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| Sleeping Sea Lions on Puerto Madryn Pier fenders |
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| Back in Argentina... |
Arriving back on the South American Continent, in Puerto
Madryn in Argentina. It is a small town, which boasts an aluminum smelter and a
compact ‘downtown’ area. Its claim to fame is the Valdez Peninsular, a
protected area which teems with wildlife, such as Magellan Penguins (the
largest colony in existence), Sea Lions, Guanacos by the hundreds, Patagonian hare,
Sea Elephants and many more.
I stayed ‘around town’ and strolled around until time for
lunch of fresh merluzca (local catch of the day) and a swimming pool sized
glass of vino blanco.
A leisurely paseo along the malecon (beach promenade) took
me to a small plaza, where tango music filled the air, and a good number of
people were dancing. I joined in of course, after depositing my ‘mochila’ (back
back) in a little hut, where people signed up for ‘something’, which turned out
to be the beginning of the Puerto Madryn Tango Festival. I danced a quick milonga and a lovely tango
right there, on the sunny and warm Promenade – what a drastic change from
silent, chill and majestic Antarctica.
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| Tango on the Beach |
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| Tango Ashore |
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| Tango in the Sea |
Tango was spilling over onto the beach, and not only that,
but right into the shallow waters, where couples were lost in their private
tango world.
Aboard ship, we ‘wrapped up’ the Antarctic Experience with an
Open Forum with Captain Robinson, Chief Engineer, the Ice Pilot, who joined the
ship for the duration of the ‘expedition’, and one of the Lecturers, who kept
us informed about biology, geography, political and geological of Antarctica.
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| Our Antarctic Sound route |
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| Creative art added to the charts |
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| Una of the famous peaks in Lemaire Channel |
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| British Admiralty Charts plus... |
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f.l.t.r.: Captain T. Robinson, our Chief Engineer, who kept our four engines running and the cooling systems clean of krill,
the ice pilot who guided us around and through heavy and light ice, and one of our PhD lecturers in conference. |
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| Our very rarely completed passage through Lemaire Channel |
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| The Master of M.V. Prinsendam |
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| Ex Icebreaker captain from the US... |
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| We saw dozens of these tails rising above the waters and then disappearing into the crystalline sea of Antarctica |
Their talk made it clear again, what an unusual moment of
luck we experienced during this voyage. None of them had EVER seen Antarctica
in such glorious and overwhelming total beauty and clearness.
One of them had only made it through Lemaire Channel three
times in 27 tries. Visibility most times is best on a radar screen – as the eye
cannot penetrate thick fog, snow storms and at times heavy sleet.
Even wild life appeared more abundant than ever, such as Wilhelmina
Bay filled with about 15 whales, who played and fed just beside the ship (which
was stopped dead in the still mirroring waters), but hundreds of seals
inhabited most of the ice flows, and thousands of penguins entertained us with
their antics.
The actual charts used for planning and recording positions during
the three day ‘expedition’ were put up for auction – proceeds to benefit a
reputable agency for aid to underprivileged children in the Caribic
(interesting combination, but I guess there are not too many underprivileged
children in the Antarctic). A staff artist had enhanced the British Admiralty
charts with vignettes of wildlife and portraits of historic people of the
Antarctic. Captain, Pilot and a few other notables aboard signed the charts – a
great souvenir for the highest bidder.
