Santiago to the Falkland Islands (Port Stanley)

December 29, 2012

Flying over the volcanos of
Southern Chile

Today the real adventure began!  We met our bus at 5:30am to go to the airport.  All of the people on our boat were on that flight as it only goes once a week.  The bus drivers had a fit trying to get all the luggage on, but finally managed. Antarctic travelers tend to have fairly large luggage pieces.  (Side note: the traffic pattern is bizarre; to get to the hotel, you pass it a ways, turn right, pass it a ways, turn right, pass it a ways, turn right, pass it a ways, turn right, and drive into the parking lot; all with signage telling you how.) We flew from Santiago with a brief stop in Punta Arenas, and then on to Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands.  Steady rain and colder temperatures greeted us.

Andes seen from the air

Gwandwana Tillites - When a glacier pushes along
rock and gravel,  it is called till.  When sediments pile on
top, it gets compressed and becomes rock called tillite.
This one formed before the big continent split into
separate continents.

Once through customs, we were given stickers to put on our baggage with room number information, and a bag lunch.  We then either boarded a geology bus or a shopping bus.  The shopping bus went straight to Port Stanley and the geology bus made two stops along the way – one was to look at a kind of rock called a tillite that had been part of the original Gondwanaland before it split apart into separate continents.  Gondwanaland was the name of the "supercontinent" that most of our current continents were once part of.  The second stop was to look at “stone runs”, which is a feature we also have in PA – large rocks that have worked their way up to the surface.  Basically the argument is that as the ground freezes and thaws, things freeze and thaw at different rates, causing some movement of the rocks.  It is easy for little rocks to slip between bigger rocks as they freeze and shift – not so easy for the big rocks to move under the little ones.  So eventually the big rocks work towards the surface and the little ones end up underneath – counter-intuitive if you don’t think it through.

Rock run - large rocks worked their way up.

We got to Port Stanley with just a little time to look around and buy a couple of penguin things for souvenirs.  Didn’t buy much, but it was fun.  Port Stanley is the biggest town in the Falklands, and it is about two streets wide.  There was a little visitor's center/post office, where you could buy Falkland Island souveniers and post cards, and you can mail the postcards there.  There were a couple of closed stores and then there was a store that sold nothing but penguin things.  That, of course, was my favorite.  But we only had a few minutes as the bus to take us to the ship was due, and with all of us either in the visitor's center or the penguin store it was crowded, so we didn't stay long.

Then we got back on the bus (turned out to be the same bus and driver) and we were driven to the dock where our boat was waiting!

Akademik Ioffe - our home until Jan. 17, 2013

Living Room

As we boarded, we were given nametags and shown to our room.  Rick and I have a bedroom that is big enough for one double bed and a small nightstand and no more.  There are two drawers under the bed where Rick has his clothes, and a small closet where my clothes are.  

We also have a living room with a couch, table, counter space (with an i-pad and three pairs of binoculars provided) and a refrigerator and coffee maker.

Wing of the bridge - we go out here
when there are exciting things to see.

Searching for wildlife from the bridge

My one complaint with the ship is that the only windows are portholes, rather high up, so if you want to watch what is going on, your choices are to be up on the bridge (they have an open bridge and are almost always welcoming, unless they are casting off or doing some tricky navigation), or outside on deck.  Most of the time, there is a naturalist up there, helping us see birds 
and whales. 

Almost as soon as we were settled it was time for an appetizer and dinner.  The dining room is large enough to seat all of us in a single sitting, and dinner is when we get announcements and a schedule for the next day.

Being on a boat full of like-minded people really interested in geology is a wonderful experience!  Every one is very friendly and easy to talk to.

After dinner we had our mandatory lifeboat drill, and then headed to bed.  As we unpacked, we had a very sad discovery – our newest camera is no longer with us.  We had it on the Andes trip, and are not sure when it disappeared afterwards.  We think, but could never prove, that it was stolen on the flight from Santiago to the Falklands when part of our luggage was taken away because it was a small plane and they didn’t want it all for carry-on.  But we still have two decent cameras with us, so all is not lost.  But it did make me very sad.

Chilean Andes

December 28, 2012

 

Today was our Andean Condor adventure.  We boarded a bus at about 8 in the morning and headed out of Santiago into the Chilean Andes.  Most of our day was spent on “40 Bend Road”, so called because of the 40 switchbacks along the way.  I think there were more, but I guess it depended on what you call a switchback.  We climbed from close to sea level to about 9,000 feet, stopping along the way to look for birds.  We had some great views of Condors in flight, and also found striated caracara (a type of raptor), a variable hawk, and some other birds.  We were also treated to seeing a southern red fox running across the road.  We looked at lots flowers and pretty views.  I was surprised at the cacti growing along the mountain.  Our guide, who was wonderful, was hopeful of finding some blooming, and maybe we’d get to see the giant humming bird, but we failed on both of those.  Our guide was from southern Chile, where, among other things, he leads a trip to look for pumas, and so far has 100% success rate.  That would be a fun trip to do.

It was a glorious day, though the road was twisty enough I had to take a Dramamine to get through it. Janet would not have liked the drive, as there were lots of places with steep drops and no guardrail.  And several places with crosses and shrines where people didn't make it.  The road is the only road up to several major ski resorts, so in the winter it gets VERY busy and, at the same time snowy.  Not a good combination.

Rick started in on his job, and did commentary on the geomorphology of the sites. 

Another Condor!

Southern Red Wolf

Condor!

Variable Hawk

But on this trip, highs were in the mid-80's, so snow didn't seem to be a worry.  And skies were blue, though tomorrow in the Falklands it is supposed to rain.

When we came home we learned we had been at about the epicenter of a 4.2 magnitude earthquake!  Since we were on the bumpy road at the time, none of us noticed.

Home in time for some dinner (much earlier than Chileans usually eat – they were surprised to see us in the dining room at 5:30, although some other folks from our trip were there, so we weren’t the only ones.)  Rick’s cheeseburger was about as big as the plate, with cheese both above and below the meat. Then back to the room for some repacking and bed.