History Tango originated in the brothels of the poor working class neighborhoods amongst the immigrants of Buenos Aires. According to Lonely Planet, “It was a strong blend of machismo, passion and longing, with an almost fighting edge to it, symbolic of the struggle for possession of a woman.” Perhaps that’s also what gives it the […]
Arrival in Buenos Aires at midnight was just as I wished, warm and balmy after chilly Patagonia. First Day The first day I walked north up Avenida Florida, a pedestrianized shopping street running through the heart of the city. At the north end, is Galerias Pacifico, a shopping mall with frescoed ceilings and an elegant […]
Ushuaia After arriving off the ship to snowfall in Ushuaia, we picked up our rental car as planned and despite the snow, headed off to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Tierra del Fuego is a stunning Nat’l Park of snow topped mountains dropping down into the ocean; there’s also regional moss covered (nire) pine trees […]
The return crossing was much worse than the going. Things were flying and rolling across the room again but to a much greater degree. It was impossible to take a shower because you couldn’t stand up without being thrown over. People were even tossed out of their beds during the night. I, on the other […]
The final day with the possibility of Antarctic landings, we were at Deception Island, a volcanic hotspot. Its similar to Santorini in Greece in that the volcano erupted to create the island and then later the central part sunk leaving just the circular ring.  However, the island is nearly an entire circle and the only […]
A passenger needed to be air evacuated so we made the very lengthy and time consuming trip all the way back north to the South Shetland’s King George Island, the only place in Antarctic with an airport. We were told many countries had bases along there including, Great Britain, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, China, and Korea. […]
In the morning we passed through the Lemaire Channel, popularly known as Kodak Gap since its one of the most scenic and photogenic places on the whole voyage. This passage is 1-mi wide at its narrowest and from a distance doesn’t even look open. In fact, most of the year, its so covered with ice […]
As of 9am, Monday, December 3rd, I have been to 6 continents and this is definitely one of the most exotic and remote. I was standing on Antarctica, not just the islands near Antarctic, but the actual continent. Neko Harbor, the location of my first landing on Antarctica, was a gorgeous place with a large […]
By 9am we were dressed and in a very unorganized fashion (this seems to be a trend for this ship) getting loaded into Zodiacs for our ride over to Aitcho Island, part of the South Shetland chain. It was –3degreesC outside with a light blizzard. Penguins, Penguins, Penguins!! Upon arriving on shore we were greeted […]
From the night before embarkation we could see our ship, the Antarctic Dream (it was smaller than I expected), waiting for us in the harbor and its presence was reassuring after the sinking of the Explorer. The initial interaction with the ship and its organization was a bit mixed. They picked up our luggage and […]
Though Chile may look small on a map, this is very misleading. In fact the flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, southern Chilean Patagonia, was more than 3hours. Getting off the plane we noted there was a definite chill in the air. While still at the airport, we explored options on how to get back […]