Dana & Rob in the Southern Hemisphere

Friday, February 22, 2008; Iguazu, Argentina

2008-02-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

For those of you still following our footsteps... Another day in the jungle. On our way to another jungle hike today, we encountered a small troop of Capuchin Monkeys foraging in the trees. They're entirely photogenic - when you can get at them through the branches. Evidence to follow.

Then it was off to more gigantic waterfalls; while we thought the spray was refreshing after the hike in sun, that was nothing once we boarded the speedboats which really did take us right to the base of the falls. It's 5 hours later now, and even post-shower, we're both still drenched! I don't think those clothes will ever dry.

Onward... A delicious buffet (I'm sure we've told you how much we're feasting). Tomorrow will be another day of jungle/waterfall hiking followed by a short flight back to Buenos Aires. Personally, Dana is daunted at the prospect of sifting through 20+ GB of photos!

Thursday, February 21, 2008, Iguazu, Argentina

2008-02-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

Well, there´s certainly some catching up we owe you regarding our days in Buenos Aires. A good deal of it was spent with Dana´s cousins - a very generous and embracing family to say the least! To no one´s surprise, we continued to eat well. Last night before packing up to head to Iguazu, we begged off yet another family invitation and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Cluny in Palermo, not far from out Bed and Breakfast. (Complete list of dining spots will be available on our return...)

Today we had an early flight to Iguazu. We checked in then checked out of our hotel reservation - although the exterior was a lovely rustic lodge in the jungle, the linens appeared to be Dana´s old, donated florals 70´s sheets and we decided to upgrade to the overpriced Sheraton inside the National Park. Once settled in and refreshed by the over-air conditioned accomodations, we took a 3-hour walk on one of the trails offering terrific vistas of the waterfalls. It´s a hot, steamy jungle out here and at one of the overlooks we both joined the masses in allowing the falls/spray to drench us. This evening we enjoyed dinner on the patio and watched a lovely moon-rise while chatting with new friends from Canada by way of Iran. Like many of the folks on the Antarctica cruise, they too are well traveled and added to our list of ¨the next place we have to go...¨

Tomorrow we hope to take a falls tour by zodiac which promises to be a total immersion experience. Cameras will (hopefully) enjoy a waterproof excursion! Hard to believe it but we have 4 more nights before boarding the plane home. See you all soon!

Sunday, February, 17, Buenos Aires

2008-02-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

Well here are the first photos for you to enjoy. Way back on February 11, we hopped into the Zodiac at Pleneau Island and went cruising for Humpbacks. Found 5 of them cavorting (VERY) nearby. Word from the experts is that Humpbackes enjoy bumping Zodiacs but have not been known to flip or lift them. Sadly, we didn´t get close enough to pet any this day, but they did put on a wonderful show. If you enjoy this, let us know - we have at least 300-400 more from this 1 hour outing.

The next day (with so much in between), we visited Aitcho Island, home of Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins. Here a mother/father (can´t tell them apart without a detailed physical inspection) leads two chicks away from the dreaded Skua who enjoy feasting on penguins.

We hope you enjoy these, thousands more to choose from. We made changes to the blog profile and think you can now add comments. Now we´re off to dinner in hot, muggy Buenos Aires.

Friday, February 15, Buenos Aires... (or so we´re told)

2008-02-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends & Family!

As hard as it is for us to believe (or even wish!), we´re back in Buenos Aires. What an extraordinary 12 days we´ve just enjoyed! Penguins (Gentoos, Chin Straps, Adelies) ; whales (Humpbacks, Orcas, Minkes), birds (Albatrosses, Skuas, Petrels, Antarctic Terns, more) , seals (fur, leopard, other)... Did we mention the tabular icebergs that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf? As large as Connecticut! Impossible to describe and sadly, impossible to photograph to fully share with you what we saw.

The ship was lovely, the Captain a wonderful character (we endorse cruising with Etiene Garcia any time), great crew, amazing expeditions and naturalists, good company, etc., etc. Sounding rather enthusiastic, aren´t we? Well, we are. Every minute of every day was chock-full of things to do, gear to take off or put on, full SD cards to swap out, camera batteries to charge. Have we mentioned that it was almost always time to eat? Dana is concerned that only her shoes will fit by the time we return home.

Now we´re back in Buenos Aires, have dropped off most of our clothes at the laundromat, and are wondering what sort of land this is that´s so hot and sticky. Must be some other planet. We´ll spend the next 4-5 days here in BA, visiting with Dana´s cousins and playing tourist. Then we´re off to Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil.

It´s so hard to believe we still have 10 days ahead of us here. We both feel like we need at least a few days just to process what we´ve just experienced. But first we´ll eat: Off to find some dinner then re-sort our Antarctica/BA clothes into their segregated suitcases, and start all over again!

February 9, from the ship

2008-02-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, we really are here in Antarctica and have the penguin guano aroma on our gear to prove it! So far, Adelie, Gentoo, and Chin Strap penguins, seals, sealions, and whales have been visited up close and personal.

Massive icebergs, ice-shelves, glaciers, and the like. The light and air are extraordinary. We'll have months of photo editing to do, but it's all quite incredible. We've set foot on assorted islands and the continent itself twice so far, there will be more in coming days.

Today, Dana really did enjoy a thermal sit-down wearing a bathing suit at Deception Island. Word is, there's photographic evidence, but she's willing to pay to keep it off You Tube.

Lovely people, too much food, outstanding ship-board service, too many awe-inspiring vistas, but we're keeping up with it all. Another week and we're back in Buenos Aires, then off to Iguazu Falls. What a trip!

[DLK/gak]

From Ushuaia! February 4

2008-02-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, then! Our 6:20am flight has safely landed us in Ushuaia, the self-proclaimed "Southern-most city in the world." It's also the southern most point of Patagonia and the jagged peaks call on us to plan another trip down this way, soon.

As a reward for being on the early flight (half the group flew at 8:30), we were taken on a brief bus tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park. Great scenery, undoubtedly so much better if we could have gone for a hike. Now we've been let loose in town for 2 hours prior to boarding the ship, which is about 3 blocks away. Needless to say, we are obliged to get back on the bus and be driven to the ship.

We've met a few friendly folks and all is well. We set sail around 4:30 through the Beagle Channel.

We understand we can establish a ship-board email account but we're doubtful that we can update the blog. If so you won't hear from us here, until at least February 15 (our scheduled return to Buenos Aires). There are a lucky few of you whose email addresses we know by heart and we hope to send you a few notes along the way.

We're off, then!

[DLK/gak]

Saturday, February 2, 2008, Buenos Aires

2008-02-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

Such a fancy hotel and no public computer. We´re sorry we haven´t posted more; we´ve been busy. Last night we had dinner with Dana´s cousin Quique and his wife Laura. Coincidently, they live two blocks from the hotel. They took us to a neighborhood restaurant where they seemed to know the entire staff, and took care of the ordering.

We started with a delicious appetizer of grilled vegetables and chorizo. Wonderful, but of course the best was yet to come. Actually it´s a toss-up: the amazing grilled steak or the dessert. All enjoyed with a bottle of Malbec (Norton, which was good but not as good as the wine the night before). Dessert was ¨un panqueue¨ with apples and sugar, flambe with rum. Oh yes, Rob added a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (Rob says the creamiest he´s ever had). Really, it´s hard to say which was better, both were spectacular.

Today, we met up with Quique and Laura, and their 2 children (Taciana, 8 and Eliseo, 6) for breakfast (at 11:30). Much fractured Spanish and fractured English later, we went our separate ways for the day. We walked a good bit, had a snack, then returned to the hotel for a reception for the tour group.

As expected, most of the crowd is older but certainly ready for adventure. We´re certainly not the youngest, but maybe close to it. Maybe we´ll be faster into the Zodiacs and get the ¨good¨ seats? :-)

Tomorrow we have an 8am (yikes!) briefing then a group tour. Monday morning, we have a 3:30am (yes, you read that right) wake-up call for a 6:20 flight to Ushuaia. Rumor is they are entirely serious about the 33lb checked bag and 11lb carry-on bag, else you don´t get on the plane. There are rumblings wondering if they´re going to provide a scale so we can be sure to make it!

Meanwhile, it´s been at least 2 hours since we´ve last eaten; must... find... dinner. Must... find... next... Malbec. There´s rumored to be great ice-cream in BA, we´re behind in our search!

Don´t know if we´ll get a chance to post before we leave BA, maybe we´ll have a chance in Ushuaia before we get on the ship. Hasta Luego!

February 1, 2008: Buenos Aires

2008-02-01T04:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, we made it! Three hours late leaving Miami (2:30am instead of 11:20pm), we arrived in BA around 2pm. It´s very warm and sunny! We went for a walk (had a tasty snack), walked more, took about 120 photos between us with our new cameras, and enjoyed a lovely sunset. Dinner at the civilized hour of 10pm: fish at an Italian restaurant in Puerto Maduro. Dana enjoyed a delightful Malbec. Rob tried to keep his eyes open. We slept in and are now on the hunt for breakfast. Hasta luego!

2008-01-29T10:17:00.000-08:00

Found! Thanks to Rob for the safe retrieval of the manual. Now I'll have something to read on the plane...

1 More Day

2008-01-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

Now the fun really begins. I was hoping to create a pocket-sized cheat sheet for my new camera but I seem to have lost/misplaced the manual. Not something I usually do. Guess I'll have to wing it and hope the results are worthy. On the upside, it does give me an "extra" hour or so for the rest of the chores. Also bought some new filters and a tripod. Interesting choice of trip to experiment with new toys, no?

Heard from yet another cousin in Buenos Aires; with so many visits planned, it seems like it may be a challenge to have time to explore on our own! But we do always manage.

One way or another, we'll get on the plane mid-day Wednesday and all the fretting will be history. Looking forward to it but sure hope Wednesday doesn't come too quickly.

3 Days to go

2008-01-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning (pre-trip): We were going to use Twitter to stay in touch (uploading via cellphone text message) but Verizon doesn't offer service in Argentina. Hence a blog. I hope we'll be able to upload a photo or two along the way. Meanwhile, back to the to-do list!