Going Into the Unknown with KB
Easter Island was a very photogenic place with stunning sunsets and tall Moai. It made it easier to get such cool photos! I hope you enjoy these!
Literally, this flower was just asking to be photographed! There were flowers like this all around the island. I feel like the petals are perfectly going around, and the darker pink in the middle just creates a perfect picture.
Above are pictures of Patagonia, and Below are pictures of Easter Island.
Location: Dream Hotel, Punta Arenas, Chile, South America
Agenda: Packing and weighing to go to Antarctica and also briefing about the ship.
So, after two hotels in two days, we finally checked into the Hotel where we will go to Antarctica from. We had to have our bags weighed. In Quark, you get 5 kg for your carry-on and 15 kg for your checked baggage. This is because the plane that we take to Antarctica lands on a gravel airstrip that is only 1800 meters long. The plane has to be light enough to land on such a short runway. So everything is carefully weighed. After getting our bags weighed, we went to get our special bright yellow Quark Antarctic jackets. And, of course, our fully waterproof, really thick special Antarctic boots! These boots were the best thing ever! I waded through shallow water dry in them. The reason they give us these boots is that they need to keep everything microorganisms free in Antarctica. So they sanitize the boots many times as well as when you get on and off the ship.
After weighing and gear pick up, there is about an hour or two before the briefing and group dinner. In the briefing, we learned about our boat and the process it takes to get to Antarctica. We take a bus from the hotel to the airport, then a plane from the Punta Arenas airport to the Teniente R. Marsh airport on King George Island in Antarctica. Then we take a bus from the “airport” (really, it’s just a gravel runway with a plane parking lot and bus parking lot) to the shore. On the shore, the Zodiacs are waiting. The Zodiacs are our rafts, and they take us out on cruises, and on the first day, they take us out to the boat. (Everything said above is knowledge I learned in the briefing, I will post about the experience in another post 🙂
The welcome dinner is a buffet with all your shipmates and the ground crew. It is a nicer buffet, but it’s not like what’s on the ship. After the buffet, everyone goes up to their hotel rooms to try to get sleep before Antarctica. The next morning we had absolutely no idea what was going to happen…..
| Friday, 12/15/2023 Punta Arenas Dream Hotel | Saturday 12/16/2023 Punta Arenas to King George Island |
| Briefing about Antarctica, the ship, and what will happen tomorrow | Drive to the Airport and board the flight with Quark group 1 (half of the ship’s guests) |
| Pack and Re-pack to make things fit! | We are on Standby for our flight to King George Island, Antarctica, via Antarctica Airways |
| Receive Quark Coat, Special Boots, and Bag tags for non-Antarctic luggage | Arriving in Antarctica and working to get onto the ship: World Explorer |
| Welcome dinner with the rest of the ship guests in the hotel | Being welcomed on the ship warmly and finding our rooms! 🙂 |
| Drive to the Airport and board flight with Quark group 1 (half of the ship’s guests) |
Below are all photos of Antarctica and what I consider to be the best photos. A couple of photos are not mine. The beauty and natural beauty of Antarctica is really amazing! I hope you get a good taste of it through these photos!
Below are people’s photos from Antarctica; I hope they show how fun and truly amazing it was. 🙂
On the second to last day of the voyage, I was allowed to get a hoodie or t-shirt. I opted for a hoodie because, well, I just love hoodies. I also wanted to have a hoodie that had the crew’s signatures and the signatures of my friends. This gray one proved to be perfect! I asked Valare (one of the guides, she was the second guide I met on the trip) to do some sort of Antarctica artwork on the back because she is an AMAZING artist! She made it perfect! I then asked all the guides to sign it, as well as my friends and some random people who I did not know. At the captain’s farewell, I played a Ukrainian folk song (the captain was from Ukraine, as well as 12 crew), and then I got to meet the captain and the other bridge people. So, in the end, I got the bridge crew, all the guides, and most of the head of staff to sign it!!!!!!!!
Location: World Explorer, Danco Island
Agenda: Skip the morning cruise and sail to Danco Island, Zodiac Cruise, Onboard Auction
Yesterday was beautiful. Today… Today is stormy, windy, and cold. I can’t blame Antarctica. Weather in Antarctica can turn at any moment. Today, it turned out, and we had a very cold day. We were not able to go Zodiac cruising in the morning because it was too windy and the waves were too big, so instead, we cruised to Danco Island. On the way we had a little entertainment provided by no other than the Great Breaching Whale!!!
Yeah, I saw a whale breach, not once, not twice, but over 40 times!!!!! When a whale breeches, it expends 2-5% of its daily energy. This whale breached non-stop for over 40 minutes with over 40 breaches!!! Usually, on the ship, when a whale breaches, they announce it, but the whale is done by the time you get to the right side of the ship. This time, they announced it once, thinking it was a one-time thing. About 15 minutes into the breaching, they announced it again, telling people that they weren’t gonna miss it. They announced it twice more, each time sounding more and more excited! Annie, the marine biologist who specialized in whales, was stunned. All the guides on the ship, some of whom had over 30 years of polar trips, said they had never seen a whale do this. It was a natural phenomenon! It was pretty insane!
Since the whale stole 40 min out of our voyage to Danco Island, we had extra time. Time enough to do bridge tours! The bridge is the part of the ship that the captain steers from and controls everything. It was really cool to visit! It was very quiet and spacious, with wraparound windows and “wings” that go over the side of the ship to see the side of the ship. There were two main captain chairs in the main controlling area, which had sonar, radar, and other fancy equipment. There was a chart room and the captain’s quarters all in the bow of the ship! I ended up visiting the bridge twice because I did not have much else to do, and it was cool, so why not?
Be aware that when you are in a small boat in waves, the ocean can rise to meet you in full force. I am probably making it sound super dramatic, but what I am saying is I got wet. It wasn’t really a surprise because it was raining and it was very windy, which made bigger waves. The good thing is that I had some pretty awesome waterproof pants, so it was really only my face and coat that got wet. Lol
My biggest tip is BRING WATERPROFF PANTS! Some people did not, and they were sad and wet. The waterproof difference is really big. If you are sitting on the cold side of the Zodiac when you are soaked is not fun. Bring pants that have unzippable breather sides so you don’t overheat when it is sunny and warm.
Our afternoon Zodiac driver was Jensinna from Alaska. She took us to watch a penguin colony that had elephant seals on the beach! The penguins were the best part, though. They were waddling up this big hill and tobogganing down. It looked like a penguin ski resort! They had little penguin highways that they would all share, walking in a line, stopping at the top, and sliding down. The penguins who were going down probably did not just make it to the top, but that’s what it looked like! I guess this is when people think penguins are cute. 🙂 We also saw some Ice caves and Ice cliffs, which was pretty cool! We had to head in quickly because the waves and wind started picking up.
What better pastime in Antarctica than an auction? On the second to last night in Antarctica, the on-board penguin research team held an auction to raise money. It was a lot of fun! Adrian, the assistant expedition leader, was the auctioneer, talking very fast and raising the price of things almost as fast! Some of the stuff auctioned was swag from the penguin organization, but some of the things were pretty cool! There was a map of our voyage with art on it done by Valarie (The same person who did the art on the back of my Antarctica sweater). There was also a bottle of Antarctic Glacial Water which got lots of laughs. One of the guides also was making good jokes out of it. Ian, the historian, was showing the bottle around, and Adrian was joking that Ian is over 100 years old because he drinks glacial water, and that’s how he knows all the history of Antarctica so well!! It was pretty funny! Those were the coolest things, but there were many other things auctioned off. I was sad for it to be the second to last night, and I started to be worried about leaving. Nobody ever wants to say goodbye to Antarctica.
Here are the Photos from the day!
I interviewed a pheasant named Albert Meat. He and the most honorable profession of first-class pheasant flyer. Of course, being a bird he did not know that really he was, every day taken out to be turned into bacon-wrapped pheasant bites. He had an interesting view on pheasant hunting. His way of thinking of it is much more….. hopeful.
Me: “What does your job require you to do?”
Mr. Meat: “Well, each day I sit in a tower and people pick me up and toss me out into the wide world full of whizzing leaves. I fly through the air dodging the leaves and I fly to my roost where I have a feast and sleep till the next day. Although, every time, lots of my colleagues fall to the ground after being struck by the whizzing leaves, but every time, I make it back to the roost. “
Me: “So do you know why your colleagues fall to the ground when they, well when they are hit by, uh, whizzing leaves?”
Mr. Meat: “Yes, there are humans with the leaf shooters on the ground and they have dogs to find my fallen colleagues when they leave the flock. The dogs then transport them to the Lovely Land of Eternal Feasts.”
Me: “Ok, so, um, have you ever had friends fall to the dogs?”
Mr. Meat: “Yes, one day me and Phil were taken out together but he fell. He was so lucky. *nods head* The old, wise, Mr. Living who has survived years of flights, said that the humans are taking us to the tower to be turned into easy game for hunters, but clearly he is crazy. The Humans here are just too nice to kill us like that. They let us have fun flying and randomly select us to go to the Lovely Land of Eternal Feasts and I can hardly wait until I am selected.”
Me: “Well, there are easier ways to go to the, um, Lovely Land of Eternal Feasts.” Mr. Meat: “You must tell me, I have waited too long for my eternal feast!”
Me: “Tomorrow, fly towards the leaf shooters.”