Another couple of Antarctic photos to share...

Chinstrap Penguins visiting Yankee Harbour from Deception Island.  We were unable to land on Deception Island (as planned due to rough sea conditions that made it too unsafe for zodiac operations) - fortunately Yankee Harbour was a goer!
This image was one of Coreena's entries into the Ocean Nova photo competetion for wildlife - although a finalist, no win on this occasion (although runner up to Roy).

Snow Petrel - we were told that sightings of these Antarctic sea bird may be rare... for us on the Ocean Nova we were privileged to see many during our journey.  Very difficult to photograph as they glide by so quickly... thanks to the speedy shutter on the camera for this one.

The weather at Brown Bluff on the Antarctic continent was a little icy to say the least.  In just a short time the kayaks (used by others in the group) became iced over.

Sit still long enough and even the penguins become a little snowed on - again at Brown Bluff on the Antarctic continent.  (Adelie Penguins)

Penguin jump - this is the photo with which Roy won the Ocean Nova photographic competition for wildlife! 
This was included in our previous photos but we didn't include a caption to brag about Roy's win of an international photographic competition - the "international" bit comes from the fact that there were entries from people of 4 different continents, judges from 4 different continents and the competition was judged in a 5th continent - Antarctica.

A short geography lesson...

As we travel around the southern part of Argentina & Chile (Patagonia) we thought we'd share a small bit of information about the geography here...

Patagonia is the name of the region and encompasses an area that is shared between Chile & Argentina.  We're yet to travel the Chilean side but within Argentinean Patagonia there are a number of provinces that are part of the region and these are 

• Tierra del Fuego (translates to Land of Fire and is an island only joined to the mainland of both Argentina & Chile by ferry).  Tierra del Fuego is the southernmost province and where Ushuaia is located; along with its sister city Rio Grande, on the east coast of Tierra del Fuego.
  San Sebastian is north of Rio Grande and this is where the border between Argentina & Chile is.
• Santa Cruz - The next province (north of Tierra del Fuego) - the city of Rio Gallegos (pronounced Rio Gaj-ee-gos") is on the east coast of this province.  El Calafate & El Chalten are also part of this province - and this is where we are at the moment (stay tuned for posts to come).
• Chubut -  next door (north) to Santa Cruz - we'll be pretty much flying over this province en route from El Calafate to Bariloche.
• Rio Negro will also be a province that we travel through - this is where Bariloche (our destination for early-mid January) is located. Bariloche is also the area of the Lakes District of Patagonia.
• Nequen - north of Rio Negro (we're not travelling through here)
• La Pampa - East of Nequen (again, we're not travelling this far north in Patagonia)

Patagonia is also the southern part of the Andes Mountains.