back from a South Pole Expedition

Hi again,
We have spent about five days in the Antarctic region, cruising, looking at whales and penguins and enjoying the solitary beauty of the last place on Earth not interrupted by man, or at least very minimally.
We have been out of reach of both TV and the internet while in that region.  We had various kinds of weather in the Antarctic, one day was cloudless, very sunny and calm, the mountains, land glaciers, floating icebergs and blue sea were spectacular.  We had a couple of cloudy days and one with heavy fog.  We stopped and picked up some young people from the Palmer Research Station, which is a US operation.  The Palmer staff made a presentation about their work and research in the antiarctic.  The lead research person was a young man from Minnesota.  While they were aboard our ship (The Amsterdam) they had haircuts, ate sushi and made use of all of the comforts that they don't have at their station.  We also had a very knowledgeable polar staff on board, an Ice Pilot, to guide us through the ice, a geologist who knew all about the continent and islands and a biologist who knew about animals and birds.  We saw several penguin rookeries (Gentoo and Chin Strap) in the wild.  It is the time of year that they are raising their chicks, so it was fun to see the parents and their babies.  We also saw lots of petrels (birds) who love to follow the ship.  We were supposed to go to the Falkland Islands today and stop at Port Stanley, but the weather and winds were not favorable (in fact dangerous) so we had to bypass those islands.  I took a lot of pictures in Antarctica so I will try to sort out a few good ones and send them along with my next blog.  Love to all,  Gwen