Monday, December 17 (Part 2)
After and exciting and exhausting morning, we were now back on board the ship for lunch and a short break, and before long the call came to prepare for the second excursion of the day - a visit to the Chilean González Videla Antarctic Base. Unlike the Argentinian base we had visited in the morning, this base was staffed and active.
As usual, the kayakers were called to disembark a few minutes before the others. Here's Dan all suited up before leaving our cabin:
The base in the distance:
A Wilson's Storm-Petrel displaying its characteristic "walking on water" behavior - they hover with their legs on the surface looking for fish and crustaceans:
@chff getting the shot:
Welcome to Chile:
The Chilean Air Force personnel stationed here are stuck for six straight months, and were pretty excited to have guests:
Walking from the dock to the building was... an adventure. The entire area is a giant penguin rookery, and every inch of space was taken up by nesting penguins. Even from the water we were accosted by the sounds (and smells!) of quarrelling penguins, and it was a sight to see their activity up close.
Unlike our pervious stops, where we had mainly been on the edges of massive colonies, here we were right in the middle of things. The path from the docks meandered between two small hills, with pebble penguin nests covering pretty much the entire things:
It was impossible to walk too fast, as the path itself was crammed with penguins. Instead, we just stood and watched the penguins going about their lives - and penguin society is a thing to behold.
The general idea is that the females sit on the nests while the males go around looking for pebbles, which, when approved by the female, gets added to the nest.
The only problem with this entire scheme is that each and every pebble around here has already been found by someone and incorporated into a nest. The only choice the males had was to find a nearby unguarded nest, grab a stone, and abscond with it posthaste. He would then return to the nest, only to find that while his back was turned a different male had stolen a pebble from
his nest.
The entire place was filled with penguins running between nests, and screaming and fighting between males when a thief was caught. Amidst all this hullabaloo, at every other nest a quiet yet tense interaction was taking place: the guys getting their pebbles approved by the ladies.
Got one - time to waddle back to the nest at top speed:
Let's see... looks good so far:
Approved!
Couple of males trying to out-scream each other:
After getting our fill of this crazy scene, we continued to the main base building. The staff invited us to this little museum thingy they had in their main building and laid out a few tables with souvenirs for sale. Prices - as expected - were completely insane, but we all happily plunked down the cash (no CCs accepted 'round these parts...) for some unique souvenirs.
Photo by
@CheskyGold:
The staff were wonderful, and we spent some time schmoozing and checking out their facilities. At one point I asked if they have any water available (I had forgotten mine on the ship), and was promptly shown into their private quarters and told to help myself to whatever I wanted.
Back outside, an elephant seal had gotten comfortable near the penguins:
We then found a quieter area behind the main building, gathered our group, and davened mincha - likely the first-ever minyan on the Antarctic continent in the history of the world. This was followed by a definite historical first: a siyum mesechta by our very own
@Moishebatchy:
The paparazzi:
Here's a video of the entire thing:
And a 360° video I took of the siyum's kaddish - you can see the entire scene by using a VR headset, moving your phone all around, or using your mouse to drag on a PC:
After the siyum we continued watching the penguins - this time, it's the weird penguin edition.
Here's an extremely rare sight: a white penguin. This is caused by leucism, similar to albinism:
This is the even rarer headless penguin:
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Penguington:
Wish you coulda heard it - this guy's rendition of Yossele Rosenblatt's "V'hu Rachum" was absolutely spot-on:
BING BONG:
Since we were technically on Chilean territory, we got to add yet another unique stamp to our passports:
...And then it was time to leave the base.
The scenery was beyond descriptions, so instead of heading back to the ship we decided to explore the area in our zodiac for a while.
Penguins were porpoising all around us - jumping in and out of the water:
I call this one "Monday":
I was just in absolute awe. This is a scene I will never forget:
Amazing mountains and glaciers:
Three Weddell seals on an iceberg:
Amazing how cozy those seals seem, lying there in the ice:
Once again Stephen Harper was in our zodiac, along with his wife this time (they were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary):
Watching penguins with
@CheskyGold:
The shapes of the ice, the colors... it was a never-ending show:
Cruisin' along:
The guy to the right is the ship's official photographer, Jason Ransom:
(Photo credit
@CheskyGold)
Off in the distance, we suddenly saw a strange sight: a weird black patch was floating on the water. None of us were able to figure out what that was, including the zodiac driver and Jason, both of whom have been in Antarctica many times. It was something they'd never seen before.
Off we went to investigate...
As we got closer we saw that the black patch consisted of numerous penguins swimming in tandem. Looking around, we spotted 4 more of those - hundreds and hundreds of penguins all together. We later looked it up and it turns out this is called a penguin raft, which the penguins sometimes use to hunt more efficiently:
Time to head back...
Passing some building-sized icebergs on the way:
The cranes lifting the zodiacs:
Afternoon GPS trace:
As we were having dessert, the waiters all emerged from the kitchen bearing a cake and singing "Happy Anniversary" - to
@chff and his mother. It was undoubtedly one of the funniest moments of the trip:
After dinner, we all gathered on the observation deck where I had arranged for the ship's photographer to take our group picture. A few people were camera shy, but we all had a great time posing in our Kosher Antarctica yarmulkas - even some of the ladies:
(Photo credit Jason Ransom)
Me taking a 360° picture:
(Photo credit Jason Ransom)
(Photo credit Jason Ransom)
As we were wrapping up the shoot, the captain came on the PA system to inform us that conditions in the Drake Passage were looking dicey, and we should prepare for the "Drake Shake".
And with that ominous announcement, we turned our backs on Antarctica and turned towards home.
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