The white continent!

23rd february 2009, 18.14, Paradise Bay, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica, SO HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Hello, Did you miss me in the last 5 days? Eh eh eh, maybe not ;-))) Antarctica, the white continent, the 7th continent, the biggest desert of the world, the biggest reserve of water of the world, the less inhabited, and the place with the biggest amount of penguin poo…you can’t imagine how much it stinks!!! Ok, that was maybe not the best way to start this e-mail ;-))

Anyway, here it’s fantastic, this afternoon it has been the most amazing landing and site so far, I see it from the amount of pictures I took, at least 300 of glaciers and icebergs!! Possibly I will delete most of them, but they were so nice, so amazing the holes in the ice, with their blue color, and the towers almost falling down… it’s a sight I have been waiting for the last 4 months, this is the Antarctica I was longing for.

The first 2 days were just navigating the Drake Passage. It’s normally very bad, rolling, but Mr. Drake has been very good with us and let us sleep and enjoy the landscape: the ocean and the Albatrosses, the petrels, the whales - we struggled with these ones, but saw some blows, and some jumps, far away unfortunately! We spent lots of time on the deck, and when weather got bad we moved to the bridge. The crew is Russian, and the captain looks very serious but he is nice and he tells us lots of things about the ship, he also gives us infos about the sunrise. Tried to catch it for a couple of days but it’s far too early!!!

The group is nice, we are 39 in total plus 5 expedition leaders. I would have been the youngest Leonie wouldn’t have joined. I met her in Punta Arenas with also other 2 guys, and we had dinner together there and also when we arrived in Ushuaia. In that occasion I mentioned I had seen a last minute for the trip to Antarctica I was taking and it was almost 2000 dollars cheaper than what I paid. She started thinking of it and finally bought the ticket the same morning we left. She is nice, making good company. Anyway the other people are really nice. Mainly English, some aussie, some germans, average 50 years old if not more. Most of them are divers, yes this is a diving and photography trip. There are very very expensive cameras, most of them have underwater housings which are huge, one guy has published a book of ocean animals, another guy is a professional underwater photographer, you can see their shots, amazing! So, we are enjoying lots, not big parties, but nice chats. The expedition leader looking after non divers is also nice, he knows a lot about animals around here, he lived in South Georgia for 25 months, so we keep asking him questions, like showing him a picture we took and asking which animal it is (so many different kinds of petrels, of whales, of seals, of penguins!!) Yesterday morning we finally made it to land, South Shetlands Islands.

We did 1 landing early in the morning (wake up call at 6.30, argh!) and one in the afternoon. We saw thousands of penguins, Chinstrip and Gentoo species. And fur seals and Weddel Seals, my favorite. There was one, alone on the beach, I got very close and shot some very nice pictures. In the afternoon we went to Deception Island, a volcano island which is an historical site as buildings there are from 1920s and have been wiped away more than 30 years ago by a volcano eruption (in Antarctica everything older than 30 years is historical, and can’t be touched…does it means I am historical down here???). We went into the caldera of the volcano and walked around there. And… swam there!!! They were saying the water was going to be warm because of the volcanic activity, but it wasn’t I can tell you! I got it, and it was very very cold!!! But it was a nice experience. After swimming in Honninsvag at North Cape, now I swam in Antarctica!! WOWWWWW

Today we got closer to the Peninsula. More penguins and more penguin poo, some seals and finally the first real big icebergs. Huge, blue, strangely shaped. But the highlight so far, for me at least, has been this afternoon, Paradise Bay. It’s what I was expecting from Antarctica, the land and the glaciers, the icebergs and the ice. The sight is amazing, you land on land, but immediately snow started. We walked uphill and arrived to a view point with view on the whole amazing bay, the glaciers and icebergs. From there we had a walk in the snow/ice, on top of the glacier, for another beautiful view. White, completely white, no pollution at all, no traces of humans before us. All white around, even the sky, cloudy but it wasn’t cold at all. Because the sky is cloudy, the blue of the glaciers and icebergs is even more pronounced, more blue if possible. The blue comes from the absorbing of the red light by the clouds and by the ice. So there’s only blue left to reflect, so here you go. We also had a bum slide down the hill, so so so fun!!! From there, the best bit so far… zodiac cruise through the bay.

AMAZING!!! You can’t imagine the views, the canals, the canyons, the icebergs around us, small and big. I just can’t explain it, it’s overwhelming, it’s huge, it’s big, it’s blue, it’s quiet, it’s Antarctica, the least visited place in the world!!!! And I’m here!

I really had the time of my life today, and they say tomorrow it’s gonna be much much better, can’t wait!

So, that’s it so far, I’m not sure I have actually been able to transmit you the feelings I have, the emotions I felt in front of this hugeness, this marvelous environment. I will have to digest it, to get it through my veins, in my blood.

I will not annoy you further this time, please dream with me ;-))

IcebergRen