The Finale at the Falklands

Albatross taking flight

Blackbrowed Albatross

Who said penguins can't fly?

Heron

The beach and its inhabitants

South Georgia Island Panoramic

Grave of Explorer Ernest Shackleton
1874-1922

Penguin Scratching

Penguin & Reindeer

Penguin Pattern

Assisting!!

On board our ship there are two guests of interest...a National Geographic photographer and a National Geographic writer. They are doing a story on South Georgia and starting today, I will be assisting Paul Nicklen on his photo shoot for the story that will run in National Geographic magazine! Paul Nicklen is best known for his polar photography, particularly his underwater work with seals and polar bears...he has been working for National Geographic for ten years so this is quite a cool opportunity.

Matt's Mom posting: This panorama is "the spot". I'll let the other pictures tell the rest of the story. I just want to tell you both how excited and happy I am for you. XXOO CavaMOM

Penguin Shooting
Penguin on a Rock
Jumping Penguins

Orcas
Neko Harbour
Breeching Humpbacks
Antarctica Panorama

We made it to the Antarctic Peninsula and to some of the outlying islands in the region. Here are some photos from the Shetland Islands and from Lindblad Cove, which is on the peninsula. The penguins are Gentoo and Chinstraps. The seal is a Leopard Seal, which was really cool to see.

Photos at last!

Ushuaia Panoramic
Dolphin
National Geographic Explorer-our home for the next month
Albatross

My best solution...

So for some reason I can't upload to this site but I can (most of the time) successfully attach images in an email so I guess I'm just going to email to my Mom (surprise!!) and have her post them...so Mom, check your work email :)

This might be tougher than I thought...

So the connection gets really fickel when I start trying to post photos so this may be a 'when I can I will' style of posting...Either way, after our week in Santiago, we made it onto our charter flight down to Ushuaia, Argentina where we boarded the ship and set sail last evening. The time down here is two hours ahead of East Coast U.S. time just for reference. I am writing right now from the lounge of the ship as we cross the Drake Pass which is between Argentina and Antarctica. We expect to be able to see Antarctica as early as tomorrow and will probably make a landing on some of the outlying islands. I will work on getting some images posted as soon as I can.

Getting Started

One of the hardest things to do when you travel is keep track of time...I say that because I just spent the last couple of minutes trying to remember what day it was and how long ago we left. I will start this out with a quick recap of our trip to Minneapolis from Bozeman which took place one week ago: it sucked. The weather was horrible and it took a looooong time. We were however rewarded with an NHL hockey game (which if you know Katie and I you know why that's a reward: it was Katie's first NHL game) which was fantastic even though my team lost horribly to the lowly Ducks. After a weekend of birthday parties for my favorite five year old nephew Keegan, we flew out to Santiago, Chile and spent three days there just roaming around the city and hanging out. Here are a couple of photos from the trip...