Argentina - Pre Antarctica

My Journey to the White Continent – Antarctica

By Teresa Parker

Thursday 6th June 2013 was the day when I heard of a fantastic trip, the chance to go to Antarctica. The trip would entail a 9 Day Cruise departing from Ushuaia, Argentina on board the Ocean Nova 20-29 November 2013.

This would also mean I would need to have all of my assignments completed, 3 weeks early.

The following 5 months flew by like crazy, working, classes, assignments, more assignments, overtime and I still managing to attend and photograph many festivals and events.

Gear list – these I found quite helpful from other peoples blogs so will add separate list on what I took.

Wednesday 13th November 2013.
After finishing a 12 hour night shift this morning instead of going home to bed, I am catching a flight to Santiago Chile. The start of a 3 week adventure to Antarctica.

Before I had even left the office there was a 2 hour delay leaving Sydney, meaning I would have been awake for close to 24 hours straight, this made me a little worried about falling asleep at the gate and missing my flight.

The flight departed without any further delays. I was able to sleep the majority of the flight, however as I was not able to select my seat on web check in with Qantas, I was stuck in an aisle seat and my neighbours had to constantly had to climb over me while I was in my sleep coma.

Over the next two days I would be breaking the journey in Santiago and Buenos Aries to avoid any flight delays or missed connections. Instincts proved to be correct and there was a delay departing Buenos Aries on the Friday due to an early morning storm, my flight was only delayed for 1 hour but all of the earlier flights were delayed at least 2 hours.

Friday 15th November 2013 – Ushuaia, Argentina
I had finally arrived at my destination Ushuaia, Argentina. The apartment I had booked great, a few blocks from the main street and close to a supermarket.

 

Ushuaia - the gateway to Antarctica, the capital city of the Argentine Province of Terra del Fuego. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world and the closes to the Antarctic Peninsula. The city is located on the shores of the Beagle Channel, surrounded by the Martial Mountain range, Ushuaia has a population of about 60,000 people. The climate in Ushuaia is sub-polar, during summer the weather can change from sunny to snowing in just a few minutes. I did experience this more than once during my time here. During summer there are 17 hours of daylight so the sun would not set until 21:46.

 

Today I have booked a day trip with Pira Tour Travel to see some penguins. The tour is 6 hours, which would take us to Haberton Farm 90 km from Ushuaia. Haberton Farm is the closes port to Martello Island where a limit of 80 people per day are able to walk amongst the Penguins.

 

 

 

The tour was great spent 1 hour walking amongst the Magellanic Penguins in their natural habitat. It was cold and raining but an exciting day.

The Magellanic Penguin is a small to medium sized penguin found off the coasts of South America. Magellanic penguins are highly sociable birds and live in flocks with numerous other Magellanic penguins. These penguins primarily hunt Cuttlefish and squid along with numerous species of fish and krill. Predators of the Magellanic penguin Leopard seals, fur seals along with sharks and killer whales. The Magellanic Penguin, although quite numerous in some parts, are considered to be a threatened species due to changes in their natural habitats. Oil spills are thought to be the biggest threat to the species and their native breeding sites.

Photographic Equipment Canon 7D, 50-500mm, plastic bag to keep the rain off.

Clothing warm and waterproof, hat and gloves essential.

Sunday 17^th & Monday 18^th November 2013 – Lake Escondido, Lake Fagnano and Tierra del Fuego National Park

For the next couple of days I have booked 2 day trips. The first a 4x4 drive to Lake Escondido approx. 1 hour from Ushuaia which offers stunning views

 

 

 

 

After viewing Lake Escondido we travel off road, where the 4x4 experience begins. This is my fellow day tripper from Brazil who wanted a unique view of the journey.

 

Lake Fagnano (Cami Lake) is shared by Argentina and Chile. The lake runs east-west for about 98 kilometres, of which 72.5 km belong to the Argentine Tierra del Fuego Province, and only 13.5 km belong to the Chilean Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region

 

 

 

The following day Monday 18^th November I travel through the world’s southernmost national park Tierra del Fuego. I travelled via train on the Southern Fuegian Railway. This old railway once held prisoners who worked on the railway and surrounding areas

 



 

Tuesday 19^th November 2013

Today I am changing accommodation and stayed at the hotel with our group. Once checked in we did some shopping and enjoyed Ushuaia. Here is some street art I saw today

 

 

Tonight I met the other 18 people from Australia, USA and Switzerland.