Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Day 6

Not only does the sun go down late at night, it gets up very early as well. I was up around 6 am and took a walk down to the little beach behind the hotel, the sky was relatively clear and there was no wind to speak of but it was still pretty chilly. Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast before catching the shuttle bus into town to have a look around. I booked a boat cruise of the Beagle Channel for the afternoon and then spent the morning wandering around town, it is amazing how many gift/souvenir shops you can fit into the one street. At one stage I was passing the bank, just before it opened and there was a queue formed outside, I almost joined it. :)
Then it was time for a pleasant lunch in a little cafe, although their idea of a cappuccino didn't quite match what I was expecting. I walked back down the docks to catch the boat cruise with about 50 other people and it turned out that I was the only one requiring an English translation of all the safety instructions. The poor guide looked a little bored after going through everything in Spanish, then Portuguese and finally English. The weather was perfect with blue sky and not much wind. We cruised quite close to bird colony on a little rock island and then a seal colony before landing on an island to have a walk around to look at the plants and trees. Back on the boat we headed deeper into the channel to look at a lighthouse and another seal colony before heading back to port as the wind picked up a bit.
Then it was back to the hotel by taxi where I somehow twisted my sore knee. It was quite sore at the time making me limp around the hotel. I transferred and backed up photos and then it was time for a briefing from the company that runs the ship, there were probably 50 or so people there (20 were from my photographic tour). Some people gave the poor lady a hard time over what seemed like very minor things (i.e. how the bags were going to be transferred and what time th e sun goes down) but she kept her cool and handlied it well, although I did hear hear her later on the phone to her office and she was sounding a little less cool. Then we had a quick meet and great with the other people in our smaller photography group before having some dinner at the hotel restaurant. The crumbed calamari entree could almost have been a main course and was very nice.
Putting on my elastic knee guard and taking some anti-inflammatories helped settle down my knee a bit. We talked a bit more photography stuff and heard the horror tale of the two photographers leading the group. They had landed in Buenos Aires and as they were getting ready to board their flight to Ushuaia, the LAN (Chilean Airline) pilots went on strike. They had to scramble, try and get their luggage back, rebook another flight, organise different accommodation, etc. - very stressful. Thankfully all my travel so far has been relatively trouble free (says he touching wood) with the longest dela y being about 30 mins. I'm hoping this continues until I get home. :) Then it was off to bed for the last time on dry land for 2 weeks.

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Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Day 5

Very early start, as Leonardo was taking me to the airport, in fact it
was so early I ended up being the first in the queue for checkin. I
think I may now be as close as I'll ever be, to being a native South
American :). I was able to check in for both my flights today (Iguazu
to Buenos Aires and then onto Ushuaia) and they would organise my
luggage to be transferred. A window seat again and I had a quick
glimpse of the falls as we took off - a very spectacular sight. I was
back in Buenos Aires just before lunch time but at a different airport
to last time. I didn't leave the lounge area as I didn't need to pick
up my luggage meaning I didn't need to go through Security again.
Sat around the airport lounge reading a book, writing a few things for
this travel blog and generally being lazy. I had quite a good burger
at the Hard Rock Cafe but I'm afraid Argentinian coffee is not good.
Boarded the plane to Ushuaia and took off about 4 pm, the three and a
half hour trip to Ushuaia was good but I am getting sick of the
biscuits in the snack box they give you and I've sworn off their
coffee with powdered milk. When we got close to Ushuaia the scenery
became very picturesque with snow covered mountains behind the town.
Even before leaving the plane I could tell it was chilly outside as
the workmen had big thick coats, beanies, scarves and gloves. I also
got to see my luggage being offloaded from the plane before I
disembarked which pleased me greatly as I was worried it might go
missing in the flight changeover.
For a change my bag was almost the first one out on the carousel, so I
picked it up and wandered out to the Arrivals area to find people who
were giving me and a few others a lift to our hotel. We got dropped
off at the hotel and in the process I booked a trip out to the
National Park to fill in Saturday morning before we board the ship.
Then it was a quick shower and unpack before having dinner at the
hotel cafe. The BBQ'ed lamb and beef was excellent and the sautéed
shrimp and mussels for entree was also great. The sun only just went
behind the hills at around 10 pm and even now at 11 pm it is still
reasonably light outside. Time for sleep now as tomorrow I'll head
into Ushuaia and spend the day looking around.

Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Day 4

Another early morning as after breakfast Leonardo would take me to the
Brazilian side of the border to view the falls and see a bit of the
city (Foz de Iguazu ?). The border crossing went smoothly at both the
Argentinian and Brazilian stations. This part of Brazil certainly
seems a bit more prosperous than what I had seen in Argentina and once
again this city seems to be focussed on tourism. First stop was the
Bird Sanctuary where I was able to wander around for a couple of hours
looking at the amazing, colourful birds found in the jungles of South
America. I couldn't get good photos of many of them as they wer behind
wire mesh. There was also a butterfly house and many Bromileads in the
gardens.
Then it was across the road to the national park centre and time to
join my first queue for the day to get a day pass which would also
cover the bus fare to the walk alongside the falls.
Then another queue to get on a bus and a 20 min or so bus ride to the
walking tracks. There are not as many tracks on the Brazilian side and
they also had some where you got quite wet just from the spray thrown
up by the falls. the walk was a couple of kms long and involved a bit
of up and down stairs so my knee was starting to ache a bit. Once
again the views were amazing and the sheer volume of water going over
the falls is staggering. At the tourist centre at the end of the walk
I noticed they also had Coati wandering around trying to get food from
the tourists but no monkeys. A short queue and I was back on a bus to
the visitor centre where I had some lunch and a drink.
Leonardo picked me up and then we had a tour of the city, including
stopping off at a point where the Iguazu river met another river which
was much bigger. At this intersection you could see three countries,
Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Then it was back to the hotel via the
Brazilian and Argentinian border stations, where once again everything
went smoothly. As the knee was aching a bit I spent the rest of the
afternoon resting up and organising photos before having dinner at the
hotel restaurant before having an early night as I needed to be up
early in the morning to catch my first flight.

Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Day 3

I was up relatively early and dressed for the Breakfast Buffet which
was quite nice, then it was back downstairs to meet Leonardo who then
drove me out the National Park and organised the tickets for entrance
as well as for the Jungle and River tour. First off, the Jungle and
River tour started out with a drive down a muddy dirt road for 5 or 6
kms through the jungle sitting in the back of a truck with rows of
seats bolted in. The only wildlife we saw was lots of butterflies and
one snake sitting up in the trees branches hanging over the road. The
rain forest reminds me a bit of Cape York as it is a similar sort of
sub-tropical rain forest.
At the end of the road we took a longish set of stairs down to the
river where there were several high powered boats waiting to take us
on a trip up the river to the falls. First we were issued with a dry
bag to put our packs and personal effects in and fitted with a life
jacket. We were also warned that we were going to get very wet. The
trip up the river was quite pleasant with many smaller waterfalls
along the way, but we didn't really get wet at all. Then when we got
to the falls we stopped for photos of two different sections and while
this was happening we noticed the crew had put on some very serious
looking water proof protection and we realised that we were about to
get very wet. Most of the rest of the passengers seemed to be more
interested in taking selfies than looking at the scenery.
Then the boat nudged in closer and closer to the falls and we got
wetter and wetter, I was taking movies with my underwater camera at
this stage and it got so bad you couldn't see anything for the spray
and water. This happened a few times and was very invigorating with
the water being a very pleasant temperature. Then it was a hig speed
run back down the river to the landing area where we got out of the
boat and tried to dry off a bit. We piled back into the trucks and
they drove us back to the central staging area of the park. This was a
great experience and a lot of fun.
I was going to take the small train up to the Devil's Mouth but the
queue was very long so I decided to walk the upper falls section. This
was very spectacular with some great views out over the many falls.
Back at the central area I had some lunch and watched the Coati (?)
trying to scavenge food from the visitors when a small herd of monkeys
arrived and stole the odd sandwich or two from the unwary tourists.
The lower falls walk was next and I was starting to dry out but got
wet again from the spray from the falls but once again it was very
spectacular and worth getting a bit wet. I finally headed back to the
train station where the queue was a little bit shorter, so I stood in
line and tried to keep cool as the temperature was up around 35 deg C
and the humidity was close to 100 %.
The little train trip was quite pleasant and a coolish breeze helped
dry me out a bit. A one km walk out over metal bridges to the Hell's
Mouth was interesting and hot as there was not much shade and then
seeing the amount of water and power of it as it flows over the top of
the falls was incredible. Once again everyone seemed to be trying to
take selfies making it hard to get into position for a good view and
photograph.
Then it was another one km walk back to the train and another very
long queue. I finally made it back to the park entrance and while my
shirt had dried out nicely my jeans and shoes were still damp.
Leonardo picked me up and he took me back to the hotel where I had a
relaxing shower and hung up my clothes so they could dry out a bit.
After a visit to the hotel restaurant buffet for dinner and then an
ibuprofen desert, I downloaded and started organising my photos and
then had an early night to bed after all the walking of the day.

Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Day 2

Had dinner in the hotel restaurant and went to bed early and got a good 4 or 5 hours of sleep before my body thought I should be up doing things. I repacked my bags and got ready for an early transfer to the airport for the next stage of my trip. Sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for the bus and listening to a medley of David Bowie music that they are playing. So sad to hear he had passed away overnight.
Lucky that I arrived at the airport with a couple if hours to spare as it was chaos. I managed to pick the correct very long line and eventually got checked in. Even the locals seemed confused by the process. For the first time I had to remove my shoes for the security check and managed to get through alright. Relaxing now in the gate lounge after the mêlée.
The flight got delayed a bit and after loading and unloading a bus to take us to the plane we finally got going. I think things are a little more chaotic than usual as it is school holidays here as well. The trip was very smooth and unfortunately I didn't have a window seat this time so I couldn't see the falls as we came into land. After picking up my luggage I found my tour guide who then drove me into town and dropped me at my hotel.
They didn't quite have my room ready so I went for a walk into town to have a look. Boy was it hot and humid. The town seems to be set up for tourism, with lots of hotels and restaurants.
Like most of Argentina that I have seen so far, it also has a rundown feeling to it.  With old incomplete buildings and infrastructure that looks like they ran out of money and simply stopped building. Back at the hotel I had a nice cool shower and relaxed in the air con before doing a bit of washing and organising for tomorrows tour. Then a buffet dinner at hotel restaurant before an early night.

Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Part 2

NZ to Arg.
After a couple of hours layover in Auckland it was back on another plane. The Auckland International airport is pretty big but still seems to have  the same sort of stuff as the Brisbane one, booze and perfume but they replaced opals with honey.  I still had a window seat but down towards the back and luckily a spare seat beside me again. This flight seems much more crowded with a very high percentage of the passengers returning home to Argentina from holidays in Aus and NZ, in fact there are dual announcements in English and Spanish.
The sunset was spectacular and dinner, consisting of stir fry beef and rice with ice cream for desert was pretty good as is the merlot they served with the meal. The entertainment system in this plane is much better with the touch screen being much more responsive. I started off watching the Fantastic Four and while it wasn't as bad as the reports, it wasn't a particularly good movie. I'll have to find something else interesting to watch now before I try and go to sleep. Only 9 hours to go, maybe I'll have another glass of wine.
There's now just 2 hours to go and the lights in the cabin have come on and brekkie will be served soon. I dozed off a few times but didn't really get much sleep and my bum is feeling very numb at the moment. Brekkie was scrambled eggs and sausage and baked beans and hopefully the coffee will wake me up a bit.
We've come in at the bottom of Argentina and we are flying north over dry brown areas of Patagonia. From the air it looks similar to what I have seen in outback Australia around Lake Eyre. The countryside got greener the further north we flew and it ended up being overcast and drizzly when we landed in Buenos Aires. Passport control and customs went very well, my only worry was that my luggage was amongst the last to come out. :( I was getting a little worried.
After some hurried directions I found the shuttle bus stop for the hotel and after about 15 mins wait the bus turned up much to my and 3 other tourists relief. The drive to the hotel suggested that the lanes on the road were there as a suggestion rather than a rule. Even though it was overcast the grass verge beside the freeway was bring used for picnics and friendly soccer games. Checking in went smoothly and after a nice hot shower I almost feel human again. I think I'll have a little snooze before dinner and an early night in bed.

Antarctica trip Jan 2016 Part 1

AUS to NZ.
Had a problem checking in via the kiosk as Auckland was just a stopover not my final destination. The nice Air NZ lady had to enter some primitive command line hell and sort it out but I eventually got my boarding passes and they took my luggage away.
Then it was off to stand in line for awhile until they checked my passport and took the form that said I was leaving the country. Immediately on leaving immigration I entered a shopping mall with all sorts of duty free items available, no Stolen Spiced Rum however. I tracked down a quite nice coffee and sausage roll and relaxed for awhile before going for a walk to stretch my legs. I found a comfy out of the way spot and watched as they unloaded and then loaded my plane. Boarding was painless and I ended with a window seat just behind the wing and a spare seat beside me do that I can spread out a bit. We ended up leaving a bit behind schedule but with a tail wind we should make up the time. Leaving from Brissy we flew over Stradbroke Island and then past the Gold Coast which looked nice and sunny.
The inflight entertainment system is driven from a touch screen tablet in the head rest of the seat in front but the touchscreen is not real sensitive.  But they do have a USB port to charge up phones and tablets. After searching the in flight entertainment system for something to occupy me, I ended up with the best of Queen to drown out the roar of the plane.
I wasn't sure if I was getting food as not all economy tickets got anything to eat. I ended up with Caribbean chicken and rice but I don't think I could have dried it out anymore if I had taken  it into the lab and put it in a vacuum desiccator with a kilo of silica gel beads.
The trip was very easy with no real worries to speak of. Hopefully there is free WiFi at Auckland airport so I can post this to my blog.
Had to go through security again even though we just came off an international flight. Looks like I get 30 mind of free WiFi, hopefully enough to get this posted before heading off to a 12 hour flight.