The Final Post - Bariloche

 I had a four-day pre-cruise extension trip to Bariloche in the Argentine lake district.  This pre-cruise trip was great - the lake district is beautiful, and it gave me a chance to bond with a smaller group before getting on the ship.

So first, I want to pay tribute to our fearless leaders - Amy and Debbie - who were the folks who made the trip great.  Amy was the tour director from Ponant, and Debbie was the local guide. Debbie brought a personal touch to her guiding.  In addition to taking care of us, they also participated *with* us. It was sad saying good-bye to Debbie when we left Bariloche. Amy continued on with us to the cruise ship.

Our travels were mostly somewhere along the 40-mile Circuito Chico, which is the yellow loop in the lower left corner, but our 2nd day, we went to Isla Victoria, which is the island in the upper left corner, although to get to Isla Victoria we took a catamaran from Puerto Pañuelo which is on the loop.  Our hotel was in Bariloche, which is in the lower right corner.  So days typically were boarding a small bus in Bariloche, driving to whichever destination was in the loop, and hiking there.

 

 

The first day we drove around the loop, and because Bariloche is an Argentine craft beer hub, we stopped at the Patagonia brewery for a tour and lunch.  Can you find me in this picture?

Then we took a chairlift in the Llao Llao Reserve to a short hike.  My niece told me I had to take a picture of myself in the Patagonia wearing the Patagonia brand.  So here it is - Patagonia in Patagonia. This is looking out at Lake Nahuel Huapi, the Andes Mountains, and Isla Victoria where we would go the next day.

 

This is the trip down in the chairlift.

 

 

And back to the hotel in Bariloche.  Of course Snoopy had to check out the view.

 

For those that have not been following this whole trip blog, let me summarize.  I bought an expensive camera just for the trip, including a long lens.  The lens is *heavy*, so I didn't take it out on hikes.  And I was having trouble figuring out how to use it.  So I decided to practice with it at the hotel. My camera died on the first day in Antarctica.  Jim Preston, the photography SME on the ship, used the same equipment as me, and kindly offered the use of one of his backup camera bodies on the last two days in Antarctica.  But one of the things I found out when trying to use the long lens is that it is too easy to damage the mount on the camera with an oversized lens. So no way I was going to use the long lens on Jim's camera.  So for the money I spent on the long lens, the only shots I got with it on this whole trip are pigeons.  A mighty fine picture of a pigeon indeed.

 

Next day we got on the Catamaran, making a stop first at the Arrayanes Forest which is on Isla Victoria.  The arrayán tree is native to the region, has a thin and unusally colored bark, and is cold to the touch. The flower of the tree is the fuzzy white popcorn-like stuff. This forest is the last natural habitat for the arrayán tree.

We got back on the Catamaran for a second stop on Isla Victoria and a longer hike.  I am going to probably botch this history, but this is the main gist. Lakes and the islands in those lakes are public property, but at some point, this island ended up owned by a wealthy Argentine with a big ego. He wanted to show off the arrayán tree, so he removed other species of tree, and that didn't go well because the arrayán is a symbiotic species. So other species got brought back. Then he worked with Teddy Roosevelt to bring all kinds of species from the world over to this island, including California Sequoias. The Isla Victoria, which is back to being public land, is now a seed repository for the world. After the wildfires in Australia, Isla Victoria reached out to offer repatriation of a number of Australian species.  Pretty cool.

At then end of our hike, we ended up at a beach on the Nahuel Haupi lake. It is said if you put your face in the cold water at Nahuel Haupi lake, you will have eternal youth, or something like that.  I had to try it. The water was cold, but not that cold

 

 

Debbie got these pictures, and she caught me in a moment of pure joy. I think this is a perfect place to end this blog - pure joy.

Return to Ushuaia

 All good things must come to an end.  Approach to Ushuaia.

And docked.

Before heading the airport, we had a little bit of touring in Tierra del Fuego National Park where we got to see the END OF THE ROAD as well as some pretty scenery.

The question I am asked most frequently was what made the greatest impression on me.  Of course, the penguins.  But the two things that struck me the most was the kindness of Jim Preston in loaning me a camera and the first day when we had a very close encounter with a leopard seal.

Jim's camera is an older version of mine, so the night he loaned it to me, I went around the ship to try it out and get used to the slightly different controls. Turns out I had one control set completely wrong, and so I ended up with a lot of black photos.  Fortunately, I figured this out before I set out the next day. But I did get this rather cool photo.

Remember the leopard seal that jumped up on our zodiac and we were told to get off the side and kneel on the floor of the zodiac and pull our hands in.  That seal jumped up RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.  Here's the out-of-focus picture I had to take quickly, just to give you a sense of how close.

In addition to Jim the photographer subject matter expert, Ponant hires its own professional photographer and videographer.  Here is the picture they got just as the seal went back into the water. You can see the disturbed water in front of me.

There will be one more post after this one covering my first two days in Bariloche. But this is it for Antarctica posts.  Hope you've enjoyed them!

Last day on the ice

The last day was spent on South Shetland Islands, which are north of the tip of the peninsula.  Here's a portion of a map which I purchased from Ponant that shows all of the landing sites.

Our morning excursion was to Whalers Bay on Deception Island. Deception Island is a caldera - a volcano with a collapsed summit cone - and has been flooded by the sea creating a crater lake. The bay has a narrow and shallow entrance which makes navigation tricky for cruise ships. Here we are entering the caldera.

And this is what it looks like inside the caldera.

Here I am on my climb with the camera loaned by Jim.

 

And this is steam that has been heated by the magma in the caldera. I stuck my hand in the water and it is quite warm.

There wasn't a lot of wildlife on this excursion.  Here's some fur seals enjoying the steam from the caldera.

The second excursion of the day was to Walker Bay.  Way more wildlife on this stop.  We'll start with some petrels.

 

Next up are the elephant seals. Elephant seals normally live in the water, but have to come ashore once a year to molt which takes about 3 weeks. Males and females molt at different times. The males don't particularly like each other, but are dependent on each other to stay warm. So there were frequent spats.

Elephant seals don't eat penguins, but they might roll over and smoosh one. Penguins nonchalantly strut by the elephant seals.

Young elephant seal going to join the pack.

One more elephant seal snoozing away from the pack.

Can't leave Antarctica without some final penguin pictures and videos.

Life aboard the ship

This post will be a bit different - instead of showing the incredible scenery and wildlife of Antarctica and Argentina, I'll talk a bit about life on the ship.

If I know people, I can be quite gregarious. But if I board a ship with 200 people I don't know, it's hard for me to know how to break in with a bunch of strangers. Fortunately, I didn't have to, because I opted for the pre-cruise trip to Patagonia. Our group of 13 gelled nicely. Amy Grieg, our trip director from Ponant, was more part of our group than employee, although she did a fabulous job taking care of us.  So I had 13 people I already knew in addition to my friend Dyan, the penguin lady.  Here are pictures of the group - the first taken in Patagonia, the second on the last night of the cruise having dinner together.

For the most part, I opted for the informal dining room on the 6th deck. The food was the same in both dining rooms, but on the 6th deck it was buffet style. Mostly, I sat with people I knew. The more extroverted of the group introduced me to more people, thus the people-I-know group kept expanding. I also met new people on my own - I found the guests on board were friendly.

The first formal dinner was on the third night of the cruise. Normally it would be the second night, but the Drake crossing was on the rough side, so the Captain decided to delay one night. Formal night started with a meet-and-greet in the auditorium, and we all got our picture taken with the Captain.

I did go to the meet-and-greet and got my picture taken, but skipped the formal dinner, instead opting for a quiet dinner in the informal dining room on the 6th deck, which was reopened after being closed during the Drake crossing. I was surprised by how many people were dressed for formal dinner.

I did choose to go to White Night. I figured Snoopy was already dressed for White Night, so I had to take him. The maïtre d' was amused. Not being American, he didn't immediately identify the pup, but said he looked familiar. When I said "Snoopy," he responded with a laugh and said, "Oh yeah!"

 

There were numerous presentations in the auditorium from the three subject matter experts and the naturalists. This is Dyan's second talk, presenting her book, "The Great Penguin Rescue." Her first talk was during the Drake crossing, and the ride was bumpy enough that she felt the need to be seated for her presentation. There was an occasional unintentional slide of the chair. She has never presented sitting before. Ben, the next presenter, decided to follow Dyan's lead and present sitting as well. When I went up on the stage to greet Dyan after her talk, I can confirm, it was difficult to stay standing on the stage without some sort of support.

Here are our three subject matter experts:
• Ben Saunders, Polar Explorer: https://bensaunders.com
• Dyan deNapoli, The Penguin Lady: https://thepenguinlady.com
• Jim Preston, Professional Photographer: https://www.prespix.com/antartica-the-white-continent
Do check out Jim's pictures at the link above - they are quite spectacular.

I enjoyed spending time with all of them.

Each of them presented three times. Plus they had to host a table in the formal dining room every night. I signed up for a dinner with each of them. Plus they were on call to the guests most of the time. Despite all of that, Dyan and I were able to carve out a little time together, mostly with other folks. One night we hid in a corridor outside the formal dining room after it closed to get a little uninterrupted time.

One of Jim's presentations was an informal get together where he taught us how to take better pictures with our iPhones. Here's one of me learning how to use the pan feature. While this shot has funny effects, Jim showed us how to use the pan feature to get better wide angle shots. I have used this technique effectively since.

 

The ship did have a small pool which was filled with sea water for the five days we were at the Antarctic Peninsula. The water was quite warm. It was easy to get in. Not so easy to get out. I was forewarned to position my towel close to where I would get out.

 

For the five days we were at the Antarctic Peninsula, we had two excursions a day. But before we had any excursions, all of our outerwear had to be inspected for contaminants such as seeds. Careful attention was paid to any gunk caught in velcro. The guests were split into four groups. Two groups would depart fifteen minutes apart. An hour or so later, the first two groups returned, and the second two groups would depart fifteen minutes apart. The order of the groups changed each day. At their departure time, groups would gather in the main lounge on the 3rd deck and then head down to the back of the 2nd deck where we would board the zodiacs for our excursion. When we returned, there would be three staff who would get hold of the zodiac and help us off. Then we each had to clean our boots before going back to the 3rd deck. Boot cleaning was mandatory so that we wouldn't move material from one spot to another.

The zodiacs are stored on the top deck, and for each excursion, the zodiacs were lowered into the water, and then lifted each row.  Two excursions a day, that's ten times the zodiacs were deployed and stowed.

Here's my room. My room attendant Imade took special care of Snoopy, always positioning him neatly on the bed. Snoopy was a present from my wife Miriam who crocheted him for my trip.

 

 

 Imade, my room attendant, made Snoopy a companion.

 

And Snoopy always appreciated the view.

This was from the final presentation. Up on stage are the three subject matter experts and the three cruise directors. But this was just one set of people introduced. EVERY EMPLOYEE was brought up on stage, not just the guest-facing employees, but cooks, servers, room attendants, maintenance folks, everyone. It was nice to be able to applaud everyone who made this trip special.

I still have one more day of Antarctica, and two days of Bariloche Argentina. It's taking me awhile to cull the pictures, but they will come.

Chinstrap Penguins!!!

2nd excursion of the fourth day took us to Palaver Point where we saw LOTS of chinstrap penguins, some seals, and some predator birds. This excursion involved a somewhat challenging climb.

This next one gives a sense of how far we climbed - that's most of the way, but not the whole way. I have no idea who the person in the foreground is.

Some predators...

Brown skua in flight

Brown skua

 

 

 

 

 

Comorants (Antarctic shags)

Fur Seals!

 Fur seal climbing to a chinstrap rookery

 

And now for the ever adorable chinstraps...

The picture above shows a chick with most of its down (in front). To the left of that chick, behind the rock, is a juvenile that has most of its feathers, but some down on the top of its head.

The picture to the left may be juveniles or adults; it's hard to tell with chinstrap penguins.  Adult penguins molt once a year, and I believe the top penguin is an adult, because that looks like feathers being molted rather than down.  Hard to tell.

The other two could be either.  The tail feathers are the last to grow in, so the one in the middle may be a juvenile or an adult, depending on what that is on the back of its neck.  And the one on the bottom is starting to get tail feathers, but hard to tell if juvenile or adult.

Behavior is another indicator of whether a penguin is juvenile or adult.  Juveniles are very curious, the ones most likely to wander around and check out the humans coming ashore. We were told to back up if a penguin came close - a minimum of 15 feet between us and the penguins.

The picture below shows a penguin parent feeding its chick. Penguins will only feed their own chicks; penguins and chicks identify each other by their calls. A chick has to rub the neck of the parent to get it to regurgitate. Parent then feeds chick with what comes up.

parent feeding chick

Cacophonous chinstraps