Hello from Steph - We´re in Mar Del Plata today, which is a busy beach resort. Neither of us are quite sure why we came here, but it gives us a day to catch up with useful things like laundry and blogging, so here is the long promised Antarctica blog. I left home on November 13th, joining the Akedemik Ioffe on the 18th. Its a Russian ship, originally designed for research and experiments, but now leased out for tourists for almost the full year, as it also visits the Arctic. As someone pointed out, its probably only a matter of time before the Russians work out that they could run these trips themselves and want their ship back. The captain, crew and hotel staff are all Russian, but there are also a team of about 12
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