At 8:00am I got a call that the
flight to Antarctica would be delayed, possibly until the afternoon.
Then at 9:00am, I got a call saying, "Get ready, we´re leaving
immediately!". We took off, but an hour into
the flight, our guide, Alejo, told us there was a down grade in the
weather and we had to land in Port Williams, a small outpost on an
island just across the Beagle Channel from Tierra del Fuego. We touched
down and spent an hour checking out the "yacht club" and wandering
around the tiny village. Then we got the "all clear" and were airborne
again. About another hour into the flight, just when we were in sight of
Cape Horn, the Captain told us the weather took another turn for the
worse and we had to return to Punta Arenas and try again tomorrow.
Better safe than sorry, I guess.



Hmmm... I think I´ll take the 7:30 flight to Antarctica!
Our trusty ride to the ice continentTake
two. The next day, we had a green light for a 7:00am take off and this
time made it all the way to our landing spot at Base Frie, the Chilean
Antarctic Military Station. We landed on the gravel runway and walked
down the dirt road to drop our stuff in our "rooms" which turned out to
be half sized cargo shipping containers remodeled into little bunk huts.
Hotel
Antarctica! The orange building is the "reception, lounge and dining
area", the third white container to the right is my "bedroom suite". The
bath room is 100 yards across the tundra in the Chilean military base -
make sure you go before bedtime, you definitely don't want to make the
walk in the middle of the night!Next,
we walked over to the Russian scientific research station for lunch.
The food was, well, Russian, and after eating we walked over to a tiny
Russian Orthodox church they had built on top of a near by hill. Talk
about an unexpected, surreal site in this desolate outpost!

Russian Orothox Church - Antarctica Chapter
After
leaving the Russian base, we went on a couple hour hike along the
iceberg choked bay, over a snowy ridge and across a rocky isthmus that
is only accessible at low tide. On our hike to the peninsula/island, we
passed several Weddell seals lounging on the rocky shore and a few
random penguins popping in and out of the water. As we approached
the penguin nesting ground, we started seeing more and more of the
little creatures until we realized the ridge above us was filled with
them and once around the final bend in the coast, we came upon dozens of
nests with parents sitting on their young to keep them warm. We
saw Chinstrap, Gento and Adaliane Penguins, the only three that inhabit
the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding islands. We couldn´t help but
laugh at their stereotypical waddle as they marched from the water´s
edge to their nests on the ridge above us. Pinguino!After spending more than an hour hypnotized by these fascinating birds, we called
a zodiac to take us back across the bay as the rising tide cut off our
retreat. Next, we hiked up to the Chinese research station where our
hosts shared a hot cup of green tea with us and showed us around their
complex. I was bold enough to challenge one of the Chinese workers (who
didn´t speak a word of English) to a game of ping pong in their
recreation room. I was proud to hold my own against him (but had a
feeling he was holding back a little!).

After dinner back at the
Russian station, Alejo brought out a crystal clear chuck of glacial ice
that he chopped into cubes with his ice axe and mixed with some scotch
for our after-dinner drinks. He also showed us how to make authentic
Russian Bloody Mary´s (which I´ll be glad to demonstrate to anyone who
asks!). Our guide, Alejo - "Mr. Antarctica!"Over
drinks we heard tales of how Alejo cross country skied to the South
Pole (he´s been back four times on snowmobiles), how he climbed Vincent
Massif, the tallest mountain in Antarctica, with Pat Morrow, the first
Canadian to summit the seven highest peaks on the seven continents, and
how he helped support the first sled dog team to mush across the entire
Antarctic continent. It turns out we were lucky enough to have "Mr.
Antarctica" as our own private guide! He´s also climbed Aconcagua, the
highest peak in South America (over 22,000 ft.) and Cerro Fitz Roy (one
of the most challenging climbs in South America). His next dream is to
row across the Pacific Ocean from Chile to Easter Island to French
Polynesia and finally to Australia in the summer of 2007! Good luck,
dude!My Mark on the Continent - The Dobson Snow Drift! Around
12:30am, I realized it still wasn´t dark outside. From the doorway to
our "container" I asked Alejo if the pink hew on the horizon was the
sunset and he said, "No, that´s the sunrise!" Apparently, this close to
the austral summer solstice and this close to the antarctic circle, it
never actually gets dark here! The sun just dips below the horizon for a
few hours every "night" and then pops right back up! Oops, time to go
to bed!