Live from Viking Octantis - Antarctic Explorer - January 17-29

[Australia08]

Preparing the yerba mate

 

[Australia08]

Just so you don’t think that the public market is just restaurants, there are also traditional food stalls.

 

[Australia08]

The public market architecture from the late 1800s

 

 

[FetaCheese]

Thank you for your detailed posts.  Really enjoying the photos also.  Have not been to SA; now I know what I've been missing!  Hoping that  "someday" arrives real soon.

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you for your posts and pictures! We enjoyed our South America, Antarctica and Falklands Voyage and hope you enjoy yours and your itinerary.  Thank you for sharing 

[Australia08]

  Today is my day to catch up with my writing.  

 

January 18 - Buenos Aires to Ushuaia

 

This was our day to start our trip to the South.  I am not a morning person, but the schedule required us to show up in the Hilton lobby at 4:15 am for breakfast and check-out.  The bus to the airport was called at 4:50 am. The transfer to the airport was very quick - about 15-20 minutes.  We were at our gate within about 20 minutes.  The only initial glitch was that Mike was seated in row 30F and I was in 31A.  We mentioned that to the airline escort and she was able to fix it so that Mike was now in 31B. It’s been a long, long time since we sat in the back of an airplane.  Oh well.  As it turned out, no one was sitting in 31C. We were literally the back of the plane and that had its benefits. Since the plane had tight seats, we could spread out. They also served from the front and the back of the plane so we were served quickly.  I really needed that coffee!

 

The 3 hour flight went fast and we were in Ushuaia.  It was a beautiful day - quite warm.  Everyone was shedding their jackets.  It was a quick transfer to the ship and a quick check in.  Mike and I unpacked and quickly headed to Explorers for our traditional first Viking drink - a Viking Royal.    We attended one Aula briefing and later in the evening, we had dinner at the World Cafe - something we never do on the Ocean ships.  Here, the World Cafe has a great Grill where the steak selection is quite special and lobster is available with the steaks every night.  Later, we headed back to Explorers where we reconnected with some bar staff who remembered us from previous cruising.  Not only that, we found out that one of our all-time favorite wine stewards from our first Viking cruise (Cuba 2019) was now the Beverage Manager on Octantis.  One of the Explorers’ staff called in to tell him we were asking about him.  Viking staff is super!  

[Australia08]

Ushuaia, Argentina

[Australia08]

 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Australia08

[Australia08]

World Cafe Grill - Yumm!

Edited January 20, 2023 by Australia08

[miami mama]

The World Cafe on the expedition ships is fabulous. Our next cruise is on Ocean, and although we really enjoy it, it is not quite at the same level. 

[FetaCheese]

52 minutes ago, Australia08 said:

World Cafe Grill - Yumm!

Is that a Tomahawk Steak ?  Read about it from Kolb's CC thread on last years' World Cruise.  Never ate one, but it sure looks fine.

Edited January 20, 2023 by FetaCheese
addl info

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

Is that a Tomahawk Steak ?  Read about it from Kolb's CC thread on last years' World Cruise.  Never ate one, but it sure looks fine.

 

Affirmative, that looks like a Tomahawk, which is simply a large 30 - 40 oz Ribeye Steak, with the rib bone still attached.

[MightyDin]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:20 PM, Australia08 said:

 January 14

 

We took another private tour today, this time to Valparaiso. 

I’m really enjoying your updates and pictures.  I will be taking a cruise on Viking Polaris in March departing from Valparaiso.  What tour company did you use and would you recommend them?

 

Thanks!

[Australia08]

Internet has been sporadic so I’m sorry to be behind.  I’ll try to catch up with a brief summary of the last few days.

 

January 19 - The Drake Passage

 

The winds were strong with larger swells. I don’t have the statistics since I wasn’t feeling very well. Mike didn’t seem to be bothered by the conditions.  We attended all of our mandatory briefings and the kayak test, but other than that I stayed in the room prone - ordered some room service but just had a few bites. By evening, I felt well enough to go the the World Cafe for some cheese and crackers, but after eating, we headed back to the room to watch some movies

 

January 20 - Fournier Bay, Antarctica

 

We arrived at Fournier Bay about 1:00 pm.  While primarily cloudy, the mountains surrounding the bay were beautiful.  We attended the Daily Briefing in the Aula, but hurried out to the bow as soon when it was announced that they had Irish coffee, Baileys and coffee, and mulled wine.  We’ve been on several cruises where these “Bow Events” were held and they are always fun. At 2:00, we went out on our zodiac cruise of the bay.  Our guide was very entertaining and informative.  We saw a couple of Weddell seals and one leopard seal.  They were very interesting  to watch as they lounged on the ice.  Later, back on the ship, we had cocktails and dinner, then visited the Hide, the small bar/gathering place in the front of the ship.  There were two Expedition staff members who were quite interesting to chat with. It’s a very secluded area of the ship that we really like!

 

January 21 - Wiencke Island  -  Damoy Point

 

Rainy, snowy morning.  It snowed about 3 or 4 inches on the decks last night.  It was blustery, but operations began.  Unfortunately, we were scheduled for the afternoon for our zodiac landing.  While the conditions outside were not ideal, at least the morning zodiacs got out and landed.  It does not look like we will get out.  Our landing was scheduled for 2:00 pm, moved to 3:00 pm, and now moved to 4:00 pm.  The winds are increasing so I don’t think we’ll get to land today.  We did arrange to get a wait list spot on the Special Operations Boat.  Our guide mentioned that there had not been any animal sightings except for birds on earlier trips, but we lucked out and saw multiple gentoo penguins and a lovely Adélie penguin standing all alone on a beautiful chunk of ice.  So we didn’t lose out totally.  I decided to catch up with writing this afternoon since our landing was postponed/cancelled??  I’ll update later. 

[Australia08]

[Australia08]

[Australia08]

[Australia08]

Leopard Seal - Sorry this photo is blurry since it’s a screen shot from a video  

 

[Australia08]

Wendell Seal

[Viking Guy]

Thanks for all the great details...we are on the next cruise for Octantis on Jan 29.  Anything you wish you had brought or that you didn't really need?  Jim

[Australia08]

On 1/21/2023 at 3:13 AM, MightyDin said:

I’m really enjoying your updates and pictures.  I will be taking a cruise on Viking Polaris in March departing from Valparaiso.  What tour company did you use and would you recommend them?

 

Thanks!

 

So sorry that Ive been missing. Internet is sometimes sporadic from my room and when I’m out and about where the internet might be better, I’m not in the mood to write.  We used a company called Chile Dream Tours.  We worked with Sean and he was great.  He really thinks ahead so for instance, he parked the car in one spot for our walking tour, then he returned to get the car while we were having lunch so we didn’t have to waste time since we had a 3:00 pm appointment for our wine tour in the Casablanca Valley. Look at their website.  They have different variations of the Valparaiso tour that might fit your interests better.  We especially wanted to hit the winery on our way back to Santiago.

 

[Australia08]

January 21 - Damoy Point, Continued:

 

The bad news - operations were not restarted so there were no more landings at Damoy Point.  All the afternoon departure groups were so bummed.  We went to the bar to drown our sorrows!  

 

We were happy that at least we did get out on the Special Operations Boat in the morning and we did see our Adélie penguin, which is more difficult to see in this area.

 

 

The Adélie penguin - sorry I didn’t zoom more.  Isn’t it cute claiming that whole hunk of ice all for itself?

[Australia08]

January 22 - Wilhelmina Bay in the morning and Cuverville Island in the afternoon

 

So today, the big question was would we be able to make a landing today.  But first, we would spend the morning in Wilhelmina Bay whale hunting. We were successful with this task almost immediately after entering the area.  The bridge announced that there were Orcas chasing a couple of Humpbacks. I could barely make out the specks that were identified as the Orcas, but the Humpbacks were rushing from one side of the ship to the other.  I got some good video, but since I’m having trouble even adding the photos to this thread, I’ll attach a couple of those instead.

 

 

The Humpbacks in Wilhelmina Bay

 

[MightyDin]

On 1/23/2023 at 3:13 PM, Australia08 said:

 

So sorry that Ive been missing. Internet is sometimes sporadic from my room and when I’m out and about where the internet might be better, I’m not in the mood to write.  We used a company called Chile Dream Tours.  worked with Sean and he was great.  

 

Thank you so much for the recommendation.  I appreciate your taking time during your Antarctica adventure to answer my question.  Unfortunately they are already booked for day we would want the tour.  BTW, your pictures are fabulous.

[Australia08]

January 22 - Cuverville Island

 

This afternoon, operations began at Cuverville Island.  We were so psyched!  We got all our gear on and headed down to Deck A where the zodiacs were loading.  It seemed like the operation was moving more slowly than the day before.  We finally got to the head of the line and the dreaded announcement from the expedition leader from the bridge that operations were being suspended because of ice at the landing site.  They would announce later if a new site could be found.  We headed to Explorers for a whisky.  We were so disappointed.  However, within about 30 minutes, the call came that they had found another site so operations would resume. We headed down and reclaimed out first in line spot and boarded.  Since our zodiac was the first, it was trying to chart a path through the large and small ice through the waterway.  We finally got to our landing spot - it was great with penguins (mainly gentoo, but I did see one chinstrap). We climbed to an overlook to see some nesting penguins.  Then we headed over another path with penguins all around.  We had about an hour at the site, then headed back since the ice was starting to close in on this side of the island too.  When we went to The Restaurant for dinner in the evening, we got glasses of champagne to toast our first steps in Antarctica!

 

 

 

 

 

Navigating the ice on our way back to the ship

 

Cheers to Antarctica!