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Overview

Antarctica, February 1 - February 24, 2005

In 2003, I headed for Europe.  In 2004, it was Australia and New Zealand.  This year's annual overseas adventure took me across the equator again, this time to Antarctica.  Antarctica has long been a place I wanted to visit, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, was on my list of must-see places, too.  I figured I could cover them both with a single trip.

I first needed to find the right Antarctica trip.  There are a number of companies that now provide cruises to the White Continent, but it was important to me that it be a small group and that we actually got to land on the continent (weather permitting, of course).  A work colleague recently had traveled there through Tauck, but they were not accepting any more solo travelers for their cruises this season by the time I contacted them (more than 6 months in advance! - word of advice, small group Antarctica cruises tend to fill up several months in advance).  Working with my AAA travel agent, we ended up booking an expedition on Explorer II through Abercrombie & Kent.

Their tour began with an afternoon of sightseeing in Santiago, Chile, followed by a flight to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world, first thing the next morning.  After a visit to Tierra del Fuego National Park, we'd board the ship, spend two days sailing the Drake Passage to get to Antarctica, have five days of excursions there, spend two days returning to Ushuaia, and then go on to Santiago and return home.

Santiago was not on my list of must-see places, but I figured that if the tour was going to begin there, I might as well spend a few days in town and really see the city.  And instead of returning to Santiago with the group at the end of the tour, I could head on to Buenos Aires from Ushuaia.  And, heck, when was I ever likely to go back to Ushuaia?  I figured I could spend a day there checking out the town.

Put it all together and I ended up with the following itinerary:

My travel agent was able to book everything but the Ushuaia hotel.  The only Ushuaia hotel in their network was a bit out of town, and I wanted to be in the heart of the city for easy access to sightseeing, so I found a hotel on the web and booked it myself via e-mail.  Everything was set.

As the travel date neared, I began packing early.  On the Antarctica Peninsula where we would be going, temperatures in February - their summer - average in the 30s, with warmer weather not uncommon.  In the weeks leading up to the trip, both Santiago and Buenos Aires were typically in the 80s and 90s.  For Antarctica I needed to bring long johns, waterproof pants, hat, gloves, extra shoes, and if you have hard to fit feet (like my Size 13 1/2 pair), A&K recommended bringing your own calve-high boots.  And your camera gear. And some reading materials.  And a few other things.  And, oh, by the way, the total weight of your luggage and carry-ons was not supposed to exceed 55 pounds.

I got cheap boots and cheap plastic pants so that I could leave them behind once I finished Antarctica.  That would leave room for some Argentina souvenirs.  I tore only the most relevant sections out of my travel books.  I turned all of the one-sided copies of materials that A&K sent me into 2-sided copies.  I weeded out about a third of the clothes that I had initially set aside.  I ended up right at 54 pounds, including the 6-pound pair of boots and the suitcase itself.  I would be fine as long as I limited my Chilean souvenirs.

I was ready to go.

At 24 days, this would be one day shorter than my Australia trip, but it would still be plenty long.  The (relatively) good news was that the flights to South America and back, at 10 and 11 hours, were a bit shorter than the ones I took back and forth to Australia and New Zealand.  But between these unpleasant necessities, I had an itinerary I liked, the hotels I chose were well-situated, and I had a couple additional day trips planned.

Because I knew very little about Santiago and Buenos Aires, it is pretty safe to say that I really had no idea what to expect in either place.  What I found were two extremely different cities, and both easily exceeded expectations.  I could have used at least one more day in Santiago for sightseeing, and I would have loved to have had another week in Buenos Aires - I fell in love with Buenos Aires.

Ushuaia struck me as a bit of a tourist trap, not all that unlike some smaller U.S. cities lucky enough to have been started in a place of scenic beauty that becomes a popular tourist destination.  Ushuaia, at the base of the Andes, certainly has the scenic beauty aspect of this covered.  You'd be hard-pressed to find another city of that size in such a pretty place.

As for Antarctica...  I don't really know what to say.  Just stunning.  Otherworldly.  As pretty as some pictures of Antarctica are, pictures simply do not do it justice.  I have traveled enough that it has gotten harder and harder for new places to dazzle me like the way southeastern Utah did the first time I explored that area.  Antarctica dazzled me.  It is just an incredible place.

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Photo Links

I have created some entries on Worldisround where you will find pictures from my trip:

Highlights

On My Way

Tuesday February 1 -

Although things were pretty hectic as they always are in the days leading up to this trip, I did get my packing done early.  I needed cold weather clothes for Antarctica and hot weather clothes for Santiago and Buenos Aires.  Seattle winters are somewhere in between, so I could pack things early while still having what I needed to wear at home.

The big issue with packing was that we were told that total luggage weight - checked and carry-ons - was limited to 55 pounds.  And with my size 13 1/2 feet, I needed to bring my own calves-high boots for the Antarctica landings - those things weighed 6 pounds.  So my big packing problem was bringing enough cold weather clothes and hot weather clothes without going over the limit.  I bought cheap boots (and plastic pants to cover my jeans, another requirement) so that I could leave them down there at the end of the trip without guilt, creating room for any Argentina souvenirs I might buy.  But getting everything (including the weight of the empty luggage itself) down to 55 took a few tries.  I ended skimping a bit on the clothes - tour information indicated that the ship had laundry facilities and I suspected that Buenos Aires did too - tore only the relevant sections out of the travel books I had, and even turned the 1-sided materials that A&K sent me into 2-sided copies to cut such paper weight in half.  I ended up coming in at 54 pounds for the trip down there.  That would leave room for one decent Chile souvenir.  I could jettison some of the Antarctica gear to create room for something from Argentina.

I put in my work hours before heading to the airport on Tuesday.  Seattle to Dallas, where I would have enough time to kill before my overnight flight to Santiago.  I asked the agent at the ticket counter for a seat change, and I was able to get not only a window seat, but an exit row seat at that, so I would at least have leg room and a wall to rest against.  I figured if my past overnight flights were any indication I probably would not actually get any sleep.

While waiting for my flight I noticed a few folks near me with A&K travel bags.  Sure enough, they were on the same tour, and they were also heading down a few days early for some sightseeing, Easter Island in their case (I must admit that before this trip I did not know that Easter Island was part of Chile).

I have done a few overnight flights now, and I still do not understand the airlines' approach to this.  In this case, it was about 10PM when our flight was well on its way.  So let's clatter around with dinner.  Then a movie.  Then duty-free shopping.  It's late.  Why not just tell folks to shut up and go to sleep?  

It's probably a good thing I don't run an airline company.

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Santiago - Barrio Bellavista

Wednesday February 2 -

Sometime early this morning I crossed the equator.  Our plane did not track the flight's progress for us on the movie screen like they did for my Australian trip.

Legroom or not, I dozed just briefly.  As much as I have tried to sleep on planes, it just doesn't work out.  But rather than try to make productive use of the time, I do make a point of resting, which so far has proven to be about as effective as sleep for me.

My window seat looked out towards the west, so I did not get the sunrise, and since we were off the South American coast for much of the flight, I did not have anything much to look at.  But I did get a window seat view of central Chile as we approached Santiago - ahead of schedule, no less.

Customs went smoothly for me.  Not so for someone in front of me.  Advice for air travelers?  Don't wear metal when you know you are going to go through airport security, and have your travel paperwork completed and in-hand before reaching the custom officer's desk.

Bag in hand, I am ready to catch a cab - and accidentally fell for exactly what I was looking to avoid.  Folks greet arrivals and help them find a taxi, expecting a nice tip, of course.  Because the guy intercepted me right at the taxi desk, I did not realize I wasn't dealing with the taxi company until it was too late.  Okay, so it cost me a bit more.  But I did remember my lesson from Sydney and Auckland:  Avoid shared shuttle vans!  It is worth a few extra bucks (or pesos, in this case) to not waste so much time driving around to see the hotels where other tourists are staying.

My Santiago map focused on the city center, so I was not able to follow my complete route into town.  But eventually we were on Av. Liberador Bernardo O'Higgins, the main thoroughfare through the heart of the city (and the street that my hotel was on).  It was absolutely crowded with buses, but in spite of the heavy traffic and the construction that closed half the lanes, the traffic moved pretty smoothly late morning.

I got to my hotel, the downtown Santiago Crowne Plaza, around 11AM, and I was able to check in immediately.  A nice room, nice downtown view, and I would figure out that it was ideally located for my combination of city explorations and nightlife.  I highly recommend it.

I was tired, but I did not want to waste a sunny Santiago day.  I washed up, changed into some shorts (sunny 90 degrees, about what I would have every day in both Santiago and Buenos Aires the whole trip), pulled out my Barrio Bellavista map with my nightlife options marked on it, and headed out.

When planning the trip, I knew that my nightlife options were in Bellavista, but street numbers did not do me any good.  It turned out that the restaurants and nightlife Bellavista is famous for are mostly along Pio Nono, the closest Bellavista street to my hotel.  The gay nightlife was on other streets but all within just a couple blocks of Pio Nono.

I used the half dozen or so gay bar addresses I had as an excuse to explore the streets of the neighborhood, probably exploring more nooks and crannies as a result than the typical visitor would.  Not what I expected.  Colorful, dusty, and very residential in appearance.  I could hardly tell that the gay bars were bars or businesses of any sort from the outside (uh-oh, not another Auckland where most of the bars were no longer in business, I hoped).  Lots of street art.  Even more graffiti.

Okay, I now know my way around Bellavista - nice neighborhood - but I needed lunch.  I think was was early by Santiago standards, but I was hungry.  I checked the menus posted outside a few places, and it sunk in just how little Spanish I knew.  But one waiter who spoke very little English was still very persuasive, so I tried out his restaurant.  After finally figuring out how to order what I wanted, a few minutes later he was back trying to figure out how to tell me that they did not have it.  But we got things sorted out, I had a nice lunch along the sidewalk of Pio Nono, marveling that I was really here, and tipped well to make up for my mangled Spanish.  It would get better.

During lunch, a local man started chatting with me.  He spoke English better than most, so we had some conversation.  Friendly folks, these Chileans.  Almost immediately he asked me if I liked Bush or Kerry.  Well, I did not really like either of them but I voted for Kerry.  He was happy about that, telling me that no one in Chile likes President Bush.  We chatted some more, and then he eventually headed on his way.

After lunch, I headed for Plaza Caupolican at the base of Cerro San Cristobal, a big hill that rises abruptly from Bellavista.  At the plaza is a funicular that provides rides to the top of the hill.  And right then the man from lunch appeared again.  He gave me some very basic tourism suggestions, and then began explaining that he was a college student, and the Chilean government doesn't provide much funding for school, and wondered if I could help out a bit.  Okay, a friendly sort, and he did try to offer something in return - the tourism advice - so I helped him out.  During the next three days, I would be hit up by two dozen of these college students.  Most handing out some photo-copied poem.  Most telling me that they had friends in the U.S., either in Ohio or at U.C.-Davis.  I looked like I was from out of town (I saw very few Anglos during my visit except around Plaza de Armas), so I guess that's why I got targeted so much.

I took the funicular to Parque Metropolitano at the top of the hill, and from there I had outstanding views of the city.  And its smog.  Santiago is in a bowl-shaped valley so the pollution does get trapped there.  I had read about this, but I still was surprised at how thick it was (especially a couple days later when I realized that I could actually see the snow-dusted Andes from the city center once the smog cleared a bit).  Parque Metropolitano is a huge chunk of nature in the middle of the city, so after checking out the 72-feet high Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepcion sculpture that overlooks Santiago, I hiked around the park for awhile, checking out the views, the sights and the plants.  It actually reminded me quite a bit of California, especially the hills above Oakland and Berkeley (at least when I explored them back in 1991).

I rode the funicular back down to Barrio Bellavista and walked back to the hotel.  Although I had brought some Chilean pesos with me (to avoid delays at the airport), I did not have all that much, so I stopped at an ATM to get some local currency.  I suppose it was due to how tired I was from the overnight flight, but I mis-remembered my PIN number and complicated it by transposing two numbers that I sometimes transpose even on the best of days.  Three false tries, and the card automatically disables.  Which I did not know, either, so I kept trying.

Coincidentally, for this trip I finally got my credit card PIN number so I could get cash with it from an ATM if I was someplace that did not like my ATM card.  Strictly for backup purposes because I did not want to pay credit card interest rates.  Sigh.  I went and got my credit card, and it worked.  I also called my bank which verified my ATM card had been disabled, but it refreshes the next business day.  So I had some cash, and I figured out what my PIN number mistake was.  The card would work fine the next day and through the rest of the trip.

Next up, a walk to the bus station to look into tickets for planned trip tomorrow to Valparaiso.  A reference I had said the bus terminal was just past the Universidad de Chile metro station, which according to my map was just a short distance down Av. Liberador Bernardo O'Higgins (the main road through the heart of the city, also known as La Alameda).  So I started walking.  And walking.  It turned out that the bus station was just past the Universidad de Santiago metro station, a few miles away.  Santiago...  Chile...  Same thing.  But it did give me a reason to explore a bit more of the city than I had planned on.  Bus tickets were cheap, they were plentiful, and there were frequent buses.  I would have no trouble tomorrow, given my planned times.  Great.

There is a bit of a shopping mall at Estacion Central, a train station just east of the bus terminal, so I stopped at of all places a Burger King to get dinner.  I knew that when I got back to the hotel, I would want to nap for a few hours before checking out the nightlife, so I decided to opt for something fast over something local.  Mostly a direct walk back to the hotel, but I did stop to check out Iglesia San Ignacio and Iglesia de San Francisco along the way.

Back to the room.  I napped for about three hours.  Shortly after 11PM I headed back over to Bellavista.

I spent about an hour walking around Bellavista.  It is a pretty neighborhood at night.  But like the information I had warned me, the nightlife did not begin until rather late.  And with the gay bars hidden behind mostly unmarked doors, it was hard to tell if any of them were even open.  But I heard some music behind the door for Dionisio, so I poked my head in.  I was immediately ushered upstairs to a small room filled with tables and a small stage.  I had arrived about 20 minutes before the start of a drag show.  So I ordered a drink and people-watched until the show began.

After her opening number, one of the drag queens began interacting with the audience.  I ended up getting special attention from her.  As I saw during much of my exploration of the city, Anglos were rare and I was the only one in the bar that evening.  She asked me where I was from.  The conversation that followed went something like this...

Me:  Ciudad Seattle en los Estadosunidos, I replied showing off a little bit of Spanish.

DQ:  Ah!  Americano!  Tu hablas Español!

Me:  Un poco.

DQ:  Pocolito, she corrected.  Then in English, You can sleep with me for 200 dollars.

Okay, before someone reading this gets the wrong idea, good drag performers can be very playful with their audiences, especially when they are good with improvisation.  So I had some fun, too, exercising my limited Spanish reasonably well.

Me:  No tengo dollars.  Yo tengo pesos.  Dos ciento pesos?

Before someone takes my response seriously, I should let you know that at the time of my visit, one U.S. dollar was worth about 500 Chilean pesos.  So my suggestion of 200 pesos amounted to about 40 cents.  The audience got a good laugh out of that, and the drag queen had fun with it too.

DQ:  Dos ciento pesos??!!  Dos ciento pesos??!!, she asked, with so much over the top incredulousness that she was clearly in on the joke, too.  As was the audience.

Recognizing her "offense" at the offer, I raised my bid.

Me:  Tres ciento pesos.  Bastante?  Es mucho dinero, no?

Sixty cents was not much better than 40 cents, and it is certainly not a lot of money.  So the drag queen launched into a lengthy, highly dramatic speech:

DQ:  blah blah blah blah blah Americano blah blah blah blah.

Other than the "Americano", which I assumed referred to me, I did not understand a word of what she said.  But I did not admit to "no comprendo".  Instead...

Me:   Uhhhh..... De nada?

I used the "Uhhhh" and questioning tone to convey the idea that I was a bit uncertain when I replied, "You're welcome."  The audience liked that, too.  But it was time to move the show along, so the drag queen replied with something else in Spanish I did not understand, the audience laughed, and she began chatting with the next person.  I thought I did alright for someone who had problems ordering lunch in Spanish earlier today.

The drag queens put on a very good show, and the guy sitting next to me translated bits of it for me.  They then brought out a couple strippers - nothing lost in the translation with these guys.  More risqué that what is typical when you do find strippers in U.S. gay bars (they generally are not permitted in bars here in Washington State).  Strippers may be a bigger part of gay bar life down there - they turned up in every gay bar but one I would visit during the trip.

After the show it was time to head back to the hotel, but a group pulled me into their conversation for awhile.  I would find time and time again in both Chile and Argentina that not only were the locals quite patient with me and my mangled Spanish, they were extremely friendly and welcoming.

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Valparaiso - Sightseeing Day

Thursday February 3 -

No walking back to the bus station this morning.  The Metro runs underneath La Alameda, so I went to the station nearest to my hotel, figured out how their system worked, paid my fare, and took the subway over to Estacion Central.  Same Burger King, but breakfast this time.  Then I walked the rest of the way over to the bus station, bought my ticket for Valparaiso, and I was on my way.

Valparaiso and Viña del Mar are two coastal cities within easy access of Santiago, about 60 miles away.  With time for only one, I chose Valparaiso.  Viña del Mar is described as a beach town whereas Valparaiso is more of a coastal port city.  Given my interests, I decided I would rather see a working city than a beach town, but I could have just as easily made the other choice.

Valparaiso is built along a narrow stretch of coastline and on top of the hills that surround the harbor.  The city center was grey and grimy but full of life and energy.  Many of the houses and buildings on the surrounding hills were brightly painted, but grey skies muted a lot of the color for much of my visit.  The sun finally came out about an hour before I had to leave.

When I first booked the trip, I hadn't planned on a day trip - the idea came to me only after I began making my specific sightseeing plans for my Santiago visit when I started reading up on Valparaiso and Viña del Mar.  So I was squeezing my day trip into all of my other plans.  My one real regret regarding the Santiago portion of my visit was that I could have used at least one more day there so I could spend a full day in Valparaiso.  I ended up having less than three hours on the ground to explore the town, so I limited myself to the stretch along the coast and did not venture up any of the surrounding hills.

The bus ride was interesting in the sense that this place really did look like parts of California, right down to the vineyards.  It's my understanding that both have similar geological origins, but central California and central Chile also have similar climates.  Heck, if it weren't for all the Spanish-speaking Latinos here, you might actually think you were in California.

I basically walked from the bus terminal through the heart of Valparaiso over to Plaza Sotomayor and back, taking different routes over and back.  Highlights included the Iglesia Catedral de Valparaiso, the pretty Plaza de la Victoria with its patterned walkways, Plaza Simon Bolivar, the Monument to the Heroes of Iquique, and the Armada de Chile building.  It was a nice walk, if a bit rushed.  I got to see a few miles of local streets with my route.  I enjoyed the scenery, the feeling of being in a really different place than what I am used to, although no particular sight really stood out.  My return bus ticket time did not really give me any time for lunch or shopping, either.

Back to the bus station.  I was about a half hour early, so I crossed the street to some plaza, the name of which I did not get, and enjoyed watching the locals enjoy their lunch hours on a now-sunny day.  The sun really brought out the colors of the houses on the hillside.  I was really wishing I had allocated enough time to check out the views of the city and harbor from the hills.

Back on the bus for the ride back to Santiago.  I left the Santiago bus station shortly after 3PM, and caught the Metro to the Los Heroes stop.  There were a handful of sites south of the city center and south of La Alameda that I wanted to see, so I plotted a walking route back to my hotel that hit these places.

First up was the Iglesia San Ignacio, which I had also looked at yesterday.  It is a very pretty church, and this time I would get full sun pictures of it.  Then further south to Palacio Cousino, where I crossed the street to cut through Parque Diego de Almagro.  A nice city park, but the highlight was at the other end, the Basilica de los Sacramentos, an elaborate basilica.  Very interesting.

North on Arturo Prat back to La Alameda.  After stopping to look at Biblioteca Nacional, I headed to Cerro Santa Lucia, a small hill rising from downtown Santiago.  Fountains, buildings, plazas and walkways now dot the hill.  The top provides excellent views of downtown Santiago, although from nowhere near the elevation of Parque Metropolitano.  I spent about an hour here enjoying the views, enjoying some ice cream, and just relaxing.  It was my last planned sightseeing stop of the day, and it was just nice to sit and enjoy being there on such a pretty day.

I got cleaned up back at the hotel and then headed over to Bellavista for dinner.  Then back to the hotel for another evening nap.  

Tonight's bar was Friend's.  If you weren't looking for it, you could just as easily miss the place.  Hidden behind a nondescript front door was a large, very nice bar.  Tonight's entertainment?  Turned out to be $200 drag queen and both strippers from the night before, with a third stripper thrown in.

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Santiago - City Center

Friday February 4 -

Today's sightseeing plans focused on the major highlights of downtown Santiago and a few museums.

I cut through the neighborhood across La Alameda from my hotel until I got to Lastarria.  There I checked out Iglesia de la Veracruz, a very pretty church that caught my eye, before heading over to Museo Arqueologica.  But when I went in I found myself in the Museo de Artes Visuales, a visual arts museum with a photography feature.  Apparently the archeological museum was closed for renovation, but part of the building housed the other museum.  The photographic art of Luis Gonzalez Palma were being featured, and I thought his work was quite interesting, but I was disappointed that the other museum was closed.

I continued on to the Plaza de Armas, the original town square of Santiago.  The large square is surrounded by commercial and government buildings, museums and the Catedral Metropolitana.  The square itself was filled with people and photo ops, along with a few sculptures and historical displays.  I toured the Catedral Metropolitana - given the historical role of religion in western cultures, old churches and cathedrals are often beautiful and/or interesting sightseeing stops.  In my (so far) limited international travels, only Australia seemed to be lacking in such tourist stops.

I left the plaza and headed over to the nearby Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino.  This housed an outstanding collection of Central and South American pre-Columbian art and carvings.  The works were fascinating and well-presented.  This turned out to be my favorite of all the museums I visited on this trip.  The only drawback was that photography was not allowed, but I found several pictures on the museum's website for my trip scrapbook.

I found a place for lunch, getting lomo a lo pobre ("poor man's steak").  It is a steak cut with fried eggs, fried potatoes and grilled onions on top, a local favorite that I discovered with my first lunch, and something I could now pick off of the Spanish language menus I would get.  

My first stop after lunch was the Ex Congreso Nacional, the site where the Chilean legislature used to meet before moving to Valparaiso.  I checked out the building and explored the grounds before crossing the street to see the Tribunales de Justicia.  Both are impressive buildings.  I continued west along Compania, past the Palacio La Alhambra and then headed north for a couple blocks to see Iglesia Santa Ana, a potentially interesting church building but the sun angle and surrounding buildings limited the pictures I could get of it.

I got a bit of a surprise as I headed south towards my next stop.  I did not realize that my employer, LexisNexis, had retail shops in Chile.  I came across one of our stores, so I stopped in.  The clerk and customers present were all in suits and ties, so I figured I looked like a lost tourist with my shorts and camera.  I did not want to bother the clerk with our potential customers, so I headed back outside and took a picture of the place.

The highlight stop of the afternoon was Palacio de la Moneda, the presidential palace, and Plaza de la Constitucion across the street.  The palace, formerly the mint, looks like a presidential palace should look, and the plaza walks were lined with Chilean flags, giving it an air of officialdom.  The plaza featured statues and sculptures of a number of Chilean leaders, although Salvador Allende was the only one I had heard of.  It was not until I was back at the hotel that evening that I would find out that people can enter and wander through two interior courtyards at the palace, so I would return again tomorrow.

Palacio de la Moneda is just a block north of La Alameda, so I headed back down to La Alameda and followed it east to Iglesia de San Francisco, Convento y Museo, which I had passed a few times by now.  The church is the oldest building in Santiago, dating back to 1586 although some additions were made in 1857.  The former convent that is adjacent to the church is now a museum that focuses on the role of the church in colonial Chile.  It also features a large collection of 17th century colonial paintings, including several huge ones of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  

I then headed into the city center again, cutting across the Plaza de Armas as I made my way north to the area surrounding Mercado Central and Estacion Mapocho.  I planned to visit the market itself tomorrow.  Today I wanted to follow Rio Mapocho through Parque Venezuela and Parque Forestal in order to check out their sculptures as I made my way back towards my hotel.  My favorite was the Fuente Alemana fountain, although there was an interesting horse sculpture near an art museum.

I stopped along Pio Nono in Bellavista for what I thought would a light dinner, but instead got a mountain of fried food.  Gotta work on that Spanish.  I actually had a bit of a mix-up at the restaurant.  Waiters from the Pio Nono restaurants work hard to encourage passersby on the sidewalk to eat at their restaurant.  But between my diabetes and some fussy eating habits, I like to see a menu first, so I asked for the menu by saying "menu" a few times and motioning my hands as if I were opening a menu.  I gave the word our pronounciation:  "mehn-yoo".  Turns out that the Spanish word for "menu" is "menu", but it is pronounced "mehn-oo".  Between my pronunciation and the way I was motioning my hands, the waiter thought that I was asking to wash my hands in the bathroom.  "hand" in Spanish is "mano" and "bathroom" is "baño", both of which are about as close to my English pronunciation of "menu" as "mehn-oo" is.  I couldn't figure out why he was leading me to the bathroom, but after a few minutes we figured each other out.  And my Spanish vocabulary increased just a little bit more.

On my way back to the hotel I stopped at a shop featuring Chilean arts and crafts to purchase my lone souvenir from the country, a copper plate that I had picked out when I first visited the shop on Wednesday when I first walked into Barrio Bellavista.

Back at the hotel I arranged for a late (6PM) Saturday checkout.  For Saturday night I would be transferring to a hotel in Las Condes to meet up with my Antarctica tour group, but I planned to bum around downtown Santiago all day.  The hotel would hold my bag for me if I checked out at the regular time, but I would feel obligated to carry all of my important stuff with me, like I did my last day in Auckland, and that has its risks.

No evening nap tonight.  I was wide awake, so I began repacking my stuff in preparation for Sunday's charter flight to Ushuaia.  I knew exactly what I could pack in my suitcase to bring it in at just under 44 pounds, and the whole package at 54 pounds.

Once it got dark out, I headed back over to Bellavista.  It was still too early for nightlife, but I liked the look of this neighborhood both in the daytime and at night, so I figured I would try to get some nighttime photos.  Downtown Santiago would have been a candidate for this, given the view from my hotel room, but they turn out almost all the lights in all the buildings.  The streets are well-lit, but the skyline disappears at night.

Back to the hotel to get cleaned up and ready for nightlife.  Tonight the Bunker Disco.  This turned out to be a really impressive club, although it did take longer for the crowd to build up than I expected.  Nice facility, good music, great crowd.  And sometime around 2PM they put on a show.  Yes there was a drag queen and yes there was a stripper, but there were actually several performers who put on an extravaganza.  Got hit on by a nice guy, too.  His English was not any better than my Spanish, but we did manage to have a bit of a conversation.  Actually he told me several times that he loved me, which seemed pretty much out of the blue to me, but I figured that he was translating some word a little too strongly at this point.  Alas, I would be leaving the country on Sunday, so nothing could come of it.  Oh well.

I headed back to the hotel shortly after 3AM.

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Santiago - City Center, Recoleta and Las Condes

Saturday February 5 -

One of the good things about lining up the late checkout was that I could sleep in.  I did not have a lot left in the way of sightseeing plans, so I could take the day at an easy pace.

First stop was back at Cerro Santa Lucia.  When I visited there the other day, I missed the Centro de Exposicion de Arte, which turned out to be a place where indigenous artists sold their handicrafts.  I browsed but nothing really grabbed me.

Then I headed back towards the Plaza de Armas, discovering another palace and the Teatro Municipal along the way.  I stopped at a fast food place to try out empanadas.  I got hooked and would get them a handful of times while I was in Buenos Aires.

At the Plaza, I mailed some postcards.  Then I headed next door to visit the Palacio de la Real Audiencia, which houses the country's Museo Historico Nacional.  Although it is hard to cover so many centuries in so little space, I was still rather disappointed in its information on the colonial period and its abrupt end with the 1973 CIA-supported overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende and his suicide at Palacio de la Moneda (the photos of the damage that the military did to the palace were pretty surprising, given how good the building looks today).  I knew a bit about the Pinochet dictatorship going in to the museum, but did not learn anything about it or the country's recent return to democracy, both topics in which I was interested.  But recent news coverage suggests that the country is still trying to figure out what to do with Pinochet.

After touring the museum, I headed back over to Palacio de la Moneda so that I could tour the inner courtyard.  When I found that there was not just one but two of these courtyards, I figured I would begin with the innermost one first and work my way back out.  Well, the armed guard would not allow that.  The route into and out of the courtyards is one-way, it turned out, and he did not understand enough English for me to explain what I wanted to do - and I did not want to get into too much of a discussion over it with someone carrying a gun.  I could have made a second trip, but figured they might think that was a little suspicious.  

I headed back to Plaza de Armas again, where I took in the music and show put on by a group of folk dancers, while turning down the poems and requests for money from about a half dozen Chilean college students who all knew someone either in Ohio or U.C.-Davis.  I decided to have lunch at a sidewalk cafe there after finding an authentic Chilean dish on the menu that sounded good and that was not yet another serving of lomo a lo pobre.  Pastel de Choclo is a baked corn dish with chicken, ground beef, olives, hard boiled eggs and a few other ingredients.  It was so good, I got some info on it from the waitress so that I could try making it once I got home.

Now up towards Mercado Central.  Along the way, I stopped at Templo Santo Domingo, a church that traces its roots back to 1586.  I hadn't gone into Mercado Central yesterday as I was more interested in exploring the riverfront parks, so today I checked it out.  Alas, much of the interior has been given over to restaurants, so instead of finding a huge, lively marketplace what stood out most was lots of tourists eating. Somewhat underwhelming as a result.

I headed outside and explored the northwest corner of the city center before heading across the river and into Barrio Recoleta.  This was the seediest (I guess would be the word) part of Santiago that I explored on foot, but the shopping district along Antonia Lepez de Bello was noisy, bustling, crowded, grimy and lively all rolled into one.  Anchored by the Monumental Vega Central de Santiago, the shopping district continued eastward until it petered out in Barrio Bellavista.

And that is how I ended up back on Pio Nono in Barrio Bellavista.  I got an ice cream treat, and headed over to Plaza Caupolican where I enjoyed both the ice cream and watching the locals enjoying a sunny Saturday at the base of the funicular.

It was time to head back to the hotel to finish packing.  But one last stop.  My view out the hotel room window included a nearby church, Iglesia San Francisco de Borja, so I checked it out along with the adjacent park, Parque San Borja.

I got cleaned up, packed up, and ready to go.  The Antarctica tour group I would be traveling with had arrived in town sometime today, and folks  in that group had the chance to take a half-day bus tour of the city center sights.  I was glad that I had instead made my own plans to explore the city more thoroughly.  I had really enjoyed my exploration of downtown Santiago, so I was experiencing the kind of wistfulness I feel sometimes when I am leaving a place that I really wish I had more time for.  

I caught a cab and headed for the Hyatt Regency Santiago, on Av. Kennedy in the suburb of Las Condes.  The driver pointed out some interesting sites along the way, including the U.S. embassy.  Cerro San Cristobel and Parque Metropolitano dominated the landscape across the river.

Las Condes was on the edge of my downtown Santiago map, and traffic was light, so I was a bit surprised at how long the drive was.  Just made me all the more glad that I had opted for a downtown hotel for my sightseeing days.

The Hyatt Regency Santiago is a giant cylinder of a building.  Rooms on the outside and a large hollow middle from the lobby to the top of the building.  Rooms were extremely deluxe, overkill, really, given that we would be getting up at 5AM to head for the airport.  This hotel was covered in the cost of the tour, but I couldn't help but wonder how much we were paying for this.  (It is a nice hotel, to be sure, but if you go to Santiago and want a nice hotel that is actual close to the real Santiago, I highly recommend staying at the Crowne Plaza.)

I settled into my room and decided to go find a place to get dinner.  I grabbed a map and started walking down the street that passed the hotel.  There's a McDonalds.  And now there's a big shopping mall featuring a TGI Fridays, a Ruby Tuesday, a Starbucks, a Showcase Cinemas ("La Bob Esponja Pelicula" - "The Sponge Bob Movie" - was playing).  And next to it a Chevy dealership, "Home of the New American Revolution".

Ugh.  I was back in the U.S.  Kind of a nice, sterile, suburban, upscale Los Angeles, chain store, character-free neighborhood.  A far cry from anything else I had seen in Santiago and Valparaiso, and quite a contrast to the shopping district I had walked through in Barrio Recoleta just a couple hours earlier today.  Was I even in the same country?

My thoughts of Las Condes?  Well, Las Condes is for U.S. travelers who want to say they have been to Chile without ever actually leaving the United States.

I was all the more glad that I had chosen to stay downtown for my sightseeing nights in Santiago.  With no restaurant in sight that suggested anything with local character, I got dinner at Ruby Tuesday, toured the mall, picked up some Diet Coke at McDonalds, and returned to my room where I re-packed my suitcase (they were being collected at 10PM that evening to be taken to the airport).  I watched the sunset from my hotel room, and then wrote in my journal until bedtime.

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The Antarctica Tour Begins

Sunday February 6 -

I started meeting folks from our tour group in the lobby of the hotel as we waited for breakfast.  I spoke with some of the folks that I had met at the Dallas airport and then joined the gang for breakfast.  We were boarding buses for the airport at 6AM, right on schedule.

Once at the airport, we had a handful of ticket counters reserved specifically for our group.  Our seats had already been booked, and I lucked out - a window seat in an aisle row.  We had plenty of time on our hands at the airport, so I bought a few goodies for the ship, figuring there might not be any such opportunities once I was onboard.

The flight from Santiago to Ushuaia takes a few hours.  Although there were plenty of clouds along the way, there were enough breaks for me to get several great views of the snow-capped Andes, and the glaciers, lakes and deserts of Patagonia.  This is an area I would like to explore more, but that did not fit into my plans for this trip.

Customs moved smoothly.  I got my suitcase and found an ATM - although I would not need any Argentine currency until after the end of the cruise, this would let me have some in my pocket when we returned to Ushuaia.

There were buses for us to board, although there was something delaying things.  Alas, the airline lost the luggage of 11 people, in spite of our reserved ticket counters.  So while they were figuring out what to do, I headed outside and shot some pictures of the city of Ushuaia.  The city is in a spectacularly scenic setting - along the Beagle Channel that Argentina shares with Chile, and at the foot of the Andes.  And we had pretty nice weather, too, something that is reportedly rare in Ushuaia.

We finally boarded buses.  These took us to Centro Hipico for a traditional Patagonian lunch.  Lamb, bread and salad.  I haven't liked lamb in the past, but it had been years since I had tried it so I gave it another shot.  Still tastes like beef on the verge of going bad, if you ask me.  As lunch was ending, a group of local dancers treated us to a performance of traditional gaucho dances, so we got a little taste of Patagonian culture, too.

Back on the buses, we headed down the road to Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego.  We took the road all the way to its end at Bahia Lapataia.  Where we stopped marked the southern terminus of the Pan-American highway - its northern terminus is 17,848 kilometers away in at Fairbanks, Alaska, so I have now been to both ends of this highway.

This is where I had a bit of a deja vu moment from last fall's Australian trip - we were given only 15 minutes off the bus at the end of the highway to explore the park.  The 150 or so of us all wanted pictures of the sign and we jockeyed for positions at one of two viewpoints, which helped make it a decidedly rushed visit.

Back on the bus, back to Ushuaia, and straight to the pier where our ship, Explorer II, was docked.  We were dropped off right at the gangway so I couldn't step back and get a picture of the whole ship (I got that shot as I was leaving on the 16th).  We got our swipe cards (for tracking our comings and goings on the ship and charging souvenirs at the onboard store) and headed for our rooms.

I decided to spring for an A Deck room of my own.  Nothing fancy about it, but it seemed pretty satisfactory to me, probably a bit bigger and better than I had expected.  Room for all my stuff, a second bed for piling junk on, a small TV, and a good sized window (a colleague had recommended going for a room with a view).

Well before the trip's start date, we had to submit forms with emergency contact, medical information and other information, including the size of parka we wanted.  I am a big guy, so I specified a 2X Large parka.  I found a Large parka in my room waiting for me.  I could put it on, but I couldn't zip it up, it was too small for me.  Well, that's not good, so I went to see about getting the size I had asked for figuring that I had better ask now, because once we are at sea my options will be limited.  Turns out that they had planned on a jacket exchange tomorrow.

We had a muster drill (complete with life jackets) and introductory comments from the crew, followed by a get-acquainted afternoon tea.  I explored Explorer II and got some pictures of Ushuaia from the ship since I was not expecting to have sunny weather when we returned, given what I had read about the place.  And then...

We waited.  And waited.

We were still missing luggage for 11 people, and they would not have any real opportunity to pick up what they needed once we left Ushuaia, so they were taken into town for a shopping trip.  They finally got back, and we began our departure just before sunset.  I had been hoping to see some of Tierra del Fuego as we headed east through the Beagle Channel, but with the delay we lost daylight well before we passed Puerto Williams.  I figured I will have to keep my fingers cross for our trip back into Ushuaia.

For the start of our trip, we had an Argentine pilot to guide the ship through the Beagle Channel.  And although it would have been shorter to turn south almost immediately, that would have taken us into Chilean territorial waters, meaning another pilot and $3000 in other fees (I found out).  

I got to meet some of my shipmates, again the ones from the Dallas airport and a few others.  I fell into an informal group of friendly, really down to earth people right off the bat, folks I would dine and chat with many times throughout our expedition to Antarctica.

In any event, we were off.  Our adventure was underway.

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Drake Passage

Monday February 7 -

Sometime during the night we left the calm waters of the Beagle Channel and entered the open waters of the Drake Passage.  The Drake Passage has a reputation for stormy weather and rough seas, and I was awakened in the middle of the night as the ship started rocking more.  But there wasn't any stormy weather.  In fact, I got up to check out the window and saw a starry night sky.

The nice weather continued all day.  Fairly sunny skies, mild temperatures, mild seas.  At home I am usually wearing shorts if the temperature is over 40 degrees outside.  And with the inside of the ship uncomfortably warm by my standards, short were fine inside, too.  The cooler outside temperatures were in fact a welcome change from the 90-degree weather we had in Santiago.  More than a few other folks, however, decided that their new parkas needed breaking in or something, because they put them on when they went outside.  I was actually expecting Antarctica to be colder than it turned out to be for our visit, so I had actually been making it a point to acclimatize myself to cooler temperatures this winter in anticipation of the trip.  I would end up getting razzed more than a few times by my shipmates over the shorts - some even took pictures of me because of them - and yet I always dressed in just what I needed to be comfortable.

We made good time today, crossing hundreds of miles of the Drake Passage, but with no land in sight the scenery did not do much for me today.  We were followed by a number of birds - albatrosses and petrels - but that was about it for photo opportunities.

We had a number of scientists and Antarctica subject-matter experts onboard.  Among their duties was to provide us with lectures on related topics.  Today I attended lectures on Sea Birds, the Southern Ocean, and on Antarctica Geology and Glaciology.

Because I did not really keep up with such things, I do not think I had heard about the Southern Ocean until last fall's Australia trip.  Maps there showed the name on the ocean waters to the south of Australia, so I figured it was just an Australia thing - even my 2005 almanac map identifies those waters as part of the Indian Ocean.  But out of curiosity I looked it up when I got back from that trip.  Turns out that the Southern Ocean was recognized in 2000.  Cold air comes off of Antarctica in all directions, and it hits and cools the water.  Colder water sinks, and when it sinks it has to push other water out of the way.  This creates an upwelling of water further out to sea.  What we end up with is the Antarctic Convergence, where the impact of this upwelling created a distinct boundary in the ocean, more or less near 60° South Latitude.  This coincides with the fact that near 60 degrees latitude there is no land anywhere around the world that could disrupt wind and sea current flow.  When crossing this boundary, water temperatures drop significantly, and there can often be fog due to warm air from the north passing over the cooler water.  So whereas most oceans are generally surrounded and defined by land masses, the Southern Ocean surrounds a land mass, and it is defined by a boundary with other oceans.

We crossed into the Southern Ocean today, so now I have been to all five oceans.

Other than that, today continued to be a get-acquainted day.  In addition to my fellow passengers, we had an extraordinarily attentive staff onboard, mostly Filipinos.  I am not used to getting this kind of attention when I travel - even with me sticking mostly with the buffet dining room  rather than the formal dining room - so that took some getting used to.

All in all, as one of our ocean-crossing days it was a pretty easy-going day.

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Tuesday February 8 -

Today began as a continuation of yesterday, although the skies were more overcast and temperatures were slightly cooler.  More lectures today, these on Southern Ocean Whales, the search for Terra Australis Incognita, and Penguins.  We also attended a mandatory briefing about the expedition and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operator guidelines for visitor conduct during our excursions.

After lunch we started to get a taste of what was to come.

Some fin whales began hanging around the ship for awhile.  We mostly got only glimpses of the whales, but they were interesting to watch.

Later in the afternoon we got our first look at a good-sized iceberg.  An interesting shape to it, too, almost like a cup with one size missing.  The captain slowed the ship down so that we could circle it.  We would see plenty of icebergs in the week to come, but this was our first, giving us an excuse to give it a lot of attention.

When I look back through my photos from the trip, I have been surprised at how small things look in the pictures, including this iceberg.  Most of the time, there usually was not anything of known height in the picture that I could use to give me some understanding of how big things really were.  But I do have one photo of the iceberg that includes the upper deck of the ship.  The iceberg was about as tall out of the water as our ship was, although I suspect that it had a lot more underwater than we did.

It was about this same time that we could begin to make out some of the islands off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, including Low Island of the South Shetlands.  We would continue to the De Gerlache Strait that evening where we could see more islands and our first sightings of Antarctica itself.

They scheduled the Captain's Dinner for this same evening.  I am not sure why we couldn't have had that yesterday while we were out at sea.  But between the sightseeing opportunities and the fact that I found the dinner menu to be decidedly unappealing (I would munch on peanuts from the bar and a piece of fruit instead), I decided to skip dinner and stay out on deck, sightseeing as I walked laps around the Promenade Deck for exercise.

And that turned out to be a very good choice.  I was rewarded with views of humpback whales, several seals, sea birds, swimming penguins, and even another ship.  Coastal mountains covered with snow and glaciers were some of the most fascinating I had seen up until that point - I am used to seeing glaciers in isolation rather than as the dominant landscape feature.  Just spectacular - and we were just getting started.  As I ended today's entry in my journal, "This is going to be great!"

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Antarctica - Paradise Bay and Neko Harbour

Wednesday February 9 -

What a perfect day!

When I woke up I snapped a photo of a small iceberg just outside my window, with the Antarctic Peninsula coast behind it.  We were entering Paradise Bay, site of our first excursion.  Ideal weather conditions - cloudy but the sun would soon come out, temperatures in the low 50s (!!!), calm winds, glassy smooth seas.

We were just off the coast from the abandoned Argentine scientific station, the Almirante Brown, now home to penguins.  Paradise Bay is surrounded by snow and glacier-covered mountains reaching to 4000 feet (we were told, but there was nothing to really put their height into perspective).

Rules limit excursion groups to no more than 100 people.  With 150 people plus staff, we were divided into two groups for excursion purposes, and I was in the second group.  The tour literature indicated that they would try to have at least two excursions per day, so I had anticipated only one per person given the number of passengers we had.  So it was a great surprise when I realized that they really did mean two excursions per person per day.  

It was also apparent that A&K and the Explorer II crew were absolutely dedicated to getting everyone off the ship for these excursions who wanted to go (including an adventurous 90-year-old retired school teacher who used a cane - I should be so adventurous when I am that age).  We would have days later in the trip where conditions were not good for landings at scheduled sites, so they found other options for us (or at least tried to).

Our Paradise Bay excursion would be limited to a Zodiac tour.  Zodiacs basically are motorized rubber boats.  We typically had 10 passengers and our driver/guide in each Zodiac.  Because we sat on the sides of the boat facing inward, I always hoped for - and luckily usually got - a front-seat position so that I could more easily get pictures without having other passengers in my way.

The first group went out for awhile, while our group stayed behind, taking in the scenery and anxiously anticipating our out excursion.  It was finally our turn, so we rushed to put on all the mandatory gear - our boots, waterproof pants, parkas, life jackets, etc.  It was plenty warm for all of that gear, but it is better to be over-prepared.  As we would see later in the trip, conditions can change pretty quickly.

Our group boarded the Zodiac and we began out tour.  And just then, the sun started coming through the clouds, first just to highlight some specific glacier, iceberg or mountain, but eventually we would have mostly sunny skies.  A beautiful day for our beautiful scenery.  We would see some Weddell and crabeater seals resting on the ice, gentoo penguins swimming through the water, a skua, and cormorants (blue-eyed shags) perched on an exposed rocky cliff face near the water.  From water level, the chunks of ice and icebergs around us looked a lot bigger than they did from up on the ship's deck.  When we moved far enough away from Explorer II so that we could look back at it with a glacier face behind it, only then did we have the perspective necessary to get a real appreciation for just how big the mountains and glaciers were.  Just massive.

We eventually worked our way over to the Almirante Brown abandoned scientific station.  With gentoo penguins standing all around it, it looked almost like a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  The sunlight brought out the color of the reddish-orange station buildings, creating a colorful scene.

Before heading back to Explorer II, we checked out the blue ice of another iceberg.  As glacier ice forms, the weight of the ice squeezes out any salt and impurities - the more pure the ice, the more blue its color.  Melt blue ice retrieved from the ocean and you've got fresh (non-salty) drinking water.  We would spend the next several days in a world of mostly white and black, shades of blue and shades of grey.

Once we were back onboard, we got lunch as Explorer II began making its way out of Paradise Bay towards our next stop, Neko Harbour.  Along the way we passed a Chilean research station and a much larger cruise ship - bet those folks don't get two excursions a day!

Snow and ice-covered mountains glowing in the sun.  Icebergs and bergy bits.  Wildlife.  Our short lunchtime trip was plenty scenic in its own right.  Behind us we could see Mt. Francais on Anvers Island, some 25 miles away.  At approx. 9200 feet, Mt. Francais is the highest mountain on Anvers Island (and some sources say in the whole peninsula area).

Like Paradise Bay, Neko Harbour is an inlet surrounded by snow and glacier-covered mountains.  The sun was still out, so I had my sunglasses on with all that sun on white scenery.  The second group for the morning's excursion was the first group for the afternoon excursion.

This excursion featured a landing on the Antarctica continent itself.  There was a small area of exposed rocky shoreline that featured a small building and several gentoo penguins.  I almost never get pictures of me when I travel - usually prompting someone to say something like, "How will you prove that you were here?", something I have never been asked to do with any trip ever - but this time I did get a picture of me near the landing sign.

Then I set out on a hike a ways up the hillside along a packed snow path to an exposed rocky outcropping that provided us with outstanding views of Neko Harbour, Mt. Francais and Explorer II.  I had no problem hiking uphill, other than I was rather warm with all of my excursion clothes on.  Coming down was a different matter.  With so many people heading up, the snow packed into slick near-ice, and I don't have the best sense of balance.  Some people chose to slide down on their seats.  I am not all that adventurous, and I had really cheap waterproof pants that I intended to leave behind at the end of the trip, and did not want to risk tearing them on the way down.  I slowly made my way down the hill, but with a short distance to go I slipped and landed on my seat on a steep slope.  Aw heck - I decided to slide down about 40 foot instead of trying to stand up at that spot.  The waterproof pants survived that distance.

Once I got back down, I walked around the waterfront, snapping pictures and video snippets of the gentoo penguins there.  We were instructed to stay at least 15 feet away from wildlife as much as possible, and to not scare the animals.  The penguins were not similarly instructed - they for the most part wandered around pretty indifferently to us, although one approached a woman sitting on a rock to check her out.  Many of the penguins were chicks whose fluffy young feathers hadn't completely given way to their adult covering, and among the gentoo chicks, the white patch stretching across the top of their heads from eye to eye was not yet visible.  Some adults were molting.  Most penguins we would see just kind of stood around, facing no particular direction.  A few were lying on the ground, sprawled out on their bellies, a position I hadn't seen penguins in before.  With all the instructions and warnings we received, and the fact that tourists are well-supervised on these excursions, I do not think that the penguins or seals we saw had learned to fear people.  This benefits the tourists because we got a much closer look at the wildlife than we would have had the animals learned to flee at the sight of us.

Time to head back to Explorer II.  Our Zodiac driver took the scenic route, letting us check out some seals and interesting icebergs before we got back to the ship.  Back onboard, I changed out of my clothes - they were actually damp from sweat on the warm day - and changed into shorts and a short sleeve shirt, and put 45 SPF sunscreen on.  I headed back out on deck where I enjoyed the sunny weather and the spectacular scenery.  It took me awhile to pick out the hiking route I took.  From the distance of Explorer II we could see how big the mountains were and how little progress our hike had actually made up the mountainside.  Distant Zodiacs also helped provide a little perspective for how massive the scenery behind them was.

I continued to get razzed about my wearing shorts - and now my short sleeve shirt - but I was comfortable for much of the afternoon.  But high clouds started coming in, and things cooled down once we lost the direct sunshine, so I put on a sweatshirt.

Our plans for that evening featured a poolside barbeque.  Yes, Explorer II had a small swimming pool, which they filled after we crossed the Drake Passage (and yes, it was heated, but only a handful of people used it).  A small sailing boat had anchored in Neko Harbour, so our captain invited their crew to join us for dinner.  A nice gesture, I suppose, but the Daily Programme said we would be having the dinner as we cruised through Errera Channel, the "Antarctic Alps" - "Have your camera ready"!  Well, we couldn't very well do that with a few people from another boat onboard, so we gave up that sightseeing opportunity.

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Antarctica - Port Lockroy and Börgen Bay

Thursday February 10 -

During the night, our ship was repositioned to Port Lockroy, Great Britain's Antarctica Base A, now operated by the British Antarctic Survey. It is located on tiny Goudier Island, just off of Wiencke Island, not far from yesterday's stops.

During WWII, the British established a handful of bases on Antarctica to report on enemy activities in the area and provide weather reports.  Built in 1944 for the war effort, it was eventually converted into a scientific research station.  It was closed in 1962.  Designated a historic site under the Antarctic Treaty, renovation was begun in 1996.  It was opened to visitors in 1997.  The facility now serves as a museum, but it also operates a small gift shop (we were going to the mall!) and a post office that handles about 40,000 pieces of mail every year, complete with Antarctica postmark.  

The small island also hosts a gentoo penguin rookery, although half of it is roped off as a control area for comparing the impact of large number of visitors on penguin breeding (no discernable impact has been noticed).  Surrounded on three sides by the snow and glacier-covered mountains of Wiencke Island, Port Lockroy also offers great views.

Our landing order was switched today, so I was in the first group to go out.  Given the small size of Port Lockroy, our group was split even further, with half of us landing while the other half got a Zodiac tour, and then we switched.  I was aboard the first Zodiac, and I was the first of the tourists to land.  I made a quick stop in the shop, where I bought a refrigerator magnet (seemed appropriate).  I also mailed some postcards, including one to myself to get the postmark.

After touring the museum, I went outside to check out the penguins.  Our 15-foot rule did not really apply here.  Given the small space and the large number of penguins, it would have been impossible to stay 15 feet away from the penguins unless you waded out into the water.  And with them sprawled out on the ground everywhere, we also had to keep a careful eye where we walked.

There were still quite a few gentoo chicks with only their baby fuzz, although some were getting to be almost as tall as their parents.  They played in the mud, pestered their parents, sprawled on the ground, or just stood there and looked around.  One bit of a surprise.  In order to accommodate a rather large chick that snuggled underneath it for warmth, the adult had stretched its legs out.  Quite a bit, in fact.  I would see a penguin skeleton on the trip, which made it quite obvious just how long penguin legs are.  It is just that most of the time the legs are tucked up inside the body.

By now it was becoming apparent that penguins aren't exactly the brightest birds on the block.  It was also becoming apparent that pictures you see of cute penguins fail to capture one of their most memorable features - penguins smell.  Well, maybe not the penguins themselves, but they eat krill, thousands of them gather in some spot, and after everything has been digested, they poop.  Everywhere.  They don't seem to mind as they waddle around the island, but it sticks to anything we bring in contact with it - like our boots and the ends of our waterproof pants.  When it was time to board the Zodiacs, we had to first scrub off our boots using the "guanomatic", a U-shaped arrangement of brushes sitting in the water.  As we left and reboarded Explorer II, we also had to step into a tub of disinfectant to minimize the chance that we might transfer diseases from one penguin colony to another.

I enjoyed checking out the penguins until it was time to board one of the Zodiacs.  It was cooler and windier than yesterday, so we got sprayed a bit as our Zodiac bounced along the waves.  We got close to a very interesting iceberg.  It had recently rolled, exposing the smooth, dimpled milk glass-like underside that the currents had melted into an interesting bowl-like sculpture.  We were getting some sun through the clouds that spotlighted the ice, the Seven Sisters mountains on Wiencke Island, or Port Lockroy, especially in contrast to dark clouds off in one direction.

I was enjoying our tour, so when our driver/guide asked if folks wanted to go back to Explorer II, I was surprised to find myself in the minority saying no.  To come all this distance, whether Zodiacing around Port Lockroy or cruising past the Antarctic Alps, I wanted to see as much as possible in the limited time I had down here.  But we headed back to Explorer II.

Weather conditions were deteriorating, so the second group did not get as much time out on the Zodiacs.  And as with yesterday afternoon, they started losing the sun breaks.  So far, I have been getting the sun, which I like for pictures, so I was pretty happy.

Our afternoon plans had us heading over to nearby Damoy Point where we would have the option of hiking up a glacier.  However, with deteriorating weather conditions - including rain, which is quite rare along the Antarctic Peninsula - the powers that be decided we would head to Anvers Island's Borgen Bay instead where we would have a Zodiac excursion.  A large inlet surrounded by mountains and glaciers, although we did see a few seals and swimming penguins.  Some folks in the other group even got to see a significant calving event at the face of one of the glaciers pushing into the bay.  With clouds, fog and rain, I did not get many pictures of note here, although I liked one of a lone penguin standing on an iceberg seeming to be looking off at our ship.  While our Zodiac was near the iceberg, apparently some ice broke off the bottom because several pieces of ice suddenly popped up out of the water right in front of us.  We backed our ship away a bit just in case the iceberg began to roll at that point.

After our excursions, we set off through the Neumayer Channel between Anvers Island and Wiencke Island, a mountain and glacier-lined route leading us to the De Gerlache Strait.  We would eventually get some clearing and spots of sunlight hitting some distant icebergs.  Very pretty.

I had unexpected dinner plans this evening.  A couple onboard got married today, and I was one of a few shipmates they asked to join them for their wedding dinner.  We had spoken a few times and got on well, so it was a nice surprise.  It was also the only time on the trip that I ate dinner in the fancy dining room.  I am not used to staff swapping forks and stuff on me several times during a meal.  The staff even got together and serenaded the newlyweds with a couple songs, including a traditional Filipino one.

We did take a break during mid-meal.  Some humpback whales were spotted off the ship, so most people went out to watch them.  Too fast and too dark for my camera, but I have several good humpback whale pictures from last year's Alaska trip, so I was fine just watching them this evening.

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Antarctica - Deception Island

Friday February 11 -

Overnight we moved away from the Antarctic Peninsula over to Deception Island in the South Shetlands.  Deception Island is a large volcano caldera.  A small notch has eroded through it, filling the inside with water, and making it one of the few places on Earth where you can bring a full-size ship into a volcano .  We sailed through the notch - called Neptune's Bellows - and into Port Foster.

The volcano is currently quiet, but it is by no means extinct.  There are still warm spots, including one at Pendulum Cove.  Several Antarctica tours stop here so that people can go swimming on their Antarctica trip - the combination of hot spot and cool water creates a pocket of warm water.

Once through Neptune's Bellows, we stopped at Whaler's Bay to see the remains of an abandoned whaling station.  About ten minutes after we got there, the sun came out, so I retook all of my pictures of the station and airport runway.

Our ship continued to explore Port Foster.  We passed a Spanish research station, the Gabriel de Castilla, being serviced by an Argentine naval vessel.  We also saw a more distant Chilean station as we worked our way around to Telefon Bay.

Although the sun was out, the wind was pretty strong, so our planned morning stop at Pendulum Cove was moved to the afternoon, and we found a spot at Telefon Bay where we would land.  Telefon Bay features some craters left over from the 1970 eruption.  Most of the landscape I saw reminded me of the cinder cones and cinder-covered flat land in places like Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.  A hiking route was laid out for us, up to the rim of a big crater where the marked trail split into two directions along the rim's edge, giving us the choice between two scenic vantage points.  I took in both viewpoints, enjoying the immediate volcanic scenery and the view back towards Port Foster and Explorer II.

Having taken the "big picture" scenic pictures on my way up to the crater's edge, on the way back I focused more on the immediate barren volcanic landscape (people always suggest that it looks like the moon; I have never been to the moon, so I couldn't say if they are right, but I have seen similar landscapes several places within the U.S.).  I tried for some shots to capture the desolate landscape, and others to focus on specific rocks.

Back at the shore, I wandered over to take a look at a resting seal, indifferent to all of us who just showed up.  I eventually wandered back over to the Zodiacs - I enjoy the landings so I am not in any hurry to go back to Explorer II, except for my sense of fairness to others, although there never seemed to be a lack of people ready to go back to the ship.

The wind had kicked up quite a surf, making for a pretty bumpy, spray-filled ride back to Explorer II.  The Zodiac had to make a big loop around to cross the surf at appropriate angles, so we passengers were holding on a bit more tightly than on our previous excursions.  No sightseeing on this Zodiac ride.

The other group got their turn.  Not too many pictures for me this afternoon onboard as the view just did not change much.  After they came back, we spent some time touring around Port Foster while waiting for another ship to show up.  The MV Ushuaia left Ushuaia after we did, and it had the lost luggage that belonged to 11 of our fellow passengers.  We sent a couple Zodiacs out into the now rather choppy water to retrieve it (I suggested to one passenger waiting for her luggage that the appropriate tip for the Zodiac drivers was $1 per bag).  Once the luggage and Zodiacs were safely back onboard, we passed through Neptune's Bellows and left Deception Island.

We never did stop at Pendulum Cove for the swim.  Weather conditions had steadily worsened during the day, so a landing there would not have been safe.  Oh well.  Anyone who wanted to claim that they went swimming in Antarctica would have to use Explorer II's pool instead.

Mostly a quiet evening.  I attended a lecture on krill just before dinner, and spent the evening trying to get my walking laps in and hanging out around the ship.

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Antarctica - Devil Island and Crystal Hill

Saturday February 12 -

Our first three days were spent hitting sites to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula.  Overnight we passed through the Antarctic Sound at the northern tip of the peninsula to reposition ourselves for a couple days sightseeing just around the other side of the peninsula, on the edge of the Weddell Sea.  Reportedly we had some of the worst weather of the trip for part of that passage, hurricane force winds and 30-foot swells, but I slept through all that, the most soundly I've slept on the trip so far.

I did wake up at 5AM and looked out my window.  The sun was coming up and its pinkish-orange rays were just hitting the faces of several distant tabular icebergs.  Spectacular scenery and perhaps a once in a lifetime view, so I threw on my clothes, grabbed my camera and raced out to the back deck.  Cold and windy, but unbelievable scenery, just far enough away that I knew my camera was probably past its limits for capturing it (3x optical zoom, 10x digital zoom, but my digital zoom pictures almost always come out blurry).  Still I snapped away and would end up with about a half dozen pictures worth keeping.

The sun kept rising, and just a few minutes after I got out there it was behind the clouds.  The rare pinks and oranges faded to blues and greys.  I headed inside just as a fellow passenger was reaching the deck.  She was racing, but had taken the time to put on the parka and scarf and hat and gloves and grab the camera bag.  She missed the shot, but at least she was warm.

I went back to bed and actually dozed off for an hour.

Up at 7AM, we were approaching Devil Island, just off Vega Island.  The plan was to land on Devil Island, a small island with two pointy peaks, and hike up to one of the peaks.  It was windy but seas were reasonably calm.  A Zodiac scouting group went out and found that both landing sites were blocked by sea ice, so they made plans for a Zodiac excursion rather than a landing.  The other group went out first, while those of us onboard enjoyed the scenery.  The two islands provided great views of rock and massive glaciers, and we had a lot more sea ice around us.  Shafts of sunlight would brightly illuminate some icebergs while distant clouds remained dark.  I don't know what caused it, but the even the clouds got into the act with some of the most peculiar formations I have ever seen, looking more like smears of different shades of grey oil paint on glass than like fluffy clouds.

We started out in an area of calm balance between winds blowing from two directions, but that did not last, and those of us waiting for our turn in the Zodiacs knew it.  The sky greyed over, the winds picked up, the surf picked up.  Still, as the first group came back, they announced that the second group should get ready for its excursion.  We were lined up for quite some time at the exit to the stairs where we descend to the Zodiacs, maybe fifteen minutes after the last Zodiac's passengers had come back onboard.  And we were still waiting.  And then one last Zodiac emptied its passengers.  It took them about 15 minutes to safely bring the Zodiac up to Explorer II and start unloading.  That was when they decided that conditions were such that they would cancel our group's turn.

I was disappointed, but we had enjoyed such great scenery from Explorer II that I did not feel too bad about it.  Besides, I already had the 5 excursions in that I was originally hoping for, so everything else was gravy at this point.

By now the weather had kicked up so much that they were having trouble getting the Zodiacs themselves back onboard, so they moved the ship to an area where the winds were actually stronger but more steady - the steadiness of the winds adds more predictability to the task.  Several of us watched as the crew did its work.  I guess that we had to make up for the exceptionally calm conditions we had experienced at Neko Harbour a few days ago.

Our second planned stop for today was Vortex Island, but the wind was picking up, kicking up williwaws (the ocean spray equivalent to dust devils) that blew across the waves.  They decided that Vortex Island was no good, so we headed over to the Antarctic Peninsula's Crystal Hill.  It was a sheltered area, so conditions were okay for landing.

Our group went first.  Just off of our landing spot was an iceberg with a couple dozen crabeater seals resting on it or nearby in the water.  We had a lone Adelie penguin onshore, but mostly it was a barren stretch of rocky coastline.  A bit underwhelming scenically when compared to our other excursions, but it did put us back on the continent, and I focused on the geological features, including several colorful crystals in greens, reds, whites and pinks embedded in the otherwise nondescript rock.  I also paid more attention to the ice chunks that had washed up on shore - smooth, glassy clear ice, more coarse milky white ice, and a big chunk of blue ice just offshore.  One of the crew members found a Priapus worm, and I also checked out how the waves moved the kelp growing right offshore.  Tourists love the penguins and seals, and I love the grand vistas.  Crystal Hill provided us with a more intimate look at what much of coastal Antarctica is really like, so I enjoyed the stop, although some of my fellow passengers would comment that it was the least interesting stop.

The other group had their turn, and then we started making our way towards tomorrow's destination.  I had dinner, and then I did my walking laps on the Promenade Deck, camera in hand for pictures.  It was mid-evening and overcast, so no great shots from a camera standpoint, but we were passing some massive icebergs, which I enjoyed watching during my walk.  I did manage to a catch some calving of ice off one of the icebergs, but my camera is slow, so it only caught the splash.

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Antarctica - Brown Bluff and Iceberg Alley

Sunday February 13 -

Overnight we moved to Brown Bluff on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.  Because our group was one excursion behind the other group, we got to land first.  We were in the eye of a weather system, and they weren't sure how long favorable landing conditions would last.  It would turn out to be our last excursion, but it was a great one.

From a view standpoint, Brown Bluff featured interesting geological features, glaciers and iceberg-filled waters.  Onshore we were greeted by thousands of Adelie penguins, a number of gentoo penguins, and dozens of fur seals.  Some folks even saw an elephant seal, but I missed that one.  Most of the Adelies were still young.  Their adult feathers had for the most part come in, except for a bit of fluff still on top of their heads, giving them a bit of a Don King look.  They also still were white under their chins.  That area turns black as Adelies mature.

I walked around snapping pictures and video of the wildlife.  I got a bit of video of a small skirmish between a couple fur seals - adolescent males left out of this year's mating season.  We were also treated to a peculiar rush to sea by a number of penguins.  I am not sure what set it off, but some penguins started heading out to sea, and others soon attempted to follow.  But instead of heading for the nearest water, they waddled over to the spot where the first penguins began their swim.  Scramble over some rock.  Scramble over a chunk of ice and into the water.  Get out of the water to scramble over the next chunk of ice and then back into the water.  Now swim.  There seems to be a very strong "follow the leader" mentality among penguins that we were witnessing here.  Well, except for a large contingent of penguins that broke off of this main group and headed over towards the Zodiacs.  I guess they figured riding the Zodiacs would be warmer than taking a swim out to wherever they thought they were going.

I hadn't brought a spare memory card with me on this excursion.  With all the wildlife activity, I shot a fair amount of video, so I found myself at one of our most interesting stops with just one exposure left.  I deleted a few penguin shots (how many pictures of penguins do I really need) so I could get a few of the fur seals.  With my last remaining shot I went for the quintessential Antarctica picture.  Antarctica land and sea, glaciers and icebergs, Zodiacs, tourists, expedition leaders, crew members and penguins all in one last picture from the continent.

The other group got their excursion in, too, although weather conditions were deteriorating once again.  We left the Brown Bluff area at around 1PM and headed for Kinnes Cove, our last scheduled stop.  Wind and seas were too rough so they checked out one last candidate site on the peninsula, but that was not any good either.  They made the decision to start heading north.  We were leaving Antarctica.

But first we passed through the Antarctic Sound, a.k.a. Iceberg Alley.  For the next few hours we passed massive icebergs on both sides of the ship.  The sun poked through the clouds for awhile, so we had a nice mix of silvers and greys on one side of the ship and blues and whites on the other.  During the afternoon we passed a large smooth, rounded greenish-blue something in the water.  I snapped a few pictures and then showed it to one of the staff members who explained that it was a growler.  Their size and shape make growlers difficult to detect using radar, and their color can make them difficult to see.  And they are especially hard ice, which could do some damage to a ship that hit one of them.  An interesting addition to the sightseeing.

By 5PM most of the icebergs were behind us.  We were well on our way into the Drake Passage and heading back towards Ushuaia.  Skies were reasonably clear, but seas were pretty rough.  Leftover winds from the storm system put us back in 30 foot swells and 70 knot (hurricane force) winds.  Someone put seasickness bags along the railings all over the ship.  The quintessential Drake Passage experience to go along with our quintessential Antarctica landing experience earlier in the day.

When I first boarded Explorer II, I noticed lots of people were wearing patches just behind their ears.  They were prepared for the ill effects of seasickness.  I have never been on a cruise before, so I had no idea whether I would be bothered by it.  I did not think it was that common until I saw how many patches there were.  Up until this evening I was fine.  I felt a bit odd now, although I was not sure if it was seasickness or just my having spent all afternoon out in cold, windy conditions watching the icebergs.  The rolling of the ship in the swells had been causing lots of things to crash to the floor in the dining rooms, and the crew was busy securing bar items and lounge furniture.  I decided that I had better head back to my cabin, not sure what I was feeling.

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Antarctica - Wildlife Summary

During the Antarctica portion of this trip, we saw a fair amount of wildlife, mostly typical of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.  These included the following:

In addition to the Antarctica wildlife, as Explorer II made its way through the Beagle Channel back towards Ushuaia, we would be escorted for a while by some dolphins.

I can also tell people that I saw a couple of polar bears when I was on my trip.  So far, no one has challenged that by pointing out that there aren't any polar bears in Antarctica.  A correct observation, to be sure.  But although I saw them on the trip, I did not see them in Antarctica.  They were at the Zoo de Buenos Aires.

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The Return to Ushuaia

Monday February 14 -

I was feeling a bit better in the morning, although I still wasn't feeling great.  I got almost no sleep last night, leaving me with a headache.  I attended the lectures - Toothfish Fisheries Management (boy, that was an exciting one), Plate Tectonics, Whaling and Seals - and in the evening the crew put on the Liar's Club as a bit of entertainment, which helped fill our day at sea.

But I was tired, so I spent a lot of the day just trying to sleep.  I always got dozy in the main lounge where the lectures were held, so I tried napping there for a bit.

Due to rough weather conditions, the outside parts of the ship were closed, and inside the ship continued to be uncomfortably warm and stuffy, so I still wasn't sure I was feeling seasickness or something else.  I ended up going to the door near the lifeboats and opening that enough so I could get some cool air for a bit.  That made me feel a whole lot better.  I ate my meals and did not lose anything I ate, so I can't say for sure if what I was experiencing was seasickness or not.

By late afternoon we were allowed outside again, so I immediately headed for the Promenade Deck to walk my laps.  A little hard to do as there were still some good-sized swells and the wind was strong, but it felt good to be doing something.  Evening seas would create havoc for the dining room again.

With all the rocking, I hadn't slept well last night.  Tonight I arranged all of the room's pillows in one bed, creating a bit of a nest to keep me from rocking too much with the ship, making it easier to sleep.  I wish I had thought of that earlier.

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Tuesday February 15 -

I was feeling a whole lot better and a whole lot more rested when I woke up this morning.  Perhaps the best night of sleep I got on the whole trip.

I spent part of the morning checking out the ship's bridge.  I went there again in the afternoon when some dolphins started hanging around the front of the ship.

Today's talks included one on the International Antarctic Treaty and a trip wrap-up that featured several pictures taken by the crew.  I had noticed the expedition leaders with their cameras at our stops.  Although their primary function was to give us tourists some scientific insight into what we were seeing, it was clear from watching them that they got a kick out of visiting Antarctica for its own sake.  This was something that came across in their pictures, too.  Their picture show in fact was so good that several folks wanted copies of it, but between copyright issues and the need for passenger releases - i.e., the legalese of such things - they weren't really prepared to package them into a sellable product.

The ship's photographer had pictures out for sale, but they were of the more emotionally distant variety.  Picture after picture of someone sliding down the snow at Neko Harbour, people standing near his sign, postcard-like pictures of penguins and seals.  But nothing that struck me as all that candid or personal.  I used to buy lots of postcards, but I found I never looked at them, instead favoring my own pictures.  The postcards may be better quality pictures than the ones I can get with my cameras, but they are someone else's experience of the place, not mine.  And when I organize my pictures, I try to arrange them in a way that tells the story of my trip.  I don't know where to put the postcards into that story.  Now that I have gone digital, I scan the postcards and store their images in a separate folder, but I usually buy only ones that look especially artistic or capture a sunny weather image of something I only saw on an overcast day.

In spite of the weather, we had made good time across the Drake Passage, so by mid-afternoon we had the islands of Tierra del Fuego in view.  We picked up our Argentine pilot and started passing through the Beagle Channel.  A rainbow appeared for awhile.  Later, shafts of sunlight came at angles through the clouds, creating an interesting effect in the scenery in front of us.

I skipped the Farewell Dinner - once again the menu options were not at all appealing to me - and I instead enjoyed the scenery of the Beagle Channel that we had missed with our late departure several days ago, although low clouds obscured the mountains.  The cloudy skies gave way to sun about 20 minutes before sunset, giving us the best sunset of the trip.

Dusk was turning to darkness when we docked.  Our official disembarkation was scheduled for tomorrow morning, but once the Argentine officials were satisfied with things, we were free to get off the ship this evening to explore Ushuaia.  I packed all but the essentials while waiting to disembark.  I then walked around a bit to find the hotel I would be staying at tomorrow night, and then I joined a few others at a local bar for awhile.

Back to the ship, and then to bed.

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Ushuaia - Sightseeing

Wednesday February 16 -

I woke up to a beautiful day in Ushuaia.  It would be warm and often sunny all day long, so I lucked out with Ushuaia's weather again.  I had breakfast with some of the people I had gotten to know, said goodbye to some others.  I took several pictures from the deck of the ship - Ushuaia is a very pretty town in the sunshine, with its colorful buildings and Andes backdrop.  I must admit, though, that Martial Glacier, which looked rather interesting when we first arrived in Ushuaia, now looked pretty minor after seeing the massive glaciers of Antarctica.

Most folks were continuing with the group back to Santiago today, leaving them a little time for exploring Ushuaia before heading to the airport.  I was traveling solo at this point.  I headed for the exit, and then walked down the pier towards Ushuaia, stopping for a few pictures of Explorer II.

The Antarctica portion of my trip was over.

I headed for my hotel, the Cap Polonio in the heart of downtown Ushuaia.  A modest hotel in a great location with all the basic amenities.  It was too early to check in, but I could drop off my suitcase and start exploring Ushuaia on foot.

Ushuaia generally got its start as a prison town, part of Argentina's effort to support its claims to the lands of Tierra del Fuego.  Today it serves primarily as a tourist town for folks on South American cruises, those exploring southern Patagonia, and folks like me on Antarctica expeditions.  Av. San Martin, the heart of downtown Ushuaia, is lined with stores selling outdoor goods and clothing mixed among those selling souvenirs.  Throw in a number of restaurants and bars.  I ran into several people from the ship for awhile along this street.

My first exploration of the city covered the west end of the downtown area.  Mostly just a city walk, starting with Punto Panoramico for its views of the city and Beagle Channel.  I stopped to explore the municipal cemetery, where above-ground crypts rather than burials were the practice.  I headed back towards the city center following the waterfront.

One of the more interesting waterfront stops was the Plaza Islas Malvinas, a memorial to those Argentineans lost during the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands) War.  I can't say that it was a war that I have given much thought to.  I did not know the history, and remember that at the time I couldn't figure out why Argentina started the war with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands - which Argentina calls the Islas Malvinas.  I remember that an Argentine naval vessel was sunk with considerable loss of life - Roger Waters sings about it on a Pink Floyd album.

The cruiser General Belgrano was originally a U.S. Navy ship, and it had survived Pearl Harbor.  Sold to Argentina, it was based in Ushuaia when Argentina and Great Britain went to war in 1982.  Although it was outside the British-declared total exclusion zone around the islands of 200 nautical miles), the British concluded that it was a threat, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave the go-ahead to attack it.  The Belgrano was sunk, and 323 Argentine crew members were killed.

The Islas Malvinas originally were part of Argentina, and Argentine maps continue to assert its claim to them (as well as to parts of Antarctica, all as part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antartida e Islas del Atlantico Sur).  From what I've read, Spain, Great Britain and Argentina all had at best weak claims on the islands.  But the British took possession almost two centuries ago, and the Falkland Islanders are now pretty convinced that they are British, so I still can't say I understand what prompted the war.  I would find other tributes to the war around Ushuaia and even a very nice memorial plaza in Buenos Aires in two days.

I continued to follow the waterfront east of the pier where Explorer II was docked, checking out a waterfront park and locating the museums I had planned to see.  Then back down Av. San Martin, stopping for lunch, and then over to my hotel to check in.

I checked in and then changed into my shorts.  It had become a nice warm day, too warm for everything I was wearing and carrying.

I made my way back over to the Presidio de Ushuaia, my first museum stop.  This was the old Ushuaia prison, now home to the Museo Maritimo y Presidio, featuring the prison and displays about the maritime industry and Ushuaia history.  Part of the museum has been restored, and cells now provide visitors with a number of features and displays.  Other parts of the prison are pretty much as they were left when the prison closed, giving visitors the chance to see more authentically what prison life was like at Ushuaia.  The prison features were quite interesting, and I enjoyed the historical information.  This was one of the best museums I would visit on this trip.

Next up was the Museo del Fin de Mundo, the End of the World Museum, centered on Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego.  Although individual items were interesting, the collection was pretty small and came across as more of a hodgepodge of what they could get their hands on.  Pleasant enough, but I spent 1 1/2 hours at the Presidio museum but only 20 minutes here.

When planning the trip I had originally thought I might check out the Martial Glacier above the city.  But like I said, after Antarctica it was not nearly as interesting as before.  It was only mid-afternoon, especially when you consider how late Argentineans traditionally eat dinner, so I set off for an upper Ushuaia walk.  Tierra del Fuego has some unique lenga beech trees, but we did not get a close up look at them at the start of our trip.  I figured I would head uphill to where the town fades into the Andes, and hopefully find a park - or just some scenic views, if nothing else.

And that is mostly what I ended up with.  Although the roads I followed took me to some wooded areas, I did not find anything that suggested to me a park's entrance.  I did get a close look at the lenga beech trees, though - they actually reminded me a bit of the trees I found so interesting in New Zealand.  The views were quite pretty, too, although high clouds had come in.  I couldn't see Explorer II because a much larger cruise ship had docked.  That would explain the mob of people wandering the streets of downtown Ushuaia.  (I saw this in Skagway and Juneau - businesses like the dumping of customers at their front doors, but whatever the tourist thought they were coming to see, they don't see it because these towns are now all about the tourists.)

I hit my turnaround time and began walking back into town.  I came across one more memorial to the Islas Malvinas War, the Plaza Crucero ARA Gral. Belgrano, and then wandered around town looking for a restaurant option.  Explorer II was still docked - I was a bit surprised since it was scheduled to head back out to sea today.  After dinner I headed back down there thinking I might catch its departure, but now it was just a speck well down the Beagle Channel.  The other ships at the dock were gone, too, making for a quiet evening in Ushuaia.

I was pleased with my decision to spend the day in Ushuaia.  It takes a day to really explore the city - and more if you take advantage of its proximity to Tierra del Fuego National Park and Martial Glacier.  And it gave me a chance to sample a bit of Argentina outside of Buenos Aires, where I would spend the rest of my trip.

After picking up a souvenir and a few postcards, I went back to the hotel to really re-sort and re-pack my suitcases - I had kind of thrown things together last night.  The trip was at a real turning point, though, with the cool temperatures of Antarctica and (allegedly) Ushuaia behind me, and 90-degrees Buenos Aires to come.  I would be checking into my Buenos Aires hotel by mid-afternoon, and I wanted to hit the ground running - well, walking really fast - once I got there.

With everything re-packed, I loaded a role of 800-speed film into my film camera and headed out for a nighttime walk.  My nighttime digital pictures often come out blurry, which is why I brought the film camera with me, but I did not get anything worthwhile with it here in Ushuaia, although I did save a few pictures from the walk.

I decided to turn in early.

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Beginning Buenos Aires

Thursday February 17 -

Ushuaia is a small city, the airport is close to town, and it is not a busy airport.  Still, my mental mindset is to get to the airport plenty early.  I checked out of my hotel at 7:15AM and was at the airport by 7:30AM for my 9:30AM flight.  The check-in desk was closed.  It'd be almost an hour before the staff showed up to work, and several minutes after that before the airport tax office staff turned up.  I checked my suitcase, paid my airport tax, and...  Well, I waited for security to show up.  Finally to the waiting area for my flight - which left about an hour later than my itinerary had indicated it would.  I guess all the staffers must have known that things would be running late.

I had a window seat and so I got some nice views of the Beagle Channel and Tierra del Fuego before our flight headed over the Atlantic.  With a window seat I only had ocean and clouds to look at until we got pretty far north, crossing the Pampas area to the south of Buenos Aires before hitting the outskirts of town.

I was thinking that I was going to fly into Ezeiza Airport, south of Buenos Aries, since that is the airport routinely mentioned in the tourist literature, and so I took the cityscape I was seeing as possibly La Plata (I did not have my map out).  I took a few pictures, but since it did not feature the Buenos Aires skyline, I wasn't too interested.  It was not until we were almost on the ground that I realized that I had a good view of the Buenos Aires city center as our plane approached Newbery Airport.  Of course the literature focused on Ezeiza - most tourists come to Buenos Aires on international flights.  Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was a domestic flight.  As for not seeing the Buenos Aires skyline, well, I guess I did.  For a city its size, Buenos Aires has relatively few really tall building, kind of like London and Paris in that regard.

Newbery is actually rather close to the city center, so the taxi ride was pretty short.  We approached the city center from the north, so right off the bat I was heading south towards the Obelisco on the widest avenue in the world, Av. 9 de Julio (16 lanes of traffic through the heart of the city).

My hotel, the Best Western Art Deco, was located a block from Av. 9 de Julio, just north of Corrientes.  With Corrientes intersecting Av. 9 de Julio at the Obelisco, I was pretty much in the center of everything.  It turned out to be an outstanding location, within walking distance to all my sightseeing goals (others might prefer to to taxi to San Telmo and La Boca), it was close enough to my main nightlife options, and Corrientes featured lots of restaurants and theatres - the Broadway of Buenos Aires.  My room was great, too - king size bed, kitchenette, table, couch, all very nice.  Even with the great location and the nice room, it was a bargain with today's peso - about $60/night plus taxes.

As with the hotel, I would find the prices all over Buenos Aires to be pretty inexpensive during my visit.  Up until a few years ago, the peso was pegged to the dollar, and even at that rate, prices would have been considered pretty reasonable for a major metropolitan area.  But the Argentine economy collapsed a few years ago, so pesos were valued at almost 3 per dollar at the time of my trip.  That translated to good theatre for $13, a nice steak dinner for $12, and a movie (with soda and popcorn) for $3.40.

I got my stuff to my room, changed clothes, got my camera and my walking map on which I marked the location of several Buenos Aires gay bars.  It was a chance to explore Recoleta and Palermo while finding the nightlife and assessing the safety of the neighborhoods for nighttime walking.

But first I headed over to a view of the Obelisco to get my "welcome to Buenos Aires" photos.  The Obelisco looks like a small Washington Monument, and it marks the place where the Argentine flag was first raised.  Located at the center of Plaza de la Republica at the intersection of Av. 9 de Julio and Corrientes, it marks the heart of the city, surrounded by traffic and pedestrians and buildings with flashing neon signs.  Not Times Square flashy, but between the neon signs and the theatres of Corrientes, I was reminded a bit of Times Square.

The buildings, on the other hand, did not remind me of Times Square.  Paris was the first thought that came to mind.  I haven't spent much time in Paris, so it may not be an accurate comparison, but Paris with some elements of New York and Santiago thrown in is how I would describe the look of Buenos Aires.  

Just a bit of Santiago.  I really did not know much about either city before this trip.  Both are capitals of Latin American countries, and both are located at about the same latitude, but the cities are really quite different in look and feel and in their vibe (whatever that means).  I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Santiago, but I would fall in love with Buenos Aires.

I walked up to the Colon Theatre to check it out before heading westward on my walk.  The Palacio de Justicia was about a block from my hotel, and located near it were three LexisNexis retail shops, one just around the corner on the same block as my hotel - I could see the back of it from my hotel room window.  When I was in New Zealand last year, folks attending a legal conference there sported LexisNexis backpacks around town, so I couldn't get away from work completely on that trip either.  Over to Plaza Rodriguez Pena and Palacio Pizzurno, and then up to Av. Santa Fe, passing the bars Contramano and Titanic Club in the area.  I continued a zigzagging route west, ticking off the bars along the way until I reached my western limit.  I then took a slightly different route back, a few blocks to the south, to locate a few others.  As with Santiago, many of the bars looked like they were closed - or at least decidedly unlike bars - from the outside, although a few had signs out.  The further west I headed, the seedier the area got, but not uncomfortably so.  But Buenos Aires is a much bigger city than Santiago was, and some of these bars were a couple miles away from my hotel, a long walk in the middle of the night.

That would turn out to be a non-issue for this trip.  On December 30, 2004, a fire at a popular Buenos Aires nightclub, the Republica Cromagnon, killed about 200 people - the worst non-natural disaster in Argentina history.  One consequence was that most discos in the city were closed down pending review of fire code laws for such establishments and inspections of the facilities.  The discos were still closed when I was in town, although some news reports suggested that some might start reopening by the end of February.  That pretty much left only neighborhood bars available, so I would stick with the ones closest to the hotel.

I did not know that yet, though, so I just enjoyed my 3-hour exploration of this part of the city.

I got back to the area around my hotel and picked up some pop at a nearby kiosk.  Lots of kiosks dotted the streets, so it was never a problem finding snacks and pop.  I checked the menu posted at a nearby restaurant and chatted with the waiter for a bit before returning to the hotel - it was a bit too early for dinner.

I ended up getting dinner there, Beef Milanesa Napolitana, something I would usually get at the Tango Grill in West Hollywood.  Also a salad with all sorts of ingredients, including beets, which I don't care for.  So when I got the check, I pointed to them and asked the waiter what the word for them in Spanish was.  Remolacha.  Well, no me gusta remolacha.  He then pointed to each item in the salad and told me the word for them.  I was picking up just a bit more Spanish.  Although I would find more people who spoke at least some English in Buenos Aires than in Santiago, it was really up to me to figure out how to express myself.  And as fractured as my Spanish was, I think I got a lot of credit from the locals for trying.

I headed back to the room and napped for a couple hours.  Buenos Aire nightlife starts late, even on a Thursday night.  Contramano, one of the oldest gay bars in Buenos Aires and my chosen bar that night, was my top choice in general based on the descriptions I read (a dance bar with an older crowd), and it happened to be the one closest to my hotel, although it was still a 15 minute walk away.  I got there fairly late by Seattle standards, but I was one of only a few people there when I arrived.  The crowd started picking up about an hour later.

Nice facility, generic dance music, big dance floor, with a temporary wall separating the dance floor from the rest of the bar, my first inkling about what I would learn about the local discos.  Someone - Diego - came over to start talking to me.  His fractured English was a bit better than my fractured Spanish, but he did manage to explain about the dance floor and the general situation with the discos in town.  It would be about 20 minutes into our conversation before he told me he was an escort looking for business.  Another guy wearing a T-shirt that read "Sex for Money" - no mistaking that - was a bit more blunt about it later in the evening.  I got the impression that it was fairly common in Argentina, and I read that prostitution is legal in the city as long as it doesn't occur on the streets.  Well, sorry, but I am not interested.

I stayed for a few hours, leaving after 2AM.  I had a big sightseeing day planned for tomorrow.

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Buenos Aires - Plaza San Martin, City Center and Plaza de Mayo

Friday February 18 -

I had two chores to take care of this morning before beginning my sightseeing in earnest.  First, I had a handful of postcards I wanted to put in the mail.  Second, I wanted to book a Monday ticket to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires.  With the central post office at the east end of Corrientes, just a few blocks south of the ferry terminal, I figured I could get this done pretty quickly.

Obviously I had never been to an Argentine post office before.

I followed Corrientes eastward, past the Obelisco, stopping at McDonalds for breakfast, and then continuing though the Microcenter until I got to the post office.  Everything was ready, so all I needed was stamps.  Take a number?  Okay, #76.  And who's next?  #45.  There were only a few clerks on duty, and they didn't move any faster than their customers did.  Customers waited to get to the counter before filling out forms, clerks would stop to chat, some guy came out and kissed all the women clerks as he made some chatting rounds.  Even with several people between #45 and #76 missing (including #73, #74 and #75), it was 45 minutes before I was finally called.

And then the clerk ran out of stamps (I did mention that this was the central post office, didn't I?), and disappeared for a few minutes to find some.

I finally got out of there, and headed over to Puerto Madero to check out the development around Dique No. 4 while on my way to a ferry company.  I discovered that while that company offered ferry service, they did not offer tours.  I had debated between going on my own or going with a tour.  Since it did involve a couple of border crossings in one day, I figured I would be a bit more comfortable with a guided tour.  So I headed over to the nearby Buquebus office and booked my tour there.  High speed ferry, a voucher for lunch, and a voucher for a guided tour, all for about $70.  Monday's plans were all set.

It was from near here that I could see what little there is of a U.S.-like big city skyline.  A row of distinct (but not distinctive) glass and steel towers lines Av. Leandro Nalem, whereas elsewhere around the city center, buildings seem to have a pretty uniform height, explaining why I did not recognize a city center when I saw it from the plane.

Now my Buenos Aires sightseeing really begins.  

Today's focus was on the central city, Plaza San Martin, the Microcentro and Plaza de Mayo.  I headed north to Plaza Fuerza which features Torre Monumental, a stand-alone clock tower.  Originally a gift from the British, the plaza name was changed from Plaza Britanica after the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands) War.  There is an elevator to the top of the tower, but it was closed.

I took some pictures of the tower and of the nearby Retiro train station and then crossed the street to Plaza San Martin.  The east end of the plaza features a memorial to those Argentineans killed during the Islas Malvinas War.  Two uniformed soldiers stood at attention at the memorial.  Up a hillside, plaza sidewalks are shaded by tall flowering trees.  A sculpture of San Martin looks out at Palacio San Martin.  I explored the park and checked out the palace, and then headed for Calle Florida, a pedestrian mall which in combination with Calle Lavalle forms the retail heart of Buenos Aires.  Florida was bustling with people, as busy as the sidewalks of midtown Manhattan and yet sunny without any skyscrapers casting shadows over the place.  Stores stay open well into the evening, so it was a great place for Porteño-watching.  (Porteños - or port dwellers - are people from Buenos Aires.)

I don't buy much in the way of souvenirs, but I looked for decorative leather and indigenous peoples-inspired artwork, identifying a couple stores I would return to once I was ready to pick out my souvenirs for the visit.  Standing out as a tourist, several salespeople along the walkway kept trying to lure me into their leather clothing shops with "discount" cards.  I am actually not much into leather, so they were easy to resist, no matter how great the prices were that they were offering.  I would end up with a decorative leather disk, a ceramic vase and a ceramic wall plate, but not until next Tuesday.

I stopped at the foodcourt in Galerias Pacifico, essentially a shopping mall, on Florida for lunch.  A couple empanadas.  In addition to Milanesa, I would get empanadas a few times on the trip, usually for breakfast or lunch.  I am not sure of the history of the building that had been converted into this mall, but its ceilings at the center court were painted like some sort of renaissance art, complete with lots of naked people, something that you don't usually find decorating U.S. shopping malls.  Billboards along the streets and sidewalks also featured similar openness about the body, something I have noted in other cities I've been to in my limited international travels to date.  It just makes me wonder all the more why there's so much fuss in the U.S. about images in our media that are far less risqué, if you will, than the images that people in so many other countries seem to be so indifferent to.

Back to the hotel to drop off my Uruguay tickets, and then off on my second exploration of the day.  From the Obelisco I headed southeast to Plaza de Mayo.  Plaza de Mayo is at the political heart of Argentina.  It was part of the city when it was founded in 1580, and today it continues to be a place for political protests.  On Thursdays, mothers of the desaparecidos - victims of past military dictatorships - hold demonstrations.

Today the plaza is surrounded by a number of historic and government buildings, the most impressive of which is the presidential palace, Casa Rosada (although the president works here, he now resides out in the suburbs).  With the afternoon sun bringing out the color of the pink building against a blue sky, I certainly got there at the right time of day.  Among its features is a balcony that overlooks the plaza - Evita addressed the crowd from this balcony decades ago, Pope John Paul II blessed the crowds from here during his 1998 visit, and Madonna sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from here when channeling Evita for her movie.

Also on the plaza are the Cabildo, which was the original seat of the city government and is now a museum, and the Catedral Metropolitana, built in 1745 and now the resting place of General Jose de San Martin, known as the father of the country (he actually helped secure the independence of Chile and Peru in addition to Argentina).  The sun was working against me for pictures of these buildings, though, and the clock was working against me for touring them.  I would visit Plaza de Mayo a handful of times during my visit to cover all the sightseeing opportunities there.

 I explored the area immediately to the south of Plaza de Mayo, including walking through Iglesia San Ignacio de Loyola.  Built in 1713, it is the oldest church in Buenos Aires.  I checked out a few more sights, including Iglesia San Juan Bautista, before heading back to the hotel.

By now I felt pretty comfortable with the flow of the city, interacting with the people in spite of our language differences, finding my way around, keeping myself well-fed and watered (or at least Diet Coke'd, a.k.a. Coca-Lite), etc.  I enjoyed the park setting of Plaza San Martin, and I was impressed by Casa Rosada, and yet I can't say that I had yet come across a city sight that really captured my attention up to this point.  But still, maybe it was the look, or the energy of the place, or some intangible something, but I kept thinking, man, I love this city!  It was a feeling I would have throughout the rest of my visit.

Dinner and an attempted nap.  Friday night, so I checked out two bars, The Titanic Club as my "early" bar and then back to Contramano.  Titanic featured a drag show and strippers, and an audience that seemed to consist mostly of people from other countries.  I stuck around for awhile and then headed over to Contramano around 1AM.  More people here tonight, and the place would get pretty full after awhile.  No hustlers hit on me tonight, but when a guy named Dario (sp?) first approached me, at first I figured he was one.  It was probably about an hour before I concluded that he wasn't one.  We mostly made small talk off and on for a few hours - given our language differences, lengthy discussion was out of the question.  He'd disappear with some friends every once in awhile, but he'd be back 15 minutes later.  Nice guy.

But I had sightseeing plans for Saturday, so I left around 3AM.

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Buenos Aires - Recoleta and Palermo

Saturday February 19 -

I was up by 9AM, and hit the streets not long after that.  Another warm, sunny day, ideal for my planned exploration of Barrio Norte, Recoleta and Palermo.  This is an upscale area of Buenos Aires, centered along Av. Santa Fe.  I only had a few targeted sightseeing stops, but they were spread out, making for a full day of walking and sightseeing.

I had good morning light for the Palacio de Justicia (the federal court) and the nearby LexisNexis stores, so I got pictures of these sites as I headed north.  I found a McDonalds, so I grabbed a quick breakfast there.

Soon I reached Cementerio de la Recoleta, Recoleta's famous cemetery, the final resting places to presidents, generals, moneyed Porteños and Evita. The cemetery is the oldest in Buenos Aires, dating back to 1822.  It is a city of elaborate above-ground mausoleums, more than 6000 in all, making it a fascinating place to explore, even without consideration of the fame of its residents.  Evita, actually Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, probably gets the most attention.  Crowds of tourists were usually present in front of her family's mausoleum (it did get me to wondering where her husband, Juan Peron, was buried).  I also found the tomb of Almirante Brown - recall that the abandoned Argentine research station, the Almirante Brown research station, was located at Paradise Bay, site of my first Antarctica excursion 10 days ago (10 days?! could it really have been that long ago already?).  I found a few presidents and generals, but since I hadn't heard of most of these people until now, I mostly just enjoyed looking at the elaborate tombs.

Adjacent to the cemetery is the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, which dates back to 1732.  It was quite pretty, although with a wedding in progress my ability to explore the inside of the church was obviously limited.  (Not that the wedding stopped some fellow U.S. tourists from having a loud conversation about the building as they mingled with attendees to get some pictures.  Sheesh!)

From here I took a long walk to head over to my next destination, following Av. del Libertador to Av. Sarmiento to Plaza Italia.  There were a number of interesting stops along the way, including the sculpture at Plaza Francia, the Monumento a Mitre, a modernistic sculpture of Evita, one of Pope John Paul II in front of the Biblioteca Nacional, Monumento a la Carta Magna, and the flowers and gardens and embassies lining Av. del Libertador.  

After checking out the  sculpture at Plaza Italia, I entered the Jardin Botanico Carlos Thays, a botanical garden I had read about.  I was interested in seeing more examples of local flora.  I found it to be more like a nice park and less of an educational experience, however, and it wasn't all that big, so when I finished touring the place, it was still just mid-afternoon.

Across the street was the Zoo de Buenos Aires.  Although I hadn't planned on visiting the zoo, it was too early to return to the hotel and I did not have any other sightseeing targets, so I spent about 90 minutes here.  My first stop in the zoo featured polar bears, these actively moving around and swimming.  Of course I had to get a few pictures so that I could "prove" to people that I saw some polar bears while on my Antarctica trip.  The hippos were another highlight.  I have seen hippos before, but never out of the water.  It was feeding time, so some hippos came out of the water, got their food, and headed back in.  Most of the animals on display would be familiar to people visiting any big city zoo, however - no overly strong South American angle to it.  But even half a world away, it was interesting to see just how similar the kids and their families here in Buenos Aires were to their U.S. counterparts when it came to their delight and fascination with the zoo animals.  Some things are pretty universal.

I headed back towards my hotel following Av. Santa Fe most of the way, eventually cutting south to connect with Corrientes west of my hotel to check out the neighborhood, pick up a theatre ticket, and scout out possible dinner sites.

I decided to play Porteño tonight instead of having my dinner at a sensible 6PM.  So after I got back to the room, I tried to take an evening nap early to prep for a late night out on the town.  I never did fall asleep, though.  I headed out for dinner around 10PM.  I am a night owl, but I don't understand this late-night culture.  Dinner around 9-10.  Bars at 2 or later.  And yet city sidewalks were filled with workers by 9AM on weekdays.  But I gave Argentina nightlife culture my all tonight.

It was a nice dinner, but I still think I may have beat the crowd, given that the restaurant was half-empty.  I then walked around for a bit, getting some nighttime pictures along Corrientes, and an ice cream cone at a heladeria (ice cream parlor; these are common in Buenos Aires).  And then back to the hotel for a bit.

Finally time to head out.  I went back to Titanic Club and Contramano tonight.  The show at Titanic Club started almost an hour later tonight than it did last night.  The drag queen host came out in a pig costume to the theme to The Muppet Show, and did her shtick.  She asked where folks were from, and again it was a mostly international crowd.  One guy from Iowa had a hard time explaining Iowa (is it a city or a state?) to our hostess, especially since he did not know any Spanish, and she did not know much English.  So when she got to me, I exploited my own Iowa roots to say I was from Iowa.  The other guy never managed to clarify whether it was a city or a state, so I was asked the same question.  Well, I used to live in Iowa City, Iowa, so I did my best to confuse the matter further.  The drag queen had no patience with me.

With the late start to the show, I did not get to Contramano until after 2AM, and because of the line I did not get inside until almost 2:30AM.  I ran into Dario again.  I don't get hit on very often, and because he was so tentative and frequently disappearing with friends, it did not sink in until much later that he was trying to hit on me when he told me that tall, white guys were his type.  I think he gave up.  But not some other guy - also not a hustler - who was much more direct about his interests.  Like the guy in Santiago, he kept insisting that he loved me (something again lost in the translation, I assumed), and that I should go home with him.  I wasn't interested, so I used my Sunday sightseeing plans as a polite excuse.  That did not quite work since to him Sunday was a day off, whereas to me it was one of a limited number of sightseeing days I had, and I couldn't explain the difference through our language barrier.  But he did finally give up on the idea.  Even excluding the hustlers, by the time I left, more guys had shown interest in me in a few bar outings in Santiago and Buenos Aires than I get in a year in Seattle.  I couldn't figure that one out.

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Buenos Aires - San Telmo

Sunday February 20 -

When I emerged from Contramano, it was already light out.  Good grief!  6AM?  The bar was still pretty full, which is why it didn't occur to me that it was so late.  I guess I really did play Porteño for the evening.

I walked back to my hotel and went to bed.  But I was up by 10AM.  I got cleaned up, and set out for my Sunday sightseeing.  I headed west on Corrientes and south on Av. Callao towards the Palacio del Congreso, stopping at La Americana for empanadas.  Palacio del Congreso is where the Argentine legislature meets.  It faces west towards nearby Plaza del Congreso and the more distant Casa Rosada.  A beautiful monument and fountain dominates the plaza, but it is covered with an incredible amount of political graffiti, and a number of banners hang from the monument as well.  I took a number of pictures, but today I had overcast skies that weren't great for photos.

I headed east on Av. de Mayo from Palacio de Congreso to Plaza de Mayo.  There I toured the museum at the Cabildo, the old town hall.  It was here in May 1810 that the citizens of Buenos Aires came to vote against Spanish rule.  The building itself dates back to the mid-1700s, and now features a small museum with information on the events leading up to the May 1810 revolution.

From there I headed south into the San Telmo neighborhood.  San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, and it maintains some of that actual character.  On Sundays it fills with visitors - locals and tourists alike - for its weekly antique and flea market.  Vendors, street performers, tango dancers and the visitors themselves make it a lively place on Sundays.  I checked out the sights and the people as I made my way south along Defensa towards Parque Lezama at the south end of San Telmo.  Here I visited the Museo Historico Nacional.  This was a very interesting museum, focused primarily on colonial Argentina and its independence from Spain.

There may be a museum in Buenos Aires focused on the country's more recently history, but I did not find it on this trip.  I had hoped to learn more on this trip about the recent experiences of both Chile and Argentina as these countries moved back and forth between military dictatorships and democracy.

Ice cream at a heladeria, and then back into San Telmo.  As I made my way back north, I checked out the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Belen, the Museo Penitenciario Argentino and a few other spots before heading over to Av. Paseo Colon.  I followed that north towards Casa Rosada, this time passing Casa Rosada on its east side.  The plaza to the east of Casa Rosada features a monument to Christopher Columbus.  On the nearby Plazoleta 11 de Junio 1580 is a sculpture of Juan de Garay, the founder of Buenos Aires.

A bit of exploration of some of the side streets of the Microcenter and then back to my hotel.  I had an early dinner tonight because I had evening plans - the theatre.  I decided to go to Tanguera, which was playing on Corrientes just a few blocks from my hotel.  I figured it would give me a chance to see some tango dancing, even if I couldn't understand the dialog of the story.  It turned out to be an excellent choice because the story was told primary through music and dance, kind of like what Twyla Tharp did with Movin' Out.  Most performers did not even have microphones or dialog, so the show was staged to cross any language barrier.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.

And this was one of those "strong dollar" benefits.  The ticket price translated to about $13, making it quite a bargain, especially with a couple dozen performers on stage.  Even so, the theatre was probably less than half full for the performance I attended.

An ice cream cone after the show, and then back to my room.  No nightlife tonight.  Considering how late I was up last night, I really was not tired, but I had an early day planned for tomorrow.

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Uruguay - Colonia del Sacramento Day Trip

Monday February 21 -

I would add one more country to my been-there list today with my visit to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.

I got up, got cleaned up, and headed for the Buquebus ferry terminal, stopping for breakfast at a McDonalds along Corrientes.  I had my tickets, passport and vouchers, and I converted 100 Argentina pesos into Uruguay pesos.  I passed through security and then waited until our ferry boarded.

There is an hour time zone difference between Argentina and Uruguay.  The river marks the boundary.  Time zone boundaries happen.  But this confused the wife of man standing next to me to no end.  She was sure that there was something wrong with their tickets because the ride over was 2 hours (actually just one), and yet coming back the tickets showed nearly the same arrival and departure time.  Most folks seem to catch on pretty quickly that tickets generally report local times for arrivals and departures.  While she repeatedly insisted that she understood that, within a minute or two she would say something else that suggested that she didn't.  Both her husband and I tried explaining it.  The sound of defeated exasperation in his voice and his eye rolling suggested that he has dealt with this kind of thing with her many, many times.

Other folks around me were all on some big cruise ship making the rounds to South American port cities, and on the ferry ride over to Uruguay, I was surrounded by these cruise ship people.  They were going to be taking the guided tour of Colonia, too.  But to listen to them talk about today's plans and their vacation so far, and it was nothing but the banal suburban U.S. highlights - shopping, and relatives and friends back home, and medical treatments, and TV shows, and the food and niceties on their ship, and not one word at all about anything real in South America that they had seen up to this point in their trips.  On and on and on for an hour about nothing.

Ugh.  I did not want to spend the day with these tourists.

We got to Colonia and disembarked.  As we exited the ferry building, there were a number of tour buses lined up with people holding signs surrounded by the confused mob of people from the ferry.  I saw my bus, but decided to just keep on walking.  Out the parking lot to Calle Florida and a half mile or so into the heart of the town.  I may have just written off the tour and lunch I had paid for, but I would have a much better day exploring the old town on my own than with that group of people.

Colonia del Sacramento was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 to help bolster Portugal's claims to lands in the region versus the Spanish, who established Montevideo in response to stake out their own claim to the area.  Barrio Historico, the old historic part of the city, is laid out more like a Portuguese city than like Spanish colonial towns, and in 1995 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Many of the oldest buildings in Uruguay are located here including the Iglesia Matriz (1699), the oldest church in Uruguay.

Remnants of a fortress wall mark the entrance to Barrio Historico.  I explored the old city for awhile, including a stop at an 1857 lighthouse - its narrow stairs lead up to some nice views of the neighborhood and of the remains of a convent at its base.  Nearby was Plaza Mayor 25 de Mayo.  I found a cafe overlooking the plaza and enjoyed the view and a quiet lunch there (still glad I ditched the tour group; I was nearly an hour into my exploration of the city and no sign of any of those groups yet).

After lunch I headed over to Iglesia Matriz and took a look around.  It was located on Plaza de Armas, as was the Posada del Gobernador.  Signs explained the archeological exploration of this area.  I crossed Av. General Flores, the main east-west road into Barrio Historico, and headed for the waterfront.  I followed that back around to near where I had left off near the lighthouse, and then wandered through the remaining streets of the neighborhood.  The neighborhood is actually pretty small, and some of the museums there were closed (or they were about to close for the day by the time I reached this point), so I figured I would look for some Uruguayan souvenir.

Unlike a lot of tourist destinations, Barrio Historico is not overrun with tourist shops.  There are a few, but they were generally small and discreet, not taking away from the character of the town.  I spent down my pesos - I began with only about $30 worth - and then headed back to Plaza de Armas to enjoy the rest of the day.  And that was where the tourists were.  It was a little quieter over at Plaza Mayor 25 de Mayo, but there were plenty of them there, too.  So I began walking back to the ferry terminal.

Uruguay customs did not stamp my passport when I arrived, but they stamped it for both my arrival and departure now.  Back onboard the ferry, I would be surrounded by several of the same people for the ride back to Buenos Aires.  After having spent the better part of the day in Colonia del Sacramento, other than one disparaging remark about the place, they went back to their morning conversations about nothing.  They may as well as spent the day at Wal-mart, given that they said almost nothing about what they had just seen.  The $40 or so in vouchers that I did not use in Uruguay was money well-spent.

If you skip or miss the museums, there really is not a whole lot to see in Colonia de Sacramento, as it is not all that big.  The five hours I spent in the neighborhood was enough for a nice lunch and to explore the area on foot pretty thoroughly.  Colonia del Sacramento's Barrio Historico is a pretty village, and the pictures look especially nice in sepia tones.

I was back on the streets of Buenos Aires shortly before 7PM, right near sunset.  I dropped my stuff off back at the hotel and then found a restaurant for dinner.  Grilled steak.  I figured I'd better have that since not only do I like steak, but beef is the national dish of Argentina.

An easy evening.  Another nighttime photo walk.  I tried both film and digital at night in Buenos Aires, and in generally I preferred the digital pictures more, although I did lose more of them to blurriness.  Finally the show at Titanic Club - Contramano was closed - and then back to the hotel to bed.

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Buenos Aires - San Telmo and La Boca

Tuesday February 22 -

Today was my buffer day.  When you plan a trip like this, you never know what the weather will do or what you might discover, so I try to leave a buffer day in my schedule when I can, and today was it.  A nice sunny day at that, too.  I had a few leftovers on my list, and a few places I wanted to revisit with sunnier skies or emptier streets.  And on an impulse I spent a lot more time exploring La Boca than I had planned on.

I headed south on Av. 9 de Julio a few blocks and then west on Av. Bartolome Mitre to check out the area south of Corrientes.  Here I discovered the Basilica Nuestra Señora de la Piedad, a very pretty church that was not marked on my map.  From there I headed for Av. Callao where I once again stopped at La Americana for a breakfast of empanadas before heading back to Palacio del Congreso.  Good morning sunshine for the pictures this time.

Once again I headed east along Av. de Mayo, this time stopping for a couple pictures of Teatro Liceo where Evita once performed.  Some street art where Av. de Mayo crosses Av. 9 de Julio, and over to Plaza de Mayo, with the morning sun now on the Cabildo and nearby buildings.

Then I headed south into San Telmo.  Today I wanted to get a sense of the neighborhood (and some decent pictures) without all the tourists around, so I revisited several of the sites I had visited on Sunday, this time just for the pictures.  This included the sculpture Canto al Trabajo, featuring several workers trying to move a very large rock (I can sometimes relate to that).  I gradually worked my way back down to Parque Lezama and got some pictures of nearby Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa, which I had somehow missed on Sunday. 

On the edge of the park, where Av. Paseo Colon becomes Av. Almirante Brown as it enters Barrio La Boca, is a sculpture and painting of an almost cartoon-like cityscape that I liked.  I snapped a few pictures and then headed down to it for a close-up view.  I then continued a few blocks further down Av. Almirante Brown to see the replica of his house, Casa Amarillo.  That was really all of La Boca I had planned to see, but a sign at Casa Amarillo laid out a walking route that included several sites in addition to its colorful Caminito.  It was still early, so I decided to take the walking tour, even if the map I carried with me did not include La Boca.  Av. Almirante Brown passes through a neighborhood that appeared to be much poorer than the ones I had seen up until now.  In fact, the travel guidebooks I used to plan my sightseeing had strong words of caution about safety in La Boca, especially at night.

Av. Almirante Brown ends at the river Riachuelo, which marks the southeast boundary of Buenos Aires proper.  The river is a working port, but it is also quite polluted, littered with disabled vessels, and - frankly - it smells.  But the streets near the river have been spruced up, leading visitors to the colorful Calle Museo Caminito.  The buildings along and near the Caminito walkway have been painted bright colors - reportedly a carryover from the days of using leftover ship paint for houses - and several works of art line the walkway.  Surrounding buildings have been filled with restaurants, nightclubs and souvenir shops, so the area is bright and colorful and bustling, but it also has the feeling of a tourist trap, the only place I visited in Buenos Aires that felt that way.  Even so, I did enjoy exploring the area, and I did pick up a souvenir.

I stopped for lunch and then began heading back north.  I mis-remembered some local roads in my mind, but ended up at Estadio de Boca Juniors, the stadium where the Boca Juniors soccer club plays.  Because I had been able to see the stadium from Av. Almirante Brown.  I followed the streets through the nearby neighborhood towards that direction until I could see Av. Almirante Brown.

I was soon heading north through San Telmo again, stopping for a few more pictures now that the sun was coming from the west instead of the east.  I toured the Pasaje de la Defensa.  I stopped along Av. Independencia to watch someone filming a scene for a movie or TV show.  Further north I visited General Manuel Belgrano's burial site at Convento Santo Domingo.  It was the cruiser General Belgrano that was memorialized in Ushuaia after being sunk during the Islas Malvinas War.

Next up was the Museo de la Ciudad, which features changing exhibits on aspects of Buenos Aires history and culture.  One of the current features focused on the exterior decorative painting - mostly flowers and scrolls - that adorn Buenos Aires signs and buildings.  Several interesting examples of this historic artwork were on display.  A second feature showcased historic children's toys.  A window display featured a collection of chamber pots.  A small but certainly enjoyable stop.

I continued north a block to Plaza de Mayo, and this time I visited Catedral Metropolitana.  The cathedral dates back to the mid-1700s, although the current structure was built in 1827.  Somewhat nondescript from the outside, the inside is elaborately decorated.  It also has a huge tomb that contains the remains of General Jose de San Martin, the father of Argentina (and Chile and Peru).  His tomb is guarded by soldiers from the regiment that San Martin originally created and trained.

Now all of my planned sightseeing was done.  It was a little early for dinner, so I headed up Calle Florida to check the stores I had picked out on Friday and select my souvenirs for the visit.  I started taking Lavalle back to my hotel, but I came upon a movie theatre playing El Hijo de Chucky - The Seed of Chucky.  I wasn't much into the Chucky series, but this one was supposed to be pretty campy, and I had missed it when it played in the States last year.  It was too early for dinner, so I figured I would take in an Argentina movie-going experience, a taste of everyday life.

It turned out to be pretty cheap.  The 5 pesos ticket, 3 pesos popcorn and 2 pesos diet cola came to about $3.40.  I found a seat inside.  Before the movie began, an older man made the rounds, selling snacks and beverages like someone hawking food at a sports event.  Previews, government certification for audience suitability warnings, and the movie itself otherwise were pretty typical of the U.S. experience - not like the off the wall ads that preceded the movies I saw in Edinburgh a couple years ago.  The movie was about as fun and campy as I could have hoped for.

Back to the hotel to drop off my souvenirs, and then out again to find a restaurant for my last dinner in Buenos Aires.  I went with grilled steak again in a restaurant on Corrientes.  The waiter spoke virtually no English at all, but after several days of this, I have gotten to be pretty good about ordering food in Spanish now.  

After dinner, I walked around some more.  I knew I needed to go back to the room and do some packing, but that would be like admitting that the trip was really drawing to a close, something I really hated to acknowledge.  The sightseeing, the travel connections, the lack of significant language problems, the weather, and so on.  Everything had gone about as smoothly as I could have hoped.

But I did go back.  Part of packing meant unpacking.  Every year or two I replace my socks and underwear, and pitch out the old.  I did that this winter, but saved the old stuff for this trip, figuring I could pitch it out down here to create extra room in my luggage for the trip home.  Copies of travel plans I had brought with me and maps I had made - the originals were all at home, so I no longer needed these.  Magazines and info I had picked up in Buenos Aires.  I ended up filling a garbage bag with stuff that I did not want or need to bring with me back to the states.  I set out two sets of clean clothes for tomorrow, one for daytime, and one for the flight.  I had once again arranged a late check-out, so I did not need to get everything packed tonight, but I had things in pretty good shape by mid-evening.

I went out for an ice cream cone, and to get a last look at Corrientes at night.  A few last nighttime photos and video.

I went to a different bar tonight.  Search, which was having its "telegraph night."  People put on numbered tags, and patrons submit questions that they want to ask some person wearing some number.  A way to put folks on the spot anonymously, as the drag queen hostess actually asks the questions.

Shortly after I got there, a guy named Gabriel started talking to me.  It would be awhile, but he'd eventually admit that he was also a hustler - there seems to be a lot of that in Buenos Aries.  I wasn't interested, but he hung around anyway - I think I was the only tourist in the place - and translated the telegraph game for me (he spoke better English than anyone else I had met in Buenos Aires) in exchange for a couple drinks.  

A drag show got started, featuring the same Miss Piggy act I saw Saturday night at Titanic Club.  About halfway into it, it suddenly stopped, and the performers left the stage.  What was going on?  Gabriel explained that with the disco closures, shows were also prohibited.  Someone had seen a cop approaching, and they needed to make sure that the officer was properly incented to ignore what was going on here.  Because there had been shows every night at Titanic Club when I went there, I would have been skeptical if I hadn't seen the look on the drag queen's face when she suddenly stopped the show.

It must have been 3AM when I finally left.  Again, I did not really want to leave as I was enjoying myself and it was my last night in town, but tomorrow would be another big day.

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Buenos Aires - Final Day

Wednesday February 23 -

My last day.  When I first planned the trip, I had assumed that today would be mostly a travel day.  Even when I got the flight information it did not sink in at first that I would be leaving at night instead of in the morning.  Once I figured that out, I guessed that I would have to check out of the hotel first thing in the morning and keep an eye on my pack and valuables all day, like I did in Auckland last year.  Well, the hotel let me arrange a late checkout.  For free, no less.  So here I had one more day and nothing special planned for it.  I figured that if I got back to the hotel by 3PM, that would give me plenty of time to get cleaned up, to finish packing, and to head out to the airport.  I would have a few hours to spare, but I would use the time to get dinner and work on getting caught up on my journals.

I did sleep in today, but I hit the streets shortly after 10AM.  There was a small group of people at the Obelisco protesting something with a bunch of pseudo-coffins on display, so I watched that a bit before heading on my way.

I had decided that today would be a day to observe Porteños, whatever that meant.  Just watching the locals as they went about their lives and errands in this city.  I figured I would use this as my reason to go back to three spots one last time:  Plaza de Mayo, Plaza San Martin and Calle Florida.  It was a sunny day, but clouds were building in the west.  People were out everywhere, like they've been everyday in this city.

At Plaza de Mayo I got a few more pictures of the Cabildo.  Morning sun again and relatively light traffic, so I got most of the pictures of it that I kept.  I picked a spot on a bench and watched people for awhile.  I think the ethnic mix makes Porteños a rather attractive people in general.  There was relatively little obesity compared to U.S. cities.  Relatively few cell phones being used, so people seemed to be more engaged with their surroundings.  Casual look and style.  But otherwise, just people going about their ordinary business.

I took Calle Florida up to Plaza San Martin.  There was an older tall building there that I hoped might have an observation deck - I like viewing cities from above.  But if it had an observation deck, I did not see a sign for it.  So I crossed the street to Plaza San Martin.  Some flowering trees there were in full bloom, so I shot some close-ups of their flowers - I would come home with a fair number of flower pictures.

I needed to use the bathroom, so I headed for McDonalds on Calle Florida.  After checking a few record stores, I found another restaurant where I got lunch.  Beef Milanesa Napolitana, of course.  A little more people-watching.  I stopped in a CD store to see if they had one CD, and instead ended up buying a copy of what they were playing, "The Very Best of Era" (which is actually playing as I type this).  I liked the sound of a musical group playing on Florida - Kusillajta - so I bought a CD from them, too, after explaining that I wanted one of traditional music and not their recording of pop songs in their Andean folk style.

Time was running out, though.  I headed back to Corrientes.  Rain clouds were definitely coming it.  I felt a few drops, but there was nothing steady yet.  I crossed Av. 9 de Julio and continued west until I reached the heladeria that I had been patronizing almost every night.  One more ice cream cone.  After stumbling through my first order almost a week ago, I could order a cone with authority now:  cuatro cinquente conita "banana split" por favor.

I finished the cone and headed to my hotel.  But I couldn't resist one last picture of the Obelisco to close off my Buenos Aires pictures.  I returned to my room, showered and finished packing.  

I added my tennis shoes to the garbage bag full of stuff I was leaving behind.  That was part of the plan, too, when I brought a pair that was already wearing down  before the trip, and I used them exclusively for all of my Santiago and Buenos Aires hiking.  That was 4 more pounds I dropped from the suitcase weight (yes, I really had planned my suitcase weight to that level for this trip because of the restrictions we were given for the Antarctica charter flight).  I looked up the Spanish word for "garbage"  - "basura" - and wrote it on a notecard that I placed next to the garbage bag full of stuff I was leaving behind.

At 5PM I headed down to the lobby, checked out and took a taxi to the airport.

We made very good time to the airport.  I suppose I was expecting more traffic due to the evening rush hour, but it never materialized.  I got there just as check-in for my flight opened.  I asked to change my seat assignment.  No exit row was available, but at least I got my window seat (there is usually a little extra legroom for at least one leg up against the wall, since when the person in front of you puts their seat back, the arm rests don't go back with it, and I do prefer sleeping/resting on my side (and airplane seatbacks are uncomfortably low for me).

Dinner.  Exchanging most of my Argentinean currency for U.S. currency (our local currency exchange store refuses to deal with Argentinean currency due to its volatility), and figured out ways to spend down the rest of it.  With one last purchase before boarding the plane, I had one small coin left.

A minor annoyance on the flight.  For the 11 hour, overnight, international flight, when I sat down, my knees were flush up against the seat in front of me on this American Airlines plane.  When the woman in front of me tried to put her seat back and immediately ran into my knees, she complained about me to the steward.  His suggestion?  To move me to an aisle seat immediately behind someone else (who no doubt would discover the same problem).  He suggested another less desirable option for me to accommodate the other passenger, which I also turned down.  He did not seem to be too concerned about accommodating my comfort.  Why not move her?  Which the purser (I think) did - to the empty in front of her, which frankly made a whole lot more sense.  No one would be behind her to prevent her from moving her seat back, and no one in front of me to jam their seat into my knees.  U.S. airlines put information about deep vein thrombosis in airline seat pockets now, and yet they are pretty stingy with what really helps prevent DVT on long flights - legroom.  

The purser later suggested that I ask for exit row seating in the future.  Gee, I wish I had thought of that.

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Arriving Home, Final Thoughts

Thursday February 24 -

We had a fair amount of air turbulence during our flight, especially over Brazil and again as we approached Texas.  During breakfast (which I skipped), a particularly strong rightward jolt spilled beverages and brought loud gasps and exclamations from several passengers.  Good grief.  These folks wouldn't last an hour in the Drake Passage.

We got to Dallas shortly after six in the morning, and after getting my suitcase - it was the last one off the plane - I moved through customs quickly.  I originally wasn't supposed to have much time on the ground, but when I got my tickets I found that I had been rescheduled on a later flight to Seattle, so I had plenty of time to kill.  I found a restaurant and got breakfast.  Read the paper.  Walked around the airport a bit.  Wrote in my journal.  Finally it was time to head to Seattle.

I did not get a window seat, but I did have the width of four fingers of legroom (!!!) on this domestic American flight.  The lack of the window seat was particularly unfortunate because we had great weather for much of the flight.  Especially for our approach to Seattle where Window Seat A had outstanding views of the volcanoes of the Cascade Range (I was in Seat B).  We even circled downtown Seattle and got the best views of that I have ever had on a flight.  Had I been in the window seat, I would have taken lots of pictures, as it just doesn't get any better than what we had.  The person in Seat A did take a couple pictures of Mt. Rainier for me with my camera.

I collected my suitcase and took a taxi home.  Because of the bump to a later flight, I missed the start of a staff meeting, but I e-mailed a colleague and was then pulled into the meeting about 20 minutes late.  My truly fantastic trip was over.

In 1991, I took my first mega-vacation, a month-long road trip around the western U.S.  At the time I called it the trip of a lifetime, but since then I have had several mega-vacations, including 3 more western road trips.  That 1991 trip changed a lot about me, my interests (especially in the desert southwest and in road trips in general, and it even included my introduction to Seattle), my approach to travel, and my love of travel.  It was truly a life-altering experience.  In that sense, I don't think I could ever top that trip.  After all, my Antarctica trip in many ways was simply just one consequence of that 1991 trip.

But except for my 1991 western road trip, I consider this to be my best trip ever.  With so many flights, border crossings, countries, currencies, the mix of tour and loner travel, and my lack of a working knowledge of Spanish, there could have been any of a number of travel complications.  Or I could even have found that I did not think much of some of the places I saw.  But not only did absolutely nothing go wrong, I really don't see how any of it could have gone any more right than it did.  Heck, I even had 24 days of good weather.  During the 1991 trip, my car ended up in the shop one day, it was broken into the next, and I came down with pneumonia the day after I got back, so that trip had its flaws.

It will be hard to top this trip, especially because of the Antarctica component.  But I love to travel, so I will certainly have to try.

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Souvenirs

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Nightlife

If you have ever wondered what Santiago and Buenos Aires have in common with Iceland, it is the nightlife.  In all three places, people don't head out on the town until it is late.  Very late.  If you arrive before midnight, you will get bored - you may not even find the place open.  Decent crowds by 2 AM, earlier on weeknights.  I am not sure why it starts so late in these places.

A key differentiator was the entertainment.  All but one of the gay bars I went to in both Santiago and Buenos Aires featured decent drag performers and strippers, that, well, stripped.

Most of the gay bars I found in both cities were quite nondescript from the outside.  If I did not have addresses, I would have walked right by most of them.  Buenos Aires, especially in the parts I was in, seemed to be fairly gay-friendly (even the locals refer to nearby Av. Santa Fe as Av. Santa Gay), but the bars were still mostly hidden in plain sight.

Santiago

Gay nightlife seems to be mostly concentrated in a few blocks of the Bellavista neighborhood.

Ushuaia

We returned to Ushuaia early enough that some of us got off the ship and headed for a local straight bar that evening.  Although my original plan had me checking out the nightlife the following night on my own, I decided to skip it and get some sleep instead.

Buenos Aires

On December 30, 2004, a fire at a popular Buenos Aires nightclub, the Republica Cromagnon, killed about 200 people.  One consequence was that most discos in the city were closed down pending review of the city's fire code for such establishments and inspections of the facilities.  The discos were still closed when I was in town, although some news reports suggested that they might start reopening by the end of February.

Buenos Aires is famous for its nightlife, but the closures pretty much limited the nightlife options while I was in town, it created some peculiar situations for a couple of the places I visited, and several Porteños I met complained about it, venting their growing frustration with a government they saw as both overreacting and moving too slowly to address the situation.

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