Antarctica - part 1

We spent part of 4 days in Antarctica.  It's hard to describe how beautiful it was. 

Here is our first view of Elephant Island.

 It was really cold and windy the first day.  Here is some snow on the deck outside our stateroom.

 

 This is my first photo of 2013, taken at about 12:15 AM on January 1.

 Here's a shot of other passengers out on deck enjoying the first minutes of the New Year.

 It was very surreal - the pink and the blue and the very calm water. 

We're not sure if it ever got dark that night. 

A New Year's we'll never forget.

More snow falling on an iceberg right next to the ship.

 

We don't usually take photos of ourselves on our travels,

but we thought Antarctica was an exception. 

Below you can see how narrow the channels were and how close we were to the shore.

 On January 1, a dozen scientists came aboard the ship from Palmer Station and gave a couple of lectures about life in Antarctica.  Here are their zodiacs.  The Station is in the far left of the photo.

A few penguins on an iceberg

 The photo below is a penguin rookery.  Note the brown area in the middle around the rocks.  You can also see a trail (of penguin poop) going up to a higher spot.

A lonely penguin in the middle of this iceberg.

Where did this sailboat come from?  And where is it going???

We're in the middle of nowhere!

 A large seal relaxing on the iceberg.

 Another scientific station