Christmas in South Georgia!

Talk about a unique Christmas! We woke up early and took a zodiac ride to a place called St. Andrews Bay, where literally tens of thousands of penguins live and nest at the base of glacier and mountains. This is where the largest King penguin colony in the world lives- as you can see in the pictures there are just penguins and penguins and more penguins (estimated to be half a million penguins!!!). While Scott spent most of the time trying to get a picture of each and every penguin, I spent my time sitting on rocks and hoping that the penguin chicks (brown fur coats) would come up and sit with me. The thing about the chicks is that they are incredibly curious and if you get down to their level they are known to come right up to you. We had penguins come within an arms length away… it was unreal!












That afternoon we sailed to Grytviken, an old whaling station, which is also the home of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s grave. We were given the opportunity to toast “The Boss” and hike around the island for a few hours. Needless to say, Scott and I were the first to the top of the peak and extended the “leg stretch” to a nice 2 hour hike. We needed the exercise after all the food and wine they serve on this boat!







We spent Christmas evening docked in the bay here and enjoyed a wonderful turkey dinner and Christmas carols sung to us by the entire staff…. Hilarious!!! I think the best part though is that Scott may have “borrowed” a Christmas tree from the bar near our room so that we could have a Christmas tree in our room. Its doesn’t have the same smell as a real tree, but we love it ☺



The next morning we sailed into Gold Harbor and got into our zodiac at 4am in an attempt to see the sun rise and watch the animals wake up. When we got to the beach we were welcomed by an ADORABLE baby elephant seal and a beautiful snow shower. Apparently when baby seals are “teenagers” their moms leave them to go to sea to get food and in the meantime they scour the beach for anything that may be able to feed them. The seal tried to suck on both of our boots and hands… and then snorted on my glove. Hilarious and gross at the same time. Would I let it do it again? Hells ya.



Gold Beach is known for, you guessed it, seals and penguins! This time we were faced with mostly elephant seals or land slugs and Gentoo penguins. The elephant seals are FAT and mostly just make burping and farting noises. Sounds a lot like our apartment… just kidding!







As the snow came down, we spent some time with the Gentoo penguins at the end of our trip. They are much more calm and quiet than the King penguins. They have these beautiful red beaks and look much more cuddly. Def my favs so far!



We were back on the boat by 6am and as we cruised into the Scotia Sea we were greeted by 70mph winds and 18+ ft waves. They have general ratings on the boat to measure the sea conditions… going from 0 being flat seas and 12 being a hurricane, the conditions were given a 9 ½ yesterday. It felt like being on a rollercoaster. They sealed off the doors and windows for the first 4 floors and told us to hold on. Amazingly none of us got seasick --- lets see how that compares to Drake Passage!!!

The next 2 days will be spent sailing the Scotia Sea until we get to Antarctica on December 29th. We will spend 4 days there and then will head back toward Ushuaia….We cant wait to explore the land of ice! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas headed to Antarctica!

Everyone - we've been warned that internet is super spotty going forward so apologies if you dont hear from us again for a while....

What an adventure this trip has been! Never in a million years would I have thought we’d see so many penguins. We spent Christmas day on an island headed to Antarctica named South Georgia Island (check it out on Google Maps), where there literally are hundreds of thousands of real life living and breathing penguins. It is insane. Not to mention the thousands of different breeds of seals and other flying birds everywhere.

A quick aside – we have seen all sorts of whales while on the ship. Within the first few days we saw a few Minke whales, fin whales, a humpback, and a Southern Right whale (this is a super rare sighting – a guide who has been coming to Antarctica for 25 years has only seen two, ever!). The captain is really stoked about whales too, so he’ll follow them whenever we see ‘em…it’s pretty cool.


Humpback Whale


Southern Right Whale


Southern Right Whale next to the ship

Anyway, we made five stops on South Georgia Island over the last three days, and they were all full of wildlife. One of the best things about the trip so far is how close you can get to the animals here – you basically can walk right up to them and say “hello”! It’s like going to the Galapagos Islands, except there is snow everywhere.

On Christmas Eve day, we stopped at two places - Salisbury Plain and Southern Right Cove. So the way it generally works on this ship is that we do expeditions by getting on to 10-person zodiacs that motor to the beach, where we disembark to see all sorts of wildlife. Because of this crazy way of getting to the islands, we have these huge waterproof boots, pants, and jackets that we have to wear for every excursion (I’m sure you see the people in the red jackets in the pictures).


A view of the beach

So Salisbury Plain was our first real outing from the ship. We hopped onto the zodiacs and zipped over to the beach – there was a bit of a swell, so the landing was a little hairy. As soon as we got to the beach we were greeted with a combination of penguins playing in the surf, baby fur seals, and the VERY aggressive dominant male fur seals. A bit more needs to be mentioned about these adult male fur seals. They are a huge nuisance down here and will basically attack anyone (seal, penguin, or person) who steps anywhere near the “territory” that they have claimed. They are super fast and will scream and chase you down if you are close by, so you have to yell and act really big so they won’t attack!


The Three Amigos

Later that day we did a zodiac tour of a place called Southern Right Cove, a bit further south. This beach was littered with thousands of fur seals, especially the pups. There was a huge waterfall coming down from one of the glaciers here…the other crazy thing to see here was an adult fur seal that had just gone to battle – he was bloody all over.


Baby fur seals!!!


Some more cute fur seals...teenagers...


A King penguin gang


These fur seals are aggressive


and then you say "HELLO"

Sailing the Southern Ocean

The tour that we are going on is going to be amazing. It obviously starts in Ushuaia, then goes to the Falkland Islands, the South Georgian Islands, and finally Antarctica. It is mainly about the wildlife, with a lot of educational lectures, etc. about all the places that we’ll be going and amazing sites that we will be seeing.

So you may be asking…why the heck would anyone want to go to Antarctica? Well…first of all…penguins. Second of all, Lisa and I want to check off our 7th and final continent! Of course, the views of glaciers and ice are supposed to be simply amazing as well.

Fast forward…


We have spent 3 days on Le Boreal (our boat until Jan 4th). It was pretty amazing that within the first hour of leaving the dock we encountered 2 penguins, a Mr. and Mrs. Penguin. They were the largest penguins ever spotted!!!


We spent the first day on the boat relaxing- massages, working out, naps and delicious meals. One of the funnier things though is that it’s pretty entertaining to run on the treadmill while on a swaying ship. Scott has been given a challenge to run for 2 hours on the treadmill as we pass through Drakes Passage (known for its large swells, sometimes up to 30 or 40 ft.)... Start taking bets on if he can do it without falling off. :)

Yesterday we docked on the Falkland Islands and spent our day hanging out on the beach with the penguins. Needless to say, we love them. The Falkland Islands are a pretty cool place, they completely remind me of New Zealand…both the people, the farming (mostly sheep), and the terrain.

Evidently there are really no major roads on the islands, and the ratio of people to 4x4s is more than one per person! We had a local guy, Peter, pick us up in his Land Rover to take us from the main gravel road down to the shore, where the penguins hang out. Talk about an off-road adventure just to get down there! You basically just go off into the countryside, which is a rocky, muddy, river-crossing adventure. It was awesome!


So we finally get down to the beach and all of a sudden this huge hailstorm hit. It was crazy. One minute it was sunny and the next minute there was hail the size of golf balls coming down for 20 minutes. There was a passing hailstorm and loud thunder, which scared them all so much that it caused a mass exodus into the ocean. They are the most awkward runners, tripping and falling all over each other.


BTW, THE PENGUINS ARE AWESOME. There were three major colonies of penguins – mostly Gentoo penguins, with some Magellenic penguins, but my favorite were the King penguins. It was so cool, there were hundreds of Gentoo penguins with little babies that were only 4 weeks old.




We will try to post more pictures if we have a stronger connection throughout the rest of the trip... in the meantime though, the boat is posting some as well. You can follow our Antarctic adventure on their website: www.abercrombiekent.com/travel_logs

We'll be spending another day on the boat and then we are heading to South Georgia Islands for 3 days (including Christmas). I think it’s a safe bet we will be having a white Christmas this year :)


Lots of Love,

Lisa and Scott aka Mr. and Mrs. Penguin

The tip of Tierra Del Fuego

Alright, by popular request, we’re gonna try and get better at this whole keeping you updated thing!

So we made it down to Ushuaia…and it is beautiful down here! The snow-covered Andes Mountains descend directly into the water of the “Beagle channel”, and the city of Ushuaia is nestled right up in between. For it being the middle of summer down here, you would think it would be warm. Right. It’s exactly the same temperature as a nice San Fran summer! I guess that’s what you’d expect from the end of the continent though…

Everyone knows that Argentina is famous for beef, right? Well, it turns out that lamb is the meat of choice in the south, super popular. We feasted on a traditional lamb lunch our first day. I’ve got to say, I’ve never had such an amazing plate of lamb. The way they prepare it down here is spectacular – fairly simple too. After barbecuing it they serve it at your table on a mini bbq with hot coals to keep it warm, so the meat stays warm and continues to cook. This is definitely an idea to bring home!

After spending a little bit of time in town and in the spirit of our never-ending adventure, we jumped on a ship destined for…Antarctica!

Scott

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Well, it's official, we made it to the land of steak, malbec, and espanol!



After the 6am arrival and finally getting over the jetlag we made it to a local steak joint - "Parrila Don Julio" - to start dinner at 10:30pm. Yup, that's what they do here. We showed up at this highly recommended corner restaurant to find a wait...at 10:30pm...luckily, they kick it off by offering a glass of champagne while you wait! Fast forward to malbec, some local appetizers, and finally....the delicious Argentinian steak. YUM. After munching down on the "ojo de bife" (ribeye) and huge plate of short ribs, we were done. At 1am. Yessir. A few local bars later and we joined the local crowd going home at 3:30am. Haven't done that in awhile. Talk about a lot of sleeping in the next day!



Anyway, the city of Buenos Aires is wonderful - tons of culture, lots to do, and overall, for a huge city, it is mellow. Could be a great place to spend a lot of time...hmmm...



In the meantime Lisa and I are connecting with a few friends and friends of friends who are showing us the city, giving us recommendations, and generally seem like good people to know. BUT, we have decided to start our journey outside of a major cosmopolitan city, and have a flight down to Ushuaia (the most Southern city in the world!) first thing tomorrow morning - let's go check out Tierra Del Fuego and Patagonia and see what kind of off-the-beaten path adventures are to be had...

'Til next time,
Scott

And we're off....

Can you believe we are actually sitting at the airport about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime? We moved out of the apartment, put all our stuff in storage (thanks T& C for watching the car!), and will be living out of backpacks for the next, well, who knows how many months. I have to say that I truly have no clue what is in store for us on this adventure, but I do know that we will have memories and experiences that we will cherish forever. So on that note, follow us on the blog or even better COME VISIT US! As Scott would say, game on people!!!

XOXO

- Lisa

We'll miss you all, it's been a crazy run the last few months, but it's been amazing that you, our best friends and family have spent so much time hanging out and putting up with us!

and...GAME ON!!

-Scott