We have had a few days to sort and review images and here are a few we consider the best reminders of this great experience!
I posted a gallery of them at our Smugmug account.
Thanks for following us! Stay tuned for the next adventure
What is so incredible about Antarctica is you can go on the same or sister ships 10 times and see totally different bays or islands! You won’t have the same trip twice! Weather is KING and FLEXIBILITY is required! We are so thankful we got to go experience it and grateful to the crew and expedition teams for all we did and saw! And we thank God for returning safely after seeing His amazing creation!
We are home now. Feel free to comment with any questions about our trip, or the Extensions in Iguazu and Patagonia.
We had a wonderful trip!
Polaris, Dec.28
We did come home to the Atmospheric River in So Cal! Pouring all night and day! Rain flooded patio! but all is well.
Our last day of sightseeing…. Viking reserved the Ritz Carlton for us!
We walked Around our hotel in the new section of Santiago.
Great lunch of Empanadas
City tour by bus
Centennial Park with black neck swans and cignets
Lunch and relaxing before our flight home
We left the Torres Del Paine National Park for a bus trip down to Punta Arena for our flight to Santiago for one last night and afternoon city tour sightseeing.
On the way we saw a couple Gauchos, Chileans cowboys, herding cattle. Going into Chile we saw them herding sheep, from a distance. Today one Gaucho was friendly, waved to us, as our guide Georgina explained his equipment and clothing
Again, we have a travel day, but a most interesting one! The scenery was evolving from the Patagonian step, (similar to our US Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah) semi-arid area around Argentina Lake and El Calafate to the Andes, glaciers, and forests of Torres del Paine National Park. The name, pronounced “Pie nay” , means Towers of Blue in the tongue of the native people, the mountains that look blue.
I was delighted to see all the animals
But our favorite by far! We were so fortunate to catch sight of 2 young pumas, sunning themselves, then mother called them to come along on a walk! We were absolutely thrilled!
We had a very full day of sightseeing in this beautiful national park, with views of the mountains And Waterfalls
We spent a little time in the evening Sterling the El Calafate city main street
We shopped a little, looking at the Mate! This is a typical South American special herb, made into a tea like drink in a cup carved of pumpkin or gourd, called a mate as well.
The cup is packed with the herb on a bit of an angle. In the low part is poured just a little bit water at 80°C. Not boiling! Their tea Kettles actually have a mate setting! Then a special straw with a strainer on the bottoms
The Mate is an herb you can buy by the kilo, and you carry it on a pouch
The hot water is kept in a thermos and carried in the large carrying case
It’s a very social thing. Everyone shares the Mate! 1 person is the “filler” who makes the Mate and passes it to 1 person at a time, who sips it all, then passes it back to be refilled for the next person. Even during COVID, mate was shared!
Today we visit in the Glaciers National Park in the state of Santa Cruz Argentina. The most prominent glacier of the 16,000 glaciers in Argentina is Perito Moreno Glacier.
It is the most accessible and most unique, as it flows across a lake and into a landmass at the rate of 2 meters / day and it is the only glacier in the world known to do this. Despite calving and washing away, it periodically piles up, forming a dam on part of the Lake to the right on this aerial photo in the poster. When the water is at least 8 meters higher on that side of the lake, the weight of the water forms a small stream at the base of this glacier dam, which widens into a Tunnel, then a bridge, until it finally collapses. This rupture happens 2,3,8, years apart, no one knows and it is the only glacier in the world known to do this
We were able to hear many cracks and see a few calvings in the very active center part of the glacier
It was a very unique experience!
Today was a travel day. Our flight from Ushuaia to El Calafate was only about an hour. We arrived at our hotel for a quick lunch
After a nap, we had a 4 hour excursion in a 4×4 truck that held 20! We visited a ranch that raised cattle but also enclosed a large hill with great scenery. The trip was up a very steep dirt road with breath taking views of Lake Argentine and the mountains of the Andies. We could see all the way to Chile and the park we will visit there on a few days, Torres del Paine
We even saw a few animals, Guanaco, a Llama like animal. There were 2 groups, 1 with this young one. We also saw a grey fox but he was too quick for a picture.
Capt. Margrith “Maggie” Ettlin
Our route from entering Antarctic waters until we headed back to Ushuaia Argentina.
1st landing was Chiriguano Bay just after we passed between Anvers Island and Brabant island
Our 2nd day, we moored in the bay off Damoy Point, off Weincke Island to the west.
Our 3rd day we went very early to Viking Polaris’s discovery Island, where they were first to find colonies of Gentoo penguins and request exclusive landing rights from IAATO.
Then over lunch we sailed north to Orne Harbor for us to be able to touch land of the peninsula.
Our 4th day we visited Cuverville Island, where we had our only grey day, but it was a spectacular sight with snow flurries. This was our chance to kayak in a very smooth bay. We also did a special ops boat ride and the landing! Great day!
Our last day in Antarctic waters, we were able to see both Gentoo and chinstrap penguins with chick’s in the Aitcho Islands, on Cecilia Island. It is far enough north that the penguins are a couple weeks ahead of the nesting Gentoos on Cuverville Island, where saw only eggs, no chicks.
Heading across the Drake north then west, to miss a low pressure area of bad weather
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