Ocean

2 weeks of water water water

The Drake

Illustrating the reason why the Drake Passage wasn´t a happy place for sailors.  Thank god for motion sickness meds. (Picture courtesy of Ian and Maria Wong)

Close quarters

Budget travel to Antarctica... not for those needing their personal space.  Or a lot of room in general.

You can see forever, but you can´t set foot outside of the basketball-ball court sized ship.  Its probably bigger than that, but it doesnt feel that way.  And when you get off the boat... you cant just wander off towards the horizon.  Between the glaciers, penguins and water - youre penned in again.

And the real fun is when you hit the Drake Passage between South America and Antarcica.  With no land anywhere, the wind and waves dont really mellow out and it can get pretty ugly.  We hit a 10 on the Beaufort Scale - gale force winds and 30 foot waves.  It actually wasnt too scary - just debilitating.  Everyone was too sea sick to sleep or eat... so you just lay in your bed and hope for the best as you struggle not to fall out.

But... worth it.

Space for 2.

And thats your world during the Drake...

The view.

Ghost towns in Antarctica

Whalers played the same role as the oil industry today - what they provided was essential for most folks, but society frowned on the ruthlessness of the trade.

Deserted whaling stations line some of the Antarctic islands - it is eerie seeing them.  Its so quiet and desolate now... hard to imagine the hellish activity of rendering blubber and chopping up mammoth whale carcasses.

Lucky for the whales, kerosene replace blubber and synthetics replaced balene and other whale products.  Even a century after whaling largely stopped, population are still recovering from near extinction.  A bit of a ghastly testament to how modern man can mobilize to nearly deplete a natural resource in a few generations.

Ok, back after a little internet cafe hiatus in Buenos Aires and Mendoza.  What a different world from Chile!  Argentina is to Chile what Southern Italy is to Switzerland.  Who knew stores in BA opened at 3PM on weekends!

Now I´m back in Chile, with a motorcycle in sight.  Tomorrow should be the lucky day.

And in the meantime... another random stuffed animal sighting in Santiago.  This blog might have to be dedicated to Chile´s obsession with stuffed animals and shocking fast food (more on that soon...)