Leaving Antarctic

January 31 in Punta Arenas, Chile....... It is about 14:00 and I have just returned from a tour of this interesting town. Punta Arenas has about 120,000 people but if you include the surrounding area it caters to about 160,000. Most of the shipping here involves imports from other places as there are no industries here. Sheep wool and mutton is harvested and shipped out, but there really is nothing else. Tourism brings in some business but not a lot. There is a coal mine 40 miles north but the exportation occurs out of a northern port. Our guide mentioned fishing, forestry, and mining but none of these plays a major role in the local economy. As it is summer here the temperature was about 17 degrees C which is not very warm but the sky was clear in the early morning with the sun shining brightly. Now comes the other part of the weather... the wind! The area is beautiful but the population is a moving one as people can stand the wind for only about 5 years and then they move away. Today the wind was blowing very hard and pedestrians on the street were fighting the wind to walk along the sidewalks. Chile is known for its pharmacies as here there is about one pharmacy for every 2 blocks in town. Until recently products that we need perscriptions for could be bought over the counter and folks recommended and traded drugs with one another. Recently the government has started to clamp down on the purchase of drugs... in fact there is now pressure to get drugs under some control. Even drugs that we deem illegal could be purchased by anyone.
So 2 nights ago our ship had to cut one motor at a time and clean out the filters as tiny shrimp known as krill were being sucked into the motors. These krill are quite hazardous for humans to consume but whales love them. Because of this incident Captain Roberts felt it safer to head back to the ocean so we missed seeing the Amalia Glacier. Instead we were tossed about back and forth as we pitched and fought 12 foot swells. Yesterday calmed down as we once again came back into the fjords. Punta Arenas is on the Magellan Channel and the history surrounding this area is much more than what I was taught in school. Charles Darwin spent more time sailing around in southern Chile than he did in the Galapagos Islands.
The other day I saw Magellanic Penguins swimming off the starboard side of the ship. Their heads would pop up and down. As we approach Antarctica and the Falkland Islands we will be seeing more and more of them. They are very friendly in their own way and may walk right up to you. There are about 4 or 5 different types of penguins- Emporer, Magellanic, King, Rock Hopper, and Gentoo. It will be fun to see a couple of types in person.
Dick and Bobbie took a tour out of Puerto Chacabuco last Monday and they wrote about it. The tour had 32 people with 2 buses. Patagonia and the Andes were both beautiful with very kind people. Mark was their guide on Anne's Tour Company - Patagonia Tours. The weather was beautiful warm and sunny and everyone removed their jackets. The views were breathtaking, beautiful waterfalls and mountains with snow covered peaks. They traveled 2 lane dirt roads to see these waterfalls and the country views. Lunch was at a compo which is a farm where they had salmon and lamb and they mentioned it was the highlight of the day as children performed Chilean dances in colourful dress for their enjoyment. The owner came over and greeted them with a welcoming kiss to the cheek and a handshake. They were impressed by the whole experience.
Tonight we leave to head for the most southern city on the earth, Ushuaia. We will arrive tomorrow morning and then we will spend 5 days traveling through the scenic Antarctica. Due to weather and satelite location the WiFi may be out of service but if you want you can google the ship and find out where we are.
February 6, 2013
Ushuaia has about 40,000 residents and is surrounded by very scenic mountain ranges and lots of water. The town sits on the Beagle Channel and is the largest settlement closest to the south pole. A close up map of this area is most delightful as you watch the ship navigate the channels and fjords. We picked up some scientists who were going to Palmer Station on the Antarctica Penninsula and they informed us of scientific reasearch that is being done on that continent. Ushuaia was originally a penal colony so the prisoners built the city and also laid the rail track from the town out to Tierra del Fuego National Park. A bus tour to the park was something I looked forward to doing as I wanted to see the southern tip of South America and look over the Beagle Channel. It is also the end of the Pan American Highway which runs between Prudoe Bay in Alaska all the way to the bottom of South America with a boat ride from Panama to Cartegena, Colombia. We left Ushuaia about 18 hours late as the high winds kept planes from landing. We needed to wait for a part from Norway and the French technician to arrive. We left the following day about 14:00 and headed to the coldest place on the planet.
The delay was worth it as Captain Roberts needed to make up time but also to give us all the chance of a lifetime to see the amazing continent of this icy area. Not only did we see different types of icebergs than what we might see in Alaska, our scientists were on the bridge to explain what was going on outside. They pointed out birds circling the ship and whales, different types of seals, and those cute penguins. We saw colonies of Gentoo penguins and Adelie penguins, various types of seals and sea lions. Our days in the Antarctic were so full of ooos and awes that I can not believe that anything else would be better. One of the employees looked over my shoulder as a whale breeched and said she had never seen a whale before. We were both so emotional as this whale played along side of the ship. We saw glaciers but none of them calfed like they do in Alaska. We had rain, snow, sun, fog, ice steams and layers of ice chunks that the ship plowed through with a backdrop of snow-covered mountains. Alaska has no table top icebergs but the south pole does.
Our lectures filled in a lot of the history of the area. The explorers who originally showed up and the up to date scientific studies that are occurring there. Some of the information was on how the Antarctica is affecting the global climate, floral and fauna studies, sea creatures and the poisons that have become used in fighting cancer and other diseases. The US funds three stations: Palmer, McMurdo and the South Pole. The continental plates are moving there at about 21 feet per year and so some of the ice shelves are breaking off. We had some grad students come out and visit us from Palmer Station which has temperatures between 42 degrees F. to about -10 degrees in the winter. The South Pole station can get down to -129 degrees in the winter. The students are doing atmospheric studies, astronomy, and polar entomology, studies of the animals and ice related studies. Palmer station does outreach programs and has about 12 cruise ships a year that the scientists visit. There is interagency cooperation and NASA as well as grants help fund various studies. We learned that the Adelie penguins are decreasing as the ice becomes less and less while the Gentoo penguin population has increased. Our group of listeners had a lot of questions. Why are there no penguins at the north pole? Why are there no Polar bears at the South Pole? Is the ozone hole affecting Antarctica? Why is that continent so cold compared to the North Pole?
Today we had a talk on the War in the Falklands in 1982. The ship`s hotel manager gave it as he served in that war. So we learned about the history of the islands and the issue between Argentina and Britian. I am looking forward to seeing the islands tomorrow as we will tender into a pier and then go to a penguin rookery where I hope to get many penguin pictures. They are protected and have no preditors so they have been known to walk right up to you as they examine you.
There is so much to learn about our environment and the world around us. The movie yesterday was about the explorer, Ernest Schackleton, and his ship the Endurance. Today was a film about a family from the Falkland Islands who take their 3 boys every summer and study the penguin population along the Antarctic Penninsula in their own boat and funded by themselves. Today was a sea day so it was a day to reflect. The beauty of the sea, icebergs and the weather caused me to realize just how nice it is to be in a warm ship looking out. Modern inventions have helped with the ability of man to live and examine the coldest place on earth and how that place might affect human existance.
Today we passed the Veendam heading south so a short whistle and waves were exchanged as we passed. Tomorrow morning we will awake to the Falklands and then we will be heading into warmer climates.