Antarctica souvenir

Day 34, Antarctica

From floating behemoths of ice to dormant volcanoes, creatures on land and in the sea, atmospheric diversity and cold waters that both nourish and challenge life, Antarctica is truly remarkable....
The region has long been a source of food and minerals, a void in scientific knowledge, a land of peace, and a lab to monitor global climate change.

We simply love the wildlife here....but brrrr. it is starting to get reallly cold now......

Suddenly a majestic iceberg comes into view.....

What a brrrrreathtaking sight...

Did you know that Antarctica is the most isolated continent on the planet with six million square miles of wilderness harbouring untold secrets??

An ice sheet covers all but 2.4 per cent of Antarctica's 14 million square kilometres, encompassing 70 percent of all the world's fresh water.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest continent. The world's record low temperature of -89.2 degrees Celsius and gusts of nearly 90 metres per second have been recorded there.

We have now put on layers and layers of clothing and our rubber boots...we are going on a Zodiac cruise...between the icebergs......brrrilliant sight says Sita....teeth chattering......we all agrrrreee...

Oh, this is absolutely amazing.......surreal....

We are going to make a shore landing and then hike to the research station.

What an unforgettable experience:-))

This place is so awesome...it would have simply blown our friend Prasad's mind away!:
http://www.posti.fi/postimerkkikeskus/preservethepolarregionsandglaciers.html

We return to our ship and after a hearty meal we retire to the deck.....and

then ....wait a minute...what's this??
We have been blessed with the most amazing sight!!! The Southern Lights!

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With the signing of the Protocol of Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty it is hoped that Antarctica will remain a wonder for those who set foot here, a dream for those who have yet to venture here and a source of inspiration and hope for humankind.

Day 33, Antarctica

We loved the penguins.......now I wonder what we will see next?

Oh wow!!! Guess what we have just spotted? A Southern Right Whale!

The guys saw one in Hermanus, South Africa, and now its our turn:-)

Our guide informs us that the total population is estimated to be around 12000 animals.

Since hunting of the Southern Right Whale ceased, stocks are estimated to have grown by 7% a year. It appears that the South American, South African and Australasian groups intermix very little, if at all, because the fidelity of a mother to its feeding and calving habitats is very strong. The mother also passes these instincts to her calves.

The Southern Right Whale, listed as "endangered" by CITES, is protected in the jurisdictional waters of all countries with known breeding populations (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay)

Oh, wow, our own Humpback Whale show!!! All of us are in awe of these gigantic animals!

PLEASE STOP WHALE HUNTING NOW!!!

www.wspa-international.org

Day 33, the South Pole ( Antarctica)

My friends have no idea as to where we are off to next...some of them believed that we were headed for Europe....they were not listening to me when I said that our ice-strengthened ship awaits!

When we boarded a plane for southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia, the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego they all assumed that we were going to tango in Buenos Aires.....

It only dawned upon them that we were going some place really cold when I insisted on all of us having warm clothing.........

Yes, you guessed right, our ship to Antarctica awaits!

As we cross the Antarctic convergence, the temperature plummets drastically.....and as we pass the different islands we see different types of penguins........well girls, I did promise you that you will see penguins:-)....and more than one type......

oh, they are so adorable....like little men in tuxedos:-)))

The guide aboard our ship taught us to identify the different types of penguins.

The Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) is a type of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast and its nearby islands and are among most southerly distributed of all seabirds.

The Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) is a species of penguin which is found in the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica, the South Orkneys, South Shetland, South Georgia, Bouvet Island and Balleny.

Their name derives from the narrow black band under their heads which makes it appear as if they are wearing black helmets, making them one of the most easily identified types
of penguin.

Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica.

Yes, we all remember Mumble from the movie Happy Feet .
The movie features Emperor Penguins as its primary characters depicting their life cycle and promoting an underlying serious environmental message of threats from global warming and depletion of food sources by overfishing.

Oh, here we go ...not the tango......but tap dancing on board the ship;-).... Nopi is teaching Feroz how to dance! Wow, who knew that Feroz had such great rhythm??