If one sentence were to describe our entire trip it might be “Everywhere you turn to look is overwhelming beauty."
This was our first trip south of the equator, and one of our longer airline flights. We treated ourselves to good health and creature comforts by flying first or business class on every leg. We left on a Friday morning and arrived in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning. We also arrived at the hotel two days prior to meeting the Tauck Tour group so we could catch our breaths and do some sightseeing on our own. We dined in outdoor cafes, walked through a local artists’ craft fair and saw the sights of the city. We found a great beef and seafood restaurant (Fervor) near the hotel (The Brick); good enough that we ate there two nights, and of course one of the nights, at the table next to us, were seated a couple from Novato who belonged to Rodef Sholom.
We joined the other 108 members of our Antarctica group on Monday afternoon. We spent a day and a half seeing more of Buenos Aires, including the National Cathedral (the only Catholic church designed by Freemasons and that has a memorial to the Jews killed in a bombing in Buenos Aires), the graveyard where Eva Peron is buried (allegedly), and marketplaces. On one of the evenings we saw a tango dance presentation (tango: "A vertical presentation of a horizontal desire.”) Luanne was selected by one of the dancers to do a few tango steps with him. A very colorful and cosmopolitan city; Latin American with a strong European flavor.
With Tauck we flew (three hours) to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world (in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) to catch our ship, the Le Soleal, part of the French cruise line Compagnie du Ponant. Le Soleal is a comparatively small boat, capable of taking on 260 passengers, although we had just 199 (110 Tauck and 89 French, German and Japanese tourists). It is a true bilingual ship, with announcements and written notices that alternate between French and English. It was not really a problem. Plus the food was very good. Even though French cooking is potentially difficult for us, once the maitre d’ became aware of our allergy restrictions, we were quite well taken care of.
Our first two days would be crossing Drake Passage, one of the stormiest bodies of water in the world. We had a comparatively calm crossing, or so the captain said. Winds were only 30-40 knots and waves were only 4-6 meters high. This meant they crashed over the windows on the second level deck (top deck level is 7). In fact, on the storm scale of 0-4 (4 is a tsunami) this was considered a zero! We tried the seasick tablets we had, which seemed to work marginally well. In contrast, the return two day crossing was on a sea calm as a lake.
Once across we spent the next five days sailing along and through the islands of the Antarctica peninsula, including a landing on the continent itself. Our days usually consisted of a morning and an afternoon excursion. Each one was preceded by a presentation from one of the 10 expedition naturalists who were traveling with us. They would describe and show slides relating to the history, science, flora and fauna of where we would be going. Our excursions always put us on one of the inflatable Zodiac boats (held about 10 people), with one of the naturalists. We would either cross over to the land or sail around the water offshore. On land we could hike, mingle with penguins, seals and sea lions, or just be. The experiences were incredible and the pictures in the album on our site here don’t really do justice. But do take a look.
We had an unusual experience take place on this cruise. One of the passengers tripped on carpeting in a lounge while running to see the whales off the ship’s bow. She broke her upper arm and required medical evacuation. There was only one landing strip in our vicinity, at a Chilean base at Frei Station. Consequently, we needed to be in close proximity so that when a plane could finally make it from Punta Arenas, Chile she could be transferred. Fog at the station delayed the plane for about two days. But in that time the captain and expedition leader decided we could sail into the Weddell Sea. This is the coldest body of water on the planet and usually frozen over, even during the summer; but for whatever reasons, for only the third time in 5 years, a ship—ours!—would be able to enter. We were able to go and see places the captain had never been, and even one of the naturalists who has been coming to Antarctica for 30 years, had never seen. We were also treated to a very special expedition. The crew found a fairly large floe (frozen sea ice that has broken up). They carved steps into the side and, about 25 people at a time, they took us onto this huge block of ice floating in the Antarctic ocean. They even set up glasses and bottles of champagne in the snow on the floe. Amazing! This would not have happened had the passenger not required medical transport. And when we finally got her safe and sound onto the plane, we had our passports stamped at Frei Station. Normally there is no passport record of being in Antarctica.
As mentioned earlier, the return was quite smooth, and all of our flights came and went safely and on time. Thirty-six hours after leaving Ushuaia we walked through our front door. Happy to leave, happy to be home.