All good things must come to an end..
Day 18 – 24th January, written by Anais
Sadly today was the last day of our trip ☹
Originally set to head back to Buenos Aires, unexpected national strikes across Argentina gifted us an extra day in Ushuaia. Following a late-night celebration for both the conclusion of our journey and my birthday, we enjoyed a leisurely morning, savouring a final delightful lunch aboard the ship. Others opted to head into Ushuaia for some souvenir shopping, museum visit or brunch in a local café.
Post-lunch we gathered for a group meeting to put the finishing touches on our presentation, which we later delivered to our fellow passengers aboard, explaining our findings after two weeks of intense data collection. Alice and I presented the data on penguin behaviour, while others covered seabirds and marine mammals. With a bit of downtime before our presentation, I seized the opportunity to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Before I knew it, it was 16:30 – time to present!
Our expedition tallied a grand total of 247 cetacean sightings, with humpback whales dominating at 68%, followed by dusky dolphins (19%), and Orcas (6%). Seals were also a highlight, with a total of 193 sightings, and an overwhelming 84% were crabeater seals.
The skies were populated, with Black-browed albatross, southern fulmars and skuas claiming the title of the most frequently spotted birds. Our behavioural observations took place in 5 different penguin colonies, two Gentoo and two Adelie colonies, and one Chinstrap colony. The standout discovery was that variation in chick size seemed to lead to quite a marked change in adult behaviour characterised by heightened aggression in the southern gentoo penguin colony with the smallest chicks.
Post-presentation, a few of us ventured into town for some last-minute souvenir shopping, including the essential alfajores. We also got passport stamps to commemorate this once-in-a-lifetime trip.
(photos by Anais)
We said bye to Ushuaia and returned to the ship for one last group dinner at 7pm. I celebrated my birthday with some cake kindly bought by some fellow students and a bottle of sparkling wine provided by the vessel staff. Knowing we had to be up early at 3:30am for our 7am flight to Buenos Aires, we wisely avoided staying up too late.
I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end an amazing trip and birthday!
¡Adiós!
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Anais (centre) & team mates celebrating (photos by Anais)