My film "There’s Something About Penguins” is the saga of how I survived a cruise to Antarctica, featuring four delightful species of penguins, plus whales, seals, icebergs, glaciers, human outposts, unbelievable scenery, and much more. Antarctica is a visual delight. The video can be seen on the web, if you have a high speed internet connection. This is a free, non-commercial, streaming video on the Windows Media Player. No ads and no strings attached. I still sell absolutely nothing. My video site is: http://intrepidberkeleyexplorer.com/Video.html With any modem you can view a gallery of Antarctica photos featuring penguins at: http://intrepidberkeleyexplorer.com/Page5.html There are over 30 of my other amateur travel videos on-line. Visit Italy, England, Peru, Bali, China, Hawaii, Russia, Mayan Pyramids, Greece, Turkey, or take an African safari; see whales, elephants, or polar bears. The planet is yours, including my Home Page giant galaxy of still pictures at: http://intrepidberkeleyexplorer.com/ The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer :hurray:
Wow!!! I've seen some of the photos. Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. There is one small mistake in your website. The city in Argentine Tierra del Fuego is called Ushuaia. Have you been back to Antarctica since?
Glad you liked the site. I'm going to get spelling wrong with place names such as Ushuaia. Thanks for letting me know. It will be corrected, but I can't say when. In the videos I mispronounce such words, but never on purpose, and the spelling is suspect as well. Antarctica is a great place to visit once. Dave
The minimal mistake is unimportant, really. Spelling foreign names is always so complicated! I'd like very much to go to Antarctica. I was considering the short cruises from Punta Arenas, or Ushuaia, but since my vacation in Austral summer is very short, only two weeks, I'll have to settle for a flight in and out, because I'll already lose time just to go all the way to the south. I'm in Europe.
It's one of my dreams to go to Antarctica someday, thanks for sharing this! What kind of whales did you see?
Hi there! I know you weren't asking to me, but to the Intrepid Adventurer. But I'd like to chime in and share an information with you. In Tonga, you can snorkel with humpback whales. And in Puerto Madrín, Argentina, you can see the whales from close. I've never been to Puerto Madrin, but I've been to Tonga. Unforgettable experience.
Just a woman, I am an extreme "dry", so determined to avoid being in water as to create a running joke in several Intrepid Berkeley Explorer videos. No problem filming "wets". A "wet" couple, far older than me, provided a great interview, scenes of them in the water and our boat, plus perfect background music, all highlights from my "Whale's Tale" video. Keeping in mind that I think like a video camera, it's a necessity to avoid the camera being damaged by water. A puny Iceland geyser drenched me and my camcorder last year. (This never happened with Old Faithful and other Yellowstone geysers in the USA.) I was very afraid for the camcorder's health and possible loss of everything earlier recorded. But the cure-all remedial tape I always carry was once again capable of producing a miraculous recovery. Didn't know how lucky I was until back home. Now I am calmly editing what will become "Land of Lava, Waterfalls and Glaciers", an Iceland epic. As a dedicated whale watcher living in Berkeley, I took day trips and saw Gray Whales plus Humpbacks off the California coast. But that was nothing compared to the experience of Gray Whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California, Mexico. Friendly whales approached our small, wooden boats, leaning in to be petted and kissed. Friendlies, a minority among the whales, couldn't get enough of human contact. This was extreme whale watching, which I tried to capture in "The Whale's Tale" video. It's all unbelievable but true. A Mexican President, taken to see the whales, cancelled plans for a salt factory that would have threatened these Gray Whales. Victory for the whales! But there was a problem with friendly whales leaning so far into a boat. With my camcorder running, a whale spouted, drenching everything. My camcorder seemed to recover from being soaked, but there was damage requiring repair. But that most friendly whale remains the subject of an extremely popular YouTube clip. Dave The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer
Acuarela, Humpback Whales were numerous, and the only whales we saw. I remain quite certain that one Humpback hit our boat, producing a unique sound. It's all in the video. Both boat and whale left this encounter undamaged, far as I could tell. Dave The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer
