Uncategorized

  Hi Everyone   What a day. First lets start with the night. Another night of no sleep. The boat started to rock as we got into open waters going out of the harbor of King Georges Island. The rocking and rolling was too much. Not as bad as the first night, but bad enough. I probably slept for less than two hours. The wind was howling and the boat was going up and down as I crawled into my berth hoping for the best. We were scheduled to wake up at 6:30, have breakfast at 7 and be on the zodiacs by 8. Everything had to be pushed back. We were traveling down the Bransfield Strait in the South Sheffield Island chain of Antartica. The wind had caused the boat to slow its progress and everything was pushed back one hour. The rescheduled time to board the zodiacs was 9 AM. At about 8:30 the boat slowed up and the anchor was lowered into a bay.    We were given life vests to wear when we disembark. I put on my snow pants, long johns, and two layers of tops. Wore a pull down hat and of course gloves with my ski jacket. We were given high length waterproof boots to wear. We all worked our way down to the first level and lined up to be helped onto the zodiacs. The zodiacs are lowered into the sea by a crane. There are approximately 8 zodiacs tied down to the back of the boat on the main level. As I boarded the zodiac I did not know what to expect. You sit on the rim of the zodiac and hold on for dear life. The water is extremely cold and if you fell in, you would not last long. There were eight of us on each zodiac, four sitting on each side facing each other. The ride was about ten minutes to an area called “The Hydrurga Rocks”. The Rocks are named after the Leopard Seal or Hydrurga Leptonix. The Rocks are located on the northern entrance to the Gerlache Strait. Now everyone knows where I was. Why go here? What is so special abut this place? As soon as we disembarked a large Wendell Seal was waiting to great us. He or she was sunning himself and sleeping on the compact snow and ice. Did not even look up as we all walked by him. Not a care in the world. He did ask me, if the market was up today. We then all walked in a straight line up the barren landscape to some penguin colonies. A penguin called “Chinstrap Penguins” make their homes here. Penguins live in colonies. Some colonies are larger than others. I could not stop taking pictures of these magnificent creatures. They were so beautiful as they interacted and played with each other. One colony particularly interested me. I sat down on the ice and took out my 100/400 and just clicked away. I wish I had a beach chair and a thermos of coffee. Could have spent the whole day there shooting and watching these creatures go through their daily lives. It was then time to walk back to the zodiacs. I fell a few times as the weather started to get warmer and the ice was getting softer. We all met at the Wendell Seal and board our zodiacs for the ride back. How amazing this experience was. To be able to photo these creatures in their natural environment was special.    We then arrived back for lunch. I was exhausted. It was hard work walking up and down ice and snow while carrying your camera gear. After lunch Andy had scheduled a lightroom session. I brought my computer down to the lounge, set it up, and fell asleep. When I woke up the session was over. I decided to take a hot shower, get dressed and go outside to shoot and look at the landscape as we travel down the Gerlache Strait. The hot shower was just what I needed. A refreshing way to wake up and get ready for more adventure. I then put on my warm clothes and ventured out to the deck. What I saw took my breath away. How beautiful both sides of the Strait were. There were penguins swimming near the boat and we saw some traces of humpback whales. Saw their bodies, but no large tails yet. It seemed that we were in never never land. Snow and ice on either side with small icebergs floating by. Flurries were in the air. Snow flurries in the summer in Antartica. My mind, spirit and soul wandered and I got absorbed by this magnificent site.    After taking lots of pictures, we finally lowered anchor and dinner was served. I could not eat and my mind wandered to the beauty that I had just witnessed.    After dinner, we boarded the zodiacs for a cruise around the icebergs. My room is on the port side, so my zodiac was scheduled to leave at 8:15 and return at 9:30. I got dressed and worked my way down to the zodiac ramp. The zodiac now seated six of us. We spent close to ninety minutes cruising around icebergs. The icebergs were so beautiful. The blueish color cannot be described. As I sat in the zodiac and took pictures of this wondrous land, I knew that I was blessed to be here and witness natures beauty in such a barren and inhospitable area.    As I finish writing this blog, I hope I get some sleep tonight. Cannot keep on going this way. I am starting to think about passing “The Drake” again on the way back. This morning I was able to get internet service on a computer on the boat. I sent my beautiful wife an email telling her that I was fine and could never describe the first night in “The Drake”. I described it

  Hi Everyone   Its 10:30 PM and the sun is still out. Sunset is at about 11:30 and then it will turn twilight for about 3 hours and then the sun will rise. Will never get dark. Hard to sleep with the light shining through my porthole.    Last night finished writing the previous blog at about 12:30. Had a lot to say about my first night with “The Drake”. The Drake decided to settle down and slept for around four hours. Got up at 5 AM and went down to the lounge for some coffee. Had my usual three cups and decided to risk taking a shower. I did not even attempt taking a shower the previous day. Did not want to do anymore fighting with “The Drake” and risk any bodily injury. Amazing, the water was nice and hot in this tiny shower stall. Had a nice warming shower. Forget about shaving. Will not risk using a razor blade with The Drake around. Shaving will have too wait until Ossining is my home again. Went down for breakfast at 8 and enjoyed a nice hot meal. The food is adequate, but not spectacular. This boat was a former working boat and is not a Princess Cruise ship. There is no pool, spa and the other so called great amenities hat those boats have. Some facts. Last year, thirty six thousand people visited Antartica. More than half of them never got off their luxury cruise liners. If the boat exceeds five hundred passengers, you are not allowed to dock and take any of your passengers on land. If your boat has over one hundred passengers, you are only permitted two land excursions in only two designated areas with only one hundred passengers allowed to disembark at a time. Under one hundred passengers and you can disembark anywhere you want and have unlimited access. That is the type of boat I am on. I believe the only way to experience and see Antartica. Another fact. Antartica is a land mass that is covered with ice and snow. The North Pole is not a land mass and only made up of ice and snow. We were told that at about 2:30 AM we passed the magical line and we had entered Antartica. Another continent that I have visited. The boat will stamp my passport. Last fact. If you want to  visit Antartica, you must come between mid November through mid February. The water and land are all frozen the other months of the year.    After breakfast, we were given a training course on traveling on the Zodiacs. The ship has 10 zodiacs and fits eight people in each. We were given life vests that we have to wear on the zodiacs. Of course, I slept through most of the class and will just follow everyone else tomorrow. At about 11 AM we saw our first iceberg. A large iceberg that we traveled very close to. Anyone hear of the Titanic? I was busy sleeping, but immediately woke up and grabbed my camera trying to take some pictures. I am sure I will have many more chances with many more icebergs. The ships captain gave a bottle of wine to the first passenger who saw the iceberg. I lost. After the iceberg encounter, we were given a great lecture on how to take wildlife pictures. What settings and lenses to use in particular situations. We were making our way to King Georges Island to have Igor, the passenger who broke his ankle yesterday, to be airlifted to a medical facility in Chile. We finally saw land at around noon time. This was King Georges Island. A barren looking island that had some snow capped mountains and there were only some research centers there. Imagine living there. What an existence. I took some pictures from the bridge and sides as we docked in the bay to await the medical boat to take Igor off. The boat finally arrived and took him to the island and then to the medical plane to be airlifted. Poor guy. We started to move again. As always, Andy had set up some lectures. The first lecture divided the passengers amongst his eleven staff into four camera groups of Nikon, Canon, Sony and Fuji users. We then went over our settings and what we will expect on our first land excursion and what settings and lenses to use. The following two lectures were given by naturalists. They discussed the different breeds of penguins in Antartica as well as the different breeds of whales and dolphins that we will encounter.    I have been eating light today. Did not eat lunch and barely ate dinner. Have been living on coffee and water all day after breakfast.    After dinner, Andy gave a lecture on what we should bring on our first land excursion tomorrow. What cameras and lenses we should use, how to pack them and an overall view of what to expect and see. Breakfast will be served at 7 and we board our zodiacs at 8:20 for a three hour dismemberment. The captain has personally picked out this site and is one of her favorites. That’s right, the captain is a woman. In the afternoon, we are going zodiac cursing around the icebergs.    I hope that my fight with “The Drake” is worth it. I certainly have passed the initiation test and am looking forward to our numerous land excursions. The captain told us that some of the boats that were supposed to leave Ushuaia after us, did not due to the storm we went through. Some people have been to Antartica before, and they all assure me I will be amazed and awe struck.    The boat is starting to rock and squeak more as we had to our first true adventure. I doubt I will be able to sleep tonight. Tough between the lack of darkness, rocking and squeaking.   Will, of

  Hi Everyone   So what happened today and how come I am not getting your daily blog? Lets refresh everyones mind. I am currently in the middle of the dreaded “Dark Passage” with no internet. As soon as I am able to, will send everyone my blogs.   So how did your day start? My day never ended. What do you mean never ended? I finished writing my previous blog at around 12:30 AM and laid down in my small room to get some badly needed rest. Then the Drake decided that it needed to keep me awake and make me pay for the Drakes right of passage. Pay I did. Picture wanting to go to the bathroom and fighting with yourself trying to get to the bathroom. The bathroom is about three steps from my bed, but every time I tried to get up and walk the three steps, I was thrown back into bed by the Drake. It was like having a fight with yourself or having a ghost fight with you and block every way you wanted to go. I started to call this invisible spirit “Drake”, what else. I constantly got thrown back into bed while hearing the waves hit up against our ship and heard the waves hit my window. I am on the third floor. Finally the waves decided to turn the boat on a forty five degree angle as I tried to go to the bathroom. Decided to wait it out thinking that this could not keep up. I was wrong. The fury kept on coming. I curled up in bed trying to fall asleep, but the constant rocking and squeaking of the boat kept me awake. I then decided to hide myself under the blanket and hope that this was all a dream and I would wake up next to my beautiful wife in Ossining. Guess what? This was not a dream. This was real and not a figment of my imagination. Could not read. Just laid there starring into the darkness hoping that the fury would end soon so that I could go to the bathroom. The fury kept on coming. What have I gotten myself into now? These crazy situations I put myself into need to end. Being tossed around all night long is not something that I wish on anyone. Finally as the light started to appear, at about 3:30, I decided to try to take those three steps and go to the bathroom. After “Drake” pushed me back a few times, I finally made it to the bathroom. I got the best of him now, but wait until later. I decided that I needed to go downstairs to the lounge and get some coffee. Expected to find some other poor souls there, but found no one. Everyone else was hiding in their beds. Got some coffee and watched the boat be taken by the Drake and tossed about as wave after wave hit us. The Drake also decided to turn the boat up 45 degrees again and toss us about some more. At about 4, another poor soul showed up and we both compared notes. At 5, more people showed up and we all starred in amazement at this spectacle. One of the crew showed up and told us we were being hit by 20 to 25 foot waves and sometimes even worse. I finally fell asleep on a lounge chair. The chair has a deep impression on it so that I could not get up and it kept me seated.    At 8 I was woken up by a whole group of other people looking at me sleeping. It was time for breakfast. I have never had a breakfast like this. The food is good and the tables have bars on them trying to keep the dishes from sliding off. After most of the group, left the mess hall, I was still there enjoying my cup of java when a huge wave hit us and all the dishes slid down and off the table breaking onto the ground. Our coffees all spilled and dripped down the table to the floor. The crew scattered to start picking up the mess and I decided that I had had enough of this insanity. Walked back to the lounge holding on for dear life so that I could find the same chair and buckle down for more insanity. Finally did and was woken up by a loud scream. One of the passengers had fallen down the flight of stairs I use and was seriously hurt. Others complained of bruises on their heads, legs and arms from being tossed around by Drake. I considered myself lucky . I have only lost some sleep. I was walking around always trying to envision how I would fall and compensating for that. Also, I decided to walk down the stairs facing the stairs.    I fell back to sleep again and woke up for lunch. We all slowly walked to the mess hall holding the rails. We looked like a team of climbers climbing a mountain. One in back of another and walking very slowly. The passenger who got seriously hurt is a nice Russian gentleman by the name of “Igor”. The doctor on board has determined that he has broken his ankle and fibia and has compound fractures. Poor Igor. He is in the room next to me and the doctor inserted IV’s and gave him pain medication. I felt so sorry for him and can only think about myself being in his situation.    At about 1:30 we were given a nice lecture bye Will, a British freelance photographer who specializes in wildlife photography. What a photographer. He has devised some interesting gadgets to try and get up close to the animals and film them in uniques positions.    What did I do next? Fell back to sleep for about three hours and finally awoke to feel the wrath of Drake

  Hi Everyone   So what was my day like? Where am I now?    My day started at 4 AM. Got ups with Moises and Sandra to shoot the sunrise over Beagle Bay and the end of the world. One problem arose. There was no sunrise except for some brief flashes of pink as the sun rose behind the clouds. Oh well, still searching for that perfect shot. Will always search. Never give up. Got back into my room at about 5:30 and immediately fell asleep for three hours. Woke up in an instant and bolted out of bed. Had to pack and get down to breakfast. By 8:45 was ready and went down for my must needed cups of java. We had to have all our suitcases in the lobby by 9:30 and checked out by 10.    After breakfast Moises, Sandra and myself went to walk the streets of Ushuaia. The sidewalks are very old and uneven. One member of the group slipped and fell. He was sent hone by Andy, Marc and the ships doctor. Imagine traveling all this way to slip, fall and be sent home. Luckily they have trip insurance so they will just go next year. The three of us first went shopping in an Arctic clothing and accessories store. Moises and Sandra tried on ski pants and accessories. They are such a fun couple to be with. I have had a great time with them and will miss them dearly when the trip is over. I did not buy anything since I have brought snow pants and lots of warm clothing with me. It was then onto another shop to look around. We finally wound up in a coffee shop and had our cappuccinos the way Andy likes it. Double up. We then walked into another shop. I had previously bought Olivia a special cup made of a squash like shell that the gauchos drink Mate in. You say it MA-TE. This shop had boxes of Mate for sale and a small book on Mate and how to prepare it. I am not a tea drinker, but found the Mate very enjoyable. Bought a box of Mate leaves and the book. Now I just need to move to Patagonia and become a gaucho.   It was then time to return the van and go to a small building that was the entrance to the pier and our boat , the Ushuaia. We arrived in the check in building at about 2 PM and were scheduled to make our way down the pier at 3:30. Moises has a way about him talking to people. He got the guards to let us go through security early. We then started the long way towards the boat. Passed some small shops selling souvenirs, food and beverages and then the wind really picked up. Large gusts were making us take one step back for two steps forward.  We finally arrived at the boat and was told we were too early. Got some shelter in a near by building and waited about thirty minutes. We then walked down the pier and boarded. The boat is nothing fancy. Does not have a spa, swimming pools and saunas. It is a converted working boat. I was led up to my room. What can I say about a room on a boat? Very small, but livable for me. The bathroom and shower are tiny and the room has very little way to maneuver around. I will and can make it work. We then had a welcome cocktail party. The food served was very good and tasty. I then went outside and took some pictures of the snow capped mountains and water as we headed out of Beagle Bay to the dreaded Drake. We then were all given a safety class and told that the alarm for abandon ship would be sounded in ten minutes. We needed to go to our rooms and wait. When the alarm sounded we took our life vests out and went down to the main deck to be led outside to the life boats.    The woman who gave us the safety course told us that the Drake was getting bad and that we would be experiencing a bad passage over the next 24 hours. My dream come true. Experiencing the Drake the old fashioned way. Dinner was at 8. The food was very tasty and good. The ship doctor walked around each table and gave each of us four pills. We were told to take one pill then and another twelve hours later. The other two are for the trip back. These were strong pills for motion and sea sickness. We all followed her orders.    After dinner we had two naturalists, husband and wife, describe the various plant and wildlife on the Antarctic Peninsula. Very interesting and full of facts. Jack, one of the naturalists, gave us a lecture on taking pictures in Antartica. He concentrated on focus point and composition. Also very interesting. The lecture ended at about 11 and it was now time to hunker down and enjoy the Drake. It is now 12:30 as I write and the boat is starting to rock and sway. The rocking and swaying is getting longer and larger as time goes by. Hope I can sleep tonight. Need to experience the full force of the Drake and not be sick or sleep through it. This is part of the experience of going to Antartica. Will it be worth it? We will know soon enough.   Hope I survive. If I do, will write the next blog tomorrow night.    Once I return to the civilized world, I will publish each Antartica blog one at a time. Will not bombard everyone with nine at once. I want everyone to read and joy.     PS: I hav e returned home for the next five months   Love Larry          

Hi Everyone This is IT. I am spending my last night in Patagonia and will summarize after I write my daily blog.  As everyone knows, I had some stomach issues last night and woke up at 1 AM to write to everyone. Finished at around 2 AM and immediately went back to sleep. Was supposed to get up at 4:30 to shoot the sunrise over Beagle Bay, but could not. Finally got up at 7:30 and crawled down to breakfast. Met some of the others who had eaten fish with my yesterday and none of them were sick. We diagnosed my sickness as either extreme fatigue and or dehydration. I will drink much more water today. It is 9:52 PM at the end of the world and it is still light outside. The sun has set but it is twilight. Does not get fully dark until around 11:30 and the twilight starts to come back around 4 with the sun rising at around 5. What will it be like in Antartica? I can only wonder.  We left the hotel at around 9 AM for our trip to “Tierra Del Fuego”. All the stores and shops are closed on Sundays in Ushuaia. Like a ghost town. No one walking on the street. We drove about one hour north of town to the entrance to Tierra Del Fuego. This is a big national park. It costs 350 pesos to enter and Moises had done his homework. He knew where to go and what were the best locations for our picture shooting. He has never been here, but studied the maps and figured it out. I was immediately struck by the beautiful snow capped mountains and lush river streams teaming with beautiful petrified logs and wood. My camera started to click. We drove around and stopped wherever we wanted to. I beautiful way to take pictures with no other care in the world. Just you, nature and your camera. PRICELESS. We finally drove over to a large glacial lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. The weather had totally changed and it was cold and windy here. Not like the other parts of the park. I took out my wide angle and got some awesome shots. We then found the visitor center for some lunch. I did not eat, but had two double cappuccinos Andy style. The food looked great. Lots of people were eating great looking meat on hot platters. The Argentinians love their beef. It was now back in the van for a few more stops. One stop was a picnic area. There were lots of families cooking all different kinds of meat on open air pits and the smell was something to behold. We got back to the hotel at around 3:30 PM. I great way to spend a day at the end of the world. I was starting to feel better, but my calf muscle started to ache again. Oh well, if its not one thing, its another. Being old is a real pain. Took a nice hot shower and shave and it was time to meet the group for Antartica. Some of the people I knew from previous trips and it was like meeting and talking to old friends again. When you spend time with people on trips like this, the group normally develops a bond that lasts for quite some time. There are 74 of us. We were then all bused to a beautiful restaurant and served a great dinner with, you guessed it, barbecue beef and sausage. The meat is so tender and special here. I only had the beef. No sides. Just enjoyed the taste and juice.  I plan on meeting Moises at 4:30 tomorrow morning to shoot the sunrise. When will I ever have the opportunity to shoot a sunrise at the end of the world? Need to drag myself out and do it. You never know, maybe this is the perfect shot.  Now the plans for tomorrow. Probably I will be back in my room at 5:30 and go back to sleep. Will meet Moises and Sandra at around 8:30 for breakfast. We need to have our suitcases in the lobby by 9:30. Our suitcases are being taken to our cabins on the boat. Most of the people have roommates and have already met them. I have also met my roommate. Me. No one could ever stand to be my roommate except for Olivia. I am that messy, disorganized and my sleep pattern is ugly. We need to check out by 10 and we get on the boat at 4 PM and the boat sets sail at 6 PM. In the meantime, we will be walking around town and maybe do some shopping and buy things we do not need. There is sporadic internet service on the boat. There are two computers that you can pay $10 for thirty minutes worth of time, but I was told the service does not always work. You need to make a reservation. So let me set the stage for you. We leave at 6, go through Beagle Bay and then go into the dreaded Drake. What will the Drake be like? Will this ocean monster accept us with calm open arms and cradle us to Antartica or say, get out of here and make it difficult for us to reach Antartica? No one knows except the Drake.  What will I do with my daily blog? How will you know if I survived the Drake? When I go to places where there is no internet, such as a yert in Mongolia, I still write my daily blog, on word. When I have internet service I then copy and paste onto my website and publish. You may not hear from me until December 13 or it may be sooner. No one knows. Could you survive without the internet and cell for that long? I will bet you many of us can’t.  Now to summarize Patagonia. Patagonia is a

Hi Everyone Sorry to be writing so late, but I developed some stomach issues late in the day and then fell asleep for a well deserved rest.  Where am I and why go here? I am currently in a town named Ushuaia. This town has been called “The End of the World”. The hotel is called “Hotel Albatros”. An appropriate name. More of that in a while. We left our hotel at El Calafate at 7:30 AM and got to the airport at around 8 AM. Check in went very smooth and of course, my suitcase was overweight. The weight limit for overseas versus domestic is different. Overseas luggage is allowed to be much heavier. Boarded the plane, a jet, at 9:30 for our short 90 minute flight to Ushuaia. I immediately fell asleep as was told by another person in the group that I was playing a symphony as I slept. Always my sign for being over tired and that I was living on fumes.  Smooth sailing through the airport and when I stepped outside, I was greeted by a gust of cool fresh air. Totally different from the previous parts of Patagonia. We all boarded a big roomy bus for our ride to the hotel. The woman on the bus pointed to some close snow capped mountains and said “Chile”. There are two cruise vessels docked. One is much larger than the other. Our boat is not in port yet and will be much smaller. Our boat is a converted Russian trawler and specifically built and designed to cross “The Drake” and navigate in Antartica. We finally checked into our hotel. Our group has turned into a well oiled machine. We are all friends and care about each other. One couple is a fun couple from Mexico City. Moises and Sanda are a fun loving couple and a pleasure to be with. Moises is in his early fifties and Sand in her late forties. Moises is in the import/export business and leads workshops throughout Mexico. He is fluent in English. Sanda speaks very little English, but is learning fast. Moises asked me and some of the others if we would like to rent a van and explore the area. Sounded like a great idea since our Antartica adventure does not start until Monday afternoon. Myself, Moises, Sanda, Gwen, Daisy and Ella all settled in and first went to eat lunch. The front desk recommended a restaurant named “El Viejo Marino”. The restaurant is across the street from the waterfront promenade or this towns version of the Malecon. The restaurant only serves fish and king crab. In the window was a large tank full of the biggest king crabs I had ever seen. The decoration was very rustic and reminded me of a restaurant in Boston called “The No Name”. Olivia and myself visited there in the mid 70’s. On the table mat was a picture of a fishing boat with the same name as the restaurant. Did not look like a coincidence. Moises ordered for us. First we were each given our own large scissors and waited for the first course over drinks. There are three local beers served here. One is named Patagonia. Makes sense. Anther is called Beagle. Darwin’s ship was named the HMS Beagle and the third beer is named Cape Horn. Cape Horn comes in a non beer looking bottle with a handle and says on it “Worlds Southernmost Beer”. The waiter brought out a huge king crab and we were each given a leg. We were told to use the scissors to cut the bone away from the meat. The meat was so sweet and tender. Next our main meals came. I had a fish called “Black Hake” except it was not black, but white and looked like haddock. It was grilled and made to perfection. On the side was a source of king crab, shrimp and scallops. Excellent. After having spoonfuls of flan, El Calafate ice cream and almond ice cream, We then walked back to the hotel to pick up the van.  Ushuaia is built on a hill going down to the waterfront. Reminds me of a small scale San Francisco. Streets are narrow. We were told that it gets totally dark after 11 and the sun rises anywhere between 4 and 5 in the morning. Moises took us for a short tour of the City, He has never been here before but did some reading and we had a garmin leading us. The Argentinian Navy has a presence here. This was the town that the lost sub sailed from recently.  Moises took us to a museum that was converted from a former prison. We found out that convicts built this town and all the streets and original buildings. The town has perfect natural barriers and no convict had every successfully escaped. The first prisoners came here in 1896 and the prison was abandoned in 1947. An eerie place and Daisy told us that it reminded her of “Dacca”. There were lots of old photos of the prisoners, their work projects and daily life.  The cells were small. Half of the structure was left like it looked in 1947 when it was abandoned. Very strange. As we were leaving, there was s map of the area on the wall. I showed Moises, Sanda, and Daisy the the area in “The Drake” where we will all probably get very sick. That is where the Atlantic and Pacific meet and form a couple embracing.  Moises had a surprise for us. He took us to an ice bar. Yes, you are hearing me straight, an ice bar. You pay to enter and the entrance fee includes as much drinks as you want at the ice bar. First we were lectured on the various islands in Antartica. Shown beautiful photos of many of the islands and wildlife. The lecture was in Spanish and Moises acted as the interpreter. We were then given large parkas

Hi Everyone What a day in Southern Patagonia. We all had breakfast at 6 AM and rushed to board the bus at 6:30 AM. Don’t forget, today is glacier day. We drove for about an hour an entered a national park named “Los Glaciers National Park”. In order to gain entrance to the park, you do not just show up and buy a ticket. The Argentinian Government monitors the amount of daily visitors. Our local guide had to make our reservations four months in advance. We went down to a lake front and boarded a small boat. I did not understand why, but when we turned a bend on the lake, I found out why. There facing me was “Glacier Perito Moreno”. The glacier is named after the explorer who named Mt. Fitz Roy in 1877. I have seen many interesting places in my life, but this glacier is near the top of the list. How was the glacier formed and is it dying like most of the other glaciers in the world? The glacier moves 2 millimeters a day and we constantly heard large booms as small pieces fell off into the lake. The glacier extends over to Western Chile and is three to four times larger in Chile. What happens is that water is swept through the Andes from the Pacific Ocean and as the water travels over the Andes it changes to ice and eventually glacier ice. As the pieces fall into the lake, on the Argentinian side, more is being added on the Chilean side. In this way the glacier has remanded approximately the same size for over the last two hundred years. Needless to say, if our world temperature keeps on rising, then the water from the Pacific will not convert to ice and the glacier will eventually get smaller and start to die. That has not happened yet with this glacier. It is still alive and well. A glacier is like a living creature and very important to our planets survival. Olivia and myself saw Franz Josef Glacier, located on the south island of New Zealand. That glacier is dying and almost not visible unless you hike up to it. Not the case with this glacier. A true monument to nature and its beauty. We all hiked up to the glaciers base camp. Most of the group had crampons attached to  their shoes for their walk on the glacier. As I told everyone yesterday, I was not going to do the hike because of my pulled calf muscle and want to fully enjoy Antartica. Andy decided to keep me company, so he and Cecilia, our local guide, joined me in taking pictures as we walked around. I had a great time with them and told them this special time with them, even though was only for a few hours, was priceless. We walked around for about 90 minutes and took some amazing pictures of this wonder. How fortunate I am to witness this monument to nature in all its glory and majesty. I would love my wife, children, grandchildren and all my subscribers to see this and wonder in its beauty. I could not stop taking pictures. As the light changed, it created different parts of the glacier to be different colors. We finally arrived back at a permanent day rest structure and had our bagged lunch.  By that time the group returned from their ice hike. They all told me I was very wise in taking this one off. I was so happy with what I had done. Taking pictures, from a reasonable distance, of this amazing scene.  After lunch will all boarded the boat for our thirty minute ride back to the front of the lake and where our bus was parked. I did not know, at this time, that there was one more surprise left. We drove for about fifteen minutes to another section of the glacier. This was at the front or foot of the glacier. This glacier might be the only one in the world where you can see the foot without getting on a boat. The government had built walkways and ramps leading down to the foot of the glacier. When I first saw this sight, it was hard for me to imagine what I was seeing. The vastness and beauty cannot be described. I constantly walked up and down the ramps clicking and clicking. I wound up with over 1000 images of Glacier Perito Moreno. My images cannot do the glacier justice. Everyone must see this wonder. I told both Andy and Marc that I would like to come back here with a beach chair and just sit and watch the sun come over the glacier changing its colors and textures.  Has anyone done their homework? Has anyone gone to you tube and looked up the Drake Passage? Has anyone seen what faces me in three days? All to seek the perfect picture. Maybe I will find it in Antartica. I almost found it in Mongolia and the Glacier Perito Moreno. Will always keep looking. Tomorrow we leave for Ushuaia. This is the town where the boats depart for Antartica. Will be spending two nights there and leaving on December 4th. I will have more to say over the next two days on Antartica. I need to rest and mope and I will. Will walk around Ushuaia and take in the culture and scenery and then get ready for Antartica. Am starting to wonder what I will see at the bottom of the world. If Glacier Perito Moreno left such an impression on me, what can I expect in Antartica. Between the wildlife, Icebergs and Glaciers, my hands may fall off. Hope everyone is enjoying my blog and adventure Love Larry  

Hi Everyone How are you? It seems I have been away from the REAL world forever. Have not watched TV nor read a newspaper since Saturday. Oh well, life goes on. On my last blog, I made one spelling mistake that I have been previously corrected by both my beautiful wife and Andy. Moping is spelled MOPING and not MOPPING. Will try my best to remember that in the future since I know I will be using this word time and time again.  The group was going out to shoot at 4:30. I set my cell alarm for 3:45 and woke up. My leg is still hurting me and my body was still playing the hurt symphony. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. The first photo shoot I have missed in seven workshops. I need to heal before Antartica. More on that later.  Woke up at 7 AM all groggy and starry eyed. Went down to breakfast and met the group from the sunrise shoot. They were all concerned for me and I assured them that I needed to take a morning off. We then checked out and drove to the Gaucho Ranch. Andy, that great planner and thinker, arranged another more comprehensive photo shoot for us to be followed by lunch. The photo shoot was much better than the first one, since the gauchos now knew what we wanted and were prepared for us. They are not professional models and it took them, a while to get the hang off it. Got some great pictures of them on horseback and tending to some daily chores. Lunch consisted of a great piece of chicken with the fixings.  It was now time to get back into the bus for a ninety minute drive to the town of “El Calafate”. El Calafate is located in Southern Patagonia on Lake Argentina. Lake Argentina has a turquoise color to it. There is a huge marshy area in the center of town where horses and birds graze. We checked into the hotel, had dinner and walked down to the promenade to shoot the horses and try to catch some bird action. I have taken pictures of birds before. Normally it involves being very patient and still until the bird decides to do something. There are photographers who specialize in this, but I do not see the attraction. Got some good images of the horses grazing in the marsh. I want to start my description of what I will expect on the boat ride to Antartica. First, in order to get on a boat to Antartica, you need proof of medical evacuation insurance and medical insurance for the trip. so if you get hurt or sick, all transportation and medical care is covered and taken care of.  Second, I am giving everyone a homework assignment. Please go to you tube and search for videos of the Drake Passage. The Drake Passage is the body of water that separates the southern tip of Argentina from Antartica. It takes around one and one half days before you start to see land and disembark. The Drake Passage is where both the Atlantic and Pacific meet. The Passage has been labeled as the roughest sea crossing in the world. The conditions are hit or miss. You could have a great crossing over a sea that behaves like a large lake or be hit with tremendous waves and swirls. The conditions are hard to forecast or predict. The Passage has been named by others as “The Washing Machine”. I wonder why? Look at some of the videos of previous crossings. Third, the boats that go to Antartica are normally big passenger cruise boats. National Geographic boats carry over three hundred passengers to Antartica. An international consortium of countries govern the passenger boats carrying people. Some of the cruise ships do not even let anyone off for land excursions and those passengers just sit on deck and observe the wildlife and ice. Not for me. The international consortium tells the boats where to go that have land excursions. Those boats are limited to only taking 100 passengers on land per docking. So if you are a passenger on a three hundred passenger cruise ship that goes to Antartica, you are entered into a lottery to determine who goes off and who stays on each land excursion. Not for me. Our boat, in Andys wisdom, has only 78 passengers plus crew. That means that we ALL go off the boat for each land excursion. We are scheduled for at least two land excursions per day. How GREAT is Andy. He has tried his best to make this a life time experience for everyone. More on Antartica from Ushuaia. What is Ushuaia? It is the town on the lower east coast of Argentina where the boats wait for people to board them. The tourist season only lasts for three months, from the end of November to mid March. Last year thirty six thousand people visited Antartica either by observing it on deck and never getting off the boat or through minimal land excursions. Some passenger boats carry over two thousand passengers down and no one gets off the boat. Not us. What a way to see Antartica. All thanks to Andy and his great and thorough mind.  Onto tomorrow first. Tomorrow is our glacier day. We are having breakfast at 6 AM and leaving at 6:30. We drive to a boat and take the boat to glaciers and ice fields. Most of the group will be taking a one hour walk on the ice fields with crampons attached to their boots. There is a restriction that if you are over 65, you cannot do this, but must observe the glaciers and ice fields from close range. I am sort of glad that I cannot do this activity. My leg is still sore and hurting and I would feel uneasy walking on the ice fields. I need to be better for

Hi Everyone Its 10 PM and still quite light in Southern Patagonia. Gets fully dark around 11 PM. So what did I do today? Would you believe that I hiked 7 miles up a mountain just to take pictures? When did I start? Fell asleep at 9 PM and the alarm went off at 12:45 AM. Dressed in dirty clothes and met the other crazies at 1:30 AM in the lobby. I had one warning sign to what I faced. Andy did not join us on the hike. He always told me he would never put me in a situation that he had not previously done. Oh well. The hike goes on. After coffee we left for the hike. The entrance to the trail was near then hotel so we just walked over. Don’t forget its dark. My right foot hit a rock protruding from the road and I did not realize it. Pulled my calf muscle. As soon as it happened, I was faced with the dilemma of going back or just gutting it out. Everyone knows that I decided to gut it out. We were hiking up to a small glacier lake that is about half way up Mt. Fitz Roy. Why is the mountain called Mt. Fitz Roy? A sort of funny name. Mt. Fitz Roy was named after the captain of the HMS Beagle. His name was Robert Fitz Roy. The HMS Beagle was the ship that Charles Darwin used to charter and explore much of the Patagonian coast in the 1830’s. In 1877, Francisco Moreno first saw the mountain and gave it this name.  The original native people of Patagonia were the Tehuelche. They have died out and none are alive today. They originally called the mountain “Chalten”. This is translated to mean smoking mountain. This is due to a rare phenomenon that makes its granite top appear as if it always surrounded by clouds. More on that later. Lets get back to the hike. The trail starts by walking up steep stone steps. We then leveled off and proceeded to enter an open area. Could not see anything in the darkness. We were all wearing our head lights as we maneuvered along the trail. When the train was flat, which was not often, it was quite easy to hike. We walked up lots of stone steps that would have been OK except for two problems. Large roots were jutting out from all over the trail and small boulders and rocks appeared out of nowhere. We needed to navigate ourselves around the roots and small boulders and rocks. After about one half mile, I peeled off my jacket. We were also carrying our camera gear in a backpack.The sherpas were carrying all our tripods. The sweat started to flow and I needed to stay hydrated as much as a could. Back to the open area. I tripped over a small boulder and fell down. Luckily, I was just a little bruised and dirty except for the constant ache of the pulled calf muscle. We also had to navigate over wood planks that appeared out of nowhere. It seemed like we had found the Patagonian Death March. I thought of Andy in his comfortable bed and sort of wished I had turned around when I could have. Now it was too late. On and on we went in total darkness. Through forests, open areas and constantly up stone steps and over roots, boulders and rocks. At about one and one half miles we stopped to fill our water bottles from a small glacier stream. Fresh water at its best. A true gift from nature. Every bone in my body started to feel the pressure and the aching started like a symphony. Different parts of my body ached and then other parts took over for the ones that had voiced their displeasure with this insane activity. Why am I doing this? Just when I thought this could not go on anymore, the trail kept on going. Was I in the Twilight Zone? Did I enter a portal that only exists in my mind?  Will I wake up from this nightmare and be in my safe cozy bed? We finally came upon sheltered outhouse at the three mile mark. Marc and the local guide, Cecilia, went a head to scout out the situation while we took a well needed break. Finally Marc and Cecelia came back and we followed them out of the forest. There were some tents that we walked by and finally arrived at our destination, the small glacial lake with Mt. Fitz Roy on the other side. We immediately set up our tripods as the light started to appear. We all hoped that we would be able to capture the sun rising and hitting Mt. Fitz Roy and that that sun would reflect on the glacial lake. Is this what you almost killed yourself for? Yes it is. We photographers always strive to take that great shot and most of us will do almost anything to be given the opportunity to capture it at almost any cost. Then it happened. Our prayers were answered. The sun hit the granite peak of Mt. Fitz Roy and reflected over the water. We had done it. Now only if my pictures are worthy of what we went through for that shot. After taking lots of pictures watching the sun appear over the mountain and lake, I decided to leave the others and travel back down with three other members and two guides. By the way, I was given four advil by another crazy at the lake to try and help the pain of the calf muscle. The trek down put more pressure on my feet and muscles. Don’t think it is easier to go down. Many times it is not. Something amazed me. Now that I could see what we had done and climbed up through, I was amazed by what we all endured and accomplished. Some

Hi Everyone I need to write this blog early. More on that later.  After writing my blog last night, at the front desk, and after having the front desk staff read it, I finally got back into my room at about 1 AM. Could hardly sleep. My wife told me that one of our dogs was very sick and almost died. I took a step back and was very upset. Thankfully she is recovering and getting better as I write. The shortness of life has become so prominent in my thoughts. Woke up at 3:15 AM and went down to the lobby for coffee and to await everyones arrival at 4 AM. We all left the hotel at 4:30 and drove about fifteen minutes to a plateau overlooking Mt. Fitz Roy. Took some lovely pictures of the sun rising and creating a bright red sky as the sky got lighter. We then turned around and took some more pictures of the light rising over Mt. Fitz Roy. At about 6:15 we packed up and drove back to the hotel for breakfast. Breakfast was very good. Fresh breads, cakes, eggs and jam fit the bill.  At 8 AM we all left for the day. The hotel packed a bag lunch for each of us and off we went. We explored the surrounding area. First up was a beautiful waterfall. I had forgotten to bring my ND filter, but was able to create that creamy water effect by the use of my settings in an extreme mode. We drove down the road towards Chile and it seemed towards the end of the world. We entered a lush green forest. Marc told me that the trees are beech trees. They are the same trees that are very prominent in the south island of New Zealand. The forest reminded me of the rain forest in New Zealand except the trees were younger and much thinner and their trunks were not as wide and large. Marc told me that the soil has more nutrients in New Zealand and the beech trees there grow at a much more rapid rate. Moss covered rocks and branches dominated the forest. We then drove towards the end of the road and stopped at various scenes to take some beautiful pictures. We finally stopped for lunch. I decided to skip lunch. I have been taking little cat naps on the bus. Lack of sleep will do that to you. Another waterfall was particularly interesting. The water dripped over some beautiful looking moss covered rocks and flowers. I shot on my tripod for most of the day. Tripod shooting requires lots of patience and concentration. A nice break from the normal way of shooting pictures. We then arrived at a beautiful glacier lake. The lake was surround by snow capped mountains and the water was crystal clear. I am sure that these places are becoming fewer in the world. I have tried to describe the beauty that I have been privileged to witness today. That beauty cannot be described in words. I hope my pictures express the beauty that is here. It was now time to head back to the hotel. Arrived at around 3 PM and rested.  Whats in store for tomorrow? We are all meeting at 1:30 AM for a three to four hour hike up a mountain to shoot the sunrise. We will have sherpas carrying our stuff. I know. Why do this? Why not? Get some great exercise and then see the sun rise over Patagonia. A great way to start the day. To witness the sun rising here is a show and you do not have to pay to see it. Just be there.  Will be going to bed early and wake up around 1 AM to witness the world around me wake up for another day of being around natures work and beauty. Love Larry