How many countries have you visited? What’s your personal record? Those are very important questions for every backpacker. Keeping this in mind we usually try to find out more about our guests’ experiences and countries they have visited.
Recently we had a couple staying with us from Cayman Islands. Michael and Lister have been travelling together for the last few decades experiencing all the interesting parts of independent travel. Michael himself started travelling since 1962 when he was a medical student. Being a doctor helped him a lot as he traveled all over the world because of his work. Armenia was his 170th country and this number simply amazed us. This was the first time we had a guest who had been to so many countries. Before coming to Armenia they were in Antarctica. This is what they had to say about their memorable trip.
“The Antarctic Peninsular is amazing. The landscape is desolation in monochrome. The blue of the ice is incredible, the odd red beak of a penguin and the reds and oranges of the lichens growing on the rocks are the only colors. Even the seals dissolve into the landscape, looking like large stones on the beach. The birds add to the camouflage and are almost invisible.
Unfortunately there was more sea ice than is usual for the time of year and we could only make one landing on the Antarctic Peninsular but the excitement was also in the journey and we had, as you will see, wonderful weather for iceberg blues. Photography was sometimes a struggle. I now have a monopod and a small Nikon P90 which is compact and weather resistant but I was sometimes defeated by cold hands, snow and a cloudy wet lens. I kept a scarf around my neck to dry the lens and a plastic bag over the camera. The best bet would have been to buy a camera that fitted into an underwater camera cover!
The ship we took had no stabilizers so we rocked and rolled over Christmas and celebrations were postponed for a couple of days. Amazingly, neither of us was seasick but we were a small minority in a Force 9/10 storm! On Christmas evening we were confined to cabins and almost thrown our supper in plastic bowls and it was almost impossible to stand upright, but this is normal in the South Atlantic and the storm only lasted for half a day and a night. The food was excellent and the fresh fruit and vegetables lasted all 22 days of the cruise. We enjoyed wonderful walks in warm sunshine on the tundra of the Falklands and South Georgia. The temperature at sea was warmer than New York or the United Kingdom, around freezing during the day but the wind was strong and bitingly cold so we needed to cover our faces as we neared the Antarctic Circle.
If you are backpacking in Patagonia, it is much cheaper to go to the port of Ushaia on the southernmost tip of Argentina, having first checked the times the cruises leave online and you might be lucky and get a good deal.
This was a once in a lifetime experience, very enjoyable and exciting and professionally planned and executed and one we will never forget it.”
We are grateful of Mike, sharing his experience and memories with us. And on that note I’d like to ask our friends: Whats the most amazing and memorable trip for you?