Click, click, click...
Door: Yaisa
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Yaisa
26 Februari 2009 | Argentinië, Buenos Aires
Wednesday 18 February 2009 - Danco Island & Melchior Island
The day that should never have ended
After four days of fantastic landings and zodiac cruises, with sun, fun, Minke whales, Humpback whales, Leopard seals, Fur seals, Weddell seals, Gentoo penguins, Adelie penguins, Chinstrap penguins, icy icebergs, rocky rocks, superb sunsets and uncountable campari oranges, you could either think it would not get any better or that we would have had enough of it all. Neither was the case, certainly not the latter! How many pictures of penguins can one take? A penguin is a penguin, right? Well, no... Because on one island you see them diving off the cliff and clambering back on shore, on the other island you see them sliding over the snow on their belly, on the next island they are clumsily dancing on the ice, here they are walking in military line, flippers sticking out, over there they are nursing their little chicks... Every landing, every penguin is different, special, beautiful and I could say the same for the seals and all the other animals. Especially the Humpback whales. And there you have it, the whales. As we - the nine Dutchies - went out in the zodiac for our last cruise, Vladimir, our driver of the day, took us to a bay where none of the other zodiacs went. As all 10 of us were scanning the horizon for whales, I thought I spotted something far away in the water with the help of my super zoom lens (my left biceps are very well developed by now) and Vladimir took us there to check it out. I still don’t know what it was I saw, but once we got there, they were there too. Six humpback whales all within 100 meter from the boat. And we got close... Imagine all of us staring at the water, waiting for the whales to surge again... It’s quiet, we are barely breathing and we listen... Then, suddenly, we hear a blow and water splashing, right behind us. One of us invariably shouts “There!!!!” and points at the back of the whales rising out of the water. In half a millisecond everybody has turned around and spotted the whales. Then you hear lots of “Oooooh’s, Aaaah’s and Oh my God’s” and then it’s 20 seconds of “Click, click, click, click, click, click....” And that would be another GB of pictures in the pocket... After this scene repeated itself a few times, we actually started laughing at ourselves and our neurotic picture taking behaviour. So then the sequence would be as follows: “Silence, Blow, Splash, There!, Ooooh!, Aaaah!, Oh my God!, Click, click, click, click, click, click, Hahahaha, Hihihihi....” But hey, who doesn’t want to get that award winning tail shot? I think we all got one... So the whales made our last day, they had us breathless, in awe, drunk from this sensational display of nature and wishing the day would never end. But it was time to make our way back through the Drake Passage...
The way back
OK, I’ll give you the short version: Drake Shake on the first day, Drake Lake on the second day, lots of sharing of pictures and lots of gossiping (that’s a wonderful thing about speaking Dutch) about other passengers. It was especially fun to watch the behaviour of couples that started forming between passengers/staff or passengers/passengers. We had some great nicknames for several of our more remarkable fellow passengers, which I shall not repeat here since my blog it pretty public, but hanging out with a group of young Dutch people is guaranteed fun at other people’s expense. The last night on the boat we drank the same amount of cocktails we had in total in the previous days, sang karaoke, danced in the bar, went back to our cabins two to three hours before the wake-up call and after disembarkation, from mid-morning till late evening, Siobhan, Mirjam and I ended up sitting completely hungover in the bar of the hotel where we had departed from. We had no energy for anything else but emailing, updating Facebook, reading up on the world news, reminiscing about the extraordinary trip we just had and exchanging pictures. So to spice up our day, we had a couple of cocktails. Well, maybe more than a couple. And we said goodbye to our fellow Antarctic butterfly friends, Onno & Gertrude, Rogier & Floor and Klaartje & Maarten.
The Classic Antarctic Expedition on the Lyubov Orlova with Quark was the single best trip I have ever done in my life.
Siobhan left for Buenos Aires the next day and Mirjam and I spent a few more days in Ushuaia climbing a glacier and hiking in a national park. But worth a special mention is definitely the day that I left Mirjam in the hostel with my laptop so she could write her blog (well worth it, if you read Dutch: miropreis.waarbenjij.nu).
I was wearing my bikini under my clothes and walking towards the water, just like a regular working day in El Gouna. However, on top of my bikini, I was not merely wearing shorts and a t-shirt. And around me, there was no desert. This time, I was wearing my thermal underwear, a tracksuit, a pully, a warm wintercoat and socks. And I was surrounded by mountains with snowy tops. But yes, I was going diving. I know that in Holland and England all these idiots go diving in freezing waters and say they enjoy it, but a very long time ago I swore after diving in 10 degrees water, that I would never do that again. However... how often do you get the chance to dive in Tierra del Fuego, en el fin del mundo? No, no, not ice diving, but with 8 degrees, dry suit was definitely required and that would be a first for me too. Except for one totally uncontrolled and very funny, feet up, surfacing episode, I managed relatively well. And yes, I was still cold, but boy, was it worth it... Giant kelps, king crabs, thousand of langoustines, uncountable spidery, hairy crabs in all sort of colours, nudies I had never seen before and big snails whose name I don’t know either... It was really very cool, literally and figuratively.
And now, as I am on the way to Buenos Aires to hook up with Siobhan to explore this hip & trendy capital city where I used to live 20 years ago and to have a little reunion with a few classmates from back then, I am looking at a massive amount of Antarctica pictures that I need to sort through. Uploading 2000 pictures on Facebook would probably block the system. So I’m going to try my best to offer a selection worth your while. But remember what I said in my previous blog: You just have to go and see for yourself. You really should.
PS: A few hours later...
I just accidentally deleted all of my Antarctica pictures... I thought about committing suicide but that seems a bit drastic. Going back to Antarctica next year seems more reasonable... ;-) I’ve recovered half of them and will work on the rest as soon as I’m in Holland. So you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the pictures... Wish me luck!!!
The day that should never have ended
After four days of fantastic landings and zodiac cruises, with sun, fun, Minke whales, Humpback whales, Leopard seals, Fur seals, Weddell seals, Gentoo penguins, Adelie penguins, Chinstrap penguins, icy icebergs, rocky rocks, superb sunsets and uncountable campari oranges, you could either think it would not get any better or that we would have had enough of it all. Neither was the case, certainly not the latter! How many pictures of penguins can one take? A penguin is a penguin, right? Well, no... Because on one island you see them diving off the cliff and clambering back on shore, on the other island you see them sliding over the snow on their belly, on the next island they are clumsily dancing on the ice, here they are walking in military line, flippers sticking out, over there they are nursing their little chicks... Every landing, every penguin is different, special, beautiful and I could say the same for the seals and all the other animals. Especially the Humpback whales. And there you have it, the whales. As we - the nine Dutchies - went out in the zodiac for our last cruise, Vladimir, our driver of the day, took us to a bay where none of the other zodiacs went. As all 10 of us were scanning the horizon for whales, I thought I spotted something far away in the water with the help of my super zoom lens (my left biceps are very well developed by now) and Vladimir took us there to check it out. I still don’t know what it was I saw, but once we got there, they were there too. Six humpback whales all within 100 meter from the boat. And we got close... Imagine all of us staring at the water, waiting for the whales to surge again... It’s quiet, we are barely breathing and we listen... Then, suddenly, we hear a blow and water splashing, right behind us. One of us invariably shouts “There!!!!” and points at the back of the whales rising out of the water. In half a millisecond everybody has turned around and spotted the whales. Then you hear lots of “Oooooh’s, Aaaah’s and Oh my God’s” and then it’s 20 seconds of “Click, click, click, click, click, click....” And that would be another GB of pictures in the pocket... After this scene repeated itself a few times, we actually started laughing at ourselves and our neurotic picture taking behaviour. So then the sequence would be as follows: “Silence, Blow, Splash, There!, Ooooh!, Aaaah!, Oh my God!, Click, click, click, click, click, click, Hahahaha, Hihihihi....” But hey, who doesn’t want to get that award winning tail shot? I think we all got one... So the whales made our last day, they had us breathless, in awe, drunk from this sensational display of nature and wishing the day would never end. But it was time to make our way back through the Drake Passage...
The way back
OK, I’ll give you the short version: Drake Shake on the first day, Drake Lake on the second day, lots of sharing of pictures and lots of gossiping (that’s a wonderful thing about speaking Dutch) about other passengers. It was especially fun to watch the behaviour of couples that started forming between passengers/staff or passengers/passengers. We had some great nicknames for several of our more remarkable fellow passengers, which I shall not repeat here since my blog it pretty public, but hanging out with a group of young Dutch people is guaranteed fun at other people’s expense. The last night on the boat we drank the same amount of cocktails we had in total in the previous days, sang karaoke, danced in the bar, went back to our cabins two to three hours before the wake-up call and after disembarkation, from mid-morning till late evening, Siobhan, Mirjam and I ended up sitting completely hungover in the bar of the hotel where we had departed from. We had no energy for anything else but emailing, updating Facebook, reading up on the world news, reminiscing about the extraordinary trip we just had and exchanging pictures. So to spice up our day, we had a couple of cocktails. Well, maybe more than a couple. And we said goodbye to our fellow Antarctic butterfly friends, Onno & Gertrude, Rogier & Floor and Klaartje & Maarten.
The Classic Antarctic Expedition on the Lyubov Orlova with Quark was the single best trip I have ever done in my life.
Siobhan left for Buenos Aires the next day and Mirjam and I spent a few more days in Ushuaia climbing a glacier and hiking in a national park. But worth a special mention is definitely the day that I left Mirjam in the hostel with my laptop so she could write her blog (well worth it, if you read Dutch: miropreis.waarbenjij.nu).
I was wearing my bikini under my clothes and walking towards the water, just like a regular working day in El Gouna. However, on top of my bikini, I was not merely wearing shorts and a t-shirt. And around me, there was no desert. This time, I was wearing my thermal underwear, a tracksuit, a pully, a warm wintercoat and socks. And I was surrounded by mountains with snowy tops. But yes, I was going diving. I know that in Holland and England all these idiots go diving in freezing waters and say they enjoy it, but a very long time ago I swore after diving in 10 degrees water, that I would never do that again. However... how often do you get the chance to dive in Tierra del Fuego, en el fin del mundo? No, no, not ice diving, but with 8 degrees, dry suit was definitely required and that would be a first for me too. Except for one totally uncontrolled and very funny, feet up, surfacing episode, I managed relatively well. And yes, I was still cold, but boy, was it worth it... Giant kelps, king crabs, thousand of langoustines, uncountable spidery, hairy crabs in all sort of colours, nudies I had never seen before and big snails whose name I don’t know either... It was really very cool, literally and figuratively.
And now, as I am on the way to Buenos Aires to hook up with Siobhan to explore this hip & trendy capital city where I used to live 20 years ago and to have a little reunion with a few classmates from back then, I am looking at a massive amount of Antarctica pictures that I need to sort through. Uploading 2000 pictures on Facebook would probably block the system. So I’m going to try my best to offer a selection worth your while. But remember what I said in my previous blog: You just have to go and see for yourself. You really should.
PS: A few hours later...
I just accidentally deleted all of my Antarctica pictures... I thought about committing suicide but that seems a bit drastic. Going back to Antarctica next year seems more reasonable... ;-) I’ve recovered half of them and will work on the rest as soon as I’m in Holland. So you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the pictures... Wish me luck!!!
-
26 Februari 2009 - 17:08
Erik:
Ohhhhhh, alle click-click-clicks bijna voor nik-nik-niks!
Hoop dat je ze allemaal terug krijgt!!!
Mooi verhaal weer, super bestemming en leuk dat je toch bent wezen duiken! -
26 Februari 2009 - 17:17
Andre:
yaisha,
Die kun je met een eenvoudig recovery-programma weer terughalen van je opslag kaartje. Maar dan moet je op die kaartjes even niet meer fotograferen.
Doen, dan heb je ze allemaal terug!!
succes,
de papa van mirjam -
26 Februari 2009 - 19:39
Mir:
Ohhhhh neeeeeeeeeeee!
En jij mij maar uitlachen om al die back ups... Ik hoop echt dat je alles terugvindt!
XM -
26 Februari 2009 - 20:10
Anjo:
Succes...
Ik wil namelijk wel wat staart-foto's zien! -
26 Februari 2009 - 20:29
Mama:
suicide voor een paar (1000)mooie fotootjes nou nee, dat zou zonde zijn voor alle andere die nog komen. en eh, dan kan ik volgend jaar misschien mee, of eh, liever met eh... ja is goed,
geniet nog even na van de zwoele avonden en van de buenos aires van Buenos Aires, groetjes aan de tangueros. -
26 Februari 2009 - 21:42
TT:
AAAAAAAAiiiiiiiiiiiiii...........hoop dat je de foto's terug kan halen !!! Ben benieuwd waar het beste duiken is ! Had je alleen whales of ook dolphins ? Heb een mooie staart kunnen maken in New Zaeland ! Het is echt waow.......mooi he ! -
27 Februari 2009 - 13:54
Karin KB:
Ik hoop dat je de foto's terug kunt krijgen, moet mogelijk zijn volgens mij :-)
Anders nog maar een keer! -
28 Februari 2009 - 14:50
Tiets.:
Wat een verhaal weer!!
Nog wel zin in een lullig 4 daags skievakantietje na zo'n ervaring?
Tot gauw, XX -
02 Maart 2009 - 06:04
Annemiek Van Voorn:
Hoi Yaisa,
Ik ben net pas achter je site en ben nu al een uurtje bezig met je berichten, terwijl ik gewoon op mijn werk zit!
Het herinnert me dat er inderdaad nog een heel ander leven bestaat dan hier op de bank! Geweldige ervaringen heb je ondertussen opgedaan.
Ik ga weer verder, en denk aan het contrast tussen jou en mij. Dat houdt me dan wel op de been vandaag, hahaha. groeten uit grijs Amsterdam Zuid-Oost.
-
11 Maart 2009 - 18:16
Gertrude:
Being one of the Dutchies I have to give you a little gossip update, but I´ll do it in Dutch, just in case...
Wachtend op de luchthaven van Ushuaia kwam miss Blue Tooth bij ons in de buurt zitten. Met haar amerikaanse volume was het moeilijk om niet af te luisteren en tja wat moet je anders doen, als je aan het wachten bent...
"Het was weer zo´n geweldige nacht en ik wilde niet van de boot af, maar ik moest mijn vlucht halen. Terwijl ik door Ushuaia liep, hoorde ik opeens wat geluid uit mijn tas komen. Het was Eric die een walky talky in mijn tas had gedaan. We konden op die manier met elkaar praten en hebben afgesproken in een café. Vanwege mijn vlucht moesten we toch afscheid nemen. Deze bleek 4 uur vertaging te hebben en ik liep weer alleen door de stad, ging een andere bar binnen en daar zat hij weer, nouja??!! We zijn helemaal dol op elkaar en hij komt mij binnenkort tijdens mijn reis ergens opzoeken."
How about that?
Ik hoop dat je je foto´s snel weer terug hebt!! Wat een ramp!! -
13 Maart 2009 - 03:17
Onno:
Was jij niet diegene die mij laatst nog stuurde ¨en wel alles goed backuppen¨. Of was het toen misschien net gebeurt?
Ik hoop dat je de foto´s terugkrijgt. Wat ik er over gehoord heb is dat er veel terug te krijgen valt als je tenminste je schijf niet formatteerd!
De sneeuw in de alpen moet trouwens ook geweldig zijn geweest toen jij er was.
Wat boffen we allemaal toch weer (als je tenminste je foto´s terugkrijgt!)
kusje bye
Onno
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