I looked out of my porthole the next morning
and grew excited at the visions of icebergs as we headed down the
Gerlache Strait. Our first stop was a small Argentinean research station
in a place called Paradise Bay. It is aptly named, for it is arguably
one of the most beautiful natural harbors in the world.
As I climbed a snow-covered hill in back of the station, the clouds
lifted, the wind died, and the mountains ringing the bay were perfectly
reflected in its surface. Crabeater seals basked in the sun on icebergs
that glowed an azure blue. Penguins frolicked in the water, and cormorants
nested in multicolored cliffs, blue-green from copper deposits, emerald
green from mosses, and orange from lichens. A minke whale surfaced
among the bergy bits.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better,
it did. We headed into the majestic LeMaire Channel, a narrow fjord
with glaciated peaks rising thousands of feet right out of the water
on either side of the ship. As the ship pushed its way through broken
pack ice and bergy bits, and weaved in and out of icebergs the size
of large buildings, I ran from one side of the ship to the other with
my camera, barely able to control myself.
 As
if to break the "monotony" of this spectacular landscape, we landed
at Peterman Island, where there was a penguin rookery. The gentoo
and adelie penguins looked hopelessly clumsy as they waddled across
the rocks, but watching them toboggan across the snow or swim effortlessly
under water made me appreciate their evolutionary characteristics.
The noise from the squawking surrounded us, particularly when the
predatory skua birds threatened their fuzzy little chicks. What also
surrounded us was the odor of penguin guano. While overpowering at
first, we figured that if it didn't other the penguins, it shouldn't
bother us, and eventually we did get used to it.
Standing in the bow that night, I discovered
that the bright white snow and shimmering blue water of midday had
changed in the soft evening light to pastel blue ice and salmon-colored
clouds; the sea glowed orange and violet looking toward the setting
sun - the color slowly metamorphosed into a silvery slate as you turned
toward the far horizon. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. |
|
|
previous 
