We made it!

Spotted land! Finally across the Drake Passage. The labeled point A is where we spent the day.

Went ashore on one of the South Shetland Islands (Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Group) using Zodiacs.


Lots of gentoo and chinstrap penguins and a few Antarctic seals. Here you can see a seal on my right and penguins all around.

Babies were plentiful and very cute. This is a gentoo parent (could be mom or dad) and baby.


This baby skua was cute, too. But the adults are a real pain for the penguins, raiding their nests and eating their eggs.

Both gentoos and chinstraps in this photo.

You can see why they're called chinstrap penguins.

Lots of vocalizations.

After several very fun hours hiking around the island, our ship was waiting for us, so we headed back.

Even the wine at dinner was all about penguins.


Pretty great day.