The start of the new year meant the start of new and outlandish adventures and my first destination on the list took me to the most remote place on earth, Antarctica. Thankfully, I was invited by none other than the maverick and world traveler, Faith Ortins from Blue Green Expeditions, to join a group of divers and tourists who were just as keen to reach and see Antarctica as I was. After months of planning, the time had finally come to fly down to Ushuaia, the southernmost part of Argentina, and board the Hondius, on which we would sail down to the icy continent. I couldn’t have been more excited to travel to one of the farthest places one can go on earth.
The trip was going to take us three days along the Drake passage. The first day, I got to see the beautiful interior of the ship and the amazing crew that ran it. Everyone made their introductions and soon we were off. We waved goodbye to Ushuaia and sailed out on calm seas. However, it didn’t stay like that. The next day the waves were not only thrashing the boat but my stomach as well. While I had only gotten seasick once before, the Drake passage threw me for a loop. It was bad, but at some point, I managed to recover and learned how to prepare my cylinder and regulator for ice diving.
The ship’s interior deck
The ship’s library where I would often be found
The Drake Passage
On the third day, we finally arrived in Antarctica and I got to see my icebergs for the first time. It was amazingly beautiful. All of the snow-covered mountains and Antarctic animals that we passed by were immaculate. We got to see penguins, snowbirds, whales, and Leopard Seals. Some of the divers even got to swim around with them.
It was truly breathtaking; however, it was not to last. Unfortunately, due to some erupting COVID cases on the boat, we ended up cutting the trip short and turning around. It was truly devastating to leave such a wondrous place behind, but it was more important to keep everyone safe.
Upon our return to Argentina, I hopped off the Hondius and explored the incredibly scenic Ushuaia. I don’t think I’ve ever visited such a gorgeous city. Everything was surrounded by snowcapped mountains and the brisk smell of nature. I got to explore many different things while I was there, including some national parks and local restaurants!
Tierra Del Fuego
One of the highlights of my time there was working with Ushuaia Divers. Before we left for Antarctica, some friends that I made during the voyage to Antarctica informed me about a great dive shop that they visited while they were in the city, that was run by a man named Carlos. Tales of their diving adventure piqued my interest, so I went to go see things for myself. I met Carlos and his very young and friendly employee Alvaro. Both were amazingly kind and after some dives with them, I offered to volunteer my time to help out where I could. Thankfully they accepted, and every day I would take a cab to the dive shop to stock and fill tanks, prepare the boats, take pictures of guests, clean the dive shop, repair drysuits and help wash all the used dive gear. It was so much fun! While there I got to practice my Spanish more and learn a lot about Argentinian culture, including how to play a well-known Argentinian card game known as Truco.
Carlos, Alvaro and our guest diver!
Us on the Zodiac
After a few weeks in Ushuaia, I set my sights more north and traveled to the beach city of Puerto Madryn. There I met up with Javier Crespi as well as the hilarious Gonzalo Bravo. Both helped me navigate my way through the city and learn more about it. One of the things I learned was that it is one of the only places in the world where Orca will ambush their sea lion prey by rocketing onto the shore! Though I was sad to have missed the season for that, I did end up getting to see tons of sea lions, or Lobos Del Mar, on some great dives through the local dive shops that Gonzalo and Javier recommended.
Gonzolo and I drinking Mate
The real reason I was there was to help Gonzalo out with some algae data collection and education with a group of his peers who make up the organization known as Proyecto Sub! For this project, we took a trip down to Los Camarones and Bahia Bustamante (which took me forever to remember the name of). Bahia Bustamante was a private nature reserve filled with beautiful seascapes, arid mountains, and awesome wild animals, including armadillos and a smaller genus of ostriches that I’d never seen or heard of before. It was such a beautiful place, and it was fascinating to learn more about the different parts of Argentina, as well as algae! While there, we dived to collect and take pictures of samples, then brought them back to the station to be separated and identified. As a former up-and-coming phycologist myself, I was able to compare notes with Paula, who was the lead taxonomist of the group, and together we got to investigate the different organisms we were looking at. After we identified the different species, we later used the samples collected as artwork to serve as an interactive component for the various kids and adults who were visiting. We put on several presentations to educate them on the beauty and ecological importance of algae. It was absolutely awesome to be working with such a jolly, curious, and passionate group, not to mention dispelling some of the kids’ theories that I was a rapper– by telling them that I was actually an opera singer!
I learned a great deal not only about the algal work we were doing but the history and culture as well. Apparently one of the biggest cultural lessons I learned, aside from the proper way to drink mate, and the meaning behind “Ponte Pila Jamil! Ponte Pila!” was finding out about the famous and almost deity-like soccer player, Diego Maradona! It was so funny to see all the shocked faces when I told my new friends that I didn’t know who he was. Hence, this is a nugget of information for you if you didn’t already know: if you ever go to Argentina, make sure you look this guy up!
Overall, I had an amazing journey and experience that can’t be replaced. I’m so happy that I got the chance to work with some amazing people during my adventures from Antarctica through Argentina!
Thanks, as always, to Rolex, OWUSS, DAN, and my gear sponsors Aqua Lung, DUI, Fourth Element, Halcyon, Light and Motion, Nauticam, Reef Photo and Video and to the Hondius crew, Becky Schott and Gonzalo Bravo for some of these amazing photos!
