We returned to the US from Antarctica on Tuesday, January 29. We made the drive back to South Carolina and pretty much just collapsed. So very thankful for our sweet Debra who fed us the next few days while we recouped, washed clothes and reorganized everything in Fred. After about 3 nights of sleep we felt like we were back among the living. We still aren’t caught up on everything but we rarely are. The great news is that Randy is feeling better and once we had rested, we were able to help him and Debra with cutting down some additional trees.
Lots of chainsaw work the few days we were in SC
We took down several more trees that were too close to the buildings.
February 6 the four of us visited Congaree National Park. It’s the only National Park in South Carolina and none of us had ever visited. It’s located close to Columbia and is basically a day use park with no RV parking or camping. Congaree has the largest intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern US. There are some really huge trees in the park. There are several nice hiking trails. We chose the boardwalk trail and enjoyed our time in the park. Interesting how we travel such distances and sometimes miss gems so close to home. Congaree is a little known gem. We would recommend a visit.
The boardwalk through the park
Much of the area is covered by cypress trees
Congaree NP is home to several champion trees
Pileated Woodpecker in the park
Over the next few days, we spent most of our time preparing Fred and ourselves for our next NOMADS project. We departed SC on Valentine’s Day in route to LeBlanc, Louisianna. We stopped in Atmore, AL to do some shopping at Warehouse Market and Bakery. It’s one of our favorite Amish stores and we stocked up on some goodies. (Recommend a stop if you are driving by Exit 54 on I-65 in Alabama.) We will enjoy them while we are working at Uskichitto Retreat Center helping them make some repairs to their facilities and prepare for camping season.
In addition to delicious baked goods, Warehouse Market and Bakery has many varieties of products that you don’t usually find at grocery stores.
Some of our goodies from the Amish store. The Conecuh rolls are sections of Conecuh sausage wrapped in a light dough and baked. We buy them by the dozen and freeze them.
Back in Louisiana for another project
Driving across Louisiana again
Where we will be volunteering the next couple of weeks.
After we caught our Uber to the Airport in Ushuaia on January 27, we discovered our flight had been delayed due to mechanical issues with a plane earlier in the day that backed things up. We flew from Ushuaia to Buenos Aries and arrived there about 11:30pm. We had a private tour scheduled for 9am on January 28. We used a tour company, Welcome Pickups, to show us around the city. They provided our transportation from the airport to the hotel, our tour guide for the day and our transportation to the international airport after the tour. We were very pleased with Welcome Pickups! We could never have seen so much of BA on our own. Our guide was so knowledgeable about his city and via e-mail we had discussed the types of things we wanted to see and he made suggestions taking into consideration our limited time.
One of the first places we stopped was the famous BA sign in the park. BA is known for all its parks and theaters (not movie theaters) with major productions.
One of our first stops on our tour
Just driving through the theater district was a treat to see all the beautiful buildings. One of the old theaters, the Grand Splendid Theater, which opened in 1919 was closed and in 2000 was renovated, being converted into a bookstore – The El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore. The bookstore now draws visitors from all over the world, eager to see the theater’s original elements preserved in its structure and restored ceiling frescoes. The place was amazing – so beautiful. So glad they preserved all the beauty of the theater yet transitioned its use to a bookstore with areas to lounge and read as well as a coffee shop.
Probably the most ornate bookstore in the world
The ceiling
When the theater was turned into a bookstore they kept much of the history such as this stage lighting control panel.
Our regular readers know we like to visit historical churches, so we also visited the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful building with lots of history. Pope Francis held mass here before moving to the Vatican in 2013.
The interior of the cathedral
This nativity is just one of many displays
Other popular spots we visited were the Caminito which is a colorful, historic street know for its painted houses, Woman’s Bridge and the Plaza de Mayo. Click on any of those link to learn more about the sites.
The Caminito
The colorful house in the Caminito district
Woman’s Bridge
Tango is the national dance of Argentina. We saw these dancers on the Woman’s Bridge and other dancers in streetside restaurants.
The Plaza de Mayo is the oldest public square in Buenos Aires. It has been the center of many historical events in the city. Our guide told us about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who march around the square every thursday since 1977 demanding information about “disappeared” children from the last military dictatorship.
You could tell it was summer here from the produce stands
Argentina is also known for its beef cattle and the people are big meat eaters. Our guide also made reservations for us to have a wonderful steak dinner at his favorite restaurant. Wonderful meal.
After a little more sightseeing we were taken to the airport. We are glad we decided to go there early because when we arrived the line for the Delta counter already stretched around the corner. But we made our flight and safely back to Alabama where we said our goodbyes to Donna and Barry and drove back to South Carolina, ending another wonderful trip of a lifetime.
The picture only shows part of the long line at the airport.
Apparently we made it home just in time for our luggage to explode.
By the time we had finished dinner on January 24th, the ship was on its way out of the sheltered waters back into the Drake Passage – sooner than we expected – so we had not started our motion sickness medicine early enough. Fortunately, the Passage was smoother this time – not Drake lake but definitely smoother.
We spent the next two days sailing northward to a warmer climate. In addition to more wonderful meals, the expedition staff provided us with more education sessions and activities. We have had a wonderful voyage. The Captain and all his guys on the bridge did an excellent job keeping us safe and positioning the ship so we could get all the photos we wanted. The housekeeping staff took exquisite care of us and our state rooms, always being so careful to tidy everything up while we were at meals. The chef and his crew were amazing and spoiled us with any little extras we might like. The expedition crew and zodiac drivers were great at spotting wildlife, birds and beautiful scenery so we could get the best pictures and always answered all our questions. It’s been a trip of a lifetime!! Huge thank you to Polar Latitudes. Can’t recommend them enough.
In one of our educational sessions the presenter displayed a life-sized replica of a snowy albatross.
One of the citizen science activities was observing and reporting clouds at the same time a weather satellite was overhead.
This is the science lab on board. The penguin counters and whale observers used it.
The staff wanted to make sure we were well prepared to leave the ship – on time, because the next group of passengers started loading about 8 hours after we left.
This coffee/hot chocolate that we used frequently would not fit in our luggage.
The ship had many pictures from cruises in other parts of the world. This was one of our favorites.
We arrived back in Ushuaia around 5pm on the 26th. After one more night on board we disembarked the ship the next morning around 8am. Since our flight to Buenos Aires was not until that evening Polar Latitudes arranged to store our luggage downtown, so we were free to walk around town one last time. We bought a few more souvenirs, had lunch in Ushuaia and then called our Uber for a trip to the airport. The trip is not quite over yet because we have one more day to explore Buenos Aires.
Smooth sailing back in the Beagle Channel
Entering Ushuaia Harbor
The GPS track of our voyage
Lobster thermidor for our last dinner on board
Dessert for our last dinner – key lime pie
We had to have our luggage tagged and ready first thing in the morning.
On January 24 we were again up early. We know we were very blessed that we didn’t sleep in sleeping bags on Antarctica last night because this morning there was ice on all the walkways and handrails of our ship and it was still very foggy. The Captain had everything cleared of ice quickly so we could safely be out on the decks. We were able to again see whales out for their morning breakfast. Such massive creatures. Love to listen to them blow.
By the end of the trip we made a habit of getting up early to look for whales.
Cuverville Island
Zodiac cruise to Cuverville Island
Today, in some ways, is a sad day. It is our last full day in Antarctica. Time has flown. We were again out for our morning landing, this time at Cuverville Island – our last landing. Cuverville Island is a dark, rocky island lying in Errera Channel. Two thirds of the island is covered in a permanent ice cap. This island has also been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports a breeding colony of about 6,500 pairs of gentoo penguins – the largest colony for this species on the Antarctic Peninsula. We were very blessed to be able to visit here because it was just reopened to visitors the day before. It had been closed due to concern about Avian Influenza but was cleared and reopened. Other birds nesting at Cuverville include southern giant petrels, Antarctic Shags and Arctic Terns – all birds that we certainly were unfamiliar with prior to this trip and all very beautiful. There were massive whale bones on shore from previous whaling expeditions, and of course, many, many penguins.
Zodiac landing on Cuverville Island
Our last shore landing in Antarctica
Gentoo penguin nest. Notice the pebbles we mentioned yesterday.
Part of the gentoo colony
The penguins on Cuverville Island do not fear humans and will walk right up to them.
This will give you an idea of the size of a whale vertebrae.
It was a foggy trip back to the ship from the island.
The Arctic Tern migrates back and forth from the Antarctic to the Arctic twice a year – up to 25,000 miles a year.
This one walked right by us and into the water.
Aren’t they cute?
Fournier Bay
Too soon it was time for lunch on the ship. After repositioning to Fournier Bay, we had another afternoon zodiac cruise. The sun came out although there was still some fog around too. We were told that this was normal here. Fournier Bay measures about 8 x 3 nautical miles (15 x 6 km) and is known for having a large population of whales which are attracted to the extensive colonies of krill. There is no place to land due to the rugged shoreline but there was so much beauty as we navigated around the beautiful icebergs. We saw several seals of various types, birds, black ice, blue ice as well as amazing icebergs. The icebergs vary from some that are almost lace-like to all sorts of formations, to some that are just massive.
Our last zodiac ride
Why it’s called a leopard seal
Is it yawning or laughing at us?
Seal floating on small block of ice
Fur seal
The whale we saw in Fournier Bay
Our zodiac driver was fascinated with black ice. She said this block of ice was probably over a thousand years old.
One of many interesting icebergs
Delicate iceberg
Endless shapes of floating ice
One of the magnificent views in the bay. This ice shelf looked like ski slopes – except for the bottom.
A panorama of the beauty of Fournier Bay
The leopard seal from a moving zodiac
Back on the Ship
It almost brought tears to return to the ship this afternoon – our last outing. We had another wonderful dinner then the crew – including our cooks, servers, guys in the engine room, everyone – put on an amazing talent show, with singing, magic, dancing, you name it. It was great. No more tears. Then we walked outside and saw the most gorgeous sunset imaginable. Thank you, God, for letting visit this place!!
This map is on the wall of the lounge and passengers were invited to sign it.
RVing With a Purpose 