Antarctica
Antarctica has always interested me. Years ago, in my studies, I had postponed this program due to the very high prices of icebreaker ships that go to Antarctica after Ushuaia, Argentina. With the cruise ships that started their Antarctic expedition in 2023, the feasibility of such a trip has become easier.
Preparations are complete, we are going to Antarctica, we are leaving the port in the evening after staying in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, for a week. It is a huge ship with 2000 employees and 3000 passengers. It takes a few days to get to know the ship and our surroundings, to learn the rules. It is like a city, great organization, all kinds of services are first class.
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Montevideo;
We arrived in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, in the morning, we are here all day, we need to return to the ship just in time in the evening, if we cannot make it, we will stay here. The name Montevideo comes from Portuguese, meaning “I see a mountain”. It is said that one of the first Portuguese sailors to arrive here shouted out a mountain behind the bay and that is how its name came to be. There are a few other rumors, but this is the most common.
Montevideo is a city on the banks of the Rio de La Plata River, founded in 1724 by the Spanish soldier Zabata as a strategically important city against Buenos Aires across the river. Although it came under British rule for a short time in 1807, it remained under Spanish rule until 1816. After the May Revolution in Argentina, the Spanish moved the center of government in the name of the King from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, which greatly affected the area and led to the start of independence movements in Uruguay. Brazil, seeing the gap in government after 1816, occupied Uruguay between 1821-1825, and as a result of the struggle that followed, Uruguay gained its independence and Montevideo became the country’s capital in 1828.
Rio Dell Plata River means silver river. When you say river, don’t think of a stream that is 10-15 meters wide, this river is 140 km wide on average and is one of the widest and largest rivers in the world.
Montevideo, with an area of 201 km2 and a population of 1.4 million, is the largest and most important city in the country, where 1/3 of the population lives, and is a modern city with trade, finance, cultural centers and higher education. You will be surprised, but this is the place where the most developed and modern administrative authority is in South America.
A clean and proper city with tall buildings, where 1.3 million of the 3.4 million population live. This place has recently come to our agenda with Mehmet Aydın, known as the “Bullshead” who scammed people out of millions of dollars with his “farm bank” project and escaped here with Ferrari cars.
To become a Uruguayan citizen, you only need to obtain a 3-year residence permit and have a salary of 1200 dollars, or you can also obtain citizenship through investment. Uruguay is one of the countries that grants citizenship or residence permits the easiest. As such, it has become a paradise for scammers who flee their country and those who want to launder money,
Uruguay gained its independence between 1811 and 1828 after a four-way struggle between Portugal and Spain, and later Argentina and Brazil. Today, the country is the third best country on the continent in terms of innovation and infrastructure, after Argentina and Chile.
With its developing economy, an average growth trend of 4% in the last 10 years, and an annual per capita income of 20,000 dollars, Uruguay has a stable structure. The fact that unemployment, poverty and inflation rates are in single digits also confirms this situation. So don’t underestimate Uruguay, they are better off than us. Uruguay, the second smallest country in South America, has a developed agricultural sector focused on exports and a well-educated workforce thanks to its fertile and large agricultural lands. Social spending rates and development indicators seem stable in Uruguay, which is a rising and functioning market economy…
They still envy us! Of course they watch us with envy and admiration, they will soon burst with envy too!!
In the early 20th century, many immigrants, especially Spanish and Italian, came to the city and reached 39% of the population.
Uruguay is one of the pioneer countries in terms of women’s rights, and in 1907, women were granted the right to divorce and vote here.
Uruguay is a country where the majority is Christian and Islam is a minority religion.
A large stadium was built in 1929, the first World Football Championship was played here and Uruguay became World Champions.
Another interesting event that happened here was during World War II, a German ship clashed with Uruguayan and New Zealand ships on the La Plata River, the German captain, realizing that he would lose the war, fled to the port of Montevideo and sank his ship there and committed suicide.
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We are going to the eagle house known as the “Eagle House”. It was built in 1912 and is now one of the most beautiful summer towns of this place, Atlantida, a house built by a crazy architect in 1945 on the banks of the Rio Del Plata River, 18 meters high and built of stones very similar to an eagle. It lived here for a long time, now that there is no life inside, it has closed and waited for its fate, a different and interesting design, its beak and eyes are very similar to an eagle. **
The Christ Obrero or Atlanta Church near Atlantida, designed by engineer Eladio Dieste in 1952.
A different structure with its different architecture and design. The light coming from the windows at different angles placed on its wavy side walls illuminates the statue of Jesus inside the church during Sunday masses. The light coming from behind the statue of the Virgin Mary in front of the window inside a thick wall creates the perception of endless light.
Although the walls and surfaces are built of traditional brick designed by Dieste, it is a very impressive structure. Due to this feature, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name of Atlantida Church in 2021.
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Uruguay and Argentina are two bordering countries that get along very well, but they do not agree on football, tango and where to find good meat and how to cook it. In these matters, both countries, which are incompatible, consider themselves better than the other.
In Argentina, they say that Tango was born in the La Boka neighborhood in Buenos Aires and that its creator was Carlos Gardel. Carlos is considered the most unforgettable person in the history of tango. He is called the King of Tango, El Mago (The Magician) and ironically El Mudo (The Silent). Together with his famous partner Alfredo La Pera, they created tangos that have now become classics and legendary names. Their most important known tangos are; Mi Buenos Aires querido, Cuesta abajo, Amores de estudiante, Soledad, Volver, Por una cabeza and El día que me quieras. On the Uruguayan side, they say that tango first became famous with La Comparsita, composed by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez in 1916, that it was first played in a small bar where Palacio Salvo is located and that the tango museum was first born here. Here too, people dance tango like a national dance in the streets. Traditionally, every weekend in Uruguay, barbecue parties accompanied by Uruguayan wine and tango are an indispensable habit.
Old-timers remember that the first dance of all marriages started with La Comparsita tango. Neither country compromises on its superiority in this regard, we should not get between them. Sometimes the discussion gets exciting. Whoever created it did a great job, today both tango music and dance are listened to and watched with great pleasure.
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We are walking around the city center, you see the Turkish flag in the big square, the Turkish Embassy building. We knocked on the door and entered, the ambassador had just been appointed, we had a nice chat while walking, they insisted on refreshments but there is no time, let’s not miss the ship.
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Cruise is a passenger ship that can carry a few thousand passengers and has more than a thousand crew. It is an environment with restaurants of different standards, conference halls, entertainment, gambling, pool, dance, gym halls and all kinds of activities. Like a five-star floating hotel with a few thousand people. There may also be informative information and meetings about the journey and the geography we are in.
We sail in the Atlantic Ocean for a full day, in the morning we enter Puerto Madryn and then the Antarctic region.
(Puerto Madryn was shared in the Argentina Patagonia 2 travel notes)
** After sailing for two full days at sea, we enter the Strait of Magellan in the south of South America at midnight and arrive in the city of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia. We are in Chilean territory and this is the southernmost settlement in Chile at 53 degrees south latitude. The days have started to lengthen noticeably.
The weather is cold, 80 degrees Celsius and windy, dry and frosty, the perceived temperature is lower than the measured temperature.
The preparations started early in the morning, the big ship cannot land, both the dock is not very suitable and the wind is blowing strongly. “We will go to the shore with tender boats, big tin lifeboats. The boats have been launched, the numbers have been distributed, everyone’s boat is clear, the lines are set. The sound of the wind is getting louder, the preparations are complete, we get on the boats and go to the shore, to Punto Arenas, the southernmost city of Chile. We can’t go, the announcement is that there is a storm expected in two hours, if we go, we may have big problems on our way back, everything is cancelled, disappointment but there is nothing to do, you can’t argue with nature, Poseidon, the god of the seas, has deemed it appropriate, we can’t go to Punto Arenas.
Let’s continue on our way. We are going through the Strait of Magellan, the weather is getting rougher, the sea is starting to foam, the waves are 5-10 meters high, it is impossible to walk on the deck because of the wind. Everything is as it should be, we are in the Patagonia Desert, it is summer here, everything is normal compared to here, don’t even think about these places in the winter, I can’t imagine what the weather will be like. Anyone with a little sense wouldn’t be here in the winter.
We follow the Strait of Magellan, we reach the Pacific Ocean, head south again, follow the Beagle Strait and go to the Patagonia Region of Argentina through the fjords. We are going to Ushuaia, the southernmost settlement in the world, in Argentine territory, the weather is getting rougher, I hope we don’t encounter any surprises.
There are dozens of glaciers in the fjords of the Beagle Strait, each different from the other and beautiful.
Over the last few hundred years, more than 1000 ships that came here for exploration purposes have sunk or disappeared due to weather conditions. Sudden storms and strong currents create a very dangerous situation for sailors here. As can be seen when looking at the map, these places are like the underwater continuation of the South American Andes. This situation has caused a labyrinthine geography here. It must be very dangerous and risky for those who do not know these seas very well, if you do not have enough equipment, those who enter these places will definitely not be able to find the exit to the sea and will get lost. Thank God, this dangerous situation has been eliminated with navigation devices today.
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Towards morning, we arrived in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, in the Argentine Patagonia region
(Travel notes about Ushuaia were shared in the Argentine Patagonia 2 travel notes.)
From here, we set off for Antarctica.
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Antarctica;
The Patagonia region ends, after this we go further south to the Antarctic region, the weather is starting to get a little harsher. The windows in the cabins on the ship are additionally protected with thick stainless steel covers. There are constant announcements, there will be waves and storms of 10-15 meters in the following hours, be careful. The huge ship is swaying at night, I wanted to go out towards morning and take a photo. It is hard to walk because of the swaying, I went out, the wind and the blizzard are incredible, you cannot stand, the sun is behind the black clouds, it will not be visible for a long time.
We are at sea all day and night. The blizzard is starting to increase, the excitement is also increasing, as we start to approach Antarctica, the 5th largest continent in the world, icebergs floating in the sea started to appear.
We have entered the southern polar circle at 60 degrees latitude, that is, we are exactly in Antarctica. Ice and glaciers as far as the eye can see, huge icebergs are floating in the middle.
I am taking a photo of the sunset at 23:00 at night, everywhere is red, magnificent shades of red. I wanted to take a photo of the stars, It is light at 01:00, the stars are not visible when it is not completely dark. At 02:00 it is bright, the horizon where the sun sets is still in yellow and red tones, at 02:35 it starts to light up, the sun rises again, it is not night yet. You have to come in winter for star photography. August is winter here, but it is not possible to reach these places at that time.
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We have been on the road all night, early in the morning, we see icebergs that are increasing in number and size. The weather is very cold and windy, we have put on everything we have with us in layers, gloves are not enough, I cannot control my fingers to take photos. The temperature is 20C degrees, but when there is dry frost and strong wind, the temperature felt is freezing. This is the bottom of the world, it is impossible not to be impressed by the magnificent beauty, I feel like I am hypnotized.
We are at the bottom of the Antarctic Peninsula in the north of Antarctica at the 64th latitude, special permission is required from here on, the largest glacial continent in the world is in front of us. We are with icebergs that weigh or volume hundreds of thousands of tons like mountains around us, we are not so excited anymore as we first saw them, we are used to it. In the morning, the sun rises from behind a very large iceberg and we are with a family of five whales right in front of us, we sailed together for a while, they disappeared into the depths of the ocean with a tail salute.
In the north of Antarctica, we pass between the Antarctic Peninsula and Walters Island and go down to the very bottom of the bay, Paradise Bay. This is the 68th parallel zone, we are very close to the south polar center of the world. In the face of indescribable beauties, the cold, dry frost does not matter to anyone. At the information meeting about Antarctica, they said, “You will probably never come here again, put your cameras aside for a while, watch, listen and feel Antarctica inside you.” That’s what I did, it is something different that I have never experienced before, the weather is freezing cold and frosty, your heart is pounding, one side is cold while the other is warm, it is an interesting feeling.
Dozens of species of birds live in Antarctica, but the most special of them is the Albatross. The bird with the largest wingspan in the world, up to 4 meters in adults. Thanks to the shoulder lock that fixes their wings, they can stay in the air for years by feeding from the sea and sleeping in the air without using much muscle energy using air currents. Female albatross birds lay eggs only once a year and only come ashore to lay and incubate eggs. Albatross birds spend the first years of their lives alone for a long time and are alone until they reach adulthood. After finding a suitable mate, they spend the rest of their lives with their mate alone. The couples are extremely respectful and gentlemanly towards each other. They show each other affection for hours. After a female albatross lays eggs, the couples take turns incubating. While one of the couples is at sea, the other can sit on the egg for up to a week. After an 80-day incubation period, they feed the hatchling by regurgitating digested food into their beaks for 8-9 months.
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Scientists and researchers who come here for research or academic studies and stay here for months have to bring everything they need, such as food, drink, shelter, health, cooking and heating, and take back leftovers, garbage and everything they bring when they leave. The transportation of these materials and researchers here can always be by air rather than by sea, depending on the conditions. It is not possible to reach the middle of the continent in any other way.
One of the most important issues that concerns scientists about Antarctica is that when these places were land millions of years ago, bacteria and viruses living here were frozen in thousands of meters of thick ice sheets, and what kind of an effect it would have if it were transmitted to humans as a result of global warming or melting glaciers for some other reason. Remember, the Covid-19 virus that started in one person in China affected the whole world in months and thousands of people died. Thank God, the virus mutated due to its nature and became controllable, who knows what would have happened if it had not come?
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If we talk about general information about Antarctica;
Antarctica is the southernmost continent of the Southern Hemisphere and the only continent without a country. Antarctica is the 5th largest continent in the world with a surface area of 14.4 million km2. Considering that Europe is 10.5 million km2, it is larger than Europe and half the size of the African continent.
The land mass, which is a desert, is covered with an average of 2,500 km thick ice sheet. The thickest part is 5 km thick, it is the coldest, driest, windiest place in the world where no rain has fallen for 2 million years. No plants grow here, there is no water other than ice. Researchers who come here have to bring everything with them from beginning to end.
Charles Wilkes, who traveled approximately 2,000 km along the coast with his sailboat in the 1840s, proved that there is a large continent where the South Pole is, unlike the North Pole, which is made up of seas. There are also several archipelagos within this region, such as South Shetland and South Georgia. Its name comes from the Greek word Antarcticos, meaning “opposite the Arctic”. This ice mass, with a volume of 24 million km³, constitutes 92 percent of all ice on earth. The 350–600 m thick ice pieces breaking off from its shores advance at a speed of 1–3 meters per day and pile up on top of each other. One of these floating masses, the Ross Ice Mass, has an area of 540,000 km², almost the size of France. The ice masses that break off with the tide are dispersed by floating around, and there are icebergs that reach 20,000 km² in size.
The coldest and stormiest climate on earth prevails in the South Pole. When storms blow, it can drop to -70 °C. Measurements made at the US observation station located at the geographical South Pole have determined that the annual average temperature is -50 °C, and only rises to -29 °C in the warmest month.
There is no native or permanent population in Antarctica. Scientists come and go to do research. Some science bases operate seasonally, some operate both in winter and summer. Researchers on the continent, not exceeding 1000, stay in science bases or on ships.
Due to the 23.5 degree angle of the earth during the solstices, there is one day of 24 hours of night at every point of the polar circle in June, when winter is experienced, and one day of 24 hours of day in December, when summer is experienced.
If we look at the legal status of Antarctica;
It is a continent that is quite rich in terms of ecological balance. According to the Antarctica Treaty made in 1959, Antarctica was determined as an independent region and according to this, it does not belong to any country and representatives from any country can come here.
According to the Antarctic Treaty or Antarctic Treaty; land and ice shelves located south of latitude 60° without indigenous people are defined as Antarctica. The treaty came into effect in 1961 and 53 countries have accepted the treaty. According to the treaty, Antarctica is considered an independent region, all kinds of scientific research can be done freely; military activities are prohibited on the continent. Since 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat is located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The treaty was first opened for signature on December 1, 1959 and entered into force on June 23, 1961. The first countries to ratify the treaty were the 12 countries that were the International Geophysical participants: the United States, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Chile and New Zealand.
If we look at what Antarctica is currently used for; Scientific studies, tourism, filmmakers, difficult expeditions and sailing, uncontrolled illegal fishing. If you have nothing else to do to fill your days, there is nothing but ice, cold and difficult conditions to stay here.
We are slowly leaving the continent that we have been so close to throughout the day that we could almost reach out and hold it.
With love,
Hayrettin Kağnıcı
January 2024