December 2013 cruise review with many pictures

[scubacruiserx2]

That would make one beautiful picture framed and hanging on a wall somewhere in your house! Your pictures are beautiful!!! I am going in March and hope to get some wonderful pictures also. I hope we have the beautiful weather you had. Thanks....I am enjoying your posts.

 

Thank you cormike1 !!! Wow a B2B sounds great ! We hope that you have good weather as well. It was about 50/50 for us but is was great on December 8th!

[scubacruiserx2]

After leaving the glaciers behind , most of the people left the topside of the ship to go downstairs for the lecture on Darwin or for warmer places . Even my Michigander wife was getting cold on the aft section where we were tucked out of the wind. It had been several hours in sub-freezing weather so she headed out for some hot chocolate . I was transfixed at the beauty and keep on shooting photos. It was great when she brought me a warm drink !

 

 

She really wanted to warm up but I stayed . It seemed like I was on a ghost ship and everyone was missing the show astern ! This shot was a single photo with a wide angle lens , cropped for effect.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the North side in the no wake zone

 

 

 

 

 

Note how the reflection of the peaks have been twisted by the wake wavelets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I considered this to be a perfect reflection of the sky , clouds and mountains on the North side . Another single shot cropped for effect

 

 

 

 

 

 

This video will give you a great panorama of the whole confluence:

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

While down on a lower deck aft I was really enjoying the day with just my cameras

 

 

 

Upon sighting a waterfowl I changed cameras to the one with the telephoto mounted for a close up

 

 

 

 

 

With the bird still visible in the lower right corner , I observed some strange colors and shapes in the water

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zooming in I really enjoyed what the wake was doing to the shape and texture of the water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was like some visual paradox

 

 

 

[J-D]

Spectacular photos! I would guess that the bird in the wake is a Black-browed Albatross, but need a closer view to be sure. Your photos bring back a lot of memories of our two (actually 2.5 -- a long story) cruises along your approximate itinerary.

 

John

[scubacruiserx2]

Spectacular photos! I would guess that the bird in the wake is a Black-browed Albatross, but need a closer view to be sure. Your photos bring back a lot of memories of our two (actually 2.5 -- a long story) cruises along your approximate itinerary.

 

John

 

We are going to see some incredible wildlife coming up in Ushuaia ! We would love to here about your trips sometime John . In the meantime we have a few parting images of this pristine area .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forward to Ushuaia !

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last video clip of this amazing scenery !!!

 

 

 

 

[J-D]

We are going to see some incredible wildlife coming up in Ushuaia ! We would love to here about your trips sometime John . In the meantime we have a few parting images of this pristine area .

 

I don't want to distract from your excellent travelogue by interjecting comments about our trips. Looking forward to your photos from the Ushuaia area. I am guessing you went on the catamaran trip around the islands and lighthouse--we have done that twice.

 

John

[scubacruiserx2]

We had some great memories of Ushuaia . A romantic dinner of Centolla for two at Kaupe .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A cruise around the harbor with friends

 

 

 

 

A mountaintop view from The Martial Glacier .

 

 

 

 

 

And just being at "The end of the world and the beginning of everything ".

 

 

 

 

 

So we felt ready - for round 2.

[scubacruiserx2]

To herald our arrival in Argentina the Navy sent out a "reception committee" ( you did remember to pay your reciprocity fee , didn't you ? ).

 

 

 

 

 

Passing the airport

 

 

 

 

 

The AIDA cara had arrived before us

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were only in port from 2pm until 7:30 so we had to move quick . The plan was to withdraw money , grab a cab to the chairlift at the glacier and a quick dinner or a boat trip around the harbor.

 

 

 

 

Because it was a Sunday we found that almost every thing was closed - including the glacier !

 

 

Walking around the streets looking for a bank was confusing because of the signage

 

 

 

The first 2 ATM's that we tried were out of cash. We hit pay dirt with #3 . I think these are the ships that John spoke of. We had inquired at a kiosk on the way out to the city and their harbor cruise left at 3 pm and lasted 4 hours .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

After a couple of quick photos , we chose the harbor cruise instead of dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quickly returning to the kiosk we bought some of the last tickets for the English speaking tour . The rest of the passengers were German with many speaking English.

 

 

 

 

 

Soon we were boarded and on the way !! The tour that were on was a much smaller boat than the catamarans

 

 

 

 

They were able to get very close to the islands

 

[dallascruiser]

Thank you so much for such a wonderful cruise review, your pictures are absolutely magnificent. We are planning a B2B in 2016 on Celebrity and your photos have only confirmed our choice!

 

Thank you again for shaing with us,

Linda

[scubacruiserx2]

Thank you so much for such a wonderful cruise review, your pictures are absolutely magnificent. We are planning a B2B in 2016 on Celebrity and your photos have only confirmed our choice!

 

Thank you again for shaing with us,

Linda

 

Thanks Linda , South America is an excellent choice !! We have looked at Antarctica on Celebrity but we may just go land based and see the Falklands with their 5 types of penguins . Patagonia is a magnificent region but prone to strong wind and changing weather . We were truly blessed with a chamber of commerce day when we cruised Glacier Alley and Ushuaia . Our guide on the harbor cruise told us that the port had been closed the day before - forcing the cancellation of the previous cruise that was scheduled to visit there. The sunny weather definitely improves the quality of the photos !!

[scubacruiserx2]

Before we could view most of the wildlife we had to pass our stately ship The Zaandam .

 

 

 

 

Our first viewing would be the Sea Lions of Alice Island . When we arrived these two jumped in the water to swim away from the boat

 

 

 

 

It was funny to see the different reactions of the Sea Lions to our presence:

 

 

 

Some snoozed (reminding me that it was nap time)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some were bored

 

 

 

 

 

Others shared some affection

 

 

 

 

 

 

While some were downright snooty !!!

 

 

[Floridiana]

Great photos again!

The red ship goes to Antarctica I believe.

[J-D]

Great sea lion photos. And the gull with the very bright red bill and legs is a Dolphin Gull, Larus scoresbii (Spanish name Gaviota austral). Looking forward to your next installment...

 

John

[scubacruiserx2]

Wow J-D and Floridiana you guys are great ! Somebody is doing their homework . The red ship does go to Antarctica .

 

 

 

 

http://www.polarcruises.com/antarctica/ships/expedition-ships/expedition

 

 

In hindsight , I wish that we have planned more . Maybe we should have went to Antarctica when we were there. Stay tuned J-D more wildlife on the way !

[scubacruiserx2]

It was early summer so there were many moms and pups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also some Imperial Cormorants present on the island

 

 

 

 

 

It was difficult to get some quality photos and video because of the continuously moving boat

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was starting to get crowded

 

 

 

 

 

So we and our sister KAMS boat moved on to our next destination.

 

 

 

[J-D]

In the first of the most recent four photos, the gull in the foreground of the first "mom and pup" sea lion photo is a young Dolphin Gull -- not as colourful as the adult in an earlier photo.

 

The cormorants in the 3rd and 4th photos are again Imperial Cormorants, Phalacrocorax atriceps. That species has a westerly form sometimes described as the "Blue-eyed Cormorant" and an easterly form, the "King Cormorant". The Imperial Cormorant was the most common species of cormorant that we saw on small-boat cruises near Ushuaia, but you probably also saw another species, the Rock Cormorant, on at least one of the islands there. Male Rock Cormorants have an all-black neck with a white patch behind the eye.

 

The gull in the left foreground of the final (4th) photo is, I believe, a Kelp Gull, Larus dominicanus (in Spanish, Gaviota dominicana) -- a widespread species at southern latitudes. In New Zealand it is called the Black-backed Gull.

 

John

[scubacruiserx2]

After a long ride (about 30 minutes) we came to Sea Lions Island . There really wasn't much going on there except 1 swimmer near the blue pointer

 

 

 

 

It was interesting to see the Cormorants nesting so close to the sleeping Sea Lions

 

 

 

 

 

At Birds' Island the most action that we observed was the arrival of our boats

 

 

 

 

 

But it is a pretty island

 

 

 

And the nests were well populated

 

 

 

And we had a great view of our next visit Les Eclaireurs lighthouse .

 

 

[Floridiana]

Your photos make me feel that I have to put the area back on my bucket list. :D

 

How did I know the red ship goes to Antarctica? ;)

I am reading another trip report. It's in German but has lots of photos of Antarctica. This guy went with a ship half the size of the red one. It's the smallest of the ships at the pier and a sister ship to the one that later in the year got stuck in the ice.

[J-D]

Of the most recent photos (in post #118), the first photo has two of the previously mentioned Kelp Gulls near the right side.

 

The 3rd photo has a Rock Cormorant, Phalacrocorax magellanicus, Cormoran de las Rocas in Spanish (sometimes known as the Magellan Cormorant), with its distinctive black neck, posed (appropriately) on the rock near the right foreground. In this particular Rock Cormorant, the white face patch is not visible. The abundant cormorants in various photos are again Imperial Cormorants.

 

The 2nd-last photo has an interesting large predatory bird perched at top centre--I will not venture a guess about its identity. Many skuas (predatory birds related to gulls) make their living eating eggs and chicks in these Beagle Channel seabird colonies, but I am not certain that this bird is a skua.

 

John

Edited February 11, 2014 by J-D

[Floridiana]

J-D, you would have been a great person on our cruise.

[scubacruiserx2]

J-D, you would have been a great person on our cruise.

 

And ours !

[scubacruiserx2]

Les Eclaireurs lighthouse is considered to be a symbol of Ushuaia .

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Eclaireurs_Lighthouse

 

As we moved in that direction our sister ship arrived first and started to circle the lighthouse

 

 

 

We waited our turn giving us a chance to take some pictures with the sun at our back and a calm sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After circling the light house we found some nice color and birds

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The one with the orange beak really stood out in the crowd

 

 

 

 

After moving a little further we found some great birds - A pair of Kelp Geese

 

 

 

 

 

 

The male is on the left with the darker female on the right . A little farther along on the cliffs , we found nesting Rock ( Magellan) Cormorants .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Including one with a chick !

 

 

 

 

 

The faster ships had caught up to us and it was beginning to get crowded again

 

 

 

 

 

So we headed out to our last stop on the tour - Bridges Island .

[J-D]

...After circling the light house we found some nice color and birds

 

The last photo in post #123 and the first in post #124 (Imperial Cormorants) clearly show them to be the "eastern" King Cormorant form of this species, with the black area extending relatively far down the side of the face, below the eye level. Also, very nice photos of the Kelp Geese and Rock Cormorants.

 

I am inspired by your photos to want to get back to southern S. America (and the Falklands). However, there are so many other interesting places that we have not previously visited that we also want to see!

 

John

Edited February 12, 2014 by J-D