubic catheter, which to those who haven’t heard of that term, means I have a hole punched into my stomach wall for a catheter to go through, as opposed to the usual arrangement. All the same, it’s not good for a catheter to get yanked out. It’s only the second time this has ever happened to me in the 14 years I’ve used a suprapubic.

I had my shower, might as well since I had gone to all the trouble to get in there. And afterwards got out my extra supplies and put in a fresh one. This is the first time while traveling that I’ve needed my spare catheter, and now I’m without a spare (though I did keep the old one just in case of a REAL emergency), but I’m glad I had it. I did not relish the idea of a call to the medical office explaining what happened, hoping they had a size 24 Fr catheter for me! Putting it back in was a bit scary too – now it’s really good for squeamish people to stop reading! The catheter would not go in. Just enough of a clot must have been starting to form at my bladder that I had to force the catheter though, and there was blood in my urine. This happens once in a while changing catheters, but was definitely worse today, which I assume was related to the abuse my body went through. And now, a few hours later, just a bit of blood around the stomach hole, but I’m fine. So, remember my advice, take extra supplies, and maybe even extra for the extras.

Ushuaia and Cape Horn

Hard to type much today, the sea is rolling. In the distance I can see Cape Horn, which we were cruising near about an hour ago. We didn’t go as close as the Captain would have liked because of high winds, but it was impressive all the same, rocky and forbidding. We’ve known the wind was strong all night as it howled through the crack of the window like a ghost trying to get in – very eery sounding.

Just a few words about yesterday in Ushuaia (pronounced oo-shu-eye- a). We took a catamaran ride out to a penguin colony – about 6000 Magellanic penguins and a few Gentoos. All very cute. Along the way over we also saw a colony of cormorants and some sea lions and seals. Along the way back the sea was choppy and several people, including a man at our table, were sea sick. Personally I enjoyed it. It’s as close as I’ll ever get to a roller coaster ride any more. (Most amusement parks won’t let me on rides.)

After the 6 hour catamaran ride (the ride back seemed long I have to admit, especially once people started getting sick), we walked into town – the southernmost city in the world (Fin del Mundo) for real hot chocolate and postcards. I now have about 15 postcards of penguins, so I have my day planned out!

Yesterday I had another reminder that I musn’t get any bigger! This was the only excursion that the cruiseline could set up for me, which was fine since it was the one I wanted anyway. It hadn’t been published as being accessible, but they checked and found there was a ramp available to get onto the catamaran. If my chair had been one inch wider, I don’t think it would have fit on that ramp! I have scrapes on my wheelrims to prove it. I suspect that if it hadn’t fit, then 3 men would have just hoisted me up out of my chair, perhaps without asking me first – or they would have asked in Spanish and then gone on despite my protests. And my chair, folded, would follow. On the catamaran they had nice cushy leather seats, so I transferred onto one, which I was glad I did partly because I could slide over to a window seat, and then later also because it would have been unpleasant to have been in my wheelchair while we were rolling about.

It was really sweet. There was one man, who couldn’t say a word in English, but he took it upon himself to check on me several times. He’d come around, look at me, raise his eyebrows and hand as if to say “everything ok?” Not that I’m sure how I’d tell him anything if it weren’t, but things were ok, so I’d smile and he’d be happy. When we got to the penguin rookery they turned the boat around so the flat side of the boat closest to the shore was my side, and again the same man came to the window to knock on it to tell me to look! The not-yet-seasick man at my table had just realized he had lost his camera, so all our attention was directed at that moment at jacket pockets and the floor. Jim eventually found it where it had slid, under his seat. But my kind man was reminding me of my priorities and of their accommodation. I found myself wondering if maybe he has a sister or daughter or someone he cares for who uses a wheelchair.

The Argentines, similar to the Mexicans, have their own way of handling wheelchairs. They are not concerned about being sued, or following some law somewhere. They are perfectly willing to squeeze you, hoist you etc. The cruise lines have to follow US rules, and that sometimes means they don’t know what a tour operator will or will not do. But these guys don’t care. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. Generally you’re going to be ok, but they often are so sure whatever they collectively have decided is right that your protests are drowned out in the process. For example – going up stairs they might take you up forwards, which is much harder for them, rather than backwards tilting the chair back on only the large wheels. Or going up a ramp they might go backwards and I’ll feel like I’m going to fall out. So, when you have an obstacle you are taking a bit of a risk when you get help, but generally you get where you want to go – and they won’t leave you stuck there, they help you get back too. I’m sure there will come a time when I have to shout really loud because they are about to do something really stupid, but so far I’ve not been in any danger, and I let them get on with their plans. I’m sure it rattles Jim more than me. He knows how fussy I can be when he’s pushing me. The difference is first that he’s often doing something alone and can hurt himself, whereas these other times there are as many as half a dozen men around to help. And secondly Jim understands what I’m saying,but if I tried to explain to the men here what to do the explaining would take longer than the lifting.

We’re out at sea again, docking at Puerto Madryn on Thursday, and we’re hoping to see more penguins and go to a dinosaur museum. So far – we’ve seen orcas, humpback whales, 3 species of penguin (magellanic, gentoo and chinstrap), elephant seals, sea lions, seals, lots of kelp, several species of birds – my favorite being the blue eyed cormarants which look like penguins till they fly away, and the skua which are beautiful in flight. The 2 lecturers on this ship are great. One is a naturalist and a birder, and funny to boot, and there’s a lecture today on sea birds that I look forward to. I’ve never been that interested in birds, but the ones here are beautiful to watch. They seem to soar so effortlessly, or they glide just over the water for hundreds of feet, going faster than the ship.

And I am feeling much better. Except for waking up at night with a dry throat, the pain is gone. I’m coughing, which probably doesn’t sound good, but I feel SO much better. And I’m SO grateful Jim didn’t catch this cold!

Falklands and Antarctica

As I sit here writing this note, Antarctica is slowly fading away. I say slowly because the dark volcanic mountains covered with bright white ice and snow are so huge, and so brightly lit by sunshine that we’ll be able to see them for quite some time still. The view is stupendous, and perhaps even more so from a distance, for now you can see the peaks of the tall mountains above the low clouds, and see how tall these mountains really are – even though you can no longer see the blue streaks of glacier ice, or the pink stains of the penguin poop.

The past few days have been truly unique.

Highlights:

There’s not much to see in Port Stanley in the Falklands. It’s a desolate place, all rock and scrub, 44 degrees high in summer. It rains there a lot (or snows in winter) but we were lucky and the weather was dry, though overcast. All the vehicles here are Land Rovers, and outside town the roads are all gravel, so I can only guess at what winter driving is like. 2000 people live here, which almost doubles when a cruise ship comes in. Other than tourist business, The Falklands serves as a respite for ships either about to go round Cape Horn, or returning from Cape Horn. 3 flights a week arrive here – 2 from London, 1 from Chile.

Imagine the land near San Diego’s Wild Animal Park, but much colder and put it on the ocean with lots of little pennisulas and inlets, then add clusters of little birds sitting on the water, larger birds flying low above the water, and dolphins. There are penguins too, but I didn’t go see them. It was a 4 mile walk each way, so Jim went without me. It’s desolate, cloudy and grey, but beautiful in its own way. There’s a double bay. The cruise ship docks in the outer one, and the tenders pass into the inner one to the town. Port Stanley is a narrow strip of buildings up a hillside, perhaps 4 blocks up the hill, and half a mile along the coast. The buildings are mostly painted white, and have brightly colored tin roofs, and many houses have English gardens. No trees. A cute place to visit, for a day, but hard to imagine living here. But apparently people do. Inside the restaurant where we had fish and chips for lunch was a sign for a Government House Garden and Tea Party. Ticket included entry to the tea hut, with prizes for the Most Wonderful Hat(adult) and Most Fun Hat (kids) - baskets of Government House vegetables. So, if you are free Sunday Feb 21, get those tickets now!

Antarctica Elephant Island, Gerlache Strait and Paradise Bay

Going around Elephant Island, we saw penguins in groups swimming in the water, bobbing up and down – chinstraps we think, though we’re not totally sure. In Gerlache Strait there were other penguins, but too far away to indentify. Some were in the water, some on the hillsides. Usually near their nesting places the hills are quite pink, from their waste. They eat krill, sort of a shrimp animal, and so their poop is pink. When you do see the penguins up close you would not call them the cleanest animals, and I’ve been told their homes smell rather bad as well. We saw a few birds, black and white ones – skua – but not as many species as we hoped. The big birds like the wind so they can sail without much effort, but today was not windy, so no albatross. Birds in general like the back of the boat, I suppose the fish get churned up by the boat itself, so there’s good eating when we pass. If there had been more birds I think we would have seen them. There were elephant seals floating on small icebergs or glacier bits. And we saw LOTS of whales – definitely the high point of the day around Elephant Island, where we saw humpbacks. They are huge. We saw a few groups of 7 – 12 whales, plus others in smaller groups. One or two will spout, then another, then 2 over to the side. After they spout, you see their long bodies come just over the surface, and the head goes down, eventually the tail follows. Takes about 3 seconds for each to go down. Beautiful. No whales jumping in the air, sorry folks. Best whale watching I’ve ever had. Binoculars, 8 X power, made it possible to see them for a long way. After leaving Paradise Bay we saw orcas too, which aren’t as impressive in comparison, because they are so much smaller, but they come closer to the ship.

This part of Antartica, the islands and the end of the pennisula, look simllar to Alaska. There are rocky mountains with bright blue glaciers spilling out of them. There’s ice in the water. But there are 2 significant differences (not counting penguins) – it is much colder here – 39 degrees and snowing one morning, 25 degrees further south. So, there is really nothing growing on the rocks. All the food for these animals is in the ocean. And the other difference is the shear size of every thing. The icebergs are mammoth, seriously big. It was hard to gauge the size of the mountains, because fog obscured the tops most of the time, but I’m sure they are huge. The sea seems larger too, and empty. So, think of a marriage between the upper Alps and the Alaskan glaciers.

You feel like you are far away from everywhere, despite the fact that we have had pretty regular satellite internet access, which really amazes me still. We saw one ship 2 days ago, in the distance it was impossible to tell what kind of ship it was. Today we saw a small cruise ship, an expedition type, for perhaps 200 people. They had no more than 3 lifeboats (a way to measure how many people the ship can carry from a distance, there was 1 facing us, but space for 2 total on that side, so the other side either had 1 or 2 also) It was docked at an abandoned science station in Paradise Bay. There was another science station with its own ship nearby, sort of a fishing type vessel. And there was a sailing ship in the bay as well. I bet they had a rough ride over the Drake passage! I’ll stick to larger ships. But other than that, we haven’t seen any ships since we left Buenos Aires. That’s very different from Alaska!

I’m watching my Antarctic mountain still, an hour after starting this blog entry. Ever fly out of Seattle and see Mt Rainier in the distance above the clouds? That’s what this mountain here looks like, like a huge iceberg, now floating above the clouds.

Low lights:

Cold. Snow yesterday morning, ice on the decks this morning. Wind blowing. Unpleasantly cold. Cold enough that people hang out inside in the cafeteria and forward bar at the windows, instead of outisde on the top decks, and make it hard for anyone else to get up close, or to find a table when they want to eat. This has probably affected us less than most people though, because of our wonderful large and sheltered deck. It has side walls, so you don’t feel the wind. And when travelling south, with the sun shining from the north, it was almost toasty. Overall we can’t complain though. The last sailing of this ship to the same destinations 2 weeks ago had terrible weather and hardly saw anything. We only had cold.

Another serious low light - I’m sick. It’s just a cold, but it has really made me feel miserable at times. It started about 4 days ago with a sore throat that I wasn’t even sure was a cold. The air is so dry on the ship, that I thought maybe that was the problem. But yesterday and today, ugh, scratchy throat, can’t swallow, can’t sleep – we all know the drill. It’s moved into a runny nose, and sinus cold now, so it’s less painful except for around my nostrils. I didn’t want to miss anything! But I also didn’t want to be cold. If I’d been home I’d have spent 2 days in bed. But again, this room helped out. I could stay warm till an announcement enticed me or Jim beckoned me, and then out I’d go all bundled up – skull cap, with ear muffs on top, and a hat with a visor on top of that because the sun was blinding. Sitting on a blanket wrapped all around me, with another on top of my lap. Shirt, sweater, fleece winter jacket from Maryland, scarf. I was warm enough. I think Jim was actually colder, he forgot to pack a hat.

We didn’t see as many penguins are we all hoped. The speakers have said how penguins will often hang out on floating icebergs, but none did today. They were on the shores or in the water. But we have 2 more penguin stops – Ishuaia and Puerto Madryn – coming up, where we will go to known rookeries.