South Georgia Photo Expedition

Boston to Punta Arenas; Thursday, November 5, 2015

It was a LONG 36 hours of traveling to reach Punta Arenas.

We left the house at 5:55am, in our rental car, thinking of getting to the airport 2 hours before our 10am flight, allowing 2 hours on the road. We thought that would give us plenty of time if the rush hour got bad. We were wrong. It was one of the worst days on the pike and we did not get to the airport until 8:40. It was nail biting for me. Bob appeared to be calm but he decided to forgo filling the gas for the rental car. We got to the gate shortly before boarding.

Plane took off on schedule. 4 plus hours later we were in Houston where we had to change flight to Lima. The flight to Lima left around 4pm local time and got us to our destination 6.5 hours later. Bob slept quite a bit, but I remained awake most of the time, even though the seat did lay flat. We had a 2 hour lay over in Lima where we stayed in the business lounge waiting for our connecting flight to Santiago. The airline had changed to LAN from Lima. We did not have the schedule or gate number. The reception desk girl said she would announce it. And she did not do that until it was the last call so we did not get to our gate until everyone else had already boarded. Ugh ....

The plane to Santiago was a 787, very nice and very new. The biz class seats were wider and very comfortable. It was a 4 plus hour flight, in the middle of the night. Unfortunately I was not able to sleep again. We got to Santiago around 7am local time, which was around 5am back home.

We had a 7 plus hour lay over in Santiago. The airport logistics were quite bad. We had to clear custom and immigration there and had to get our checked luggage. Then we had to drag our luggage all the way to the domestic flight side and recheck them in. The flight to Punta Arenas did not have business class and there was no lounge. Thankfully we had the Amex Platinum VIP card which got us into the Pacific Club VIP lounge which was tolerable. I was able to doze off for a few minutes by sitting sideways on the seat putting my legs on Bob's knees. I was hoping to walk around the shops at the terminal to kill some time, but the  few shops were very disappointing. The international side of the airport must be better. I was exhausted and started to feel sick at stomach. Could not eat the snack food in the lounge and wanted to get some warm food. We walked out of the lounge and the only warmed food we could find was this pizza place. We ordered a prosciutto pizza. It was the worst pizza we've ever had....

The 7 plus hours of wait was finally over and we boarded the plane to Punta Arenas. We were spoiled by the better seats and the econ seats felt really small. Luckily we were short people so our knees did not bump against the seats before us. It was a full flight. We sat with a lady from Virginia who was with the Explora program organized by Escape to Shape. She will spend the next 2 weeks in Torres del Paine, hiking, horse back riding, kayaking, etc. Nice!

The flight made a stop at Porto Montt where we went to last year with the SA cruise! A bunch of people got off, and another bunch came on, and the plane was still full. Around 6:35pm we landed in Punta Arenas finally!

Bob got us business class tickets for this flight with affordable price. Even though the itinerary was taxing, I really could not and should not complain. And we got here, with both pieces of checked-in luggage!

Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile; Friday, November 6, 2015

Bob had arranged with our hotel to have a car picking us up at the airport, and the lady and the driver were there to meet us with a sign when we stepped out of the terminal at Punta Arenas airport. The driver did not speak English, but was very friendly and helpful. The lady spoke English and was very nice also. They had a rather big van for us. The ride to the hotel was about 20 minutes.

Hotel Ilaia was newly renovated and was in sort of a residential area, 15 minutes away from downtown. The lady who welcomed us was very nice. The hotel looked quite contemporary and very new. Our room was #5, on the second floor. It was Spartan, with 2 twin beds, starched white sheets, very clean. Size was adequate. Bathroom was rather small but functional. I was pleased mainly because it was so new and clean. I guess the only thing I would have hoped was a desk and a couple of seats perhaps so we did not have to sit on the beds. But there was a lounge area on the second floor, with 2 computers and some seats. The beds were very comfortable.The towels were of good quality. We were pleased. The room was a bit warm. I don't think there was AC which was probably not needed in this area. There was a radiator which was definitely needed in the winter, I think.

Our driver was nice. He took all our luggage  upstairs to our room.  As I said, the room was Spartan but clean and sunny. We quickly brushed our teeth, washed our hands, and checked out the sitting room on the roof top where we could get a nice view of Punta Arenas. Then we went out to look for dinner. It was around 8pm already and the sun had not set yet. On our ride to the hotel, the nice lady had made 3 recommendations for dinner restaurant – La Marmita, Sotitos Bar La Cuisine, and Damiana Elena. We met a couple from Czech who told us that Sotitos was just so so. They said they saw La Marmita had a lot people and looked very nice and cheerful. They wanted to go there. So we thought we would try it also.  

As we walked toward that restaurant, Bob had to go get some cash because La Marmita was cash only. The people in Punta Arenas seemed very friendly. When they saw us trying to figure out where to go, they would offer help. So we found the ATM machine in the super market. Another couple of people showed us how to get to the restaurant. We asked them which would be a better place, La Marmita or Damiana Elena. They said both were good, but Damiana Elena was more high end. Since it was closer to where we were, we decided to go there (and try La Marmita when we return from South Georgia).

Damiana Elena was in an elegant old house. We did not have a reservation but were able to get seated at a big table. They had one waiter who spoke English. There were no printed menus because the dishes change daily. The waiter described today's menu. We ended up ordering a tuna carpacci and a local abalone appetizer. For entrees, Bob had a local steak, I had local salmon. Then we had desserts – home made flan and pistachio ice cream. I would rate the food as good, but not exceptional. The one thing I liked best was their special drink – something made with local blueberries. It was really sweet and refreshing. I would have downed it all at once if I were not afraid of getting drunk. And the flan was very good also.

It was 10pm when we finished dinner.  We walked back to the hotel, took our showers, and went to bed. We set the alarm at 6:50am, as we wanted to have breakfast at 7, then the driver would pick us up at 8:30, and take us to the famous cemetery before the airport.

Falkland Islands; Saturday, November 7, 2015

We had a decent night's sleep, even though only 6+ hours. The beds were comfortably firm and it was not too warm or cold. We were up by 6:50, and went down to breakfast shortly after 7.

The lady who served us breakfast was a very sweet older lady who spoke English better than the lady we met when we first checked in.  Breakfast included freshly squeezed fruit juice, coffee or tea, yogurt, meuseli, with fresh chopped up apple pieces, jam honey and sugar, and guacamole (interesting!). We had our meuseli, then she served us soft tortias which we would wrap with the guacamole, jam or honey. It’s the first time we had breakfast like this. We were happy with it. Everything was fresh.

It was still early after breakfast, so I sat down at the computer in the common sitting area on the 2nd floor, and wrote my blog for the first day, and started the one for yesterday. Then the driver came, so I had to stop, thinking I would finish it once I got on the ship.

We left the hotel around 8:30. The cemetery was only less than 10 minutes away driving. The driver dropped us off and said to pick us up by the gate at 9:50. We had more than one hour to kill. This was the famous cemetery where there were neatly trimmed pine trees. I had wanted to see and photograph them before we cruised to this area but did not get to do it. Now we’re back and we got to see the place. The cemetery reminded us of the one in Buenos Aires where Evita’s tomb was, except this place had those trimmed pine trees. We walked around for more than one hour, me taking pictures here and there, using my Sony point-n-shoot.  The weather was beautiful – sunny, with a little breeze, cool but not cold.

We got in the car promptly at 9:50 and headed to the airport, which was about 15 minutes away. Our flight to Mount Pleasant airport on Falklands was at 12:15pm. We wanted to be there early. As we got in line at the checkin place, we met Joshua Holko, our photographer leader. It was comforting to know he was there as early as we.

The security line was rather simple, did not need to take off shoes and did not have to take laptop out.  Our gate was #1. We sat near Josh and a few of his fellow photographers. Now I started feeling very intimidated – these were all serious photographers who have been shooting all over the world. I felt I was at the wrong place and wondered if I made the wrong decision to join this trip ….

These experienced photographers were talking about trying to get on the plane as early as possible so you could find place to store your equipment bags. I had the same concern, so Bob and I tried to get on the flight immediately behind them. Unfortunately this flight was filled with people who were on the same photography expedition, and many of them boarded the plane from Santiago this morning. So by the time we got on the plane, most of the overhead storage space was taken. Our seats were in row 16. We had to store our bags above row 21, and luckily we found a little empty space there!

The flight to Mount Pleasant airport on Falklands took around 1.5 hours. We got to our destination before 2pm.  Mount Pleasant airport was a military airport, the only one on Falklands. The small space where the immigration windows were was the same place for the luggage conveyer belt. So people stood in the line waiting to go through immigration, and waiting to get their luggage at the same time. A holy mess L.

We finally got our luggage, went through immigration, and got out of the terminal. Now where would we go? Nobody told us where we should get on the bus or how/where we should do with our luggage. There were people waiting there with signs, but nothing said Joshua Holko …. Finally a lady with the sign "Wild Photo Travel" approached us, and we asked her if she knew where was the bus for Joshua Holko’s photography trip. It turned out she was waiting for us, and one of the groups on this same trip was with this “Wild Photo”. We were told to go back into the terminal and leave our luggage at a specific spot, where another lady checked off our names and told us to drop off the 3 pieces of luggage, which they would deliver to the ship. We then got on the big bus which would take us to our ship, Polar Pioneer, at Port Stanley.

More than half of the bus was full when we got on. Since there was no overhead space for our bags, everyone was using the next seat for their photo bags. We sat in a row in the back and did the same thing.  When the bus was full, we took off. A guy from Falkland named John was the tour guide for our ride from the airport to our ship. He was an olderish British guy, with a nice sense of humor. He reminded me of Terry Bishop whose lectures we enjoyed tremendously on the SA cruise. John told us the history of Mount Pleasant airport, the military base, the one road that went between the airport and Port Stanley, the land mines, etc. etc. Quite interesting! I did not know that the military base at Mount Pleasant airport had about 2000 people, whereas the whole Falkland had only about 3000 residents, which were totally separate from the 2000 people on the military base.

The road condition was pretty bad, as John told us. It was hot inside the bus which had no AC and we could not leave any windows open because of the dust. About half an hour into the drive, the bus suddenly made a beeping noise that would not go away. John asked the driver “is this something we should be alarmed about?”. At first the driver must have said no, because we continued. But after a while, the bus stopped. People in the front of the bus got out to get fresh air and we were told something was wrong with the bus and they were sending another bus to take us. And it would take about 45 minutes for the new bus to get here. I got out too. But soon after I got out, everyone got back in and the bus continued to drive. Nobody explained anything so we thought everything would be fine. Another 10 or 15 minutes later, we were told that we would change into 3 vans. I guess something WAS wrong with the bus …..

We squeezed into the 3 vans, with our bulky and heavy camera bugs. Another 20 minutes later, we got to the ship. We waited for a while at the gang way, were told that we needed to wait for them to get our luggage to our rooms. By the time we got into our room 405, it was almost 6pm.

I knew this was an expedition, not a luxury cruise or even a normal cruise. Even with such mental preparation, I still had a rude awakening ….

Our room was right by the entrance from the gangway. Quite small, with 2 small twin beds forming a right triangle along two sides of the walls. A small bathroom, half of which was the shower. No toilet paper in the toilet otherwise the whole thing will be blocked. There was a desk and one chair….

I started unpacking. Before I finished, it was time to go into the bar area for security and logistics briefing. The bar/lounge was on the same floor as our room and that would be the place for all of us to get to in case of any emergency.

OK, now things became a little more clear. Our expedition leader is Martin who was from Sweden and has done the polar regions more than 150 times! There were more than one photography groups – the one led by Joshua, and the one led by the guy from Wild Photo. There were also a few other photographers who were helping. Then there was Tameri who was the hotel manager, and Lesley who is the ship’s doctor. They all briefly introduced themselves. Then we were sent back to our room, to wait for the security drill, which happened 20 minutes later. We all put on our life jacket, went to our assigned life boat. We actually all had to go inside the life boat. It was quite “cozy” in there. And if god forbid something happens and we had to get into this boat, there will be more than 15 ship crews joining us. Wow ….

I wanted to go home!! ….

By this time, we got to talk with a few fellow travelers. These were really impressive people! Most of them had traveled to many exotic places and it was interesting to hear the tidbits of their stories. Many of them were photographers, professional or amateur; but some of them were just adventurous travelers with an interest of taking pictures, perhaps using their iphone or simple cameras.

Now I learned that there was no wifi on the ship. If you want to do email, they will assign you an email address, and you cannot use your own gmail or other email address. This was news and shocking to me! So, no blog and no communication with family and friends! I would need to get an email address and let family know in case of emergency. Every letter costs:-(

Ship sailed before 7. We got on the deck and took a look. This ship was a Russian research ship and we started to realize how different it was from the ships we were on. Compared to this, the Nat Geo ship we were on to the Galapogos was LUXURY!

Dinner was at 7:30. We had some sort of chicken (3 pieces), rice, and a little vegetable, plus a simple lettuce salad for the table to share. There was bread and butter on the table. And there was a dessert at the end – ice cream on top of peach pieces from a can. Food was delicious, especially when we were quite hungry (no lunch today). There was no plentiful of food, so we don’t have to worry about gaining weight. That was a good thing:-)

At our dinner table, we sat with 4 other fellow travelers. One lady, Anne, was from England. She was apparently a very well traveled adventurer. You would not tell by looking at her. She was so calm and non pretentious! She just spent 10 day on the Falklands before this trip. She photographed in rain and snow. She had been to Svalbard with “Wild Photo”. Two other guys were from Spain (I think), and one other guy was from Italy. The Italian guy was a serious photographer and writer. I was amazed to hear his stories photographing brown bears in Russia, penguins and other sea animals on the Falklands, etc. He said the best place on the Falklands was the “neck”. I took a mental note of that.

Lesley the ship doctor came to our table and asked us if we would get sea sick. The ship was rocking and I started to feel it. I listened to her and took a pill she gave me. The sea could get very rough, we were told. I started to really get scared of the whole thing …. This is probably the first, and last, real expedition trip we would take. I wish I were 40 years younger!!

So far, I have not even taken out my real camera yet. Tomorrow and the next 3 days we will be sailing. Supposedly we may see some whales. We’ll see ….

It’s after 11pm now, time for bed.

Sailing; Sunday, November 8, 2015

I had a decent night's sleep last night. The anti seasickness pill I took from the ship doctor Lesley did not make me drowsy at all, so I was wide awake, but I did fall asleep after getting into bed. Thank goodness!

The ship was really rocking, more than any cruises we’ve experienced before. It was to the extent that I could not stand well while brushing my teeth and taking my shower. They warned us that the hot water tubes in the bathroom were blazing hot so not to touch them. With the ship rocking, standing in the shower without accidentally touching that tube was a challenge. I accidentally bumped into it with my arm. Ouch!!

My iphone alarm woke us up at 7:30. Breakfast was at 8. The breakfast was quite good – cereals, oat meal, fruits, yogurts, even some bacon. Buffet style. After breakfast, we had a mandatory briefing about South Georgia – rules and regulations, safety issues, etc. It’s a video done by the government of South Georgia. The wild life shown in the video got my blood running fast – it’s indeed a natural haven for wild life! Can’t wait to get there! We met a fellow traveler from Malaysia. She was Malaysian Chinese and a professional photographer. It was her second trip on this same ship, first one being to the Arctic. Very interesting and nice lady!

After the briefing, we both took a nap – feeling very tired for some reason.  We woke up with the loud speaker announcement that we needed to go to the lecture room for another mandatory lecture by Martin, our expedition leader. First part of the lecture was about the rules and regulations by IAAOP – all the stuff about protecting the Antarctica islands, the wild life, etc. Second part was about the logistics and safety of getting on/off the zodiac. Very useful. I felt excited, and scared at the same time…. Once we get on the land of South Georgia, it would be pure heaven for wild life. But to get there and leave there would be quite challenging.

Lunch was at noon. It was pasta with some vegetable cream sauce, bread, and a salad for the table. Tasty. And healthy, I think. At 2:30, we would have another mandatory meeting where they would vacuum our outer clothing and camera bags so we would not accidentally bring any seeds or other things onto South Georgia. There had been disasters on the islands with stuff people accidentally brought over – rats, seeds which produced vegetation that would sabotage the ecosystem of the island.

Oh, I learned that we’re soon entering the Antarctica ocean even though we would not be on the Antarctica land yet. I am excited. The anticipation of being very close to so many kinds of wild life makes my heart jump faster but at the same time I feel scared ….. We will be seeing many fur seals who can be very aggressive and nasty if you get too close. We must proceed very slowly so we would not cause panic to the wild life. We will be seeing walrus that could weigh 5 tons and they "walk" faster than we could run in our rubber boots. We must not run because running will excite the animals and they would chase you. …. We’re not there yet, but my mind is now filled with these images, and anticipation.

Around 2:30, we all went to the clinic and the bar room to get our bags and coat pockets vacuumed. Ours being new there was not much vacuuming to be done.

We made a visit to the Bridge – my first time at the bridge of an expedition ship. It was quite nice! Very spacious, with panoramic glass windows. We had a great view of the ship moving forward in the vast ocean. The captain and the crew were all Russians and they speak Russian. We stayed in the bridge for a short while. As we walked out onto the deck, we saw two young Russians doing exercise, in shorts and short sleeves. They’re in very good shape!

I seemed to have gotten enough sleep after the long morning nap so I was in better spirits in the afternoon. While Bob was taking another nap, I went to the bar which was the lounge for people to sit around and mingle.  I met Murray Foote, a long bearded olderish man from New Zealand (residing in Australia) and sat down to look at his photos. Apparently he has traveled around the world and taken some amazing photos. Bonnie, the girl from Malaysia, was on the same Arctic expedition with him, on this same ship. She told me his blog was very good. I need to check it out when I have internet access – www.murrayfoote.com.

Later Bonnie came to the lounge and we chatted. Now I’ve met a few fellow travelers and could remember their names. Bonnie, from Malaysia. Murray from New Zealand/Australia. Tom from Canada. Liz from Canada. Ann from England. Eva (Chinese girl) and Scott from California. Also, finally got the names of the photographers who were leading this expedition – Ole, who is from Norway and is the co-leader with Joshua. Working with them were Roy who is a wild life photographer with a Master degree in animal behavior, and specializes in Polar regions; Eric who was a birder turned into photographer; and Mike who is Russian and could translate and help the Russian travelers.

Around 5pm, Josh and Ole, together with the other photographers, gathered us in the bar/lounge to introduce themselves and give us some tips on photographing in South Georgia. One important thing about getting on shore via zodiac was to use the dry bag for the camera equipment! Thankfully I did read the literature Josh sent out before and have 2 dry bags prepared.  They would do, but I probably should have gotten the duffel type of dry bags, easier to put the cameras in and out.  Josh said we were bound to get wet. Another important thing is not to bring too many equipment the first trip – 2 cameras and 2 lenses, that’s it. I asked Roy for his advice. I will bring the 24-70, and the 100-400, putting the 24-70 on the 1DX. Apparently we will be very close to the animals and the shorter lenses would be more useful. But the long ones would be good for the farther away scenes.

Another tip was about getting LOW to shoot the penguins – sit or lie down on the ground, shoot at their eye level. I’ll remember that! Also, take my time to observe before randomly shooting lots and lots of pictures. This is something I really need to learn!

We asked where will be our first landing and were told it would likely be Salisbury Plains. They could not be 100% sure because it depends on the weather and water condition.

They’re all saying that the weather and sea condition have been very good and we’re very lucky. For me, this was the rockiest ride I’ve ever had on the ocean. The ship has been constantly swaying from side to side. If you look out the window, you would see the sea now and the sky the next minute. I don’t want to think what it would be like when the sea gets rough, but the fear stays in the back of my mind …. It’s almost waiting for the other shoe to drop …. Oh, this crossing is part of the Drake Passage it turns out …. This evening while we were sitting in the lounge, there was one bigger swell and tipped a lot of unheld bottles. When I came back to our room, my new face cream jar was on the floor, lid knocked off, half of the jar of cream splattered on the floor. I’d better get everything tied down!

Dinner was pork loin with some sort of Asian sauce. Food on the ship definitely was not what we came for, but they’re decent and we enjoyed it.

My apple watch told me I did 0 exercise today – very depressing but there’s nothing I could have done, since I could not even walk steady without holding on the side bars everywhere on the ship. Sigh ….

Oh, today I got my ship email: polarpioneer+rfiske. Somehow my old Apple Air could not connect to the server http://192.168.0.1 so I had to use the ship’s laptop. I sent a short email to family to tell them I’m safe an don’t expect email from me. Unfortunately I could not remember the email addresses of friends whom I would like to send the email to – I never had to remember them because gmail helped me and now I could not access the help L

Almost 10 pm now. Will take the shower and go to bed soon. Taking the shower while the ship is rocking surely is a challenge ….

Sailing; Monday, November 9, 2015

The sea was more turbulent last night than the first one and I could feel the ship rocking and rolling while I lied in bed. But this no longer bothered Bob or me and we let the ship rock us into sleep. I later learned that this crossing was at the edge of the Drake Passage, not really part of it. And we're being very lucky to experience the sea so calm.

We got up when the alarm rang at 7:30 and by the time we went down to breakfast we were almost the last two to get there. Same breakfast. After that, we chatted with a fellow traveler, Josh, who came from San Francisco. I asked if he was a professional photographer. He said semi, and he’d been teaching photography. He’s been with Wild Photo Travel a few times, been to Svarlbard, etc. Like me, he loved polar bears and penguins. I said we’ve been to Churchill for the polar bears. He said everyone goes there and it’s vastly different from Svarlbard, then he went and got his laptop and showed us the photos he took in Svarlbard. OMG – they blew us away!! His photos were stunningly beautiful!! And he was so modest and called himself a semi professional photographer! After looking at his photos, Bob and I decided we probably would not go back to the Seal River Lodge again and we will go with Wild Photo to Svarlbard!

Some photographer from Switzerland showed us his photos from the Sahara desert area – Egypt, Syria, etc. Very beautiful. And the conditions he took the photos were extremely harsh. I am convinced once again that I would never be able to be a real photographer because I would not have the kind of dedication to suffer that kind of hardship. And I have more admiration and respect for them! The area where he took those photos was no longer accessible because of the war conditions there ….

My left eye turned red since yesterday morning. Lesley the ship doctor gave me some eye drops and I was hoping it would get better, but it did not. I went back to her again this morning. She gave me another 2 kinds. Let’s hope they would work better.

My old Apple Air laptop gave me a scare – it would not boot! Finally I unplugged the power and let it rest for a couple of hours; replugged it in and it booted. Phew!!! I wanted to get a new laptop to bring this time, but thought this one might last me so I hesitated to spend the $. No doubt I will get a new one when we get back, before the next photo trip! And I pray this one will not fail me rest of this trip!

By now I am feeling much better about this trip and getting used to the cabin and ship conditions. Still don’t like the toilet situation, but learned to live with it. There are so many talented photographers on this trip! I hope I’ll get to learn some from some of them who are willing to teach.

At 2pm, WildPhoto photographer Roy Mangersnes gave a talk on Svarlbard and showed some of the photos of the place. Fantastic! It further confirmed our decision to go there, instead of Seal River Lodge! He also showed the video produced by Josh – another fantastic one. I will find out if I could acquire the video later.

Feeling very tired and sleepy, so we took a nap till around 4. We then went down to the dining area and joined a few fellow travelers who were chatting about various things about photography – the best gloves, dry bags, packing, etc. Learned a lot! I think the best dry bag is what Ralph Hill and his wife Winnie had, the one by Aqua Quest, 75 liter, duffle. You can put your entire camera bag in there, exactly what I was looking for! Will go get one. It is amazing how many adventures these fellow travelers have had! Compared with them, I felt we really had seen and experienced so very little! Liz, the lady from Canada, spent 4 weeks in Tibet in 2003, among other places! Unbelievable!

Chatted with Roy about Namibia. It turns out WildPhoto partners with a company in Namibia and he said that guide, Greg Du Toit was THE best! I will contact them after we get home! Wildphoto.com/partner-trips/Namibia

At 6:30, we had a briefing by our expedition leader Martin to talk about tomorrow’s first landing, schedule, and the logistics. So we are landing tomorrow!! I was expecting 3 full sea days before we could land, but I guess the weather has been nice and the wind was behind us, so we would get there ahead of schedule! Yeah!! I was excited but apprehensive at the same time.  Martin gave detailed instructions about how to get on the zodiac, what to pack and not pack,  all the precautions, etc. etc. We first timers all felt kind of nervous …. Tomorrow sunrise will be at 3:38am and we would be able to pass the first South Georgia islands, Willis Islands, between 8 and 9am. Our first landing will be at the Right Whale Bay. We will have breakfast at 7:30, lunch at 11:30, and get on land right after lunch. We will try to stay on the island until sunset around 7-7:30pm.  We were warned that we should wear sunblock (which I did not think to pack). We will be allowed to pee on the island (no bathroom), just watch out for the seals …. If some people prefer to not stay on the island for that long, they can come back to the ship early. Many many details ….

Dinner tonight was beef goulash, mashed potato, and some steamed vege, plus a salad for the table and some bread. Dessert was ice cream over some dried fruit. Best thing was some very fresh mandarin oranges! Absolutely delicious! I had quite a few, but not as many as a Russian fellow traveler.

After dinner, I started getting my camera gears ready so they can be carried on shore in the 2 dry bags. Also took out the clothes we need to wear tomorrow. I plan to get up early, around 4am, to see the sunrise. Supposedly when South Georgia comes in sight, it will be gorgeous. I want to see that!

I probably won’t be able to sleep much or well tonight – too excited and too nervous ….

Right Whale Bay, South Georgia; Tuesday, November 10, 2015

I set my alarm for 3:30am planning to catch the sunrise at 3:38am. I woke up before 3 and looked out of the window – it was cloudy and did not look like we would have any good sunrise to see, so I reset the alarm to 6:30. We got up before that – both of us were awake.

It was cloudy so we did not miss anything. Stepping out onto the deck, still just sky and ocean. The sea was calmer than the last two days. I guess it's because we’re closer to shore now?

After breakfast, I got my 100-400 lens and went out onto the deck. By around 9am, the land of South Georgia started to show some signs behind the fog. I first went to the bow, later went to the back, trying to practice shooting birds in flight. Josh and a few other photographers were there. Josh was using a "fluid" head which pans very smoothly for shooting flying things. There were a few kinds of sea birds flying now and then. I might have gotten one in focus, sort of. Really need to practice. It was cold standing on the deck. I had to come in a couple of times to warm myself up.

Around 11:30am, Martin announced that we will be anchoring within half an hour at Right Whale Bay and starting to do zodiac landing. We all went back to our rooms to get ready. Bob and I were on the first zodiac for us travelers. It was not as scary as I thought so I was quite relieved! But the dry bags were absolutely necessary and I’m glad I had them prepared, even though I might not have gotten the best bags.

Josh and the other photo leads together had already taken the first zodiac on shore to get prepared. They helped us off the zodiac, and warned us to watch out for the fur seals who were very aggressive. After we got on shore, the first thing I saw was Ole using an oar to fend off a big male fur seal so he would not come over! What a sight!

Ah, SO MANY animals!!! King penguins, fur seals, elephant seals, birds, against the back drop of snowy mountains. Beautiful!! We had to be very careful walking so we would “offend” the grouchy fur seals. There were so many of them – the area was scattered full of these brown blobs, big and small. Then there were the elephant seals. Boy they were HUGE! UGLY! Each male probably weighed 8 tons! And they would growl for reasons we could not fathom. And there were many many king penguins! Somehow Bob and I both felt they were smaller than the ones we saw last year on the Falklands, not sure if we remembered wrong, or these were really smaller. The penguins were cute as ever! And very friendly. The area was very large. We walked, took photos, observed the animals, it was fantastic! The weather started off as fine, mostly cloudy but with occasional sun poking through. But later it started raining, and the wind picked up more. Towards 4:30 or 5pm, it started snowing. Just like Martin told us, the weather in South Georgia could change on a dime!

Martin told us that we could stay till after sunset. Bob and I decided to go back to the ship after it started snowing. Both my cameras were wet – it’s the first time I let my cameras and lenses be wet. Even though the pros told me that the 1DX and Mark IV 1D were both professional cameras and were seals, so rain won’t harm them. I still felt apprehensive …. Actually we were not the first zodiac to return to the ship. There was one before us. And I don’t think many really stayed till sunset. With this kind of weather, I really don’t know how much shooting can be done, even though the pros were saying shooting in the snow was the best. Um ….

We were dressed with many layers so we could tolerate the weather. We did not feel intolerably cold. Back on the ship, we need to rinse off our boots (we had to rinse our boots in some chemicals before we went ashore, per rules of South Georgia, to protect its eco system). Oh by the way, I DID get down low today to shoot the penguins! I even lied down on the beach where there was plenty of penguin poos!

Back in the room, first thing was to peel off the wet coats and pants, then cleaned the dry bags, dried the cameras (the best I could), then started to download the photos. I took MANY. Hope to have a few this trip that could make myself happy. I probably should have taken less but more time and thought for each. Hopefully I will learn to do that gradually in this trip.

Dinner was at 8:30 – I was starved! Some sort of lamb in kind of an Indian flavored sauce. Whatever it was, I wolfed it down – too hungry. After dinner, Martin announced tomorrow’s schedule. Tonight we will anchor at Bay of Isles around 11pm. If the weather is good, we will have a sunrise excursion on shore  leaving at 2:15am (ouch!!!), to take advantage of the golden light for the largest king penguin colony. If the weather is not good, we will have a normal morning excursion. After lunch, we will have another excursion to Prion Island where there are Albatross nesting. It is a rare treat because soon it’ll be shut down for tourists to protect the Albatross.  As much as I hate the 1:30am getup, I can’t miss the opportunity to see the largest penguin colony. So off to bed I go now!

Salisbury Plain & Prion Island, South Georgia; Wednesday, November 11, 2015

There was no sunrise call this morning, not because of the weather, but because of the sea – swells too strong so it was dangerous to maneuver the zodiac in the dark. I felt lucky that we did not have to get up that early, but regret at the same time for missing the golden light shooting …. I was dead tired yesterday so the normal amount of sleep might have avoided  me getting sick.

We were up at 6:30 and went down to breakfast earlier than 7:30. I liked it this way because it would give us more time to prepare after breakfast. The zodiac landing would start at 8:30. Last return would be 12:45pm. Today we would be on Salisbury Plain where there was the largest king penguin colony. I asked Joshua what lenses I should bring. He said to bring the 14mm because Salisbury Plain would be the place good for that lens. But I should also bring the 16-35 because it would be more versatile. I doubt I would dare to change lenses though …. I brought both any way.

As we sailed towards shore in the zodiac, I could already see groups and groups of king penguins lining up the shore, "welcoming" us. Salisbury Plain indeed lived up to its reputation of being the largest king penguin colony in South Georgia! SO MANY of these lovely creatures! Even though they pooped everywhere and the land was filled with their droppings, you just cannot help loving them! There were groups of penguins EVERYWHERE!, On the beach, up the snow mountains, on the glacier, on the ground, in the water, everywhere! We walked and stopped at various spots; I sat down or kneeled down on the rich dark soil, took I don't know how many photos. To the right of where we landed, there were large rookeries where there were many many chicks, in their soft brown fur. SO CUTE! Hard to describe. The photos will tell a better story.

The weather was gorgeous! Sunny, relatively warm, and the wind was not too strong. We amateur photographers all thought this was great for photos. But Josh told us that the light was too harsh for photos. They would need rain, snow, and bad weather to produce dramatic photos that tell impressive stories. I can understand that. But I was very thankful we did not encounter bad weather! I don’t think I would ever be able to become a photographer! And I am gaining more and more respect for these professional photographers!!

We took the zodiac back around noon – I took all the shots I thought I would take. I downloaded my photos before and after lunch.

The ship sailed after we all came back on the ship. Next stop was Prion Island where the wandering Albatrosses have their nesting, together with other birds. The island will be closed for tourists as of November 19th. We’re very lucky to be able to visit it. We started boarding the zodiac around 3pm. The weather has changed from sunny to cloudy, and it threatened rain.

We got on the island. Gentoo penguins, fur seals and elephant seals lined the beach. We had to be very careful walking around the fur seals who were quite aggressive. By the way, this morning on Salisbury Plain there were not too many seals, which made our walking a lot more pleasant.

On Prion island, we were only allowed to walk on the board walk which led from the beach all the way up to the top of one of the hills. We must always stay on the board walk. There were baby wandering Albatross, giant petrel, skua, etc. The great thing was these birds were not afraid of people at all!! So many of us stood on the board walk, pointing all these cameras at them, they just stayed there, cleaning themselves, flapped their wings once in a while. The wandering Albatross was really gigantic! Even the babies were that huge. Their wing span was amazingly wide! Very impressive.

The weather turned very damp. The fog rolled in which felt like drizzling rain.  There were too many of us on the boardwalk near every bird, so we decided to leave before 5. Bob carried my 500mm lens for me, but I did not really have the chance to use it. Too many people set up their tripod with their huge lenses at every spot that could get a decent view of the bird.

On the walk back to the beach, there was a small fur seal, with a very heightened sense of fighting spirits. He thought one stretch of the board walk was his and he guarded it vehemently. One of the travelers had to use his tripod to fend him away so we could walk by. Later, while we were standing on the beach waiting for the zodiac, this small seal went around the growling big seals and got to the safer place, the ocean. Really cute seal.

After we put on our life jacket, we were instructed to go back near the entrance of the boardwalk, because there were too many fur seals who were not happy about us. When we boarded the zodiac, one of the photographers, Daniel, had to fend off the seals so we could safely walk to the zodiac.

Dinner was at 8. We had a briefing at 7:40 in the bar/lounge to talk about tomorrow. We will be at Grytviken, South Georgia’s capital, tomorrow morning. We will anchor and zodiac on shore after the cleared by South Georgia’s officials. They are extremely strict about us not carrying anything that might jeopardize South Georgia’s ecosystem and the inspections will be very strict. We will spend the morning in Grytviken. There is a museum there, a church, and a cemetery, a post office, and the old whaling station. I’m looking forward to that! Tomorrow afternoon we will be at Godthul and will have an excursion.

Feeling quite tired, even though not as bad as yesterday. Will try to get a good night’s sleep. Oh by the way, it was Joshua’s bday today! The staff made him a cake and we all sang happy bday for him after dinner. Nice!

Grytviken & Godthul, South Georgia; Thursday, November 12, 2015

It was a rocky night last night, the rockiest one we've experienced so far on this trip. Somewhere around 1:30am, a big swell made the ship sock so hard that all the stuff we left on the small frig crashed onto the floor. We woke up, looked at them, and said let them be there, till the morning, and went back to sleep. When you lie in bed, the rocking does not seem to bother you much. Don’t know if that would be the case if the rocking is harder.

The ship anchored around 7am. We got up at 6:30 and I went out onto the deck. The wind was so strong I felt it would blow me into the ocean. It was a beautiful sunny day though. I could see the town of Grytviken which consisted of mostly a few red roofed one-story buildings. There was a pointed roof that broke the flat line – that probably was the church. At breakfast, Joshua (who happened to sit at our table) said the little store there sells a lot of things and he will get his children T-shirts. I must do that for Caleb! And we will send a postcard to him as well, even though it will arrive after we see him, for sure.

The officials cleared us so we started zodiac landing around 9:30. The wind was quite strong at that time, but not too bad. After we landed, the weather turned beautiful, sunny and warm. Bob and I first walked through the abandoned old whaling station towards the cemetery where Shackleton was buried. The whaling station was established by the Norwegians. A fellow traveler told me they had 10 thousand people at that station, and they killed 50 thousand whales! Damned people!!! The station was abandoned in 1964. Now there are just old rusty equipment there. A sad scene.

After the cemetery, we walked to the church, went in, and looked around. Later I asked Martin if the church was no longer active. He said it IS active. Some people especially come here to have their weddings. And at Xmas time, it was jam packed with people because there are always cruise ships here during Xmas time.

We then went to the museum and the small gift shop. I bought a couple of books – one was by Kevin Shafer, the Nat Geo photographer who’s a penguin specialist. I got the post card, wrote it, then went to the post office and mailed to Caleb. Hope it’ll eventually get to him.

We did not walk to the Shackleton memorial which was the other side, the side towards the research facility. We came back to the ship around noon time. The ship started sailing towards Godthul as soon as everyone got back on the ship.

We got to Godthul around 2:30 when we started getting ready for the zodiac landing. It continued to be a sunny and warm day and the zodiac ride was quite smooth. There were Gentoo penguins and birds on Godthul, of course and seals. There was also a small whaling station here but what’s left was just a couple of rusty containers of some sort. We landed on a relatively narrow strip of rocky beach which had a bunch of seals – fur seals and elephant seals, and some Gentoo penguins. After we got on shore, everyone started climbing hill/mountain which did not really have any paths and was full of clumps of tall grass – tussock grass. It was very difficult climbing – some places were steep, some places were very muddy, and you can't see what you're stepping into. And we had to watch out for the fur seals lying in the grass, especially at the lower places. We got very very hot – opening up our layers and layers of clothing only helped a little bit. We finally got to the top of one plain – there were further plains which we did not attempt. We saw giant petrels nesting, and colonies of Gentoo penguins. We sat by the penguins and watched them. Very interesting! They were in pairs. The males were building nests for the females. I was told and read about the male Gentoo penguins sometimes stealing stones or grass from other penguins, today I actually witnessed it! Very funny! Unfortunately we did not get to see baby penguins. I guess this was not the season.

It was quite comfortable sitting on the slope, on top of dried grass lumps. It was very warm and there were bugs flying. Hard to believe South Georgia could be this warm! Very hard to dress appropriately. The sun started getting behind the mountains and we must figure out how to get down the hill/mountain around 6. I was really scared because the way we came up, I would not be able to get down. Finally Bob located a creek that only had a small amount of water, and we walked down in the brook – thank goodness for our boots! Interestingly, this was the path the penguins took to get up the hill. We felt bad that we might have startled them a little bit and they had to make way for us. At one point, my left foot sank into mud and it took me quite a bit of effort to pull it out without losing the boot. Phew! I did not like it! I wish we had a guide who at least pointed out a way for us …..

We got back on the ship shortly before 7. Dinner was at 8. Martin announced at dinner that tomorrow we will be at St. Andrews Bay which has the largest king penguin colony in South Georgia (so what I heard was wrong about Salisbury Plain being the largest king penguin colony). We will plan on getting up at 1am to catch sunrise on shore. That is, if the weather is not cloudy. We will be doing zodiac landing at 2am. Sunrise will be at 3:10-ish. We will be back around 8 to have breakfast, then sleep. Then go out in the afternoon till sun set.

Better go to bed now!

St Andrew's Bay & Moltke Harbour, South Georgia; Friday, November 13, 2015

We went to bed around 10pm (well, Bob did, and I did not get in bed until around 10:30). And I could not fall asleep until close to midnight. At 1:30am, Martin woke all of us up – time to get ready for zodiac landing starting 2:15. Bob and I were on the deck shortly after 2. Amazingly, it was not pitch dark as I expected. The sky on the east side already showed some pretty colors.

Rather smooth zodiac ride. In the darkness, we could already see the shadows of seals on the beach, and the whites of the penguins. And we were immediately greeted by them as we stepped on shore. I was told that the landing team had to fight off the huge elephant seals at our landing spot.

The soft morning light really lent its magic to the animals and environment. I wish I had the skills to take better pictures! There were so many king penguins and a huge rookery with lots and lots of chicks. There were small ponds of water and streams towards inland from the beach which created a great environment for photographs. The sweetest thing was the baby elephant seals. One of them adopted one of the female fellow travelers as its mom. It crawled next to her, snuggled with her, tried to suck on her clothes, gloves, and camera, and even tried to climb on her with its 200lb body! I went over and petted it – wow, solid blubber! I wondered how it go so fat – what did it have to eat to get so well fed?! Apparently this one was newly weaned so it was looking for its mom's milk. Poor baby! Later I saw it crawl to a large female seal who turned around and bit it. Apparently that was not its mother ….

I took lots of photos, but nothing came out that great. After we came back and after lunch, I asked "small" Josh (not Joshua Holko) some questions and looked at the photos he took. I should not have looked because now I want to throw all my photos away!! Compared to what he took, mine was rubbish!! :-(

We were among the first few zodiacs to come back to the ship, around 6 – we were both getting cold and needed a bathroom break. We took a nap before breakfast at 8. Then slept again after breakfast until lunch at 1. Originally the plan was to go on shore at St Andrews Bay again, but it was too windy to zodiac on shore, so the ship sailed towards Gold Harbour, hoping to get on land there.

The ocean continued to be rough, with a very strong wind. Around 2pm, Martin announced that we found an anchoring spot and would try to land the zodiac around 2:30. This time there would be no shuttle zodiacs to get people back early, so everyone had to wait to around 6:30 to come back. The zodiac landing would take a long time, and very wet. Looking at the ocean out of the window, I decided we would not go, mainly because we would not be able to stay in the cold for 4 hours. I wanted to take some video of the zodiac loading so I stepped out of our cabin (which is right by the door people exit to board the zodiac). Watching people bundled up, in their life jackets, carrying the heavy camera equipment bags, I felt so jealous, and so regretful that we were not younger and more brave …. Then, Martin’s voice came through the speakers announcing that we would try landing at 4pm – the sea was too rough at this time. This meant that there would only be 2 hours shore time. Um, now we might go after all!!

The ship continued sailing towards the larger Royal Bay, to be more toward inland hoping the sea would be calmer. Bob and I went to the lounge and I chatted with a couple of fellow travelers and looked at their photos to get some inspiration.

Around 4pm, we anchored at the calm area inside Royal Bay. Martin announced we would be getting on shore at Moltke Harbour. We bundled up. It’s amazing how drastically the weather changed in this area – the ocean was very calm and the zodiac ride was very smooth. It was a lovely area, with lots of elephant seals and a few small groups of king penguins. There were streams running from the mountains towards the ocean. Most of the places were shallow enough we could tread through in our tall boots. We put on one more layer of pants so we did not feel cold. We stayed there for a little more than 2 hours and came back to the ship around 7:30. Later I learned from Howard (one of the ship’s staff who’s a very experienced guy) that the Moltke Harbour was the first place where the first research station was built, but which no longer existed today.

It was a pleasant day, despite the fact that we had to get up at the god-forsaken hour:-) The golden sunrise light was worth it! If they do it again, we will get up without a doubt!

Oh well, I should be careful about what I wish for. Right after dinner, Martin announced tomorrow’s plan. We will sailing towards the Gold Harbour and will try to do another early morning landing. This means getting up at 1:30, and onto the zodiac around 2-2:30, before sunrise. One of the fellow travelers said, we pay for such torture J Oh well, getting up at that hour is painful, but the light was worth it.

It’s not 100% that we would be able to do the sunrise landing because it all depends on the weather and sea condition.

Gold Harbour & Cooper Bay, South Georgia; Saturday, November 14, 2015

Last night the ship was very rocky. It was so bad that I lost my footing while trying to grab something and fell back on the bed, hitting my head hard against the window. Ouch! I thought I got a concussion! I was not able to stand without holding on something so I could not take a shower. This morning, Martin woke us up at 2:30 – he was being very generous and considerate! We were the last ones to get on the zodiac and got on shore just before sunrise.

It was a cloudy day. The sun peaked out of the clouds once in a while. And it was raining/snowing. It was a nice beach, full of elephant seals and quite a large number of king penguins, also some Gentoo penguins. I fumbled with my gear, trying to get a rain cover on my camera/lens, and not being very successful. I was quite frustrated with the tripod and ballhead, and the rain cover. Finally I took off the raincover and the camera/lens got quite wet. The pictures I took were so-so, nothing I feel too good about. But it was really fun to watch the male elephant seals fighting – quite a few of them were active. I also watched for a long while the penguin feeding its chick. Got a few pictures and hope they would come out OK.

It was too miserable dealing with the rain and wind. By 5 o'clock, we decided to go back to the ship and got back before 5:30. I washed off the sand off everything then took the shower I missed last night. Did not get to steal a nap before breakfast at 8. Martin announced that the ship was sailing towards Cooper Bay where they would try to get us to land and see the macaroni penguins. And we probably would not be able to sleep this morning, because they would want to get us on shore as soon as we’re able to anchor.

We anchored in Cooper Bay and started zodiac landing around 10. The zodiac ride was a little choppy but not too bad. Fur seals "welcomed" us at the landing, and they were all the way up the mountain among the tussock grass clumps. There were macaroni penguins at this place but we had to climb up quite a steep hill/mountain to get to their colony. There were quite a bit of snow on the mountain. We mainly walked up the path where water was running down. We had to be careful to follow people’s foot prints so we would not sink into snow too deep. It was quite hard. At the first spot where we saw a bunch of macaroni penguins, we stopped and I stayed there the entire time, watching and shooting. With the yellow feathers on top of their heads, the macaroni penguins had a distinct and funny look. I watched one building his/her nest. It would come out of the tussock grass, pull up a clump of grass, shook it, sometimes a few pieces left and he would take them back into the tussock grass where its nest was, and sometimes he would shake off everything he just pulled – I guess it must not have met his standard.

We were there for less than 2 hours then decided to go back. Boy the way down the steep mountain was harder than climbing up. We had to be very careful not to roll down. It would have been much easier if we could just sit and slide down, but we did not want to hit a rock or slide into a fur seal. And there were quite a few fur seals hidden in the tussock grass. I would have loved to take some photos, but I had to pack my cameras in the back pack to make going down easier. Sigh ….

We were back on the ship after 12. After taking off our layers of clothing (by the way, it was quite sunny when we were at Copper Bay and quite hot as we climbed), I started downloading the photos – did not have anything I would consider photography, but at least I got a few shots of the macaroni penguins that seemed to be sharp.

The ship started sailing at 2 towards the Drygalski Fjord. We would not be doing any landing, and would only circumnavigate the coast before turning back. Along the way, we would enjoy the scenery, birds, ice bergs. Before we got close to the fjord, we saw some rather large ice bergs. Many of us went onto the deck to take pictures. The wind was SO strong I could hardly stand. Then it started raining. We got to the edge of fjord and the weather was quite bad. The rain was harder and the shore line was shrouded in fog. Martin announced that there was no purpose going into the fjord, so we turned back and sailed by the ice bergs again. Beautiful scene.  Later around 5 o’clock, Martin announced that there were penguins on the ice berg! We all rushed out. Indeed, on a huge ice berg, there were a few penguins who appeared as little black dots. Using my 100-400 lens, I took a few shots and was able to zoom in and see the penguins more clearly. They were not kings. Someone told me they were chin stripes. Poor guys! 6 lonely ones on this huge ice mountain, so high up. Wonder how they got on there and how they would jump into the ocean to feed ….

The afternoon went by leisurely without organized activity. I took a couple of short naps. Bob was lucky to sleep much more than I did. We chatted with Bonnie and looked at her photos in the cafeteria. I ate many oatmeal raisin cookies, out of boredom. Bonnie’s photos looked nice. Even though she was not a wild life photographer, her composition and skills were good!

Dinner was at 7:30. We had lamb today, quite good. Martin announced at the end of dinner that we’re sailing towards St. Andrews Bay. If weather permits, we will do another sunrise landing. Sunrise would be at 3:12am, so we would be getting up before 2, again. It’s 9pm now. Time to get into bed. The ship is rocking quite hard. I would not be able to take a shower, so I will try to take one after we’re back on the ship tomorrow.

My photography goal tomorrow is to try taking more photos by lying down on my stomach on the ground! Observe and think more before snapping photos.

St. Andrews Bay & Ocean Harbour, South Georgia; Sunday, November 15, 2015

Martin woke us up around 1:40am. We were anchored at St. Andrews Bay, zodiac landing started at 2:10. The zodiac ride was relatively smooth. It was truly a fantastic sight on the beach. SO MANY king penguins, seemed even more than the last time we were there a couple of days ago. And today the penguins were marching in groups from one side of the shore to the other, all in the same direction. It was just amazing! We did not go far from where we landed. I tried to practice what I wanted to do – lied down on the sand, thought what I wanted the photo to be like. Don't think I was too successful. There were too many penguins, so most of my photos were penguins in groups, marching. Many of the photographers stood in the water shooting penguins getting in/out of the water. I could not go in too far without getting water into the boots so I could not follow them.

2 or 3 hours quickly passed. We did not wait for the last zodiac ride at 7, and we came back shortly after 6. I took my shower, downloaded the photos (quite disappointed :-(), then took a nap before being woken up for breakfast. I was exhausted. After breakfast, we immediately went to sleep again, till lunch time at 12:30. (just like pigs – eat, sleep, eat ….) The ship sailed after we all got back. We anchored at Ocean Harbour around 2. Zodiac landing started at 2:30.

Ocean Harbour did not seem to have very interesting wild life – a bunch of fur seals and elephant seals (not in large numbers compared to the other places we’d been to), a few king penguins, and a couple of Gentoo penguins, plus a few birds. Apparently this was an early whaling (and sealing?) station which had long since bee abandoned. There was an old sunken ship, all rusty, with dirt and grass growing inside the ship, and three masts sticking out. There was an old house/hut on shore, and old metal things buried in the ground here and there.

There were a small group of king penguins on one of the slopes covered in snow. We went up there. I took off my outer jacket, down sweater, and zipped open the fleece jacket. It was quite warm! Blue sky, sunny, no wind. Aside from the penguin photos, I tried to shoot the fur seals. They looked quite cute, even though they were very aggressive and we had to watch out not to be close to them otherwise they might attack us. I love the shape of their big thick neck covered in fur. The male fur seal’s face looked like a porcupine to me and did not look as aggressive and mean as they were. The male fur seals would fight with each other, for reasons we did not understand. Martin told us that in a couple of weeks when the females came, they would be even more dangerous.

While we were on the slope watching and shooting the penguins, I saw the zodiac sailing around the sunken ship. I did not think it would be interesting so we did not go. Later I found out, from looking at a few others' photos, it was actually a great photo opportunity! Some photos were quite interesting and artistic. Some shot the kelp in the water which turned out to be golden! Very beautiful! Another missed photo opportunity for me ...

We returned to the ship before 5 – last zodiac was at 5. Right after everyone came back, the ship sailed. This is why such small ship expedition was so efficient. And we really could not have a set itinerary because everything depends on the weather.

We chatted with Martin in the zodiac. He is an extremely experienced expedition leader, and a very good one. He was actually hired by Ole (Wild Photo lead). He also does a lot of other small private boat/ship expeditions. I hope when we do the Svalbard trip he would be there! We joked about getting up for the sunrise excursions. He said if we did not do that, we would not be a photography expedition. Without the golden sunrise light it would be just another usual expedition. Of course he was right.

Talking about sunrise, our plan tomorrow was to do Salisbury Plain again, at sunrise. So, off to bed right after dinner again. I was so tired today after waking up before lunch. All my body ached. Exhausted. But I will persist for the next 2 days, the last 2 days of the trip before sailing back to Falklands. I was told it would be a very rough return trip so we would probably be staying in bed most of the time. I am quite apprehensive ….

South Georgia; Monday, November 16, 2015

We did not have a sunrise landing after all – it was raining and cloudy and foggy so there was no golden light. I woke up around 3, looked at my phone, found out it was past 3, and felt relieved. But I felt guilty for feeling relieved. I guess I was not alone feeling this way. I found out at breakfast that even the die-hard photographers secretly felt happy that we did not have to get up at 1:30.

Breakfast started at 7:30 but we went down shortly after 7 since we were up and had nothing else to do. Martin announced that it's raining out but we would do zodiac landing for those who wanted to go. We were debating whether or not to go. I did not have appropriate lens protection and really did not feel comfortable shooting in the rain while worrying about my gear. We chatted with a fellow traveler, Tom, who was about our age or older. He said of course he would go even if he could not shoot. That said it for us! I decided to just bring the Sony point-n-shoot and the 1DX+24-70mm, and use it only if the weather dried up.

It was an absolutely heavenly sight when we landed! I was SO VERY HAPPY that we did do the landing! It was more interesting than we were here just a few days ago. So many penguins were on the beach waiting for us, together with many seals. The snowy mountains afar showing through the fog now and then, with the massive amount of penguins in front of them, in the streams, on the mud, next to the tussock grass where fur seals poked their heads up from time to time, were just beautiful beyond description. We walked and I used my little Sony shooting as much as I could, pictures and videos. Apparently the video consumed the battery really fast and I quickly ran out of it.  But just before we were about the leave, the rain stopped! I took out the real camera and got a few shots.

It was a warm day without wind, despite the rain, so we wore less. But Bob started to feel chilled after walking in the rain for a while. We returned to the ship shortly after 11. The waves were quite strong. It took the staff some effort to pull the zodiac and let us climb in. Another zodiac actually pulled its anchor and floated a distance into the ocean. A number of white birds found home on it. We wished we had a camera in hands to capture the scene. Also, as we were waiting to board the zodiac, two male fur seals started chasing each other. Boy they "ran" so fast and sent the group of penguins in their way scrambling. One seal escaped into the ocean and the other claimed victory on land. Gee! For what??! Poor penguins all crashed into each other. Another scene I wish I had the camera in hands to shoot some video.

Back on the ship. Hung up the drippy wet jacket and rain pants – thank goodness for these water proof clothing!! I learned a LOT from this trip about what kind of photo gear and clothing to bring on this type of expeditions!

In a way I’m glad that we came back to the ship early, because even though the rain stopped but the wind picked up. People who came back later got drenched in the zodiac ride. And getting back up the stairs from the zodiac became more difficult which is the part I fear most. I DO admire these die-hard photographers who are willing to take the risk and suffer all sorts of bad weather to get good shots.

Lunch was at 1. Today they served lasagna for us, quite delicious. They also made sponge cake and cookies. I loved the sponge cake and really stuffed myself. Because of the wind, our ship sailed around trying to see if we could find a calmer spot to attempt zodiac landing.

The ship tried various spots and we hoped to be able to try landing in Prince Olav Harbour, but the wind continued to be too strong to safely administer the zodiac. Around 5pm, Martin announced we would not try any more but sail out into the open sea to Bay of Isles again where we hoped to be tomorrow, our last day in South Georgia before sailing back. Even though we had blue sky and bright sunshine, the wind was too strong. Looking out of the small window of our cabin, I could see the blue sky, pillowy clouds, snow capped mountains, flying birds with huge wing span, and deep blue water with turbulent waves and white tips. Martin said perhaps we could enjoy a good sunset from the ship today.

I took a long nap after lunch. It seemed that the more I slept, the more tired I became. Bob stayed in the lounge till after 5. He said he chatted with “small” Josh who said he would be willing to critique my photos. I was thrilled! It turned out Josh was a product manager in the photography area for some large hi-tech companies. He has written a book about composition which I will definitely go get. His photographs were truly fabulous! A very talented guy!

Martin gave us a briefing around 6:30. The wind was forecasted to continue to be strong for a while and we would try to do a landing tomorrow, probably around noon. We would start sailing back tomorrow evening to make sure we would get back to Falklands to catch our flight. The cross is expected to be turbulent. Tonight’s dinner was barbecue, the usual party night. So at dinner, everyone got a fun hat to wear. There were all sorts of meat – sausage, chicken, pork, steak, etc. I’m sure I’ve gained weight since there has been too much eating and doing not much. Even for the times we went on shore, and even though I felt tired, my Apple watch told me I did not walk/stand much, certainly not my daily 10000 steps.

While we were in the lounge before dinner, I looked at a fellow traveler, Freddie’s photos. Even though he said he was not a good photographer, he sure took some fabulous photos. Today he was on shore also. He lied down on his stomach and took some gorgeous penguin photos, in splashing ocean water. I’ve got to learn! So, tomorrow if we get the chance to go on shore, I’ll have two goals: (1) try to do some hi-key photos with the penguins on the snow; (2) try to do some photos with penguins in/out of the ocean. It’ll make better photos to show actions in the photo, and to tell a story! Also, saw Bonnie’s photos she took using her iphone. Another important thing to always remember: the LIGHT! Pay attention to catch the right light on the object!! I feel very frustrated with myself for not working hard to learn photography!!!....

No early sunrise landing tomorrow, so we did not get into bed right after dinner (thank goodness!). One more day tomorrow, then we will be heading home, and experiencing the crossing first, which filled me with apprehension ….

Rosita Harbour & Salisbury Plain, South Georgia; Tuesday, November 17, 2015

We had a long night's rest last night and the sea was calm. I took my shower without worrying about falling. I looked at my photos for a while, thinking about the nice photos I saw from fellow travelers, feeling frustrated with myself for not being able to take good ones ….. I went to bed before midnight and probably fell asleep after 12am.

Today’s breakfast was at 8. We got up around 7. Looking out of the window, realizing our ship had anchored, and the snowy mountains and beach were quite close to us. Martin announced that we were at Rosita Harbour and we will do zodiac landing at 9. This harbor did not have penguins, only seals. It’d be a short landing. After we come back to the ship, we would sail back to Salisbury Plain and hope to be able to land.

We landed on Rosita Harbour around 9. We were seriously warned many times to watch out for the fur seals – this harbor had only fur seals, and some birds. Indeed the fur seals were everywhere – on the beach, in the tussock grass, up the hill, you name it. I really wanted to take some photos of them, especially their face, but did not dare to go close. Someone said that over the hill there was an albino baby seal, so we all headed over, carefully avoiding the male fur seals. It turned out that the white baby seal was not really albino because it did not have blue eyes. But it must have some recessive genes so it was all white. A very cute baby seal! We all stood around, about 30 feet away, and you can hear camera clicking. That was the highlight of our excursion.

We came back to the ship around noon time. Lunch was at 12:30. Martin announced that at 2pm we would do zodiac landing at Salisbury Plain. The weather was sunny and warm. As a matter of fact, I got very warm in Rosita Harbour. We had all our layers on, and we needed it during the zodiac ride. But land, especially with the climbing, I wish I could peel off the layers!

We planned a long afternoon landing – started at 2pm, last zodiac back would be 7:30pm. This was our LAST landing in South Georgia for this trip! The weather was beautiful. But of course the harsh mid-day light was bad for photography.

My goal for this last trip consisted of 3 things: try taking some photos with penguins in/out of the ocean; don’t rush to randomly shoot, pay attention to where the light is and plan the shots; use iPhone to take some photos and videos. I DID try, but aside from using iphone, I did not succeed for the first two L Don’t know how others took the photos with penguins in splashing ocean water ….

Some time after 4pm, the sun went behind clouds and it turned cold. No more sunny sky, all gray and overcast instead. We decided to bid the penguins and this heavenly place goodbye and got back on the ship before 6.

With the expectation that the sea will become quite rough, we took our showers right after we came back. Dinner was at 8. Martin announced we’ve already started sailing/leaving South Georgia. Some time tonight, some big swells were expected so the ship would be quite rocky. We must prepare our room so everything must be put in places so they would not fly off.

I packed my camera gears. Won’t be able to pack other stuff until we have some calm periods. I feel very nervous – much more so after I hit my head a few days ago during that rocky time. The smartest thing I did today was to take the shower while the ship was anchored!

Almost 10pm now. We will brush our teeth and go lie in bed. The ship is already rocking, but not worse than what we experienced before. Better go into the flat position before it gets worse.

At Sea; Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The ship was rocking when we went to sleep. I was woken up after mid-night by the rougher rocking of the ship. It was rocking so hard that my arms and legs kept bumping into the sides of the narrow bed. I felt I had to hold on something so I would not fall out. Everything loose on the surface of the table or floor shifted or fell off. The one chair with my clothes on tipped over. It was hard to fall back to sleep, but I did off and on. Around 7:50, Martin's voice came over the loud speaker. He said we’d been doing very well – only had swells, no wind, so it was smooth ride. OMG, if this was smooth, what would the worse and worst be like?? I was filled with fear and apprehension ….

Standing up and walking was very tough for me – where did my balancing skill go??! With Bob’s help, I brushed my teeth and washed my face. Then Bob did his. Then we went down to breakfast by holding onto the railing and everything else sturdy. We were late. I did not really want to eat anything, but I knew I would feel worse if I did not eat. I never got sea sick before, so I was not sure if I started to get sea sick – I felt nauseous and dizzy. People told me that’s what sea sick was, even though I had not thrown up. I had 2 pieces of toast. Asked Lesley for an anti-seasick pill and took it. After stumbling back to our cabin, I took out the Relief Band which I bought for Bob and put it on after reading the instructions. Then I lied down in bed. Not sure if it’s Lesley’s pill or the Relief Band, I started to feel a bit better. So I got up and started to write my diary here.

Lying down in bed seems to be the ONLY way to feel fine. So, for the next 3 days, we will be doing a lot of sleeping. Hard to kill the time this way ….  I guess we can forget about taking showers until we get to Punta Arenas. My biggest worry is when do I do the packing?? Really should have done it yesterday before the ship sailed!

Either the pill or the relief band or both seemed to have worked, because I no longer felt nausea or bad dizziness. But I still slept a lot. I slept most of the morning until lunch. After lunch, I spent a little time in the lounge. First I sat by Josh (small Josh) and watched him editing his photos using LR. Later I looked at Dionys’ photos and was absolutely amazed at his work. Dionys Moser was from Switzerland and was a professional photographer who led photo trips all over the world. His web site was: www.fotoreisen.ch.  I first saw his photos from Namibia. WOW! I wanted to go with him! Really need to check it out!. He also told me about the gadget he used to transfer photos from PC to the iPad – it’s by iUSBport who also makes ImageTank. Later tonight after dinner he showed me the actual device and how to use it. I will definitely look into it!

I stayed in the lounge till around 3 then came back to the cabin, and slept. Around 5:30, I woke up and decided to attempt some packing. Bob helped me to steady myself, and I sat on the bed, packed most part of the first suitcase. That was a relief.

Dinner was at 7 – very tasty mushroom risotto with chicken. There was a gorgeous sunset outside as we could see through the portholes of the cafeteria, but very few people jumped at the opportunity to go outside to shoot. This was probably the only real sunset we got on this trip. After dinner, we chatted a little bit with Bonnie and Liz before everyone dispersed. Bob and I went to the lounge. Bob read his bridge magazine, I looked at the photos of Freddie and chatted with Dionys and his iUSBport device. He raved about the Nik software and told me I could learn about it on youtube. I will do that.

Back to the cabin around 9. Decided to look through my photos even though I did not have the software on this Apple Air to do any editing. I will get a new computer and load LR on it next time.

I slept too much during the day so I’m not sure if I could fall asleep easily. Oh Martin said the weather would be like last night and might be even better. The storm system that was predicted a few days ago seemed to have dissipated so we might not get worse conditions. I pray the lord for that!!

At Sea; Thursday, November 19, 2015

Last night was not nearly as bad as the previous one – I was not woken up by the violent rocking of the ship at all. I woke up a few times, probably because I got too much sleep during the day. The ship felt relatively steady. I was even thinking that I could take a shower today. But when we got up around 7:30, it was no longer as steady as I felt during the night. Still too shaky for me to take the shower L

Breakfast was at 8 and we came back to our cabin afterwards. I looked at my photos again – really wish I had a newer/more powerful computer with LR installed, so I could do some sorting and editing. For now, I can only look, and wish I had done something different and better …. Next time!

Before 10am, Martin announced that they would show the King Penguin movie in the lecture room again. They first showed it during the rainy morning when we went ashore at Salisbury Plain. We were the first ones to get to the lecture room as I really really wanted to see it. It was fantastic!! Martin, Howard's daughter, and a few others were among the people who made this movie! I was told Martin would give it out free! I must get it!

While looking through my photos, I summarized many mistakes I made and hopefully I will have the chance to correct some of them in our next photography trip(s):

-       Did not pay attention to the environment surrounding the subject to get a more holistic picture;

·       Did not pay attention to the lighting – what direction it came from, effect on the subject (aside from the basics)

·       Cut out part of the wings, or feet, or head;

·       Did not think about the "story" before taking the shot;

·       For scenery photos, too much “nothing space”

Before lunch I went to the lounge and asked Joshua (small Josh) to teach me how to track the movement of a moving subject, aside from using Al Servo. He was very nice! He asked me to bring my 1DX and showed me how to do it.  A few things:

·       We changed the setting so the shutter button is only for metering, NOT for focusing. Focusing is done through the back button (AF-ON)

·       We changed the AF Area selection from single-point spot to “61-point automatic selection AF”.

·       What he does to track, he sets the AF point to the center; then uses AF-ON back button to focus on the subject, then while keeping the back button pressed, the camera will track the subject and keep focusing (AI Servo is on, multiple exposure). Then press the shutter when ready to shoot. Reason for disable shutter button for focusing is sometimes it will affect the focus when you use the back button to focus.

·       He set the way to change ISO to: SET, then the main dial

After lunch, the ship started to rock harder. Bob and I both started to feel worse, so we stayed in bed for almost the entire afternoon, till about 6. We then stumbled to the lounge, had a diet coke, chatted with a few fellow travelers, then went to dinner. It started snowing outside. Some went out on the deck to take pictures of the birds. Not me – I would have loved to, but not when the ship rocked like this. I was thinking of going to the bridge and take videos of the rocking ship, but did not have the courage to risk getting sea sick.

Martin sat with us at our dinner table tonight. After this expedition, he will be leading expeditions on a few private yachts/ships including the “world” ship where people buy apartments. It’s my first time hearing about this. Have to google it and see what it’s like.

After dinner, we all went to the lounge. Had some interesting conversations with Dionys and others about their photo adventures. Quite interesting! After this expedition, I don’t think I would be satisfied with any other kinds of trips any more! Nothing could be so intensely rewarding and interesting! I would do this trip again in a second! The only deterrent for me is the 3 days of rough sea. According to Howard who has done this many many times, what we’ve experienced so far is merely 1/3 of what it could be at its worst. OMG! I don’t think we can take it ….

It’s rocking pretty bad now. When we came back to our cabin, both suitcases had rocked out from under my bed. I won’t get a shower for the 2nd day. But Martin said we expect to arrive in Falklands tomorrow night around 8. This means I will be taking a shower then! And get packing done!

We will rock ourselves to sleep soon.

Arrived back at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands; Friday, November 20, 2015

It was a rough night last night. The ship was rocking side to side so much that I felt I was about to roll off the bed and had to constantly brace myself. My bed's in the same front to back position as the ship, so the side to side rocking really affected me. The suitcases under my bed all rolled out to the middle of the room. As the result of the rocking and me getting too much sleep the day before, I did not get a good night’s sleep.

We were up around 7:15. The sea was calmer than last night. After lunch, I started packing the 2nd suitcase. The boots took up most of that suitcase. Don’t think we would bring the hiking boots next time – that is, if there is a next time for the same trip. After this trip, the normal cruises no longer seem appealing to me! I really regret having booked with ExpeditionTrips for the Antarctica expedition for January of 2017. That would be just a usual expedition and we will not get the morning or evening magic light. I am contemplating canceling it and signing up with wild photo or Joshua for their Antarctica photo expeditions. But the deposit we’ve already paid is non refundable. We’re not in the position to forfeit that ….. The other consideration is the rough sea days both ways ….

Roy gave two fantastic presentations of the Galapagos and the Antarctica, with his photos and how he took them. I REALLY admire these guys!! The dedication and willingness to endure all sorts of harsh conditions! I wish I learned about all this when I was younger and had a chance to try it! But I am determined now – we will do the Svalbard polar bear expedition with either wild photo or Joshua.

It was a gorgeous day – bright sunshine, not too much strong wind, and quite warm. I went outside with my long lens and practiced shooting birds on flight. Joshua helped me to set my camera right – he said to use AF point expansion mode. I practiced using the back button to focus. I actually got a couple of decently sharp shots! I am so excited!! And I DID spend time reading the manual to understand what both Joshua taught me. I am determined that I will go home and practice! Practice!!

After lunch, at 2pm, Ole gave a presentation on the Penguin World project that he founded (penguinworld.net). Joshua showed a few of his photos of penguins in Antarctica that he shot. Fantastic!

We sat in the lounge for a while, after deck 4 was called to settle our bills. There did not seem to be a clear guideline on the tips – some said $10-$15 per day for the Russian crew, then another amount for the hotel manager and the chef. After consulting a few other fellow travelers, we did $200 for the crew, $150 for the hotel manager and chef. Felt kind of strange ….

I went out to practice shooting birds in flight, with Liz and Bonnie. My elbows got very tired and achy after a short while, so I came back. Did not get any really good shots, but it was a good practice.

Back in the cabin, continued to pack. There will be a briefing at 6:45 for disembarkation logistics tomorrow morning. We learned from Howard that we would be off the ship by 8:30am and the bus would shuttle us back to the airport. Our flight to Punta Arenas would be at 3pm-ish, so there would be quite a lot of time to kill. Not sure if they would let us spend some time at Port Stanley. We will see. The ship will get a new group of passengers and start another South Georgia and Antarctica expedition tomorrow afternoon.

OK, here’s the logistics for tomorrow: we will have breakfast at 7, get off the ship by 8:30. A bus will take us from the port to Port Stanley town where we will have one hour to wander around if we want, then the bus will leave at 10 to take us to the air port. Because of a recent accident on a French cruise/expedition ship, there will be about 200 French people waiting at the airport to board the plane (they added another plane). We hope to get ahead of them and check in our luggage. We will need to wait at the airport until boarding our plane to Punta Arenas.

It’s 8:45pm now. The ship has just anchored outside of Port Stanley. It feels SO GOOD to NOT be rocking and walking like a drunkard!!!! I will stop writing now. Pack up my laptop until tomorrow night, in hotel Ilaia in Punta Arenas!

Punta Arenas, Chile; Saturday, November 21, 2015

I got up around 5:30am, wanting to make sure we got everything ready to put the check-in luggage outside our cabin door by 7. And I did. Breakfast was at 7, and we sat together the last time before bidding each other good-bye. The Falklands officials got on the ship to clear us - Tamaryn our hotel manager had collected all our passports a few days before to prepare for this, I guess.

Shortly after 8, we were cleared. We all got on the big bus which would take us from where our ship docked into Port Stanley. It was a short distance. It was before 9 when we got to Port Stanley "down town". Nothing was open except the visitor center and the supermarket. We spent some time in the gift shop of the visitor center, then everyone went to the supermarket, which was more like a general store, with food, clothing, everything. Following Bonnie's advice, I bought a couple of chicken pies and a sausage/bacon burger, and a tin of Prinkles, to prepare for lunch.

At 10am, we all boarded the bus again towards Mount Pleasant Airport. Our luggage had gone in a different vehicle and would wait for us at the airport. We were warned that absolutely no photos at the airport. Also, because of the recent terrorist attack in Paris, all security had been tightened. Also, there was a French cruise/expedition ship that caught fire in their engine room just a couple of days ago, so that cruise was canceled and all the French people from that ship would be at the airport to fly back. So we wanted to be at the airport early. And that was a brilliant decision.

Before our bus entered the gate of the airport, a soldier came on the bus and checked the passport of each of us against the list he had in his hand. Nice young soldier, very polite. We got to the airport and identified our luggage and stood in the long line for about an hour to check our luggage in. Then we waited in the small crowded terminal for another couple of hours, and finally boarded the plane (Airbus 230). The plane was late for about an hour, so we did not leave Falklands until around 4pm (vs the scheduled 2:50). I did not realize that the flight would make an intermediate stop at Rio Gallegos, Argentina, so after about 1.5 hours when the plane landed, I thought it was Punta Arenas and got my bags and ready to get off, until a guy from our trip told me. Half of the plane got off at this place, only 4 new people got on, so the place was a lot less crowded after that. Another hour and half later, we got to Punta Arenas. It was after 6.

Our driver (I think his name was Marcos) and the young lady were there waiting for us. The luggage took quite a while to come out. Since Bonnie's home stay was not too far from our hotel, our driver gracefully agreed to drop her off (of course we would leave a very good tip for him). They first dropped us off at our hotel, then went on to drop off Bonnie, per our request. Bonnie and we wanted to meet for dinner, and she said she would walk to our hotel to meet us so she wanted to see where the hotel was.

This time we got room #2, downstairs on the first floor. It had exactly the same layout. It was close to 8pm already, but it was still quite bright outside. I quickly did a little necessary unpacking and washing, then went to the public computer to check my email. The internet was very slow. I did not get too far till Bonnie showed up - it was close to 9 already. We had made a reservation at the restaurant La Marmita, the one we did not get to try last time. The three of us walked there.

It was a nice place, different from the one we ate at last time. This was a more relaxed and casual nice. Bob and I ordered the crab dish, he also ordered a rabbit stew. Bonnie ordered a hake fish dish, and we shared some sort of seafood appetizer. The crab dish was OK, good but nothing special. The rabbit stew was not that good - we did not like the taste. To me it tasted too gamy. Bonnie's fish dish was good. We learned that we should have ordered seafood which was probably their specialty. Bonnie was very funny - she was probably starved during the trip. The food on the trip was not that great, but it was OK for me - when I'm hungry my standards are low :-) But Bonnie was much pickier than I, plus she did not eat red meat, so they fed her chicken every day. And the chicken looked quite uninteresting. She consumed the 3 instant noodle packages she brought from home, plus 2 small cans of chicken :-) I hope she could find some decent oriental food while she stayed the night in Santiago. For me, I miss the good Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese food, and will get my fill when we got home!

It was almost 11 when we left the restaurant. Bonnie's home stay was closer to the restaurant than our hotel. We bid goodbye and hoped we would see each other somewhere in the near future. On our way back to the hotel, we got lost - even Bob found it hard to find our street in the dark and among the various intersections. But we finally got back to the hotel. Phew!

We set the alarm for 5:45am. We had told the hotel to get our breakfast at 6, the driver to come at 7. Our flight was at 9:35.

Hard to believe this adventure was over! When I first got on the ship, I really felt like going home. Now, I wanted to do it again! I guess I would not be the first person to feel this way. Ole said that every time after he got home, he would want to come back, despite the fact that he really suffered from seasickness. We've had tremendous good luck on this trip! We made almost all the landings, and spent 60 hours on land!! This was VERY LUCKY! I just wish I took better pictures!!!!!

Back Home; Monday, November 23, 2015

We left Punta Arenas before 10am on Sunday, Nov. 22 on LAN flight 280 which took us to Santiago. We waited for 7+ hours in Santiago airport, then LAN 530 to Lima. At Lima airport, we had to make sure our luggage made it from LAN to United and had to get our boarding passes at the gate from United. And they had to bring our 3 checkin luggage to the gate for us to identify and be sure we get the right ones. United 855 took us to Houston where we stayed for 5 hours. Finally UA 608 brought us back to Boston, around 6pm. It was a LONG journey! I should not complain too much because we had biz class seats from Santiago to Lima and onwards. But it was very tiring ....

If I complain about the airports in the US, perhaps I should do that less now. Compared to the airport logistics in Lima, Santiago, Punta Arenas, our airports were SO MUCH BETTER!!

Very happy to be home! Don't want to get on another plane for a while!!

Home! Sweet Home!