YYCCL3

**Advance warning - these posts will be long, with lots of (not oversized) images

This trip began with a leisurely mid morning start at the Calgary Airport. I visited the Westjet Elevation lounge for a late breakfast.



Curiously, the online food and beverage ordering portal now specifies a 5 drink limit per guest and apparently they'll advise you when you're on your last drink… haha (I only had one, so I didn't get to test this)



It was a beautiful crisp day as we departed Calgary. See you in a few weeks!



I had this Chicken Parmigiana rendition on the flight over to Toronto. It really reminded me of Michelina's and I didn't finish it.



Unfortunately, I had a 4.5 hour layover in Toronto until my next flight. But, fortunately, I could spend that time back in the Signature Suite and enjoyed a great meal and several glasses of champagne, wine, and dessert wine.





This is the last time that I'll be in here for the forseeable future. It's been fun while it lasted!

















I was a bit surprised that there was no Christmas themed meal offering in the lounge, but onboard there was. Given that I'd had dinner almost 4 hours ago by this point, I decided to try it.



Not bad at all.





We arrived in Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport for a stop for cleaning, refueling and crew change, so had to get off the plane for about an hour while all this took place. Then left again up and over this huge city.





Back on board the final segment to Buenos Aires Ezeiza I found myself wishing that I'd had the breakfast on the previous segment instead of this cold plate, but it was OK.



About 24 hours after leaving home, I've arrived in Buenos Aires - home for the next 48 hours.



The first thing I had to do after passing through simply border control formalities (although limited English) and collecting my bag, was to exchange some cash. Inflation is crazy in Argentina and this handful of bills is what was exchanged for 50 USD at the airport using the official exchange rate, which is significantly worse than the "Blue rate" which is what you can get unofficially on the street and not at banks. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to use my credit card to pay for a taxi or if I could exchange money in the city today since it was now Christmas Day, so I had to change a small amount here.



The city was totally dead today. No traffic at all on the ride in from the airport to the city center. I spent some time wandering around the area of my hotel, which was right around the corner from Plaza de Mayo.







Plaza de Mayo is right in front of the Government House, which is the pinkish building in behind. I did not see the Chainsaw Guy on my trip.



Even the Open 25 Hrs Market is closed today.



This is normally one of the busiest pedestrian zones in Buenos Aires: Florida Street.





Thankfully one of the very few restaurants that was open was right next door to the hotel so I had this giant platter that had a 10 oz steak hiding under the bacon and fried egg. For that and a glass of wine was the equivalent of 20 USD.







On my only full day in Buenos Aires I took an all day bike tour which was about 35 km in total at a leisurely pace. There were so many bike lanes and bike paths in the city that it made it pretty relaxing rather than having to navigate the busy roads.





Our guide, Julian, brought us an Argentine staple - mate - a tealike drink - for a refreshment. You fill up this little cup half with leaves and half with hot water, and then drink it through this special straw which has a permanent filter on the end that sits in the bottom of the cup.



In Plaza de Las Naciones Unidas we saw this art installation replicating a giant flower that utilized the sun to tilt, follow, and open its petals just like a real flower. Unfortunately it had been damaged during a significant storm recently that also saw planes being blown around at the local airport, and many many large trees down all over the city. So It wasn't functional and the whole area was gated off.



We stopped the main railway station - Retiro - mostly for a restroom stop.



So many of the historical buildings look just like in Europe.





It's no wonder Buenos Aires is referred to as the Paris of South America.



Not only big public plazas but also small intimate ones, such as this one in the San Telmo district, which is the older part of Buenos Aires on the south side of the current city center.



We travelled through another park with some interesting statues. While I was taking a photo of the Don Pedro de Mendoza statue, a lady yelled at me in English that this guy was a .......!





We headed further south into the Boca district, which had this beautiful park by the football stadium. There were some kids practicing their skills on the concrete pitch.





Next we stopped in Caminito - a very colorful and touristy district.















After wandering around a bit and checking out the colorful buildings and street scene, it was time for a snack.
Especially after walking by this restaurant that specialized in grilled meat - did I mention how much Argentines love their meat, especially beef and lamb?





Julian brought us to get beef empanadas from this literal hole in the wall.



It was very good!



After lunch we headed over to Puerto Madero which is a new district built on land reclaimed from the massive Rio de la Plata. It was populated by shiny, new, and tall apartment buildings which were mostly empty. Apparently a good place to launder money, as it's customary to pay for property in cash in Argentina so massive cash transactions don't bat an eye.





We stopped at a food truck for some Argentine fast food - I had this enormous sandwich that consisted of a sausage sliced in half lengthwise, topped with - yup - bacon and a fried egg. There was no way that I could finish it.



Heading back towards the center now we saw the canal that was formerly used for shipping, but not anymore as a new port was built further out.





We saw the change of the guard in Plaza de Mayo.



More decidedly European archictecture on these apartment buildings in the Recoleta district.



We stopped at La Recoleta Cemetery, which contains graves and crypts in all sorts of beautiful, elaborate above ground "houses".







The most popular feature is Evita's resting place, and there was a lineup to get up close.





After that excellent bike tour which saw us out for 8 hours, I hopped back on the Subte - the Buenos Aires subway system - to get back to my hotel. Payment is only by a smart card, which costs about the equivalent of a dollar up front and then preload value - each trip was the equivalent of 10 cents. It was quick, efficient (seemed to come every 2-3 minutes) and can't beat the price!



I got off the train early to check out the area around Plaza 9 de Julio and the Buenos Aires Obelisk.





Then after exchanging some more money for this bundle (at the Blue rate - 100 USD = 95000 ARS - Argentina Pesos) at a convenience store "kiosco" across the street from my hotel, I walked around some more and settled on an Italian restaurant nearby for a delicious dinner of ravioli filled with shredded beef tenderloin.





In the morning before heading out to the airport for my next leg, I went for a short walk around the Plaza de Mayo area. It was a gorgeous morning.







Buenos Aires was great! Happy to have visited and hope to come back again.



Now, instead of making a separate post, I'm sharing a few more pics here from my last night in BA at the end of the trip, where I walked through the theatre district and met some new friends from the trip for dinner. Beautiful and lively !





















Next post.... on to Ushuaia

lamphs

Great pics and text! Looking forward to the rest.

I'd like to find a simple explanation of money in Argentina, i.e. money exchange, use of credit cards, etc. It seems to be quite complex.

pjs

Great start! My daughter was just in BA and got cash via Western Union for even better than the blue rate (96k/$100). She even figured out how to get the first transaction free so I was pretty proud of her.

VorelNaCestach

Subscribed! Great first post of your trip. I am looking forward to the rest

YYCCL3

It's definitely complex. Here's a couple of articles that might help. Although the rates mentioned in the article..basically any article (!!) are out of date, so you can look them up at the last link. The blue dollar / informal rate devalued the ARS by 20% in the last month. Things are moving quickly there.

All of Argentina’s dollar exchange rates, explained - Buenos Aires Herald
Tourist foreign dollar exchange rate - Argentina (secretsofbuenosaires.com)
Blue Dollar Rates : Informal Rate, Formal Rate & Bank Rate of US Dollar in Argentina

There is also a healthy thread going on in the Argentina forum on FT regarding the exchange rates and use of credit cards...

In my brief experience, most places took cards which although not getting the best rate was close enough and was a good way to avoid being left with basically worthless currency at the end of the trip. It was easier to take Uber in BA when paying in cash (in a few anecdotal trials, cars came quicker if I selected the cash payment option). In Ushuaia taxis seemed to only take cash.

YYCCL3

My next flight to the city of Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina departs from the city airport of Buenos Aires - Aeroparque. It was less than a 20 minute ride from Plaza de Mayo which cost 6000 pesos (or about 6 USD).
I wish that I'd taken a photo of the check in area as it was pretty chaotic but I didn't as I was really wondering whether I'd make the cut off time for my bag to be accepted. I arrived an hour and 40 minutes before departure time and with priority check in access at a relatively small airport I figured that was plenty of time.. nope… the lines were barely moving and kept getting longer and longer. Thankfully I made it to the counter at 10 minutes before cut off time. After all that, a quick security check and then into the departure area to wait for boarding time.



We departed more less on time to the west and flew over what looks like a water park close to the airport.



Then we made a sweeping turn out east over the massive Rio de la Plata - as you can see, although Buenos Aires appears on the map to be a coastal city, it's not - this body of water is technically a river or more like an estuary, and the water is quite muddy.



Here's a look back at the city.



Heading south over central Argentina the landscape looked like the Great Plains of the US or Canada from above.



About an hour and a half into the flight, those of us in Premium Economy were served a lunch tray consisting of some peanuts, a ham and cream cheese sandwich that was labelled high in saturated fat, high in sodium and high in calories; and a cookie. Water, Pepsi, 7Up, or coffee were offered with the lunch.



We approached Ushuaia airport over the Beagle Channel and the coastal mountains of Tierra del Fuego did their best to poke out from amongst the clouds. Whitecaps below indicated that it was a windy afternoon.



We landed at Ushuaia airport about 3.5 hours after departing Buenos Aires Aeroparque and pulled up to the small terminal in between blustery rain showers. The terminal building resembled a ski lodge, in keeping with the mountain and outdoor motif of the region.



After being blasted by strong winds and rain when walking out of the air terminal, the ride from the airport to my accomodation for the night took about 10 minutes, and I arrived at this cute little cabin on a hill overlooking town.





We had another break in the weather for a little while and a beautiful rainbow appeared.



After another heavy shower and very strong wind episode, I walked around the area a little bit on the way to a local restaurant recommended by my hostess.



Maria Lola Resto had a great view.



And great food, too!





I'd planned to spend my full day in Ushuaia heading out to the mountains to get in a hike or maybe the Tren del Fin del Mundo but the weather was looking pretty miserable again, so I had the same driver, Gonza, who'd picked me up from the airport, to take me down to the town center to the hotel for the next night which was part of the package for the upcoming expedition. After dropping off my stuff at the hotel, I sought refuge in a local coffee shop above this penguin themed souvenir outlet to wait out the weather with a cappuccino.



Penguins everywhere - so cute !



After it stopped raining I walked around the east side of the town center for a while.





The main street was mostly souvenir shops, outdoor gear outlets, and restaurants or cafes.



It wasn't an incredibly remarkable town but it's in a gorgeous setting and of course is the gateway to southern Patagonia and of course, the Antarctic, so it really is the end of the civilized world in the southern direction.



I enjoyed lunch in a local family operated pub (seemed to be 3 of them running the whole show) where no English was spoken for a very reasonable price. Being a tourist town, there are some good restaurants in Ushuaia, but not cheap, and there are some that are also not good and not cheap !







Then more walking.





This lamb grilling rack seemed to be a common feature at several restaurants here (this was at the place that I had dinner, which was buffet style).



Later that evening I met my roommate for the next two weeks, whose name was Albert and was travelling with his parents. They happened to have dinner at one of the restaurants that was both not good and not cheap!

The next day I spent more time walking around, and also took a lunch recommendation from Albert at the good place they'd tried - Garibaldi Resto. Not only was the food delicious, the server spoke perfect English which was a real relief as this was uncommon in Argentina. King crab is a speciality in Ushuaia, but I couldn't bring myself to order a whole one as it was way too much food for one person, so I settled for the King Crab casserole.







The lunch was really great - funnily enough, as I'd tried Albert's recommendation; him and his parents tried Maria Lola on my recommendation and we were both very satisfied.

The walk after lunch was quite pleasant and I even bumped into my hostess Guadalupe from the first night in town. And I also saw this Crotia Plaza which seemed a bit out of place, I wonder what the story is on that one.







After burning off some of the lunch, it was time to embark on the big adventure…



Curiously enough, to board the ship at the port docks which were a short ~7 minute walk from the official hotel, we had to board buses in a parking lot that was about half the distance to the dock, and then be driven the rest of the way. I'm not sure why that was, maybe some security thing. Anyway, after our very short bus ride it was time to board the M/V World Explorer.



This will be home for Albert and I for the next two weeks. The room was really nice, much better than the hotel room that we'd stayed in the previous night in the Hotel Albatros and especially the bathroom was much better, with really hot water.







After getting unpacked and settled into the room there was a welcome and safety briefing in the ship's auditorium in the bow. We'll be spending a lot of time in here over the course of the trip.



The Ushuaia harbour was totally calm now, a far cry from the rain and wind of the last couple of days.



We're off! This is essentially the last sort of civilization we'll see for 2 weeks.



There were other cruise ships coming and going, from operators Viking and Lindblad/National Geographic.











As we headed east out down the Beagle Channel, the first of many great meals was served in the dining room at the stern of the 4th deck.





This is a sample of the menu, on which most of the items changed every day. The food was very good, better than I expected. The ice cream in particular was a huge hit as there was freshly made ice creams and sorbets every single day - it was hard to resist!











The next 3 days on the ship crossing eastwards 1000 nautical miles of the Scotia Sea would be more or less the same. Breakfast, a scientific presentation in the auditorium, lunch, another presentation, afternoon tea, dinner, some sort of social activity or other lighter presentation in the lounge area. Here is a sample itinerary for the first sea day which also included a mandatory safety briefing.





About half of the entire trip looked like this - unless you stopped to take a minute to look closer, then there was actually quite a lot to see. The Southern Ocean is literally teeming with life!





As was the forecast, the seas were a bit rough for the first day and a half. Here are some waves splashing up to the dining room windows, about 25 feet above the waterline. The winds that day were about 50 knots, or close to 100 km/h.


\


The staff do a lot to give guests options to keep busy, but there was also plenty of downtime to take in the views of the endless expanse of waves. This being the first time in my life to spend any significant amount of time at sea, I also took a seasickness medication, Meclizine, when the ship started rocking, and this made me a bit drowsy. So I spent a lot of time those first few days resting and intermittently napping amongst everything else.

The staff put up a very cool demographic slide about the composition of our fellow travellers!



The World Explorer also had a great observation lounge at the front of the 7th deck, with huge windows and an outer deck to take in the sea and the life it harboured. Over those first days, particularly the third sea day, we saw plenty of humpback whales, a rarely spotted sperm whale, orcas off the bow, and our first icebergs in the afternoon. Not to mention birds, particularly the famous albatross of the Southern Ocean. Given that I'm just working off my phone as a camera, I don't have pictures of any of these, since you really need a decent camera with a good telephoto lens to properly capture these creatures.





Yay ! Our first iceberg! It's funny to think back to how so many people snapped this pic of an iceberg way in the distance when in the days coming we'd be surrounded by them... haha



After 3 full days at sea, we are ready for our first stop….

zip10001

Quite different from the trip reports we usually see on FT.
Thank you for sharing!

SKT-DK

Very interesting trip! I will for sure be following the rest of the adventure

VorelNaCestach

Was that a bottle of vodka?

The only information I could find on the Internet is this: "At the beginning of the century, many Lithuanian, Lebanese, Spanish, and Croatian families came to Tierra del Fuego for different reasons. Once they finished their work, many of them decided to stay." Maybe Croatians lived around that square and named it after their country.

stevie

Very cool TR, look forward to the rest of it.

757

Amazing report and photos so far of your trip. Love the views of Buenos Aires, and of your trip to Antarctica so far. I've never been to South America, but definitely would like to go sometime.

YYCCL3

Haha, not a chance - just still water. I never noticed that!

Thanks for the info on the Croatia Plaza

YYCCL3

After the 3 long days at sea, we're literally in the middle of nowhere in the Southern Ocean. King Edward Point on the island of South Georgia, population in the summer, about 20. The wakeup this morning gave us our first taste of the sub-Antarctic. South Georgia has some of the worst weather of just about anywhere, but this morning we were greeted by sun poking out, glaciers, icebergs, abundant fur seals in the bay swimming past the ship, and the old whaling village of Grytviken at the head of the bay.









Government of South Georgia officials came on board to conduct a biosecurity inspection - the biosecurity of this most special place that contains the highest density of wildlife on the planet is particularly sensitive this year due to an outbreak of Avian Flu transported from South America by migratory birds in the southern spring. What does biosecurity mean? Anything that's outerwear or gear has to be completely clean and free of any foreign material before off ship excursions and that's right down to seeds stuck in the mesh of a backpack, or tiny crumbs of dirt in between the treads of one's boots. In addition to the biosecurity inspection, they also stamped our passports since we'll be officially entering their territory. This will definitely be one of the rarest stamps I'll ever get.



After all of the formalities, Zodiacs were unloaded from the ship to take us to shore in Grytviken. While watching this process, seals howling and singing onshore were clearly heard from the ship.



Sadly, this seal didn't make it back from his last swim.



Our first stop was at the historic Grytviken cemetery.
We had to wade through a forest of fur seals to get to the cemetery. But, taking care not to get too close to them - especially as there are strict rules not to get closer than 5 metres to the animals due to Avian Flu. Why the restrictions on people for a "bird flu"? Well, not for the worry of people contracting it, which is possible but rare - but rather to prevent humans picking it up from an infected animal and moving the germs along to somewhere else on their boots or gear.









This is where the famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton rests. We raised a toast to him with a shot of Jamesons at his gravestone.







It was hard not to take too many photos of the fur seals that were everywhere amongst the tussock grass.











Again, due to Avian Flu and to minimize the risk of close encounters with the seals, we weren't able to walk around the cove to the village but had to get back in the Zodiac for a water shuttle. More fur seals yowling and lounging greeted us at the next landing spot.







We pulled up right beside the derelict remains of a very busy whaling station from the first half of the 20th century. It has been shuttered since 1966.



There are a few "attractions" that are seasonally staffed in Grytviken - a museum and post office. I stopped first at a smaller sub-museum dedicated to the James Caird, the boat that Shackleton and some of his men drove from Antarctica after being stuck for over a year in the ice. It is a tremendous story and quite fascinating how they actually made it.





More whaling station remains as I walked around and up towards the Norwegian Anglican Church, which was prefabricated in Norway in 1913 and reconstructed on site.







The upper level had this adorable penguin stuffie left behind in memory of someone dearly missed. There was also a sign encouraging visitors to pull the ropes to ring the church's bells, which I did. :-)





The church was still decorated for Christmas - amazing considering the location.



Outside again, I popped into the museum and looked around, and also heard a presentation by one of the staffers whose grandfather had actually worked in the whaling station many, many years ago!







As I headed back to the zodiac, more seals lounged in front of these derelict whaling ships.



Back to the ship and back onboard for lunch.



We saw more icebergs as we headed out of the bay. These bergs seemed attractive at the time but we'll certainly have our fill of icebergs over the next week and a half.











After lunch we ventured around the corner to Stromness and Leith, other former whaling stations - which was nestled below some glaciated peaks.







Here's a sample of what the boot check looked like at the beginning of each excursion - picks at the ready to get rid of any tiny debris. In addition to the waterproof parka and waterproof pants (you supply your own - some people wore ski pants but I wore simple rain pants as it wasn't really that cold) they supply insulated rubber boots for landings, as you are stepping into sea water that could be up to knee deep.





We toured around the bay in the Zodiac and saw many seals, penguins swimming, icebergs, verdant grassy slopes, and dramatic skies.











Afterwards, we disembarked and I hiked up through a sea of seals and many gentoo and king penguins towards Shackleton Waterfall. Not only was it awesome to walk amongst the thousands of critters in their own domain, it was especially nice to get in a proper walk after being on the ship for the last 3 days!



Of course, these guys and gals were just adorable. Especially the king penguins.





















Here's Shackleton Waterfall, which was the last obstacle that him and his men descended completely covered in snow after traversing nearly 50 kilometres of steep rock and glaciers.



This got them to the first humans they'd seen in over a year, which was down at the whaling station in the distance.



Some snow flurries blew in while I was at one of the creek crossings on the hike.



More adorable gentoo penguins.









And a fur seal saying goodbye as I headed back to the ship for dinner.



Next morning we were headed out for a Zodiac tour in Hercules Bay. What a gorgeous morning. We are getting really lucky with the weather here.



Unfortunately we couldn't land here, but to be honest I didn't see too many places where a landing would be physically feasible due to the steep shoreline, but we had our first views of macaroni penguins and of course more seals.

















There were some beautiful icebergs in the bay, including this one that was covered in penguins, some of them being very silly.









And this one, which resembled a ship, and was almost the same size as one.



Before too long, it was time to get back on the ship for lunch and heading south along the coast to our next stop, of course passing numerous icebergs backdropped by dramatic peaks rising close to 3000 metres in elevation.



Our destination for the afternoon is St Andrews Bay - home to several hundred thousand king penguins.



I won't comment too much and let the pictures speak for themselves. This site was restricted from landing due to HPAI ravaging the elephant seals in the area, and we could see many corpses from the water. It's probably a good thing that we weren't allowed to land anyway, as at least from a distance we could look past the death instead of having it right in our faces. So although we weren't amongst them, we did get to view from a small distance offshore, king penguins as far as the eye could see, including many fluffy brown chicks.































There were some kings hanging out on rocks at the far north end of the beach, that we were able to get quite close to for some photos. At this point in the trip I found myself wishing that I had brought a proper dSLR or mirrorless camera with a good telephoto lens instead of just my iPhone.






Back at the ship after an absolutely amazing afternoon at St Andrews Bay, our daily recap/briefing contained a screenshot of the weather from Windy.com, presented by our Expedition Leader, Daven. The forecast for Friday, the day after tomorrow, looked fairly grim for crossing over to Antarctica but at least it was the end of the storm and not right in the middle of it. Some people were very anxious about this. Originally the trip itinerary was to spend 2 days in South Georgia and 3 in Antarctica, but we spent 3 days in South Georgia. I wonder if that was because the weather was so good here and looking so bad to the south !

YYCCL3

The next morning at Gold Harbour was even better than the previous morning. Again, no landing, but a beautiful, leisurely paced zodiac tour in a glacier backdropped bay with tons of penguins and more seals.























Some of the other activities one could do from the ship included kayaking and stand up paddleboarding - I got this group of kayakers passing some icebergs on the uncharacteristically calm and warm day.





Around these striking rock pinnacles were more seals - some of them blonde.









Couldn't get enough of the icebergs on this spectacular morning.









After the outing, I went back to my room and enjoyed an espresso on the balcony while I watched the rest of the Zodiacs return to the ship.




A snowy sheathbill posing.



We traversed again further south.



More icebergs - I thought this one looked like a submarine.



As we pulled into Cooper Bay, a 22 degree halo warned us of impending bad weather - or did it?



It was still beautiful out right now.



Last Zodiac cruise on South Georgia. So many chinstrap penguins.





























All of the features heading up the slopes between the grass aren't rocks.. they're penguins.







As we left this resting seal and headed back to the ship, high cloud started to move in and the wind picked up.



We headed out further south through a spectacular Iceberg Alley. It was incredible. I have a time lapse video of going through this area but unfortunately I can only post images.



Passing Drygalski Fjord.



As we headed out south beyond Cape Disappointment, we said goodbye to South Georgia and settled in for another couple of days at sea. Hopefully we're missing the purple and blue part of the weather map. South Georgia, simply a stunning and amazing place on this planet. Despite the HPAI restrictions I feel very fortunate to have seen what we did in such perfect weather!



Next stop - The White Continent

13901

I've always been fascinated by South Georgia, ever since reading of Shackleton's expedition. I doubt I'll ever will, but it's great to be seeing it through your eyes. Amazing!