Date of Entry:  February 19th 2016

Date of Writing:  April 3rd 2016,  Bla Guesthouse, El Calafate, Argentina

After the shenanigans of last night, today starts late, and serves largely as a recovery day for most of us, though that does not mean it is entirely without excitement.

Having returned to the boat around 4 am it’s a slow start to the day and we all wake up pretty late, stumbling around the boat and eating some breakfast before being invited back to the Chilean base of Gonzalez Videlo around 1pm for a proper tour, visit to the museum, and some lunch courtesy of our new friends the Chilean military and navy.  Heading to the base we’re amused to see penguins playing around on a helicopter pad and a satellite that isn’t even pointing upwards, likely because of how far south we are.

We get a quick tour of the museum and giftshop which documents some of the history of Antarctica, especially this base in particular while also giving me the first chance to add an Antarctica stamp to my passport, which I do despite space being at something of a premium in there.

We spend the next few hours chilling in the base eating delicious salami.  I quickly browse through a coffee table book of Chile, featuring so many stunning photos of the landscapes I so dearly miss.  Goodness but I’m getting excited to head back to Torres Del Paine for some hiking coming up on the blog after Antarctica is done.

Eventually we head back to the boat in the later afternoon, but only after we’ve promised we’ll come back for dinner.  Again I’m amazed by the amount of people we meet in Antarctica who are just truly incredible and eager to meet new people. It’s been one of the biggest surprises of the trip so far.

Back on board I spend some time reading up on deck and watching for any calving sections of the glacier.  I see a couple of minor crashes though fail to capture them on camera.  Still the incredible groaning and cracking sound of the glaciers is incredible to be surrounded by, like thunder all around you.  It’s insane and watching the huge chunks of ice plummet into the water is downright fun.

Soon enough it’s time to head back to the Chilean Base for dinner though and they are eagerly waiting for us in the main building, cooking up a giant barbecue of sausages, pork loin and beef ribs for us as we talk and socialize.

The chileans really are wonderful fascinating people, and it’s great to get a chance to practice my spanish again, since the language on board the spirit of sydney is more or less exclusively english. The meat is delicious, especially the sausages and pork, making for a super delicious dinner.  And the luxury of using an actual full size bathroom is much appreciated by me as we hang out chatting there.

This time we don’t stay until 4 am luckily, everyone’s too tired for that anyway, but it is a little past midnight as we head back out into the darkness of the penguin rookery, stumbling slowly through the clumps of penguins doing our best not to disturb them.  People are in better form this evening and so we do a better job of it, though it’s impossible to cross the rookery without disturbing some of them.(If I can find sufficient internet a video will be added later)

Darrel comes to pick us up in the zodiac and it’s straight to bed for us as we’re leaving Paradise Bay and Gonzalez Videla behind early tomorrow, heading a little further south towards an Argentinean base named “Brown base”  where Darrel’s plan is to anchor alongside avalanche glacier.  I know nothing about where were going but I must admit, the name sounds promising. Sorry for the shorter entry, but on a month long marathon we all need some calmer days.  Stay tuned.