11 - Deception Island

Happy New Year!!!

We were still sailing on new year’s eve, but Me, Mom, Dad, Marina and Jaci were awake, so we got to say happy new year and went to sleep. I thought; “I HAVENT TAKEN A BATH SINCE 2024, HAHAHA - TAKE THAT BATH >:)”

We dropped anchor on New Year’s Day at 10:30 am and Jan 1st, we set foot on land for the first time since we left Ushuaia on Dec 27th. What a way to start the year! Its so cool ⭐️⭐️

We are having a great time! Deception Island is shaped like a horseshoe and was an active volcano having its last eruption on 1969, so it’s really different from the other islands. It’s grey and the soil is dried Lava / volcanic ash and sleet, whatever sleet is.

We explored Whalers Bay, where there are some ruins of an old whaling station (where they processed whale things of course! But POOR WHALES!!) until the volcano erupted and covered the area in lava. There are still some tanks where they used to store whale oils, but they are covered in rust and ash, and some houses half destroyed and unstable. We walked around for a long time and explored everything. Photos below!

Then we went on a walk around the beach where we saw Papua penguins, Chin Strap penguins and a Leopard Seal, but she was hurt, probably from a fight with either another Seal or an Orca!! Poor seal :(

We went back to the boat, had our New Years dinner (delicious!) and played Mau-Mau (Basically Uno but WAY crazier) until 11:00 pm, and had a good time.

OH! And on new years Igor opened a bottle with a MANCHETE!! Whatttt?! 

Today, we woke up and already went to explore. We IMMEDIATELY saw two sea lions and an Elephant Seal! We went on to hike a mountain, then me, mommy, Marina and Igor  basically jumped all the way down the mountain! (It was volcanic ash / dirt and pebbles so if you dug your heels in you can stand stable!) from the top we saw the clear blue and teal water. Amazing! I wanted to jump in, but I would rather not get frostbite. TALKING ABOUT FROSTBITE…

What do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire?

Frostbite hehehehehe >:D.

We stayed in the boat for awhile calming down, but around 5 pm, (Its 7:15 right now while I wrote these exact words) we went to Pendulum Cove, where we dug a hole in the sand like one does at a beach to build sand castles, but HOT WATER came out and we made a JACUZZI!! Hot Bath in Antartica? What an incredible experience.

Back to the boat and Adriana is preparing the most amazing MOQUECA!

Yes You read that right. We are having Brazilian Moqueca tonight, made with Robalo that Igor fished and prepared using the Japanese tecnique Ikejime, that spares the fish of suffering and results in a very clean and heathy fillet. So I am rushing to take a bath and get ready for dinner. This smell is KILLING ME! Hungryyyyy :-)

Thats pretty much it! Well, have a good day!

Tomorrow we have a full day of sailing so see you again in a couple of days! <3 

A tout a l’heure (Our Captain is French - ooh La La, very tres chique ✨✨)