Please join me on the longest trip of my life! This epic journey will cover over 22,000 miles and explore the islands of the Antarctic and the Antarctic Peninsula, then continue to South Georgia Island, onto the Falkland Islands, and back to Santiago, Chile. From there we travel westward to Easter Island about 2300 miles west of Santiago, far out into the Pacific Ocean, and then finally one month after starting the trip, I will return home to Ames, Iowa.

What follows is an tentative itinerary, maps, and various links for cities, islands, hotels, the ship I am on, as well as various other travel related information. Once the journey begins I will attempt to give blog updates when I can, depending on how reliable and expensive the satellite internet connection on the ship proves to be. If I am able I will include some photos along the way, of a smaller size to help you see what I am seeing. The web is filled with information, stories, and photos of all the places I am visiting, by just "Googling" a place such as Deception Island, you can see where and what it is. If you have a burning question and know my email address you can send it to me, and I will check as I have time, and most likely respond here in this blog.


The photo on the masthead, obviously is not mine (not yet anyway)! It was taken on the island of South Georgia, which is about a thousand miles south east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. We will spend three days in South Georgia capturing images like the one above, which shows thousands of King Penguins. These were the stars of the popular movie, "March of the Penguins," which you may have seen. Share and enjoy the expedition with me, when you are able.


There is more of this blog that will show when you scroll to the bottom of your screen, so when there click OLDER POSTS, or find the "blog archive" section to the right of the postings and click on the topic you wish to see.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Scenes around town...

Here a few photos taken around Hanga Roa, the city where we are staying, and for that matter the only city in Easter Island. It has a population of about 4,000, and is situated on the leeward side of the island. The first photo is the scene you would see after walking down the steps from the airplane, and heading into the terminal for your baggage. The next four photos are taken on the grounds of my hotel, the Altiplanico. Each room is in a small bungalow type building with its own outdoor shower and large bedroom space. My bungalow was the one to the left, and the bananas you see growing, were doing so right in front of my building. Another view shows more banana trees in front of the ocean view as seen from the front of our hotel lobby. There are no windows or doors on this side of the lobby, and I am admiring the calm ocean right now!

The red Canna flowers were a distinct color contrast against the lava wall. Obviously lava is a most plentiful stone on this island and is used for lots of purposes. The boys pounding the Eucalyptus logs on the street were doing so to remove the bark so the poles could be used to make a fence and railing in the building near where they were working. The last photo is that of a painting hanging in a museum here, and it depicts the area shown earlier on the blog posting that featured a couple of single Moai statues along with some shots of wild horses.

Unfortunately I have much to write about, and photos to process and post here, but I am out of time. We leave here in an hour or so and do some more sightseeing until lunch time, and then we travel direct to the airport to catch our flights. In my case, four flights for a duration of 16 hours as I travel from Easter Island to Santiago, Chile, to Miami, to Dallas, to Des Moines, and finally making my way to Ames on Sunday afternoon….all in one continuous trip with waiting times in-between flights. I hope to sleep on the plane and if not I will be writing more notes to place here, when I resume blogging next week. Enjoy.







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