WE’RE GOING TO AN ANTARCTIC BASE! Today’s first expedition was to the Argentine base “Esperanza”. It’s a military base which also does research as well. When we arrived on the shore, we were greeted by our base guide who only spoke Spanish but our ships doctor was there to translate for us. We were guided past the base sign, and past a rock hut which was re-created in the formation used by the stranded Swedish explorer team that we learned about last night. The rock structure was re-built in the fashion that the stranded sailors used to shield themselves from the cold until they could be rescued. Next to the enclosure, there was an old railroad which appeared to be from the original settlement of the base. I took photos and joked that I should be stationed there so I could fix the tracks. I may have also tried to take a selfie on the railroad. I mean, I have been on a railroad in every continent now 🙂
We also toured the museum which had stuffed penguins, and an assortment of other artifacts. I wrote my name in the visitors log, and went outside to see the chapel. Upon entry there was only enough room for four people to sit next to each other but Pope Francis’ cap was on the wall with some catholic imagery and bible on the pulpit. As I was leaving the chapel, I was pulled aside where my friend Natalie told me there is wifi! FREE WIFI! I quickly pulled out my work phone and connected to the wifi. I was able to send out an imessage to Brad’s family, and I attempted to facetime or imessage my dad but service was having trouble. Finally I just shot him an e-mail and hoped for the best. We were brought over to the school and as the instructor was showing us around, I was attempting to fix the connection issue with my phone to let my family know I was alive and okay. After the school we walked over to the casino where the base was set up with coffee, cookies, and a small shopping area to buy souvenirs. I took photos and talked to one of the nurses at the base to ask about daily life and thank her for their hospitality. She told me that they work on site for one year at a time, and they all enjoy life there for the most part, but sometimes there are disagreements. There were several families who lived on site so there was a pretty big community atmosphere.
Unfortunately, during this expedition I wasn’t feeling too well. I had an upset stomach, and walking around wasn’t helping the situation. After walking around, I made my way back to the ship. While I was waiting to board the ship, I was mesmerized by the variety of colors of rocks in the crystal clear water. I almost tripped over them because I was trying to take photos of the rocks with my phone. When I arrived back on ship, I spoke with the doctor who had returned on the same zodiac as myself. She mentioned a few situations which may have caused my upset stomach, but the most likely of the situations is that I could be having a milk intolerance. I should clarify, I’m not lactose intolerant, I just haven’t had cream (in my coffee) in a long time. Now that I think about it, I rarely carry milk in my house because it expires before I can use it up. She handed me some Pepto Bismol, and said she would check back in on me in a few hours. To my pure enjoyment, the Pepto worked and, after some quite time, I was back to normal… well as normal as I can get. From here, I’ll probably just have some black coffee and see if that remedies the situation for the long term.
In the afternoon, our ship had re-positioned itself in the Antarctic Sound which is a beach area with a glacier on one side, big rocky mountains next to soft worn hills from years of erosion, penguins, and epic scenery. Upon arrival I took a hike or a slightly hillier walk over to the glacier where I picked Heidi’s brain a little bit about the effects of volcanos on glaciers. We talked about how a few inches of rocks on the snow can be very bad for the glaciers but several centimeters of the black material can insulate the ice below, protecting it. She pointed out that our walking path appeared to be a result from the ice beneath the rock melting, causing the dirt to lose strength as it runs off. She estimates that this would have occurred within the last couple of decades. The glacier we were next to had a massive ice burg in the middle of the bay which looked like a ship itself only much larger. When the glacier calves off some ice into the bay, it creates a good amount of force which pushes this massive piece of ice until it runs aground further out. Around the glacier fields there is a ring of slightly raised soil caused by the ice being pushed along the ground from the force of it moving. An example of this is like when you take your foot and drag it slightly to the right, the soil will build up around the shoe on the side of the shoe in contact with the soil. This is a very similar thing to the ice burgs only on a much larger scale. So the water surrounding the ice burgs can be quite deep, until you hit that shelf of ground further out in the ocean.
On the other side of the beach I watched penguins play against the small pieces of ice as they hustled past us on the beach. They all appeared to have their own hilarious personality, so I would make up stories of why they were acting as they did while I sat on the beach. I was watching the penguins for a little bit, but was called back into the zodiacs to allow enough time for a view of the icebergs.
On the fifth deck, we were notified that there would be a waffle tea event immediately following our arrival. So I went to change and find Brad. After getting changed, we went upstairs to find white table cloths, and a buffet of pastries, waffles, ice cream, and sauces available for us. I chose the waffles, topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. I joined Natalie, Katie, and her parents at a table on the port side of the boat with a great view of the bay we were harbored in. Coffee, Tea, and great conversations created a warm environment against the glacial backdrops, snow covered mountains, and icebergs.
The ship began to move towards the tabular ice burgs for an up close and personal view of these massive structures. As we cruised along, we graduated from the stunning calm waters of the bay, to the placid small ice burgs, ending with the monstrous tabular ice burgs. In the location of the smaller ice burgs we saw a whale feeding in the far distance. There were several ice burgs which had penguins on them, but one ice burg stood out in particular. There was a grouping of 15 or so penguins on the top of the ice burg. Off to one side we could see a penguin jump out of the water trying to make its way onto the ice burg. It jumped up, and *boom* hit the side of the ice burg. Then fell back into the water. It seemed to be a resilient bugger though. He tried again, this time on a smaller piece of ice and made it safely to talk to his friends. We were all on the port side for a while looking at the smaller burgs, when I looked over to starboard and saw the tabular ice burgs with no-one observing them from that side. So I casually walked over to enjoy the view and hunkered down at a great spot to watch. A few minutes later a wave of people gravitated from the port side to the starboard side to watch these monoliths. I elbowed my friend and informed them that we must be starboard hipsters…. because we were watching the tabular icebergs before it was cool.
I watched the ice burgs until my hands froze over and I had to use the restroom. At one point I put my hands in the hot tub to warm up. It worked great actually, until I realized the towels had been moved. Thankfully, I found them a few minutes later. When I reluctantly gave up and went inside to use the restroom and relocate to the club area, I was informed that the ice burg had calved during my short trip. Of course! As soon as I turn my back… it happens. Oh well, I enjoyed the view from the bar area. As we were sitting we heard the call on the radio that there would be a group photo at the bow of the ship at 7pm. So everyone grabbed their red expedition coats and headed towards the bow. The whole ship was there, including expedition staff. The captain has stopped the ship next to the tabular ice burg, named “Heidi-Burg” in tribute to our glaciologist, Heidi. The photo was taken at the bow of the ship where all of the gears were to secure the ship to the dock. I crouched down in front in the center, behind a big black piece of the ship. Ma, the botanist, crouched next to me. When the photo was over, Florian took his drone with a camera attached to get the view from the air of all of us taking the photo and walking back into the ship. After the photo we had dinner and the daily recap with the team.
At the briefing we were shown photos of the group photo and some of the glaciers we had passed by earlier today. There was even a group photo from the ship as we ate our waffles! After dinner I went upstairs and grabbed a drink or two, sat and talked with some of the people on our ship. We shared stories, laughed, and sang along to the music at the bar.
