Sunday Jan 23, 2023Hi Folks! Today’s words of the day were whales and penguins! We saw so many and they all came up close to our ship. I never saw penguins swimming thru the ocean but they were so cute. Just leaping and jumping thru the air. I wish I could post a video! And seeing a few penguins hanging out on an iceberg as it floats by is a hoot! I have a picture of that!
We started the morning cruising through an area called Paradise Harbour. And I understand why it was called that. It was this quiet, serene cove with lots of whales and penguins just floating around. And the backdrop of the Harbour was snow capped mountains that were so majestic that words can’t describe it. The pictures just can’t do it justice.
Later in the morning we went to listen to the Antarctic speakers who recapped what we saw yesterday and today. They also took questions from the audience and we learned a lot. Did you know that a whale can swim down 10,000 feet to feed? Crazy.
We grabbed some lunch which we decided since there was so much amazing scenery right outside our balcony that we’d order room service for lunch and take in the views. They had some great salads and sandwiches (along with some yummy chocolate chip cookies)! The nice part is that room service all day is free and the menu is huge while other cruise lines have gone to charging for room service or having a limited menu. Go Holland America!
After lunch we sailed thru Neko Harbour which was another amazing place. The more we go down these little inlets and channels the more awesome the scenery is.
We ended the day going to Cuverville Island which had a huge colony of Gentoo Penguins. There were hundreds of them just hanging out on the shore there. Gotta love nature!
After all that we had a delicious dinner and afterwards, as if we hadn’t seen enough nature, we went to see the main show which was Blue Planet II by BBC Earth and all the cool nature scenes from around the world were accompanied by the ship’s orchestra. So cool!
We ended the night watching some NFL football and listening to our favorite piano players. Tomorrow will be Day 3 of cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula.
We’re still having spotty internet so I can’t post any pictures but maybe in a few days I can and I’ll be sure to post pictures from each of the days I missed. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
The Wandering Italian 