Because We Can

With our luggage taken away last night we didn't have much to pack this morning, just a few items to go into our day packs. The view from outside on our balcony showed we were docked at the pier in Punta Arenas beside another Antarctic expedition ship, The Megellan Explorer. Baggage being loaded for transport to the airport where it will be checked for us, meaning we will just have to pick it up at baggage claim when we arrived at the airport in Santiago. Breakfast was served early, though it didn't matter for us as we were in the last group to depart the ship which would be at 10 o'clock. Linda knew how to pass the time as she waited from 8 o'clock when we had to vacate our room until we left the ship two hours later. I took advantage of the time to write another blog post, having uploaded the photos during the night. Posting the photos at night had worked great, except for when we were in extremely rough seas when they simply didn't go up, like...

Our trip is in its last stages. Today we will continue traveling from the Falklands to the Straits of Magellan. While there was some rocking during the night my traveling companion continues to wake up with a smile on her face after a restful night's sleep. Happy Linda makes for happy Bob. While I am no wildlife photographer our balcony makes it easy to photograph any creatures that may happen by weather in the sea or the air. The wrist strap on my camera comes in handy as I can operate the camera with one hand and have the binoculars in the other. Meanwhile, inside, Linda is slowly working at packing. And yes, it all fits with room to spare. As usual we way over packed in some areas, especially as far as cold-weather gear was concerned. We know that layers is the secret, the problem is that we go for far more layers than we need when we pack. Plus we brought our snow/rain boots which we didn't need as the ship supplied for the trip. As we traveled along we...

In the launch room ready to board a zodiac for the trip ashore. The laughs are because I once again volunteered when they needed one person to fill the zodiac. Linda told everyone what happened the last time I did this, so everyone was reminding me to stay at the landing area until her zodiac arrived. After the 'polite' way Linda informed me she was less than pleased with me the last time I did this I assured everyone I would be right there when they landed. Standing on the loading platform before getting into the zodiac. Did she take this in case I went down with the ship, so to speak? Bad Bob. Proving I was as good as my word. A photo of Linda being helped out of the zodiac. Good Bob. The island we were on, and it location was in its name. As has been the case, there was a good deal of uphill hiking. One of the reasons we travel. Once up on top of the hill, the fog was definitely in. I took this photo about 20 feet from the caracara. Mile...