Traveling Tolins 2

History of the Drake Passage This body of water is named after the famous English explorer,  Sir Francis Drake . Though Drake never sailed through his namesake waters himself, one of his ships did pass near its location, discovering a connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This meant that they inadvertently discovered the Drake Passage in 1578, and proved the existence of an open water route south of South America. Many decades after its discovery, a ship named the Eindracht made the first recorded successful voyage through the Drake Passage .  Willem Schouten , a Dutch navigator, served as captain of this voyage in 1616.  He also named Cape Horn on this journey.  Despite the difficulties involved in navigating it, the Drake Passage proved to be an important part of future international trade routes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, prior to the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Throughout history, the Drake Passage is known for its often turbule...

Head Note:  Day 12, November 12, 2022.  We are sailing north to return to our beginning port.  AND finally able to get a strong enough satellite signal to use our blog software.  So here we go .......                                         🛬 Ushuaia 🛫 Ushuaia is the most southerly city on our planet.   Here we embarked on the Viking Polaris and will debark when the cruise ends. Ushuaia  is the  capital  of  Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province ,  Argentina . With a population of nearly 75,000 and a location below the  54th parallel south  latitude, Ushuaia claims the title of  world's southernmost city . A much smaller municipality of less than 3,000 people,  Puerto Williams  in  Chile , is nearer to the  55th parallel south , at a latitude of 54°56' S co...

  Antarctica:    Earth 's southernmost and least-populated  continent . Situated almost entirely south of the  Antarctic Circle  and surrounded by the  Southern Ocean , it contains the geographic  South Pole . Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than  Europe , and has an area of 5,500,000 square miles. Most of Antarctica is covered by the  Antarctic ice sheet , with an average thickness of 1.2 miles. Antarctica is on average the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and it has the highest average  elevation . It is mainly a  polar desert , with annual  precipitation  of over 8 inches along the coast and far less inland. About 70% of the world's  freshwater  reserves are frozen in Antarctica, which if melted would raise global  sea levels  by almost 200 feet. Antarctica holds the record for the  lowest measured temperature on Ear...

Tuesday, November 1, 2022, Diane and I will board a 737 to DFW from KCI.  At DFW we will board a 777 for an overnight flight to Buenos Aires, where we will overnight then fly to Ushuaia, also in Argentina.  There we will board our Viking Polaris for a cruise to Antarctica.  This will be a vastly different travel adventure for us; we are really excited about this. The days below happen to coincide with the first fifteen days of November (ie. Day 1 = Nov 1) Day 1 – Flight to Buenos Aires Day 2 – Overnight in Buenos Aires Day 3 – Flight to Ushuaia/Board Viking Polaris Day 4 – Explore Antarctica via Zodiac Cruise Day 5 – Zodiac Landing: Danco Island Day 6 – Zodiac Landing: Georges Point Day 7 -  Zodiac Landing: Portal Point Day 8 -  Zodiac Landing: Mikkelsen Harbour Day 9 -  Zodiac Landing: Elephant Point Day 10 – Zodiac Cruise Day 11 -  Sail the Drake Passage Day 12 - Scenic Sailing: Cape Horn Day 13 - Ushuaia ,  Argentina Day 14 – Flight to Bue...

Day 14, Baton Rouge, September 30, 2022 Baton Rouge  ( from  French   Bâton-Rouge  'red stick') is the  capital  of the  U.S. state  of  Louisiana .  On the eastern bank of the  Mississippi River , it is the  parish seat  of  East Baton Rouge Parish , Louisiana's most populous  parish .  Since 2020, it has been the  99th-most-populous city  in the United States and the  second-largest city  in Louisiana, after  New Orleans .  It is the  18th-most-populous state capital .  At the  U.S. Census Bureau 's 2020 tabulation,  it had a population of 227,470; its consolidated population was 456,781 in 2020.    It is the center of the  Greater Baton Rouge  area, Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, with a population of 870,569 as of 2020,  up from 802,484 in 2010. The Baton Rouge area owes its historical importance to its strategic s...