The Story of our trip to Rio, Iguazu, and the Antarctica with the MV FRAM, Feb. 09

[caramelo]

The orientation tour was very good as we got to see some panoramic views of the town and we also could see the location of the main places of interest for us to go back and find them later. The local guide was very efficient and explained us a lot about the place.

 

In the background of this panoramic photo, on the right hand side, you can see the airport, recognizable by the sloping glass roof:

 

 

And in this photo you can also see the airport, not so clearly as it is further away, but the runway is just behind it .......... and you can calculate the size of this as you can see where the land begins on the left hand side and where it finishes on the right, so then you can calculate the total length! :

 

 

Other panoramic views of the town:

 

 

And its beautiful mountains in the background:

 

 

[caramelo]

The bus parked and left us very close to the Port, where we got our first images of our ship. Just beside it was docked the ship Carnaval Splendor which is a very large ship, so our ship beside it looked absolutely tiny!

 

 

 

 

We were very lucky with the weather as we had a lovely sunny day and seemingly there are only about 8 sunny days with no clouds each year and about 25 sunny days with some clouds and the rest can be rainy days, and we managed to get one of the 25 days!

 

We started taking photos of the ship and of the sign “Ushuaia, Fin del Mundo” (“Ushuaia, End of the World”) which is to be found directly reside the Port.

 

 

 

 

Then we went to the Tourist Office, again just in front of the Port, where we could get the stamp for our passport:

 

[caramelo]

Ushuaia is a very easy town to see on your own, as nearly everything is concentrated in just one main street which is quite long, so you really don´t even need a map, just find and go along the street called “San Martín”.

 

 

It is a vert touristy town, maybe too much for the like of some people, but personally I loved it and I didn´t have time left over from the 5 hours which we had of free time to see it. I spent a lot of time taking photos of all the funny signs showing the distances to the other countries, and of penguins, etc. etc.

 

 

 

I even came across this Penguin selling Penguin cuddly toys:

 

 

and this one, jejeje:

 

 

These are images of the main street “San Martin”:

 

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

 

Passing by the different shop windows, we saw how they were roasting some meat and we couldn´t resist the temptation so we had lunch at the “Moustacchio” Restaurant:

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

We had the lamb done in the local style and it was really delicious and was very reasonably priced, being the equivalent of about 10€ per person.

 

 

 

It was quite funny as we were writing our postcards to send from the “End of the World” and we were using a pen which we had got from a cruise on one of the Costa ships, and if any of you know these Costa ship pens they are coloured yellow and blue which are the Costa colours. When the waiter saw my pen he was delighted and he told us that he himself was born in Buenos Aires, in the “Boca” area, where the famous football ground is, as that was where Maradona played, and the Boca colours are Yellow and Blue. When I saw that he was so enthusiastic about the pen I decided to give the pen to him.

 

After lunch we went to the post office to send our postcards. This is the post office building with a painted mural of the old jail and its prisoners:

 

 

 

 

We continued along the San Martín street looking at the different shops etc., and I bought some souvenirs:

 

 

 

Some of the clothes shops were funny:

 

 

[caramelo]

And another amusing sign:

 

 

 

And again the distances between the “End of the World”, Ushuaia and other countries:

 

One side:

 

 

And from the other side:

 

 

 

We also saw the sightseeing bus for Ushuaia:

 

 

 

When we were finished seeing everything, we looked for a supermarket as we wanted to buy some wine, beer and water for use in our cabin on board the ship, as we understood that, unlike other cruise ships, there is less entertainment at night on the ship, so at least this way we could enjoy a drink in our cabin at nights. It was quite funny as we found a lot of the ship passengers in this supermarket, all with exactly the same idea as us!!!

 

 

 

We returned to our coach bus, seeing our ship on the way, and we checked in at about 5pm:

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED....... the start of the Antarctic Expedition…………..

[MMDown Under]

Thank you for your photos and comments, which add so much to your journey.

 

I'm really enjoying your thread.

[caramelo]

The check-in was done very quickly directly and without queues in the reception area of the ship and within less than half an hour we had finished all the different procedures: the check-in itself, registering the credit card, we saw the ship´s doctor to give him our medical certificates which stated that we were capable physically of doing an expedition trip of this kind, and we collected our jackets and a book about the Antarctica which were given to us as a present from the Hurtigruten company.

The ship was much nicer than we had expected and it is practically new as it was inaugurated in 2.007.

The cabins, which we know were going to be small and basic and ours which was the most inferior category, but they were much more practical and comfortable than we thought, as there were 4 wardrobes with 2 doors with a lot of storage spacenand there was an area to store the suitcases out of the way where they didn´t disturb us, and even if they don´t look like it but the beds were actually really comfortable and we slept very well (except for the Drake Passage and that wasn´t the fault of the beds!). The photos make the cabins look basic but they were really quite comfortable.

 

An interior cabin:

[caramelo]

And an exterior one:

 

 

And these are some of the instalations and comunal areas of the ship:

 

 

 

And this picture reminded us of our destination:

 

 

This was one of my favourite areas, the Observation Lounge, which was really confortable, and you could sit and watch the glaciers and icebergs from inside nice and warm without having to go outside in the cold, and there were telescopes etc. The ship is extremely well prepared for this purpose:

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

The reception area:

 

 

 

Can you imagine sitting here watching the icebergs with the cold outside and here nice and cosy reside the fireplace!!!

 

[caramelo]

The gymnasium:

 

 

 

The restaurant:

 

 

And other areas:

 

 

 

[caramelo]

The internet corner:

 

 

 

 

 

 

For an Expedition type of ship it is really very nice and well equipped.

 

 

 

At approximately 7:20pm the ship departed from Ushuaia.

 

You could read the painting on the wall “Ushuaia fin del mundo principio de todo – Ushuaia end of the world beginning of everything”

 

 

 

 

 

We left the Carnival Splendor behind in Ushuaia:

 

 

[caramelo]

And leaving Ushuaia we passed the Star Princess which was arriving:

 

 

 

At 8:45pm we had the emergency drill. We had done this many times on other ships but this time it was different as being an expedition trip and not a normal cruise there is more risk, so there were important things which we needed to know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 9:30 we had the welcome cocktail with the Captain and the presentation of the chips staff:

 

 

 

And the Expedition Team:

 

 

 

We were very tired and we were also feeling the ship´s movement, although we were very lucky as we had waves of only 4 to 5 meters when in this area it is normal to have double so high. Even so, as it is a smaller ship you notice more the movement.

[caramelo]

Wednesday, the 25th of February.

 

A day at sea crossing the Drake Passage.

 

 

I was afraid before starting this trip because of what I had read about the “Dreaded Drake Passage” and the images which I had seen on internet, where you can have waves of up to 10m etc., like this one which is NOT one of my photos:

 

 

 

They say that “The Drake Pasaje is the price that one pays to visit the Antarctica, you pay it in 2 installments, one on the way there and one on the way back, and that some pay a higher price than other”, but I must say that were were exterrmy lucky and had to pay a very low price!!!

 

We took advantage of these days to use the washing machines on the ship to wash the clothes which we had used on the trip before arriving, in Rio, Iguazu etc. The washing area was perfect. There are 4 washing machines and plenty of dryers. All you needed was a token (coin) which cost 1,50€ for a complete wash and dry. The rest of the day we spent getting to know the ship, and we used the internet a little. That night we slept better than the previous one.

 

Thursday, the 26th of February.

 

When we got up the movement of the ship was a lot better and there was a lovely blue sky.

 

We had an obligatory talk which lasted about 90 minutes about the instructions, rules and behaviour ashore on land to respect the animals and their environment. For example you can not go closer that 5 meters towards the penguins…… but there is no rule to say that they can not come to you….. in that case you just sit quiet and wait and they generally come!

 

At 4pm the ship arrived and anchored at the “Half Moon” Island.

 

 

The location of Half Moon Island:

 

 

 

Our Daily Programme aboard the ship on the day of Half Moon Island:

 

 

 

These were our first sightings of the glaciers arriving towards the island:

 

 

 

[caramelo]

And the images from incide the ship in the Observation Lounge:

 

 

 

We arrived at the point where the ship drops its anchor and from there these were the views of Half Moon Island:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In total we were divided into 8 groups of 32 persons and were called over the ships interphone with small intervals between each group. For example they called first group one, then an interval,group 2, interval, group three and then a break of half an hour, and then the groups 4, 5 y 6 with intervals and another break in between, and our group was the last, number 8, so we were called at 7pm.

 

The first day when you go ashore you need a lot more time because you don´t know how everything works and you also take time to find out the right size for your boots etc., for example I normally take the European shoe size 39 but considering that I had 2 pairs of heavy socks on well I first tried one size larger, size 40, too big, then 39, 38 and finally my correct size was actually a 37, but all this takes a lot of time

 

 

The boots are kept in a communal area, and you take one pair of your size and in their place you leave your normal shoes, and when you come back afterwards then you collect your shoes and place the boots back in their place.

 

Here is a list of the different sizes according to the different countries:

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

You go ashore in small motor boats called “Polar Cirkel” which are stronger and easier to get in and out of than the zodiac boats as you have handrails etc.

 

 

 

 

 

In the end were were amongst the last 4 people to go on land, at 7.15pm. We had one hour until 8:15pm to go and see what we wanted. There were areas limited off with cones (like traffic cones) marking the areas where we couldn´t pass and one of the Expedition Team was always there to inform us of where we could go and what we could find in each different area. The information was always very complete

 

Our first image was seeing loads of penguins, most of them were very quiet and still and didn´t move much, but just watched us, but there were some who were walking in the typical funny walk that penguins have, they were so funny waddling and jumping down from the different levels of the rocks. There aren´t any words to explain what we felt at that moment.

 

 

We mainly saw the “chinstrap” penguins, the name is quite obvious and comes from the black line which goes from one side of his FACE to the other below his nose which makes it look that he is smiling! :

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

 

And with the ice in the background:

 

 

And then we saw some seals in the distance.

 

 

With a penguin watching them

 

[caramelo]

This looks like somebody skubadiving …… but it is actually a seal:

 

 

 

 

And we saw some Skua birds (enemy of the penguins):

 

 

 

 

Later there was a couple of penguins who started to walk from far away towards us, but they were so funny how they walked, and they came so close that they nearly touched our legs passing by us. You can not appreciate this from the photos but it was a very special moment.

 

 

 

 

 

We not only saw the “chinstrap” penguins but also saw some “Gentoo” penguins and you can tell the difference by the orange coloured feet and beak:

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

Before we left, I saw this image which I liked of the penguin reside the old boat:

 

 

 

And even better with our ship, the MV Fram, in the background:

 

 

 

Every passenger went back to the ship with a smile of happiness on their faces.

 

 

Before entering back onto the ship our boots were disinfected:

 

 

 

 

We had a shower and went for dinner and afterwards enjoyed a relaxing time looking a tour photos and video and preparing for the following day…… the adventure had only just begun!

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED ……………………

[MMDown Under]

Just love to see "Caramelo" appear.

 

Thanks for all your beautiful photos and informative comments, as always.

 

Appreciated all the photos of the ship, as I have a particular interest in the MV Fram. I first became interested in cruising to Antarctica, when an officer on our Norwegian Coastal Voyage told me they were going to start cruises to the Chillean Fjords and Antarctica the following year.

[MMDown Under]

Just a question re the date of your cruise. Were you happy with the date you chose to cruise? Would you consider an earlier in the season date?

[caramelo]

Dear MM Downunder,

 

We can very much recommend the ship and the company. For us they were very professional and the ship is one of the best for this area and type of trip.

 

We were the very last trip of the season and at first we were also worried as to whether this would be bad dates or not, but you will see from the rest of the story......there´s still a lot to come....... that we were extreemly lucky with the weather and got to do the maximum amount of landings and saw so many penguins, icebergs, seals, elephant seals, etc., that we were in the end I think one of the luckiest groups of the season.....for us the dates were great.......... but maybe this is not always so......

 

The next instalment will be sooooooooooooon, and its a nice one (even if I say it myself!)

 

:)

[MMDown Under]

Dear MM Downunder,

 

We can very much recommend the ship and the company. For us they were very professional and the ship is one of the best for this area and type of trip.

 

We were the very last trip of the season and at first we were also worried as to whether this would be bad dates or not, but you will see from the rest of the story......there´s still a lot to come....... that we were extreemly lucky with the weather and got to do the maximum amount of landings and saw so many penguins, icebergs, seals, elephant seals, etc., that we were in the end I think one of the luckiest groups of the season.....for us the dates were great.......... but maybe this is not always so......

 

The next instalment will be sooooooooooooon, and its a nice one (even if I say it myself!)

 

:)

 

Thank you so much for your kind response, which is much appreciated.

 

I know I liked the company, when we did our Norwegian Coastal Voyage, and would feel safe with them.

 

Delighted to hear you were lucky with the weather, so got the maximum amount of landings. Weather is so unpredictable in that part of the world.

 

I'm enjoying your journey and soooooooooooo looking forward to your next episode. Thanks once again for sharing your experiences.

[snowbird1]

Love all the pictures and information. I had always thought about the Fram so you information is good. Now after doing more research I see there are others that go to Georgia Island as well but the cost seems to be a lot higher. I would probably be going as a single and currently I am just starting to see if I can pull this off to Celebrate a birthday down the road (lord willing).

[MMDown Under]

Love all the pictures and information. I had always thought about the Fram so you information is good. Now after doing more research I see there are others that go to Georgia Island as well but the cost seems to be a lot higher. I would probably be going as a single and currently I am just starting to see if I can pull this off to Celebrate a birthday down the road (lord willing).

 

Do you mind clarifying whether the cost is a lot higher on the Fram or on others, as I haven't gone into the cost comparisons yet.