I'm at my home away from home, on a ship in a faraway port. Ready to set sail for the white continent tomorrow. All the guests have arrived, they are getting to know each other in the deck house. Still a little unsettled, full of expectation. Some are keen to watch the birds, experience the wildlife, others are looking for the emptiness of the open sea, the landscapes and the light. Others are keen to sail on this ship, and in some ways go back in time. One doesn't know whether he is or isn't hoping for a big storm.
They will probably all get what they are hoping for, and more. The place is amazing, the birds are beautiful, the landscapes take your breath away. And they will get an overdose, because they get almost 24 hours a day of daylight. We will be in the south for the longest day, almost at our southernmost point. It is good to see so much expectation, and so much joy in all these faces.
Tomorrow we will start our voyage sailing on the Beagle Channel. The captain says it will rain, I am hoping he is wrong. Then on to the Drake, where the real sailors will come into their own. And then the stillness. I am looking forward to it all.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Heading for El Fin del Mundo
Sometimes things just work out. After checking out of my hotel at 10 a.m. I went straight down to the airport, and for some reason I was offered an earlier flight south. So instead of waiting round at an airport I am now on my way to Ushuaia. I'll be landing there in about half an hour, round about the time my scheduled flight will depart from Buenos Aires. So I'll have more time to get organised in Ushuaia.
The flight down is quite long, about 4 hours. The plane is half empty, so it is fairly quiet, no crowding. The landscape doesn't change much for the first few hours, You are either above huge stretches of green and brown fields, Patagonia, with just the odd inhabited spot, or you are above the South Atlantic ocean, huge stretches of blue with just the islands of clouds white above it. When I start to see mountains I will know we are almost there. And I might get a glimpse of Europa in port.
The flight down is quite long, about 4 hours. The plane is half empty, so it is fairly quiet, no crowding. The landscape doesn't change much for the first few hours, You are either above huge stretches of green and brown fields, Patagonia, with just the odd inhabited spot, or you are above the South Atlantic ocean, huge stretches of blue with just the islands of clouds white above it. When I start to see mountains I will know we are almost there. And I might get a glimpse of Europa in port.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
To Buenos Aires
To me it remains something of a miracle. You move from one environment to the other, from one extreme to the other.
It all starts at Schiphol, where I had someone to see me off this time, an unexpected bit of company, which was nice. Then you go through customs, and you end up in this sterile environment of the airport. It's all clean, commercial, and the same as at any other airport. You have all these shops, people bored enough to go into them and spend money. I needed to get a battery for my alarm clock, thinking this would be the place to get it, but I was wrong. Not that one.
Then you move on to the gate. Everybody tries to get through first, not sure why. Then it always is a miracle how so many people get to fit into such a relatively small plane. I'm always worried I carry too much hand luggage, but I stop worrying when I see other people get onto the plane. I now have one of those camera rucksacks, and my handluggage weighed just two kilos less than my regular luggage... My excuse is that I'm carrying stuff for the ship and for Lex too.
The first flight was terrible. It was hot in the plane, and stuffy, and several times it all went black before my eyes. If I hadn't been strapped down I would have ended up on the floor. I was glad to arrive at Madrid and get a big bottle of water. That revived me a little.
From that moment on my biological clock went haywire. The flight to Buenos Aires left at about 1.45, then we had dinner, a nice vegetarian pasta. You initially fly over a huge sea of light, it seems like all of Spain is a built-up area.
I went to sleep pretty quickly, and slept through most of the night, fortunately. Then a hurried breakfast, yes, of course pork is vegetarian.... Flying over Uruguay makes you aware that this is a huge empty green space. Not such a sea of light or buildings.
Then you are in Buenos Aires, where it fortunately is not too hot today. Only about 22 C. A difference of over 20 C with the Netherlands, but it could have been a lot more. This is okay, especially when you get the odd breeze. The thing I noticed more than anything is the light. It is so bright, so different from the light in Amsterdam over the past few days, when it was continually dark and grey.
It was good to take a shower this morning, the first thing I did when I arrived here. Then I reorganised myself, grabbed a couple of hours of sleep during the hottest part of the day before heading into town.
I like this city because it feels so alive. So many elegant people, so much movement. On the other hand, wandering round here makes you wonder why Amsterdam thinks she has a problem with air pollution. It doesn't really smell that nice here. I went round to Corrientos and did some shopping at Florida. All sounds pretty exotic.
It all starts at Schiphol, where I had someone to see me off this time, an unexpected bit of company, which was nice. Then you go through customs, and you end up in this sterile environment of the airport. It's all clean, commercial, and the same as at any other airport. You have all these shops, people bored enough to go into them and spend money. I needed to get a battery for my alarm clock, thinking this would be the place to get it, but I was wrong. Not that one.
Then you move on to the gate. Everybody tries to get through first, not sure why. Then it always is a miracle how so many people get to fit into such a relatively small plane. I'm always worried I carry too much hand luggage, but I stop worrying when I see other people get onto the plane. I now have one of those camera rucksacks, and my handluggage weighed just two kilos less than my regular luggage... My excuse is that I'm carrying stuff for the ship and for Lex too.
The first flight was terrible. It was hot in the plane, and stuffy, and several times it all went black before my eyes. If I hadn't been strapped down I would have ended up on the floor. I was glad to arrive at Madrid and get a big bottle of water. That revived me a little.
From that moment on my biological clock went haywire. The flight to Buenos Aires left at about 1.45, then we had dinner, a nice vegetarian pasta. You initially fly over a huge sea of light, it seems like all of Spain is a built-up area.
I went to sleep pretty quickly, and slept through most of the night, fortunately. Then a hurried breakfast, yes, of course pork is vegetarian.... Flying over Uruguay makes you aware that this is a huge empty green space. Not such a sea of light or buildings.
Then you are in Buenos Aires, where it fortunately is not too hot today. Only about 22 C. A difference of over 20 C with the Netherlands, but it could have been a lot more. This is okay, especially when you get the odd breeze. The thing I noticed more than anything is the light. It is so bright, so different from the light in Amsterdam over the past few days, when it was continually dark and grey.
It was good to take a shower this morning, the first thing I did when I arrived here. Then I reorganised myself, grabbed a couple of hours of sleep during the hottest part of the day before heading into town.
I like this city because it feels so alive. So many elegant people, so much movement. On the other hand, wandering round here makes you wonder why Amsterdam thinks she has a problem with air pollution. It doesn't really smell that nice here. I went round to Corrientos and did some shopping at Florida. All sounds pretty exotic.
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