Gonzalez Videla & Port Lockroy
We started this morning at the Chilean Gonzalez Videla research station in beautiful Paradise Bay. It seems the icebergs get more immense and astonishing every day. Many today were so large that they were grounded on the bottom of the bay.
The research station was built in the 1930s and is manned December-March by nine Chilean navy and air force men. It includes a small museum where they sell a few(expensive) souvenirs, a housing building with up to date conveniences including internet, modern kitchen and a flat screen tv, and some outbuildings. It is a marked improvement from the 1990s preserved British hut we saw at Demoy Point two days ago.
Argentina, Chile and Great Britain all have claims on the Antarctic Peninsula going back several decades. Although the treaty governs the continent for now, they are all careful to maintain a presence here.
The penguins were everywhere. And so were their feathers and other bits. We saw lots of coexisting Snowy Sheathbills, (also known as snowy shitbills, as they eat penguin poop) but obviously there weren't enough of them to keep up with the penguins output. Our boots and rain pants were such a mess that they hosed us off on the tender loading platform before we could even approach the boot disinfecting equipment.
I'm not even beginning to be tired of watching penguins yet, but despite our best efforts to keep things clean, our stateroom has a acquired a faint essence of eau de guano.
Snowy Sheathbills, slacking at their jobs.
It can be quite balmy in Antarctica this time of year.
More fantastical scenic photos from our afternoon cruise in the tenders.
MS Midnatsol visible through the gap in the iceberg
Flat on its back, crab eater seal catching some rays.
Grinch
In the afternoon, we cruised to Port Lockroy, a British research station, where we picked up some visitors who gave a presentation on the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and their research station. They also, at the request of Greg and Charley, brought a special yellow box aboard. It was Greg's 5000th geocache! We'd better start brainstorming now to find someplace even more unique for his 10,000th.
Port Lockroy has the southernmost post office in the world, so we mailed some postcards from there. As winds were low and visibility good, making it safer to negotiate around ice, we spent the remaining daylight hours cruising through scenic channels. Weather determines everything here.
I am so enjoying reading your blog and following you on your journey! Love the Grinch photo :-).
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