Landing on the continent! It's official!

Paradise Bay. Really, any of the places that we have explored on this trip could be called Paradise Bay. But this morning we woke up in Paradise Bay. Our group ended up on a zodiac all together, which was great. Katherine (from Guelph) was our driver, joined by Doug (an American guy) who was our naturalist and training Katherine. Our zodiac ride took us first to see some sea birds (I will not be including photos as I find sea birds rather uninteresting, they all look like seagulls). Then we went to explore the bay. We were just kind of puttering around. There was a lot of slushy ice in the water which was pretty cool. Plus the glaciers were crackling like crazy. We didn't see any big chunks fall, but it was pretty noisy. 

Back: Jono (UK), Susanne (USA), Ben (Australia), Kyle (USA), me, Clare (USA)
Front: Michelle (Australia), Cat (Australia), Brent (Australia)

Katherine had to be careful not to get us stuck in any of the ice, but it was pretty cool to be in this stuff. 

This is Ben and me, playing with the ice.

Then we heard over the radio that another zodiac had found an iceberg with penguins. So off to the penguins!

It actually wasn't just penguins, it was also a leopard seal. If you've been reading my other posts, you'll know that leopard seals are pretty much the top of the food chain and definitely eat penguins, so this was a pretty interesting sighting. But Doug told us that the penguins kinda know that they are faster than the leopard seal on ice. In the water, no chance, but on ice, chance.

I love how in this photo it's like they've sent the one to check on the seal, "What is it?" "I don't know, might be a seal" "Well is it alive" "Don't know, maybe" "Well is it awake" "Don't know. Maybe" "You should get closer and find out" "No way! You go" "No, we'll send Fred" 

After hanging out in the ice for a bit, we went on to land on the continent. Officially. Not an island. The continent. I have to admit, I don't know why this mattered, or what our issue was, I mean, if you go to Vancouver Island, did you not go to North America? Meh. Anyways. So, we landed at Almirante Brown Station, an Argentine station. For many of us, this was the seventh continent. For Erica, it was her second, but you know. 

For Johanne and Deiter, this is continent 5, not bad for a penguin and a dragon who just started traveling 3 years ago. 

We hiked up the hill, which was rather interesting in rubber boots. A little slippery.

Ben, Jono and Cat

At the top - our seven photos!

And, the really fun part was the slide down the mountain. So fun!

The girls were celebrating. I think it was seven for all of us? Plus we got pretty good air on this one.

Cat, Clare, Susanne, Michelle and Me

You may have noticed, this was one of our great places for group photos (not distracted by penguins). So these are the people who really made this trip for me. There are a few missing (you'll probably have seen them in a few other photos), but we had such a great time together. There is something about being solo travelers that brings people together, which is awesome. Even the people who came from the same city (Ben, Brent and Michelle), all came from such diverse backgrounds, but we had so much fun together. And, as much as this place is amazing, I think these people made this trip just that much better for me. Can't wait for the next adventure with you guys!