Drowning in a Sea of Penguin Pictures

I knew I was neglecting Buttercupland when two friends mentioned that the blog was awfully quiet. They also reminded me that they were waiting for the long awaited penguin pictures. I got home on Monday and after grocery shopping, napping and doing a very basic sort of my mail, I settled in to choose penguin pictures to share with Buttercupland. You can see how far I've gotten. In an effort to capture every possible cute penguin I have taken hundreds of photographs and videos of penguins. I feel as though I am drowning in a sea of penguin pictures and iceberg photographs and hundreds of other pictures. In order to just begin to post again I chose several photographs I enjoy and will use this post to write about the cruise. I'm optimistic this will help "prime the pump" of blogging and set me back on the writing path. 

Getting ready to sail south. Buenos Aires is in the background. 

I've been thinking about going to Antarctica forever and had been studying various cruises for the last several years. I loved the idea of actually setting foot on the Antarctic continent, but both the cost and the potential for sea sickness deterred me from choosing one of the smaller expedition ships. There are only a few cruise ships that sail into Antarctica and the Celebrity Infinity does two sailings every winter, which is the Antarctic summer. At the end of 2015 I saw that the price was reduced which made the cruise very attractive, but I had already made plans to go to Peru. I decided to wait until the end of this year and if there was another "sale" I would be ready to travel. I booked my trip at the end of December and left for Argentina on February 5. It's more spontaneous than I usually am, but everything worked out well. Have passport, will travel.

Enjoyed all the nature talks on board. Every morning that we weren't in a port the theater was literally standing room only. 

I had mentioned my plans to a number of friends, but the amount of time -- two plus weeks -- the cost and/or the destination deterred them from traveling with me. I decided that if I wanted to see Antarctica, this was my opportunity. I knew it could be lonely, but I also knew that cruise ships had a lot of opportunities to meet people. I joined a group that played trivia on sea days, found some fun people to have dinner with and it seemed that with every excursion and activity there was someone to talk to.  

Whether in the dining room or in buffet, I enjoyed the meals and snacks and ice cream bar. Perhaps a little too much! I discovered that tea foods were served every day and these raisin scones quickly became my favorite afternoon treat, especially when I added whipped cream and strawberries. The only food glitch was running out of lettuce south of Cape Horn, but somehow we survived this deprivation.  

Sunrise at Ushuaia, Argentina

 

I've shared about my cruise experience and as I was thinking about how to make order out of photographic chaos for the rest of the trip, I decided to do a post about each of our four ports. As an introduction to my next post, Ushuaia, Argentina, I'm closing with a photograph of the sunrise as the ship neared Ushuaia, the most southern point in South America. We were blessed with calm seas and a perfect sunny day. 

 

I'm returning to my photographs with renewed energy. Next post will include penguins, actually lots and lots of penguins. 

 

As ever, thanks for visiting and take good care.