Antarctica

 
 
 

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        Well here we go again.  We left January 1st 2003, flew to Atlanta, then to Santiago Chile, where we stayed 3 days.  Santiago is much like Southern California, same weather, same trees, same brush on the hillsides, and the people looked European.  The shopping malls and shops were just like home, the prices were maybe just a tad higher.  The food was good ( we ate mostly in the food court in the mall ), the wine was good, all and all a wonderful place.  Of course it was summertime down there and the temperature was in the upper 80's and dry.

        A couple of pictures of Santiago. A tree lined street with a Chevrolet Dealer at the end, and a public square with artists of various kinds under the umbrellas.  The white building at the end is a post office.

        This picture shows our hotel, the Marriott, and the large shopping mall.  Then there's the service station with there strange prices.  Those are liter prices, so multiply by four and divide by 700 or about $2.45 a gallon if I'm doing my math right.  Of course four liters is a bit more than a gallon.

        The map is really to small to see, but you get the idea.  (People complained about the small size of the map so here is a larger one).  This second picture is outside the airport in Ushuaia with the Andes in the background.  We stayed the day in Ushuaia and they took us on a tour of the back country.  The restaurant below is where we had lunch. The next day we set sail across the Drake Passage which took two days and I was sick with the mal-de-mer for both days.  It didn't seem to bother me so much on the return trip I guess the seas were calmer.  The trip from Ushuaia and back again took 12 days and 13 nights,  plenty of time to see all of the great sights.  Here's a few pictures of Tierra del Fuego first.

        The first photo I was really impressed by.  It was one of those photos taken in a restaurant and then at the end of the meal they try and sell it to you.  This was such a photo.  However, we were way out in a very remote part of the world, in a very primitive setting and they came out about 20 minutes after taking the picture with a gorgeous 8.5x11 print in an even more gorgeous folder to protect it, for only $6. I tell you again, I was impressed.  Next photo is Dick Walston from Seattle, who bought a souvenir apron, and Ed from South Africa.

        Here we are in Tierra del Fuego National Park, Argentina.  The pictures below begins our adventure in Antarctica.

        Our first iceberg in the Drake Passage and Shirley thought it was going to be cold.  That's Paul from North Carolina.

        Our first shore landing and it was pretty cold, the wind was blowing, and it was snowing.  You can see the snow streaks in the seal photo below.  There were lots of whale bones laying around including this rib bone.  Adelie Penguins, lots of them.

        Some seals and here we are sailing through some really calm water.

        More whale bones and a few penguins in the background.  There were penguins everywhere.   This was the next day and as you can see we didn't  wear as much clothing.  The red jackets were so they could tell us apart from the penguins.   They called us the red penguins.
 
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