www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zLATEJCBY

Enjoy!

Lauren & Jeremy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa8xI-zXYiE

SCRABBLE UPDATE @ the end of antarctica

Lauren 15  Jeremy 15

Coming down to the wire

This one must have been 2000 feet long (cant tell from the pic)

Some of the icebergs had a deep blue color to them. Some of them seemed to be twice the length of the ship. Keep in mind only 20% of the iceberg is above water.  The large icebergs that are dislodged from the glacier can survive ten years before melting! We spent all day in awe just staring out the windows being more and more blown away by the views. The seas were amazingly smooth for Antarctica. We heard horror stories about the seas and how bad they can get. In fact last year, the cruise ship we are on had multiple windows blown out on the 5th floor from waves hitting them during the same trip. The Antarcic seas are full of wildlife like whales, penguins, seals and sea lions. We kept our eyes peeled and came across a few of them

Here are some penguins swimming next to the ship, As you can see they are always jumping out of the water when they swim. The penguins seemed to be everywhere. We also spotted many whales along the way.

They were only out of the water for a couple seconds which made it really hard to photograph!

As we traveled along heading to different locations in Antarctica the landscape was constantly changing. Some of the areas were completely covered in ice and some had rocks showing through.

As you can see in these pictures the vast differences in weather, seas and the amount of ice. Just traveling 20 minutes along the route and everything constantly changed. Here are just a few quick facts we learned along the way. The ice in Antarctica contains 3/4 of the wold’s fresh water supply. The ice is 3 miles thick. The snow never melts, therefore it is millions of years old and is continually accumulating. Due to freezing seas around Antarctica in winter, the continent doubles in size during wintertime. While we were there the sun set around 12am – but never got completely dark and the sunrise was at 3:30am. It was very unusual going to bed at midnight and it being light out. One of the places we visited along the way was Elephant Island.

Here is a colony of penguins. If you look at the larger version (click this image to see) you can see them everywhere.

The next day we headed to Deception Island.  Deception island is basically the remains of a volcanic crater or caldera. The volcano erupted most recently in 1970.

The last of our stops in Antarctica was at Palmer station which is the US research station where they have about 20-40 scientist conducting experiments throught the year. We were fortunate to have about 15 of them board our ship and give a lecture on what they do and then had a question and answer period with the guests. It was very interesting. Lots of young men and women performing all different types of scientific research, from wildlife to climate change.

Here they are  getting ready to board the ship.

Every once in a while we were delighted to have an iceberg go by the ship with a bunch of penguins just hanging out on it.

We saw them jumping on and off the icebergs as they floated by.

The 5 days were just incredible. Way more than we could have ever imagined. If you ever are thinking about taking a trip and need a suggestion, a cruise that takes you through Antarctica is strongly recommended. Words and pictures truly can’t express how magnificent of a place it is!

Here are a very small sample of the 700 pictures we took here.

[Show as slideshow]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=15LXi_qDkdM

(For the not so savvy computer users, you can click any of the images to make them larger…Enjoy!)

Our ride was 2 1/2 hours long…about 1 1/2 hours of it being across NO ROAD. It was extremely bumpy and not at all enjoyable! We were in a caravan of about 6 vehicles. Along the way we saw NOTHING (other than stars every time our heads hit the roof). Literally what you see in this picture is all you see for miles. It was crazy desolate, not even a tree! …..Anyway, we got a little history lesson along the way and learned a little about how Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982 and they were at war for about 2 months. How exciting! We were hoping that the payoff would be worth the ride……

…and it was! These are King Penguins….one of the larger types of penguins. They were so beautiful. More impressive looking then the Magellenic penguins, but less curious and social it seemed.

Here I am with one…not sure what I was doing, but he seems to be a bit scared.

It smelled similar to the other rookery which really takes a little while to get used to. Good thing they’re so pretty!

I told Jeremy he should have worn his tux to fit in a little better….

This is one of the babies…I am not sure exactly when they hatched but they are starting to lose this fur coating so I think they are a bit older. There were some that only had half a coat left…more like a shawl

This mama seems to be telling the baby to watch out for PETA members throwing paint…

This one wasn’t dead, just napping. Although we did see quite a few that had died. It wasn’t pretty.

They really are the most adorable animals…

Ah, here’s the one in the shawl….so glad Jeremy put this picture in! He’s almost all growns up!

This one appears to be getting ready to hit the other on the tush!

Yes, that is a sheep! Can you believe 2 of the cutest creatures in the same shot!

This guy just seems like the king of all kings!

Just two dudes out for a walk on a summer day!

I don’t know about you, but this seems like an award winner to me! Guess lugging that camera around paid off!

This is another type of penguin that was also at the same spot. These are Gentoo penguins. This is (obviously) a baby and her mama. These chicks seem a bit younger than the King penguin babies.

The mama goes out to find food and then regurgitates it for her chick. YUM!

He is saying hello to you all!

Just waddling along…..

He’s deep in thought…

This one looks like Ralphie from the back, don’t you think?

They are pretty protective of their young, we saw many scuffles!

How cute!!?? I really wanted to take one home but didn’t think I could clear customs. Not sure we can top this day, but if we can it will certainly be in Antarctica. Here we come!

See you in Antarctica! Happy New Year!

In the meantime here are a couple of videos with highlights from our stop in Puerto Madryn & more..

Puerto Madryn Highlights - Enjoy the video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHb2DIHNH6o

Food Highlights - Enjoy the video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PWxEdhlNwA

We hope you enjoy the videos! Make sure to send us a note!

The first animals we saw were guanacos, which are a close cousin to the llama and alpaca that we saw in Peru. These guys seemed to remember that Jeremy ate the alpaca on that trip and therefore would not pay him much attention.

The first place we stopped was on the coast where we saw sea lions and elephant seals. There were tons of them just hanging out on the beach together. The elephant seals were molting (shedding their skin) and basically while this process is going on they just lie there and do nothing. The sea lions were a little more interesting and playful and loud. But not much…..We were hoping to see a Southern Right Whale which is abundant here, but we were about a month too late. They generally disappear by November.

The next animal we saw was a Patagonian Hare. They were just hanging out near the area where we stopped to have a lunch of barbecued lamb (Jeremy’s favorite)! No rabbit on the menu….lucky for them.

And finally the highlight of our tour….the penguins! We went to a Magellan penguin rookery by four by four vehicle . There were tons of them that were just wandering around. They are very curious animals and seemed very interested in Jeremy’s camera. They would come right up to you and nose around. However if you get in their path when they are trying to cross they will let you know they are not happy!

They burrow into the ground and build their nests. They just kept popping their little heads out!

The smell is difficult to describe, but let’s just say it’s very unpleasant. Kind of smells like the fish tank area at your local Petsmart.

This guy was really interested in finding out how the camera worked!

I think we were initially expecting the penguins to be on a snow capped glacier or something, but in this area it is basically like a desert. Very dry and arid….not what you would picture for penguins to be living in.

The Magellenic penguins are one of the smaller breeds…about 2 feet high.

Here are some babies that were recently hatched.  At this point their “feathers” are not waterproof yet. You can see the difference, they look furry. They were soooo cute!

Jeremy caught these two in an intimate moment.

Jeremy and his new best friends.

We had one of the more curious penguins take our picture for us….not bad!

Not sure how this picture wound up here, but I am guessing it was Jeremy’s lunch back on the ship. That lovely smell must have gotten him in the mood for seafood.

We are off to the Falklyn Islands …more posts soon.

SCRABBLE UPDATE – Lauren 4, Jeremy 4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_tA-yGbSo

Please make sure you send us some comments, we love to hear from you!

During our sea-day en route to Uruguay, we had our first formal night. You know what that means. Lauren and Jeremy dressed to a “T”.  It also meant our first, of what is going to be many, caviar appetizers. It was delicious to say the least. We also enjoyed lobster and many other yummy plates (Robbie, we will have all the menus for you).

(A little caviar to start things off )

Lauren and Jeremy looking spiffy

Once we finally docked in Uruguay we spent the morning walking around the center of the city.  We found what seemed to be a main street that had vendors selling their crafts and goods.  The city itself is not all that impressive. Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and is mostly farmland. Here are a few shots we took while walking around.

Main street we came across that seemed to have lots of life to it

These are gourds which are used to drink yerba mate. Mate is a type of tea, very popular here! They fill the gourd with the tea and then carry around thermoses of hot water to pour over it. A special “straw” is then used that filters out the tea leaves.

Once we finished our afternoon stroll we headed back to the ship to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off on a winery tour. This was a first for both Lauren and Jeremy. The tour started with a drive through the vast farmlands of Montevideo, where 90% of the land is used to raise sheep and cattle.

This is the Winery we visited, called Juanico.

Sign at the entrance of the winery

Once inside we took a driving tour around the vineyard. The vineyard was enormous! There were grape vines everywhere.  While driving through we noticed there was a rose tree before every row of grape vines which we learned are put there to prevent the animals from eating the grapes (thorns).

Thats us!

Baby grapes which will be ready for harvest in late march

“How about them grapes”

After the driving tour it was on to see the cellar and the bottling plant. Once inside the cellar we were treated to some white sparkling wine (aka champagne). They actually make it from red grapes here, pretty neat!

In the cellar, drinking some champagne

After the tour, we headed back upstairs to sample the different wines they make. During our tasting the brought our 4 or 5 different empanadas which were amazing! They had us sample a couple whites wines, a few red wines and a port wine. We found a couple of them really good and ended up buying a few bottles of their reserve. During the tasting they treated us to some tango dancing and invited us to join. Good thing jeremy still has a pulled groin otherwise we would have had some great video! After the tour we headed back to the ship.

Scrabble Update as of Uruguay – Lauren 4 Jeremy 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNdJ1tZRT4E

Here are a couple more pics we thought you would enjoy!

(Lauren thought this was funny, I am trying to figure it out)

(Little friend we found)

We are here:

See you in Montevideo