Friday 19th to Monday 21st November 2010
We say "our" Emperor Penguin because we have an adopted one - Coreena's work colleagues arranged this through WWF (World Wildlife Fund) as a 40th birthday present for her.
Very soon we will be on the "Ocean Nova" sailing the Antarctic waters via Islas Malvinas or Falkland Islands (depending on if your Argentinean or English), South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. We'll see many species of animals including penguins but the Emperor Penguin is only found in Antarctica so we'll need to wait until then to find ours. We have a picture so we hope to make a correct identification.
We have arrived at “Del Fin del Mundo” (The End of the World) to much colder weather than we have experienced during our trip so far. Having come from Buenos Aires we only had one jacket each to meet with the strong, cold wind that greeted us as we exited the airport (brrrrrr!)
Ushuaia, Argentina, is the southernmost city in the world and is the closest gateway to reach Antarctica - it's only 1000kms across the Drake Passage (known as the roughest water crossing, so we are armed with many & varied sea-sickness tablets). Ushuaia is on the coast of the Beagle Channel with an inland surround of mountains.
Weatherwise, this place changes by the minute - from sunlight to overcast, sleet to rain, warm to cold and even freezing. Currently the daytime temperature seems to be between 9 & 15 degrees Celsius; the night is around 0 or 2 degrees. Wherever we go inside is a balmy warm temperature – sometimes a sauna!
The winter clothing has well & truly made its appearance out of our suitcases - at least making our luggage a little lighter. We discovered that we each will need an extra pair of gloves (waterproof) and thick socks. The city has a population of 70,000 people and a continuous flow of tourists, so fortunately Ushuaia is packed full of shops, including outdoor gear for those cold wintery days.
The first 2 nights here we stayed at La Casa de Tere (Tere’s house) B&B. It’s not too far from the city centre (the Lonely Planet travel guide says it’s a steep walk but it’s not so bad) so we’ve been able to walk everywhere, except when we had to change accommodation to Los Ñires Hotel in preparation for embarkation of the “Ocean Nova”. This hotel is 4-5kms from town but at least they provide complimentary shuttle bus transfers to/from the city centre.
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| Los Nires Hotel |
We’ve eaten at a variety of eateries from basic cafes with toasted sandwiches to an “Asado” restaurant where it was “all you can eat” that mainly consisted of “Fuegian” lamb (roast lamb off the indoor Asado – like a campfire but with the lamb spreadeagled around the edge of the fire on racks). There are so many chocolate shops here but we haven’t been game to enter one yet – that’s where we’ll buy our expedition supplies before we board the ship. We should mention the delicious pastries we’ve found in the bakeries!!
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| Asado in "La Estancia" Restaurant - where we could have "all you can eat" for AR (Argentinean Peso) $85 |
The museums are small but interesting and we managed to spend a couple of hours between 2 separate ones… “Museo del Fin del Mundo” (Museum of the end of the world) and Ushuaia Government house (historic)… taking in the history of native inhabitants (all now extinct), European settlement, display of the extensive birdlife of the region, shipwreck history and so much more.
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| Taking in the interesting facts in "Museo del Fin del Mundo" |
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| One of the many displays in the historic Government House of Ushuaia |
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| How Government House looked years ago, surrounded by snow |
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| City of Ushuaia including the historic Government House |
So off we go, 18 days & 18 nights aboard the Ocean Nova in search of "our" Emperor Penguin. We have been dreaming of this trip for such a long time and now it's here we simply cannot wait to get on board and get sailing.
Our next blog will be around 3 weeks away … but stay tuned for all the goss and of course some of our photographs.
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| Ocean Nova - picture from internet |
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| Ocean Nova in Antarctic waters - picture from internet |
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