Antarctica – Part 1 – Arrived February 12th

There are really no words to describe Antarctica. I’m doing this in 2 parts so we can include more pictures but they can’t possibly do it justice.
We got up very early Friday morning and gathered in the lounge for last minute instructions. There were 37 of us and we were all lugging our winter gear, prepared for the worst weather-wise. We had docked in Punta Arenas, Chile and we would fly from there. We got on the bus to the airport and were introduced to our guide for the day, Betsy, who spoke perfect English with very little accent. She’s a Chilean woman who had been raised in Ithaca, New York while her father got his doctorate degree at Cornell. She went to school in California where she became a wildlife veterinarian. She’s an amazing woman in her late 40’s who has been involved with Antarctic research for over 20 years. She worked for several years at Sea World in San Diego and now has a consulting business with other wildlife vets and teaches senior veterinary students in Chile. In between she takes groups like us to experience Antarctica. Her enthusiasm and knowledge were unbounded.
As soon as we boarded the bus Betsy told us that it was still not certain that we would be able to go to Antarctica. No planes had been able to land there for 3 weeks because of bad weather. She said she would make a phone call when we got to the airport and we would know then. When we arrived she made the call and yelled out “WE’RE GOING!’. We all breathed a sigh of relief.
Two hours later we landed on a gravel runway in an “ice free zone” on our 7th and final continent. Most of us were surprised that there was very little snow at the air strip, but when we looked off into the distance it was a sheet of white. It was difficult to see where the snow stopped and the clouds began. The temperature was around 32 and we were thrilled that it was so warm. It was cloudy but warm enough that some of us felt overdressed.
We had about a mile walk to the Chilean research station where we would begin our tour. We stopped often along the way for Betsy to describe what we were seeing. There are about 40 people living on the Chilean base, including wives of some of the scientists, with 7 children among them. We didn’t see the families because it’s their summer vacation and they were away from Antarctica, but we did see their housing, which are trailers with multi-colored roofs. There’s a school, a hospital, a “mall”, post office and a Catholic church.
Our first stop was the community trailer where they had some comfortable couches and chairs and dining tables. We had some cookies and drinks and then we divided up into 2 groups; one would go on the Zodiac to Ardley Island to see the penguins and the other would tour the base. We were picked to go in the second batch, so we went “shopping”, went to the post office to send our post cards and then walked around the base with a guide who told us about life in Antarctica. The Russian base was just next to the Chilean base so we walked up a hill and visited the Russian Orthodox Church, which was just big enough to hold 3 worshippers at a time.
This was all very interesting but we were anxious to get our chance to see the penguins on the island and we couldn’t wait for the Zodiacs to come back.