Friday, January 27, 2012 34* 6:00am

This has been a day of emotions, of good and bad lasts and of DRAMATIC vistas.

entering the caldera of Deception Island

When Robin, our illustrious leader woke us with his morning wake up call, I felt like I’d been hit with a sledge hammer.  Getting up so many mornings in a row and pushing ourselves to see and experience everything they had to offer us has been somewhat taxing.   Just like we’ve done the past mornings, I automatically rolled out of bed, threw on clothes and got myself up to deck 6 to see what newness Antarctica had to offer me today. 

At 6:30 our ship entered the caldera of Deception Island (sounds like a Survivor season) through the narrow 754 feet wide Neptune’s Bellows.  Our scenery here was so different from any other views we’ve had on this trip.  Deception Island erupted last in 1969.  After entering the center everything was black and white.  Black for all the volcanic pebbles and white from the snow.  Because of the protected bay, this area has been used as research centers by many countries.

On cruises, this island is famous for its Polar Plunge.  Passengers are told that here they can wear their bathing suit under their clothes and at the end of a long trek up the side of the volcano, can return, strip down to their bathing suits and run into the water, take a dip and run out and hop on the zodiac to return to the ship. In the past, expedition teams have been able to dig out and area, like a pool where hot spring waters come up and it makes it much easier for the CRAZY people to dip in the hot springs then towel off and return to the ship.  With the IAATO rules, digging the pool is not permitted anymore.  Even though I only road over on the zodiac, stayed about 30 minutes and returned to the ship, a few of our group took on the challenge.  One in our group, a 14 year old young man, was the first plunger.  His grandfather was there to take the evidential video of it.  Everyone who did the plunge commented that when the water hit their chests it felt like a sharp object in their hearts and the skin began to sting when they got out.  Someone actually had a heart attract in the past couple of weeks here.  You may be happy to hear that I was not one of the plungers!  

After everyone was back on board, the Silver Explorer left the bay to visit another spot on the outside of the island.  Only once a year, we were told, the water is calm enough to visit the largest chinstrp penguin colony in the world at Bailey Head.  With over 130,00 chinstrap pairs, we were able to walk around avoiding the Penguin Highway to watch the daily lives of this cute little birds.  The massive groupings of birds and seeing just how high they do nest on the hills and mountains was just amazing.  The higher the nest the better chance the eggs are to hatch and the chicks are to survive as wetness from snow can hinder the chick from survival.

Clean chested and chubby ready to feed its chick

The Penguin Highway was so fascinating to watch.  Huge numbers of penguins must daily make the trek from their nests, go down to the water’s edge and jump in to fill up with krill, then return to their nests and feed their chicks.  There were lines and lines of penguins, some with clean chests and some very dirty walking back and forth from the water.  Those clean chested ones were returning home filled with krill after getting cleaned in the waters while eating.  The dirty chested ones were on their way to the water ready to do their job to keep their chicks alive.  Seeing those long lines of chicks going in and chicks going out was just amazing.

As I got my life preserver on for the last time and got into the zodiac for the last time and sailed back to the ship, I got teared up thinking no more Antarctica, no more beauty like this, no more cute penguins…..no more.  Those were some of my bad no mores.  My good no mores include: no more long underwear, no more crowded boot room, no more scrapping boots, no more heavy parkas, no more feeling like a huge red butterball.  But definitely the bad no mores outweigh the good no mores.  (I know it sounds backwards, but it made sense to me at the time.)

All of us on this Silver Explorer adventure have said, there is no way possible we can go back home and describe to our friends exactly what we saw and did.  This has truly been my trip of a lifetime, nothing else can ever again surpass these 15 days.  You all know me well enough to know I will continue to travel and I will see amazing wonderful things and go to fabulous places, but Antarctica will stand out as the truly most phenomenal, fantastic, amazing place in the word.  What we saw and did can never be replaced.  With our great weather, our amazing Expedition Team, our fearless captain and outstanding staff of the Silver Explorer, the wonderful locations we experienced, made this the epitome of Antarctic cruises.  

As we enter the Drake Passage for our two day ride back to Ushuaia, maybe more thoughts will come to me.  When any of you asked about this trip, I may have a misty, smiling faraway look on my face, but right now I am crying like a baby…. So happy and so sad.