Luis Huckstadt at Cape Shirreff, Antarctica-- I'm finally here at The Cape! It's a stormy Antarctic day, so I thought that I'd take this opportunity to write you a report of my expedition so far!

We arrived at the Cape after 3 days of transit from Punta Arenas, Chile traveling across the chilly Southern Ocean in to wild Antarcica! We spent one day dropping off researchers and supplies at Copacabana Station at King George Island, Antarctica. There we helped unloading gear from the ship, with an amazing reward: a hike to see thousands of penguins: gentoos, chinstraps and adelie! We also ran into a couple of southern elephant seals on a beach where they were already molting, or shedding their fur. I'll be seeing a lot more of these guys soon!

Gentoo Penguins on a mission! Photo: Daniel Costa.

Finally, we made it to Livingston Island. It took us several hours (and people) to unload everything that we brought to the camp. Packed tight on the ship we brought lots of food and equipment for the 5 researchers that have been living at the camp since October. In fact, their last provision of fresh goods was October! Needless to say, they were really happy that we came with a load of veggies, fruit and other yummy things. Instant popularity, let me tell ya!

Cape Shirreff, the camp that I will be staying at during my time in Antarctica. Photo: Daniel Costa.

I'll blog again soon, with updates of our expedition! Coming up: Antarcitc fur seal research, and satellite tagging the giant southern elephant seals!