The GCW Tour, Buenos Aires & Antarctica: Ushuaia & the MV Fram

Let's take this in reverse chronological order...

At the moment, we're floating in the middle of the Drake Passage. We left last night at about 6:00, and tomorrow afternoon will be at Elephant Island where Shackleton and his crew got stuck way back in the day.

The most important lesson so far: the MV Fram is a very bouncy boat, at least when a low pressure system has rolled through and generated swell. It's not as bad as the ill-fated ferry crossing from Santorini to Crete the XS and I experienced -- I've never seen so many green people in my life -- but every now and then I have to pause and stare off at a fixed point and wait for the nausea to pass. In other words, it's just like chemotherapy. The good news is that the swell is dying down, and is expected to continue to do so -- for a few days. Then the low pressure zone will cycle around the planet -- no land to block it -- and the ocean will be bouncing again.

The Fram is actually a really nice boat. It was built in 2007, and for the most part things are still in good shape. There are less than 200 passengers on board for this trip, which apparently makes us a "Class I" which increases the number of places passengers are allowed to disembark and make landfall on Antarctica. (This was a very exciting announcement for the dozen or so Norwegian twenty-somethings that make up the expedition crew.) I'm not sure how to get there without freezing my ass off on the way, but the ship does have two small hot tubs outside on the top deck, though, no swimming pool. I'm pretty sure I won't be making use of the fitness room our the sauna.

We've had two meals so far -- both buffets -- and while steamer trays of food generally aren't my thing, I have to admit that the food has been pretty good. You certainly won't starve, and can -- but don't have to -- be a somewhat adventurous eater. And a bit of trivia that will be important to Sib4: every dish is flagged with an information label, and about half of what they serve is gluten free.

The big question will be how much the incidentals wind up costing. When you get on board, they take your passport -- apparently, there is a stamp for going to Antarctica -- and swipe your credit card. They then give you a personalized ID card that works as they key to your room, tracks when you leave and board the ship, and is the way you pay for everything you buy on the boat: souvenirs, drinks, excursions, etc.

Ushuaia turned out to be bigger than the Buenos Aires person suggested. It's 80,000 people strung out along the foot of the Andes mountains. In high summer, they'll get about six hours of night; and roughly the same amount of dark in winter. Oddly, the temperatures don't swing much across the seasons -- at least according to our guide -- generally running around zero degrees C in winter and the low teens in summer. And while tourism is a deal, the primary employer in the region is the government. Go figure.

It's also not technically at the tip of South America. That's Chile. The Beagle Channel runs east-west at the the tip of the continent, with Argentina on the north side and Chile on the south. Ushuaia is a few hundred kilometers up the channel.

And I was wrong: they don't consider themselves the "bottom of the world"; according to the T-shirts and other souvenirs, Ushuaia is the "end of the world" (el fin del mundo).

Here are some photos from the day...