This afternoon we reached Livingston Island in the South Shetlands. We landed at Hannah Point, named for the Hannah, a Liverpool sealer wrecked at this point in 1820. A pleasant walk took us by several gentoo and chinstrap penguin colonies, where we saw many healthy chicks -- and on to an elephant seal wallow where approximately forty-five juveniles, mostly young males, were grumpily molting (see the photo).

Luckily, we spotted two nesting pairs of macaroni penguins. These comically crested penguins typically nest further north, so we were excited to see them in the southernmost regions of their breeding range. More walking along the beach brought us to the nests of southern giant petrels and then to some very interesting geological formations. Bundled in our parkas we looked at fossils of ferns and trees and tried to imagine the warm temperate climate that once existed here.

Our next stop was Deception Island, a volcanic horseshoe-shaped caldera reaching 1,890 feet high with an eight-mile-wide crater. Our visit took us to Whaler's Bay, where the Hektor Whaling Company ran a whaling station from 1912 until 1933 and operated as the administrative center for British whaling activities in the South Shetlands until 1938. Many of the buildings and artifacts from the whaling days remain, and we enjoyed a leisurely visit into the past.