Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay December 16

Well, the Lemaire Channel last night ended up being something of a disappointment. The clouds never did lift, and the channel was blocked by ice at the mid-point, forcing the ship to turn back. What we saw was impressive, but the ceiling stayed at about 300 feet and we know from our last trip that the ice-covered cliffs on either side of the channel reach to about 3500 feet! We're thinking of taking our pictures from last time, which are still on this laptop, and offering copies for sale to the other guests!!!

The plan for Friday morning was to stay in the area of Lemaire/Palmer for our final two landings of this trip, one at Neko Harbour and the second at Paradise Bay. We were to be the second group out, meaning we didn't have to get up early, but promptly at 7:30 our Expedition Leader came on the PA extolling "another beautiful Antarctic day and great conditions for a landing". Looking out between the drapes all we saw was snow falling! We're not sure what this guy would say if we ever actually GOT a beautiful, sunny day! One thing he did point out was this was a landing "on the continent" (as opposed to one of the islands) and congratulating anyone who now "had" all seven continents. Realizing that this would, in fact, be our seventh continent landing quickly dispelled any thoughts of rolling over and going back to sleep!! When we hit the beach about 10:15, we jumped up and down a couple of times and said, "okay we can go back now"! Actually we did hike the snow trails half way up the hill, took a few pictures, watched some of the crazy people "sled" down from the top, and THEN headed back to the ship.

As we had lunch, the ship moved out for our next, and final, stop at Paradise Bay. Along the way we sailed out into open water and were pelted by high winds and heavy seas. We didn't know it then, but this was a portent of later events! The staff had been in touch with another ship in Paradise who told them the bay was clear, but the vagaries of weather being what they are down here, by the time we got there the wind had blown the bay full of floating ice, so the last landing became a zodiac ride. As Larry has been fighting a bad throat and a bit of laryngitis all week, he took a pass on this one, but Monica got some great pictures. And a glass of champagne along the way!

As we were leaving Paradise Bay to start the journey home, the Captain came on with a brief description of the plan and announced that we should definitely "Drake proof" our cabins before dinner. Later, at the evening recap, he gave a weather briefing, complete with charts, showing expected winds of 50+ knots out of the west (our side of the ship by the way) and seas of 15 – 30 feet starting at about 9:00PM! To back all that up, when we entered the Dining Room on Deck 2 ALL of the port (left) side windows (again, OUR side of the ship!) had their weather shields in place and the blinds drawn. We had seen this on the Discovery Channel Mighty Ships episode about this ship. When heavy weather is expected they place steel hatches inside all of the lower deck windows to guard against the waves "blowing out" the glass. Not a comforting thought! We sat on the other side of the Dining Room! We will say the Captain knows his weather, because at almost 9:00 PM, on the dot, the ship started to pitch and roll!!

By the time we finished dinner the ship was pitching left, right, up and down with no sense of rhyme or reason. So what did a bunch of us do?? We made our way, holding tight to anything that was attached to a wall, to the Observation Lounge at the front of Deck 6 to watch the show. And what a show it was, with the bow moving up, down and around through an arc of at least 30 degrees in every direction, water and spray flying over the bow and the occasional wave hitting the windows! A couple of the staff popped in for a visit and told us the bridge registered a peak wind gust of 73 knots, or 105 MPH!!!! A few pictures……

About 11:00 PM we headed back to our cabin, where we discovered it wasn't QUITE "Drake proofed" enough!! Once we got everything else either packed away or otherwise nailed down, we crawled, quite literally, into bed and hung on for dear life!! Neither of us slept that much or that well for the not unreasonable fear we might wake up on the floor!!!

A Day at Palmer Station December 15

Palmer Station is one of three US research stations in the Antarctic, the other two being at the actual South Pole, and the biggest base at McMurdo Sound. We actually arrived at Palmer, located in Arthur Bay on Anvers Island, at 2:00AM and anchored for the night. We discovered subsequently that when we arrived, the bay was full of drifting pack ice, but a change in the wind prevented a change in plans. Unfortunately it also brought a change in the weather! We were scheduled as the first group out on a zodiac exploration of Arthur Bay and we awoke at 6:00AM to clouds, fog, strong winds and RAIN!! Oh, and a temperature of +1C. All in all, just lovely conditions for a ride in an open zodiac!!


Promptly at 7:30 we set off for our tour, into the teeth of the wind in a driving rain heading up-bay to see the Elephant Seals. This was our first opportunity to see this particular seal and it is aptly named as full grown adult males can reach a weight of 6,000 pounds, or 3 tons, with an elongated nose not unlike an elephant's trunk. The first group we came across were recently weaned "newborns" that Pete, our driver, estimated weighed about 500 pounds! According to Pete, newborns gain an average of 30 pounds a day while nursing, meaning by the time they are weaned Mom has lost 300 – 500 pounds!! And human Mom's think they have it rough!!! After an hour of really uncomfortable sailing about the bay, and several bird, penguin and other animal sightings, we returned to the ship to warm up and have breakfast.

Our tour operator, Abercrombie & Kent, also has a philanthropic foundation, funded partially by passenger fares, which annually donates scientific equipment to Antarctic research at Palmer. At 10:30 a group of scientists and researchers from the station came onboard for a presentation on their work and to receive this year's donation. As part of the "donation process", they asked one person from each country to come up to the stage and if you look at the picture closely, you will see Monica in the background.

Once the presentation was over it was time for lunch. The passengers were divided into four groups, with each one having a set time to be at the Zodiacs for transfer to visit the station. We were supposed to have an outdoor BBQ, with the station staff invited, but given the weather that was a no-go. In order to make sure that everyone got to the Zodiacs on time, people were asked to stagger their lunches so those with the later trips would eat later. We were in Group 2 so we also had the opportunity to talk to some of the scientists while we ate (indoors), before they had to head back to the base. They're a relatively young group, but all doing work on various aspects of the Antarctic ecology, from penguins and seabirds to zooplankton, as well as extensive work on the effects of climate change on Antarctica and its animal inhabitants. Most of them stay for 4-6 months before heading back to their various universities, etc. One of our cruise lecturers, Dr. Jim McClintock, will be there in February doing field work as part of his regular research.

By the time we boarded the Zodiacs for the short trip over, the rain had turned to slushy snow, more wet than snowy, but messy just the same. At least we know that the weatherproof pants we bought work as described. The parkas stayed warm and dry on the inside, but the water-resistant backpacks were a little damp. Good thing we had used one of our shopping bags from Ushuaia as a liner of sorts to keep the camera and the souvenir items we bought at the Station Store dry on the way back.

Palmer Station is the smallest of the three US stations in the Antarctic, and is also the most northern, at 64 degrees, 46 minutes South latitude. The maximum number of researchers/scientists working there at any time is about 45, since that's how many bed spaces there are. Most of the researchers are working on sea-based projects since the water is fairly well open most of the year, and, unfortunately, seems to be getting very slightly warmer every year. The effects of this warming are also a major part of the research since Palmer is the only US station located on the Antarctic Peninsula. Here are a couple of photos of the station:

Having returned to the ship and prepared for the evening, we're now keeping an eye on the weather. It seems to be lightening up, but it is still snowing lightly. We're supposed to leave here and head toward the Lemaire Channel, alternately known as 'Kodak Alley' or the 'Fuji Fjord', depending on your camera equipment. (We really need to make up a Nikon reference. We've been joking on this whole trip that if everybody put their cameras down in one place at the same time, we'd have to look at the photos on them to be able to tell them apart!) We remember it as spectacular the last time we were here, even though we couldn't get through the Channel itself. We'll keep our fingers crossed…

Enterprise and Cuverville Islands December 14

This morning was special for two reasons: 1) December 14, 2011 is the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen's being the first explorer to reach the South Pole, and 2) we lucked into another beautiful, calm day.

Since we had so much free time yesterday, our historian, Bob Burton, gave a lecture on Amundsen's history and especially his expedition to the South Pole, which reached it no more than about two weeks before Scott did. Part of the lecture included some very recently released original cinemascope footage that Amundsen shot during the expedition and put into a 'movie' format to use in his own lectures about his voyage. Much like a very primitive version of a blog, you might say. The anniversary is a huge deal – the 'Fram', the ship that Amundsen used to get to the Antarctic, is being restored for exhibition in Norway, and apparently the prime minister of Norway is at the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole today to commemorate the occasion.

Since we weren't invited to the festivities, we made do with a picture-perfect day. At Enterprise Island, we had a Zodiac tour of the area. This had been a fairly busy whaling area back in the day, and the remains of a whaling ship and some small water boats, that they used to bring fresh water to the processing ships, are still there, well-preserved since the environment is so cold and dry that it takes a very long time for wood or steel to break down. Here are a couple of shots from the tour.

Along the way, we also saw our share of wildlife, some being a tad far from home…We spotted some penguins on a small iceberg and, since that's the photo every Antarctic tourist wants to go home with, we went out to investigate. And to our surprise, we found a couple of Adelie Penguins onboard, pretty far out of their normal area.

The naturalists knew of a few Chinstrap Penguins on a rocky islet so of course we had to check them out, since we hadn't had any chance to see them yesterday.

After that it was back to the ship for lunch and our move out to the next landing spot: Cuverville Island. Since we were the second group out in the morning, we were the first out in the afternoon. This time it was a landing at a Gentoo Penguin rookery. For those hardy souls who wanted to, they could climb up to about 800 feet behind the landing area for an overlook. We decided not to do that, but instead to take advantage of a mini Zodiac tour on the way back to the ship. There was quite a bit of heavy packing snow on the beach, along with a lot of noisy and smelly penguins, but it was a great landing nonetheless.

So, as we write, we're waiting for the next group to get back from their excursions as we head further south toward the Lemaire Channel. We'll get the details at our briefing this evening.

Antarctic Rock & Roll!!!

The Day 2 plan called for a landing at Half-Moon Island followed by a short sail and a second landing at Deception Island. The operative words in that statement being "called for" because no plan in the Antarctic is ever cast in stone.

Our group was to be second out this morning, so we got to "sleep in", but since all announcements are piped into the cabin by the PA system, you never really get to miss anything. It had been a very "bumpy" night, so we were not surprised when our Expedition Leader's 7:30 announcement was "we're here, it doesn't look promising, but we are sending in the scout boat", followed about 15 minutes later by "it is far too rough to land", so we are off to Deception Island.

The Zodiac coming back from its scouting mission

Deception Island is actually the caldera of an active volcano (last eruption 1972) with a very narrow entrance channel guarded by a submerged rock. When we were here in 2007 a Norwegian vessel had an "encounter" with that rock that holed its hull, so entering the caldera is tricky under the best of conditions. And we didn't get the best of conditions. Actually by the time we got there, the weather had actually gotten worse and we were dealing with 40 knot winds (that's about 60MPH) and ten to twelve foot seas. The Captain announced that he would drop anchor for a couple of hours and we would wait and see if the weather changed. Sure enough, two hours later, it had changed. For the worse!! Higher waves and even higher winds!! Landings cancelled!

Looking into the Deception Island caldera

Before hauling the anchor, the Captain advised that we would be in for some rough seas for the next five to six hours and to make sure we secured our cabins. He wasn't kidding! From about 2:00PM until just a bit after 8:00PM we pitched, rocked and rolled in seas that ran anywhere from 10 to 35 feet and winds that gusted up to 65 knots, or about 75 MPH!! That is just below Hurricane strength for those keeping track. Actually, in the afternoon we got an impromptu lecture about the Beaufort Scale of Wind Force and our lecturer, Susanne, told us we could all go home and brag about being on a ship in a Force 8 storm!

For all that, the ship handled the waves remarkably well, and while there was movement, it was not excessive and we had no problem moving about the ship. Of course we were in the minority as the vast majority stayed in their cabins all afternoon!!

That evening at dinner, we sat down in the restaurant, which is on Deck 2 and probably no more than 10 feet above the water line, and immediately got the window beside us washed by a wave! We took some video of the seas, and can only say that when you're close enough to the waves that you're looking up from the bottom of the trough while traveling at 16 knots, you get a real appreciation of the power of Mother Nature.

As the Captain predicted, just after 8:00 we reached the lee of the islands and the seas were suddenly – like from one second to the next – down to a ripple, and the rest of the evening was spent gawking at the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula on one side and Brabant Island on the other.

First Landings in Antarctica

Monday dawned clearer than anyone expected, and when we woke at 5:30 so we could be ready for our 6:45 tour call, we were already sailing along the edge of the pack ice that normally fills much of the Weddell Sea. Larry Hobbs and the expedition team couldn't believe the weather. In fact, Larry had said that if he had one day like this one in every three TRIPS he thought they were doing very well weather-wise. And to top it off, they had picked up some very interesting animal life in their binoculars!

This morning we would not be landing as such, but would be taking Zodiac tours along the edge of the ice to see what we could find.

So, of course, we now had the first test of the cold-weather gear we all had to buy for this trip: long underwear, hiking socks, waterproof pants, gloves and glove liners, warm hats, etc. It sure took longer than usual to get dressed! And then, of course we had our rubber boots (that we rented through A&K), our parkas and our life vests. Heaven forbid anybody needed to go to the bathroom in a hurry after they got all kitted up!!

And of course we also had to have protective gear for our camera equipment, which for the most part consisted of shower caps – light enough to protect from water, but thin enough to be able to manipulate the camera controls.

As our international-distress orange groups assembled in the salon, we were taken down the stairs to the 'marina' or what we would call the 'swim platform' to load into the Zodiacs for our ride. Since the weather was so nice, the water was quite calm, which meant we didn't have to worry about carrying the cameras in backpacks until we got to where we were going.

Among the various birds and animals we saw were Snow Petrels – fairly small seabirds, pure white, that you will only find around a lot of ice; Crabeater Seals – pretty big actually, and they don't eat crabs but krill and fish; Adelie Penguins – pure black and white, and to top it off: Emperor Penguins – the kind from 'Happy Feet' with the yellow/orange patch on the neck. The Emperors were the biggest surprise for the naturalists. They usually colonize well south of where we were, around the perimeter of the continent, but they had recently found a breeding colony on Snow Hill Island, very close to where we were. In total there were about six Emperors hanging around with the Adelies.

Here are some photos from the morning's excursion:

The 'march of the Adelies'

Emperor Penguins

Then, in the afternoon, we moved on to Paulet Island, where there is a colony of 100,000 breeding pairs of Adelie Penguins.

The passengers have been divided into two groups (with either a red or a green sticker on their key cards) which identifies when they go out for excursions. In order to be fair, one day the red group goes first in the morning and second in the afternoon, and the next day it is reversed – so that everybody gets the chance to get up early to prepare for a tour! It can make for a pretty long day, as we discovered.

The morning's weather held fairly well for the green group (the OTHER guys) to get out for their landing; by the time we got out to land it was just after 5:00 and we had an hour and a half to wander around. We climbed over fist-sized stones and some snow to get around the area, stopping to take a look at the remains of a stone hut built by a group of sailors/explorers when they were stranded for a winter in 1902. Now penguins nest all around and on top of it.

A penguin checking the 2 eggs it is incubating

One of the naturalists had also spotted some chicks that hatched a few days early. We found her and she pointed out the two mothers and the pair of chicks each one was brooding. Apparently, once the first ones hatch, all of the others – and there were plenty of nests – hatch within a few days of each other. Boy, will it be noisy then!

Penguins on the beach

Mom and her 2 chicks

We had been out for about 45 minutes and were heading toward the beach to watch the penguins there when we came across one of the naturalists in a little predicament. There was an older passenger who was having trouble negotiating the stones on the way down the hill. So we gave them a hand down to the beach, where we discovered that the seas had changed dramatically and they couldn't take us back to the ship from the place they had landed us! They have an alternate landing site in a more sheltered spot, but that was a good mile or so around the island, and that's where they told us to go. So we helped Juan escort this lady all the way around the beach, well within the 15 foot clearance we're supposed to give the animals, but they didn't seem to mind.

It was in some cases quite fortunate, since we probably saw some animals that the first group, who didn't walk that far, didn't get to see. We passed Blue-Eyed Shags – long-necked black and white seabirds that look like geese when they fly; more Penguins going in and out of the water, and a few Weddell Seals. Because we were busy helping this lady, Larry didn't get any video, but Monica managed to take a few photos along the way.

A Weddell Seal

A penguin in the suf

Chasing Icebergs!!

If anything, Sunday dawned with even calmer seas than we had on Saturday. The good news, of course, is that we finished our crossing of the Drake almost a half day sooner than planned, which left more time for……………whale watching!!


One of the great things about an expedition cruise is that, other than the day it has to be back at the dock, there is no set schedule, meaning the ship can take advantage of "what comes up". About 10:00 AM the Captain announced that the bridge had spotted "a pair of humpback whales" and that we would manoeuvre to get closer to them. So for the next hour and a half we "chased" the humpbacks around the southern end of the Drake. We did manage to get a couple of pictures, although our timing wasn't the greatest and the whales weren't too cooperative.

Saturday evening Larry Hobbs, the Expedition Leader, had told us that ice conditions looked promising enough that we might be able to get down into the Weddell Sea on the south-east side of the Peninsula. This is an area that is normally completely ice-blocked at this time of the year and can only be reached by sailing all the way around the tip of the Peninsula, a time-consuming process. Shortly after lunch, Larry announced that in fact the area was clear and we would proceed down the Antarctic Sound and then southward for our first "landing" on Monday morning. But first we would transit Iceberg Alley!!!

There are no words to describe just how big these bergs are, and unfortunately we didn't have anything to put in front to give them a measure of scale. Suffice it to say that Le Boreal was by far the smallest piece of floating real estate in the area. And also remember that, even though these icebergs have broken off of a flat-bottomed ice shelf that is the end of a glacier that has flowed out onto the sea, they still have about 80 percent of their total volume BELOW the surface of the water. It just may not stick out too far around the sides – so we didn't have to worry about any "Titanic moments".

Once we started into the area, the captain and our ice pilot found a nice route in between the bergs that gave us all a chance to see them "up close and personal". Here are a few photos – the video gives an even better idea of the size and number of bergs we saw.

Once we passed the majority of the icebergs, we slowed down as we progressed toward our Weddell Sea stop that the expedition staff hoped would be near Snow Hill Island.

We seem to have had one day after another of unexpected and fantastic sights so far. Let's see if it continues tomorrow.

The Mighty Drake….

Lake!


We lucked out for the second time in our southbound trip across the Drake Passage. Although there was a swell of something in the order of 4 metres, and we could feel some movement overnight, on Saturday morning everyone, including the crew, was happy to see more ripples than whitecaps on the ocean. From what we heard, the reason Le Boreal had been held up on its trip back was because the weather was particularly bad and it took an extra 12 hours to get to Ushuaia. We're all crossing our fingers that the same thing doesn't happen to us.

It turned out to be a full day. Four lectures, from Photography in the Antarctic 101 to the Heroes of Antarctic Exploration in the early 1900s, Sea Bird Identification and finally our introduction to Climate Change and how it is affecting the Antarctic Eco-System. All very interesting and given by an extremely knowledgeable staff of university professors and researchers who, on average, have been working the Antarctic for over 20 years.

In the middle of the day, just in time to interrupt the rush to lunch, we saw our first large marine wildlife – Orcas! We ended up in the middle of a number of small pods of orcas that were systematically combing the area for food. Once we made the first sightings, the Captain turned the ship around so we could get in for a closer look – which was an event in itself. We had been travelling at full speed, about 16 knots, and we're not sure that he even slowed down. We were just heading toward the aft outside deck area when we looked through the door, and found that the horizon was at a 30 degree angle! Talk about turning a ship on a dime! It is hard to conceive a 500 foot long ship being that manoeuvrable, but this one is, and Captain Marchessau has demonstrated he is not afraid to use that capability.

Fortunately most people headed for the upper decks while we found a smaller deck on the port side which, since the Orcas were on that side, turned out to be the ideal location. We spent some time watching the Orcas and managed to get a few good photos:

This being the first full day of the cruise, it was also the evening for the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Gala Dinner! On any other ship this would be the "first formal night" and in the pre-cruise package they actually call it that, suggesting a jacket for the gentlemen "if packing space permits". While a number of the ladies, including Monica, wore their cocktail finery, virtually all of the gentlemen, including Larry, obviously packed light"! A very few jackets, and the only tuxes were on the staff!!

After the party we proceeded to dinner in the Main Dining Room where we shared a table and great conversation with a couple we met who are from Kleinberg. The Dining Room is on Deck 2 and when sitting by a window you almost feel like you are sitting ON the water. With the swells still running at about 12 feet, there were many occasions where the horizon completely disappeared behind a "wall" of water! A most interesting experience and one that a photo can't properly show. That's why you'll have to wait for the video!

At the party the Captain announced that with the (relatively) calm seas, we were making excellent time and he expected us to clear the Drake by 10:00 AM Sunday morning, a full 12 hours ahead of schedule. That is where the real fun will begin!

The End of the World – or at least the continent

So, there we were, a group of distinctly bleary-eyed travellers, called out of bed at 4:00 in the morning and wondering why on earth we had to put our bags out at 10:00 if they were still in the lobby at 5:00 in the morning waiting for the truck to take them to the airport. We could have brought them down ourselves just as easily…


Soon we were all on our way – all 178 of us, between the two hotels – to our charter flight to Ushuaia. The domestic airport was a lot easier to get through than the other one, especially since we already had our boarding passes and didn't have to worry about check-in. Do you know that the distance between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia is a little more than from Toronto to Miami? Our flight time was 3 hours and 20 minutes, and quite comfortable, although all that we were served food-wise was a little snack box with some cookies and a beverage of our choice (non-alcoholic – it was only 7:00 in the morning when we took off). We were starting to get hungry by the time we landed, not having had any breakfast to speak of, and were looking forward to the promised barbecue lunch outside of town.

Since Le Boreal had just come back from an Antarctic tour (almost a half-day late, as we later found out) and was being readied for our group, A&K had arranged a tour of the town and outlying countryside to keep us busy until the ship was ready. And since we had not been fed since the night before, that tour started with lunch! What better way to keep cruiseship passengers busy than with food?? Lunch was at a ski resort about 10 kms out of town, so we started with a scenic drive with a couple of photo stops along the way. We didn't actually get to see much of Ushuaia in 2007 beyond the pier and the airport so we were both surprised to discover that it is actually a good sized "city" of about 70,000 people. And even more surprised that, here at "The Town at The End of the World" (their motto) there is actually a fairly well developed industrial sector, primarily in plastics manufacture and electronics assembly, and a very busy container shipping port that services much of southern Argentina. We thought it was all fishing and tourists! Or fishing FOR tourists! It is also a very active winter sports area with downhill and cross-country ski races, snowshoeing and dog sledding. Of course they do get something in the area of 9 metres (!!) of snow in an average winter!. Larry says he will never complain about a Toronto winter again! (as if!)

Arriving in Ushuaia

The countryside

After a very pleasant lunch of lamb BBQ'ed "churrasco style", a bit charred on the outside from being cooked over a very hot flame, we headed back to town and a visit to the naval base, and local prison! Okay, not a "working" prison, but like Australia, Ushuaia got its start as a penal colony for "repeat offenders" and, apparently at different times, political prisoners. After a short visit, we strolled to main street, where Monica finally found a hair brush (peace in our time!!) and back to the bus for the final leg of the journey to the ship, arriving onboard just after 4:00, a mere 74 hours after we left home!!

See the ship in the background?

Once on board the ship, as our suitcases had arrived before us, we took a look around our spacious double cabin (two of everything, including bathrooms!) and unpacked. The ship is small but easy to get around, and very well laid-out. You can tell that they put a lot of thought into design for expedition-style cruising from the way the lounges and observation areas are set out, with lots of open space and windows. We'll post some photos later on.

We were an hour and a half late leaving port, but made good time down the Beagle Channel while we had dinner. One thing we noticed was how smoothly the ship moves, and how little we were aware of the vibration of the engines. But we hadn't reached the dreaded Drake Passage yet! We'd have to see how she fared out in the open waters…

Sunset over the Beagle Channel

Here we are again, Argentina!

After some low-level fretting for the better part of a week about the weather (remember, last time we flew to South America for the Antarctic, we missed the ship in Valparaiso), we managed to get out of Toronto on time. Our flight to JFK, on a Bombardier Regional Jet, was so bumpy that the pilot wouldn't even let the flight attendants get out of their seats, never mind serve any refreshments, but that didn't delay us.

The flight to Buenos Aires was also uneventful and quite comfortable. We both managed to get at least four hours of sleep, and with a two-hour time difference to Buenos Aires, we weren't too badly jet-lagged once we arrived. Which was a good thing! We arrived just before 11:00, got in one line to pay the reciprocity fee for visitors, then got into the next line to clear immigration. Is this starting to sound familiar?? The good thing about that was that by the time we reached the luggage carrousel, the bags were already out. And, shades of the first time we were in Buenos Aires with Mom and Dad in 2000, one of the bags had already been taken off the carrousel by somebody and left on the floor! Good thing they're bright red and hard to miss. Of course, then there's the last lineup to put your bags through the x-ray machine to make sure you're not bringing restricted goods into the country…

Once we were clear of the airport bureaucracy, we found the A&K representatives and got our transfer to the hotel – a mini-bus that would hold 16 for just the two of us! Because we booked a suite in the ship, we were staying in the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful hotel, built onto an old mansion that now houses the really fancy suites, and is only a couple of blocks from the Recoletta District, where the high class homes are. The hotel itself is just off of the main street of downtown Buenos Aires, the Avenida 9 Julio, or 9th of July Avenue, so named for Argentina's day of independence.

We were staying in a rather nice mini-suite, but only really had enough time to look around and take a few photos, since we had to change to be ready for a 2:00 city tour.

Our guide picked us all (about 18 of us) up in the bus and off we went. We had visited most of the sites when we were here in 2007, but this time we had a few ulterior motives: we wanted to see what the Casa Rosada looks like WITHOUT scaffolding all over it, Monica wanted a small watercolour from one of the artists in the La Boca area, AND she was in search of a hair-brush! There's always some little thing that misses the suitcase…

The only problem was that this was the first long weekend of the summer, and most of the shops were already closed, so Buenos Aires was not the place to try to find a farmacia with a hair brush. We'd have to take our chances in Ushuaia. Here are a few photos from the tour:

The Evita balcony at the Casa Rosada

One of the Family Tombs at Recoletta Cemetery

The tour ended at about 6:00, and we had a cocktail party for all the Le Boreal guests at the Caesar Park Hotel, where the guests were staying who weren't booked in the suites on the ship, starting at 7:00. So it was the quick shower, change, and down to the lobby to meet the gang. We walked the block and a half to the hotel, and had a very nice party outside in a garden area at the back of the hotel. We met some of the other Torontonians – a couple who used to live in Unionville, but now live a block away from Bruce in the Beach!

Since we were on our own for dinner, we had already decided to go to one of the steak houses just across the street from our hotel. The people we had been talking to recommended one called El Mirasol, so we decided to try it. The food was excellent, even though all we had was a Caesar Salad and our Steaks – no potatoes, no veggies, no desserts. But take a look at the size of the steak…

We had to put our bags outside the hotel room by 10:00, so we arrived back in time to reorganize our clothes for the next day and get them outside. We fell into bed at 10:15 with a 4:00 wake-up call as we had to gather in the lobby at 5:00 for our transfer to the airport to fly to Ushuaia.

Nobody ever said expedition cruising was a leisurely affair, even before you get on the ship…

Northern Preparations for a Southern Journey

Well, here we are again, packing the suitcases for another adventure, only this time it's turtleneck sweaters and long pants instead of shorts and bathing suits.

So far, Thomas has ignored the process - probably because the suitcases didn't come up from the basement until yesterday, and he slept through that. We'll see how he does when we put the last bits in tomorrow morning.

This time our adventure takes us to the bottom of the world, six months after our closest approach to the top! This expedition cruise with Abercrombie and Kent tours is on Le Boreal, a French ship that was designed specifically to cruise in Antarctic waters. We've already watched an episode of Discovery Channel's 'Mighty Ships' program that was dedicated to Le Boreal's first voyage to Antarctica in 2010, so we have a general idea of what to expect on board, but Mother Nature has a habit of being unpredictable, so we'll have to take each day as it comes weatherwise.

We hope you'll follow along on the blog, but in case we have problems with internet access to update it each day or so, you can take a look at the daily log our tour leaders and photographers from A&K are posting with photos on their site. We've posted a link on the sidebar for easy access.

Now off to get those last-minute things done before we leave. The next update will be from Buenos Aires, Argentina on Thursday.

The Last Day…

But before we get to that, we have to tell you about the Chef's Table Dinner on Friday night. What a great experience that was! The upper floor of the Concierge Lounge is devoted to this dinner, with a table set for only 14 people every night. They can't do more than that as the dinner starts at 8:30 and ends at 11:00! It is a set menu with wine pairings and the chef explaining each dish and how it is cooked before he presents it to the diners. This dinner requires a reservation and has a cover charge, but not only is the food excellent and the chef and sommelier very friendly and willing to share their knowledge, but each diner gets a beautiful cookbook signed by the chef at the end of the dinner. Here are a couple of photos (yes, we took pictures of every course!):

It used to be that we'd be like everyone else on the last day and try to get in all the activities we missed earlier in the week. With so many people on board, we left it to them this time. So that meant that the Zip Lining and the Flow Rider had fair line-ups all day long, and extra yelling and music for the surfing competition in the afternoon.

Instead, we wandered around the ship one more time and took the photos we had missed before for the blog and our cruise memories DVD. Here are a couple of them:




Pool lounge area for Suite guests



The Rising Tide Bar on its way up

The view from one of the glass elevators

The Viking Crown Lounge

We finally remembered to take a picture of one thing that we first saw when we sailed on Splendour of the Seas 15 years ago -

Yes, they put the plate in the floor in every elevator to remind guests of what day it is. They also have super-sized wall-mounted interactive directories all over the ship. If you know how to use a smart phone the concept is much the same: you can find anything, anywhere on board. It even lets you enter your stateroom number and will tell you how to get there from where you are! Does that tell you anything about the size of the ship??

After taking an hour or so around noon to do our packing, we headed back to Rita's Cantina for a last Mexican lunch. Our final dinner was not until 8:00 so we had enough time to laze about on the terrace (couldn't call that a verandah or a balcony!) for a bit and then watch the last sunset for this cruise.

The last dinner was at 150 Central Park. This is the most exclusive restaurant on the ship, and is called 150 because, as the waiter pointed out, it is exactly in the middle of the ship, 150 metres from the bow and 150 metres from the stern. He added, as an aside, that it is also 150 metres from the Crew Bar, but not in a straight line!! The meal here is also a 6 course set menu but it changes half way through the week so guests could go there twice and have something different both times. A wine pairing is also available at an additional charge.

The décor is plush and the wait staff are all in suits. We actually felt underdressed for this dinner, but the manager told us that they relax the dress code on the last day, realizing that most people would already have packed before coming for dinner. Still, jeans and shorts were a definite no-no in this spot.

This was the first restaurant we've ever been in that had a salt-tasting! Along with the bread basket, they provide a selection of different kinds of salt of various colours, textures and tastes.

So that, of course, sets you up for the rest of the meal. Those of us who watch Iron Chef America on a regular basis felt as though we were at the judging table. The waiter explained each dish in detail; all the elements and how they were prepared, and what kinds of flavours we should expect when we ate it. The only thing they didn't give us was scorecard!

After dinner it was back to the suite. Although there were any number of bars on the ship we could go to, none really appealed, so we finished up our last packing and put the bags out.

Guests in the loft suites could use the Concierge Lounge to wait for their disembarkation group call, so we had a bit of continental breakfast and were off the ship at about 9:30 this morning. Considering there were about 6,200 passengers on board, and we were near the end of the list, the process went very well and we were standing outside the terminal waiting for the Avis shuttle only 45 minutes after we left the lounge. That included clearing US Immigration. Too bad the Avis shuttle didn't get the message that we were waiting! We ended up taking a cab to the hotel instead.

So here we are, installed in our hotel room, with a lovely view of the port, the channel and the ocean, and all the way up the Intracoastal Waterway.

We finally got in touch with Werner Fuchs and went out for a quick drink with him to the New River area near Las Olas Blvd.

Now it's coming up on 5:00 and we're waiting to see Allure go back out to sea from our balcony (this one definitely isn't the size of our terrace). As we write, we're watching her leave the pier...and here are a couple of photos.

So you can get an idea of where our suite was, follow along...The loft suites are all the two-level rooms on the top deck. Ours was directly under the left hand radar dome behind the logo. Our table and the two easy chairs are in front of the blank wall, and to the left of that are the windows and the two lounge chairs. It looks even bigger from this angle than it was when we were out on it!

And here Allure of the Seas is leaving again on her next trip. Bon voyage! Oh, and for some perspective, that apartment building that she looks like she is about to hit?? It is 16 stories tall!! THAT'S how big Allure is!!!

We have a reservation at the 15th Street Fisheries for dinner tonight, since Larry's only been there once before. Our flight home goes at 2:45 tomorrow afternoon.

Hope everyone enjoyed following along with us. See you when we get home!