In the October and November 2011, we took a long trip south. We started with a few days in Buenos Aires, Argentina, then boarded a small ship and travelled south stopping for whale watching and penguins in Argentina before heading to the Falkland Islands. We then headed on to the South Georgia Islands before returning to spend a bit more time in the Falkland Islands. We disembarked the ship in Ushia, Argentina, flew north to Iguazu to see the waterfall and finally headed home. It was a long trip in both time and distance.
Click here to download the file hikes.kmz which you can open in Google Earth to see all of our hikes from this trip. You can download Google Earth for free from here if you want.
Our trip began in Buenos Aires with an early morning bird watching hike, a tour of the city and a visit to la Recoleta cemetery. On our second day we visited a ranch where we saw a demonstration of gaucho skills, birds and a polo match before boarding the ship.
From Buenos Aires with headed south in the coastal waters of Argentina. We saw many birds in the shallow and calm waters.
After two days, we landed at Puerto Madryn to see Southern Right Whales and a Magellanic Penguin colony at Peninsula Valdés.
Next we headed east and saw many birds on our way to the Falkland Islands.
Our first stop in the Falkland Islands was West Point Island where we walked across the island to a colony of Black-browed Albatros and Rockhopper Pengiuns.
We travelled overnight a spent a day in and around Stanley.
From the Falkland Islands we crossed the Scotia Sea. Along the way, we saw many birds passed near Shag Rocks.
Our first day in South Georgia was spent on the south coast in King Haakon Bay. We did a short hike at Peggotty Bluff and had an zodiac cruise in the afternoon at Cave Cove. As we left King Haakon Bay we stopped for a close look at a tabular iceberg.
Overnight we moved around to the north side of the island. Our hope was to get ashore before sun rise, but conditions did not permit a landing so we moved around and eventually ended up at Moultke Harbour.
In the afternoon we went ashore at Gold Harbour. The weather was perfect and the scenery was stunning. There were Southern Elephant Seals, King Penguins, Gentoo Penguins and Light-mantled Sooty Albatross. Highlights were to bull Elephant Seals fighting and a late afternoon hike up the led by Richard White to look at nests on the hillside.
The next morning at Fortuna Bay it was snowy and windy, but there were many King Penguins. And, a very rare melanistic King Penguin that has a black chest instead of the usual white front. We captured this audio recording of the sounds of the King Penguin colony.
In the afternoon we had excellent weather at Stromness where we hiked up the valley to the waterfall at the end, which figures prominently in the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's epic story of survival after loss of the Endurance. We found a Gentoo colony on a hill a long distance from the beach.
The next morning we hiked from Maiviken to Gryvtiken. We passed range of scenery and experienced a range of weather. It was a great hike. The highlight was a lake partially covered with "rotting" ice that was breaking into small crystals. The larger pieces were formed into "pancakes" by the constant motion created by the wind. Gryvtiken is the largest settlement on the island, with a small museum. The whaling station here has been cleaned and stabilized so that tourists can wander around. All other whaling stations are far to dangerous to go near.
We left Gryvtiken and headed to Lagoon Point on the nearby Cumberland West Bay. Along the way we encountered hurricane-force katabatic wind, but once we were in shelter at Lagoon Point the weather was fantastic and we had a good landing with close views of Elephant Seals (including one obviously pregnant female) and Reindeer.
We got up early the next day so that we could get to shore at Salisbury Plain before sunrise for amazing views and photography. There were huge numbers of King Penguins taking a morning bath in the ocean.
After lunch we visited nearby Prion Island, a small island where tourists can go ashore and see the nests of Wander Albatross from board walks that protect the delicate plant life. It is the only place where tourists can see Wandering Albatross on the nest. It is also one of the very few places where you can see the extremely rare South Georgia Pipit--the only song bird in greater Antarctica.
The next morning at Elsehul we climbed to the top of a steep bluff in some thoroughly unpleasant weather and were rewarded with outstanding views of nesting Light-mantled Sooty Albatross and Grey-headed Albatross. After Elsehul we made one more stop in a small bay where we saw Macaroni Penguins from the ship, bringing our count of penguin species for the trip to 5.
Our entire return trip to the Falkland Islands was in dense fog. This is a mixed blessing--there are no opportunities to see wildlife but it usually results in calm seas. We made a brief stop in Stanley on the evening of our return and then headed overnight to Carcass Island where there were many birds and an many tasty treats were served by the residents.
We made a quick trip passed West Point Island, the site of our first landing in the Falklands and headed to our last landing of the trip at New Island where we visited a colony with a mixture of Blue-eyed Shags, Rockhopper Penguins and Black-browed Albatross.
An overnight sail from New Island brought us to the Beagle Channel and arrival late in the evening at
Ushia, Argentina.
In the morning we disembarked and learned that Ushia began as a penal colony. The former penitentiary now houses a history museum.
From Ushia we flew north to Buenos Aires, where we spent the night before heading further north to Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil. Iguazu Falls is a very large waterfall in a subtropical setting. Quite a difference from where we had just been.
Some shots of people, places, and meals.