Antarctica Special: Paradise Bay

Another Day in Paradise....

or to be precise in Paradise Bay. When I saw Paradise Bay for the first time, it was an overcast day. And although the Argentine station "Almirante Brown" which is located at one of the banks of Paradise Bay, is painted in a cheery orange and the staff there welcomed us warmly, I couldn't quite understand why it's called Paradise.

The station is one of the most often visited places on the Antarctic Peninsula,

and once one can look behind the usual station clutter,

heading towards the "tourist way",

it becomes quite clear why.
Paradise Bay is surrounded by ever so often calving glaciers that transform the landscape, or rather the ice scape, on a daily basis.

If time would allow, I sometimes just stood there and took in the majestic landscape,

listening to the distant, or not so distant rumbling of the glaciers.

Since we were there during the Antarctic summer, there was even some green...what a feast for the eye...;-) The Snowy Sheatbill seemed to enjoy it, too.

Once up the slope, the views just got better and better

Panorama of Paradise Bay, please click on the image to view it in a bigger size.

Not only the guests enjoyed this magical place, the team had fun, too!

Maria, our German-American-Canadian (sounds familiar?) biologist,

Diane, who can talk about history in a way that leaves you spellbound and hungry for more.

Vladimir, Mr. Fix-it and accomplished photographer,

Shane, a logistics magician who knows absolutely everything about boats...

and it looks like the NBC team, that accompanied us for one trip, had fun, too.

I don't know what the penguins thought about all that, but they seemed to be rather unfazed by our presence.

Leaving a place like that is always hard. One time though, we got to spend the evening and night in the protected bay...and it became an even more magical place with the full moon rising and shining over Paradise Bay.