Our Trip to Antartica

  If you blink, you could potentially miss both sunrise and sunset. We called it an evening around 11:30PM last night and still had daylight. This morning, Sheryl woke up at 2:30AM to this sunrise.  Today, we're heading to Snow Hill Island Sort of looks like Skull Island from the King Kong movie And this will be our ride to and from the ship for the next 7 days. Today, we don't set foot on land but get a tour by Zodiak. We are on the search for the Emperor Penguin, the largest penguin in the world. We were warned that the chance of seeing one was not likely as they typically are further south this time of year. However, today was our lucky day. We were just about to head back to the ship when our guide spotted this little fellow. He is a juvenile Emperor penguin (4 or 5 months old), so he doesn't have his orange and red colouring yet around the head, neck and breast. Once fully grown, this fellow could weigh up to 100 pounds and be 4 feet tall. So long little fellow. Back o...

  To be an official iceberg in Antarctica, it must be at least 15 meters. This was the size of a football field, so it definitely made the grade. It was also higher than most North American domed football fields. In the afternoon of the 11th, we made it to Elephant Island. We ran outside for this pic but then returned to our room to get better suited for the weather. This was more comfortable. From left to right, Mathew, Tate, Naan, Alycia, Victor, Kelly, Scott, Sheryl, Lori, John, Cheryl and John (our group has two Johns and two Kelleys so this may get confusing, we also have one Sheryl and one Cheryl but lucky for us the spelling is different). Cheryl and John were not in our original group photo in Argentina, but they wound up being our next-door neighbours and new best friends. John and Cheryl So now it is time for the history lesson. Elephant Island is known in the history books as the spot where the crew of explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance survived 127 days after t...

  Say no more. Sheryl and I made it ok but a number of passengers, including some in our group, did not. Let's move on to the next day.

 We were up bright and early today to catch a short 3-hour and 40-minute flight to Ushuaia, Argentina. No, that was not our plane, and yes, that is our cruise ship behind us (on the left). Using the Google Translate App, you will see that "Fin del mundo" translates to "End of the world". Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, with 83,000 residents living just below the 54th parallel south latitude. So after a bit of tourist shopping, we could officially say, "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt" (and yes, we bought a T-shirt). With a T-shirt in hand, we headed to our ship, The Seaboune Venture. This ship will be our home for the next 12 days. Once on board, we were advised by the captain that the next day may be a little rough, but hey, how bad could it get...

  More tango to come, but first, we jumped on our bus and did a tour around Buenos Aires. Our first stop was on what used to be the widest street in the world (Brazil recently created a wider one). Avenida 9 de Julio has 16 lanes plus landscaped medians and is 110 meters wide. It was built to resemble the Champs Elysees, but instead of having an Arc de Triomphe, they built the Obelisco de Buenos Aires. Here we are at the corner of Avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio. From there we headed to what was the first Opera House in Buenos Aires. Today, in addition to being a heritage building, it is also a bookstore. Built in 1919 and converted to a bookstore in 2000. Our next stop was La Recoleta Cemetery. This world-famous cemetery is 14 acres in size and has 4,691 vaults. 94 of these vaults have been declared national monuments, including the vault where Eva Peron rests. The various vaults come in different styles and sizes holding 2 to 20 coffins   Some vaults have glass doors or ga...

 As I previously mentioned, this portion of our vacation was organized by the Vancouver Club. 17 members plus 1 VC staff member met today for our first even. The Group (left to right & front to back) Brian & Michelle Kelly & Andrew Kelly & Victor Migle & Naan Brad & Alycia Tate and Matthew Sheryl & Scott John and Lori John & Cheryl (not pictured here) Tonights special event was dinner at FOGON where we were treated to a nine course meal, done Argintinian style with lots of wine. Getting the coals ready We sat table side, up close and personal with the chefs. One of our dishes I did say lots of wine. We all had a great meal and then back to the hotel for a great sleep.