Day 10

Half moon was quite striking physically, with craggy rocks backed up against the white of Livingston Island. The inhabitants included the ever-present fur seals, chinstrap penguins, a couple of Weddell seals, and a few gentoo penguins. As at Paradise Harbour, the sun came out and the morning was so beautiful that no one wanted to leave. Also on the island was an old wooden boat used by the first Antarctic "cruise" ship, the La Pataia, charted by Lindblad.

But leave we did, heading for King George Island. On the way I slept through a lecture by Natalie Goodall on "small cetaceans of Tierra Del Fuego." our stop at King George was the site of three different research stations -- Marsh (Chile), Bellinghausen (Russian) and Great Wall (China).

Our landing zodiacs were met by Victor, who quickly herded us all to the several Russian shops on the island. Although we had been told that this base was closing and the trading would be good, this was not the case. They were here to stay and had gotten on the political bandwagon quite rapidly -- the store was "Russian" (not Soviet), the scientists were from St. Petersberg (not Leningrad) and there were no souvenirs with "CCCP" on them. After checking out Bellinghausen and a quick stop at the Chinese station, complete with families, I and a few other hardy souls made the long trek to the Great Wall station. Unfortunately, they were not expecting us (i.e. no souvenirs) and in fact had packed and were leaving for the season. Nevertheless, they were very warm and welcoming and they certainly had the nicest base we had seen -- clean, comfortable, nice furniture and wall hangings. (George Llano suggested that they have no real scientific work, possibly explaining the setting).

After the walk back, I actually felt as though I deserved the meal I was to eat that night. First, champagne with Mary Hammond , Ed and Eddie, Carole and Monte. Dinner was with Carole and Ed, the ship's doctor, and Eddie, his wife. They were delightful, providing much information about the ship company (Travel Dynamics) and about themselves.

Afterwards, the Greek crew made a stab at dancing and some overly sweet baclava was served. Bill Rodenbach waxed poetically on life after death and Carole and I finally said goodnight around 12:00.

written by  shoshtrvls on March 9, 1992 from Antarctic Peninsula, Argentina
from the travel blog: Antarctica and South America (1992)
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