The Traveling Widower

Tag: south-america

  • Antarctic Wrap-up

    December 1st, 2025

    ”Hey it’s good to be back home again”
    “Sometimes, this old house, feels like a long lost friend”
    ”Yes and hey it’s good to be back home again”
    John Denver, Back Home Again

    I finally made it home after 19 hours of flight-time collectively on three separate flights starting in Ushuaia Argentina, to Santiago Chile, to Atlanta and then finally to Sacramento. Phew. I put in a couple of miles of walking though airport terminals, waited in security and customs lines multiple times, had some pretty good meals (1st class on international flights), and managed a few solid hours of sleep for a change. It’s now Monday, and I’m pretty much back to my boring life – it’s weird being alone again after sharing this incredible experience with 130 people, many of whom knew me by name (and not just because we wore name tags). But, it’s still nice to be home, and I’m looking forward to light meals, no alcohol, and working out daily. And I already go my chipped tooth repaired! My dentist said the Lindblad physician did a great job with the temporary fix.

    With all the idle time on airplanes and airport lounges, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on this trip, resulting in the last post on this trip – how sad. Nothing to write about for a while. 

    Overall rating – Superb/Beyond Belief/Best Ever 

    We had the cruise finale meeting the last evening at sea, where the Lindblad captain said that this had been an extraordinary trip, even from his lengthy experience in the Antarctic. We went further south, beyond the Antarctic Circle, than cruise ships normally go, and went through thick ice fields to an uncharted bay, filled with moving masses of ice…and managed to send out Zodiacs for 2 hour exploration rides through the ice, and even let the kayaks out to play (but closer to the ship), all the while the captain and bridge crew had to keep moving the Resolution to dodge icebergs (phew..quite the run-on sentence). That one day was an extraordinary experience.

    Pretty much every stop we made was a step beyond anything I’ve seen or done before. We visited four separate penguin colonies, each filled with hundreds or thousands of these amazing little critters. Just watching them waddling around, swimming and porpoising in the ocean, or stealing rocks from their neighbors nests, was a sight to behold. The scenery around each site was beyond belief. I want to come back and see the penguin chicks some day, and definitely want to see the larger penguins (King) in the South Georgia Islands. Maybe 2027 (already looking into a cruise there).

    Every outing was different, and they were not all focused on penguins. We explored an old, abandoned British research station (Station W) on the Detaille Island – it’s been maintained as a self-service museum of sorts, in pristine condition, still filled with old cans of food, games, clothing, radio equipment. And a really disgusting looking bathroom (just a wood plank with a hole in it – and the researchers had to clean it out). I forgot how many men stayed there – about 16 I think. They must have been good friends. It was an interesting stop, and we all hiked up a hill for some great views of the surrounding coastline and glaciers. 

    I’ve already described our ‘stable shore ice’ outing – that was incredible. And like most of our time in the Antarctic, there were penguins and seals flopping around. It always paid to have your phone or a camera handy since wildlife just seemed to pop up on the ice out of nowhere. Catching those images was pure luck – which I never seem to have. I did get to try out ship hauling – who knew that this was a potential career for me.

    Another stop I have not written about was Crystal Bay(not sure about the name) – this was scheduled as a Zodiac/Kayak opportunity and once again, we lucked out with perfect weather. Blue skies, little if any wind, and a perfectly flat sea. There was not much wildlife to see, other than a couple of humpback whales (fluke shot below), but cruising through the icebergs was fun – lots of interesting shapes making for good photo opportunities.

    All NatGeo/Lindblad cruises allow 24/7 access to the bridge – I’ve checked with some of the other expedition type cruise companies, and from what I can tell, you have to get permission. The bridge on the Resolution was amazing – high tech, lots of room for guests to wander around, plus there was a large observation area in front, which looked down the very unique bow of the ship. The captain gave a 2 hour presentation on the design of the ship – it is an absolutely amazing ship. The bridge though was special – you could stand behind the pilot’s “Captain Kirk” chair, and get the same view they had of the navigation and camera view screens arrayed in front, and watch as they manipulated the thrusters and engine pods with what looked like game controls. It was a tech geeks dream to watch as they maneuvered through narrow gaps in the ice flows. 

    I am truly blessed to be immune to wave motion on ships – so many of the passengers had to deal with motion sickness during the Drake Passage (both directions). I slept like a baby. The ship’s physician was extremely busy those days. For me, I kind of enjoyed the passage – there was a lot to see – Humpback and Orca whales, and flocks of sea birds. I spent a lot of time out on the observation decks during out passage to Anatactica, attempting to photograph the different Albatross and Petrels swooping around the ship. The passage back to Ushuaia was rougher, but still not too bad. The forecast was bad for the next group going out – we lucked out.

    Overall, with our bonus day for getting there early, we spent almost 6 days wandering around Antarctica, covering a large area. The ship’s path in map below, when expanded (not able to do that in the blog) looks like someone just scrawled blind-folded on the map.

    I have so many photos to curate from this trip…and a lot of videos of ocean waves, floating ice, and stumbling penguins. I might eventually do a ‘best of’ and/or a slide show, and post them. Everyone loves penguins. Plus, I get to learn something new.

    I enjoyed sharing my trip on this blog. I hope you found this interesting. Comments are always welcome.

  • Leaving Ushuaia (Pronounced OoShwayA)

    November 28th, 2025

    It’s always hard leaving a ship you’ve been on for a while. You sort of feel like you are leaving home for college. You’ve had all these people waiting on you for your every need – making the bed, cleaning the bathroom, feeding you, providing alcoholic beverages all day long. Then all of a sudden, you are thrown out to the world on your own. A sad moment. Who is going to feed me and do my laundry?

    We all had to have our checked luggage outside our door at 6:30AM, and then had an hour to kill having our last breakfast. You sort of feel like you have to eat everything in the buffet line, in case you are never fed again that day. Fortunately, they did not provide alcoholic beverages. That would have been a bad start to a day of travel. 

    After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to the staff, and were trundled off to buses once again for a short drive to the Ushuaia Maritime Museum to kill and hour before we were bused over to a hotel hospitality room. The museum turned out to be one of those surprises we seemed to have all the time on this trip. Ushuaia’s claim to fame, other than being at the end of the world, was being the home of a huge prison. Argentina started building the National Prison in 1902, and it was completed by prisoners in 1920 and housed upwards of 600 prisoners until it was closed in 1947. The prisoners were put to good use, maintaining the prison and building infrastructure for the town of Ushuaia including a railroad.  

    It was fun walking through the different wings of the prison. One wing was in the original state, unchanged. It was grim – made Alcatraz seem like a Ritz-Carleton. The cells were all tiny, none had en-suite toilets or sinks, and heating was from wood burning stoves in the corridor. There were not enough to heat that large area, so it must have been a freezer in the winter. There was a common bathroom at the end of the wing. Not much in the way of privacy.

    All the other wings had been modernized and turned into museum displays. One wing had the history of the prison, with different stories in each of the cells. There was a maritime museum in another wing which I’d loved to have spent more time in – tons of information on the early history of this area, with descriptions of each of the ships that explored the Antarctic. And of course there was a gift shop. None for me thank you. I’m trying desperately to declutter my house. I bought a ball cap from the ship’s gift shop. That was it for the four trips I’ve been on with NatGeo/Lindblad.

    The prison history museum was interesting – each cell told a story about the prison, and some had sad looking prisoners.

    I’m not exactly sure what this was supposed to represent. The roped off hole was apparently an escape tunnel. Your guess is as good as mine.

    I could easily have spent a few hours at the museum, but we were on a tight schedule, and were bussed to the Hotel Albatross. Where of course there was more food. A bunch of my fellow travelers walked across the street to the local tourist center, where you could get your passport stamped for Argentina (with a penguin) – but we were told before I headed out the door that it was not an official passport stamp which could invalidate your passport. I played it safe.

    On the bus ride to the hotel, we passed the wharf where the Resolution was docked – there were now four large cruise ships either loading or unloading. One was for Quark Exploration, which I’m considering signing up for their Falkland Islands/South Georgia Island cruise in 2027. I’d prefer NatGeo/Lindblad, but their current trips include Antarctica along with the other two stops. I’m not interested in a shortened version of the trip we just completed. So I may have more penguin themed posts in two years. Mark that date on you calendars. 

    Which reminds me – a bit of a side note here. Someone mentioned to me the night before we disembarked the ship, that Lindblad had loyalty program, which I had never seen mentioned in any of their catalogs. It turns out that you have to be invited to join, and that only happens on rare occasions. I spoke with the Lindblad representative, and he mentioned that National Geographic has it’s own loyalty program, and you need to have completed two cruises and one land based expeditions to qualify. Let’s see….I have four cruises, and will meet the qualifications this summer when I complete the Iceland trip in June. Cool. It will be nice to get some discounts given the number of trips I plan to take.

    The remainder of our exit from the tip of South America, continued with the standard follow-the-leader process, where the tour guides managed all the steps, from loading the buses, and then leading us through the security at the little Ushuaia airport. Since this was a charter flight, we even left earlier than scheduled. I wound up on the same seat, with the same person next to me. Deja Vu all over again. Once we land in Santiago, and get through customs, we are on our own. I’m sure there will be some others on the flight to Atlanta, but that will be the official end of the NatGeo/Lindblad trip. School’s over. 

    And I did make a new friend on this trip at long last. I think his name was 12556. Seemed kind of stiff though – maybe he should have had a massage on the ship.

    I might as well keep this going. Most everyone who was on the flight to Santiago has a much later flight back to the US, somewhere in the 9PM-11PM range. We arrived early, around 4:30, so we all have a lot of time to kill. What stinks is that the airlines do not open up check-in until 3 hours before the flight, so you are stuck with your bags, and cannot get access to the airline lounges which are past security. Catch-22. And, there are no lounges with places to charge your devices – just a lot of restaurants. Drinking for 4 or 5 hours does not sound like a good idea to me. But, I explored and found a very small private lounge – for $65, there’s WiFi, charging stations, nice places to sit, and all kinds of food (which I don’t need). Worst airport ever.

    Definitely the worst. People start queuing up before the airlines open up the check-in counters, so by the time their staff finally get set-up, the lines are enormous. Once you get your bags checked, you have to go through customs and security again and the lines snake around multiple times. And then you have a mile walk to get to the gate. 

    Might as well complete this thread. The flight from Santiago was wonderful – I even managed to get four hours of sleep. The bed pods in 1st class are almost comfortable. And the Atlanta airport worked out pretty well – compared to Santiago, even LAX would seem efficient. The flight from Atlanta to Sacramento was 5 hours, and seemed like 10. I slept a little, but was completely exhausted. I capped the flight off with a bad leg cramp. My body did not want to be in an airplane anymore. A very long journey this was. I think I’ll stay home for a few weeks. Or at least just travel domestically. I might go to Denver over Christmas. I think I can handle that. 

    So many good memories from this trip. They should last a long time.