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« March 2008 |
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| May 2008 »
Major Concerns?
- How do you make Roman History interesting to a teenager? It's dry and, sorry history buffs, pretty boring. Sarah's homework was to buy a few guidebooks, read them, and decide what her important "must sees" were. Her tentative decision: We'll plan on hitting the highlights - Roman Forum, Colosseum, Pantheon and definitely St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel. Other than that, we'll spend most of the time around the fountains, walking through Rome, stopping when something interests her and of, course, shopping.
- She is a very picky vegetarian eater. Doesn't like a lot of different vegetables, only pizza with tomatoes and cheese, no ravioli or other filled pastas, won't eat fish... Solution: I'm packing two boxes of her favorite dry cereals, Doritos, Potato Chips, and small cups of peanut butter for emergencies. There will always be spaghetti, pizza, Gelato and french fries at McDonald's. For three days, Sarah can live on this easily.
Continue reading "Planning Rome With A Teenager" »
There's nothing like a family trip to building memories that will last a lifetime, especially one memorable month (1978) in Europe with five children, age 9 to 16 years. This never-to-be-forgotten chaoatic, frustrating, dramatic experience did nothing to change my mind about traveling with children. Even with the unforgettable memories of:
- Robyn (14) upchucking her spaghetti dinner in our pensione sink, clogging up the drain and driving the little maid crazy trying to unclog i;
- All five youngsters rooting through and under the garbage in Florence, looking for unique empty beer cans to take back to America because Michael (16) decided it would make a great collection;
- Tracie (15) sulking because she was missing "parties" at home until Nice when cute French boys materialized;
- Jamie (9) only loved the pigeons and remembers nothing else about Europe;
- Joel (14) kept us in stitches when he wasn't reducing Jamie to tears by calling her "monkey";
- ex-Marine (husband, Steve) pounding down an Amsterdam street, shouting he was going to kill the first chld he could get his hands on after they send him "over the bend" one too many times;
- A noteable crying scene in a Rome restaurant (not far from the Spanish Steps) when the entire family melted down in tears, and stormed out with ex-Marine shouting he was returning to the U.S. (That lasted until he found out how much return tickets would cost!)
 kids spead out on a train platform in Europe, passing the time
Continue reading "Visiting Rome With A Teenager (Or Child)" »
In Buenos Aires on a Sunday, we walked back to the San Telmo Flea Market hoping to see everyone dressed in costumes, bands and entertainment (see earlier article...put in date when it runs). Wrong. Our earlier visit happened to be a special day. San Telmo is still fun and interesting but nothing like the one 14 days ago. Oh well..
One of the most interesting stands was filled with "old" seltzer bottles. We both had grave doubts as to exactly how "old" they were but since we weren't buying...didn't really care. They would still be fun to have around as a conversation piece.
seltzer bottle stall at San Telmo
Continue reading "One Last Day In Buenos Aires, Argentina and Antarctica Thoughts" »
The Disembarkation routine: 6:00 am wake up; 6:15 am luggage outside door; 6:30-7:30 am breakfast; 7:00 am dock in Ushuaia. All passengers off ship by 8:00 am with a bus taking those on an early flight out of Ushuaia directly to the airport. For all others (with the exception of tour groups and those being met), another bus would take us to a luggage storage facility on the main street where we could sit and relax, or leave the bags until our flights departed. The storage facility was really a restaurant serving coffee and snacks.
Several other ships were docked along with us. The gigantic, 91,000 ton Infinity owned by Celebrity came in. Over 1,600 passengers and 1,000 crew on a "around South America" cruise that began in Santiago, Chile and ends in Buenos Aires. The National Geographic Endeavor was moored directly behind us and one other ship. And then the Fram lumbered in...View image
 sailing back into Ushuaia Harbor
Continue reading "A Day in Ushuaia" »
We departed Antarctica via the Melchoir Islands in Dallman Bay. There would be nothing but sea for the next two days. We are at a Beaufort Scale 7 with nothing to see and back on Meclizine. The good thing - everyone does have sea legs and is able to stagger around the ship with little problem.
Two days of interesting lectures given by: Andrew (Geology/Glaciology), Victoria (History), Nigel (Ornithology) and Fiona (Marine Biologist) along with the omni-present briefings and recaps by Susan. Or, you could still join Leeanna to express your emotion in art. Susan's early morning message today: "Take care, hold the railings, don't walk around the ship with glassware."
Victoria and Susan
Continue reading "The Voyage Back Through The Drake Passage, Antarctica" »
The highlight as always was the penguins. Toiling their way from high rookeries to the sea... sitting on nests...squabbling and braying at each other while trying to steal rocks and pebbles...ignoring us completely while we tried to stay out of their very well-defined penguin trails. Shouts of "Penguin coming through"...and we'd jump out of the way.
Umpteen hundreds of photos later, we were still taking penguin pictures. Just one more... So cute and irresistible that I kept on shooting. I don't know how many hundreds and/or thousands of Gentoos were here but plentiful was an understatement. Fiona said it was a good thing that there was still ample snow and ice pack. The stench would be overwhelming in another month from all the penguin poop.
 defined penguin trail
Continue reading "More Neko Harbor and A Russian Night in Antarctica" »
It was time to prepare the zodiacs and lower them into Anvord Bay. Fascinating...View image... One zodiac had all the emergency gear in it. Food, medication, tools, everything packed in huge chests. These came with us on all landings. We'd watch the individual zodiac drivers get in their zodiac, hang on and the entire zodiac would be winched over the side of the ship and slowly lowered into the water. Before you knew it, all the zodiacs were in the water and off to find the best landing spot. Very interesting to watch the crew's precision.
The largest iceberg we've seen on this trip was on the way to Neko Harbor. An iceberg has to be bigger than ship to really be called an "iceberg." The largest Antarctic iceberg ever recorded was larger than Belgium.
huge ice berg
Continue reading "Neko Harbor in Anvord Bay - Antarctica" »
Another try for a morning landing on Danco Island but there was still too much ice. Impossible for the zodiacs to get through the ice and land the passengers safely. Culverville Island was substituted instead. The M/S Andrea is moored off-shore landing their people and we'll have to wait until they are finished. Remember, the IAATO rules, only one ship at a time can be in a harbor and/or on land. Because of bad weather, the Andrea's passengers have been unable to make a single landing for five days and were desperate to get off the ship. Understandable.
The Expedition team usually attempted an average of two landings per day depending on the prevailing wind, ice, weather conditions and wildlife behavior. The word "expedition" is not used lightly. Any trip to Antarctica really is an "expedition." You never know what you'll see, where you'll land, if you'll land or what the weather conditions will be. It makes no difference what time you go during the summer season. As noted earlier, this Austral Winter had unusually heavy snow and ice. The situation changes by the minute.
This is what I call stunning...
Continue reading "In The Gerlache Strait, Culverville Island, Antarctica" »
The really big draw of Port Lockroy for most of us was a chance to shop. The British maintain a small museum, gift shop and Post Office on Goudier Island (our landing site)...View image... where stamps...View image... and souvenirs could be purchased and mail sent. Of course, it may take months for your mail to arrive but what better souvenir than a postcard sent from the Antarctic Continent with a stamp (only available here) on it. The shop and Post Office have only been run for around 13 years. The UK presence in Antarctica dates back to 1943.
Because Port Lockroy had limited space, half the group would be zodiac'd to Goudier Island and half to Jougla Point. After about an hour, the groups would switch so that everyone could experience both locations.
Port Lockroy sign
Continue reading "Port Lockroy and Time to Shop!" »
Breakfast, and then put on all the layers of clothing, boots, into the zodiac for the Petermann Island landing in a cove originally called "Port Circumcision." Adelies, Gentoos and Blue-eyed shags (I never got close enough to see the blue eyes). Susan's wake-up announcemen this morning included the magic words: "sunny and dead calm seas."
There are approximately 390 pairs of Adelies...View image... and 2,700 pairs of Gentoos on Petermann. The Gentoos are multiplying and traveling further south perhaps because they are advantageous feeders. It takes 4-6 weeks of incubation before penguin babies are born. November 18th was the first egg and Penguins will lay again if they lose one. They usually lay two eggs and after two months of feeding, the babies go in the water never seeing parents again. Penguins also make great snacks for Leopard Seals if any are around.
landing on Petermann Island
Continue reading "Petermann Island" »
The Orlova is carrying 94 passengers from: Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Holland (about 13 persons), a large Taiwan group, a large Chinese group, Israel, Australia, Switzerland, USA, Japan, Ukraine, Scotland, Canada, India, Greece, Ireland and Hong Kong. Our guess is that 60% of the passengers are younger than 40, very well traveled with quite a few traveling for 2-6 months around the world. Twenty percent between 40-55; and the rest 55+.
Since it's impossible for me to sleep anyway with all the hours of daylight, I joined most of the other passengers on deck. ...View image... The views heading into Lemaire Channel (named for Charles Lemaire, a Belgian explorer) were really indescribable. Mountains, glaciers, reflections in the water, ice floes on all sides and the Captain carefully threading his way through a half-mile wide opening to Petermann Island.
passengers on deck
Continue reading "Through The Lamaire Channel" »
The afternoon couldn't have been any better. A beautiful, warm, "brochure" day. The Harbor was named "Paradise" because it provided whalers such a protected harbor. There is a Chilean Navy Base located on Waterboat Point and an Argentine (unstaffed) base.
This bay is known for its beautiful snow-capped mountains and ice. This was our first actual landing on Antarctic Continent. Our 7th Continent! And, what a day... without any wind. It wasn't until two other passengers in the zodiac mentioned this was their 7th continent: Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Australia and now Antarctica -- that it suddenly dawned on us that this was our 7th Continent.
 passengers celebrating their 7th Continent
Continue reading "Paradise Harbor, in The Afternoon" »
The constant 23 hours of light has played havoc on my diurnal pattern. Impossible to sleep and major insomnia. If you open your eyes at 1:00 am, it's still pretty light in the room. There is only one hour a day that resembles dusk...and even that's not dark.
In the Errera Channel anchored off Danco Island, it's actually calm right now with a little bit of sun. Danco Island is one-mile long and Gentoo penguins breed here. The zodiacs went out to investigate and came back with bad news. We can't land because there is too much ice. Instead, a one-hour zodiac cruise is scheduled. This cruise turned out to be one of the trip's highlights due to a Leopard Seal. There are over 220,000 Leopard Seals around Antarctica, not threatened by any predator, but still difficult to actually see one.
 on a zodiac
Continue reading "Danco Island In The Morning" »
The South Shetland Islands are separated by the 100-mile wide Bransfield Strait from the Antarctic Peninsula. With some luck, we'll visit penguin rookeries, Antarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals depending on which of the 11 main islands we visit.
The South Shetlands include active and recently active volcanoes. The most famous one being Deception Island. The entire region was the focus of extensive sealing and whaling operations depleting the whales to such an extent that only 5% of the original population remains.
 Deception Island map
Continue reading "South Shetland Islands, Land Ho..." »
Le Pont de Montvert was once one of the strongest Protestant areas and this is where the Camisard uprising started in 1702. The Camisards were French Protestants (Huguenots) who revolted after 20 years of persecutions. Conversions were enforced by Dragoons ( "missionaries in boots"), soldiers dragooned in the homes of Protestants. Protestants were arrested, deported to America, sentenced to the galleys, villages massacred and burnt to the ground. It's no wonder they finally revolted.
Hostilities began when the Abbot of Chail was assinated in Le Pont de Montvert. The Abbe quickly became the local martyr and informational signs were located on the bridge telling about him and the Camisard uprising along with photos showing that the view of his home hadn't changed very much in 306 years.
 photo of Abbe
Continue reading "Walking Around Le Pont de Montvert" »
Right now, the Orlova is 350 miles south of Ushuaia, heading for the Shetland Islands, where the Captain plans on cutting through a passage into the Bransfield Strait. We hope to anchor on the other side in calm water and have our first landing tomorrow at one of the research bases, either Chile, Russia or a two-mile walk in each direction, to the China base.
There are two big Chinese tour groups on the Orlova (some very big shots -- one gentleman has his own helicopter -- we're talking serious money here) and they were all gung-ho on the Chinese base until they found out about the two-mile walk in each direction through heavy snow.
a friendly group
Continue reading "Another Day At Sea On The M/V Lyubov Orlova" »
It's so rare when something goes smoothly. Sitting on the United flight waiting to take-off for Washington, DC, there is a one hour hold. Why? Bad weather in Washington DC and the FAA has issued a ground stop on all arrivals and departures there. Once in Washington, DC, there is another 1-1/2 hour delay because this piece of equipment has to be serviced. There was no no way we could make the early 9:30 am TGV train direct from Charles de Gaulle Airport. B-I-G....sigh....
Off the plane finally in Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, the baggage carousel sign if flashing "retard." The airport is in the middle of a baggage handler's strike! What else is new... Surprisingly, the bags do come off in a reasonable amount of time and we took the inter-terminal train between Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. Terminal 2 is where the TGV's and RER (to get into Paris) leave from. European airports are making it easier and easier to get around. (Download Sheila's Easy Guide: European Trains. Got in line, validated our France train passes, purchased a TGV seat reservation, and waited for the next train to Lyon at 12:58 pm, a 3-hour wait. B-I-G...snorts to go along with the sighs. From Lyon, a 45-minute wait for the train to St. Etienne and one last train to Le Puy en Velay with an estimated final arrival time of 6:37 pm!! Talk about long days...
Continue reading "Travel Hassles On The Way To Le Puy en Velay" »
It is much calmer but we are still religiously taking Meclizine. Storms are rated and today is a Beaufort 5 with waves only 3 meters/9 feet high. On the Beaufort Scale:
1 = Dead Calm
8 = Gale, winds from 63-75 kms/hour
9 = Gale-Storm, winds from 76-87 kms/hour
10 = Storm, winds from 88-102 kms/hour
11 = Violent Storm, winds from 103-117 kms/hour
12+ = Hurricane, winds 118+ kms/hour
This entire scale was news to us. Enough statistics...breakfast was calling. Huge buffets every morning with yogurt, fruit, French toast/pancakes, eggs, bacon, cereal, coffee, tea, juices. More than enough excess calories to fuel up sitting around on our butts today. More passengers made it to breakfast but the dining room still isn't full.
typical lunch buffet
Continue reading "Still At Sea In The Drake Passage, It's Rough But Bearable" »
An article appeared in the Chicago Tribune Travel Section yesterday, Sunday April 13, with a full page of Rick Steve's recommendations on stretching your money against the Euro. Good suggestions with the exception of two.
Rick's Suggestion #6, was to skip your hotel breakfast with its 10 Euro charge and eat in a local cafe for 7 Euros, a 3 Euro savings and/or the breakfast buffet (approximately 15 Euros). I disagree because:
- A cafe traditionally serves ONE cup of coffee and ONE croissant with charges for an extra cup of coffee and/or roll. You will only save money if you are satisfied with this. We are not.
Continue reading "Saving Money In Europe" »
For the next day and a half, the ship would sail through the Antarctic Convergence, a natural boundary formed by the meeting of cold Antarctic and warmer Sub-Antarctic waters otherwise known as the "Dreaded Drake Crossing." The Drake Passage was named for Sir Francis Drake who proved that Tierra Del Fuego wasn't linked to a further southern continent. This body of water extends from the southern tip of South America at Cape Horn to the South Shetland Islands and connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean.
We had our fingers crossed, hoping for the best and prepared for the worst. The Southern Ocean is subject to sharp climatic changes and strong circumpolar winds that generate strong swells. I got sick just thinking of it since it seemed to almost guarantee that we would encounter stormy seas crossing from South America to Antarctic Peninsula - in one direction or another - across the notorious...gasp... Drake Passage.
 bad weather
Continue reading "Crossing The Drake Passage" »
Escorted to our very little twin cabin on the lowest deck right above sea level (by choice), we promptly took the first Meclizine (prescription-strength sea-sick medication), unpacked and rushed upstairs for introductions to Expedition Staff. The cabin was very adequate with enough space for clothes and a porthole. If not seasick, most time is spent outside of the cabin and... frankly, my dear...we didn't give a damn. The bathroom was an entirely different story. A seriously obese person would find it impossible to: (a) sit on the toilet; (b) take a shower; and (c) fit through the door. Five-foot, three inch me almost hovered over the sink using the toilet.
Susan was the Senior Expedition Leader with 30 years of experience guiding, and lecturing from the North Pole to the Far Side and everywhere in between. Her repeated words of wisdom through the trip would be..."wash your hands...hold on to railings...and don't fall down." Susan also said that there is very heavy snow pack and ice in Antarctica this year and hip-deep snow would make landings difficult. (What happened to Global Warming?) This would all affect where and when we landed.
our Orlova cabin
Continue reading "Settling In On The M/V Lyubov Orlova" »
The domestic airport in Buenos Aires is called Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), or simply referred to as "Aeroparque" by the locals. The airport is small, convenient, and only 20 minutes from the city center by taxi.
The flights from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia usually go out full. Confirm and reconfirm. A 3+ hour flight through cloud cover and down below was Ushuaia with its mountains covered in new snow. Aerolinas Argentinas schedules at least five flights a day and two landed within minutes of each other. Chaos in the baggage area where you must show hand baggage to the Customs officers before leaving the area to prove you aren't carrying fruits or nuts. A taxi to the extremely nice Albatross Hotel and a late dinner there. The Albatross Hotel overlooked the calm bay and there were four ships moored, all heading for Antarctica tomorrow. It's 10:00 pm. It's still light out and I am very excited. We are heading to Antarctica.
FACT: Antarctica is the 5th largest continent on Earth with a official human population of ZERO!
Ushuaia harbor
Continue reading "Ushuaia and The Antarctic Adventure Begins" »
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