Our trip was an awesome experience, including a very HAPPY END in Antarctica:
Thanks to all our followers, including comments and motivation.
Antarctica: February 18 to 28
The end of our round the world tour was a visit to the ice continent of Antarctica. We are sailing with on the French ship Le Boreal, which is carrying around 200 guests, a crew and several naturists who also give some lectures whilst we sail to and from Antarctica, and are on hand when we are ashore.
Day 1: Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego national park
After a very early start 3am! 😦 We took our flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. The flight into the airport is through snowcapped mountains with the cruise ships visible in the harbor. The whole flight is full of people who will be on the same cruise as us, so lots of Australians, Americans, and also some from Hong Kong. After checking we have our luggage it is onto a bus and onto a restaurant for traditional Patagonian Lamb.
After lunch we had the option to either stay in town, and make our own way to the ship, or to continue with the coach to the Tierra del Fuego national park which we did. The national park, shared with Chile, sits at the southern end of the Andes, going from north of Lake Kami in the Beauvoir range south to the coast of the Beagle Channel. We had the chance to visit the most southerly mainland post office and send a post card and get a stamp in our passports, and visit many of the viewing points in the park including the end of the Ruta 3 which starts in Buenos Aires.
Day 2 and 3 : Drake Passage
Between the southern tip of South America at Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica lays the body of water called the Drake Passage. Named after the 16th century English sailor Sir Francis Drake who found the connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans when he was blown south in 1578.
The Drake’s Passage can be one of the roughest sea crossings you can find on a cruise ship, and our crossing lived up to its reputation. With 78knots of gusting wind, and 12m waves it certainly made for a rather choppy crossing with almost all passengers avoiding breakfast, lunch and dinner on the first day! The second day was calmer and by lunch time we were able to enjoy some food 🙂
Weather forecast for Day 1 from our captain… The red area is described as being “horrible” whilst the white areas indicate flat seas. We were heading for the orange part of the chart.
Our first sighting of an iceberg.
Day 4 : Gourdin Island
Each day we have two excursions, which can either be a landing or a zodiac cruise. For our first trip in Antarctica we were off to Gourdin Island the home of an Adelie Penguin colony with the possibility of a short hike up the hill for the first sighting of the Antarctic mainland.
Day 4: Brown Bluff
Our second trip of the day after sailing along the Antarctic sound is a trip to the mainland. So Rene can finally now say he has put foot on all the continents of the world. There can be either 4, 5, 6 or 7 continents depending on how you count them.
Brown Bluff is the location of an extinct volcano, and a Gentoo Penguin colony.
Day 5 : Wilhelmina Bay Zodiac cruise
This morning we sailed into Wilhelmina bay where we found our sister ship L’Austral. With blue skies again, we waited our turn to board our Zodiac boat for a cruise around the bay watching penguins, whales and seals swimming in the water. We also were treated to a landing on a sheet of sea ice.
Day 5 : Cuverville Island
This time we were off to a Gentoo penguin colony. The adult penguins are currently malting, so there are feathers everywhere, which are picked up in the wind.
Day 6 : Port Lockroy
Port Lockroy is the location of a former British Antarctic Station and now houses a museum and post office. The estimated delivery time of our postcards we sent was 3 months, so I think for once we will beat our postcards home 🙂
Day 6 : Lemaire Channel and Pleneau Bay
The Lemaire Channel is counted amongst one of the 3 greatest sea passages in the world (next to Trollfjord and Geiranger), and with blue skies and the tops of the mountains visible it is easy to see why this is true.
Pleaneau Island sits at the end of the channel, and gives its name to the bay. Here due to the shallow waters of the bay, icebergs drift into the bay and get stuck creating an iceberg playground. Here we had a 1.5hour zodiac cruise around the icebergs, complete with a glass of Champagne, and a display by a minky whale feeding in the bay.
Day 7 : Neko Bay
Once again the sun was out this morning, and with no breeze in the bay the mountains were reflecting in the dark Antarctic sea waters. The views from the top of the short hike were fantastic across the bay.
Day 7 : Paradise Bay Zodiac cruise
Back out in the zodiacs again, this time in Paradise bay, here we were treated to a show by a seal trying to get up onto an ice sheet to rest. Also here large glaciers carve into the sea, and so we saw and heard and then felt the waves from where a large piece of glacier ice crashed into the sea.
Day 8 : Deception Island
For Rene it was an early morning start as he joined the group hiking over the rim of the volcano from Baily Head to Whalers Bay, but he did get to see a huge penguin colony and the sunrise. Meanwhile all of us who stayed on the ship, sailed through Nelson’s Bellows into the crater of Deception Island and took a zodiac over to whalers bay. Here you have the remains of a British base, and some old buildings from when the island was used as a whaling station. The volcano last erupted in 1970, and is still considered an active volcano. The top 1-2 cm of water in the bay is heated to around 20oC, so a few people from the ship took the opportunity to go for a hot/cold dip, as the temperature of the water under this warm water is the more usual 1 oC 🙂
Day 8 : Half Moon Island
Our last excursion in Antarctica was to Half Moon Island, on one side of the island we hiked up to the highest point on the island, and slid back down to the sea on the snow. The other half of the island is home to a chinstrap penguin colony. Deciding that I did not quite have enough pictures of penguins yet, I went to take a few more 😉
A truly fantastic experience on the ice continent!
Perito Moreno Glacier: February 12
The Perito Moreno Glacier is located in the Los Glaciares National Park and about 80km from El Calafate where we are staying. Famous for the large pieces of ice falling into or rising out of the Lago Argentina with a great thunder. (very difficult to photograph unless you happen to be taking a picture in that direction at the time, as you see the ice fall before the sound). The glacier is said to be moving at about 2m per day at its fastest point, but unlike many glaciers, the glacier is said to be in a stable condition, neither growing nor reclining since 1917.
At the glacier front, the ice rises about 50 to 60m above the level of the lake, with another 100 – 150m hidden below the lake surface.
We decided to take the mini hiking excursion which includes a visit to the 4km of viewing galleries and 1.5hr walk on the glacier with crampons. The tour on the glacier ends with a whiskey on the rocks, where the rocks are provided by chipping off a part of nearby glacier ice 🙂
This was our last stop on the Ruta 40, and tomorrow we head back to Buenos Aires, and then onto Iguazu the following day.
As with all good routes, you need to have a sign, and here in Argentina the windy tree sign wins….
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El Chalten: February 10
EL Chalten sits on the edge of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Today we took the 6 hour return hike to Laguna Torre. The lake sits at the bottom of the Glacier Grande which creates the icebergs floating in the lake.
Tomorrow we are off to El Calafate.
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Ruta 40: February 6 to 9
February 6 : Esquel to Los Antiguos
This was our longest distance to drive in one day, 600km of which 40km was on the old gravel road. Photos of the gravel road, and the welcome sight when the tarmac returned 🙂
We stayed in Los Antiguos which is on Lago Buenos Aires, the second largest lake in Southern America.
February 7 : Los Antiguos to Lago Posadas
From Los Antiguos to Lago Posadas we took the scenic Ruta 41 which runs along the Argentinean / Chilean border. Following the directions from the satellite navigation we ended up on a road which although was going to Lago Posadas, you needed to be in a real 4×4 wheel drive. So one U-Turn later we were back on the wide gravel road down into the valley, but we did get to see some Flamingos in the wild on this little excursion.
Flamingo and Armadillo
February 8 : Lago Posadas to Estancia de Angostura
The last petrol station for 400km on the Ruta 40.
Estancia la Angostura where we stayed the night and enjoyed Patagonian lamb for dinner
February 9: Angostura to El Chalten
After 150km of gravel road, we are finally treated to paved roads and stunning views on the Ruta 23 heading towards El Chalten. Here you have the famous Fitz Roy and Torre mountains located in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.
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Ruta 40: February 5
Today we started our journey along the Ruta 40 in Argentina. Starting in Bariloche we drove south through El Bolson to Esquel.
To encourage tourism to this part of Argentina, there has been a program of paving the Ruta 40 which parallels the backbone of the Andes from north of Bariloche to the border with Chile near Puerto Natales, however we will only drive as far as El Calafate so in total about 1500km.
Luckily this part was all paved, as we head further south we will start to encounter parts of the gravel road and we have already started to notice that the towns become less touristy, and the answer to Hablas ingles? is now normally no. This will only increase as we reach the more remote areas.
So views from the road:
The town of El Bolson where a market is held on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays in the Plaza Pagano called Feria Artesanal. Here everything has to be handmade and you can find lots of local foods, wooden cutting boards, jumpers, belts etc etc
So now we head into the remote part of Patagonia, where internet and mobile reception is non existent.
Bariloche: February 3 to 4
We have arrived in Bariloche, a town laying on the banks of the Lago Nahuel Huapi in northern Patagonia. The architecture here is a mixture of stone and wood which is seen at its best in the Centro Civico. The town is also the capital of chocolate of Argentina, with every other shop on the high street having a window display full of chocolate. So there went the diet!
One of the main tourist routes here is the Circuito Chico which drives along the edge of the lake before completing a loop past…
the hotel llao llao
the Bahia Lopez
the swiss colony – where you could have a fondue.
The Punto Panoramico
and the chair lift up to Cerro Campanario
Tomorrow we start the Ruta 40 south, first stop Esquel
Buenos Aires: February 1 to 2
Hola from Buenos Aires!
This is our first of 4 stops in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.
We spent the morning looking around the Plazo de Mayo and the government building located on the square. At the weekend they offer free tours of the building, you just need to go inside and pick up a number and then you are ready to join the bilingual tour, which even includes the presidents office!
Perhaps one of Argentina’s most famous women… Eva Peron
The rest of the afternoon was spent looking around Puerto Madero and the architecture of the center of town.
Trying the local coffee specialty…Dulce de Leche Coffee, once it has settled it is made of three layers.. milk, coffee and then the caramel liquor.
Next stop Patagonia
San Francisco and Los Angeles: 26 to 31 January
San Francisco:
The start of our American trip was in San Francisco. Too late to get a place on the tour to Alcatraz, we instead took a tour around the bay and under the golden gate bridge. The tour starts by passing the colony of seals at the end of Pier 39, before following the coast line along to the bridge. After passing under the bridge the boat turns round and circles Alcatraz before returning to the start. We then took one of the cable cars up the hill from the quay over to Chinatown. One day was too short to explore the whole city, so will need to visit again.
Pacific Highway : Route 1
We took the scenic Route 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles, staying overnight in the town of Pismo Beach. Here we watched the sun set into the sea in a fantastic sunset.
Santa Monica and Los Angeles
We met some friends for dinner in the Bubba Gump restaurant on Santa Monica Pier, which is also the end of Route 66. The restaurant chain being inspired by the film Forest Gump.
We also visited the Tar Pits of Los Angeles where many fossils have been found of animals which got stuck in the tar pits found in this area. Apparently a human can get stuck fast in just 1 inch of the stuff.
Hollywood:
No trip to Los Angeles would be complete without a trip to Hollywood and one of the film studios. Paramount is one of the few film studios which have remained within Hollywood itself and we booked one of the two hour tours which takes you around the studios and into some of the sound stages. Sadly we did not see anyone famous on the set that day… apparently Tom Hanks when he found out the Forrest Gump bench had been relocated to the film studio spent one of his days off filming dressed up as Forrest Gump and inviting passersby to enjoy a chocolate and a chat with him. But nonetheless an enjoyable and informative tour.
Hollywood Boulevard and the walk of fame,
Round the World 2012 / 2013 