Penguin Power Proven...

Dwayne did not think my original title for this chapter was a good one. I did, so I will mention it later on. The ship, the MS Expedition, that we boarded in Ushuaia was a small cruise ship.

It held 130 passengers and about 60 staff. Included in the staff were an ornithologist (bird guy), a cetacean guy (whale guy) and a geologist (yeah!). Though I think this geologist may have been born in the Jurassic as the first time he was in the Antarctic was 1956! Anyway we waved goodbye to Ushuaia and started our two day sail across the Drake passage.

 This is a nasty piece of water. Even though our crossing was considered quiet and an easy one by the crew, the 5m "swells" did not seem easy to me! We saw our first wildlife and had our first lecture on birds and history of Antarctic exploration. There are tons of birds flying in the Drake; Petrels, Albatross, Skua and whole lot of variations of these. The small size of the landing boats meant we were able to disembark everywhere (weather permitting) on the small islands and those areas along the Antarctic peninsula that are restricted. We did this in two groups of 65 with zodiac boats and knee high wellingtons. I had to fight a woman about 4 and a half feet high for the last pair of small boots. She gave up after she realized I was a foot taller! I still had to have an insert and two pairs of socks, stupid small feet.  Anyway, for our first trip onto the land of ice and snow we arrive at the South Shetland Islands. On Aitcho Island there is a nesting rookery of Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins, our first encounter with these charming creatures. We climb out of the zodiacs and are quickly disuaded by the crew NOT to go too close to the huge 2000lb elephant seal lying on the beach.

 Then we notice something. A "fragrance" you might call it. I would not call it that, as penguins are smelly when they number in the thousands. So my original title was: "I love the smell of penguin poo in the morning from the movie, Antartica Now". Ok so there is no movie by that title but there is one called Apocalypse Now and I could just hear Marlon Brando saying this. Dwayne vetoed it, party pooper. Anyway, there are tons of little baby penguins around. And if you kneel down, they will come right up and peck at your fingers, Dwaynes camera, his butt etc. Can you say adorable?

I wanted to take one home except he would have to be washed or bleached. And I just do not know if I could chew up raw seafood and regurgitate it. We could not stop taking pictures and since the only predator on land, is from the sky, a bird called a Skua, they were not afraid or bothered by us. One came up to Dwayne and pecked at his camera lens, look how cute he is! The baby penguin, not Dwayne!

We left here and sailed to Danco Island. This is full of penguins and has a penguin highway! They make a path that allows them easier access to the uppermost point where they can nest in the rocks. As we hiked up beside the highway you had to stay about 3m back else there was a penguin traffic jam.

That day we also got our first sighting of humpback whales. Can you say huge! (I can say huge but my dad cannot, he would just say uge as he cannot say h. Funny for someone whose last name is Henry. HA! I had to mention this as he turned 8 decades old this month.)  We also landed on the continent for the first time at a Chilean naval base. Guess what, besides about five grumpy Chilean men there were penguins by the thousands and two that are leucistic. These are white with no black but they are not albinos, just a genetic abnormality. We did not see any melanistic, or all black ones but the all white ones were neat to see. The next day we were again on the continent to see another Gentoo colony that has taken up residence at an old Argentenian refuge. Tons of glaciers and icebergs around this area.

We then went to Port Lockeroy. This is the most southern post office in the world. It is an old British station which is manned or womaned in this case by volunteers who run the gift shop, the British post office and do some penguin reasearch.

A stone throw away across the bay is Jougla Point. There are penguins both Gentoo and Chinstrap as well as some other birds called Blue Eyed Shags (though the blue around the eyes is gone at this time of the year).  This is an old whaling area, check out the bones!
Have I mentioned the pod of killer whales that we saw?

 Or the Minke whales? While going through the Lemaire channel we saw both Crabeater and Leopard seals.

Gorgeous blue sky and stunning scenery. See how nice the pictures are?
 I am sure that National Geographic will be calling me soon to come shoot pictures for them with my trusty point and shoot. Though I cannot take credit for all of these, some are Dwaynes.

! We did not get to land on Petermann Island as it was too windy but we did get to take a zodiac cruise in Pleneau Bay, called the iceberg graveyard.  This bay is jammed with icebergs and unbelievable scenery, wow. We saw our third species of penguin, an Adelie, though there was just one that was finishing up his yearly molt. Penguins totally replace their feathers every year.

 Sailed through the night to Deception Island which is a volcanic caldera that last erupted in 1970. It is called that as it looks like an island but as you sail around it you find out that you can sail into it. It was a popular spot for the whaling ships.  We were going to land at the old whaling and British observation stations but it was too windy.  We were also supposed to go for a swim there as the water is a few degrees warmer due to the volcano.  No big loss though as we both have swum in freezing water before. Anyway, this is a long wordy blog but there were so many pictures of cute smelly penguins to share and stories of Antarctica, it took a long time. We are now off to Quito, Ecuador for a week and then onto the Galapagos for more wildlife adventures.