Endor

I have 2 posts left on my Antarctica recap, plus I’ll do a quick overview on the rest of my South America adventures. I have really been dragging my heels and losing steam though. My tonsil-less throat is all better now, so no excuses
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When I last left off, I had 2 more days to explore Antarctica. This day was most notable for the leopard seals. We were in the Gerlache Strait, which we had passed thru on the way down due to changing course because of a cyclone.

The day before, we had seen a leopard seal attack a penguin from the harbor. We were told this was very rare, and how fortunate we were. Apparently the Discovery Channel had been down for 2 weeks prior trying to film just such an attack, with no luck.

I think there was 1 zodiac full of passengers near the prior day’s attack, and the rest of us were still on land so we weren’t so close. We were very jealous of these few passengers, but by the end of the day, we all had experienced it, many times over.

In the morning, we all went quickly to the zodiacs as humpback whales were off the portside of the ship. Right away, as soon as my zodiac left the ship, we encountered a leopard seal.

So basically this is what would happen (I witnessed about 5 attacks, and it took up the bulk of our morning adventure). The leopard seal was usually already attacking the penguin by the time we caught up to it. The seal doesn’t just attack and kill the penguin – as the staff described it, they are “sadistic” – basically taunting and playing with the penguin for quite a while, letting it escape briefly and recapturing it. The seal would toss the penguin around – one even got tossed into a boat! The poor penguin would try really hard to escape, but the seal would eventually wear him down. This would go on for quite an extended period of time, and the seals were practically putting on a show for us! They would roll under and all around the zodiacs. It was really an embarrassment of riches – we saw so many – some simultaneous attacks. Eventually, we even wandered off to look at whales because we were a little tired of the seal attacks. It was literally my National Geographic moment. The video from this was amazing. I actually have to say before this trip I never considered getting a video camera, but I don’t think photos captured everything as well as I would have liked. I would definitely recommend bringing a video camera, or at a minimum, a digital camera with video capabilities (what I had). I was astonished by how much I used it.

After, we went back to the ship for lunch. We were sitting at lunch, and they brought up the marine biologist to talk to us about the leopard seals. Both the expedition leader and the marine biologist were at a loss for words – they kept telling us how amazing our trip was an how lucky we had been to see such amazing wildlife. I turned to the person sitting across from me, another consultant who was from Japan, and I said, “Every single time, something happens, we keep saying it’s the greatest thing ever and nothing can top it, and then something tops it!” At that exact moment, the Expedition Leader frantically interrupted the marine biologist to report that there were humpbacks BREACHING off the front of the ship. Everyone in the dining room abandoned their pasta dishes and ran outside to watch. It was really amazing – there were probably a dozen whales that would just take turns breaking the water, spinning up and flopping down. It was unbelievable. After about 20 minutes, the show wound down and we returned to eat our dessert. I turned to my friend and said, “You see what I mean?”

The expedition leader resumed his commentary and told us about the afternoon plans, but not before reiterating again how great our trip had been so far.

In the afternoon we had another excursion, cruising, which after all the excitement of the last 24 hours, was much calmer. We went to Wilhelmina Bay and Foyn Harbor. At Foyn Harbor, we saw a whaling shipwreck from 1922, which was pretty neat. As a diver, I always like shipwrecks – this one was mostly above water. Some fog had begun to drift in, so we saw a little less than we had before, but we had some very good bird sightings, including our first chinstrap penguins. This was probably the least exciting excursion we went on, partially because of the driver I was with, partially because of the weather, and mostly in comparison to all the morning events.

That night they hosted an Albatross Auction over dinner. This is basically an auction where they had 10 items that they auctioned off to the passengers and raised cash to save the albatross. These items went for a lot of money – they raised over $11,000 on the 10 items. They included things like: a huge signed map of where we went to (biggest item at 5k), a book on Antarctica wildlife (went for $400, yours on Amazon for $30), a laminated log of the trip, a Peregrine staff hat, and other assorted items. I know that the excitement and alcohol (champagne) got people a little carried away. I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked to see some people spend so much – but it was way out of my price range after scrimping and saving for the trip. Needless to say, they accepted smaller contributions outside the auction as well.

Next up: last day in Antarctica, elephant seals and Deception Island

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kflyer2 & BearX220 - thanks a lot - I really appreciate the comments

JDiver

Endor, if there's anything I can say to encourage you... please keep it up. You are sharing a really fantastic trip with word pictures that nearly make it come alive. Most visitors to Antarctica do not see what you did; you not only captured it all, you have a gift for passing it on to others in your words. Tonsils or not... (Glad you are all better now! ^ )

Leopard seals are quite the predator - as you probably know, they have been documented attacking people (as on Ernest Shackleton "the Boss'" amazing trip.) Predators sometimes are in no hurry, and I have seen lions kill after they were sated. Ah, well, this is about Antarctica, not Africa...

I kind of regret not diving in Antractica (I just returned from diving in Indonesia - Tukang Besi archipelago mainly, my 30th country for diving,) but the COLD water there... out of the question! We were very fortunate - 21 days on our boat (the Ioffe, as I might have mentioned,) with people like Peter Matthiessen (one of my favorite authors) and Robert Bateman (my favorite wildlife artist) and his wife Birgit, etc. (Bob auctioned some drawings and paintings he did on the trip - I think I recall one painting went for $11,000! I was not buying... )

Please do keep posting, even if you do take some time for yourself...

Thanks again for sharing, JDiver

psyflyer

this is great, thanks. ^ ^
I have always wanted to go to Antartica and you made it much easier for me. Im going to get my head around it and try to make it happen.

Reindeerflame

I noticed a reference in one of your reports about issues related to mailing postcards.

Can you provide more detail?

Like, what type of stamps are used? Presumably this varies with the country having some "jurisdiction" over a particular part of Antarctic territory? Were stamps available when you mailed cards, or did you simply turn over the cards with money, and "things were taken care of"?

And, did the cards successfully arrive at their destinations?

As a mailer of about 80 cards on my more extensive trips, this is an issue of great interest for a future trip.

On another matter, it seemed like the camping part of the trip could have been done in a better and more meaningful way. Otherwise, the crew could have the attitude that your entire trip is just about "having been to Antarctica" and thus poor and lousy service would be just fine...no need to see anything, just being there is all that it's about.

Endor

The last day in Antarctica was pretty exciting, because we were going to the South Shetland Islands (Deception Island) and to see the Elephant Seals. Our main guide on the ship had done a lot of field work and writing on Deception Island, so he was particularly excited to share it with us.

I want to post some links to Deception Island – the wikipedia entry, and the official site. Here is how the official site describes it:
That’s all true. It’s amazing.

When we woke up that morning, we had the most beautiful clear blue skies – every other day during my trip was overcast. It was so beautiful, and the sun was blinding. At Deception Island, you sail into the crater, and it was magnificent to see all the beautiful browns and reds of the islands, the white of the snow and ice, and the blue of the sky as we arrived in Whaler’s Bay. When we arrived on shore, we had a lot of options for activities: we could hike to the summit (or “nipple” as it was called), we could check out the wildlife (the seals were so close here, right on the beach), tour the remains of buildings, or go “swimming” in the bay or in a pool the staff dug.

I elected to do the hike – the first part was pretty challenging, but it eased up after about the first 1/3. Like with the camping, I was impressed with the diversity in age of the participants. People on our tour were really amazing! There were a couple of things challenging about the hike – (1) the pace – we were trying to make it up in about 45 minutes so we could get back and have time to go swimming or so other activities, (2) the heat! It was really warm that day – in the upper 30s or lower 40s I would guess, but we all had dressed for the colder days. We shed lots of layers. And (3) the snow and ice near the summit was very slippery, and there wasn’t any well defined path. When we got up to the top, it was well worth it. The views were amazing! We were so lucky with the visibility. We saw some of the other islands off in the distance, which were great. Even better, we had a birds-eye view of the kayakers from our boat in the Bay. They were happily kayaking along, and a whale came under them and almost capsized the leader! It was really cool to watch. We stayed up for a bit, snapped a lot of pix, and then made our way down. Of course, that was much easier than getting up.

Once we got to the beach, we found we still had a lot of time left. The island had very little snow and ice on it – it was mostly a dark sand. Of course, there was no plant life, and as a volcano, there were lots of rocks. It was strikingly different from the other places we had seen in Antarctica. We had plenty of time, so we went off with the Expedition Leader to check out the remains of buildings, which was really interesting. The leader had been involved in writing a management plan for the island – to maintain the sites and to ensure that there weren’t too many visitors and that they treated everything really well. He had obvious connection with the island. It was really interesting to see the old buildings, oil tanks, and even a cemetery. We saw an old British base and Chilean base (by base, I mean more like shacks). They has suffered volcanic damage in an eruption. The leader told a very humerous story about how the Chileans and Brits would hand each other letters from their leaders/monarchs protesting the other’s presence, and then they would sit down and drink and play cards together. He also told us a poignant story about a radio operator who had come back 50 years later to Deception Island and found that his bunk was the only one that survived an eruption. It was a great tour. Also, there were amazing seals (and some penguins) on the beach. We got very close to them – one was even a blond fur seal which is pretty unusual). When we got back we still had more time, and many people went “swimming.” Basically, the staff dug a big hole, which filled up with the volcanic warmed waters and people sat in the hole. Some people really did dive into the water (we had all worn our bathing suits under our gear). I had fully planned on doing it, but I passed because my tonsils had been bothering me and I didn’t want to ruin the rest of my trip. I think that was a good move. The people that did it reported it was still cold, not warm! They did get some fun certificates from Peregrine for the experience. After, we headed back to the boat and sailed out of the crater. Deception Island was a definite highlight and I really enjoyed it.

After lunch we had our final Antarctica excursion – we went to Hannah Point to see the Elephant Seals. En route, we diverted a little because some fin whales came along the boat. They were a lot of fun to watch!

At Hannah Point, there is a strict management plan in place for tourists. This was the only site we visited where we absolutely had to stick with the guide in small groups. I had the geologist as my leader. Hannah Point had some really interesting rocks, and there is a “table” (big rock) where prior visitors had deposited the most interesting ones – since you can’t take anything with you from Antarctica. Probably the neatest thing was seeing rocks with fern and other plant impressions in them. It really made Pangea come to life for me! Here was this place, with no vegetation, and yet the rocks had plant imprints and fossils in them, reflecting plants that are now found only on other continents. That was amazing.

After, we started on our path to see the wildlife on the island. There were some amazing large petrels, and lots of chinstrap penguins. We were so luck to see 2 pairs of Macaroni penguins with bright flumes on their heads. The penguins were SO loud here. The highlight of course, was seeing the loud, yucky, large and very much molting elephant seals. They were huge! We really liked watching them wallow in the mud. After, we had some time to wander in a more contained are on a cliff with some penguins (seals below). It was really sad, because we knew it was our last moments in Antarctica. A group of us parked ourselves on top of the cliff and had to be coerced down by the staff because we refused to leave. It was an amazing day, to cap an amazing trip.

Sadly, we had to go back, and get ready to head back through the Drake. Before I left on my trip, I thought this would be the only time I would ever, in my whole life, visit Antarctica. Now I know I was wrong – I have to go back someday. I can’t wait.
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I think this is my last post on Antarctica itself. I’ll come back and answer some outstanding questions (e.g. postcards) and write about the balance of my trip in BA (including Colonia and Tigre), and Iguazu. I am fairly certain I covered everything about the passage back in a prior post – I will write about disembarking in my next post as well. If there are other things I didn't cover, please let me know, and I will address them.

JDiver

Reindeerflame, I found the British Antarctic Survey posts in Antarctica proper and on South Georgia were most helpful and reliable in mailing cards - they have the stamps, they have the cancellations and your card will get there. The other stations are a bit more variable, though most of my cards from Henryk Arctowski (Polish) station eventually made it, they were not really prepared...

Endor :-: , thanks again - it was almost like being there again!

Now I'll wait for your Colonia del Sacramento, Bs As etc. and read them to recapture some of that as well, when I can't actually be there...

Endor

Wow – since I took this trip over a year ago, I figured I had better come back and finish the report and close out what I did in South America before I forget!

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On the last day, we got into the port in Ushuaia around 6 or 7AM, and the pilot came on board and navigated us in to the port. We had our breakfast on the boat and said our goodbyes, and we were sorted on to buses that took us to the airport based on our flight times.

We were essentially abandoned by Peregrine when we got on the buses for the airport, which was really annoying. Our luggage had gone on separate vans, and it took about 45min for them to arrive. The lines were a little confusing as well - the volume of traffic wasn’t enormous, but much more than I expected. I would have like there to have been more support from Peregrine to see us off. We definitely had questions and were confused.

In any event, most of us flew back to BA. Some stayed in Ushuaia and some flew directly on to Iguazu. Most passengers were going to spend some time in Iguazu, but because of the flight schedule, I elected to spend a couple of days in BA first. I had spent a lot of time trying to determine what flight I could safely take from USH – BA. I had little information from my TA on this. I elected to take a flight around 1030AM, and this worked fine. You could take a connection in BA to Iguazu which I think is around 2:30 but if you miss it, you are out of luck till the next day. I decided I didn’t want to risk it, but many did, and were fine. It was also recommended by a friend that I take some time in BA between Antarctica and Iguazu because the colors, climate and experience are so shockingly different.

So I went back to BA, and I made lots of plans with my new friends from Antarctica to hang out in BA, Iguazu and Colonia. That was great. Most people from Peregrine were stating at hotel called the Lafyette, which seemed to be fine. However, being a Marriott Plat, I stayed at the Marriott BA on Florida. I stayed there a couple of times – both before and after my trip to Iguazu. They upgraded me, and I found the location decent – I walked most places. The staff was very nice to me, and I found the concierge in the lobby very knowledgeable and helpful. One of my bags broke on the trip and they immediately got it fixed for me, got me all the tickets and info I needed, etc. Much better than some of the other concierge experiences I have had. I would recommend the Marriott.

I spent a few days in BA, then 3 days/2 nights in Iguazu, then 2 more nights/days in BA where I did a day trip to Tigre and a day trip to Colonia. I’ll cover these by location and bullet some of my activities and thoughts. By far, my favorite place was Iguazu, so I’ll put that first. I wouldn’t miss Iguazu.

Iguazu
I would recommend everyone go to Iguazu. What a great place! I stayed at the Sheraton Iguazu, and I firmly believe that is where everyone should stay. I also really believe you should see both the Argentina and Brazil sides.

The Sheraton is in the park, and I stayed 2 nights. There is an excellent Sheraton Iguazu thread on this site – I believe in the Starwood forum, and I followed the advice there to a tee. I will try to come back and link to it. I was fortunate to have a Falls view room, and I had some friends who went to Iguazu directly after Antarctica, a few days before I did and provided me with up to the minute scoop. The food situation is a little annoying, since you are stuck at the hotel, but it’s worth it. Again, read the thread to get the full scoop. It was such a pleasure though, and so relaxing.

There are 5 trails on the site, and I recommend almost all of them, except for one trail that is across the street from the hotel and leads to a little fall you can swim in. That was a waste of time, and a really long walk. You are much better served by spending your time at the main falls.

Don’t miss any of the other trails. In particular, the upper and lower circuits and Devil’s Throat are all amazing. If you leave the hotel when the park opens, you have the trails and falls all to yourself for quite awhile before the public makes their way in. So amazing!

There are some activities in the park as well. There are 3 or 4 boat activities and you can buy them in a package. I bought the most popular package which is the Ecoological boat tour and falls boat adventure. I really enjoyed the boat ride into the falls – so much fun! I did not care so much for the leisurely Ecological boat ride. There wasn’t a whole lot to see – I didn’t see toucans or monkeys, as I had been hoping.

Before I left the US, I had decided to get a Brazil visa, to ensure I could see the Brazil side. When I arrived, I arranged car to take me over there for the day through the Sheraton desk. The car was very smooth and helpful, and they allowed me to stop at the bird sanctuary after so I could finally see that pesky toucan. Cost me around $50.

I did not need the Brazil Visa but was glad I had it just in case. I understand that wheter you need it or not can change on an almost daily basis. Whatever you do, do not miss Brazil – the panoramic view is very different than Argentina, and well worth it.

Iguazu was the highlight of the South American portion and I highly recommend it. What a contrast from Antarctica as well!

Buenos Aires
As a New Yorker, I liked BA quite a bit as a city to wander around in, but I didn’t find there were a lot of must dos persay.

• I arranged to take a city tour through the hotel on my first day. This was a good orientation to the city and it was super cheap. We went La Boca, past the soccer stadiums, San Telmo, Recolleta Cemerary, etc, etc. It was pouring rain, which was a bummer. I never made it back to La Boca (next time)
• Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes – I am a big fan of art museums, but I didn’t care for this one. I have just been tired, but nothing really stood out to me
• Museo Evita – this is a fairly new museum about Evita. I found it very interesting – lots of artifacts, they had some very interesting ways to demonstrate how the people of Argentina felt about her. In particular, they used video in mirrors in very interesting way at the start of the museum to demonstrate how enormous her funeral was. The museum breaks her life into segments and is very pro-Evita. She is still very much a part of the nation – I saw grafetti with her name on it and I think it’s worth seeing to understand what she is to the nation – good or bad.
• Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo – this was a nice little museum that I enjoyed. I like museums that were former homes, like this one
• Teatro Colon – I took the tour here, and I also saw a performance of La Boheme. I would recommend both the tour and a performance. Buying theatre tickets was a pain – I had to get in line for quite awhile because I didn’t want to book really expensive seats. I wound up in the cheap seats – maybe $35? It was fine, but I would try to get an aisle. Like most opera houses, it was very cramped. I enjoyed the tour, which I had also made sure to plan for well in advance (I took the English tour). They take you into many of the backstage areas, and I enjoyed seeing the rehearsal rooms, and the set shop. We also got to peek in the wardrobe room, and sit in the presidential box in the house. I would definitely recommend the tour.
• Casa Rosada – Here is something I found disappointing. There was only one tour in English a week, at 4PM on Fridays, and you had to be there around 1 or 2 to secure your spot. It was a big time drain having to show up and the come back after putting your name on the list (it is free). I found the building to not be in very good condition, and the tour itself was of about 3 rooms and took all of 30 minutes. I wouldn’t plan your trip around this at all.
• The Presidential Museum at the Casa Rosada, which is also free, is actually more interesting, I think.
• Botanical Gardens – very pretty. LOTS of cats! Just everywhere.
• Recoleta Cemetery – I came back after my city tour to visit again. What an interesting, amazing place. I wish I had had a guidebook, or had paid one of the many people outside the cemetery to take me on a tour. I would definitely allow plenty of time to explore here. It’s unlike anything I have ever seen, and there are many more things to see here beyond Evita.
• Café Tortoni – I went with some friends from Peregine to see the Tango show. It’s in the 1,000 things to see before you die book and we had a good time. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but the café is really neat. The history is very neat – the tango show was good – not too long and interesting. We had dessert which was also nice. I would recommend it as a pleasant evening.
• Metropolitan Cathedral. This was interesting if you are passing by. San Martin’s tomb is here as well as an eternal flame.
• Torre Monumental (British Clock Museum) – I found the history of this monuement, which was near my hotel, very interesting. It was a gift from Britain but then due to the Falkland islands War was renamed and also physically attacked as a symbol of the UK. It was not open while I was there, so I didn’t get to go up to the top
• Islas Malvinas-Falkland Islands War Memorial – again, near by hotel. This is similar in many ways to the Vietnam memorial in the US, and I found it interesting because of the Antarctica trip
• Plaza de Mayo – I had wanted to see the madres de los desaparecidos march on Thursday at 3, but it didn’t work out with my schedule. However, I did stumble upon a demonstration in the area one day. I took off pretty quickly though, as my Frommer’s advised! It’s a very interesting area to wander around.
• Obelisco – I walked by this site about 700 times a day and it’s hard to miss. Definitely a symbol I think of when I think of BA
• Calle Florida – this is a big shopping street that my hotel was on one end of. I often walked up and down the street and got some good shopping in

Tigre
I took a day trip to Tigre that I booked through the hotel in BA. We took a boat ride around Tigre and also took a van and a train to explore the area. I think Tigre is pretty neat – it’s like a suburb of BA where all the residents live on the water. It was different, relaxing, and interesting. I loved seeing all the mailboxes right on the water and the supermarket boat! I would recommend a day here over a day in Colonia.

Colonia
OK, I am going to just come and say this, although I think it is an unpopular opinion: Colonia is boring. You take a ferry over at around 10 AM, arriving at 11 or 1130, and you leave at around 4. I remember being concerned I would not have enough time for everything!

Whatever. There was nothing to do. It is lovely, but I was by myself, and I was very bored.

There are 7 museums in the city, and you pay about $1.50 to get a pass to all 7. None of them were really worth it.

If you go, I would suggest taking the time to eat a nice, leisurely lunch. I did see a walking tour going on, which may have been interesting. I also went to the top of the highest building and that was a lovely view.

I went on a beautiful, sunny warm day, but I just found it disappointing (although I did get another passport stamp

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My entire trip was outstanding, and I would definitely recommend the itinerary if you have 3 weeks. I’ll be back for some closing thoughts and to finally hit those outstanding questions!

gforce

This has gotta be the best trip report ever! Awesome stuff, Endor! ^ ^

Do you mind sharing some snaps of the region you visited? They'd form the perfect complement to the extremely detailed description of the your trip. After all, pictures speak louder than words, you know... You could PM the link if publicly posting the web link is against your rules.

Once again, thanks for the insanely cool report!

Cheers!

birdstrike

Endor, thank you very much for your superlative trip report!

I've just put down a deposit for ms. birdstrike and myself for an '08 departure to Antarctica. I know we will review your report several times before our departure date.

Great work!

Regards,

birdstrike

centrum

Thank you so much for the trip report. I enjoyed reading and re-reading everything.

vxmike

What a great report! Unfortunately now I for sure have to visit Antarctica It's going to be very difficult to justify that much money for a relatively short trip, but I think it must be done.

Endor

Thanks for all the kind words! I DO have a version of this with photos. If you drop me a PM, I would be happy to share.

I am looking into taking the Arctic trip next summer - I will keep you all posted!

Endor

Just coming back to check in. I am now planning a trip to the Arctic, and have learned that Peregrine no longer operates the Iofee - Quark does. In fact Quark and Peregrine were recently purchased by the same company, and now the Peregrine brand will be moving away from the Polar excursions.

I am hoping to take a trip to the Arctic in summer of 2008. I can't figure out what forum we post on here for that - but if anyone has been, let me know!

birdstrike

Which forum is a good question. Perhaps we should petition TalkBoard to make this simply the "Polar Forum".

FWIW, I'm booked on the Lindblad expedition "Beyond The North Cape: Norway's Fjords & Arctic Svalbard" for Summer '08. They go into the pack ice, but not to the pole.

daysleeper

/me already suggested that two years ago or so, to no avail. Maybe you have more luck.