December 28, 2021
COVID UPDATE
Today’s round of testing identified two more positive COVID cases from the Blue Group. This brings us to five positive cases in total at this time. We are waiting to hear what new protocols they need to put in place. I’m getting worried about the possibility of quarantine in Argentina.
Woke up this morning to more ice in the water. We traveled back through the La Maire channel. Last night’s group of campers have not yet made it to shore because the Zodiacs had some trouble cutting through the thick ice. We heard that they were warm in the sleeping bags, but got quite chilly waiting for the Zodiacs to bring them to the ship.
The sun eventually came out and melted the ice. The natural beauty of Antartica really shined today.
We loaded into our Zodiac and headed toward shore. You can see the ship in the background.
We spotted a whale while on the Zodiac ride to our landing.
We landed on rocks and had to step into ankle deep water. Our welcome wagon was a waddle of penguins waiting to greet us. They really don’t seem to mind us at all.
A group of penguins in the water is called a raft but on land they're called a waddle!
We climbed the stairs cut into the snow by the advance crew.
Once up the stairs, we removed our life jackets and put on snow shoes. This was becoming routine by now.
We hiked the mountain and stopped to visit with penguins who are getting ready to hatch eggs.
Here is a photo of us with our friends at the top of our hike. The only footprints were our own.
Look closely below, those little specks are mountaineers. They are tied together with rope and instructed to keep an even distance between each other. This is for safety in case someone sinks into a crevasse.
Penguin highway leading to the rookery. We were careful not to step on the highway or interrupt their path.
Us humans made our own path that we all followed to minimize our impact on this area.