Antarctic Trip Nov-Dec 2016 Part 1 Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls and Ushuaia

Casa Rosada

We stored our RV at Susan and Windsor’s house, and Tom drove us to BWI. It was a two hour flight to Atlanta and 9 more hours on an overnight flight to Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is the capital city of Argentina with over 14 million people in and around the city. We stayed near the Plaza de Mayo, the political and religious hub of the city. Eva Peron addressed her followers from the Casa Rosada. Pope Francis (as Archbishop) preached from the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Tegu Lizard

Iguazu Falls (internet photo)

Iguazu Falls

The next day we took a two hour flight to Iguazu Falls. Here the Iguazu River drops 269 feet from cliffs 8,858 feet long resulting in 275 waterfalls, making it the largest waterfall system in the world. We spent three days in the National Park and UNESCO site. There are several trails in the park, even a train, to help you access the various falls in the park.

Iguazu Bird

more Iguazu Falls

Coatimundi.

 There is some unusual wildlife in the park; the most important one to watch is the coati, a raccoon that excels at stealing food. They hang out around the picnic tables and wait for someone to sit down with their Subway lunch bag. In a blitz attack, they can tear open the bag and remove the sub before you have time to react. 

and more Iguazu Falls

Boat ride to the base of the falls

The other thrill is to ride a speed boat into the blast from the falls. Niagara has the Maid of the Mist, so this ride must be the Devil of the Deluge. We did get soaked, but when it’s 90 degrees out, who cares!

Tierra del Fuego

We left Iguazu Falls and returned to our hotel in Buenos Aires. Access was temporarily blocked by a Gay Rights and Women against Domestic Violence demonstrations at Plaza de Mayo. Back to the airport the next day for a two hour delay and a three hour flight to Ushuaia, Argentina – The Southernmost City in the World. Due to a cancelled tour, we had plenty of free time to explore the city. Of course, since it was Sunday, almost everything in town was closed. The next day we did have a tour, but while awaiting new arrivals at the airport, hurricane force winds made walking next to impossible. We did get to Tierra del Fuego National Park and the end of the Pan American Highway (which starts in Alaska). After the tour we headed to our ship to start our Antarctic adventure.

Antarctic Trip Nov-Dec 2016 Part 2 Cruise to the Falklands, South George and South Orkney Islands

Ushuaia Harbor

We boarded Hurtigruten’s MS Fram along with 218 other passengers, but our departure was delayed because the harbor was closed due to the high winds. After a few hours, we were underway and headed for the Falkland Islands. I was expecting a rough night at sea, but by the time we reached open water, the winds had moderated considerably.

SA - Falkland Islands - South Georgia - S. Orkney Is - Antarctica - SA

Gorse on Falkland Islands

Black Browed Albatross

Rockhopper Penguin

Albatross colony

Falkland Hospitality

The Falkland Islands are isolated and windswept, more suitable to birds than people, which suited our purpose just fine. We hiked to the breeding area of the Albatross, Rockhopper and Macaroni Penguins. After each hike we were treated to tea and cookies by the friendly locals. Our final stop was Stanley where we had our last opportunity to go shopping.

Magellanic Oystercatcher 

Magellanic Penguin

Upland Goose

South Georgia Island

Male Fur Seal

Fortuna Bay, SG

South Georgia was our next destination. This island was best known for its whaling stations and the terminus of Shackleton’s epic journey to rescue his crew. Now it is one of the world’s largest and best protected wildlife sanctuaries. In fact, no wildlife tour to Antarctica would be complete without visiting South Georgia. We made landings at numerous locations; most notable were St Andrews Bay and Grytviken.  Grytviken was the first whaling station in Antarctic waters. At St Andrews, we saw about 500,000 king penguins and chicks, a truly amazing sight. Nearby was a large population of Southern Elephant Seals.

Baby Fur Seal

Gentoo Penguin

Southern Elephant Seal

King Penguin creches

Whaling Ship

After three days exploring various breeding colonies and historical sites, we headed southwest to the South Orkney Islands, to the oldest research station in Antarctica. We mailed a couple postcards from there, only $7 each for postage and handling! On the voyage down, the ship was surrounded by about 100 fin, sei and humpback whales.

Orcadas Research Station

Arch Iceberg

King Penguin

Antarctic Trip Nov-Dec 2016 Part 3 Cruise to Antarctic Peninsula and Islands

Elephant Island

Elephant Island was our next destination. Shackleton’s crew spent 4 1/2 winter months here, while Shackleton and a small crew sailed 800 mi in 17 days in an open lifeboat across the world’s stormiest seas to South Georgia. Due to winter ice, it took four rescue attempts before the island could be reached and the men rescued. Even today the island is difficult to access due to ice and rough seas. The MS Fram has only managed a few landings there in the last seven years. We were lucky to be able to land at such an inaccessible and historical site.

How to make Chinstrap Penguins

Elephant Seal (kiss me!)

Tabular Iceberg

Adelie Penguin with chick

Pat Kayaking (blue hat)

Gentoo Penguin with chick

Caldera at Deception Island

Another unusual landing was Whaler’s Bay on Deception Island. This is a volcanic caldera with a collapsed wall section that allows ship access to the interior, making it the best harbor in the Antarctic. There was a whaling station here and later a British Base, but the last eruption in 1967-1969 destroyed most of the structures. The volcano is still considered active.

Iceberg Turnover

Loading PolarCirkle Boats

Crabeater Seal

The last stop was to be the British Base at Port Lockroy - unfortunately the bay was packed with ice and the PolarCirkle boats would not be able to safely cross. The Captain headed the Fram south through the ice filled Lemaire Channel until our passage was completely blocked. He turned the ship around and found a spot where the passengers could tour the ice flows and wildlife from the PolarCirkle boats. From here, we headed north and crossed the Drake Passage. We had some gale force winds but the ship handled the swells and soon the Cape of Good Hope was sighted.

Antarctic Peninsula - Our passage

Antarctic Trip Nov-Dec 2016 Part 4 Ushuaia and Buenos Aries

Andes Mountains

We arrived back in Ushuaia after 19 days at sea. We took a bus tour to Lake Escondido and visited the local museum before flying back to Buenos Aires. We took a riverboat cruise on the Tigre Delta. Back in Buenos Aires we visited the Eva Peron Museum and the beautiful Opera House. After 11 hours in the air we landed safely at BWI, ending a most memorable 28 day adventure.

Escondido Lake

Floating grocery store

Postscript

In order to appreciate this trip, you need to know a little about the history of Antarctic exploration and whaling. As a minimum, you should read “South” by Earnest Shackleton. It should be noted that we had unusually good weather on our Antarctic trip. Any trip to Antarctica is expensive, but we found Hurtigruten to be a good value. This is not a sight-seeing cruise, but an expedition requiring the physical ability to load and unload from an unsteady boat, climb snow covered hills, and walk in heavy boots. If you are unsteady on your feet, this is not your cruise. Special thanks to our Travel Agent, Jean Trotter, who dealt with Hurtigruten over our 3 year planning period.   

Opera House

Family Matters

Sharon moved to Las Vegas to continue her missionary work and teach English as a second language.  She did return to Baltimore for Christmas. Pat’s father got new dentures which seem to improve his ability to get the proper nourishment and stop losing weight. Bob continues his treatments and seems to be holding steady.

Western Canada, MT, PA and NY July-Oct 2016

The Mill at Babcock SP

After we returned from our European trip, we stayed with Tom & Julie. We spent some time visiting with Bob. Pat also traveled to DE with him so he could visit his house and take a trip to the beach. Pat and I went to Ocean City, MD for some fun in the sun and also to meet with our travel agent to plan our Antarctica trip. We also spent a week in York, helping Pat’s father prepare and pack for his move into Assisted Living. There was a fair amount of furniture that wasn’t going with her father, so we took a cedar chest to put in storage in WV. We stayed at Babcock SP and hit a few parks in the area before circling back to York PA. I had been trying to sell our Born Free RV for eight months without any luck. I was getting frustrated dealing with scammers, answering the same questions, and putting up with indecisive buyers. With a six week trip to Canada imminent, we decided to put it on consignment at an RV dealer in PA. Five weeks later it was sold. (Good thing I picked engineering and not sales as a career!). Susan and Windsor had been more than generous in allowing us to store our extra RV with them. Unfortunately Windsor became very ill and had to be hospitalized. He is still under doctor’s care, but improving.

Young Big Horn Sheep

Due to Bob’s condition, we decided to fly to Canada instead of driving the RV. This would facilitate a quick return if necessary. We spent the first two weeks in Fernie. Since we rented an SUV, we explored more areas than would be possible with an RV. After leaving Fernie, we drove to Elk Lakes Provincial Park. A 45 mile dirt entrance road insures the remoteness of this park. Not far to the east from here, (as the crow flies) tour buses jam the streets of Banff AB. We did an all day hike in the park and only saw a few other hikers. Next we drove to Kananaskis, a park just south of Banff NP. This is where the folks from Calgary come to hike and relax. Three years ago this area experienced a massive flood and some of the areas were still closed. Nearby we visited the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site, which commemorates the evolution of ranching in Canada. We were lucky to be there the day they were having an Old Fashioned Rodeo. Next we stopped overnight at Waterton Lakes International Peace Park. We usually see grizzly bear here, but we were disappointed this trip. Continuing into the US, we took the Going to the Sun road across Glacier NP to Kalispell, MT. For the next week we had a timeshare on Big Mountain near Whitefish, MT. This gave us easy access to Glacier and other interesting nearby areas. On Big Mountain, we ate huckleberries as we hiked, while the locals were filling gallon containers. One day we drove to Eureka, MT for the Lincoln County Fair “Bull Thing”, an international bull riding rodeo.  At Glacier, we entered the little used NW Entrance where we found a bakery in Polebridge that served delicious Bear claws (no bears were harmed). We returned to Fernie for another two week stay.

Old Coke Ovens

Hosmer Mine Entrance

From Fernie, we started to explore the local ghost towns of Hosmer and Coal Creek - both were former coal mining towns with many hidden structures and artifacts to discover. We also attended the Fernie Fall Festival where we were given tours of the historic buildings in town. We also took two walking tours of town covering: the Fire of 1908 and the historic houses which survived; and Fernie during the Prohibition period.  Our trip to the Country Fair at Fort Steel was a washout. It rained so hard even the exhibitors left early.

 

Waterton NP

Kootenai Lake, Glacier NP

On a cool but sunny day, we made the two hour drive to Waterton Lake NP to catch the 10AM boat to Goat Haunt (the northern entrance to Glacier NP). A 50 minute boat ride delivered us to Goat Haunt, where we had to pass through US Customs and Immigration before we could start our hike to Kootenai Lakes. We enjoyed our solitude in Glacier NP, a world apart from the congested trails in the more popular areas of the park thirty miles to the south.

Chris and Jocelyn Wedding

Bob's Cake Day with his father and Huong

In order to attend Chris and Jocelyn’s wedding, we left Fernie early. They had a nice wedding and fun reception.  Bob celebrated “Cake Day” (doesn’t believe in birthdays, but loves birthday cake) for the 65th time. His most valuable present was his Medicare Card! Bob’s health seems to be improving as the recent drug regiment seems to be working to extend the time he has with us. Pat’s father is adjusting to assisted living.  He donated his van to charity, so the family dodged a fight over taking his car keys away. Since Pat had only spent a week in our 8 month old RV, we decided to do a fall trip.

Funky Fungus

Northern Water Snake

Erie Falls 47' Ricketts Glen SP

After a few days in York with her father, we continued north to Rickets Glen SP. In a seven mile hike you can see 21 waterfalls. It’s pretty spectacular.

 

 Mushrooms with Dimples

Lady Liberty

Lower Manhattan under a full moon

We worked our way east to Liberty Harbor, NJ - directly across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan. There was easy access to the city via ferry or subway. We camped at an RV park here for a week while we explored NYC and saw 4 Broadway shows. The weather was perfect all week.

 

 Babe Ruth and Shoeless Joe's Bats at Christie's

SNL crew with tourist

Camping at Promise Land SP

After we spent all our money, we headed up to the Finger Lakes region of NY to continue our Waterfalls Tour. At Robert Treman SP we walked through a 2 mi gorge to the 115’ Lucifer Falls.

 

Watkins Glen SP

Taughannock Falls 215'

Buttermilk and Taughannock SP also had great gorges and large waterfalls. Taughannock Falls has the largest straight drop (215’) in the North-East. The most famous (voted third best State Park in the country) was Watkins Glen. This gorge has 19 waterfalls and beautifully carved potholes. Most of the above waterfalls were practically dry all summer, but just prior and during our visit, nature provided liquid relief, even snow. The snow helped us focus on our next trip-Antarctica.

Taughannock SP