Dec. 11 - Excursion to shore of Ainsworth Bay

After breakfast, we returned to our cabin and donned our "waterproof" clothes (thank you, REI!), put on our big orange life jackets and went to the 5th deck lounge for our "Disembarkation briefing." It sounded impressive. Once there, with all the other guests, some of whom could barely walk, we understood the importance of the instruction. We were told how to walk down to the zodiac, how to grasp the arm of the staff person who would be there to help each person board the zodiac, and how to sit on the gunwale of the zodiac. When I'm told how to do something with this degree of detail, especially if it's something I've never done before, I obey precisely what I am told to do. I was astonished at how many people tried to board the zodiac their own way. Fortunately, the staff are used to this and they know how to get the guests to do it the correct way without embarrassing them. This was our first trip in the zodiacs and the only person I knew on my zodiac was Ivan. Sitting thigh to thigh with other enthusiastic adventurers usually leads to excited conversation, and this time was no different. Everyone was eager to get to the island and see what it had in store for us.
I took this photo of where we disembarked from the zodiacs and Ivan took the bottom one of our ship once we had all arrived on the island:

The ground was very gravelly, rather than sandy, with many crushed shells about. We somehow got divided into groups of about 15 people and our guide was Enrique, a young enthusiastic man who knew a lot about the history of these bays and islands. He told us about the forest, about the wildlife there, about the management of the area. This is a photo of some of our group listening to him describe the small tree in front of him:

The early explorers thought it was a cinnamon tree because it smells strongly of the spice. It turned out not to be cinnamon, but, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit, I had found myself fascinated by the amount of water that was slowly trickling down the hillside and I don't remember what the tree is called - sorry.
This is what this area, essentially a temperate rainforest, looked like:

Ainsworth Bay island close-up

The area from a distance

We spent about 90 minutes hiking around the island, examining rocks, ferns, berries (calafate, or blueberries, and chaura were everywhere) and learning a bit about the history of the settling of the island.

After returning to the ship, we prepared for lunch and our next excursion to Tucker Islets.