02.28 "Celebration"(Kool And The Gang)

South America 

Argentina

Mendoza

Dinner at home with lovely friends and family. Wedding part III (South America)! Interestingly enough… we just have a few pictures! I couldn't even spend enough time with some of my friends; we had a lovely night of chatting, relaxing, eating and drinking.

My mom (with the help of my dad's coworker… ) arranged the catering and she prepared herself a delicious cake ("sweettooth" Basia loved it!)

Here we are, about to "massacre" the cake

With my friend Sean, who taught Basia a new word: "Dedocracia": the power ("-cracia" in Greek) to indicate with the finger ("dedo" in Spanish)

...and I wonder… where are all the other pictures??? Well, we were having such a good time… ;)

02.26-27 "Lust For Life" (Iggy Pop)

South America 

Argentina

Mendoza

Vertigo. Running to see as many fiends as possible while updating so many things online while trying to eat all my missed Argie delicatessen while Time flies while… Vertigo. Life is good!

The highlight of these 2 days was the last night with some of my core old fiends… alcohol and laughter till almost passing out for lack of oxygen is a wonderful combination!

New terms: 

1) to describe my size of clothes: "Flaco XL" (very funny, Basia):) 

2) an expression coined by Andrés that doesn't make sense unless you were there: "shell down!!!" (still laughing)

02.25 "Sr. Cobranza"(Bersuit Vergarabat)

South America 

Argentina

Buenos Aires->Mendoza

AEP->MDZ

Leaving AEP. The airport was a mess… I don't remember seeing such long lines to check in, and there was no strike or series of cancelations!

But we finally board and, after a boring trip (only filled by the excitement of going home) we arrived to Mendoza! Mami picked us up, and at home were waking my dad, brother and his best friend Gustavo. Lunch prepared per la  mamma!

02.24 "Rosario En El Muro"(Don Cornelio Y La Zona)

South America 

Argentina

Ushuaia->Buenos Aires

USH->AEP

Leaving Ushuaia… BUT not before enjoying great Chilean cuisine! :)

Back to Buenos Aires and celebration of the birthday of Nico, my favorite Rosarino (I refused to put a song of Fito Paez for political reasons):)

02.23 "America"(Killing Joke)/"Backwater"(Meat Puppets)

South America

Argentina

Ushuaia

Back to Ushuaia! That means, go to La Estancia and eat (as Basia described it) "meat mountains" and  with other fellow. I am a Meat Puppet, and "some things will never change"

But some things DO change, for better: plastic bags have been banned to be used at shops in Ushuaia, mostly to protect birds. Hope initiatives like this one spread through the World. 

Then we walked thru the city and got some awesome pics:

(Local library)

(Banksy-inspired)

(and the amazing landscape+manscape)

02.22 "Twilight"(Electric Light Orchestra)

Antarctica->South America

Drake Passage

Drake's Passage is calmer today and the day is full of interesting lectures and gatherings (kayak group and other people who've met) and also finishing books found at the awesome library they have here. At night was the big celebration night, and dancing was abundant!

02.21 "Lilac Wine"(Jeff Buckley)

Antarctica->South America

Drake Passage

Return thru Drake Passage. As today's song says: "I feel… unsteady" even having great weather conditions and a ballast system to compensate part of the movement, the boat rocks and so my otoliths… as long as it is 90% fun and 10% dizziness all is good… when dizziness surpasses that threshold (like last night) fun will be replaced by concern, then action (take antiemetic drug, stop alcohol, eat, get Ginger Ale or Coca-Cola), then try to sleep… and luckily I haven't reached to the next steps that will inevitably lead to using the bags you can see below

And since we are into "counter-movement measures" below is the solution for peeing

(I know what women will say: "well, why not just sit down?" Answer: "by standing up we assert we are men, and if we have to grab both handles and anyway end up splashing half the bathroom… that's God's will!") (the handles will be a great hygienic solution for dive bars)

02.20 "Disappointment"(The Church)

Antarctica

Deception Island (still active volcano; we sailed into the caldera). Couldn't see entrance cos I was too tired to go up; couldn't land or kayak do to strong winds (gusts surpassed 50 knots ~ 100 km/h); saw opening in the crater at exit. 

Half Moon Bay: Chinstrap penguins (and a few Gentoo) and seals and very cold wind with icy needles!

Back on the boat, that night someone (can't rememver who) coined a new term to describe my dancing style: "Oscarango" (don't know if it was a compliment… but I loved it!):)

02.19 "Perfect Day"(Lou Reed)

Antarctica

This was quite an active day…

As I woke up I heard on the PA that there were Orcas on starboard. I looked and saw nothing, so I went to the bathroom and 10 minutes later decided to look again… and I saw no Orcas, but 6 seals swimming! It was lovely to see them moving synchronously above and under water, quite fast… then saw 1 orca fin… then 2 fins in the middle of the seals… a couple of munutes later I saw a couple of seals, that changed direction like 90 degrees and no more orca fins… and then the seals disappeared and I saw what seemed 2 humpback whale dorsal fins…  then saw blow of 4 whales… then nothing else over the quiet waters. I was breathless, and of course u have no pix to prove the experience; I'm not so worried since I don't think I'll ever forget it! 

Later we went kayaking into a bay surrounded by glaciers; I heard 2 big avalanches and witnessed half of one of them (Basia was faster than I to spot the avalanches… maybe she hears frequencies I've lost due to my "musical abuses"?):)

As we returned, I rushed for the next activity planned: after coordinating with co-cobspirators (Basia was completely unaware), it was time for "Wedding part II" !!! It was done at Paradise Bay (Base Almirante Brown, Argentina). Below is a picture after the fact with the "priest" (this is Dave's, the excellent photographer of the expedition)

Later that same day I went kayaking again and ended up in Port Lockroy, a British base that has a museum, gift shop and post office!

Since this was not enough for a day, later I did a Polar Plunge into the Antarctic Ocean… twice!! (It was so weird the sensation of pinpricks over all the surface of the skin that I had to do it again):)

To close the glorious day, that night I listened to our kayak-master-resident-rockstar Scotty Mack (from the Canadian band "More Please") and continued drinking and then dancing till sleepy time arrived 3:30 in the morning… quite an active day, indeed!

02.18 "The Purest Blue"(Love & Rockets)

Antarctica

To whoever thinks Antarctica would offer just shades of white… look closely… In wounds that run deep into the sides of icebergs I found the purest blue I've seen so far, the purest purple only matched by a dusk in Iceland, and an incredible emerald green just below the water, the frozen counterpart of the lush Caribbean shallow beaches. 

Inactive glaciers also can have sediments of green, brown or purple due to algae growth during summer. This unexpected rainbow blew my mind! 

Early in the morning we traversed the incredible Lemaire Canal, flanked by huge mountains as I've never seen before (and I won't again until I visit Fjords) 

Later we did awesome kayaking around Petermann Island were we saw half a dozen seals swimming by us and even more seals lazily resting over chunks of ice, in shallow waters far away from Orcas ):)

02.17 "Theme From Antarctica"(Vangelis)/"Pay For Me"(Whale)

Antarctica

Antarctica… no better introduction than Vangelis's composition:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwuniIgYXM&feature=kp

We paid, and it was worth… but not for the whales (just saw them in the distance). We approached the Antarctic Peninsula (Wilhelmina Bay) where we did our first kayaking

Couldn't see any  humpback whales close to the kayak, but we heard a few icebergs bring born from mother glaciers to start their life gracefully sailing the ocean. Later,  after kayaking around, we landed on Cuverville Island where lives the largest Gentoo penguin colony (4800 reproductive couples)

02.16 "Sunday Morning"(The Bolshoi)

Over Drake Passage (between South America and Antarctica)

"I remember when I was young, feeling sick on Sunday morning… I don't wanna do it anymore"… now I start with Yoga (though dancing remains my main religious activity… NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I ended up going only twice to Yoga cos it interfered with kayak and my late night dancing):)

Really Getting ready for kayaking! Expectations and the first drill generated a thrill that sent a chill thru my limbs ):)

Fact learned: (for men) How to pee standing in a moving boat offers a solution to peeing while drunk

02.15 "Land Ho"(Roger Hodgson)

South America->Drake Passage

Chile

Cape Horn

As a plus for this trip, we landed @ Cape Horn! Weather is harsh around here (ca. 30,000 sailors have died in the area) and it is more likely to keep sailing than to land. It is quite beautiful and it has a lovely sculpture pictured below

And a couple of nice poems dedicated to the dead sailors (http://www.caphorniers.cl/poem.htm) and friendship (couldn't find it ;)

This is an image of the lighthouse as we departed

Now we're getting ready for kayaking! Few theoretical instructions and gear checking!

And the last decision of the day: use earplugs to buffer the head-drilling creaking noises in the cabin (sounds like a constant earthquake, with movement an all!). That was the only way I could sleep soundly ;)

02.14 "Aldebaran"(Enya)

South America

Argentina

Ushuaia to Beagle Canal

Valentine's Day! Also our beloved Kasia's b'day! Perfect day to start our trip to Antarctica! 

But before departing we went to the Museo del Presidio: the old prison where some infamous guys (like "el petiso orejudo") spend part of their lives. The part of it we'll show you is the Art Pavillion (which was pretty good!) mixed with images of the hallway between cells

Departure was swift and on time: we adapted to our quarters, started making acquaintances that mostly ended up in friendships, and at night, as we sailed thru the Beagle Canal, I did my first attempt to use SkyMap, an app that identifies stars and planets on the celestial sphere (NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: couldn't repeat it in the rest of the Antarctica-South America stretch of the trip…) The stars were beautiful; sadly there was a full moon that didn't allow to see more stars. 

And there was one strange observation: I saw a strong brightness/shinning I can't explain all over the southern horizon, over Navarino island… a reflection of the moon? An epileptic aura? I can only say I was as sober as a Buddhist monk, and as confused as a teenager on his first social dance…

02.13 "From The End Of The World"(Electric Light Orchestra)/"Winona's Big Brown Beaver"(Primus)

South America

Argentina

Ushuaia

After apparently  being attacked by ravenous bedbugs while we slept at the hostel, we decided to do a walking excursion to Ushuaia National Park. The landscape has breathtaking vistas as the one depicted  below. 

(keep in mind that any image you see is not only just a cropped frame of what you see with your own eyes, and even a smaller fraction of what you experience with all your inner/outer senses)

The cherry on top of the cake was that there was supposed to be "The Lighthouse/Sign At The End of The World. " I don't know if it was a collective delusion, but we were convinced such a building/sign existed. So, we walked South-South-West in a crazy quest, to find not one but two unexpected things: the obvious one is that the spectacular lighthouse/sign does not exist; its non-existence was as stricking as the existence of a small "non-tresspassing" sign where the part of the Park open to the public ends, and a small "lightWC" (since it was definitely not a lighthouse… couldn't even qualify as a "lightroom"). 

But the most unexpected thing we found was not that disappointment, but an exciting "invader. "

We heard stories of the ecological devastation produced by an invasive species: beavers, whose original habitat is in North America. I heard a silly story of how it happened (until I confirm it, it is too silly to even be repeated). We also heard it was difficult to see them (one local told me he saw saw 2 in 18 years). As we walked back From The End Of The World, we returned to a place where Basia spotted trees definitely cut by a very large rodent, and there we saw an artificial dam (really artificial? Is a termite mound artificial? I wonder…) and as we were taking pics and a video, there came Mr Beaver, swimming around and looking at us as frightened as if we were a rock! (I got a video of the encounter that  will be shared when we come back.) I wondered many things, as why was this invader still allowed to invade (if it creates an "ecological disaster," why not get rid of them?), why was it hard to be spotted by other human fellows (are we so apart from Nature, so trapped into our own psycho-technological labyrinth that we've lost the ability to observe changing patterns around us?) and, finally, does an "ecological disaster"really exist? (My answer is "no": it is just a construct of our minds since most humans refuse to accept change as the normal state of flow of our reality, and dislike even more sudden changes since they shake the illusion that "stability or imperceptible change is the normal state of flow of Reality". At least one thing is for sure: there was no disaster for Mr Beaver…

After so much physical and psychological efforts, a Spa was needed… and we had it at the Hotel Albatross. What Basia didn't expect I really needed was what came next: dinner at La Estancia, where I ravenously devoured Patagonic Lamb… as she described it, I ate "meat mountains" (which of course is a a slight exaggeration…).