Our Travel Stories

Visiting this glacier was the main reason we included El Calafate and Los Glaciers National Park in our itinerary. So, my anticipation was high. This was the place I hoped to see glacial calving and potentially capture it for posterity. I will admit that though the glacier is impressive, by now, we have seen many. We have also seen some partial calvings in Antarctica and the one on our way to Los Tres. But for none of them I had any photographic capture.

It is a long drive to Perito Moreno, but quite scenic. We also saw ostriches on the way, but they were very far away, even for my telephoto lens.

At Perito Merino glacier, there are many walkways that they call balconies to view the glacier. We explored a few of them for different views. We again saw some partial calvings but unfortunately couldn’t capture anything in photo or video.

After walking the balconies, we took a boat ride that took us close to the east face of the glacier.

The boat ride started with a bang with multiple calvings. mission accomplished and I was thrilled.

There were also some pretty icebergs here and beautiful scenery. After the calvings, we just relaxed and soaked in the beauty.

Mayuresh

We had this hike scheduled immediately the next day after our demanding hike to Laguna de Los Tres. With our tired bodies, we started the hike at 8.30am. Most of the group warmed up for the hike soon but it took an hour for me to catch up the speed with the group.

On the way, we came across a rock that was split in two.

We reached the first view point of the glaciers- mirador del torre point in an hour. The clouds were still gathering and the glacier view was obscured.

Took a snack break and then headed further into hike. Now most of the terrain was small upd and downs (Patagonian flats). We hiked for another hour and took another break.

With just another 4kms of hike left, I mentioned to our guide that we wanted to ensure that we will make back to catch our ride to El Calafate at 5pm. Lucas was surprised that we had that on the schedule and recommended that we don’t continue our hike any further. So Shraddha and I started our return hike. We were little bummed though! We would hike almost 8 miles and 2000 ft elevation gain without getting to the ultimate goal of seeing the Torres lagoon.

Return trip was relatively easy and we saw canyon and beautiful fall colors in the valley.

Reached our hotel at 2.30pm, took shower and relaxed until 5pm for our pickup.

We reached El Calafate at 8pm and after check in, went for early bedtime. Next day plan was visit to Perito Moreno Glacier.

We started our visit to Patagonia with a bang. The Laguna Los tres is a 14 mile hike with elevation gain of close to 3500 feet – this is one of the difficult hikes in Patagonia, if not the most difficult. After minimal to no exercise on the 34 day cruise, this felt daunting. But, we pushed through and did it.

This was a group hike with our guide Lucas and one more couple from England.

We started at Rio Eléctrico. Mountain peaks were covered with clouds and we kept our fingers crossed that we will see Mt Fitz Roy today.

It was pretty hike with good views throughout. The hike started with uphill climb of about 1000ft and then settled into undulating trail with constant ups and downs.

Clouds still covered the tall mountains, but we started seeing clear sky’s in patches and the sun broke through.

Eventually we got to a spot where we could see the hanging glacier. It was so pretty that we stopped there for a while. As we watched the glacier, there was a loud thunder and a portion broke off and created an avalanche. I tried taking a video but as happens always, Murphy’s law struck and my phone froze. Oh well, I am glad I saw it though.

We crossed a small bridge here that allows only two people at a time

The climb started soon after and it was brutal. The footing was bad, climb was steep (1200 ft in 1.3 km), and we were out of shape.

The views are amazing and the glacier lagoon makes for a pretty picture.

I hiked down to the lake and the smoky plume was gone too

After our lunch we headed back.

Coming down was harder for me. The footing was terrible and I saw few people fall. With my terrible balance, I was sure I would do the same. I climbed down so slowly that Lucas, our guide, asked me why I can’t walk down normally like going for a stroll!! Ha Ha!

A hard hike, but we did it. At the trailhead we decided we were done and took a taxi back to the hotel instead of walking the 15 minutes it would have taken us.

That was it for us and we took shower and went for a well deserved meal.

We had survived. Could we walk another 12 miles the next day?

So finally after the epic expedition voyage until the Antarctic Peninsula, we started last leg of voyage into dreaded Drake Passage towards Ushuaia. Two days at sea and arrival in Ushuaia on third day’s morning.

Drake has history of rough weather and winds leading to almost 40-45ft tall waves. But weather gods continued to be good to us and we really entered into Drake Lake with waves barely 8ft tall.

We had wonderful sunrises and sunsets. The final presentation from expedition lead summarized our epic (over-used but true adjective here) voyage. Other passengers also chimed in to their favorite memories for each expedition outing.

The awards were presented for best team for logging the most miles walked, and our team did not win. Also in the photo competition, Shraddha’s photo was selected for final award but failed to win the award.

Last day before disembarking, we shared contact details with many friends. Such a memorable experience and we are going to miss the friends and camaraderie.

We got off the ship at 8am, and dropped our luggage into storage for late afternoon flight. In the meantime, we visited shoreline, some wildlife and local vegan food.

There was lot of birdlife at the marine preserve.

I got my hair cut snd felt lighter by 2kgs 😊

In the evening we took flight to El Calafate and then a ride to El Chalten.

The focus shifted from Antarctica to Argentina Patagonia now.

This was our last day in Antartica, and our expedition team wanted one last landing. So we arrived at Cuverville island known for hosting the largest gentoo colony in the Peninsula. We were all given a choice of long landing, short landing with zodiac cruise or just a zodiac cruise. We settled on doing both.

Though the island is known for gentoo colony, there are always seals around.

But the stars of this outing were gentoos. There were many..

They were funny, curious and very active. They feel like little children. One could sit watching them forever.

Sometimes you couldn’t tell what was so fascinating..

Then there were those miserably waiting to complete molting

After spending time on land we got in a zodiac for scenic cruising. The rugged snow/glacier capped mountains and volcanic rocks made for spectacular scenery.

There were also many icebergs dotting the waters.

We also came across another leopard seal hunting a penguin and this time I did shoot some video.

More fascinating are the gentoos porpoising over water. They are very fast and it is not the best video, but here it is.

And here is a gentoo mid-porpoise.

The seals were super cute too.

As we headed back to the ship, we ran into another humpback whale.

While we had our lunch, the ship cruised to Fournier Bay. This bay is known for its calm waters, abundant wildlife and beautiful scenery. So, this is a popular spot with most cruises that come to Antarctic peninsula.

We chose a zen zodiac for our last outing. We wanted to soak in the beauty and store these precious memories for always.

Our guide chose out of the way locations to cruise through for some solitude.

We also came across a seal on ice.

As we cruised along we came across a peaceful setting with serene scenery and couple of humpbacks sleeping

Things changed dramatically when a whale gave a call to few other whales for feeding. The humpbacks work together to create a cauldron that pushes all the krill together and then they come up to feed. The first you see are bubbles. Here is some part of feeding whales.

It is tough to get a stable video in a zodiac and we are definitely amateurs.

After watching whale feeding for a while we decided to go back to the area with sleeping whales and spend 10 minutes meditating.

It was very peaceful with music of ice crackling and whale blows in our background.

That was pretty much the end and we headed back to the ship. As we turned back a whale suddenly came up right behind me. I shot a quick photo but I couldn’t fit the whale with the telephoto lens on my camera.

That capped our experiences and we got back on ship happy and sad at the same time. We will miss this magical place and this amazing trip.

We chose to have dinner on the uppermost deck on this last day in Antartica. As the ship cruised away, the sun was setting and we had beautiful alpenglow on the snow-capped mountains.

However, fog was rising, and as the sun set, it all disappeared like an enchanted place full of mysteries. Here now for a moment, but you look again and it is all gone.

The day started foggy, but we set off in Zodiacs anyway. Plan was zodiac cruising and visit to Wordie House. Wordie House is the first base where women overwintered in Antartica for the first time.

What a perfect setting for the wildlife drama that unfolded. Foggy conditions with poor visibility, a stalking predator(s) (leopard seals) going hunting for the cute gentoo penguins, who in spite of being the fastest penguins still get caught by leopard seals. All other scavengers joining in the spectacle and to feast. You wish that the penguin would escape, but life doesn’t work that way.

We also had the leopard seal attempt to bite into zodiac and did puncture one of them. So glad that these are built with multiple chambers and are virtually indestructible.

Wordie house itself was the first base that actually looked comfortable with indoor toilet and lighting.

We also saw interesting moss as well as pink and green snow.

With all the drama all around us, it is easy to miss the other interesting things nature has to show you. There was lot of moss and colored snow around.

But the day was not over and we headed to Port Charcot to get closer to the gentoos as this place has one of the large gentoo colonies.

I really enjoyed this outing as we got so close to the penguins. The gentoos are not at all scared of us and watch us just as curiously as we watch them. They are also very funny with their antics.

Unfortunately with so many gentoos, there were also leopard seals around. Everyone seemed very fascinated by the whole penguin hunting drama. It literally goes on for 20-25 minutes as the seal almost seems to be playing with poor penguin by letting it go and catching it again.

I was glad when most folks in my zodiac decided they had enough and we went searching for better sights.

After these two outings, we had ship cruise through the Lemaire channel which is full of icebergs. It was getting foggy and it looked all very mysterious.

Shraddha

A very busy day indeed. After the spectacular day at Stonnington, I took a long time to sleep, while Mayuresh woke up super early and caught this beautiful view of some islands on our way to Blaiklock Island.

Here are a series of photos he took as dawn approached.

Blaiklock island was packed with ice and so the expedition team settled on zodiac cruising only.

It was also very gusty and so we put on extra layers as we headed out for our outing. We joined the citizen science zodiac to collect some phytoplankton and get water temperature.

Our zodiac had to push through ice and we saw interesting ice formations

We also came across some wildlife

When we got back onboard, we checked our phytoplankton sample and it was teeming with life and absolutely gorgeous.

The rest of the day was ship scenic cruising through Jones Channel and the Gullet.

The Gullet is a narrow strait filled with ice-filled water and surrounded by rugged and dramatic terrain. This is not always traversable by ships. But as the ice had moved out, we got a chance to go through this area. This area was also teeming with wildlife.

We came across many orcas all around the ship that it was hard to decide where to look. There was also a humpback whale close by, but with so many orcas here, it got pretty ignored by everyone on the ship.

And of course there was bird life.

We also saw this interesting phenomenon where the light turned completely blue (unreal color) on some ice.

The gullet is also we crossed paths for the first time with another cruise ship.

Shraddha:

There are no words and there are no pictures that will do justice to what we saw and experienced. This was a magical day in a surreal place with absolutely the best weather possible.

We started the day on the observation deck as we entered the Marguerite bay.

It was dotted with icebergs and framed by rugged mountains and calving glaciers.

We took zodiacs for a small tour around the bay and then landed on the island itself for free roam.

This island had two bases, one British and the other American and we visited them both.

But rest of the time we just enjoyed on land surrounded by beautiful views on all sides.

We also waited by the large glacier to see if we can catch a calving. Though we saw calvings, we couldn’t capture them.

This was followed by another little zodiac cruise as we returned to the ship. We all took a zen moment to just soak in the calm, peace and beauty.

Once on ship, polar plunge was announced. The water temperature was 2 degrees Celsius. Mayuresh did take plunge and claimed it was not bad at all. Water temperature was 2 degrees Celsius.

After the plunge we had barbecue dinner on the deck. We all wore silly hats and sat on the deck to enjoy both the food and scenery.

As the sun set, the alpenglow made the place even more magical.

And the moonrise was just the cherry on top.

The day had a profound effect on me, and I struggled to fall asleep. I did not want to say bye to this day …

After a long stretch of sea days, and nothing but the vast ocean for company, we finally sighted land. Not many people have visited this island and therefore it was a little bit of mystery on what we will find. We were all very excited and knew that it didn’t matter what was there, we were going to be thrilled with whatever we do find.

The birds were the first harbingers that the land was so close by. Then we started seeing icebergs, and then the island emerged shrouded in clouds and fog.

We all gathered on the observation deck admiring the glaciers on rugged land, numerous birds flying around, while the expedition team evaluated the conditions. The swell was high, winds gusty and overall didn’t look promising for even zodiac cruising.

Decision was made to find a spot in the lee of the island away from the winds coming from the northeast.

The expedition team found relatively calm spot and sent out a scouting team. Unfortunately there was no possible landing site as the cliffs came straight down to water. However, we will be able to do zodiac cruise.

We got into the very first zodiac piloted by our expedition team lead Howard and lo and behold, the weather gods had smiled on us, and we had sunny skies and a beautiful day.

What a beautiful place. The iron in the cliffs was so red, and the reds of iron oxide, the black of volcanic rocks, and the white of ice made for a dramatic scenery. The place was full of glaciers and icebergs that had calved from them.

To top that we soon found chinstrap penguins (new species of penguins for us) and antartic fur seals (again new for us).

The place was also teeming with birdlife.

We did get very close to some rocky shelves off the cliff and managed to touch our feet to them. It is supposed to count as a landing.

We also tried getting close to some humpback whales, but they eluded us and we only saw them from a distance.

Overall, it ended up as an amazing day. We were sad to wave goodbye to Peter I Island. As we were moving away, clouds started gathering again and before we knew it the island was again shrouded in clouds and fog and felt as mysterious as it did in the morning.

Mayuresh:

After our record of reaching the southern most point of voyage at Bay of Whales, we are now heading to Peter I island. This will be a long 7 day long cruising without any zodiac activity. The shorter route of 6 day cruising has been blocked by packed ice so our captain chose this safer although a longer route.

So not much to write as no active activities but I will take this as an opportunity to write about Ross Sea and icebergs that we have seen on these sea days.

Ross Sea: this is one of the famous body of water because it has a Ross Ice shelf at the south end and many explorers used Ross Sea Ice Shelf or Ross Island as a starting point for the South Pole expeditions.

Ross Sea has hazards of packed ice and icebergs that one has to navigate through in these waters. Also the sea is very deep about 4300 meters deep and if you drop a stone here, it may take 4 hours to reach the bottom. It also has consistent water temperatures of -1C from top to bottom. So deep water big/colossal squid are seen here.

Icebergs: we learned a lot about icebergs and have developed tremendous admiration for them. With only 10% of the icebergs above the water surface and seen by us means 90% is below the water and we fail to understand the actual size of them.