Author: rrainefiore

Penguins

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Who doesn’t love penguins?  What is it that we love about them?  They are so cute.  Is it because they are clumsy and awkward?  They are a hunting machine in the water.  They swim so fast that’s it’s hard to follow them.  They dart back and forth and jump out of the water like dolphins.  They are so graceful.  Their bodies are perfectly adapted to swimming.  Then they pop out of the water and hit the land and it’s a totally different bird.  Their little legs aren’t quite meant for walking so they waddle around.  They hold their flippers out, probably for balance which makes them look even sillier.  This doesn’t seem to help a lot with their balance as they still seem to fall over or face plant a lot.  They aren’t walking on flat ground either.  Some penguins build their nests high up in the rocks and getting up and back from there would be tough for a human, but they hop, scoot, waddle and fall down getting there.  After watching them for several days, I’m convinced they are confused most of the time.  Remember that feeling when you walk into a room and stop, cock you head to the side and ask “why did I come in here?”  I think a lot of penguins are in a constant state of “what was I just doing?”, “how did I get here?” or “where was I going?”  I would watch them waddle along, stop and look around and then head back the way they just came from – over and over.  The penguins you see in the zoo or in pictures are all black and white and shiny.  What no one tells you is that most of the time penguins are dirty, covered in their own filth.  Only the penguins running around in snow or just coming out of the water were black and white.  The others were black and pink and not a pretty, girly shade of pink. As you can imagine, there’s a certain smell the goes along with these pink penguins.  As we would approach an island from the zodiacs, you’d think “mmmm smells like penguins”.  Penguins are loud, but as you can tell from my videos below, not as loud as us humans.  We saw a few babies, but none up close.  They weren’t old enough to stray far from the nests yet.  You needed binoculars to see them, but they sure were adorable little fluff balls running around the nest in random spurts of frantic energy.  They were testing their legs and flapping their flippers, probably building up the muscle strength for future swimming. On the last day we sat in front of a bunch of nests for about and hour and watched the penguin show.  I could have watched for hours more. The adult penguins that were wandering around had no care in the world that we were there.  They would waddle within inches of you if you weren’t paying attention to what was behind or beside you.  What a wonderful experience to be able to see them in their natural habitat where none of them were afraid of us because we are not predators.  I really hope it stays that way.

 

I took a lot more videos than pictures – enjoy!

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China

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We stopped at the Great Wall Research Station on King George Island.  About half the ship is Chinese so they were quite excited about the landing. Yesterday we were not sure if we would have permission to land there.  This morning we found out we had permission from the Chinese government, but the actual station had not granted permission yet.  Minutes before getting there, we got permission.  I don’t think there are any attractive research stations anywhere in Antarctica.  So, for me, this didn’t sound like fun.  Still, I went.  We got there and got briefed that we could go to the building with the museum in it.  There was a big bell and a piece of the Great Wall.  We could go look at those.  We could take pictures of certain things, but couldn’t take pictures of 99% of the station.  We couldn’t take pictures of any people at the station.  We couldn’t touch anything.  No other flag could be displayed except the Chinese flag.  What?  Who brings flags to display with them when they travel?  It took about 15 minutes to see everything we were allowed to see and take a couple photos.  We had an hour to spend there.  Then, out of nowhere, almost every Chinese tourist has a Chinese flag in their hand and several had flag stickers on their cheeks.  Ok, I stand corrected.  I might not travel with a flag to display, but Chinese do.  They were so excited and so proud.  They took pictures with their flags in front of everything.  They took pictures with their family.  They took pictures with their friends.  They took selfies.  They probably sent their pictures home to their friends instantly.  So much pride.  So much “look at me”.  So much joy for their nationality.  Even if we had gone to a US station, I don’t think I would have felt that much pride or have gotten that excited about it – especially if the US station was as unwelcoming as the China station was.  I would have been there without my flag, but would have taken some photos.  I think the tour would have been way more interesting if we could see the labs or see how people live and eat.  It would have been interesting to hear about the research being done or get a glimpse of what it’s like to live there. That would have been more interesting than a bell and a piece of the Wall.

 

It was interesting to see the excitement of the Chinese, their exitement of being there and the pride they have in their country.  They didn’t seem to see the control and secrecy.  They didn’t seem to see the unwelcoming attitude.  It’s difficult to see how they can be so proud of a country that controls them so much.  We were taught as children to value freedom and individuality.  And the lack of theirs seems so obvious to us.  Still their country provides jobs and heat and so much more.  They are taught loyalty and pride in their country.  How do we know one is better than the other?  We live in a country that is torn with so much hate and violence.  Their country won’t allow social media such as facebook and Instagram.  We look at that as a horrible offence to our freedom.  But, are they free of a generation that is addicted to social media?  I don’t know.  We have a generation that never learned to connect on a human to human level.  Is that better than a lack of freedom?  Or do they have the same issue of addiction on a different level?  Overall, I don’t think it’s an issue of better or worse so much as it’s an issue of familiarity.  What you were taught as a child, what you are familiar with is what you feel is better.  They travel a lot, but still seem to not be aware of other cultures and don’t seem to change.  I think when we travel, we get a new insight to the world around us.  I try to be considerate of the culture I am traveling to.  This doesn’t appear to happen with Chinese.  Maybe it is and I don’t see it.  And obviously some Americans travel and don’t learn awareness of other cultures or Americans might not have the reputation we have in other countries.  But for me, travel has been an exciting learning in culture, food, religion and beauty.

Catastrophic Molting

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On the way to Antarctica, we had a few talks about the different animals and birds we would see.  When talking about seals they talked about the period of time when the seals do catastrophic molting.  What?  That’s even a phrase, catastrophic molting?  We didn’t see any seals that were doing catastrophic molting.  I didn’t see very many seals that looked like anything other than large rocks.  Apparently penguins also do catastrophic molting also.  We didn’t see any of those either.  So, I did a google search on catastrophic molting and here is what I learned: https://sites.google.com/site/elephantsealnotes/events-on-land/molting

First Iceberg

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Our crossing of the Drake Passage was pretty mild although a few people on the ship had trouble with motion sickness.  They gave out motion sickness medication for free.  We are now done with the rough water and the ride is much smoother.  We are told that we are coming into the South Shetland Islands and should start seeing ocean birds, whales and land.  I meet quite a few people I haven’t seen before – they were hiding out in their rooms with motion sickness.  Most people are out on the decks looking for the first signs of Antarctica.  I’ve spent many hours on the boat now eating and napping.  I have a cold so there is not much energy for anything else.  The cold brisk air feels so good to my sinuses. There are smallish white birds doing laps around the ship.  They fly in a pack of 4 or 6 and come in from the starboard side, fly around in front of us in formation and then fly off to the port side.  There are other large birds that fly by from time to time, petrels and albatross, checking out the ship.  Then we see what looks like jumping fish.  When we get a little closer, you realize it’s not jumping fish, but penguins.  They are fast, graceful swimmers.  They jump like tiny dolphin.  They look so much smaller than I expected.  We started seeing whales too, mostly humpback whales.  The first few were exciting and you tried to get a photo or video of them, but my camera was never quite in sync with the whales.  Just when you thought, darn, I missed it, there was another.  If you looked off in the distance you saw 6-10 more.  So many whales and penguins.  I stopped trying to photograph them (it’ll just look like a dark spot on a picture) and just enjoyed watching life jump in and out of the ocean waves.  I enjoyed watching the white birds circle the ship.  Then someone said they saw the first iceberg.  I looked off in the distance where they pointed.  All I see is a random white wave every now and then.  Then I look at the actual horizon line.  It is a fuzzy white line out in the distance.  I notice that there was one spot where the white line looked like a jagged tooth sticking up sharply instead of being a bit fuzzy.  It was very white.  First iceberg!  It looked hours away so I turned my attention back to birds and whales.  About 20 minutes later I can see the iceberg.  It feels official that we are in Antarctica now.  A little bit later I could see dark shapes on the horizon.  That seemed odd.  I don’t think they are dirty icebergs.  Oh, duh, land.  There was mist around the land forms.  It was overcast above them.  It appeared that the land was being born from the mist.  Dark shapes would appear out of the mist and then become more detailed as we got closer.  Soon islands came into view.  We have arrived to the South Shetland Islands.

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Shower in the Drake

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Uncategorized1 Comment

The Drake Passage is the water between Argentina and the Antarctica Penninsula.  It is where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet near Cape Horn.  It is supposed to be some of the roughest water in the world, if not the roughest.  We have to cross the Drake Passage to get to Antarctica.  We are lucky and have pretty good conditions for the almost 2 days it will take to cross.  They said it was a 2 on scale of 1-10.  The boat is rocking side to side significantly.  Walking is difficult, but not impossible. You kind of have to plan your walking with the movement of the boat.  Stairs are daunting, but again, not impossible.  They have rails on the beds so you don’t fall out of bed.  Since I’m on the bottom bunk and I get out of bed often in the night to go to the bathroom, I took the rail off my bed.  So far, I have not rolled out of bed although at first, it was shocking that I didn’t.  I got a cold while were in Ushuaia so I feel horrible.  I haven’t showered since before we left Ushuaia.  A warm shower sounds amazing as the warm water and steam will help my stuffed-up nose and my hair was in need of shampoo.  So, I decided to risk it.

There was a large grab bar in the shower, so my plan was to just hold on to that.  There was a small opening to the shower stall with a shower curtain to close it off.  Like most things on a ship, you had to step over a threshold to get into the shower.  I got the temperature just right and stepped in.  The shower curtain is immediately all over me as the ship rocks to the side.  Yuck.  Then the ship rocks the other direction and I hold on to the handle.  All right, I got this.  Wait…. How do I get the shampoo out of the bottle and into my hair without letting go of the handle?  This is a two-hand job.  I did not plan far enough ahead.  I let go and get the shampoo bottle in my hand, but then almost get flung out the tiny opening to the shower.  I manage to grab the edge of the opening just before I became a fish out of water flopping on the bathroom floor.  I’m still covered in shower curtain.  Ok, time for a quick change of plan.  Now the plan is to stand in the back corner of the shower and bounce back and forth between the metal walls, just barely missing the opening.  This means you get to hit the shower knobs every once in a while, but that seems a small price to pay considering the terror of the shower opening.  I managed to get some shampoo in my hair, but I probably only got 60% of my hair clean.  That seems clean enough.  I got soap on my upper body and figured that the legs and feet got clean by way of gravity.  Of course, the basin at the bottom the shower didn’t drain fast enough so there is a small lake of water splashing around.  I couldn’t quite handle the bin they had put up high to hold your toiletries, so all my toiletries are all splashing around at my feet.  Scooping up the right one at the right time was a game in its own right.  When I was done with each one, I’d throw them out the shower opening and hear them rolling around out there.  And, of course, at several points in the shower, the water temperature would change drastically and suddenly.  The shower stall is so small there is no escape.  My right shoulder and left arm are now scorched and bleeding.  Ok, it didn’t burn enough to bleed or even blister, but it feels like it burned that bad.  At some point in the middle of the shower, there was no giving up.  I was going to win this battle even if winning meant partially clean.  I came out with a couple of battle wounds, but I did win.

Last Toast of the Year

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Uncategorized2 Comments

We left our luggage by the boat and walked up the scary bridge to the boat.  It’s not a luxury ship by any stretch of the imagination.  It looks like all business and just enough comfort to get by.  We lined up in the lounge area to check in.  Tears just came and overwhelmed me.  I’m on the ship.  I’m actually finally going to Antarctica.  This is it.  I’ve wanted this for so long.  This isn’t the way I wanted to go, but this is way life brought it to me and in that, it is perfect.

In 2014 I applied for about 30 jobs in Antarctica and heard nothing.  In 2015, I applied for 53 jobs.  I got one interview.  It was a great interview, but the job was for an alternate position and I had already decided to move to Thailand.  I had two weeks to make a decision.  I decided on Thailand and I never heard back from the interview, so I chose correctly.  I had another Antarctica job call me to set up an interview, but when I called back to set up the interview, no one responded.  That was the job I was best suited for – it was a construction management job.  Then in 2017, I applied for about 15 more jobs.  Silence.  At some point I felt tired and old and decided to stop trying.  As my 50th birthday approached, I decided I would go as a tourist and it would be a birthday thing.  It is very expensive and with buying a new house, I was not able to save the money I needed to go.  It also seemed weird to think I was going to travel alone on my 50th birthday.  Not that travelling alone is an issue for me, but am I energetically accepting my aloneness by doing this?

This is the last continent that I have to visit.  It is also the last continent I have to take my late husband’s ashes to.  This is more than just a birthday.

I have always been so fascinated with snow and ice.  It might be because I grew up in Florida and never experienced either or is it something else?  I spend more time hiking and snowshoeing in the winter than I spend hiking in the summer.  I love seeing everything blanketed in white.  I love the sound of it as you walk through or slide over it.  So many sounds it makes.  At the same time, I also love the lack of sound as it insulates and quiets everything around it.  Ice and snow come in so many shapes, consistencies and gradations of color from bright blue to shades of grey, black or bright white.  Most people think I am crazy for liking the cold or wanting to go to a place with only rock, snow and ice.  What an amazing experience Antarctica would be to see a place most people can’t even fathom.  Plus……penguins…duh.

Then I meet and start dating Richard.  He actually wanted to go to Antarctica and wanted to go with me.  His desire to go helped me to get over the fact that I can’t actually afford this. This is no longer a statement of aloneness.  It’s a goodbye to a previous life, several previous lives actually.   It is the final grieving of those lives, a process that seemed to have no end.  It is the welcoming (with open arms) of a new life, a new relationship and a new maturity.  None of the new would have been as deep if the old had not been experienced and learned from.  But, at 50, it’s time to be free.  I have worked so unbelievably hard emotionally to have the life I want and to see life clearly for what it is.  This is my time now.  This is the trip that ceremonially claims this as my life!

So, I stand in line to check in, crying.  Richard asks if it is tears of joy.  I say that it is although it’s really tears of everything.  No one particular emotion, tears of finality, tears knowing some sort of waiting is over, tears knowing it’s not the Antarctica experience I wanted, but the one life wanted for me, tears that my bank account might never be the same, tears of relief, tears of relaxing and some tears of joy.

After we have all checked in and settled in to our rooms, we all meet back in the lounge again to talk logistics of the trip and to have a toast to the end of the year.  Oh, yea, it’s not only the end of my 40’s and the end of a few lifetimes.  It’s also the end of the year, and the end of a decade.  It’s the end of everything and the start of everything.  Off we go!

Throwing Rocks at Ice

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I have decided that my new favorite pastime while hiking is to throw rocks at ice.  The rivers and lakes are trying to freeze over so ice is forming in some places.  Sometimes it’s thin enough to break through and splash the water below it.  Sometimes the rock just skids across the surface.  Rarely does the rock go where I want it to.  It often takes a few tries.  I had seen a video about people that like to skate on thin new ice.  If the ice has covered the whole lake, but is still thin, it acts like a drum and makes other worldly sounds.  We went for a hike to Columbine Lake and found it frozen.  I didn’t realize we had come upon it at just the perfect timing in its freezing process to be able to experience these sounds.  But, since throwing rocks at ice is what I do, I found a rock and threw it.  It skidded across the ice and pinging sounds radiated out from where the rock landed.  I was instantly reminded of a video I had seen about this and became very pleased with this good fortune.  We should have been going back so we wouldn’t get back to the car in darkness, but it was so much fun that we stayed for 20 minutes or so throwing rocks and icicles at the ice and delighting in the various sounds that the frozen lake gave back to us.

Post blog note:  Throwing rocks at ice is only a fall activity (it might be a spring activity, but no research has been done on this yet).  Once the snow starts falling and the temperatures don’t freeze and thaw, the rocks become frozen to the ground or buried under feet of snow so you can no longer get rocks to throw at ice.

Here is the video where I first heard these sounds of thin ice:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3O9vNi-dkA

And here are my pictures and videos:

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Ice Lake

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Ice Lake is a very blue lake near Silverton.  I tried hiking to it in the summer but didn’t even make it half way.  It was a very steep trail and was a longer hike than I had time for.  I did make it to Ice Lake Basin which was an amazingly beautiful basin.

In the fall 4 of us hiked up to Ice Lake.  The hike went by multiple waterfalls and a couple lakes.  When we got to Ice Lake Basin, I almost backed out of doing the full loop.  The hike had already been difficult for me and there was so much more to go.  But I pushed on.  The first lake we got to was Island Lake.  It was an unreal deep green like an emerald.  It was very windy and cold up there so we hid behind some rocks for lunch.  At this point we were done with the steep uphill so at least I knew I was going to be able to make it now.

Then the trail traversed over to a higher portion of the Ice Lake Basin and off in the distance I could see the bright blue of Ice Lake.  It seemed to be glowing from inside the lake.  It looked like the blueness of the lake was just a trick of the lighting as it was a richer blue than the sky.  As we got closer, the shade of blue did not change as I expected it to.  I’ve never seen a lake that color before.  It’s not the blue of glacial water, but a richer darker blue.  It looked like blue Kool aide.  It’s from the minerals in the area.  The creek coming out of the lake was a combination of silver and white.  The rocks near by were covered in a white chalky looking mineral.  As you looked off in the distance the creek snaked through the basin like a silver ribbon.

The hike down was steep and rocky until it got to the bottom of the Ice Lake Basin and then caught back up with the trail we took up.  There was a small waterfall where the creek came down from the lake.  When we were about to cross this portion of the creek, the couple in front of us stopped.  The guy was quite excited to dip his water bottle in the creek and take a drink.  What?  The rocks are all a ghostly white and you just saw the unnaturally colored lake above.  Why would you drink that?  His girlfriend asked how it was and he said “It tastes likes rocks”.  We stood there in disbelief unable to move.  How does he know what rocks taste like?  Is he going to be sick later?  We will never know.

The rest of the hike down was just as beautiful as the way up.  Overall, the hike was a bit more than I was physically prepared for and I was feeling beat up by the time we got back to the car, but I’m very glad I did the whole hike.

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Silverton Again

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When I went to Silverton this summer, I had a great time going four-wheel driving, but there were so many people on the trails that it was a little disappointing.  I thought it might be great to go back in fall when there were less people out and about and the fall colors would be at their peak.  I had some friends that wanted to go as well so we planned a fall trip.

The town was so much quieter than it had been in the summer.  It was almost deserted and it was real nice.  We had a beautiful day exploring the jeep trails and only saw a few other people on the trails.  We were able to drive a big loop that took us to the tops of some amazing mountain passes, down into Lake City and back to Silverton.

We did another day where we drove over Ophir pass.  I remember years ago when I found this great backcountry camping area by accident.  As we were leaving the small town of Ophir, I wondered if we could find the camping area again.  I saw a road turn off that looked familiar so we took it.  We drove through a rural residential area for a little bit.  It all looked familiar.  When we came to the ghost town of Alta, I knew we were close.  The camping area I was looking for was Alta Lakes and we found it.  We explored Alta Lakes for an hour or so.  We had lunch in Telluride and then did a short hike up to Bridal Veil Falls.  The falls were really cool and we spent quite a bit of time throwing rocks at the ice near the bottom of the falls.  We finished up the day in Ouray for dinner and some time at the hot springs.

This is such a beautiful area of the state.

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Sandbox

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

There is a small area of sand dunes in northern Colorado called the North Sand Hills Recreation Management Area.  I had no idea they were there.  They are only an hour and a half from where we live.  Three of us took atv’s up to play around in them.  On the way there, we had another cow traffic jam.  This seems to be becoming a thing that we run into everywhere we go.  It’s uncanny how many cow traffic jams there have been this year.  I should do a photo series of cow traffic jams.  It was a very windy day and the fall coolness had settled in the air.  This probably helped us to almost have the place to ourselves.  I imagine it is very busy in summer.  It is a giant adult sandbox.  It is such a foreign landscape of sand and small trees.  Our atv’s were not set up for sand so we had to be careful to not get stuck.  The sand was so much fun to play in.  It was beautiful to watch how it moved and shifted.  And of course, the photo opportunities were many.

The videos are far from professional and might even be considered bad, but they give you an idea of what it felt like.

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