Skipping ahead to Antarctica...

I still have a lot of pictures and information to post about the ship and traveling down to Palmer Station, but tonight I'm going to show some photos that I took on our walk up the glacier. Behind Palmer Station is a glacier that you can hike up, as long as you stay within the flagged area. Outside the flags are crevasses, which you really don't want to fall into.  To walk up the glacier you sign out on a board in the main hallway with the people who are going, where you are going, time out and the time you expect to get back, and you take a radio with you.  Anyway, Kristin, Lisa and I hiked up the glacier, which takes about an hour to walk up, and it's icy so we put Kahtoola microspikes that stretch over your boots and keep your from slipping on the ice, after all we are walking on a glacier.  Here's a top view of my feet, showing the microspikes on my boots, but it's not that good of picture.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and the temperature was probably around 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit (although I could be off), cold, but not super cold.  Below is a photo of Palmer Station I took when I was near the top of the glacier.

Can you find Palmer Station?

It has been cloudy around the station; some days it rains, other days it snows, and the other day it hailed.  The last time I was down here was in 2001, and over the past 13 years there are definite indications that the Antarctic Peninsula is warming. I'm going to ignore the decline of penguins around Palmer, and the issues we are facing keeping the water cold enough for our icefish in our aquarium lab (yes, the water around Palmer Station that we bring into our aquarium is on the verge of being too warm to maintain our fish. In the next few years we may need to use chilling units to keep the water at ~0.8 degrees Celsius). Since 2001, which was the last time I was here, glacier has retreated away from Palmer Station leaving a rocky "backyard", that is A LOT larger in size than what it used to be! The Antarctic Peninsula is warming extremely quickly causing loss of glacier ice and ice shelves (http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo1787.html).  The warming of the ocean by even a few degrees has the potential of wiping out the plants and animals that cannot adapt to rapidly changing temperatures. The Adelie penguins rely on ice to serve as floating docks that they can rest on and then enter into the water to feed.  Since 1974 Adelie penguin populations along the western Antarctic Peninsula have declined by 84% (http://pal.lternet.edu/sci-research/transformational_science/). I have seen a few Adelie penguins on my way down this time (no pictures yet), but not as many as in previous years.

And on that note, here are some photos from today.

Rubbing the toe for good seas!

Main square in Punta Arenas.

 The main square in Punta Arenas is really beautiful.  Some of the trees have wicked huge trunks!

Walking to the square.

Large tree

In the square is a monument to Ferdinand Magellan, the explorer after whom the Strait of Magellan is named. Legend has it that if you rub to toe of the native you will have smooth seas, and when you cross the Drake Passage you need all the help you can get!  Rubbing the toe may also give you good luck, or ensure that you will return to Punta Arenas. We rubbed the toe every time we walked through the square!

Rubbing the toe for a smooth crossing!

A closeup of the native's foot---- it's SHINY from all the rubbing!

Here's the entire monument with Magellan on the top.

Shackleton Bar

In the hotel in Punta Arenas there is the Shackleton Bar, obviously named after Ernest Shackleton, an Antarctic explorer.  Although he was not the first explorer to reach the South Pole (that honor goes to Roald Amundsen), he set out to cross the entire continent through the South Pole.  His ship the Endurance became trapped in pack ice and eventually sunk, so he did not complete he goal, but the story of he and men surviving and being rescued is an amazing story. Anyway, this bar in Hotel Jose Nogueira is a nice place to relax.  There's intricate woodwork and paintings that depict Shackleton's expedition, and here we enjoyed pisco sours. The image below does not do the bar justice.