06 Mar

Day 7 – Penguins Again!

 

We woke up at seven and got ready for more penguins! Woohoo! It was very Antarcticy outside today!

Today was a day for allll the layers! Or so I thought.

We ate our room service breakfast and headed down. We realized that they changed the elevator carpets three times a day!

Today we were visiting another penguin rookery! Look!!!

So many. This one was my favorite.

No, this one.

Who can choose?! And there were babies!!

It’s like these two were chatting.

There’s the ship!

Hello, Mr. Leopard Seal…

We only had 45 minutes, I could have stayed for twice that.  We saw glaciers calving, penguins roaming, seals, so much!

Here’s a group heading back:

And one boarding:

We watched penguins while we waited for the next zodiac. Not a bad trade-off!

 Eventually, we got back on a zodiac and headed back to the ship. By the end, I was quite hot. And regretting how many layers I had on. But it could be worse!

We took off our warm gear and went and got a snack. I had a donut! Then we sat in the Dome until lunch. Lunch was delicious. I didn’t take a single picture, but I had pasta from the cooking station, chicken tenders, AND potatoes.   The perfect combination.

Afterwards we went to the Dome until it was getting close to time for our group to be called. Good afternoon!

The afternoon excursion was a zodiac excursion into the icebergs. The 9 million icebergs!

We saw some penguins, of course.

Look at this beauty:

I took pictures of the other zodiacs too. The green against the water is so striking.

There’s our ship hiding back there!

It was fun! Very warm, I didn’t wear nearly as many layers and I was much more comfortable.

At one point, there was a group of penguins swimming right at us! I only got one picture.

Back to the ship!

Gautam and Cisco went kayaking instead of zodiacing (which I am sure is not a word). Kayaking would have been great! But I really wanted to take pictures, and I knew I couldn’t in a kayak.

This was their gear:

After we got back, I showered, and we immediately ordered French fries which came in this cute little box.

When I was ready, I went upstairs to the Dome. Lots of people were up there! When we started moving, I saw penguins every 2-3 minutes. They were jumping up all over! Here’s some on an iceberg.

And more on an iceberg!

Off they go!

I decided much like the supermodel who famously said she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000, I don’t get out of my chair for less than five penguins now. I reached that level of spoiled.

Speaking of spoiled, I had hot chocolate.

Icebergs. Everywhere.

More with penguins!

Then, it was time for the expedition briefing. The nightly briefings consisted of two 10-minute lectures on something we had seen that day, like glaciers, birds, etc., plus a briefing on the next day’s expeditions. Tonight, during the last segment, the cruise director came over to the speakers and told us there were four humpback whales! I was in the front row.

I almost got up, but I felt bad. Then they said the ship was stopping. So I jumped up and ran!

I ran to our room, grabbed my camera, and ran upstairs! Everyone was there.

There were whales everywhere, so I didn’t know where would be best. I probably should have gone to the bow, but everywhere was amazing. I literally took 1400 pictures! 1380 of them look the exact same! Ha!

Their fins almost looked like they glowed through this water:

Got a mouth open-ish!

At the end, when most everyone had left for dinner, there were still a few of us out there with our big lenses. We were FREEZING! But we didn’t care too much!

I did laugh that I ran to the room to get my camera, but not a coat. In Antarctica.

There was one whale who went down and showed off her tail, and we all took pictures and put our cameras down. About two seconds later, one fully jumped up in the air, and we all screamed! We all got pictures of – the splash. Not one of us caught it. It was pretty funny!

I did get him going back into the water:

So we went to dinner! After dinner, we all went to bed. In our room, there was an invite to an exclusive dinner the next night! We couldn’t do it because of camping! Dang it!

But Audrey and Jenn could, and they would update us!

Antarctica At Last – January 13-24, 2024
Day 1 – On My Way 
Day 2 – Beautiful Buenos Ares 
Day 3 – To the Ship
Day 4 – Drake Lake 
Day 5 – First Penguins
Day 6 – Two Landings!
Day 7 – Penguins Again 
Day 8 – An Unintentional Polar Plunge and Camping on the Continent!
Day 9 – To Plunge or Not to Plunge
Day 10 – The Day I Did Nothing
Day 11 – Calm Waters Again
Day 12 – Ushuaia For the Day