Antarctica - Part 3

Another early wake up call, on the 21st, to get breakfast and get ready to go out! The water was like a mirror and out on the zodiac it was perfect! It was a little colder so some of the fresh water was creating a thin layer of ice across the harbor that we needed to cut through with the boat every time we moved. 

We cruised around looking at the beautiful glaciers and icebergs. The weathering on some of these chunks of ice are so beautiful! After about 20 minutes we spotted a whale, so our zodiac slowly cruised over there to follow it around. Meanwhile there were all sorts of penguins shooting through the air. It’s so fun to watch them go! We didn’t get that incredibly close to the whale but we did see it’s tail pop up a few times. Maybe tomorrow!

After a while Juan, our expedition guide, wanted to take us somewhere else, so we cruise and we cruised and came across some Weddell seals. They were so very curious! They swam right up to the zodiac and poked their dog-like noses against the black rubber. They swam circles around us just poking up here and there. It was so adorable! We spent a lot of time with the seals before we moved on to our next stop. Juan just kept saying that this was a magical experience, which was great to hear from an expedition guide who has probably experienced this many times, we felt incredibly grateful for the experience.  

After the zodiac, we got on land where we had a hike up to a beautiful lookout spot over a blue glacier in a bay and, you guessed it, more penguin colonies. Gentoo penguins were traveling along their highways as we waddled ourselves in our snowsuits up to the viewpoint. It was spectacular!

After lunch we went on another zodiac ride and saw more seals, some cormorants and cruised by an Argentinean research station that had closed for the season. Every station we saw had penguins all over it. I'm sure that was not a coincidence.  

That night on the boat we had a outdoor barbeque on Deck 6.  It was a LOT of fun. They carved fruit into beautiful art, had salads and burgers and brats and grilled steak. They had fun music and everyone was is great spirits and the seas were calm so nothing was shifting across the tables. We enjoyed some mulled wine, company of fellow travelers and good food. It was an early night though with all the activity for the day.

Early wake up call again on the 22nd! This time it included a big hike up to see penguins. Erik and I were the first off the boat and the first to the top. Which wasn't quite as long of a hike as the day before (these are all ages and all fitness level hikes). We got to leave our boot prints on fresh snow as we climbed up. It seemed though as if it was almost too early, all the penguins were sleeping and the highways were quiet. When we got to the top though we saw the biggest colony yet of penguins. There were so many babies and even a few eggs! Unfortunately, Jomi at the top had told us that it was pretty unlikely that they would make it through winter because they are born so late in the season. Which is so so sad. 

We then went out for a zodiac ride, which was mostly ice spotting. Kim, our driver, got us up close to an iceberg so we could touch it. Guess what though, Erik broke it. Yup. He literally broke off a chunk of the iceberg in his hand! Whoops! So then we moved on lol. 

Leeah's hand - not breaking the iceberg

From there we cruised around and looked at more and more icebergs and glaciers. The cruise was rather uneventful up until the last 15 minutes or so. We heard a huge splash and could see that a glacier had just calved! Huge chunks were floating away from the land right into the water. Kim got us up close to the fresh icebergs and it smelled so delicious. The air was fresh and it almost smelled like watermelons! It was really cool to be around the brand new, baby icebergs. 

We headed back to the ship to warm up and take a little rest. Before we knew it though, lunch was ready and we had a pizza party!! Woohoo! 

As usual, it was time for a nap after lunch so we headed back to the room. Erik decided he wanted to go look around so Nancy and I had a nap. It was a short nap though because the alarm went off to let Nancy and Erik know that their group was approved to go kayaking next!! They had to put on all their gear and get going in about 10 minutes. I hung back and listened to a book and watched out the window as the kayakers were brought out into the water. Eventually, I was my turn!

I got in line and was quickly put on Gregory’s zodiac. Right away, he brought us to watch a leopard seal. It was all alone on it’s floating ice bed that was shaped like a ‘U’ – and whether or not Gregory should have pulled up to it or not was not for me to decide. But he pulled right into the ‘U’ space so the zodiac was touching the iceberg. The seal did not seem too impressed and just kept an eye on us. 

From there we started the great whale watching of ’23! It started with seeing one back of a humpback whale not to far away from the seal. It looked like it was just floating on the surface to get a little sun. We got closer and there were actually two in the area, just floating on the top. Gregory said this is a different way of feeding. When it’s overcast or dark the krill come up to the surface so they whale’s don’t need to dive as deep to get their food. 

We found 2 other pods of humpback whales that were like that on the cruise. They seemed much more meaty when you’re less than 10 feet away, not at all like a fish or even a dolphin. Almost more like a pig or cow. You could just tell how thick their skin was. It was absolutely fascinating and beautiful. I was lucky enough to get some incredible videos of the whales right in front of me.  

Big day on the 23rd, we got to sleep in until 7! But I was so hungover. Whoops. We lounged around and ate some food until we needed to get to the zodiacs at 9. We had Wayne, the animal whisperer, as our driver so we knew we were in for a treat!

He cruised us straight over to some huge icebergs. There was a big swell this morning and the icebergs were going crazy! The amount of movement the icebergs were doing in the water was unbelievable, it was like a seesaw, one side would raise up 15 or 20 feet and then it’d practically go under the water. 

We saw a few humpback whales in the distance and then a few seals. All the critters seemed to be enjoying their morning and just relaxing. So Wayne kept puttering about and brought us to some incredibly beautiful icebergs. Eventually we started to make our way over to the penguin colony. Today they are chinstraps!! We had to drive rather slow through the ice, so the zodiacs all drove in a line to break it up. Not too far into the ice we noticed a seal was following us! He played hide and seek and with us amongst the ice. The water was so clear though you could see where he was swimming. It was so cute! 

After we played for about 10 minutes with the seal we continued on our way. We passed a few more bright blue icebergs and some with arches and interesting shapes. Eventually we could see some little penguins up on the hill! They did seem taller than the ones we had seen over the past few days. As we cruised up to shore we saw all sorts of silly penguins playing on the rocks. A wave would come up and they would all scramble around squawking and flapping their wings. Then they’d go back down the rocks only to get chased back up by another wave. And then they’d all flap their wings and poke their beaks at each other. The ones that would get hit by the wave would shake so much afterwards, almost like it was too cold! Wayne mentioned that they were young penguins and it just seemed like a bunch of kids going to the beach in summer to play around!

Back on the boat it was time for our post-excursion nap! Then it was time to go grab lunch. Which was disappointing, we all tried to find something that was good but we just kept striking out. Maybe after over a week of buffets, you start to get pickier with your choices. After lunch, we had about an hour for a post-meal nap before we had to line up for the afternoon’s events. 

We were the first group out which means we were heading to land first. The island was pretty small and super muddy but there were tons of chinstrap penguins and tons of seals. The main reason we stopped at this island to walk around though was because the whole landing area was covered with whale bones. They were huge and beautiful. Some seemed to be gathered together, which I’m not sure if that is just how the whale was laying or if people had moved them. 

The expedition leaders had marked off a loop around the island, the first part was past the bones (above) and one penguin colony. There weren’t too many at that location though and they weren’t really that active so we kept on going. We started to walk down towards the water and there were Weddell and fur seals dotted along the side of the beach. Gregory had mentioned that they had likely been feeding and now where on land to rest and digest. We kept going around the loop and it was relatively calm. There were three additional penguin colonies and they were pretty inactive and far away. Not too many chicks on this island either. We watched the birds for a while and then started to make our way down to the zodiac. While we were walking down we noticed a seal coming out of the water. We watched it flop around for a while until it needed a rest. Just around the corner though there were 4 seals that seemed to think they all deserved to be there and no one else! They were hissing and charging at each other. They would get in the other one’s face and open their mouths wide to show their terrifying teeth. After a little bit they seemed to settle their arguments and we headed down to the zodiac. 

This afternoon our zodiac driver was David, and he just zoomed alllll over so fast. At one point it looked like we were driving straight into a iceberg and he changed direction at just the last second. It didn’t seem too safe and we also didn’t see a whole lot. The chinstrap penguins were up high on the islands and the waters seemed to be really quiet. I think we were all ready to head in once it was time to go. So, back to the boat we went - and guess what? It was time for a nap.