True Confessions: Favorite Pictures

I guess it's not really a confession if everyone already knows. I am not a talented photographer. It's a result of (1) not carrying a camera regularly, and (2) not really having "the eye." As a result, I also don't own a high-end camera. Lucky for me, I've always been surrounded by people who are great at photos, so my life is well documented anyway. It's true: most of the best pictures relating to my life were taken by someone else. I have entire photo albums of pictures that other people took (like Sunshine in college). This point was underscored last weekend. Keith and I went to the wedding of a very good friend of mine. I had a digital camera with flash and zoom, he has an iPhone. With exactly one exception, his pictures are all better than mine. Go figure.

People have been asking for more pictures of Antarctica (and I am sure they are also hoping for fewer words!), so here you go. You'll see I actually liked landscapes more than animals, sorry for those of you who want more penguin pics. Most of these are not my pictures, because my favorite pictures happen to belong to other people. Many thanks to Jen Miller, Cameron Gilreath, and Kobie Bennett (plus a super cute "penguin love" three-panel from Lauren Bishop), because I especially enjoy these ladies' pics (not to mention they made the trip so fun!). And shout outs to Gerry Miller and Frank Todd for the humpback and orcas, respectively. Here are my favorite pictures of our trip to Antarctica, shown in an almost 6-minute slideshow without any music because I treasured the serenity in Antarctica:

Enjoy!

P.S. After 4 days of "seasickness-on-land" I felt normal again. And I can honestly say that despite being sick that first day in the Drake and again for 4 days after coming home, this was still the best trip ever and Antarctica is the most beautiful place I've ever had the honor of visiting.

So glad to be home safe, even if sick...

My favorite Antarctica quote is by Barry Lopez “Antarctica reflects the mystery we call God!” I definitely think the mystery and majesty of God is evident in Antarctica, more than anywhere else I’ve been. It reminds me of Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

But today, a quote from Robert Swan (who has walked to both poles) is more appropriate: “Antarctica is like meeting a mass murderer who looks nice. At least in the Arctic you know you're meeting a mass murderer.”

My trip to Antarctica was nice, not mass murderer. Actually, it was amazing, incredible, and fantastic. And I knew I was blessed to have had such a trip: great crew, great weather, great travel mates, all that. The crew warned us that our time in the Drake wasn’t as bad as it could have been. When they said that, I thanked God that I didn’t get to experience how bad the Drake can really be.

Today, it appears that I missed it by just two days, and I am ever so grateful. The front page of Yahoo (not the front TRAVEL page, the front page of regular news) has a story titled “Horror on the High Seas” that talks about a ship like ours (roughly same size, taking roughly the same route) that encountered 30 foot waves (i.e., equivalent to a three-story building) in the Drake Passage. The waves broke the window of the bridge and knocked out communication, and one of their engines was lost. They slowed to ~1 mph in the Drake. That does not sound fun. Actually, it sounds downright miserable.

I have been feeling pretty lousy for the last 48 hours, and I wasn’t expecting this at all. I have “sea sickness” on land. Biologically, my inner ear is trying to readjust to solid ground. It makes me dizzy and nauseous, not all day but frequently throughout the day (and especially in the afternoons). On the ship, I could lay down and feel better. On land, it isn’t working. I googled the phenomenon and found that it’s normal. It usually takes a few days to go away, more if the waves were really rough or if your body was really seasick (like mine was). When I watch the video of the Clelia II ship, I can see that it’s going to take those passengers a lot longer to get used to land again. I do not envy them at all!

I am so glad that my Antarctica Adventure wasn’t quite that adventurous…. I’m grateful that my Heavenly Father knew I just couldn’t handle that much excitement.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/horror-on-the-high-seas-23392390;_ylt=AlssV06plUWlMmo_WRLaQw6z174F;_ylu=X3oDMTE3cm8yYXZyBHBvcwMxBHNlYwNtb3N0LXBvcHVsYXIEc2xrA2hvcnJvcm9udGhlaA--

Here are some of Kobie's pictures that I like:

Highlights of Our Journey

Here is our route map:


Here is the abstract of our journey's log:


Here is a list of wildlife we saw:

BIRDS:
Emperor Penguin (Subadult)
Adelie Penguin
Chinstrap Penguin
Gentoo Penguin
Magellanic Penguin
Wandering Albatross
Black-browed Albatross
Gray-headed Albatross
Light-mantled Sooty Albatross
Southern Giant-Petrel
Northern Giant-Petrel
Sooty Shearwater
Antarctic (Southern) Fulmar
Painted Petrel (Cape Pigeon)
Antarctic Petrel
White-chinned Petrel
Antarctic (Dove) Prion
Blue Petrel
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel
King Shag
Rock Shag
Blue-eyed Shag
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Immature)
Upland Goose
Patagonian Crested Duck
Kelp Gull
Dolphin Gull
South American Tern
Antarctic Tern
Brown Skua
South Polar Skua
Chilean Skua
Snowy Sheathbill

MAMMALS:
South American Sea Lion
Weddell Seal
Crabeater Seal
Leopard Seal
Southern Elephant Seal
Peale’s Dolphin
Orca (Killer Whale)
Minke Whale
Humpback Whale

On My Way Home

Sadly, my Antarctic adventure is coming to a close and I’m heading home today. I traveled 1,763 nautical miles aboard the M/S Expedition and saw many animals, birds, and beautiful sites. Antarctica was the most beautiful place I have ever been (Beyin in Ghana has been bumped to second place for the most pristine beautiful location I’ve visited).

We landed in Ushuaia and hung out in the small town for a few hours before heading to the airport. I expected that my trip home would be slightly shorter than my trip down to Ushuaia, because I didn’t have to fly back through El Calafate. In actuality, my trip was definitely more eventful on the way home.

My flight out of Ushuaia was delayed by about an hour, so I had to rush across Buenos Aires to catch my flight out of the international airport. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic on Sunday night (and my flight was delayed), so I made it. There was some sort of strike happening in Uruguay, so air traffic in South America was a mess. We boarded our plane late and still sat on the runway for nearly 2 hours before we could depart.

I had already missed my connection in Dallas, but I was further delayed waiting for my luggage so I could pass through Customs. My bag never arrived, which was strange because the people who checked in after me were able to collect their bags no problem. I had to wait until no more bags were coming, and then I headed over to bag service, where they advised me I could file a claim at my final destination. By the time I got through customs, the line for rebooking was very long (nearly everyone on our plane had a missed connection). I ended up trying to fly standby on the next flight, but I didn’t make it, and I was able to get a confirmed (middle) seat on an early afternoon flight. I am typing this on the plane, and I’m just grateful that I didn’t have any of these issues with flights or baggage on the way down. I am sure my luggage will arrive in the next day or two, and I have plenty of clothes and toiletries at home so it’s not a big deal. [It actually arrived home before I did, go figure!]

The crew made us certificates to show that we set foot on Antarctica, and that we swam in Antarctic waters (click to make them bigger so you can read them if you want to):



I’ll pull together some of my favorite photos and post them here this week. Thanks for following my adventure!

Cape Horn

Our expedition leader Julio woke us up at 6:30am to advise us that he’d garnered permission from the Chilean government (he’s chileno, so I am sure that helped) to approach Cape Horn. Ships are not allowed to come within 12 miles without explicit permission from Chile, but we were able to approach much closer. Cape Horn is the most southerly point of South America, and the waters around the Cape are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs.





You can see in this picture how the water color changes as you approach the Cape (it's much more pronounced in real life):


After breakfast, I took an engine room tour. It was cool to see the mechanics of keeping this ship moving. We also saw the reverse osmosis room where they desalinate water for use onboard (it tastes so fresh) and the sewer room where they treat water before releasing it back into the ocean.




My fellow passengers are quite fun, and we’re having a good time even when we can’t leave the ship. The crew and staff are incredibly knowledgeable about what seems to be an endless array of topics, but even the passengers seem brighter than average. Some are highly educated (one guy has both an MD and a PhD in addition to two different undergrad degrees). Many are well-traveled, with wonderful traveling stories to tell. And a significant portion of the ship has now set foot on all 7 continents (including one girl who’s only 25!). I still need to visit Australia before I can join their club.

This trip has the most interesting demographic of travel companions. Some families are here (a dad who was diagnosed with cancer is here with his wife, two children, and son-in-law; a couple is here with their 17-year old son); many singles are here (as young as early 20s and as old as 79); and marrieds are here without their spouses (husbands without their wives, wives without their husbands). I am sure that’s partly a result of this being an expensive and extreme trip, so most of us didn’t try to persuade anyone else to come. I do think there are slightly more women than men aboard, which I never would have expected. [I checked, and there are 60 women and 59 men aboard as passengers.]

The highlight of today was a longer game of Uno. We sat on the floor in the hallway and played a 4-person game of Uno. As people grew tired (or needed to take the engine room tour), they would hand off their cards to someone else. The game continued for ~5 hours until someone finally won (and of course, I can’t even recall who won).

The funniest memory I have of today was when we were talking about camel humps. I said to a group of folks “Guess what their hump is made of.” And everyone guessed water. I said, “No, it’s something you probably never considered.” And Lauren answered “Polystyrene.” LOL! I am definitely going to miss my fellow passengers…

Heading North

We’re still in the Drake but the waves are slightly less powerful than last night. With a good breakfast and the magic patch, I was able to make it through most of the day without any queasiness.

Mandy and Cameron brought a deck of Uno cards, which was fantastic! I played the longest game of Uno ever – three of us played for over an hour and shuffled the deck at least 9 times after running out of cards. I can’t even remember who won, isn’t that funny? I think it might have been me, but I can’t be sure. I’ll need to ask the girls. [I just found out that I won – obviously I’m not as competitive in Antarctica as I am at home, ha ha.]

Throughout the week, we’ve had many lectures and movies that educate us about Antarctica, the animals (penguins, seabirds, seals, and more), lichen, climate change, sea ice, and the history of Antarctic explorers. I have learned a lot and really enjoyed myself.

Yesterday, the ship had an auction with all proceeds benefiting the nonprofit “Save the Albatross” foundation, which promotes safe fishing practices in the Antarctic region. They auctioned off a variety of items, and the auction was a lot of fun. Some of the items were: the chef’s hot chocolate pudding recipe with a chef hat; our ship's red flag; bottled glacier ice (melted into water) with a used beanie; breakfast in bed served by your crew member of choice; and the chart showing exactly where we’ve traveled on our trip. Breakfast in bed went for $250, and there was a volley between Naked Man Andy (asking our Hotel Manager Josie to serve) and a half dozen older Aussie women (served by Matt, the youngest crew member who turned 20 yesterday). Naked Man Andy eventually won, but the women offered a $50 donation to the foundation in order to have breakfast at a round table in the dining room with Matt and Pablo (the second youngest crew member).

The chart was quite nice (I learned it’s called a chart and not a map), as one of the crewmembers drew pictures on it and the whole crew signed it. We all thought it would go for ~$500, but within 30 seconds of open bid the price was $1,000! It ultimately sold for $1,500 to two American women who are travel agents. In all, the auction raised over $2,200 for the “Save the Albatross” foundation, and it was a fun evening.

Here is a pic to show you how windy it was sometimes on the deck (check out my ponytail):

The Antarctic Plunge

Right after breakfast, the captain maneuvered our ship through a narrow passage called Neptune’s Bellows, which is the only entrance to horseshoe-shaped Deception Island.


Deception Island is an old volcano that collapsed on itself and filled with water, creating a caldera. The name comes from the fact that it looks like an island but is actually the rim of an active volcano. This island is different from the other islands we’ve visited – it has black sand (from the most recent eruption in the late 1960s) and remnants from buildings that existed before that eruption. Both Britain and Chile had scientific bases set up on the island, and the ruins of those buildings still stand as a stark reminder that Nature always wins when the challenge is Human versus Nature.



Our Zodiac arrived on Deception Island when a small Weddell seal did. We watched it slither up onto the beach and play a bit. Much more graceful than when they just lay there resting on land.


The highlight of today was jumping into the water. For most of the trip, the water has ranged from 0 to 2 degrees Celsius. That is VERY cold! But there is a section of beach on Deception Island that has warm sand (and steam, as you can see in the seal picture above), due to the molten activity that still exists underground. The top inch of water, therefore, is quite warm. Once you get a foot into the water, it reverts back to cold – around 40 degrees F. Julio, our expedition leader, advised us that if we wished to take a polar plunge, this is the safest place to do it. He and the crew prepared towels for us and thought of all the details. I joked that all week I had been eating well on the ship to add an extra layer of blubber so I could ensure I wouldn’t have any chance of getting hypothermia.

Many people brought swimsuits, but I didn’t even think I might jump in the water. I did bring workout clothes because there is a fitness center onboard the ship. Our trip is over half over, and I have yet to use my workout clothes. So I decided to give my clothes a workout this morning. I wore my sports bra, tank top, and soccer shorts under my Antarctica clothes.

We walked around Deception Island for ~2 hours and looked at the old buildings, hiked up to a lookout point called Neptune’s Window, a narrow break in the volcano’s wall that allowed us to look out to sea.



At 11am, people started stripping down to swimsuits to take the plunge. I think over 20 people ultimately jumped into the cold water, and I'm pretty sure none of us lasted longer than 10 seconds. I ran into the water, dove head first, and turned around to run back out. It was so cold that my body froze momentarily and my chest constricted.



I ran for the towels, put one on my head and one on my body. I knew it would take too long to get dressed, so I threw on a fleece top, grabbed all my gear (boots, clothes, backpack) and boarded the Zodiac to come back to the ship. Upon arrival in the mudroom, Alessandra gave all the swimmers a small cup of hot cocoa that was spiked with a dash of peppermint schnapps (non-swimmers couldn’t have any). Then, I hopped in the warm shower and headed into the sauna (not too hot) to defrost. It was fantastic, and within 15 minutes I felt normal again.

We headed toward Half Moon Island and encountered some large waves. When we arrived at Half Moon Island, Julio made the decision that we could not land there. He was concerned that it was too risky to get all the Zodiacs on the beach and back to the ship. One of the crew said “Any idiot can get a Zodiac onto the beach; but the real test is getting the Zodiac off the beach and safely back to the ship.”

The bad news is that our final landing was canceled. The good news is that within an hour we saw a humpback whale, which we wouldn’t have seen if we were landed at Half Moon Bay. I saw another humpback whale at dinner. I was just looking out the window because staring at the horizon helps calm any seasickness, and I first saw the blow spray, then saw the whale. I jumped to the window to see if I could see the whale again, but it had been so close to the front of our ship that I believe it went to the side or under our ship, disappearing from my view. You can’t tell that any of my pictures are humpback whales (only splashes and a bit of a back or fin), but one of my fellow passengers took some great ones and shared with me. These are Gerry Morris’ photos, which I assembled into this short video:


By dinner, we were back in Drake Passage and our outside decks were closed. I was so sick our first time in Drake that I have no idea how large the waves were. This time, I watched the waves from a window and could see their immensity. Truly, our 6334-ton ship is no match for these powerful waves. During dinner, our ship rocked so far to the right that the whole dining room crashed to the right. The tables and chairs are bolted down throughout the ship, but I nearly fell off my chair (I had a broad-shouldered girl sitting next to me and I would surely have fallen had she not been sitting there). Everything that was on our table moved to the right (utensils, plates, drinks) and many of them fell on the ground. Food that was about to be served went crashing to the ground in the dining room. I can’t describe it well but it was quite a mess.

I didn’t want to test the strength of my magic patch, so I headed to bed. When I’m in bed with the magic patch, I enjoy the rocking and rolling of the waves, and I slept really well.

Cruising the Errera Channel by Zodiac

After lunch, our expedition leader Julio made the call to scratch our intended location for a different excursion that would take advantage of the calm water and nice weather we were experiencing. We headed out in Zodiacs to explore the Errera Channel. We saw seals, penguins, and many beautiful ice sculptures. The three most interesting things we saw:
1. We saw an iceberg that looked like bubble wrap. We touched it and it “crackled” under our fingers.


2. We saw a chunk of turquoise ice underwater with four interesting thin sculptures jutting above the water. Lauren started to comment that the four looked precarious, one of them crashed over into the ocean. We teased our Zodiac driver Scott that we’d like for him to detonate small bombs at future strategic moments of our Zodiac excursion.
3. We saw a chunk of black ice, so Scott reached in to bring it aboard. We brought it back to the ship and the staff used it in the drinks tonight at the bar. It’s crystal clear (versus black) now that it’s out of the water.


We also saw a crabeater seal, so cute:


Here is the scoop on icebergs: snow falls over decades on Antarctica and the surrounding islands. It gets packed and packed with the weight of new snow until it is compressed into solid sheets of ice, called glacier ice. Some of the glacier ice forms ice rivers, which is glacier ice that flows over time as new snow is compressed into solid ice. Eventually, some of this glacier ice breaks off and falls into the ocean to create icebergs. The icebergs are freshwater (frozen) while the ocean is saltwater. Over time, the water erodes the ice to create unique shapes.











After dinner, Alan played us some songs on a guitar (there is supposed to be a musician on our trip, but he got sick or hurt himself and couldn’t make it). That was a lot of fun – he started out in the gift shop and eventually took us up to the bar, singing and playing Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, and other rock songs for sing-a-long.

Just after 11pm, the ship started rocking and rolling, so I was grateful that I put a new magic patch on this morning rather than waiting. The ship has an open bridge policy, so unless they’re maneuvering through thick ice or a very narrow channel, they always welcome us to come up and watch them work. I never realized how complex it was – they even have differential equations!

Hiking on Danco Island

I overcompensated, clothes-wise, for this morning’s excursion because Siberia was still on my mind. Yesterday afternoon’s weather was what I expected in Antarctica, frankly, but I am so grateful to actually have this unexpected nice weather instead!

Anyway, as I left the ship this morning, I had these layers:
Top: 1 (skin) to 5 (waterproof outer)
Bottom: 1 (skin) to 3 (waterproof outer)

We landed at Danco Island and started a hike to the top.


Let me better explain what I mean by “hike” in this blog. Firstly, I am wearing knee-high rubber boots and three layers of socks any time I leave the ship. The boots have decent traction on the bottom, but the important thing is that they’re waterproof. Every time we exit the Zodiac, we step into water and then wade to the land/ice/beach. The snow here is interesting – the best description I have is light powder that has been frozen. Sometimes you can take a step and stay on the surface, but more often than not your leg sinks a foot or so into the snow. Pulling that leg out requires that you place your weight on the other leg, which sometimes also sinks in the snow. At times, it takes 5 minutes to walk a few paces.

We learned the “trick” to walking in these conditions is to tread lightly and prep the snow first. Take your foot and stamp it a bit in front of you where you’d like to walk, and then lightly place your foot there as evenly as possible (toe-first or heel-first nearly guarantees that you’ll sink). Do it again for the other foot. You can imagine this isn’t very quick. Add to it that when you start hiking up the side of a hill or mountain, you need also worry about traction so you don’t slip. But the best way to ensure traction is to dig your boot into the snow a bit, which often causes you to sink. It’s quite challenging and a good workout. Sometimes, you’re better just to hike in the foot holes that others have made. It makes for an adventure either way.

Today, I sunk into the snow a lot for the first 50 yards. Then, I caught some good snow and made good progress before happening upon a smaller section where most of us sank. After only 100 yards, I was hot. I needed to take off some layers, but it’s not as easy as it sounds when you’re on a slope and you need to keep on your outer layers. It took me 5 minutes, but I finally did remove layers 1, 3, 4, and 5 from my top and layer 2 from the bottom. I felt like one of those logic puzzles where you move certain animals in a certain order to get them from one side of the river to another on a raft that only holds so much weight and with animals that eat each other. Here is what I did:

I removed my coat and laid it on the ground, then sat on it to remove my boots one at a time. Right boot off, remove outer pants and layer 2 pants, boot back on. Left boot off, remove outer pants and layer 2 pants, put outer pants and boot back on. Remove right boot again, put outer pants on, replace boot. Remove all layers on top, then put layer 2 back on.


We placed all our clothes and backpacks in a huge pile on the side of the mountain, and hiked up the rest of the way without coats, hats, and gloves. I picked up some fresh snow along the way and ate it – it was pure and delicious. The view from the top was spectacular, and this was the place where I finally experienced pure serenity. The dome mountain was kind of like a mushroom, and there were only ~30 of us up top. We each picked a different direction to walk down, and as you walked down the outside of the mushroom, you easily got to a place where all the people and sounds disappeared. I was all by myself, with the pristine beauty of Antarctica. No penguin calls, bird sounds, or people – complete and beautiful silence while I enjoyed the water and icebergs below and the gorgeous mountains on the other side of the channel. It was certainly the most peaceful time I’ve had in years, perhaps ever.



On the way down, we opted to slide again. It wasn’t as easy, since my coat was down the hill, but I tried to stay mostly on my pants. I twisted and turned a bit, picked up some nice speed, and just had a great time. Sliding down hills in Antarctica is even more fun for me than waterslides!