We went kayaking again in the morning in Neko Harbor and saw a lot of penguins and a whale very far off in the distance.

​We had lunch outside on the deck, and then after lunch I opted out of kayaking to join the landing at Paradise Island where we also had a zodiac tour around the island.

​Before dinner, about half of the ship did the polar plunge off of the gangplank.  I only swam around for about 30 seconds and I couldn't feel my hands when I tried to climb the ladder out.  But it was fun...

​We had a barbeque for dinner which was also outside on the deck.

After almost three turbulent days, we arrived in Mikkelsen Harbor before lunch.  After we ate, there was an excursion planned.  Most of the passengers went to the island, and I jumped on a zodiac with the other kayakers.  They really have the system down.  They string up the kayaks and pull them with a zodiac to a certain point away from the ship, and then we get into our kayaks from there.  For the first day, I had a single (next two days shared a double with a guy who wanted to take pictures....)

​I chose not to take photos from the kayak since I have already damaged one phone during my travels. 

​It is almost impossible to describe the feeling I had sitting on the water and looking at the landscape, with penguins swimming right in front of me, a humpback whale about 100 yards out, a leopard seal on a chunk of ice that I circled.....but Antarctica is the most beautiful place on earth in my opinion....

​After our first ride, we went ashore and had about 20 minutes to view the penguins.

We spent two and a half days crossing the Drake Passage on our way to Antarctica.  It was the wildest ride that I've ever experienced.  The Ship Doctor said that he treated 60 of the 117 passengers for sea-sickness.  50 knot winds +, and waves like I've never seen before.  I didn't get sea-sick, though.  Thank you Dramamine and Jameson's...

​We would be eating in the dining room and things would just start flying around when a big wave hit.  People started flying around at one point.  And fortunately no one got injured too badly.
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​Below is a picture of me on the bridge. My roommate and I spent about an hour and a half up there and saw the biggest swells.  One was so bad that I had to hang onto the wall when things came crashing down.  I have no idea how many dishes and glasses got broken on this cruise, but it was a lot....

​Another picture shows the main lounge.  The crew had many lectures set up over two days to keep people entertained and informed.  For the sick people, they had a constant video feed and you could watch from your cabin if you were too sick to go upstairs.  There were probably seven or eight lectures during the passage on various topics, such as the history of Antarctica, different mammal and bird species on the continent, geology of Antarctica, etc.

​I also signed up for kayaking, and was one of the 16 lucky people that got to go kayaking on this trip.  It was well worth the additional charge.  They couldn't offer to everyone because we got fitted in dry suits and measured for our kayaks, and the logistics of getting everyone ready each day was pretty complex.  We had three meetings/fittings before we landed in Mikkelson Harbor.

I was offline for quite a while recently, as I'm just back from Antarctica and trying to upload all of my photos in Punta Arenas, Chile, which could take several hours.  Data onboard was very expensive and slow so I only sent a few texts and made a phone call before it ran out.
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​Once my photos are uploaded I'll post the day-by-day trip in more detail. 

​Prior to boarding the Sea Adventurer for Antarctica, I spent a few days in Ushuaia, AR.  They put us up in a hotel the day before we launched and I met my roommate, Nick.

​Ushuaia isn't very big but they have a lot of restaurants and stores for tourists.  Before we boarded the ship on January 14th, we walked around town and visited a museum that used to be a prison.  I also bought some Dramamine for sea-sickness just in case...

​We boarded the ship around 4:15pm, checked in, had a briefing and tour, and we sailed a little after 5pm.  We spent 5 hours or more on Beagle Bay, Chile, getting fuel for the trip through the Drake Passage.

​Below is a view from our hotel, overlooking the Airport.

​Some pictures of Ushuaia City Centre and the Museum.

​Our ship below is the small one farthest to the left the left with the blue hull.  We had 117 passengers and about 70 crew members onboard.

I have been just relaxing in Buenos Aires the past several days since getting back from Iguazu Falls and am burned out from sightseeing. 

I found a nice apartment/hotel with a kitchenette in Recoleta.  On Sunday I found an expat bar and watched the Steelers beat Miami.  There was a guy that graduated from Pitt and another guy, a corporate pilot, that used to live on the South Side.  And another guy who worked there was from Long Island, so he was familiar with Ronkonkoma and Patchogue.

​Today I went to a Patagonia store and bought waterproof pants, long underwear and a pair of gloves for my Antarctica trip.  It was the most expensive store that I have ever been to.  Not sure if it's that expensive in the US or not.  But I think that I have everything I need for the trip now and they have a shop on board, so I'll buy whatever else I need there.  And I'm sure that it will be even more expensive than the Patagonia store.

​I read that I can store one of my bags with my summer clothes at EZE airport.  Since we are flying back from Antarctica to Chile, I'm only allowed one checked bag and one carry-on bag.  I started my RTW trip with just one checked bag but bought a second duffle bag when I left South Africa and started buying a few cold weather items.

I decided to buy a ticket from Punta Arenas (through Santiago) back to Buenos Aires instead of trying to do the 11 hour bus ride back to Ushuaia and flying from there. Unfortunately I already bought a round trip from BA to Ushuaia so I'll have to eat half of the flight.  I wouldn't have chosen to fly back to Argentina but my round-the-world ticket has me going from there to Lima, Peru and I do need to pick up my second piece of luggage.

The day after visiting the Iguazu Park in Argentina, I booked another taxi to go to the Brazil Park and had the same driver, Nelson.  He didn't really speak English and my Spanish is still pretty terrible, but we managed to engage in some simple Spanish conversations.  Crossing the border was surprisingly quick on the way over and my Brazil Work Visa came in handy (thank you H.J. Heinz Company).  It was a little more congested on the way back but I got in the immigration line just before it got really bad.

​You only need a half-day at the Brazil Park, and if you are ever in Iguazu Falls and only have one day, the Argentina side is much better in my opinion as you can get closer to the falls and it doesn't feel as congested on the trails. 

The one advantage of the Brazil Park is that you get a more panoramic view of most/all of the Falls, albeit from farther away.

​And half of your half-day will be spent waiting in line for the buses, which take you from the entrance to the 1.5 km walking trail to view the falls.  It was extremely crowded, and it took one hour from the time I bought my ticket to actually get off the bus and onto the trail.....it was quicker on the way back out of the Park as I only waited 20 minutes to get the bus.  

​After the Park, I went back to the hostel for a few hours, waited out the biggest rainstorm that I had seen in quite some time,  and then took another taxi to the small city center for a steak dinner.

​Here are the pics:

I booked a taxi from the hostel to visit the Falls from the Argentina side.  I was out of pesos so I had the hostel run a tab for me until I found an ATM at the park (the one at the airport wasn't working the night before).  You pay for a round trip and tell the taxi driver when to pick you up, so I spent the entire day in the Park.  You do need five or six hours to walk all of the trails there without being rushed.

​I waited in line for about 20 minutes outside of the park, where there was one ATM machine, and when I was next in line to go to the machine, it shut down.  I was told that there was an ATM inside the park, so the ticket attendant just let me go in and fortunately, this machine worked, so I came back out, waited in line again for my ticket, and then went back in.

​The park itself was fantastic and they had a series of different trails to walk.  I was there all day and still didn't get to all of the points as there was a huge downpour of rain mid-afternoon...but here are some of the pics.

I had a flight booked on January 3rd from Buenos Aires to Iguazu, Argentina with LATAM airlines.  It was from the domestic airport, which was only 5 km from my hotel and the flight was scheduled for 11:15 am.  I checked in and waited in line at the gate, and then found out that workers went on strike and the flight was cancelled.  The airline said that I could get another flight in two days, though I later found out that people were able to get flights earlier  So, I bought a ticket at the airport with Aerolineas Argentina which was twice as expensive as my original one, and left at 7:25 pm.  After four calls to Orbitz over the next three days, they said I should get my money back for the LATAM flight - in eight weeks.  I sent an email to LATAM about compensation for the additional expense on another airline and I'm certain that I'll never hear from them.

​I had a private room at the Tango Inn Club Luxury Party Hostel, which was along the main highway, but you had to take a bus or taxi to get to the parks or into town.  It had a big swimming pool, with music blasting outside all of the time, and they sold one liter bottles of beer at the front desk, which I guess is what qualifies them as a party hostel.

Trying to get a good signal to catch up on the posts from Iguazu Airport.

​The second tour I took in BA was a city tour, and it probably isn't worth even writing about.  We saw the law school building, a metal flower sculpture, drove through various neighborhoods and had a half hour to walk around...fairly dissappointing.

​The next day I did find some good empanadas on a recommendation from a Habitat For Humanity Friend.

My flight from Frankfurt was about 13 and a half hours, but it was overnight so I slept more than eight hours of it.  It was already 80 degrees when I got to the hotel about 9:30 am.  The hotel let me check early, and I spent the first day walking around Buenos Aires.  My hotel is in the Recoleta area, and there a lot of restaurants within walking distance.

​Yesterday, I took a tour to the Tigre Delta and San Isidro, which included a boat ride through the delta.

​After the tour I booked my flight and hostel for Iguazu Falls. I am staying on the Argentinian side, but should also be able to visit the Brazilian side since I got a Brazilian work visa when I was at Heinz that's valid until 2021. 

I'm also trying to figure out how I'm going to get from Punta Arenas back to Ushuaia after my Antarctica trip.  There is a bus that runs on Sundays, which is when I need to travel, but when I called the bus company and tried to communicate in Spanish, it either sounded like there weren't any spots left or they didn't take reservations.

​Apart from the hotel and tour guides, there's not really a lot of people that speak English so I'm trying to remember things from my Spanish lessons.

​New Year's Eve was pretty quiet where I am staying so I was back at the hotel by 9pm and read a book...

​Today I'm taking a three-hour city tour in the afternoon.

​The food is pretty good, but I am still looking for some empanadas to try.