Home » Antarctica » Two Tickets to Paradise January 9, 2004

For cruising the aptly named Paradise Bay, staff naturalist Kara was our by zodiac driver. She told us all about the wildlife we saw and pointed out the Blue-Eyed Shags nesting on the cliff face near the station. All they had were narrow ledges, but it was plenty of room for them and their chicks and even a few scavenging Sheathbills.

Two Tickets to Paradise January 9, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-24 23:57:52

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For cruising the aptly named Paradise Bay, staff naturalist Kara was our by zodiac driver. She told us all about the wildlife we saw and pointed out the Blue-Eyed Shags nesting on the cliff face near the station. All they had were narrow ledges, but it was plenty of room for them and their chicks and even a few scavenging Sheathbills.

We gingerly headed through the pancake ice to the tongue of the glacier. It was incredibly grand, traversed with precarious cracks and tunneled with two caves at the base. The snow looked soft and gentle at the top, and slowly it became denser towards the bottom. Striations and rich aquamarine blue indicated ice of great age. Many sections looked poised to calve off at any moment. One small piece did so while we watched. Kara told us that the great amount of ice in the bay showed that this glacier had been melting and calving off quite a lot recently.

Sealed With a Kiss

We toured around the vast, glassy bay and came upon a Weddell seal snoozing on the snow. Then we got word of a Leopard seal on an ice floe. We missed the first one, but Kara zipped off to another berg where a huge Leopard seal reclined indolently. He was massive, something like eight feet long and very fat. Leopard seals are less skittish, Kara said. They don't mind zodiacs full of tourists too much, and this one was no exception.

On yet another ice floe, a bashful Weddell seal lolled. This type of seal has a smaller head with no neck and is much smaller overall. This particular one looked at our zodiac and began to slide down the ice towards the sea. He paused to allow us some photos but slipped into the waves before another boat could come.

A Major Milestone

After the cruise, we headed to land. This is the site of an Argentine research station, Almirante Brown. Argentina's economic woes forced them to close this base a few years ago. Many such stations have met the same fate recently.

This is also officially the Antarctic mainland, and we finally set foot on Antarctica. Our sixth and most difficult continent!

Slide by Slide

Behind the closed buildings stood a 300-foot (or so) hill, into which the earlier group had carved a slide in the snow. The hike up was steep and precarious, but that made the ride down a blast! Just like a waterslide, you sat down and slid all the way to the bottom on your bottom. It was so much fun!