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Antarctica 2009
The Trip overall
We started with snow in Edinburgh, going down to London with
British Midland on Monday 19th the day before the flight south was due. On
Tuesday 20th, we flew first to Madrid, and then took another overnight Iberia
flight to Buenos Aires. Two nights in Buenos Aires meant that our flight
to the southern tip of South America - Ushuaia - was early on Friday morning,
January 23. Before joining the MS Fram in the afternoon, we had time for a
trip to the Tierra del Fuego National park.
The main part of the trip comprised the cruise and landings
in Antarctica.
On our return from Antarctica we landed in Ushuaia early in
the morning of Wednesday February 04, leaving time to visit Lake Escondido
before flying back to Buenos Aires in time for dinner at Cabaña Las Lilas in the
renovated Puerto Madero area. On Thursday we had time to visit Evita's grave, before
flying back to Madrid on another overnight flight. From a rainy Madrid on
Friday morning, we took a plane to a snowy Heathrow (to discover the disruption
snow had caused in the UK earlier that week), and then via British Midland again
back to Edinburgh.
Buenos Aires
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The Tango has its roots in South America, and we had the
chance to visit a Tango Show which was a well-run history of the Tango
complete with food and drink. Quite a challenge to photograph from a
table at the back of the auditorium, and one of the first times I have
used full manual mode in the field.
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The name Evita will always be associated with Buenos
Aires, and this is where she is buried, in the Duarte family grave, in the
amazing Recoleta cemetery. Visit here early in the morning before
the tourists arrive, if you can. |
Although Buenos Aires is well-known for its huge
portions - particularly steak - along with the refined Argentinean wines
now available, there is also refined food. |
Ushuaia
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The world's end - southernmost city, etc. etc. But not
only that - we took the chance to make excursions on both our southbound and
northbound visits to Ushuaia. While you are there, don't forget to try
some King Crab - huge portions and excellent quality. We ate at El
Vieljo Marina on the sea-front, but there were many other restaurants such
as the crab-window shown left.
The "end of the world" sign was photographed
in the early morning sunshine when we returned to Ushuaia. |
Ushuaia - the town
One of the classic Ushuaia shots! |
It's built right next to the southern Andes. |
Whilst some of the buildings are quite colourful, you
could mistake the building on the right for something in Scandinavia. |
How exciting to glimpse our ship at the end of
the street! |
Ushuaia - Tierra del Fuego National park
There were three stops on this coach trip, and loos available
at all three stops! Most helpful to those who needed them!
The most southerly Post Office in the world - except for
Port Lockroy, of course! |
Volcanic-looking, isn't it? Volcanoes in the Andes
are certainly active from time to time. |
The helpful guide went to great lengths to ensure that
we knew which parts were Argentina and which parts were Chile. I
suspect the distant mountains were Chile, but I can't remember now! |
Some of the trees suffered from some sort of parasitic
growth - the light-green stuff here. It didn't seem to have harmed
the trees, though. |
Ushuaia - Lake Escondido - the Hidden Lake
There is much spectacular scenery from the southern
parts of the Andes during the drive to Lake Escondido.. |
..and the keener ones can take a walk down to the lake
itself (DJT took the coach!). |
The hidden lake itself .. |
.. and this shows just some of the flowers found there. |
Drake's Passage
Think Cape Horn, stormy seas, rough crossings, empty dining
rooms. Well, that's what I had expected, but with incredible luck it was
calm both ways!
Southbound there was just a slight swell, and the ship
listed very gently from side-to-side. Carrying soup to the table
from the excellent buffet was the most challenging aspect of this part of
the journey! |
Northbound we were accompanied by hundreds of birds,
requiring many attempts by this unskilled bird-photographer to get one
decent image. Thanks goodness for digital photography! We
discovered the delights of the various auto-focus options during this
sunny afternoon. |
Our eleven landings and polarcirkel
boat cruises deserve a page of their own! I've
provided the logs from my hand-held GPS (a Garmin GPSmap
60CSx), in Google Earth
format.
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(1)
Total "stationary" time, shore excursion not logged. |
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