Penguins, penguins, penguins…

We officially landed on the 7th continent today at Brown Bluff. It was a nesting area of penguins. The water was like glass and it warmed up to almost 5 degrees Celsius. It was an amazing today with thousands of penguins. We were not far away from the largest volcano in the world on James Ross Island. The whole area was layers of volcanic ash and pillow basalts.  Many penguins were happily laying on their nests with eggs that were carefully planned nests made from small stone and rocks. Some male partners were actively adding to the nests while their mates kept the eggs protected.  Overall, the wildlife was very friendly and not afraid of the human visitors.

By the end of the end of the day, the entire bay was being clogged with ice. It is amazing that within a few hours, a given location or landing can be blocked or open. If we stayed too long, we could get locked in by ice unexpectedly. We also saw a few planes fly over from the various research stations in the area. Apparently there is some competition between Chile, Argentina and others on who “controls” Antarctica.