Outings, Birthdays, and Tea Time (Day 10 – 12/1/2016)

Today is my mother’s birthday, and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. There are a few things I’m missing while on this trip, Thanksgiving, my mom’s birthday, and a dance recital for my niece are all things I’m thinking of as the days come up. We’re visiting a station today for the first time, an Argentinian station where we might be able to mail postcards. For those I talked to and got addresses for, I’m hoping to mail you out some, however chances are looking more and more slim as the primary “post office” station is still iced in, and we’re seeing fewer changes to make that work in our future.

 

Once off the ship and out at the station, we were introduced to our guide, who only spoke Spanish, and our ship’s doctor who would be translating for us. The guide was responsible for all things computer-related at the station, and I saw an opportunity! I work in IT, and I work for a company that most likely would be in use in a remote part of the world like this! We were shown around the base, which we were told is not a military base and then told not to question about that, and saw their school building, local museum, list of families who live there (there are seven), and even told that a wedding had just occurred that past weekend. It’s interesting to hear that there is life that takes place down here, at least in the summer, the same as anywhere else.

 

 

When expeditioners were making their way into the museum, I saw my chance, and approached the guide and translator. I explained that I was in IT, and asked them how many servers were on-site to provide IT services. She laughed and said she was glad to meet an IT person, but then told me that they did not have any servers on site (so much for my software!), but got everything remote by satellite link. She then told me that they have 2MB/s down, and 1MB/s up connection speeds. This is better than CenturyLink delivered to some families in the United Status up until around 2012! I was quite surprised! Around the same time that we were having this discussion, others were noticing the base offered Wi-Fi connectivity, and soon some were more interested in the Internet than the base and its offerings.

 

 

The guide kept us moving, however, and we entered “The Casino”, which is what they call the local gathering place. Inside there were baubles for sale (I bought a beanie that actually fits my head!) and more Wi-Fi availability. Jen stated she had texted my parents (my phone was on the boat), and then explained that she could do so without cell service thanks to apple’s iphone-to-iphone chat features using internet. That’s pretty cool! I requested a birthday text for my mom, and she got the message. Happy Birthday from the bottom of the world! It was one event I could make, even from where we were, and I was glad to be able to send it. In the casino, drinks and biscuits were laid out, and I snacked on a biscuit while watching the crowd of others on the expedition move through. Some noticed the pool and Foosball tables, and many were on their phones or tablets. I was glad to have left mine on the boat. There’s a lot going on in the world right now, and at home in my life as well (friends, work, etc..). I was glad to have a reprieve from it all, and I’m sure I’ll catch up soon enough as it is. We thanked the Argentinians for their hospitality, and headed back out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should mention here, the staff at Poseidon (the group who makes all this possible and contracts the boat, etc.,) has been amazing to me this trip. During everything from camping-gear sizing, to boots, to life vests… nothing is made for someone as big and tall as I am. They’ve been extremely accommodating, and have always made something work (for camping, they gave me the gear early to try and when it wouldn’t work they made some modifications so that it would). When we entered the Argentinian station, we took off our life vests, and the leader of the expedition, Anja, stopped me to let me know she specifically set my life vest aside (as it’s the extra, extra large one) so that I would know where to find it. Things like this have taken place all the time, and I’ve felt extremely accommodated and never like my large size was an inconvenience to them in any way. This has been fantastic!

 

I grabbed my life jacket from its special storage, separate from the rest of the group, and climbed into the zodiac to go back to the ship. It was early in the day still, but I was feeling a bit run down again. This cough has been a big hindrance on this trip! The expedition leaders were promising something interesting for this afternoon, as well as tea on the outside deck. We’ll see about tea, everything else has been cancelled by the weather.

 

Back on the ship, we learned our next outing would be… more penguins! It was just going to be a quick run, a beach with a small hike to a glacier if one wanted to go the entire way. I decided I did want to go, and made my first day with two excursions even with my cough. I took a lot of close-up penguin pictures, having switched camera lenses to my larger one, and walked up the hiking hill just to say that I had. It was a short, steep climb to a soft descent and a better view of a large glacier that was moving slowly toward the sea. You could see it had been shrinking for years, however, given some of the sediments around its base. We discussed this briefly with Heidi, the glaciologist, before heading back over to the penguins. I waited around for a brief while, and then headed back to the ship again for a shower and to freshen up.

 

 

 

 

 

As soon as I was on the boat, they told me I could head up for tea if I wanted. I didn’t yet, but met Jen and we headed up to “deck five”, which is the upper-most deck behind the bridge. The staff had laid out a spread of tea cakes, waffles with ice cream and chocolate or butterscotch, and coffee! I was salivating just looking at it! This was the most “cruise-like” thing we did, but also one of my favorites for a very specific reason.

 

 

Every time I think of this trip, I realize I can’t explain the vastness you see here. I just can’t. I think of words like “fantastic”, and “amazing”, but by now you’re probably tired of hearing them in these posts. Imagine that you’re in a deep basin of mountains, and when you look in any direction for miles all you see are sharp, jagged black rocks and treacherous cliffs, imagine further that they’re all capped in snow, with snow running down the sides and directly into the ocean in quantities that could bury the biggest airports you’ve ever been in. From time to time, you’re also watching pieces of ice larger than buildings drifting past you.

 

 

 

If you can close your eyes and imagine that, the sea tossing you this way and that, the sun on your face and always so bright that you have to wear sunglasses, you’re approaching what I saw that day while drinking coffee and eating waffles. I have pictures, yes… but they just won’t do it justice. There is no way to even come close. I’m not one to typically say this in a post that I know of… but if you really want to know what Antarctica is like I have no choice but to encourage you to come here and see it. Come see the vastness, the cold and the weather, and sometimes shining gems like this day when clear weather lets you take a moment to relax in front of the most astounding vistas you have ever seen in your entire life. You won’t regret it, and for me it is a day I will never forget. I feel in love with this trip today, the good and the bad, all for this experience.

 

 

Topping off tea (and from the same deck), we decided to take the big boat on a tour, and got in close to a few tabular icebergs. Tabular ice bergs are rectangle-shaped, and typically detach directly from ice shelves. Here in the Antarctic peninsula, there are many to see, and we pulled the ship up to one that was easily twice to three-times as tall as our vessel, and so long you couldn’t see from one end to the other some two-hundred feet away. We watched calving take place right in front of us, as a piece the size of a semi-truck (a small piece, when considering the whole) disconnected from the main iceberg and plunged into the sea. We could feel the impact as the wave hit the ship, and we rocked over it to the “ooh’s” and “aaah’s” of those watching.

 

 

We continued on our way, and headed inside to dinner. Tonight, I even made it to the bar… and with the help of a Keith (another passenger from the UK who has become a fast friend), I drank way too much and headed to bed extremely late for me (12:30 AM!). Keith is a bad influence, but he’s my kind of influence!