Thursday January 3: The Antarctic Peninsula Approaches:

"Here be dragons" is what ancient cartographers wrote on this area of their maps. I dunno about dragons, but there sure are plenty of penguins.



This morning we went ashore at Paulet Island, home of a huge rookery of Adélie penguins, and plenty of Weddell seals. What a fine way to spend a morning. IAATO rules state that you must never go closer than 5 meters to any wildlife. However, if you get somewhat near a group of penguins, and sit or lie down, they will often approach you, to check you out. I had many different Adelies within 2 feet of me, and one actually ran into me while jumping out of the water! God, they are silly creatures. Few things in life are funnier to watch then penguins in a hurry, doing a form of speed-waddling.

After a nice lunch of pizza, salad and soup, we had a couple of hours of free time. Now we are preparing to anchor off of Bahia de la Esperanza (Hope Bay), where the Argentinians maintain a year-around scientific staff. We'll get to tour the base, learn a bit about the science projects, and perhaps send some mail home.

Esperanza is actually on the Antarctic Peninsula. So for the purists out there, this is the day on which I officially arrived on my own personal Continent #6.

We got to meet the Colonel who was in charge of the base, and he gave us a personal tour of his command. They have a full little city there. Even though they have less than 100 residents, they have a carpentry shop, auto shop, church, and pizza place. (Argentinian military tradition requires that Saturday be pizza and beer night, at all of their bases worldwide.) I got to chat with the guys at the cabinet shop, plus the chef, and a couple of the younger students. None of them said that it was difficult or boring, though the girls did miss the presence of boys for dating.

The center of the base was a soccer field. I asked the Colonel about it, and he said "We *are* Argentinians, after all!" Mind you, when I was there, the penguins were using the field for their own waddling version of wind-sprints. (Photo credit: www.matthewfocht.com )