26/2/98

Que pasa muchachos

OK… there are a few new readers to our list so all you have to know is that Easter Island and Antarctica were totally unbelievable!!!

After Antarctica we flew to Calafate in southern Argentina to see the Moreno Glacier. It’s the only advancing glacier in the world which means it grows down from the mountains and frequently huge chunks of ice break off it crashing into the nearby lake with amazing exploding sounds.

The surrounding country side is also amazing…basically dry brown desert with huge plateaus but with snow capped mountain peaks in the distance.

Calafate also has an amazingly turquoise lake in the middle of the arid desert… a definite land of contrasts. The weather has been so hot that it’s hard to believe such a huge glacier exists here.

We learned that the Moreno Glacier is only one of about nine glaciers that extend down like tentacles from a central cap high in the Andes which is absolutely huge…. about 12000 square km in size.

After that, we crossed in to Chile and did the very famous Torres del Paine walk.

The Torres are a huge mountain range with peculiar granite rock formations that stick up from the ground like pillars.

There is a huge walking trail around the range which winds through beautiful Andean forests and snowcapped mountains eventually finishing at another huge glacier called the Grey Glacier. Continue reading →

7/2/98

OK dudes and dudettes… today we are back sitting in a shop in Ushuaia and this morning we returned from ANTARCTICA and blow me down was it fantastic or what!!!

It was cool because Avril’s mum joined us as well as Helen and Dee, 2 nurses that Ced used to work with at Ipswich Hospital.

Here’s a quick run down…

First, we spent 2 days crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica. The seas were the roughest that the captain had seen and the boat being an icebreaker has a rounded hull and no keel so it can pop out of the ice should it ever get frozen in… Needless to say we spent the entire 2 days in bed as the boat literally rolled all over the place… and I can honestly say that I have NEVER been that sick in my entire life!!!

However, it was all worthwhile as we soon we arrived at Deception Island and Aitcho Island on the outskirts of the Antarctic Peninsula and we went to a couple of massive penguin colonies, one of which had over 1/2 million penguins as far as the eye could see… man… they are so cute but boy do they stink and I would have died to have a bowling ball with me… We spent literally hours watching them… it was really cool and we totally felt like David Attenborough!!!!!!!!! Continue reading →