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My flight to Hobart, though long, was surprisingly comfortable. I am sure the anticipation of the surprise and the continuation of the adventure helped to ease whatever discomfort I had. Shane and the rest of the team on the Kapitan Klebnikov had done an excellent job orchestrating the surprise. All the baggage was hoisted onto […]

I met Tom Gill for the first time as the anesthesiologists were deadening my leg with a big needle in my groin.  This is called a femoral nerve block and is very effective. I asked if he knew about the circumstances surrounding my arrival. He made it plain that he did. Not surprising. I was, […]

The expedition team acted quickly to grab me off the bottom of that slope and return me to the ship.  Seven or eight staff members (including my fine wife) splinted my leg, tobogganed me to the waters edge, hoisted me into a zodiac and craned me onto the stern deck of the Kapitan Klebnikov. As […]

As the dark clouds of the last four weeks recede, I am increasingly aware of silver linings. On the first day in the Falkland Islands, high winds and big waves prevented the tenders from shuttling the newly-arrived passengers onto the Kapitan Klebnikov, the icebreaker that would serve as our home for the next 31 days. […]

From December 4, 2010 to January 3, 2011 we are going way off the grid: a semi-circumnavigation of Antarctica, starting off the coast of South America and ending 31 days later in the other hemisphere; in Hobart, Tasmania. We will be unable to update the site, check emails or really much of anything electronic. This […]

(Greg) The wind down here is intense. It is what makes the Southern Ocean, The Drake Passage and “rounding the Horn” so perilous. This crazy wind, I am told, is the result of the coriolis effect (wind created and intensified by the rotation of the earth) and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which is the strongest […]

In ’79 in Patagonia, at the bottom of the Western Hemisphere, the National Park of Torres del Paine was renamed and its first hotel was christened. The first visitors would arrive in the ’80s. The 1980s. So while most of our friends were frequenting fraternity tap rooms or channeling John Travolta up North, this 240,000 […]

Snowboarding is something I might have wanted to try one day, but when I imagined it I pictured white, cold snow; not tan, hot sand. Well in the Atacama there is no snow, only sand. So it is called Sandboarding! We turn the corner in the canyon, walking on the ash and gypsum. We see […]

(Andrew) Thanksgiving Day in the airport. We all knew that holidays on the road would be complicated. Yesterday, while Dad was reading our itinerary, we confirmed we will have our Thanksgiving dinner in a hotel, the Altiplanico San Alfonsa, in Santiago. For the first time I am sort of dreading Thanksgiving. Now our plane to […]

(Reis) In the beginning I was a little sketchy about this whole mountain biking thing. But as breakfast went on, my confidence grew. Now, we step onto the terrace where the biking will start. I hop on my snazzy red bike, and I am off. After doing a few practice rounds, my self faith is […]