Buenos Aires, Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands
Dear Friends,
For a long time, we had planned to visit Antarctica but always were concerned about the (in)famous Drake Passage and the “sea sickness on testosterone”.
Two years ago, we finally bit the bullet and made reservations on NG Explorer expedition to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands. We departed Ushuaia on the 16-th of February and returned to the same port on the 8-th of March.
Before this epic voyage we spent five days in beautiful Buenos Aires, visiting and tangoing to prepare for ship’s swaying.
It turned out that the weather and Neptune were kind to us! The waves in Drake Passage did not exceed 6 meters, and days were mostly sunny and mild, with the lowest temperatures not descending below – 10 degC.
Well, we were beyond the Antarctic Circle so it’s not farniente all the time: we got our share of wind and waves (between South Orkneys and South Georgia they were up to 10 meters) but nothing that NG Explorer and Scopolamine patch could not handle.
How immense, marvelous, overwhelming, fascinating and enchanting the 7-th Continent is !!! As we were, to some extent, following the itinerary of Shackleton’s ill-fated Endurance expedition, only there did we comprehend the superhuman achievement those people had accomplished (we recommend reading of Endurance by A.Lansing).
We have returned safely, with an unusual amount of 15,000 photos to sort, but most importantly with memories and impressions that will last till the end of our days.
Now, how to get from 15k photos to a manageable few hundred and still be able to convey the diversity of landscape and variety of wildlife ??? How to render in a few photos the drama of a leopard seal killing and skinning a chinstrap penguin, when this took a few hundred shots to capture??? Or a sun-sparkled pod of playful killer whales dancing around the ship for over an hour?
I will have to apply the sophisticated algorithm of AI (Andre’s Intuition) to select photos to share.
Now you know whom to blame for not enough or for far too many!
No photography can show the breathtaking beauty of this part of the world, but you can find, as usual, a timid attempt on Andre’s website (see below).
We hope you’ll enjoy and be spellbound by this virtual voyage to wonderland, and, if you can, travel there and see it for yourself; it is worth every second of your time and every penny of your money!!!
Andre & Teresa
P.S. People allergic to ice, snow, whales, orcas, penguins, seals, red jackets….etc – please abstain from viewing!
https://andreerlich.wixsite.com/albasdad
Buenos Aires under: South America: 2019_02_Buenos Aires (26 photos)
Antarctica under Antarctica: 2019_02-03_Antarctica (176 photos)
South Georgia and the Falklands under Antarctica: 2019_02-03_S_Georgia & Falklands (151 photos)