The pizza at La Natta, in Punta Arenas: Stick with the pisco sours.

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams.

By Gene Pembroke

We desperately need to wash our clothes, but based on the price sheet here at Tierra de Leyendas, I have actually calculated that for both of us to have everything laundered the cost would be an astonishing (and I dare say outrageous) 350 pesos, or about $115. A pair of socks, for example, costs $2 to wash and we have 12 pairs between us.

Anyway, this place is fantastic, the proprietors wonderful, and I highly recommend it. Just come here with plenty of clean clothes.

Two canoes at the ready in Tierra del Fuego National Park.

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams.

By Gene Pembroke

I go to bed at 5 a.m., and at 8 a.m. we have to get up and get off the Ioffe. Rock 'n' roll, man.

We say bleary-eyed farewells to staff and crew and fellow passengers. The Ioffe is a great ship, and I would recommend it highly.

Instead of taking a taxi or bus to our hotel, we opt for the free shuttle provided by the ship. This proves to be a bad decision. Everyone else is dropped off first, since apparently our hotel is out of town. It actually takes an unbelievable two hours to get to Hosteria Tierra de Leyendas, where we are booked. The place is about two miles from the port. That's about 1 mph. Picture a turtle wearing a leather helmet and goggles and driving a Crock-Pot and you will get a good idea of our net speed.

A child crouches by the charred remants of his house in Cambodia, January 24, 2008.
All photos: Journeys Within Our Community

by Brook Wilkinson

As I've mentioned on the blog, I took a trip to Cambodia last December. I was there to volunteer with Journeys Within Our Community, the nonprofit branch of the tour operator Journeys Within, whom Wendy and I recommend for planning travel to Southeast Asia. You'll get to read about my experiences in the May issue of Conde Nast Traveler, but right now JWOC needs your help.

Last Wednesday, there was a fire in a nearby village. It quickly destroyed 36 homes, leaving hundreds of people with only the clothes on their backs. JWOC was on the scene the next day, talking to the villagers about the tragedy. What can you do to help? Read on to find out.

Don gives us a tour of the Ioffe

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

The bills are slipped under the door for all of our onboard expenses up until this point, and that's not exactly fun. The Drake does not seem as bad as before, as all of our things on the desk and shelves did not need to be moved. We take a tour of the ship with Don and get to see the engine room and a lot of the cool equipment and machinery that makes the Ioffe go. We learn that a ship like this has a life span of about 40 years, and that the Ioffe is already 19. When it was built in Finland in 1989, it was originally designed for hydro-acoustic research, and was set up for the most elite of Soviet scientists, and that's why the ship's quarters are so spacious. Other ships of this size (about 380 feet long) that tour the Antarctic hold about 300 passengers. The Ioffe only holds about 112.

It's snowing in the Drake Passage

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

A weird day because we are headed back and everybody knows the cool stuff in our Antarctic voyage has passed.

Hayley's voice announces breakfast and we are yanked from our dreams. Down in the dining room a good portion of the passengers are absent. The Drake strikes again.

We are both feeling OK so we check out some presentations from the staff. Coach gives a great one about explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, who did all sorts of amazing things and had some fantastic journeys, but is little known. Anyway, check him out when you get the chance. I plan to read more about him when I can.

Sean also gave a slide show of his summer on Cuverville Island back in the 1990s, and had some interesting stories of checking stress levels of penguins using fake eggs.

Vernadsky Station: Home to both the hole in the ozone and a nicely stocked bar

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

We Zodiac back to the Ioffe at 6:30 a.m., freezing after shedding our synthetic skins. I feel bad for the people who didn't camp. They really missed out I have to say, and the temperature was fine while we slept. I've had colder nights in Philly.

We cruise to Vernadsky station, a former British meteorological base turned Ukrainian science center in the 1990s. This is where the famed hole in the ozone layer was first observed back in the 80s, and it is also home to maybe the more famous Southernmost Bar in the World.

We get a quick tour led by Gleb, one of the scientists, and we see the labs, kitchen, sauna, workshop, and gym. The walls of the latter are lined with torn out pages of "gentlemens" magazines featuring women from all over the world with nothing on. After this, we are led to the shop where we can get our passports punched with a little penguin stamp and buy postcards. Then, it's to the bar.

The staredown

JAN 8: DAY 11

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Up early again to witness the Lemaire Channel from top deck. This was hyped and it was indeed beautiful, but in my opinion it pales to other spots we have visited. (I think)

A two hour Zodie cruise around Pleneau Island finds us in an area with the supercool name of the Iceberg Graveyard. Great shapes in the ice here, and we saw Weddell and Elephant seals. But the star of the show was a spunky little Leopard Seal that popped up around our boat for about 25 minutes or so. This guy was huge, and was extremely curious. Watching him glide through the clear cold water was a wonderful treat in itself, but when he poked his head out to give us a look it was icing on the cake. We also saw shags, terns, skuas, petrels, and kelp gulls, and a very brief glimpse of Minke whales was had by some, but not by Arlene or me unfortunately.

I am the Sultan of BBQ

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Up very early for a Zodie cruise around the Errera Channel.  In addition to sightings of a few different kinds of seals we are rewarded with a very close encounter with a couple of humpbacks, as they surface and spyhop within a few feet of our Zodiac.

A spy hop is the term used to describe the act of a whale rising out of the water just to check out the surroundings or, in the case, an excuse to check out the weird creatures emitting "ooohs" and "ahhhs" amidst a morse code of clicks, beeps, and whirs from their cameras. I felt the misty spray from their blowholes on my face. That may sound a bit weird, but it was great.

We watched these beautiful giants for thirty minutes.

"Some look like animals or fantastical creatures..."

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Jan 6: Day 9

The twelfth day of Christmas.

We sail into the Graham Passage, and like high school students in small town America we do doughnuts.

Captain Poskonny uses the bow and stern thrusters to do 360s, and we have a revolving view of towering mountains encrusted in ice hundreds of feet thick.

An Inuit word is used for a mountain that is completely surrounded by glacial ice, and that word is Nunatak. When it comes to ice and snow, I think everyone looks to the Inuit for just the right word, and they usually do not disappoint. We also get our first view of the mainland as we sail along the Antarctic Peninsula.

Sigg sells safe-to-use
metal water bottles
in a variety of designs.
Photo: Sigg

by Brook Wilkinson

With disposable water bottles clogging landfills and plastic refillable bottles standing accused of leaching toxic chemicals, what's a green traveler to do? I've long ignored the reports questioning the safety of the disposable plastic bottle that I refill and refrigerate every day, and the Nalgene bottle that I occasionally take on hikes.

But while attending the Yoga Journal Conference here in San Francisco last weekend, I found myself entranced by the display of Sigg bottles. The jury's still out on just how much bisphenol A is leached from a hard plastic bottle, or how much bacteria you might ingest when reusing a disposable bottle, but after seeing the beautiful designs that the folks at Sigg have come up with, I'm convinced it's time for a change.

If you're like me and you travel with water -- at least once you step off the plane -- consider buying a reusable, non-leaching bottle from either Sigg or Klean Kanteen. The Sigg bottles are made out of aluminum with an inner coating that doesn't react with acidic fruit juices. Klean Kanteen's bottles are made from stainless steel, which is itself inert. Klean Kanteens, however, only come in straight metal, without any of Sigg's jazzy designs.

Deception Island, Antarctica.  Come for the ruins, stay for the weather


Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Jan 5: Day 8

Up early and we're on Zodiacs for a landing on Halfmoon Island, an old Argentine weather station. Fabulous landscapes, a cool old ruined whaling boat, and some penguin rookeries. Most of the penguins here are Chinstraps, but there was a single Macaroni penguin hanging out here for some reason.

We see a Crabeater seal hanging out on the ice, and later see a few Weddell seals too. The 'bergs floating in the bay have an intense blue color within them that appears artificial. This is ice that came from deep within a glacier, and the wonderful blue is a result of less air bubbles due to compression of air.

Absolutely beautiful.

A colony of Gentoo penguins on Livingston Island.

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Jan 4: Day 7

It's snowing outside, and some of it is coming through our open window. I left it open all night for fresh air after strangeness incurred by the Drake Passage. I'm still a bit woozy and weird but not too bad. Arlene still isn't feeling well, but the going gets a little smoother as we progress.

We spot our first iceberg around 2:30 p.m. After this, we see hundreds, and they are fantastic. I like ice, and I reflect on the fact that it was a photo of ice that got me down here. Our first whale, a humpback, is spotted at 3:15. This is of course cool. We can see the land for the first time, and it is some of the South Shetland Islands. As we begin to pass through the Nelson Strait, the sea calms down considerably and everyone who had been feeling sick or out of it gradually normalizes, although some of the lot we have on board will never be what I would consider normal.

The Ioffe.

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Jan 3: Day 6

A nice night of sleep. Very comfortable, and we needed the rest.

The day is filled with presentations from the staff. Hayley, the expedition leader, gives a general discussion of what we can and cannot do in the region, and helps us understand the importance of having minimal environmental impact. Peregrine Adventures is the actual tour company we are using, and they use the Ioffe for their trips. Peregrine is a member of IAATO--the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators--and follows its guidelines. This is good.

Don gives a talk about Zodiac safety. Zodiacs are the very cool and sturdy inflatable motorized boats we will be using to make shore landings. They were invented by Jacques Cousteau back in the 1960s and are the hip way to get around down here on short runs and shore landings.

View from the top deck of the Ioffe.
Photo: Gene Pembroke

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget to enter our 2008 Dream Trip Contest. The prize? A $25,000 trip (designed by Wendy) to the destination(s) of your dreams."

By Gene Pembroke

Jan 2: Day 5

Man, I was so rested after those three hours of sleep.

Our driver arrives and we are off to the domestic airport for a 5:30 a.m. plane to Ushuaia, the big town in Tierra del Fuego and one of the gateways to Antarctica.

We are surprised to learn we will fly first-class, which is only the second time for both of us. I don't know if this is just because of availability, but it was cool. We had a nice breakfast and were able to spread out a bit and catch up on some Zs during the three-and-a-half-hour trip.

We land in Ushuaia, and the weather is great. I came here ten years ago just to check it out, after a failed attempt at reaching Antarctica with the Chilean navy from the town of Punta Arenas, which is across the Strait of Magellan on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego. I do not remember much of my visit, except that Internet usage here at that time was the most expensive I had ever seen ($12 per hour), I had a really good fried egg sandwich somewhere, and that it was snowing sideways.

Steve Parsons / The Associated Press

By Barbara S. Peterson

Just what caused a British Airways 777 jet to crash short of the runway at London's Heathrow Airport Thursday is now under investigation and may not be known for some time.  There were only 13 injuries listed  among the 152 passengers and crew, but that's not to discount the terror that was surely experienced by the passengers as the plane suddenly lost power and belly flopped on the grass outside the busy international hub. 

As images of the stricken plane beamed out over the airwaves, the sight of the evacuation chutes streaming from the exit doors revived memories of another crash landing of a widebody jet under similar circumstances.  In August of 2005, Air France Flight 358 ran off the runway at Toronto's international airport, and while the plane burst into flames right after impact, all aboard got off alive--even with some of the exit chutes not working.

Most fliers are unaware of how often planes are evacuated and how important it is to heed those tedious  safety announcements before takeoff.  To help readers get a better idea of what to do, we covered  similar scenarios in our award-winning November 2005 story, The Great Escape.  Give it a read and be sure not to miss the section where survivors of actual evacuations offer their tips.

The historic Retiro district in Buenos Aires
Photo: Lisa Limer, Conde Nast Traveler

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica.  And don't forget, our 2008 Dream Trip Contest is now open.  The prize?  A $25,000 trip to the destination(s) of your dreams.

By Gene Pembroke

Jan 1: Day 4

When you go to bed around 4:30 in the morning, and you have been out imbibing with millions of Brazilians, nothing beats getting up at 8 a.m. to catch a flight.

Happy New Year. Uggghhh.

We still have not packed, but do so in time that might qualify us for Beijing this year if high-speed bag-stuffing finally gets the Olympic recognition it deserves. We are leaving early because when we arrived here two days ago, it took over two hours to cover the distance to the airport, so we didn?t want to take any chances today. We flag down a taxi near the beach. Unfortunately the streets are empty and our cabbie drives like Jehu, so we are at Aeroporto Galeao about two hours before we need to be. After a couple of terrible sandwiches at an aviation-themed diner in this screaming-for-renovation airport, we leave Rio. On the airplane later my tired mind drifted off and I kept trying to think of what exactly Michael Caine had blamed this town for back in the 80s.

By Gene Pembroke

Dec. 31: Day 3
I guess we were really bushed because we do not wake until 10:30 a.m., and are not out the door until noon.

We decide to head over to see the Big Jesus, which is of course known locally as Cristo Redentor. This involves a short walk and an hour on bus 584 to the Cosme Velho station, where we find out that today was a popular choice for people to come and check out Big J. The next available cog train is in two hours, so we cross the street and have some lunch at a small cafe that was more than happy to have a sudden rush of people with time to kill.

Views from the top of the peak of Corcovado, where Cristo Redentor looms, are wonderful, and as this is a very recognizable landmark and probably known by everyone, I will not comment further, except to say that the urge to slap one of the largest high-fives of all time was on my mind the entire duration of our visit.

Stand back, Buenos Aires:  Here comes Gene.  Should he check out the tango dancers in front of the Galerias Pacifico?  You tell us!
Photo: Michael Lewis, Corbis

by Wendy Perrin

Been to South America lately?   Then perhaps you've got restaurant, sightseeing, nightlife, or other tips for our Dream Trip winner and guest blogger Gene Pembroke.  Over the next month Gene will be hitting:

*Buenos Aires and Posadas in Argentina
*Iguazu Falls on the Argentine-Brazilian border
*Rio (for a second time)
*Manaus and the Brazilian Amazon
*El Callao (for Carnivale), the Orinoco River, and Caracas, all in Venezuela

Where's Gene at this moment?  Camping in Torres del Paine National Park, in Chilean Patagonia. So, you may well ask, why is his latest dispatch from Rio just before New Year's?  The reason is the lack of Internet access in Antarctica:  Between Rio and Patagonia, you see, there was Gene's Antarctica cruise, where he couldn't blog because he couldn't get on the Internet.  Instead of having Gene report from Rio and then leave us all hanging for two weeks until his cruise was over, we decided to have him start blogging once he was back on land, post-cruise. This way you can get a new post from him daily, with no annoying absences.

Now we want to hear from YOU. If you've got tips for Buenos Aires or any of the other destinations listed above, or if you're thinking of traveling to South America and would like Gene to check out a place or two for you, just click on "click to post a comment" at the end of this post.  Can't wait to hear your advice!

It's always rush hour in Rio de Janeiro.

Follow our 2007 Dream Trip Contest winner through South America and Antarctica. 

By Gene Pembroke

Dec. 30: Day 2
We arrive in Rio de Janeiro around noon and it is a gorgeous sunny day. For the first time in my life, I actually have a person waiting at the airport holding a sign with my name on it! Woohoo. This was Agatha from Pousada Favela Cantagalo, a small hotel in Copacabana where we would be ringing in the New Year.

It was hot out, and Arlene and I were still dressed in Philly winter garb. We didn't realize that due to crawling, chaotic Rio traffic our ride to the hotel would take 2.5 hours.

The Adventure Cat cruises around San Francisco Bay thanks to a renewable resource: wind.
Photo: Adventure Cat

by Brook Wilkinson

My mother's due into San Francisco tomorrow for her first visit since I moved out here last May, so I've been looking around for things to do with her. Bay cruises are no secret (I even blogged about one last summer), but now I've found one that gets 2,500 miles per gallon: the Adventure Cat. It's a double-hulled sailboat, so it uses San Francisco's omnipresent breezes to make its way around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. (Unfortunately, it doesn't run during the winter, so we'll have to wait to test it out ourselves.)
 

You can ride the Adventure Cat on your next spring/summer/fall trip to San Francisco, but there are of course plenty of other sail-powered cruises around the world: the schooner Adirondack in New York City Harbor, Sydney by Sail, and Teralani's sunset cruise off Maui, to name just a few. Next time you want to explore by water, look for a wind-powered option.

Most dream trips begin at the airport.  At least the line is short.

Note from Wendy: Finally! Gene Pembroke, the winner of last year's Dream Trip Contest, is now on the road, living the dream.  And we have the honor of hosting his dispatches.  If you appreciated Gene's winning entry, you'll love his observations from the road. 

For the next month, tune in to PerrinPost.com to follow his journey through South America and Antarctica.  Oh, and don't forget that we just launched our new Dream Trip Contest.  The grand prize: a $25,000 trip to the destination(s) of your dreams, planned by Yours Truly.  Take it away, Gene!

By Gene Pembroke

Preface
I am very excited. It was such a huge pleasure for me to have won this prize, and after months of dedicated and careful planning by Wendy and Brook from Conde Nast Traveler, along with Vanessa Heitner of Limitless Argentina and Tom Damon of Southwind Adventures.  A few problems popped up, and one big problem did the opposite: it popped down to the bottom of the sea. This setback was deftly handled by the Dream Team as were all other bumps and puddles we encountered on the road to Antarctica. My part of the planning wasn't so dedicated. I had been busy with work, and then I had left on a trip to Morocco, then I came back just before Xmas and got distracted by the holiday hullabaloo. I didn't even buy a pair of hiking boots until the 26th of December (my old ones died in Marrakech), and was still shopping for some supplies on the 28th, which was also my birthday. I had just received the camera and laptop that Tom from CNT sent to me for this blog as well, and was still working on figuring these out. So, on the 29th, it was a little hectic as I finished packing at around 4:00, and then headed out to catch a 6:55 flight from Philadelphia to Miami for a connection to Rio de Janeiro.

The "Dream Tripper" flys to Rio after the jump

Dale Moss, managing director of OpenSkies.
Photo: AP Photo/Richard Drew

By Barbara S. Peterson

There's been speculation for weeks about the mysterious new airline British Airways has been plotting, and when MAXJet began to tank, many of us assumed BA would step into the breach with another all-premium class line.

But as I learned this morning when BA invited a few of us in the travel media to breakfast at Michael's in Manhattan, the giant British line has other things on its mind. Instead of taking on Eos or Silverjet, BA's creating a sort of "mini-me" airline, with a traditional three-cabin class structure. That might seem like a non-starter -- wouldn't an exclusively premium line make more money . . . and more sense? 

The BA clone isn't named OpenSkies for no reason.  Open Skies is the treaty that allows BA and other European lines to fly nonstop to the U.S. from any EU country as of April 1; the new company will start with just one plane flying from either Paris or Brussels to New York in June. (In the same vein, Air France has also announced nonstop flights from LA directly into BA's turf, at Heathrow.)

The Solio Hybrid 1000 uses the sun to recharge
your electronic travel devices.
Photo: Rei.com

by Brook Wilkinson

Tired of traveling with as many battery chargers as you have electrical devices, and having to find somewhere to plug them all the time? That's where the Solio Hybrid 1000 comes in. This portable charger can juice up your digital camera, Blackberry, iPod, cell phone, and pretty much any other hand-held electronic device, taking power only from the sun.

But I recharge my camera at night, you say. No worries -- the Solio can gather sunshine during the day and store it (for up to a year) until your devices are running low. A full charge takes 8 to 10 hours of direct sunlight and will power up a cell phone twice. The Hybrid 1000, the second generation of Solio chargers, weighs just 4.6 ounces, and is less than 8 inches long.

The icing on the cake? Solio's manufacturer plants trees for each model it sells, so the device is carbon-neutral.

French Polynesia is a hot spot for snorkeling.
Photo: Michael Aw, Lonely Planet Images

by Brook Wilkinson

Planning a sun and sand getaway this winter? Snorkeling is a fun activity that doesn't harm the environment, as long as you do it responsibly. The rules are simple, but I can't tell you the number of times I've seen fellow snorkelers fail to follow them. Here's all you have to do to make sure those reefs will be just as bright and alive for future generations:

Don't touch the coral.

It's as simple as that. A single touch can kill hundreds of the tiny jelly-like polyps that live inside. Besides, many types of coral are sharp or even poisonous, so it's in your best interest to stay a small distance away. How to make sure you always follow this rule?