Antarctica

Hello dear readers! As you know I’m traveling to Ushuaia – the world’s southernmost city. You can’t literally go much more south. However the point of the trip isn't visiting Ushuaia no matter how exciting it is - but visiting the coldest continent Antarctica. 

A lot of people have asked why I want to go there. The answer is pretty simple - that’s the only continent I haven’t yet visited. And as some of you know I’ve made a promise that I’ll visit all the continents in the world before I turn 30. So this was the last chance to do it before January 2016. It was actually pretty close that I wouldn’t had reached the goal because at first I booked the Antarctica cruise for wrong year – February 2016 and that would’ve been too late. Fortunately there were still some twin cabins left on the boat. This is the time to explore this beautiful continent – who knows in couple decades it might not exist anymore.

Day 1 – leaving Helsinki

My flight was about to leave Helsinki at 6pm on a Friday night. Usually I would've been thinking where the party is tonight but now I was sitting at the terminal and sending out last work emails and wondering what surprises are laying ahead this time.  Usually at least the baggage has been lost on the way. It didn’t really help that Lufthansa couldn’t check my baggage in all the way to Ushuaia and I would have to go through the passport control, customs and check in again at Buenos Aires. However it was time to leave the work mode behind and start enjoying the vacation.

The trip to Ushuaia would last about 30 hours so there would be plenty of time to relax. Or not, the seats on the planes aren’t usually that nice to sit on. My seat was on the 1^st row in the economy class and I was just jealously looking at the people in the business class in their comfy seats and the flight attendants started serving wine for them already before the plane had taken off.

The flight was pretty easy to Frankfurt but for some reason I had to go through security again and that’s when the fun began. I guess there are some new rules that besides your laptop you need to get out all your electronic devices – including all the cables. So I had my cellphone, my laptop and two cameras – and charging + data cables for all of them. It took a while to dig them all out and while I was doing that, dropped my boarding pass - the fact that I noticed only after the security (and yes they also did the full body check as well). So I just noticed that “Shit, where’s my boarding pass” and went to ask for it from the people in the security check. Fortunately they found it somewhere in the scanning machine. The 1^st scary moment.

The 13 hour flight from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires went pretty smoothly. I just slept and watched the Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men on the TV. However when we landed to Buenos Aires, I knew it’s gonna be a close call. I had 4 hours to change planes but it already took 2 hours to go through the security and passport control. Then I had to wait for my bag (glad it even came) and had it scanned again. Then I noticed I had 30 minutes left until the boarding started and had to go to a completely different terminal and yes, through security again. I had my winter jacket on and carrying a 17kg/30lbs backpack and running to the other terminal when it was +30C outside. Sweat was just pouring everywhere but I just made it. Good that they are not so strict at security in Argentina - I didn't even have to get my laptop out of the backpack. After that the 3 hour flight to Ushuaia was just a formality.

Day 2 – Landing to Ushuaia

I finally landed to the beautiful Ushuaia – surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and mountains. The flight was pretty bumpy but that was just fun after the boring flights before. The airport in Ushuaia looks like a train station which is pretty nice. It’s funny that there are still planes like Airbus A340-400 landing there. To put that in a perspective, just think of the airport in Kajaani, Finland (those who have been there) and think of an Airbus A340 landing there. That’s how it felt.

At that point I was pretty tired so I just decided to take the first taxi to the hostel. The taxi was a shitty, tuned Toyota with a really loud exhaust. The driver put the pedal to the metal but gladly the piece of shit couldn’t do more than 100kph (the speed limit was 40) on the way to the hostel. I just noticed he did a couple of extra turns on the way but decided not to complain it. It was only 90 pesos (9 euros) so no problem.

The hostel was pretty nice. Nothing luxurious but at least it’s warm and especially there’s warm water (which was not the case in Peru). And the staff was really nice. The lady on the reception was a former teacher and promised to remember my name (and she did). She also said that I’m the first visitor from Finland. I replied that “yeah it’s pretty far away from here” and she replied “we’re far away from everywhere”. I guess I was pretty far away from home after all.

Day 3 – Sunny Ushuaia

I woke up at 10 am in the morning after 14 hours of sleep and had some breakfast. Then it was time to try to find some trips to see the mountains and lakes in Ushuaia before Antarctica. I found a tour round one of the Ushuaia’s national parks nearby for the next day. The weather was really nice and sunny so I decide to walk along the coast line and take pictures.

Ushuaia seems to be a place of controversy. On the other side you can see the beautiful snowy mountains and the village looking like you’re at the Alps. But on the other side there’s the navy base, huge oil distilleries and rusty cargo ships. On the other side of the city is what it looks like, a slum.

Day 4 - The last day in Ushuaia

The good thing about the time difference is that you’re happy to go to sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 8 am without an alarm clock. Wish that would be the case in Finland too.

Again I had some (a lot because it’s free) breakfast and then it was time to find some tour operator that could finally book me on the tour around the Tierra Del Fuego national park. I managed to find several tour operators but none of them could accept credit cards although they had VISA and Mastercard signs on their windows. Finding an ATM wasn’t an easy task either but luckily I found one and got the trip booked for 8:05 am the next morning. Then I would be back just in time before the departure to Antarctica.

The next task was to find a GoPro Hero 3 for the Antarctica cruise but I found out that the taxation in Ushuaia is the highest in the whole South America, especially for electronics. GoPro Hero 3 Silver + would cost from 7 000 pesos up (700€) so I decided to manage with the cameras I had. Think they also charge extra for stupid Antarctica tourists like me trying to find a GoPro at the last minute.

The rest of the day I just slept and enjoyed the stress free feeling of doing nothing – for the first time in a long time. The funny thing of the day happened when I was cooking some pasta (straight from the bag with tuna) and an elderly Asian woman saw that and started laughing. She was cooking steaks and veggies and I guess my food looked a bit simple for her. Then she told me to look carefully how she cooks so I would learn. Well it’s good to make people laugh I guess. Later on I found out that she lived in Norway and that I was dressed up like a typical Scandinavian. PS. I CAN cook but didn’t want to spend extra money.

Day 5 - Heading to Antarctica

This was the big day when the trip to Antarctica really began. In the morning I finally went to the national park tour. The scenery was really beautiful, kind of a combination of Norway, Lapland and New Zealand. When I came back to the hostel, it was time to read the last emails and send the last goodbyes to the outside world. No internet or phone connection for the next 11 days. Well that was a bit of a lie. There was an option to purchase 100M of data for 60€ or call from the satellite phone (3,50€/min). I chose to take the data plan to let people know I’m ok once in a while. It worked pretty well but was really slow. Well what can you expect; it’s not really the focus on this trip.

After getting back to the hostel I and Adrian (an Australian guy I met at the hostel and had booked the same trip) headed to the harbor. On the pier Adrian noticed he left his mountaineering shoes at the hostel and had to turn back to get them.

We departed around 6 pm on Tuesday the 3^rd of March. This would finally be it - the moment I had been waiting for a really long time. We would spend the next two and half days at the sea. At first we had a safety briefing and then a mandatory emergency training. We had to go to our cabins and when hearing the alarm sound (seven short and one long beep), put on the orange life jackets and walk to the evacuation area by room numbers. Then they checked everybody was there and people were moved to the life boats.

The cabin I had was a twin cabin so I shared to room with an elderly Australian gentleman. At first I booked a cheaper quadruple cabin but accidentally for the wrong year. After finding that out I contacted Oceanwide expeditions if I could change the trip for 2015 instead of 2016. Fortunately they still had the more expensive twin cabins left. Actually I was glad I had the twin cabin after hearing some horror stories about some random roommates sawing the log all night. The cabin itself was pretty spacious and clean.

The first night we had a dinner and some welcoming drinks. I met a lot of people from the US (50% of the 106 passengers were from the US) and some Dutch guys with whom I hang out most of the time. We headed to the open sea around midnight and when I went to bed at the same time, the sea was still pretty calm and the sail was smooth. However around 3 am I woke up when the ship started moving around a lot and knew that we had arrived at the famous Drake’s passage.

Day 6 – At the sea

The wake up call was at 7:30 every morning and the breakfast was served at 8. The first morning the waves were really big and it was a bit tricky to take a shower. I heard that a lot of people had fallen down when showering. My tactic was to wait for a big wave, quickly take the shampoo or soap and then hold on again. It worked pretty well. At breakfast a lot of people were sea sick and pale. One guy was throwing up into a paper bag really loudly on the hallway. If the dinner was fully occupied, there were a lot of empty seats at breakfast. I had taken a motion sickness tablet the previous night and was feeling good. Me and Bram visited the bridge on the top deck and saw the captain and the crew at their work. All of the outer decks were closed but we could go out to the top deck from the bridge and had some photos taken. The rest of the day was full of workshops on kayaking, mountaineering, camping, photography and snowshoeing to prepare for the activities in Antarctica. I also borrowed a book from the ship’s library. It was about Ernest Shackleton’s trip trying to get to the South Pole first.

The day schedule was pretty much the same every day at the sea; Breakfast, lectures, lunch, lectures, dinner. The food was really good on the ship and you could also order wine with dinner (3€ per glass). In the evening I finally got the Wi-Fi to work and watched JJ's diving videos from the Easter Island.

Day 7 – At the Antartctic waters

When waking up I knew today we would finally be at the Antarctic waters. You could notice it pretty easily; the weather was a lot colder and the waves were pretty small so almost everyone made it to the breakfast (except Shawn whose roommate snored so bad all night he decided to skip breakfast in order to get some sleep).

After breakfast it was time to vacuum all the gear I was about to bring to the Antarctica. It’s very important that people leave Antarctica as it is after they’ve visited. Basically it means not bringing along any seeds and thus plants or species that don’t belong there. After vacuuming you had to sign a bio security certificate stating that you had cleaned your stuff. There were also rules about not touching anything, not bringing food a shore etc. which is good to preserve the beautiful continent that is owned by no one. We had really interesting lectures about how Antarctica was formed during millions of years and its political history. There were also some lectures about different whales and penguins. In the middle of the penguin lecture there was an announcement “Fin whales at 2 a clock on the port side”. The first encounter with the local wildlife! I quickly grabbed my jacket and camera and ran to the deck. Indeed, there were at least 6 whales swimming around the ship. They were pretty far away so I couldn’t get a decent picture with the objective I had that time. But I knew there would plenty more opportunities. We also saw 3 dolphins swimming along with the ship.

After dinner we made a decision to wake up at 6 am the next morning to take pictures of the sunrise. There should also be some ice bergs and the route in the morning was supposed to be rally scenic all in all so it would be worth of getting up early. After all being at Antarctica isn’t a thing you do every week.

Day 8 – Epic introduction to Antarctica

As planned I woke up at 5:45 am in the morning and headed to the deck planning to take pictures of the sunrise. However when I got the deck, the first thing I noticed wasn’t the sunrise. There were two huge humpback whales jumping around only couple of meters away from the ship. Of course just when I got my camera out of the backpack, they dove back to the depths but I managed to get a quick tail shot. And the sunrise was plain stunning. What an introduction to Antarctica! It was strange that you could still see the full moon while the sun was rising from behind the mountains and icebergs. Hope the pictures explain the beautiful sight better than the few words I can think of right now.

I stayed on the freezing cold deck for couple of hours trying to spot whales but of course they were gone. The icebergs still were an awesome sight. After breakfast they loaded us to zodiacs and because I didn’t have any activity that day, visited the former British base in Antarctica in an island called Port Lockroy and some other islands. That also meant that I had set my foot to the Antarctica (archipelago, the continent a bit later) for the first time - finally all the seven continents of the world were conquered! There were also a couple of other people filling the same dream at the same time and later that night we had a glass of champagne to celebrate the accomplishment.

The Antarctic post office was also located at the island of Port Lockroy. I sent couple of post cards from there as well (one to myself). The funny thing was that the post ship would arrive only in November 2015 so the post cards will be delivered for Christmas. Well, no need to send Christmas cards.

The island had a huge penguin colony. There were literally thousands of Gentoo penguins – and a whale skeleton. The penguins were really curious and fun to watch. There is a rule that you can’t go closer than 5 meters to a penguin. But if you just sat there quietly, the penguins came to you to - such curious creatures they are. Obviously they were a bit bored and one penguin even jumped on one guy’s lap. We had the laugh of the day when a penguin ran after his friends, slipped on the rocks and fell on its belly. They really were as clumsy as I thought.

In the afternoon we went cruising with the zodiacs and saw some more penguins and seals. The vicious sight of the afternoon was when a leopard seal killed a Gentoo penguin and tore it apart right in front of us. That really was a proof that the real nature is brutal. The penguin’s body parts were literally flying in the air when the seal was shaking it.

I decided to call it a night early because the next day would be the real highlight of the trip – mountaineering.

Day 9 – Mountaineering

I had the alarm set again at 6 am but when looking out of the window I decided it was better to sleep one more hour than take pictures of a cloudy sky. After a big, healthy breakfast it was time put the mountaineering gear on and take the first zodiac to the shore. I was scared what it will be like when I heard an elderly lady saying that she’s going mountaineering too and that it will be so easy that you don’t even need proper mountaineering boots. We were specifically instructed that without proper mountain boots (because of the crampons) you weren’t allowed to go mountaineering. It was a big relief when we were divided to two groups and we were asked who wanted to climb. She didn’t sign up for it for some reason.

So after putting the harness and the crampons on, it was time to form the groups and tie the ropes. Our group of six people was tied to one rope. The climbing was physically pretty easy but still one member of our group fell and almost gave up in the middle of the way up. Fortunately some people talked her into climbing all the way up and borrowed ski poles for her. Otherwise we would’ve had to turn back.  Because of all that hassle we didn’t have time to summit the biggest peak but the lower one also had pretty amazing views. Our ship looked like a match box and the people snow shoeing below looked little penguins.

The way down was much more fun and we even had a little running contest – with crampons. It’s actually not too difficult to run with them. Just need to remember to lift your feet high up. That was definitely the best experience so far. We just got back in time before the zodiac landing site dried out of water and we wouldn’t have been able to return to the ship before night.

In the afternoon the ship was relocated to another place via a really narrow channel. The channel was amazingly beautiful with all the ice bergs and mountains. It really was a good thing that our ship was ice strengthened because there was a lot of sea ice. On the way we saw a lot of whales but still I couldn’t get a good shot because they were either too far or just sleeping. I still had high hopes of getting a good shot at some point. After anchoring on the new site we went to the shore again to watch penguins. The rule for approaching seals was that you’re not allowed to go within 15 meters of a seal. Still one guy walked within like 5 meters of a fur seal and the seal tried to attack him. Although the people on the ship were generally pretty smart, obviously still some were lacking common sense.

Day 10 – Sleeping outside

The funny thing on the trip was that you didn’t really know what day of the week it was and you didn’t need to. All that was needed to know was the next day’s schedule and what activity you were doing.

On the day 10 I went on a snowshoe hike. It was really windy and snowing but still the views were again so spectacular that you totally forgot the weather. On the afternoon we had a zodiac cruise and got to see the big icebergs a bit closer. They really are huge here - and you can only see 10% of them. The rest is under the surface. Their blue color is really amazing. Some ice bergs have kind of lagoons inside and the water looks turquoise. It almost feels like you’re in the Caribbean.

After dinner we were dropped off to the shore. It was my turn to spend the night at the Antarctic continent. There were two options for camping: You could either sleep in a tent or outside. I thought that once I was there, why not sleep outside. We had three sleeping bags of which the two outer ones were waterproof. You could wrap yourself inside the sleeping bags so well that it almost felt like you were in a tent. It was snowing during the night so I didn’t see the special stars in the Antarctica sky. I didn’t really get much sleep, maybe a couple of hours so I was pretty tired in the morning – as was everyone else.

Day 11 – Barbeque party

In the morning I was so tired that I thought I’d stay at the ship and get some sleep. For some reason I still went to the zodiac cruise. Oh man how disappointed I would have been if I didn’t go. After about 30 minutes of cruising among the ice bergs there were two humpback whales coming up to us. They literally dove right under our dinghy and they were so close that you could’ve literally touched them. The whales where really calm and were checking us out for at least half an hour and then just went to sleep. The guides said that we were really lucky – not everybody gets to see that. The last time the same had happened was two years ago.

On the afternoon we went kayaking and visited a Ukrainian research station. The kayaking itself wasn’t much fun. The kayaks were for two people and my partner couldn’t steer the kayak. As you can imagine we were always going to the wrong direction. She was supposed to be experienced in kayaking so she was sitting at the back of the kayak. I couldn’t really do much other that get frustrated. Eventually we also got to the research station.

The research station had some really old equipment to measure different things. The people had spent 11 months already at the station and only had one month left before going back home. Some people in our group had some self-made vodka with the Ukrainian engineers. They had a really cool bar there and even sold some bottles of vodka to us. Girls get free shots if they leave their bra to the bar. There actually were some bras hanging on the wall but only a few pairs. Obviously there aren’t that many girls visiting the station.

Later that night the dinner was cooked and served outside. It was time for a barbecue night. There was also free beer and wine so it didn’t take long before people were drunk and started dancing on the deck. It was a really fun night full of smiles on people’s faces. The feeling was really unreal to party on a ship’s deck and see Antarctica’s snowy mountains and icebergs behind you.

Day 12 – The polar plunge

The next morning my head was aching a bit but that was the case for pretty much everyone on the ship. Still we went ashore again and climbed up a steep hill for the spectacular view. The ship was relocated every day so we never went to a same place twice. For some reason it was much quieter than previous days.

In the afternoon there was the famous polar plunge – meaning swimming in the Ocean. The water was    -0,3 degrees (31F) and felt pretty cold – even colder than in Finland. It was a bit surprising that a lot of people did the plunge. Some people even went in naked. You can imagine the laughs we got that night when going through the pictures. The water didn’t feel as cold as I anticipated. Still it was cold enough not to feel my feet anymore. I just noticed blood on the ground and only after a few seconds realized I was the one bleeding. I hadn’t even noticed I got a nasty cut on my toe. That’s how numb my feet were.

When we got back to the boat, they served some hot chocolate with rum and whip cream for the swimmers. Later that night I finally got the satellite Wi-Fi to work properly and sent some messages home after 4 days of radio silence.

That day it was Bram’s birthday and the chef had made him a cake which was served at dinner. We also had some glasses of the Ukrainian vodka at dinner. It tasted pretty horrible but at least the cake was good.

Day 13 – An encounter with killer whales

Day 13 – the last day in Antarctica before starting the trip back to Ushuaia. Everybody on the ship was a bit sad to leave this beautiful continent.

In the morning the captain took us about 100 kilometers north to a place called Deception Island. It is an active volcano and you can actually sail in the volcano. I signed up for mountaineering and we hiked to a peak called the Nipple Peak. The views were again amazing. The beach looked pretty amazing because the sand was black. There were also a lot of fur seals and our route went straight past the fur seals. Some of them were really aggressive and tried to attack us a few times. Some lady apparently got bitten but from what I heard it wasn’t too bad.

After lunch we started heading a bit more north and to a place called Half Moon Island. On the way we finally saw some Type B Orcas - aka Killer Whales. There were about 20 of them playing around the ship. Our expedition leader said that it was the best encounter with Orcas he has ever witnessed. They were really playful and the sizes varied from a little baby whale to a big male one. What an amazing end to the trip!

In the afternoon it was time for the last landing. There were a lot fur seals, Chinstrap penguins and we even saw one lonely Macaroni penguin. Of course because there were a lot of seals, we also saw some penguin skeletons. After that it was time to prepare for the two and a half day trip back to Ushuaia. Two and a half days at the sea again – that didn’t really feel that interesting but at least I would finally have some rest. Maybe even finish the book of Ernest Schackleton.

Day 14 – At the sea again

I went to bed at 9 pm the previous night but couldn’t get much sleep because the ship was moving a lot. Fortunately I still had some motion sickness tablets left. In the morning I decided to skip breakfast to get at least a few hours of sleep.

Nothing that spectacular happened that day – just some big waves and lectures throughout the day. The lectures actually were really interesting and we learned a lot about whales and also about the expeditions to the South Pole in 1908 – 1909. A big topic we discussed was that in 2041 the countries that have made claims of owning Antarctica such as Argentina, UK etc. will evaluate Antarctica’s situation again. Now it’s prohibited to drill or search oil or gas in Antarctica but that might change and oil companies could be granted a permission to drill oil in Antarctica if the countries decide so. Hopefully there are some wise and sensible people deciding on the matter and won’t ruin this amazingly beautiful wilderness. Who knows how it will affect the earth’s ecosystem. There are already companies arranging trips to Antarctica for young people (the future decision makers) for them to see the beauty of it. I don’t think anyone who has visited Antarctica wants to destroy it.

In order to get to Antarctica and out of there – one needs to cross the Drake Passage. As I anticipated it isn’t that interesting - except when the few really big waves hitting the ship. Everybody was just pretty much waiting to get back to Ushuaia. Some people would fly home straight after disembarking on Saturday morning and some would still spend months traveling in South America. The spirit among the people in the ship was pretty spectacular. Everybody always said hi to each other and shared a lot of amazing moments. There were good and bad things about the ship being so small – the bad being that pretty much everybody (except me) were coughing at the end of the trip. Some people even called the ship “a floating base of germs”. Well the ship itself was clean and nice but when over 100 people spend 11 days in one small ship, it’s inevitable that diseases spread.

The crew sent us a log of every place we went on the trip and all the wildlife we encountered. Everybody was saying that this trip was a really lucky one when it comes to encountering wildlife. We did see 4 different whales; Fin whales, Humpback whales, Minke whales and Orcas (Dolphin actually). For those interested in penguins, we also saw 4 different types of penguins; Gentoo penguins, Adelie penguins, Chinstrap penguins and what our expedition leader described as “Antarctica’s loneliest Macaroni penguin”. The only thing I really missed was seeing the kings of both animals mentioned before; a blue whale and an Emperor penguin. Well you can’t have it all, can you?

Day 15 – Big waves and last dinner onboard

The wind had only been 30 knots the day before and our expedition optimistically said that the wind would calm down. Well on the last day at sea it was 60 knots. I thought that it was just funny and got some great shots of the waves hitting the ship. You really get used to the ship moving around. I guess still that’s not the case for all – someone had puked on the stairs.

That day we had more lectures and the last dinner which was really good. We also had to pay the room bill, meaning what we had bought onboard, and return the rubber boots. The last night was all about just taking it easy and enjoying the last night with the same group. That would probably never happen again. At midnight we arrived to Beagle channel and the waves calmed down. That night I slept really well.

Day 16 – Ushuaia again

The wakeup call was at 7 am and after the breakfast it was time to leave the ship, say the last goodbyes and head to Ushuaia. Also the staff was at the pier saying goodbye to us. They really knew what they were doing and each had different backgrounds. There was a geophysicist, marine mammal researchers, divers, a mountain guide etc. and they each had different special areas such as whales or penguins.

I headed to my hotel but as it was only 8 am, I couldn’t check in yet. So I left my luggage there and headed towards the main street to find a cable for my camera. On the main street I bumped into Adam and Adrian and we had a cup of coffee. We had agreed to meet up at my hotel at noon with some people from the ship and decide what we want to do that day. Instead of having lunch and taking it easy we went for a hike to a place called Lake Esmeralda. It’s a really clear mountain lake in the middle of the forest surrounded by mountains. The hike was about 4 km there and another 4k back. The terrain was pretty difficult so it took over an hour for us to get to the lake. Just that moment it started raining really heavily. I only had jeans and sneakers on and my backpack. The sneakers were really not the right choice for those circumstances and I slipped a couple of times. All of my stuff got really wet and I even had to buy new sneakers that night.

The good thing was that I had sauna and a Jacuzzi at my hotel. After some well-deserved relaxing I went to shop some souvenirs. At 8 pm we met up again with Ali, Adrian, JJ and Stefanie and had a really good seafood dinner with king crab, mussels, two kinds of fish and veggies + some local beer. Then it was time for the last goodbyes; I would leave early the next morning. This time all the way back to Finland.

Tips for people planning the same trip: 

• Book a trip with as much time spent in the Antarctic continent as possible – not at sea.You might want to book it way in advance because the best tours are full already months before departure. You can find cheaper last minute deals in Ushuaia too but they don’t have the chance for all the activities and might charge extra for food etc.
•  Don’t book a trip on the big cruise ships. You may not get to set your foot to the continent of Antarctica. And even if you do, it’s very brief and they definitely don’t have any activities.
• Bring water- and windproof jackets and pants
• Bring a GoPro for the zodiac and kayak excursions etc. Don’t rely on buying it from Ushuaia as the electronics cost twice as much as in Europe
• Stay in Ushuaia for a few days to explore the beautiful scenery and spectacular hiking opportunities.
• Bring a lot of layers of clothes. The weather and the temperatures can change drastically and it’s easier to wear more layers or take some off depending on the temperature.