Patagonia Summary & Crossing the Antarctic Convergence!

Just in! Notes from Jim Fornshell!

Hi, all!

We have now spent three full days about the incredible and incredibly luxurious Prince Albert II as we steamed our way east to South Georgia -- truly wonderful. Here's a quick overview of our fist week in Patagonia, and then some descriptions of the past few days. Please know that around 4:30 am on Monday morning we crossed the famed Antarctic Convergence -- the watery boundary that marks the true chemical and zoological border between Antarctica and the rest of the world. The air temperature remained steady at a relatively mild 7 degrees (C), but the water temp dropped below 4 degrees. So now we're truly in the South Polar region!

Our first week of the Mars/Hotchkiss Expedition gave us a chance to explore the natural and cultural wonders of Patagonia. Our flight down from Santiago took us over the Andes, where we saw lots of jagged peaks and distinct volcanoes. Lots were capped in snow and ice.

We divided our time in Patagonia between the towns of Punta Arenas (Sandy Point), which is right on the Strait of Magellan, and Puerto Natales, a small city three hours northwest, which serves as the staging area for the wonderful Torres del Paines National Park. The wind was up when we arrived -- the Strait was frothy with whitecaps. We need to have Roger Rawlings consider holding the sailing team's spring training down here! You can look south across the Strait and see the north shore of Tierra del Fuego. Punta Arenas is a nice, bustling town -- a mixture of very modern, angular buildings and more traditional homes and shops. Sheepherding and cattle ranching are big businesses here, so we had a chance to visit estancias (ranches) and see sheepshearing, herding with well-trained dogs, horsemanship, and cattle herding. Grilled lamb is the food of choice here, and we had lots of it! Our visit to the impressive Olga Teresa Estancia really showcased gaucho culture.

We spent two days up in Puerto Natales, a small city which hugs the shore of Esperanza Ultima (Last Hope) Sound. From there we explored a park devoted to the excavations of a mylodon cave -- a huge cave where the world's best-preserved remains of the ancient mylodon have been found. The mylodon, a giant ground sloth about the size of a grizzly bear that ate only plants, lived at the same time as the wooly mammoths. We also toured the huge Torres del Paine National Park, Chile's version of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Tetons all rolled into one. We saw our first iceberg there! The park borders the Paine Massif Ice Field, which sends down a series of glaciers towards the huge lakes encompassed by the park. Lago Grey's northern end has a glacier spilling into it, and occasionally, icebergs break off and drift to the southern end. We hiked to that area and saw a berg with its oddly blue hue which had run aground. The water in the lake was milky due to minerals held in suspension. The hike out involved our crossing a swinging suspension bridge that spanned a raging rapids. Our resident ornithologist spotted a torrent duck --a relatively rare sight -- which manages to live in those crazy, racing waters.

We also visted the stunning Salto Grande (Great Waterfall) -- a giant cataract from the waters of Lago Nordenskjold as they plunge into Lago Pehoe. The roar, the mists, the force were all overwhelming. The wind was intense here, and kids played around, leaping into the air, opening their parkas spread-eagle style, and getting blown away!

We also saw the park's famous peaks -- the Horns, which looked like something designed to be the evil lair of a villain in Lord of the Rings, and the Towers, huge crooked fingers of granite.

The big animal sightings including the Andean Condor and guanacos -- the wildest of the camelids (the llama family).

Our second day in Puerto Natales was filled with a boat trip up the sound to visit a hanging glacier. The cruise took us past a cliff where cormorant nested, another rocky shelf where sea lions hauled out, and a cliff where condors nested. We docked in a little cove off the sound and hiked up a path that traversed the terminal moraine of the glacier to its base. The densely compressed ice held that unique bluish hue, and streams gushed out to the lake below.

After that we returned to the harbor, boarded our buses and returned to Punta Arenas. That night we celebrated New Year's Eve in a grand old hotel that hosted an amazing New Year's dinner. A & K then directed us downstairs to our own private party room where we danced 'til 1:30! The first day of the New Year had us visiting a ranch and then introduced us to our first penguins! We toured a Magellanic Penguin colony outside of Punta Arenas. Our walk through the area took past their underground burrows and down to the shore where we saw them splashing in the surf. I know we'll see hundreds of thousands of penguins in the coming days, but we still took tons of pictures.

The next day had us flying across Tierra del Fuego to the port town of Ushuaia to meet the Prince Albert II. This incredible ship and its attentive staff have been showering us with luxuries and kindness. The weather was calm as we sailed down the Beagle Channel and began our three-day passage to South Georgia. The days were filled with lectures on geology, ornithology, marine zoology, and history. We have been followed by Wandering Albatrosses, Black-browed Albatrosses, Giant Petrels, Wilson's Storm Petrels. They glide along for hours without flapping a wing -- really mesmerizing. We have been keeping an eye out for whales, our first iceberg, seals, and penguins.

Things began to get terribly exciting yesterday as we passed super close to Shag and Black Rocks -- suddenly bird and marine life was everywhere. Seals and penguins swam next to the ship, porpoising through the waves. Blue-eyed shags, albatrosses, petrels, filled the air. People spotted whales spouts in the distance. The rocks -- really the tops of very tall underwater mountains -- just leap out of the water.

We steamed on and early this morning arrived at South Georgia. The island is home to huge colonies of fur seals, elephant seals, penguins and other birds. Our first venture was by zodiac only -- these shores are too full of aggressive seals to make a landing possible. Later this afternoon we'll go ashore near Grytviken, the old whaling station, to see other penguins and pay our respects to Ernest Shackleton, who is buried there.

We are well, we are in awe of this region, and we think of you. Can't wait to send along some photos. Hope they're making it to the blog. Cheers!

- Jim