Day 1 in the Antarctic and We step foot on our 7th continent

It's officially Day One of our time in the Antarctic--yesterday's surprise landing on an Aitcho Island was a bonus.

Our first activity of the day was a landing at Cuverville Island.

The long zodiac transit to and from the landing site took us past a Leopard Seal resting on ice,

and through a collection of spectacular icebergs,

including a blue iceberg with an arched window through it.

and another with a spectacular spired "prow" that towered over us as we rode past.

The cobble beach made for a difficult disembarkation,

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but once safely above it, the walking was fairly easy.

Cuverville is essentially a steep-sided dome of an island with an extensive ice cap.

Where we landed was relatively level and had an ice-free beach that supports nearly 5,000 pairs of Gentoo penguins.

 The expedition team is available to answer any questions we may have and to point out interesting things we may have missed.

 We see our first "penguin highways" through the snow.

We spent almost 2 hours on shore observing the penguins as they entertained us with their waddling around and interaction with each other.  

Then it was time to return to the ship.  We never felt cold; the temperature is about 37 degrees.

Here's a video of what the penguins sound like...I think they were telling us they didn't want us to leave.

Back on the ship, we check in.  We are assigned a number on this board and each time we leave the ship we flip over the tag.  When we return, we flip it back again.  This is a safety precaution to make sure no one is left behind on land.

Our second activity for the day was a landing at Gonzalez Videla Base, a Chilean station.  It is currently manned by the Chilean Air Force, which coordinates search-and-rescue operations and communications in the Antarctic Peninsula.

The base personnel welcomed us with a red carpet up the ramp to a concrete walkway.

It is now official...we have set foot on our 7th continent!

We were invited to go inside the base to see their dining and living rooms and a small museum dedicated to the history of the base from 1921 when two members of a British Expedition ended up wintering over here in a makeshift shelter.  They spent 366 days making rigorous observations of temperature, wind, tides and sea ice every 2 hours without fail, creating a valuable baseline data set for this section of the coast.

There were plenty of Gentoo penguins to watch.

Many were sitting on eggs.

We wondered what these two were discussing...

And yes, there is a distinct air around the penguins.  All the penguin "poo" sometimes makes quite a stink.

As we were getting ready to head back to the ship,

we spotted an all-white penguin.  We were told it is not albino....just happens to be all white.

It was quite muddy at this landing.  Since this was not a water landing where we would get our boots wet, there was a special boot-cleaning brush that we used to get the mud (and most likely some poo) off our boots before entering the zodiac.

After returning to the ship, we learned that there was yet another activity arranged for the day:  a ship cruise of Paradise Bay, which is the horseshoe-shaped channel shown on the map below.

We were all outside on the deck to take in some spectacular views.

There are glaciers, stark cliffs and jagged peaks; why did I ever think that Antarctica was just flat and covered with snow and ice?  There are mountains and glaciers...

Here we are with Marta, our Trip Leader.

It was truly beautiful, especially when the sun would peek out for a moment or two.

A perfect end to another amazing day!

Day 2 in Antarctica is next and we will see Adelie penguins, and a big surprise, or two.  To continue reading, scroll down and click on "Newer Post".