Alluring Antarctica- Mr. Lovekesh Dev -January 2024

Antarctica (with the name coming from Anti Arctic or Anti North), on an average is the coldest (lowest measured temperature on earth of -89.2 degree Celsius), driest and windiest of continents. Most of the Antarctica is covered with an ice sheet with an average thickness of 1.9 km (yes – you read it right – 1.9 km average thickness). It’s the largest single piece of ice on Earth (Anyone for Whiskey on the rocks?). Possibly the last of the places to have been sighted by human eye and certainly the last explored continent. The weather is so adverse that no permanent residents live there. But I am hoping by the time you are done reading this, you’d also be a convert and say, “I need to go there!”

The idea came in the final stages of my step away from corporate life (about two years back in Feb 2022), and wondering about things to do, that I want to go to the two poles (yes the idea was to go to both the actual poles). Later on, discussing with a friend, who joked “LD wants to be Bi-polar”, added to strengthening the thought.

But how do you even go there? Do you know? Well – I knew nothing and some research especially by Beyonder Travels helped me understand that a good option would be Expedition Cruises. These are smaller cruise ships (about 500 odd max capacity). You go through the Drake passage taking 2 days each way, and then spend time at the Antarctica peninsula. These have scientists aligned who are actually doing some research in the region, and experts on wildlife or eco systems who also have sessions for your learning. They also make you have landings or cruises in different spots of peninsula over 5-6 days.

This information helped me convince my wife and my son to also agree to the idea of coming along (given that this was not trekking or skiing in Antarctica and was essentially a cruise). In an earlier discussion one of my sisters and my brother-in-law had also expressed enthusiasm for Antarctica, so once we got clear information on how to make it happen (Anand from Beyonder himself traveled to Antarctica early 2023), it was a reasonably easy decision to sign up (though not without some unnecessary research (in my opinion) on what ship etc driven by my sister). So that made our party complete – 3 from India and 2 from North America.

EXCITEMENT EXCITEMENT EXCITEMENT – Had not felt this kind of excitement for any other trip of mine. Seventh continent. Last continent. Last area on Earth to be explored by Humans and WE ARE GOING THERE.

Day 0: Reach Buenos Aires

 We took more than 24 hours to reach Buenos Aires from Delhi. Ethiopian Airlines gave the best connection with stops in Adis Ababa and Sao Paolo (this one was a hop over with you staying in the same plane). Told the guide who also picked us up from the airport that, if possible, we want to see Maradona’s house. My wife put it nicely, that we found out Argentina was a country because of Maradona, so it’d be cool to see his house. Met the family who had come separately from North America, and essentially slept.

Day 1: Explore Buenos Aires

We had to shift to the hotel offered by the cruise ship (luggage is collected by them in the night itself for Charter flight group), so we checked out after breakfast and had some sightseeing lined up. The name Buenos Aires means ‘Good winds’, and the city itself is very nice. It has European architecture and hence gives the feel of a European city (modelled to be Paris of Americas after they liberated from Spain). What was quite impressive was that it was quite a clean city. What was also very impressive was that it is a city full of Bookshops (with more bookshops than I have ever seen in any other city), and also a city full of café’s.

We did a tour of Opera House in the morning. Current building was opened in 1908 and the renovation to the current form in 2010. It is supposedly one of the buildings with the best acoustics in the world.

Afternoon was spent exploring the city further and we visited Plaza De Mayo also known as Mayor square, Metropolitan Cathedral, where Pope Francis, as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, used to perform mass before assuming office in the Vatican in 2013, the Obelisk from various streets (erected in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Buenos Aires’ founding), and the beautiful Recoleta Cemetry (including Eva Perons tomb).

There is an interesting poignant story of how during the military dictatorship of Jorge Videla~1977, there were disappearances and how the mothers started these demonstrations in Plaza De Mayo for the Alive Reappearance of their disappeared children. They started wearing diapers as headscarves to stand out among the crowds (and so they are called White Scarf Women).

Apparently, their efforts have led to many of the disappeared having been found and they played a big role towards sentencing of the people in military who were responsible.

Day 2: Fly to Ushuaia and board the cruise ship

 The way the cruise is set-up, we start from Buenos Aires. They fly us to the Southernmost tip of Argentina – Ushuaia (pronounced oo-swy-ah), where we board the ship and then through the Drake Passage (2 days one way), we are taken to Antarctica. We spend time in the peninsula and then travel back through the Drake Passage to Ushuaia and are flown back to Buenos Aires. After an early morning start from Sofitel and roughly a 3.5 hour flight we landed at Ushuaia around noon. It is a beautiful place with a lovely sights as you land.

View from outside the Ushuaia airport

Second stop was Lapataia Bay. Another really beautiful Bay. The road coming to Ushuaia and to Lapataia bay is Route 3 and is the end of the Pan American Highway (though it has many water crossings). From Alaska this is about 17,848 km journey. We were then taken to our cruise ship ‘Fridtjof Nansen’ and the embarkation process was done. We were issued our Parkas and boots and some of the groups were still coming in, so we spent a few hours exploring the ship that was going to be our home for the next 10 days.

Views from the main deck

We started moving around 7 PM and would be in the Beagle Channel till late evening. We were so South that we had long days, and there was light practically till 12 AM.

Day 3 & 4: Drake Passage

One of the feared elements of this cruise is the travel through the Drake Passage. Named after a 16^th century explorer Sir Francis Drake, it is body of water between South America’s Cape Horn, and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. Ocean currents here meet no landmass and there could be waves up to 12 meters making it one of the most difficult sea voyages possible. Even though we had last 3-4 tiring days, what with long travels to Argentina and early morning flight to Ushuaia, all of us woke up sometime around 1-2 AM because we had entered Drake passage and the waves were causing enough rolling of the ship. Fun fact Drake Passage is called Drake Shake (if you get waves of 10-12 m) or Drake Lake (if you get waves of 3-5 m). We were lucky to get Drake Lake.

We used some patches to prevent seasickness, but despite it being Drake Lake, a few of my co-travelers felt the symptoms more strongly and needed some medicine also. The other fun part of the roll of the ship was that everyone needed to be careful while walking in the ship and especially when they were carrying some food or other stuff.

 

View from our room window first morning on Drake Passage

Since we were in the middle of nowhere the Expedition team used the two days to tell us about the optional activities we could sign up for, some sessions on bird photography, session on IAATO guidelines including what controls are needed to prevent the sensitive environment of Antarctica (e.g. we cannot carry anything from outside world that is not vacuum cleaned or sanitised or new, so we spent some time vacuuming camera bags etc).

They were offering the below optional activities:

• Snowshoeing
• Kayaking
• Science boat
• Photo Excursion in a Zodiac
• Overnight camping on the continent

Everyone chose a few of these to register and over the 5 days in peninsula they would run a lottery and choose the participants for various activities.

We spotted the first iceberg on the first day itself at Drake passage and were quite excited. We called it the “lonely iceberg”. Towards the evening we had seen some more but they were still far and few. Second night we felt was more rolling but slowly we were getting used to it. The next day was colder, and we started to see icebergs more often. We also had a Bird photography session among the other sessions on Antarctica and some more details for Kayak excursion. During the day we also saw some snow flurries. But most importantly they had a session where they informed us that we’ll be reaching the first landing point tomorrow called “Damoy Point”. We also celebrated Christmas with special meals on the ship.

Day 5: Antarctica – Damoy Point

We woke up to a weirdly strange feeling of no rolling of the ship, as we had entered the area closer to the peninsula and Drake Passage was behind us. As we stepped out, we could see many icebergs and through the day the surroundings turned whiter and whiter as we came closer to the Damoy Point. We saw a few whales at a distance and some icebergs with penguins.

We moved towards the Damoy point and reached by late morning. We had started to see more land mass and some mountains.

There was a session by the resident Ornithologist about penguins, where we were informed that there are 18 species in the world and about 5 of them are found in Antarctica. Emperor and Adelie are continental while Chinstrap, Gentoo and Macaroni are found in peninsula.

We also had some whale sightings and one of them really nice where it came practically next to our ship.

Coming to the landing, Damoy Point is at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, a former British research station (now being maintained as a museum) that is reached after sailing through the Neumayer Channel. Built in 1973, it was used as a transit station for many years. It was last occupied in 1993. There is also an Argentinian hut and many Penguin rookeries nearby.

The cruise expedition team splits everyone into various teams and publish slots when you will have your landing. Managed really well. I had signed up for Kayaking and Photo Excursion and did not get selected for any activity. Few fellow members who had signed up for Snowshoeing got selected and did the activity. In any landing the Expedition team would first go and set up the area to be explored and then only start the landings. We are taken through Zodiacs that are inflatable small powered boats.

Day 6 – Brown Station /Paradise Bay

Today the area being visited was Paradise Bay and Brown Station, named after Admiral William Brown, the father of the Argentine Navy. It is located on Sanavirón Peninsula vs an island we had visited yesterday. It is one of the 13 Argentinian research bases and from 1951 to 1984 had served as a permanent base. In 1984 it got burnt, and Argentinians rebuilt but now operate it only in summer season. When we reached, they had still not come to the base and were expected in 10 -15 days.

My son got through the Science Boat group optional activity (where they’d go and run some experiments and collect samples, run underwater drones etc) and I unfortunately had no luck with my optional choices. Unlike the cloudy weather yesterday, today was mostly a bright day. The views again were mind blowing. Few snaps of the Paradise Bay area.

This was the place where I was dumbstruck. This place has a beauty that numbs you. The beauty that can make everyone a poet! The beauty that changes you. Can you ever recognize the person who boarded this ship a few days back? You laugh at yourself because you had so drastically underestimated what this place looks like? The camera is capturing fake images, because they cannot capture the feeling inside of you that this is real, and you are here. They cannot capture the chilly wind that was blowing, numbing you in the seconds you took off the gloves to take a picture. They cannot really capture the light that changes through the day giving a different feeling every time you see the place. How do you capture the changing environment all around you, the calving of the glacier right in front of your eyes, the thunder like crash that accompanies it, that opens the incredible shades of blue in the ice? How do you capture the reaction of people around you when they see a ripple caused by a whale spouting/blowing? How do you capture the numerous shades of blues of water or sky, that blend into the numerous shades of white of the glacier or the cloud? You can just be grateful!

They also had Kayaking for the first groups identified and what a place to do it? Coming to the Brown Station and the landing, there was a small mountain to climb and then there were rookeries to go to near the station on landing.

Coming out of the Paradise bay going towards Hovgaard Island (our next stop) was through a narrow channel. It was full of many icebergs of all sizes and needed careful navigation and even our ship had to change course in the channel to go through.

Day 7: Hovgaard Island and close encounters with icebergs

Although the forecast was another sunny day, it turned out to be cloudy with bits of sunshine peeing through. In the morning we went through Lemaire Channel (1600 mt (or 600 mt per some) at its narrowest point), full of icebergs and mountains around us. We saw the benefit of our smaller ship as one of the bigger ships in front of us had to turn back. After careful navigation we reached the Hovgaard island. Today there was no landing but just an excursion in Zodiac taking us closer to icebergs and seals, penguins and whales (for the lucky ones). When you are at water level the place has a different level of beauty.

Day 8: Danco Island – Penguin Highways and Whale Pod encounters

We woke up to a sunny day. Today our destination was Danco Island. It is at the Southern end of Errera channel and in some ways our return journey starts as we start to go North. Its just a mile long but views from top are phenomenal with heavily crevassed glaciers. It also has quite a population of the Gentoo penguins and we had some nice encounters with them.

We had quite a “whale”-some end to our day when a pod of some 20-30 whales decided to have some fun, frolic and feeding near our ship. In the picture below, you can see some seven blows or spouts. To add to the fun finally saw my name on the list for Kayak (likely an outcome of my wife and sister talking to expedition team). Tomorrow was the last day for these optional activities and caused much relief. Tomorrow is also the day for Polar plunge, where you take a dip into polar waters.

Exccciiiting!

Day 9 – Deception Island, Kayaking and the Polar Plunge

Our last stop in Antarctica, Deception Island and Bay is the exposed caldera of an active shield volcano (yes – still active with last eruption in 1970). Roughly circular and horseshoe shaped, it has a max diameter of around 15 km. Center of the island is flooded and forms the Bay where we went. Entrance is just 500 meters wide called Neptune’s Bellows.

We first had the Kayaking, where you need to dress up in wet suits, and then they give some tips on Kayaking. Just as we were ready to go actual Kayaking we were informed that wind is quite high and our Kayaking is postponed (will it actually happen?). So, we decided to go do the landing in the interim. We land on a black sand beach and expedition team had lined us a short climb to one of the internal rims. One can smell the sulphur smell as you land.

It was now time for the Polar plunge before we came back to the ship, and what a place to do it. Cloudy windy biting weather, first step into the Bay was actually warm (remember Volcano and sulphur) giving a false hope, and second step onwards it was just icy and so much fun.

You take one or two dips and then you run back, wear your layers and go back to the ship feeling that you have conquered the Earth. Reaching back, got the confirmation that Kayaking will happen. Yaay!! It was quite an experience, I mean what a location to do it! Realised it is not too tough in general, but our guide took us to Neptune’s Bellows, so the swell was interesting. If one keeps ones centre of gravity straight, one can manage. If you turn back and lean in the process, the Kayak will come close to overturning. Saw a couple of seals and just loved the scenery around. One other big learning, water will flow across the oar to your hands given the strokes you make to move the Kayak. If you are not wearing waterproof gloves but only water-resistant ones, it’ll seep in and in polar temperatures it’ll freeze your fingers.

Day 10 & 11 Drake Passage Rerun

Thankfully, we got the Drake Lake again. Patches behind the ear and medicines (for people impacted more by sea sickness) were back for the return journey. Completed logistics like returning your boots after cleaning and making sure even gravel is removed, collecting your tags for the return flight to Buenos Aires. We welcomed the New Year with a party on the ship. Next day when someone asked my wife on how was your New Year, she said “It was Rocking ” (given that we were on Drake Passage). They plan a visit to the Bridge from where they navigate the ship, so that was interesting.

Realised that even in today’s world there is a big reliance on humans and their eyes. What we also were able to do is see the Engine room by making a special request. Our ship is Hybrid powered and had Combustion Engine and Battery Packs to run the ship. Apparently, they save ~15% fuel due to the hybrid model. Farewell by the Crew along with a Sailor’s song sung by the crew was the conclusion of our Cruise. Packed and handed our bags to be taken to the Chartered flight to Buenos Aires next morning.

Day 12: Back to the World – Back to Buenos Aires

Disembarkation from the ship post breakfast. We had a couple of hours in Ushuaia and roamed the streets.

Flew-back to Buenos Aires and the day was largely uneventful except for dinner at the largest Pizzeria (Pizzeria Guerrin) I have ever seen. Pizza’s also were super-sized and oozing with cheese and tasty and fulfilling. My son who never shares his Pizza, after taking a look at the Pizza asked us to share.

Day 13: Travel to Iguazu – Tres Fronteras

We had also opted for an optional visit to Iguazu and we had our flight late in the morning. After checking in and late lunch, in the evening we went walking to the Tres Fronteras where River Iguazu meets River Perrana and is a spot where three countries meet. Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

Day 14: Iguazu Falls

Today the main attraction was Iguazu Falls (Iguazu meaning Big Water). 80% of the Falls are in Argentina and about 20% in Brazil. Together they make up the largest waterfall system of almost 150 to 300 waterfalls (depending on the flow of water). Third most visited falls in the world (others being Niagara and Victoria Falls), they are definitely worth a visit. There are walks created on the upper level and lower level, but the most fun to be had is on what they call is “Great adventure”. Essentially downriver from the falls you go through a jungle ride of ~5 km to reach boarding points for Speed Boats. These then take you to the falls and they do take you so close to falls that getting wet is inevitable, and so much.

There is a nice downtown with bars and restaurant, to help one while away the evening after one is back from the falls.

Day 15: Buenos Aires, Maradona’s House, Tango Show

We flew back to Buenos Aires in the morning. After check-in we were taken to the Southern part of the city. We were driven past the famous Boca Juniors stadium (where Maradona played) and the neighbourhood area. Beautiful murals line up the city. Of course, you can recognize Maradona and Messi. Eva Peron is also there. Rest we don’t know. We then had lunch at El Gran Paraiso, a really nice local barbeque restaurant, where you can sit outdoors in tenement patio. We had beef cuts barbeque, grilled cheese for vegetarians, and some salad. The portions are huge, so if you end up going there in future, be careful of how much you order.

La Boca area and specifically Caminito over the years developed into an area that is a source of artistic and cultural inspiration and is home to many artists, painters, singers, musicians. It is famous for its colourful houses, cobblestone streets, and corrugated sheet facades. The vividly painted buildings are adorned with intricate murals and sculptures. It is said, the variety of colors comes from the leftover paint from ships that sailors brought home.

We then went to Maradona’s house. This was the house which was given to him by Boca Juniors management in his early days. It is being maintained as a museum and one very cool thing inside is a video. Its an interview of Maradona’s brother sitting next to Maradona when they were both kids, and the question is something like if he’d want to play/become like Maradona. His answer is that no because Maradona is not from this planet.

We ended the day with a Tango show. I’ll admit I was not going into this with a lot of confidence. Was thinking it’ll be boring, but was I wrong? It turned out to be a great evening. While we had fantastic dancers, even the music was really great. It was catchy and while there was no percussion instrument, we did not miss any.

Day 16: Lazy morning in Buenos Aires and flight back home

Well, the trip had well and truly come to an end, but for a last hurrah, we thought we’ll visit some bookshops (remember earlier comment about city with the most bookshops) and we also ended up visiting a museum, before our flight back home. One of the bookstores was El Eteneo Grand Splendid. Named the most beautiful bookstore by National Geographic in 2019, this is a real Theatre converted to a bookstore.

The museum we visited was Museo de Arte Latinoamericano. A small one, but they did have a couple of Frida Kahlo pieces.

 

Day 17: Back in India

With the same hops landed back in Delhi. The polluted air greeted us with itchy throats, making us miss the clean environment we just came from, even more.

When a friend asked a few days later, “How was Antarctica?”, I could not help myself but revert “It was cool.”