Antarctica via Buenos Aires

I’m going to Antarctica!

First of all, a disclaimer—none of this information has been verified.  It is “Argentina, Chile, The Falklands, and Antarctica through the lenses and prejudice of our guides and what I thought I heard and wrote down.   What I hear and what I remember are two different things at times!! So let's go--

The flight to Buenos Aires had issues of its own.  The plane was late and we’d miss our connection in Miami, so we were rerouted through Dallas and on to Buenos Aires.  Buenos Aires is a city of 13 million, 1/3 the population of Argentina, and we’re staying in the Ricoletta neighborhood—one of the upscale neighborhoods in the NE section of the city.  It’s a very European city with broad boulevards and classic European architecture.   South America was divided by the Europeans in manner of the time—half was given to Portugal which became Brazil and they speak Portuguese and half to Spain that eventually broke into several different country and they speak Spanish.

Worthy of mention in Buenos Aires was Ricoletta Cemetery where the heroes of various revolutions,

the rich, famous, not so famous and the infamous are buried in 4650 mausoleums that vary from small cubbies to ornate small houses.  One of the most famous residents is Eva Duarte Peron,

aka Evita who died of cervical cancer in 1952 at the age of 33.  She had a long journey post mort from her family mausoleum at Ricoletta Cemetery to Italy, Spain, and again buried with the Duarte family, but 6 feet deep in the ground in a concrete vault so no one can steal her again!  Another notable mausoleum is that of Rufina Cambaceres,

a young woman who went into a catatonic state when she found out that her mother was having an affair with her boyfriend and was thought to be dead.  She was buried and people kept hearing noises, dug up the grave, but she HAD died by that time.   Now, under Argentine law, there is a 3 day wait until a body can be buried.  She is immortalized forever in Recoletta Cemetery.

 The other highlight was a tour of the Teatro de Colon, built of the finest material from Europe in a grand European style in 1908.  It is always on the list of 5 best opera houses in the world and 3^rd in acoustics behind La Scala and Vienna and has hosted every great opera star from Caruso to Callas to Pavarotti.  Over several years and 100 million dollars, it was painstakingly restored to its former glory.  Several places on the wall were left as the dark, dingy, smoke stained and peeling plaster to demonstrate the difference. 

Casa Rosada, the Pink House,  Argentina's "White House"

Every Thurs afternoon, the mothers of the "Disappeared Ones" meet on the square in front of the Casa Rosada to protest the lack of information on where their children have gone.  For many, it's been years and years since they disappeared under the dictatorships that have run Aargentina.

There was a complimentary tango lesson that both Chris and I groaned about being a part of and then found it very fun—there is a video that we took of each other that I hope never shows up anywhere!

A Visit to Downton Abbey and Downton Village

I haven’t written anything because I haven’t done anything that interesting that you couldn’t read about in the top 10 of London, with much better pictures and description than I have,  except that I got a cold and resulting sinus infection and spent two days in bed early on.  Didn’t think that was too interesting either. 

But today I went to Bampton Village, aka Downtown village, and Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey. Tickets for tours are very hard to get!  If you tried now, there is September 12 and that’s it!    First we stopped in the ancient market town of Bampton Village that is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.  It was a center of fighting between the Kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia and later Cromwell’s forces tried, unsuccessfully, to kill the many royalists in the area.  It is a postcard- perfect Cotswold Village that doubles as the village surrounding Downton Abbey.   Julian Fellowes was having trouble finding a village that retained credibility to be used for the early 1900, and finally one of the staff said, “why don’t you look at my village”.  It is actually about an hour away, but still quite close to London for filming convenience.  It looks very much like it does on the show with some minor camouflages that we were shown today, like this garbage can has been platform with 2 milk cans for the last 5 years. 

  The church of St. Mary, c. 1153, aka St. Michael’s,  has a prominent role in the show.  The steeple is guarded by four saints who were added in 1270.  During a storm in 1990, St. John fell into the church proper.  He now sits, very weathered and beat up, but whole in a small side chapel.   Mrs. Crawley’s house, the only place in Bampton to be filmed inside is adjacent to the church.

Many of our guide's stories about the filming of Downton Abbey have to do with the automobiles and trying to drive them.  The actress who plays Lady Edith had never driven a car, but she didn't have any bad habits that needed breaking like Branson and others.   Filming in Brampton had a lot of obstacles that needed to be avoided: it was easier at  Highclere because of more space to stop.  Apparently the car used in the scenes is very similar to a car owned by the real "Earl of Grantham" and he did almost kill himself in a driving accident and had to be nursed back to health over many months.  Apparently, the brake is only a hand brake, not a foot brake and to change gears, you need to double clutch, and there were several stories about cars not stopping when they want them to. The hand crank was the only way to start the car that was used as their first car and it is very dangerous, doesn't always start or keep running.  The car used by Lady Edith is less expensive than the car that Branson drove, but it is still valued at 170,000 pounds so they were very concerned to turn it over to someone who didn't know how to drive!!

It was a beautiful drive of an hour through the Cotswold’s to Highclere Castle.  Even though Henry Herbert was granted the title Earl of Carnarvon in 1739, the present house is the creation of Sir Charles Barry (he also designed Parliament) for the 3^rd Earl in 1838.  The really interesting story starts  in 1895 when the 5th^th Earl marries Almina Wombell, the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild.  There are many similarities between the true stories of Highclere and the fictional Downton.  Almina, an American,  came with a dowry of 500,000 pounds (30 million pounds—45 million dollars in today’s money).   She also paid off her bridegroom’s debt of 150,000 pounds and was given an annual income of 12,000 pounds to increase when she had children.  You do the math!  Highclere did become a hospital during WWI with a surgery, physical therapy, and soldiers were brought from the front to convalesce in the house where they were treated as house guests with dinner table set with the finest silver and china.  Almina acted as one of the nurses and apparently ran a tight ship with the 30 trained nurses she brought from London to help.  The cook of the 5^th Earl, Paul Brook Taylor, started to go blind and the Countess took him to hospital in London or surgery to save his eyesight—like Mrs. Padmore.

 Lord Carnarvon is most famous worldwide for financing and actually assisting Howard Carter with the Egyptian archaeological digs that resulted in the finding of King Tut.  Unfortunately, he cut himself shaving shortly after the tomb was opened, got an infection—this was before antibiotics, became septicemia and died just a few weeks after the Tut treasures were found.  He never saw most of them including the gold mask.  The family thought all of the Egyptian artifacts had long been sold when they realized that tucked in many nooks and crannies including a secret door between the library and drawing rooms, were many, many artifacts of previous Egyptian digs looking for treasure.  This is now in an Egyptology museum in the basement.

So, back to the present, the Earl is broke again, the house is placed on the National Trust, but that still doesn’t afford the revenue they need to continue with their lifestyle or to keep up household repairs.  There are 5,000 acres surrounding Highclere that also belongs to the Earl and Countess.  They almost sell the house for 12 million pounds a few years ago, but an acquaintance of the Earl’s knows someone who knows an acquaintance of Julian Fellowes who is looking for a picturesque house is double as Downton Abbey. So, overnight, Highclere becomes Downton.  Apparently they are doing very well being Downton Abbey, but they still have to keep the house open to the public for  60 days a year because of their National Trust status.  According to one of the room guides, the current Earl and Countess aren’t that hot to have the public traipsing through their house now that they don’t need the money!  So, that's why it's so hard to get a tour.

PS  Matthew left the show for another opportunity at his request, Sybil left because she couldn't get along with people, and Maggie Smith is a very funny lady who ad libs many of Violet's lines.

Goodbye Churchill

My favorite bear picture. They look so cuddly.  Hard to believe that she's viewing me as food.                        .

Goodbye Churchill. 

 This picture cannot convey how cold it was and the wind was blowing at 25 mph. Brrrr!

You need to dress warm!

Inutshuk are rock statues that come in all sizes and are still built.  They serve several purposes -they show that people were there and act as way markers.  They are also used as "additional people" and caribou are driven into a group of Inutshuk and rounded up against them with the Inutshuk acting like more hunters.  The Inutshuks also remind the natives that familiar spirits were there and offer them a spiritual comfort. 



St. Paul's Anglican church, circa 1890, in the town of Churchill at sunset which was about 4 PM.  Contains a beautiful stained  glass window that was a gift from the widow of Sir John Franklin, the famous arctic explorer as a thank you for the help of the people of Churchill in finding her husband--he was never found.  

Added March 2016--Sir John Franklin's ship was found by the  Canadian Government Sept 2014 after being missing for 160 years.   

Dog Sledding

We spent a morning at Gerald and Jennifer Azure's going for dog sled rides. The dogs are chained to their houses that you can see on the right in this picture.  When we got there the dogs were already tied up on a line to get ready for our rides.  They are jumping, barking and look so ill behaved until they are in harnass and then it's complete order. The dogs were placed one on either side of a line, 2 abreast and 4 rows back for a total of 8 dogs.  If an excited young dog doesn't stand still and behave himself, another older dog will snap at him. Younger dogs are harnassed close to older, experienced dogs to help "teach them the ropes"--wonder if that's where the saying came from?  If a dog accidentally got on the wrong side of the rope between the two dogs running abreast they have to learn how to get back over on their own side with the sled still moving. 
That's lesson #1 for the dogs.  The lead dog is in the first position and the musher calls their names and orders all throughout the ride.

 These are the new puppies that we saw 2 days ago.  One has his eyes open, the others are still closed.  Many of the people in the area don't vaccinate their dogs and parvo is a very worrisome disease.  We were not allowed to touch the dog in case we'd come in contact with any dogs in town that might be carrying the disease. 

 First they showed us how to sit in the sled.

 And off we go.  I was lucky in that I not only got to ride, but got to "mush".  I stood on the back and tried to control the dogs--no easy task!  They like to run and there is a brake bar behind the back of the sled between the runner that with all my weight on it, they could still pull me.  As you turn a corner, it's important to shift your weight to help the sled slide around the corner.  The afternoon group didn't get to mush because they said the morning group didn't do a very good job.  Well, it sure was fun and probably , I didn't do so good!!!

There are 2 breeds of dogs used for dog sledding. The Greenland Husky and the Eskimo  Sled Dog.  Some of their dogs are rescue dogs that are the husky or sled dog have been interbred with a completely inappropriate type of dog for the far north.  They have a greyhound mix and a border collie mix.  Both of these dogs can run faster and not overheat, but they don't have enough hair to keep them warm and they need to sleep inside when it's cold!

 Gerald, his brother Earnest in the orange pants, and two of our group

Sara mushing.

It was the perfect winter day with snow, cold temp and we were wrapped in caribou hides to keep warm.  FUN!

Some of these dogs will take part the Hudson Bay Quest a 210 km race from Churchill to Gillam, Manitoba.  (I notice that a woman from Kingston, WA, USA raced last year.)  The previous route from Churchill to Arviat was 240km along frozen Hudson Bay and proved to be too dangerous. There were several near fatal accidents.  The change of venue has eliminated some of the Inuit musher who usually won.  Instead of having their dogs in a line 2 wide and 4 deep, the Inuit dogs are fanned out  7-8 wide pulling the sled.  Hudson Bay is open water and there plenty of room for that but the newer route is in the trees and that configuration doesn't work.  So as a protest, some of the Inuit are boycotting the race.   

Some interesting information

If you want to read, watch or visit websites to learn more about polar bears and the arctic--

Good movie about the Inuit  "Snow Walker"

Watch the polar bears from a tundra buggy in real time at polarbearcam.com

polarbearsinternation.org

greatbear.org

ursusinternational.org

footprint.wwf.org.uk   (world wildlife foundation) you can calculate your carbon footprint

Interesting books about the arctic:
Polar Wives by Kari Herbert
Ada Blackjack by Jennifer Niven
On Thin Ice by Richard Ellis
Lady Franklin's Revenge by Ken McGoogan
Hudson's Bay Boy buy John Seagrave
Churchill on Hudson Bay by Mac Iver (don't remember first name)
People of the Deer, Never Cry Wolf, and Walk Well my Brother--all by Farley Mowat

 Don't know if we have access to this or not, but there is an Aboriginal People Television Network in Canada that has a show called "Fish out of Water".  It follows different native people in their everyday lives for a few episodes and Gerald Azure, the trapper turned dog sled person was featured in one of those series.

Polar Bear Whisker Study

We had lectures every night about polar bears, permafrost, climate variability, other bears,   but one of the most interesting was Dr. Jane Waterman of the University of Manitoba.  She is compiling the "whisker prints" of the Churchill polar bears into an identification library to be used and maintained by different scientist to study the individual polar bears.  The whiskers of the polar bears act like finger prints for humans and can help identify individual bears.  She think that there is only about 90 bears in the Churchill area that account for the sighting by tourists. This is the most studied group of polar bears in the world since it is also the easiest to get to.  Dr. Waterman asked us to bring side view--left and right--of bears to a workshop the next day.  Also front views and whole body views of the same bears.  Most of the males have facial scars that are distinctive like this bear.  Females only breed every 3 years so there is stiff competition for the males and there are lots of fights during mating season.

 Some have ear tags, males are almost twice as big as females and any other unique characteristics were noted.  We named the bears we saw on Day 1 in the tundra buggy with alphabetical names of candies, so the first days bears had names  Aero, Bounty, Caramac, Dimebar, Eclipse, Fudge, Gummie, Humbug, Icebreaker, Jujube, Kitkat, and Lemon Drop.  Day 2 we came up with a list of insect names but since we only saw one bear close enough to study, she was named Ant.  Below is one of the polar bears that was entered into the data base.  Anchor points are marked at his eye, bottom of the nose and end of his mouth.  The computer will triangulate that whisker area and feed the information into an image pattern recognition software developed by one of Jane's grad students to identify the bear. 

 

 

There is a website that is open to anyone who is interested or wants to contribute a polar bear photo--even bears in zoos are welcome!  It's polarbearlibrary.org

I "Eskimo" a derogatory term?

The Eskimo  Museum in Churchill documents the history of the paleo-eskimos who came to Canada and Alaska in the second world warming wave about 4000 years ago.  The museum contains many small archaeological finds--these people were nomads--so what they carried with them was small and served a purpose except for a few items that probably belonged to shamans.

1400-1600 was the little ice age when the world got colder and the native peoples started moving again and gravitated to new European  whaling stations.  In the early 1900s missionaries came to the north and in addition to giving the natives a written language, Inuktitut, they started to commission art that was used as trade and showed the outside world a snapshot of Eskimo daily life.  The director of the museum and staff do not consider the word eskimo as anything other than the broad category of natives that live in the arctic including the Cree, Inuit and in Alaska , the Aleuts.  Others don't agree. Other people including a University of Manitoba professor disagrees  and told me that the word, "Eskimo" means eaters of raw flesh and is demeaning.  Inuit means "the people", so good luck figuring what is politically correct. I think historically the Eskimos were subjected to racism like all indigenous people and it might be very empowering for them to chose the name that they want to be called.

Interestingly, the Inuit and Aleuts do eat some fish and meat raw, and the Cree do not.