Antaractic -- Hope Bay -- January

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Hope Bay – January 23, 2013

On our way to Hope Bay we passed through an area known as Iceberg Alley. The 48 km long passage can be difficult to penetrate and is known for its large and small ice flows. Our first stop was the Argentine base in Hope Bay. The base was originally opened by Argentine in 1951 with the idea of laying claim to the Antarctica Peninsula. To improve their claim they brought a pregnantt woman who had a baby at the base. In the 1970’s they began to bring women and children to the base. At the time of our visit there were 18 students attending school on the base.

The bay is named Hope Bay in memory of 3 men from a Swedish South Pole Exhibition in 1901 who spent a grueling winter marooned here surviving in a small stone structure that we saw on the beach and by eating seal meat, penguin stew and a single bottle of whiskey. The bay is home to over 100,000 of mating pairs of penguins.

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Photos

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Approaching the Argentina Base

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The Rotary Club is everywhere