Friends

I met a lot of friends down in Antarctica. Besides the penguins and seals (oh, I haven’t posted about seals yet!). Here are a few of my friends…

Daniel is a teacher from Hawaii.

Oh, here’s Dan again, with Donnie - another teacher. He was from Kentucky. The teachers were by far the most fun to hang out with.

Here’s Daniel taking a photo of a Viking. A viking??? Yes, a viking. They apparently managed to cross the equator and travel all the way from the far north to the far south - the human version of the Arctic Terns!

Guess what vikings bring! Hot Choco!! My other best friends.

This is Jared, he had the strongest southern accent on the ship.

I met Jen, from Vancouver BC, and Naomi, from Perth Australia, on the first day. They were good buddies until the last day.

And Sally. Who could every forget Sally. There were many more (there were 160 or so passengers on the boat, too many to take photos of!). These are just a few…

Adelie penguins are my favorite.

We saw gentoos, chinstraps, and adelies on this cruise - no emperors, sadly. But by far the Adelies were my favorite. They have energy, scurrying around all the time, just generally being comical. I could have watched them for hours.

I wanted to join a penguin colony for the day, but Erin wouldn’t let me, she said the ship wouldn’t come by for me. But I tried to escape once (photo evidence below!) at a gentoo colony. They were a little dirty, though.

And they stole each others rocks a lot. That’s what changed my mind about jumping ship and living with them.

Icebergs!

Are so beautiful…

Erin in the "Circle of Truth"

Erin is an “expert” on board… that means that she has to give a few presentations to the entire ship and has to chat with people and answer questions all the time. Erin gave her first presentation after being seasick for a day and a half. She needed my help, so I was up there with her. The presentations are in this big circular room from a circular “podium” called the “Circle of Truth.” Go Erin!

A lot of the staff on board are experts and teachers in their own right… this is Rab who is a penguin expert. I’m learning a lot on this expedition!!

First Penguins!!!!!

OMG!!! These are gentoo penguins, super cute… now there are some birds to play with!!! (but again, Erin wouldn’t let me). Here, though, I was scared of the Skua gulls, they were trying to steal the penguin’s eggs. So sad.

We tried to take a photo off the zodiac, but the lighting came out weird, so Erin made it weirder!!

First... Ushuaia.

Before heading across the Drake passage, we got to see a bit of southern Argentina!

Guess how far we are from Alaska?

We are a little closer to Oregon… maybe someday Erin and Sophie will take me to Alaska!

Best part about today, though - was all the birds. Erin didn’t let me chase after them, though. She says that’s not too nice. I guess I can understand, they want to live a peaceful life too. I just wanted to play with them!

Awesome Landscapes too!!!

Antarctica???

OMG, Is Erin really taking me to Antarctica?? I woke up at 4am morning - at the airport! but stuck under the handle of this black case. As I rubbed my eyes, I overheard Erin and Jonathan talking about Antarctica! Really?? Sooooo exciting! Just with Sophie were with me… :(. Miss you, Sophie. Love you lots. See you in two weeks!