Friday 31 October 2014

A wonderful tour comes to its end

We spent our last day of our Atlantic crossing in Montevideo, Uruguay. One day for this wonderful country is of course not enough, but we got at least a good impression of Montevideo and its surroundings.

Montevideo

FriedaPhoto: Monumento La Carreta
FriedaPhoto: Dogsitting


Palacio Legislativo

Palacio Legislativo

Palacio Legislativo

Many passengers explored Montevideo on their own as the ship lay quite near to the historical city. Others went on a full day excursion to see a bit more of Uruguay. It was amazing to see all the flowering plants and listen to the singing birds after all this days at sea. It’s just springtime in South America, perhaps the nicest time of the year to watch birds. South America is very famous for its huge variation of birds and flowers, and we got at least a glimpse of it.

FriedaPhoto: Ovenbird

FriedaPhoto: Monk parakeet
Martin Overbuschmann: Green-barred Woodpecker

Martin Overbuschmann: Chalk-browed Mockingbird
Who hides here?

FriedaPhoto: A Kiskedee
FriedaPhoto: National Tree of Uruguay and Argentina, Ceibo

FriedaPhoto: Acca sellowiana

Amaryllis

Hibiscus

The excursion ended in a winery where we got the possibility to taste different whines in a combination with a typical South American lunch. It was a little bit a pity that the weather was not nice enough to have the BBQ outside, but the grilled meat, different sausages and vegetables tasted inside as well. Tango dancers made our dessert even sweater.


Lunch at the winery


Our last evening ended up in an enjoyable Halloween party together with the crew.



Tomorrow morning we have to say good bye to new friends. Nobody wants really to go home – here in the southern hemisphere we have the late springtime, nearly summer, but at home the darkness of November with its wet and cold weather is waiting for us. Some passengers made the right decision; they stay just on board to see the springtime on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica.
Penguins! Here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday 30 October 2014

A view from horizon to horizon

Today it’s our 17th day on board MS FRAM and at the same time our last sea day. Tomorrow we will reach Montevideo and the day after we will leave the ship in Buenos Aires to fly home again. With the exception of the day in Mindelo (Cape Verde) and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) we had “only” sea days. In the last blogs we tried to show that these days have not been boring at all. We had different daily programs and there was always something to do. But there is something very special and unique on a crossing over the Atlantic. Every day you have the view from horizon to horizon. Nothing disturbs your observation. From the sunrise in the morning to the sunset in the evening, your sight is free. Day by day you feel more relaxed and it looks like that sea days are perhaps the best holiday days you can have.
The following pictures give you hopefully a little impression about the magic of clouds, sunsets and sunrises – and of course the moon.

View out of the plane on the way to Las Palmas



























Monday 27 October 2014

Birds and Whales we have seen

During our crossing south to Buenos Aires we have been lucky enough to see some wildlife. Especially next to St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago and when we passed the Islands Fernando de Noronha we had many birds around the vessel. Later on, when we came nearer to the Brazilian coast we saw nearly day by day groups of Humpback Whales – Are they on the way south to Antarctica like us? Who will be there first? Who will be the winner of this long trip to the cold but fertile Antarctic waters? Will we ever get an answer to these questions? Perhaps not, but if you like you are welcome to chare our experiences; we hope you enjoy the pictures made by our board photographer, the expedition team and especially some of our guests.

And this is a more or less secret message to John: If I am not right with the birds - feel free to correct me - you are the Ornithologist! I will prepare you a coffee as a thank you as soon as you are back in Buenos Aires.
 
Masked booby, FriedaPhoto

Young masked booby, FriedaPhoto

Frigatebird, FriedaPhoto
Frigatebird, FriedaPhoto

Frigatebird, FriedaPhoto
Redfooted Booby(the white one), FriedaPhoto


Redfooted booby (the white one), FriedaPhoto

Redfooted booby (the brown one), Annika Ljungqvist Karneryd

Brown boobies
Brown booby
 
Young brown booby

It's not easy to start, Martin Overbuschmann
Brown booby, Martin Overbuschmann
Greyheaded albatros, Andre Eikermann

Cape Verde Shearwater

Hammerhead, Marcel Hostettler

Humpback whale, Martin Overbuschmann


Humpback whale, Martin Overbuschmann

Minke whale, Marcel Hostettler

Minke whale, Martin Overbuschmann

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

big splash

Humpback whale