Bad Knees Travel,

  A day of ice and hike Our second day our, we got to see more penguins.  The photos on this page are all taken with my Samsung phone.  It has an awesome array of cameras. There is not much to say beyond the  photos themselves. Remember that clicking on any of the photos will bring all of the photos into a slide show.  You can then click on any of them to enlarge. I will as usual apologize for the editing in blogger. It is not at all intuitive. Things happen with out rhyme or reason.  But it is free, so I don't have much to complain about. We had a daily update sheet. I was lousy at getting crisp photos, but the info is there if you want it.   Penguins are innately photogenic. The oil they use to maintain their feathers gives them a pearlesence It is hard to explain the enormity of it all Tobogganing is one of the wonderful forms of  getting around   This photo and the one that follows are of  a giant ice cave. Often there is a huge chunk that calves from the interior. We were requ

A week and a half after landing, and I am still processing this trip.  I may be processing for the rest of my life. I think any trip to the Antarctic would be life changing. For me as a geographer, traveler, and elder, this trip was on my probably not gonna happen bucket list. Getting there was hard work. Getting over my personal barriers was difficult. There was nothing easy about getting there, a personal triumph. But there was something magical about this trip, this voyage. Even the Expedition leaders noted there was something special about it, a luck.  The weather, the sea conditions, the sightings.  All were way beyond expectations. I will begin as the voyage begins with Drake Passage. This passages has two settings one  involves sea sick meds, learning how to wedge oneself into bed, how not to smash fingers in doors. The other is Drake Lake. There is nothing in between.  We did the crossing in a day and a half rather than the usual two. There were bulletin boards with all sorts o

Here I sit at the end of the world. It feels a bit like Truckee in that it is a place dependent on tourism, surrounded by incredibly jagged mountains,  but with a large body of water. But it is also a place of port, and navy, and working people.  Here are photos,  and a few comments. Ask me questions and I will try to respond. The Armada, aka the navy. Note the anchors imbedded in the grass berm. There was a whole neighborhood of these old, small, working class homes. Street art as only the Latin Americans can do Corrugated metal seems to be the standard building material And steep, snow shedding roofs. I always look for the old trapped in the new. Freddy’s.  This was sort of like a chopping, but denser. And a local red IPA. Spring time in Tierra del Fuego

When I only have a short time in a city, I like to indulge in the hop on hop off tours. They give a good overview of the city.  If you listen well, you can hear what is important to that city. Yeah you don’t get much in depth or the juicy small corners, but it is a good start. First off you have to choose which company to use.  It can be hard to find the specific s on companies as the top listings will be the big tour companies that will sell you tickets, just not always the tickets you thought you were buying.  Look at the maps to see what are the best areas. I try to avoid the ones tha specialize in the shopping districts. Check again to make sure you have on and off privileges. And make sure that they offer the tours in English unless you are proficient in the local language.Ask how late they run. But also be prepared to take a taxi back to your hotel. The Science Museum Murals are everywhere This is hard to see. It is seats for an outdoor stage of some kind.  But that figure outlin