Dangdut: Antarctica-Checking Off the Last Continent

Penguin selfie!

I’ve been promising to write about this for a while because I got back in February and it’s now April. I don’t know what happened, but probably just extreme laziness on my part and the inevitable passing of time that is out of my control. Since I got back from Antarctica/Argentina, I’ve already been in Ethiopia, and I’m heading to Zanzibar on Monday because I’m a long-suffering good friend who would do anything for Claire, including going back to a place I’ve already been. But just this once… I figured before I get on to that trip and then the next one (meetings in Cambodia with Africans coming along—sure to be exciting mix of my Southeast Asian childhood and my African old age hood), I should probably write a few things here so I can tell people I did it and then I can go back to my normal lazy existence.

I have had plenty of people demand in person stories from my trip, and I’ve shown lots of photos, most recently at an American Embassy function I was invited to a few days ago. It was not at the Embassy, but conveniently in my neighborhood. I know the lady who organized it and she was very upset because the generator wasn’t working at the venue in spite of the fact that it had worked every other day that week. It was probably the first time that most of the fancy Embassy people had to spend an extended period of time without AC, so I think it was good for them ultimately. Anyway, not the function organizer who was understandably busy, but another American Embassy friend asked me to tell her about my trip.

My main quick spiel is that it was amazing, I liked it more than I even expected, not that I didn’t expect to like it, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There is an other-worldly beauty about Antarctica that Debbie (my go-to, always up for an adventure, let’s make it happen, thankfully organized friend) and I kept marveling at. We were often sailing by mountains that looked like they were painted onto a wall for an old fashioned movie set. We, creative brilliant geniuses that we are, dubbed them “Fake Mountains.” We laughed about how many photos we took of the very first distant iceberg we saw once we were surrounded by them, but we were definitely obsessed with how beautiful and fascinating they were. And of course the animals—penguins, seals, whales, dolphins, albatross—always amazing to see.

Debbie is a very good photographer and has long complained that I lack her skills. She learned if she wanted me to take a photo to be very specific about what she wanted, and then there was a 60% chance she would get that photo on her phone. I learned that I could leave my hands toasty warm in my gloves and let her take photos that would be way better than any I would take anyway. We planned to share photos and did share some, but not all so sorry about that, but I really think you should just go visit yourself. Or if you want professional photos, there were several professional photographers on our trip who got amazing photos, and I’m sure they’re easy to find online should you want to see an adorable penguin floating on an iceberg or a seal yawning or something.

I realized when I was trying to pick photos
that mostly I have videos of penguins because they are so cute.
But I can never make videos work on the blog so you'll have to make do with photos.

This is the first organized tour type thing that Debbie and I have ever done as we tend to prefer wandering around by ourselves, but we aren’t experienced enough sailors to make it from Ushuaia, through the Drake Passage, to Antarctica, and back. Debbie certainly never would have made it as she was miserably seasick the first day until I made friends with the Indonesian staff working on the boat (yay for that Southeast Asian childhood again!) and convinced her to take the real meds instead of the hippie stickers and bracelets TikTok recommended to her.

This photo hurts my vanity because I look insane,
but Ibu Lu was wonderful and I can't find any other photos with her.
We sat in her part of the restaurant every night. She was the best.
Pasti orang Indonesia yang paling bagus!

While I appreciated the nerd lectures on the boat (and Debbie appreciated being able to watch them from the TV while lying down in her bunk) and also the activities that we got to do and not having to drive a boat by ourselves (although I do think I would have enjoyed that), we were not sad to leave the boat and have a few days afterwards to explore Buenos Aires and Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay). We also had fun hiking to the Laguna Esmeralda in Ushuaia too. We ate a lot of good food and drank a lot of very good beverages and had a lovely time. Thanks, Debbie, for always being up for my crazy trip ideas!

We made it to Laguna Esmeralda and beat the time everyone said it would take.
Had to call our taxi driver to come back early.

And now I’m going to share a few more photos that you can skim through. Thanks to my friend Lisa who told me that there is a limited number of people allowed on land at each landing site in Antarctica so we knew to get a smaller boat to make sure we made it to land. The limit is 100 people on land at a time. The other people would ride around in zodiacs (inflatable boats) and see wildlife and ice bergs up close and then switch. Debbie and I learned that we are very competitive hikers and need to be the first up any hill or to any Laguna Esmeralda and we don’t suffer slowpokes. We also learned that a lot of determined retirees with varying levels of physical fitness go on these trips and it can be tricky to get around them, but we managed.

Enjoy the photos and pretend you’re just swiping away on my phone like everyone else here did, but hopefully you are reading this from a nice cool environment because it is a million degrees here and we haven’t had electricity in several months now because most of the national electric company’s generators are broken. The Egyptian Consulate closed the other day because they had no power and their back up systems weren't working. Claire and I are going to Zanzibar to enjoy some rain, though Naomi coming from Northern Ireland is hoping for some sunshine. On va voir.

My trip started out in luxury because I upgraded myself with miles.
Thanks, Sheba Miles, for always bringing the adventure of running all over Bole Airport,
whenever you want to use your miles because only one Ethiopian Airlines employee at a time
knows all the intricate rules of how to use your miles, and you never know where to find him...

On the bus in Ushuaia!

Excited to be in Ushuaia, preparing to board our boat the next day.

Our boat room!

To Antarctica!

Boat lectures

The first iceberg!

Some fake mountains--photos don't so it justice.
I'm not sure if they looked fake because of the quality of Antarctic summer light,
or because I'm not used to sun on snow.

I showed the photos to Moussa, who loves poultry of all kinds,
and has a "collect them all mentality" owning chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, and turkeys.
He was very interested in penguins and their eggs:
"How can I get one of these? What do the eggs taste like?"
Considering its 46C/115F here right now, I don't think he should try to develop the industry here in Chad.

7 in Sign Language for our 7th continent

Look at this great photo Debbie took--she is truly an artist.

Glad to have each other as apparently lots of people can't find anyone
crazy enough to go with them on this trip so there were lots of single travelers.

We became friends with this cool London girl, which is good because
before I left Hassan told me that this is a crazy trip that only white people would do.
"What if you get eaten by a penguin or some other dangerous animal?"
I said, "I think I'm in more danger of getting attacked by a hippo that lives near my house
or getting in a car wreck driving around Ndjamena." He did concede the point,
after I showed him what a penguin is. But he still thought it was a dumb thing to do.
Michelle is Jamaican/British so I showed him not only white people do this.
When I admitted she was the only one of African ancestry and also she's actually British,
he said it proved his point. I would have counter pointed that there were a TON of Chinese
people on my flight back who had all been to 南极洲
but to Chadians nasaras and Chinese are basically the same.

Eating a piece of an ice berg right out of the ocean!

I will say in Moussa's defense:
legend has it that once a tourist stole a penguin from the beach
and stowed it in his bathroom. Maintenance finally broke in and freed it,
three days later once the bathroom stank so much people got suspicious.
They had to turn the boat around and return the penguin to its home.
So Moussa is probably not the only one wondering about breeding penguins.

An old whaling ship, sunk decades ago.

My Aussie friends were so psyched that John Eales was on our ship.
He was a good speaker too. His wife was also lovely.
Of course, I'm a Rugby League fan myself--Go Broncos!
Always cheer the boss's favourite ('u' for Australian) team.

Definitely did the polar plunge. No regrets.
Debbie, of course, tried to swim away, as she is a champion swimmer,
I used skills honed over the 8 years of not having a heater for my shower.
At this point, I wish I had a cooler for my shower because the water comes out hot.
I'm remembering this plunge fondly as I sweat in front of a fan that is pushing hot air around my house.

Cool artsy photo that Debbie took of the floor
in a cool Buenos Aires neighborhood with too many tourists.

Exploring Buenos Aires!

Colonia del Sacremento

Still Uruguay

I convinced Debbie to get matched tattoos:
7 in Arabic script since we met in the Middle East
and visited our 7th continent together.
In this photo it looks like she is the one trying to convince me,
but I am the bad influence in this case.