Artful Argentina and Awesome Antarctica

By Devaprakash R. Shampur with Shalini and Sandeep

The author is a retired principal and professor of mechanical engineering having had higher education both in India as well as in the U.S.A. He is a life-fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
He has been listed in ‘Who is Who in the World’ published by Marquis, USA; ‘Dictionary of International Biography, UK; and Asia’s ‘Who is Who’.
He is also a freelancer. His letters and opinions have been published in many English print-media, besides Kannada dailies. He is the chairman and managing trustee of ‘Deshana Charitable Trust’ with an object of helping the poor, especially in education.
As a part of his travelling hobby, he has toured all the seven continents of the world with his wife, Shalini. He has also covered the length and breadth of India, besides touring extensively the state of Karnataka. His ¬first book on travel, ‘Wisdom, Human Spirit and Travel’, has already been published that covers the ¬ first
fi ve continents visited in addition to travels in India.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Apr 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9789383808786

Book preview

Remarks

1

Introduction

After my wife, Shalini, and I visited the five continents of the world, namely, Europe (France, Switzerland, Italy, Vatican, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Russia), North America (U.S.A.), Asia (Israel and Dubai), Africa (Egypt) and Australia, my mind was set on thinking of visiting the remaining two continents, namely, South America and Antarctica. However, the well established tour operators in Bangalore that I was aware of had no tour package for Antarctica. I only thought that visiting Antarctica was only possible if one joined a sponsored scientific expedition which was farfetched for me. So I got myself convinced that at least I have satisfied the Olympic flag with its five rings representing the five continents that participate in the games once in four years, considering North and South Americas as one continent and ignoring Antarctica that has no permanent inhabitants that can represent the continent! Consequently, I gave up hopes of making into all the seven continents of the world.

Meanwhile, I was prompted to write a book on my travels as a part of my hobby that covered the length and breadth of India and all the thirty districts of our state, Karnataka, besides other places. The result was the publication of my first book, Wisdom, Human Spirit and Travel that is available with amazon.com, flipkart.com, notionpress.com and bookadda.com for an online purchase.

Nevertheless, my curiosity did not diminish in finding ways and means to visit the remaining two continents, namely, South America and Antarctica. At last, I found one Kerala tour operator with an offer of tour package for Antarctica after intensified google searches. Of course, the tour cost involved considerable amount, and I was 69 years old already. I was not sure whether I could make the trip with my advanced age. However, further enquiry revealed that it is not a problem because the group average age indicated to be around 65 years for the trips arranged. Unfortunately, the Kerala tour operator did not have a Bangalore office. I was not prepared to deal through the internet for all money transactions and arrangements with agency that was far away from my place of residence, Tumkur, Karnataka state. Further enquiry with them revealed that the Kerala agency had an office in Bangalore before it was wound up. Fortunately, they did give me another tour operator in Bangalore that deals with Antarctica tour package, and I was asked to contact Comfort Leisure Pvt. Co. in Bangalore for this purpose. Subsequently, I visited the office in the month of January 2013 to get more details in person. I decided to go with them for trip in the month of November 2013.

When I indicated to my first son, Sandeep, that we are going on this tour, that included the visit to the southernmost city in the world, he got interested since he likes extremities. Because December will have Christmas holidays, and it was easy to club with leave from his company, we changed our trip schedule to the month of December. This trip would be through Argentina, and it would cover the remaining two continents in all to complete the cycle of our tour of all the seven continents of the world. Advance payment was made, and we slowly prepared ourselves for once-in-a-life-time journey to the coldest and frozen continent of the world.

2

Preparations

Even though we had visited cities in Himalayan range, namely, Dargeeling, Shimla and Kashmir during winter to watch snowfall, we knew that we needed special winter clothing for our trip to Antarctica. So Sandeep contacted the store in the city of Ushuaia, from which we depart, for winter gear of parka (double layered jacket with head covering) and water-proof trousers.

Furthermore, voyage in a ship was something new to us. The earlier experience was a short one-night crossing of the English Channel in luxury cruise during our Europe trip in 2007. The other one was a short trip in a small ship to ‘Great Barrier Reef’ in Australian tour. In this short trip we experienced tossing up sideways but never experienced sea sickness (also during English Channel crossing) though, surprisingly, Japanese tourists with us had to be lifted to their hotels by a helicopter because of sea sickness. So to begin with I overestimated our ability to overcome sea or motion sickness.

Three months prior to departure of the ship to Antarctic Peninsula, the full amount was paid up. Soon we followed up with applications for Argentine visas. Shalini and I got the visas by post being senior citizens. But Sandeep, who is a software professional, did not get it directly because the company he was working with did not give the endorsement as per the requirement of the consulate, and he was asked to appear in person at New Delhi. So he flew to New Delhi with additional cost to get the visa for our trip.

Yellow Fever Vaccination

Our tour operators, Comfort Leisure, at Bangalore told us the place where we can get authorized certificate for vaccination. Sandeep, as expected, gathered additional information through internet regarding the procedure involved with it. Being a public health institute under the administration of the government, there were adverse comments about the formalities. Therefore, he made sure that there would be no problem in getting it since it is administrated only once in a week for about two hours in the morning. He also found out the medical shops that supply the vaccination in case it was reported short by the institute.

Once our flights to Argentina were booked, I planned to visit Bangalore from Tumkur in person to get an appointment for vaccination since it has to be done a day or two in advance either by person or by phone. I did not trust in telephonic communication; therefore, I personally went there just before the working hours of the institute. When the concerned officer reported for duty, I approached him for an appointment on the day fixed, that is, Wednesday. To my surprise, instead of giving the appointment on first-come-first served basis, he asked me to come after two weeks for an appointment! Even though his appointment page was blank at that moment, he indicated to me that he would be expecting number of calls for appointment subsequently. Therefore, I had to return to Tumkur with my task unfinished.

I went again after two weeks well in advance of the opening of the institute. I found another person seeking vaccination waiting. He told me that his company is deputing him to go in about five days, and he is expecting the passport and air tickets soon. I was wondering how he can seek vaccination so late because it becomes effective only after ten days of administration.

We had been booked on Qatar airlines for our journey to Argentina and back. It had a stoppage at Sao Paulo, Brazil, before landing in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Because of this transit arrangement, it was necessary to have the vaccination. If the flight had been direct to Argentina, there was no requirement of yellow fever