Christmas Day in Antarctica!!

Today we were guaranteed a white Christmas on the Caledonian Star, as we traveled through the Antarctic Sound between islands covered with glaciers and fresh snow, icebergs of all shapes and sizes, and then into the Weddell Sea and the pack ice. It even began to snow during our first landing on volcanic Paulet Island even though it is the middle of summer here in Antarctica. Paulet Island is home to at least 150,000 pairs of Adelie penguins (some of us were involved in counting a sample of them), and from our landing site we could see thousands and thousands of adult penguins busily travelling to and from their nests to gather food for their 1-2 week-old chicks. The island is also historically famous, for it was here in 1903 that Captain Anton Larson and his men (who were part of the 1901-1904 Nordenskjold Swedish South Polar Expedition) were forced to spend the winter living off of penguins, after their ship, the Antarctic, was crushed in ice. Remains of the small stone hut where the men huddled together for the cold dark winter months could still be seen, even though the Adelie penguins have reclaimed the property. Later in the afternoon we landed on the Antarctic continent proper at a place called Brown Bluff, a sort of Antarctic "Utah with penguins" complete with red rocks and cliffs, pintado petrels wheeling about, and beautiful views of the surrounding glaciers and grounded icebergs. Christmas in Antarctica is quite special, and it is a magical and beautiful winter wonderland, where dreams of a white Christmas are always guaranteed!!